Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A late spring storm system affecting several Midwest states is bringing thunderstorms to Iowa, though weather officials are scaling back the rainfall forecast. Meteorologist Todd Shea with the National Weather Service says officials expect the system to drop between 1 and 3 inches of rain Friday morning. An earlier forecast predicted between 2 and 4 inches of rain. Shea says officials are also monitoring potential flooding along some rivers.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says colleges should be more open about their finances, or lose federal aid. The Republican presidential prospect argues for more transparency in higher education in a speech in Ames. It’s his fourth policy speech in recent weeks as he prepares for a potential run for president.

ANAMOSA, Iowa (AP) — Disposable sanitary wipes that don’t break apart are plugging up a sewer system in an eastern Iowa city and in other communities around the country. Cedar Rapids television station KCRG says the wipes are clogging pumps at underground lift stations in Anamosa. The stations keep sewage from low-lying areas flowing to the treatment plant.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The former owner of a Cedar Rapids business has been sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison for selling synthetic drugs from his store and for identity theft. Prosecutors say 39-year-old Matthew McCauley on Wednesday was given 134 months in prison at his sentencing in U.S. District Court.

A company which operates a call center at the Pioneer Mall in Sergeant Bluff is expanding and adding 400 new jobs. Barry Belcher is the site director of the facility. “We’re really excited, we recently entered into a partnership with a leading national wireless provider, and as a result of that partnership, we’ll be increasing the team here,” Belcher says. He says they have 80 people already in training at the facility and they hope to fill the rest of the jobs by the end of the year.

“It’s inbound customer support — taking care of our wireless customers — and then along with that we need staff and leadership to help manage the business,” Belcher says. “We’ll have about 350 of those positions will be entry-level positions, taking care of customers, and the rest of the positions will make up our training and our leadership and our staff positions.” Sergeant Bluff Mayor Jon Winkel help found the facility when it was owned by Long Lines Wireless.

He says there are a lot of employees left from the original company, but he says it is also like having new life breathed into it with the expansion. Winkel says both Sergeant Bluff and the Siouxland area will benefit from the expansion.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst has announced her U-S Senate office in Washington, D-C, has a new location. Correspondence to her office can be addressed to:

Sen. Joni Ernst

111 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C 20510

Her phone numbers are: 1-202-224-3254; Fax – 1-202-224-9369.

Ernst also has an office in Council Bluffs located at 221 Federal Building, 8 South Sixth Street, Council Bluffs, IA, 51501.  Ph: 712-352-1167; Fax: 712-352-0087.

Officials with the Treynor Community School District have announced the hiring of Gary McNeal their next High School Principal.

Mr. Gary McNeal (Photo from the Treynor School District website)

According to the district’s website, McNeal has been serving as the principal at Clarinda Middle School for the last six years, and has also served as a high school principal in Texas.

Gary McNeal will take over as High School Principal in Treynor, effective July 1st. In addition to his principal experience, Mr. McNeal has worked as an assistant principal, dean of students, activities director, classroom science teacher (chemistry, physics, etc.) and served in a variety of coaching roles throughout his career.

McNeal earned a Bachelor’s degree from Wartburg College and later earned a Master’s degree from the University of Houston.  His wife Tammi, is also an educator and has been teaching science at Clarinda for the last six years. Mrs. McNeal has accepted the Middle School Science position at Treynor Community Schools and brings with her 20+ years of teaching experience in the science content area.

Together they have three grown children that all reside within a few hours of Treynor.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Police in Creston report the arrest Wednesday at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, of 20-year old James Arthur Franke, of Creston. Franke was taken into custody on a Union County warrant for Probation Violation, the original arrest for which was based on a charge of 2nd degree Burglary. Franke was later released from the jail on $1,000 bond.

The 7:07-a.m. report w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republican Party officials are pondering the future of the state’s traditional straw poll for presidential favorites. Iowa GOP spokesman Charlie Szold confirms that a conference call has been set up for Friday, but declines to provide further details. The call was first reported in the Des Moines Register. Critics say the August 8th poll has become a costly sideshow.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Four Democratic presidential hopefuls will appear at an Iowa Democratic Party event next month. The state party organization announced Wednesday that their “Hall of Fame” dinner will be attended by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Virginia Senator Jim Webb on July 17th in Cedar Rapids.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A West Des Moines man who served with the Iowa National Guard in Iraq has returned there on his own to help train Kurdish troops. Federal officials say the actions of Ryan O’Leary, a former National Guard corporal who served in Iraq in between 2007 and 2008, are legal. But they’ve urged against them over concerns of him being put in danger.

OXFORD, Iowa (AP) — Camping at a wildlife area in eastern Iowa has been halted after state officials say visitors were hosting parties and damaging the space. The state Department of Natural Resources says the temporary camping ban at Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area in Johnson County will be in place to give officials time to address problems with littering, drug use, underage drinking and unattended bonfires.

Researchers at Iowa State University say the common complaint that companies in Iowa and elsewhere they can’t find enough skilled workers doesn’t seem to hold up. Liesl Eathington says they found several factors contributing to hiring challenges, but a widespread lack of skilled workers is not one. “I think the take away from out study is that a lot of the evidence that’s being thrown to substantiate that there’s a skills gap, we think is pretty flimsy, because we really don’t have a lot of good data to describe the skills of workers. And we’re mostly stuck with rating them on the terms of their educational attainment. And that really isn’t descriptive enough,” Eathington says.

“Using the data available to us, we just couldn’t find a systematic shortage of middle-skilled or middle-educated workers in Iowa or nationwide,” she says. Eathington says it seems to be more of a problem of figuring out what businesses are really looking for in workers. “What our research concluded was that we need to do a lot better job of describing the particular skills that are needed and not just base it on secondary data. Even though the data are readily available, they are not very useful for policy purposes,” Eathington says. There’s been a push to get more training for Iowans to fill the so-called gap.

“The educational level that is most often talked about with the middle-skill gap debate is people with some college or associate degree. And we’re just not finding evidence that the number of those people in Iowa or in the nation is out of whack with what’s being demanded. Eathington and fellow researcher Dave Swenson in the I-S-U Economics Department, found that the amount of money employers are willing to pay is a factor in the lack of workers.

“Because if there was high demand for a kind of worker that wasn’t being met, wages should get bid up,” Eathington explains. “And then there should be a response to that by the supply — people would either move in or they would acquire the skills necessary to take advantage of that higher wage.” Eathington says researchers have looked for evidence of the wages being bid up and haven’t found it. She says the urban-rural factor also impacts the issue in Iowa.

“A lot of times we have trouble in some of our rural areas of getting people willing to live in these areas. Firms just simply can’t provide the wages that are competitive with urban areas,” according to Eathington. “And so that’s another part of it. We might kind of a rural-urban issue in Iowa.” With the continued increase in technology, Eathington says firms may have higher expectations than what the workforce can immediately meet.

“It’s possible that some of the skills that are required are a lot less transferable from one firm to another. And so, maybe firms used to be able to just hire somebody and have them up to speed pretty quickly, that may not be the case any more,” Eathington says. “So, expectations about the level of the on-the-job training that may be required — those might have to change.”

(Radio Iowa)