(Radio Iowa) – After the pandemic hit to the Iowa economy a year ago, state tax receipts now are soaring. The state’s fiscal year ends June 30th. Net tax revenue for the state of Iowa in the past 11 months is more than seven-point-three BILLION dollars. It’s about a billion dollars more than same 11 month period in the previous fiscal year. Consumer spending is up. Sales and use tax payments to the State of Iowa jumped 10 percent from July through the end of last month.

Corporate income tax payments to the state more than doubled and personal income tax payments were up nearly 16 percent. Iowa’s unemployment rate has fallen by about two-thirds of what it was at the height of Covid-related shutdowns. In April of 2020, the state unemployment rate hit its pandemic peak of 11-point-one percent.

Iowa’s unemployment rate in April of this year was three-point-eight percent. Thousands of Iowans have dropped out of the job market. The latest figures indicate 90-thousand fewer Iowans are employed in non-farm jobs compared to February, 2020 — before the pandemic hit.

Both drivers and a passenger were injured during a collision Monday afternoon in Mills County, between a pickup and an SUV. The Iowa State Patrol reports the accident happened at around 1:35-p.m. at the intersection of Kidd Road and Highway 34, when 43-year old James Joseph Belt, of Glenwood, failed to yield.

Authorities say his 2007 Chevy Avalanche K1500, which was northbound on Kidd Road, struck a 2021 Ford Explorer broadside on the passenger side of the SUV, which was traveling west on Highway 34.Following the impact, the pickup went off the road northwest of the intersection and rolled into the ditch. The SUV also went off the road and came to rest in the ditch.

Belt, and the driver of the SUV, 63-year old Connie Sue Bowen, of Emerson, along with a passenger in the pickup, 14-year-old Elias Belt, of Glenwood, were injured.

Bowen was transported by LifeNet to the UNMC in Omaha, Joseph and Elias belt were transported to the hospital by private vehicle. All three of the accident victims were wearing their seat belts.

(Radio Iowa) – The search for a missing Montezuma boy who was last seen late Thursday morning continues in Poweshiek County. Hundreds of volunteers turned out Sunday on Xavior Harrelson’s 11th birthday to search in areas within one mile of the boy’s home and in rural areas around Montezuma. Iowa D-C-I assistant director, Mitch Mortvedt gave an update today (Tuesday) on FOX News, and was asked why an Amber Alert hasn’t been issued.

“What we concluded thus far is that it could probably be one of four avenues,” according to Mortvedt, “it could be a walk-away or runaway situation. Whether he was somewhere and had a horrible accident and we have not been able to locate him year. Or it could be criminal. With the criminal element and the Amber Alert in Iowa, his disappearance thus far has not met the criteria for an Amber Alert in Iowa.” He says investigators are going over their plan to be sure they cover all angles.

“Reviewing everything that we’ve done thus far — yet getting new information in and trying to find where Xavier is,” he says. Mortvedt noted many of the same people who searched for Mollie Tibbetts near Brooklyn three years ago helped search for Harrelson. He says they have brought in search dogs and have searched Diamond Lake.

“We’ve done everything possible, and anything we can think of,” Mortvedt says. Mortvedt says this is classified as a missing child case — NOT a kidnapping. Searchers have gone door-to-door in Montezuma and dive teams have searched Diamond Lake which is about a mile west of Montezuma.

Police in Glenwood report three arrests took place over the holiday weekend, and the theft of several flags. Today (Tuesday), the Glenwood Library reported the theft of two American flags. And on Monday, the Loess Hills Funeral HOme and Glenwood Fire Department reported the theft of five and one American flag, respectively.

On Monday, 27-year-old Edward Parrott, of Council Bluffs, was arrested on a warrant for Domestic Assault. He was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond. And, 33-year-old Christopher Carbis, of Glenwood, was arrested Monday for OWI/2nd offense. His cash of surety bond was set at $2,000. On Sunday, 30-year-old Cody Perez, of Omaha, was arrested in Glenwood for being a Fugitive from Justice. He was being held without bond.

One person was transported to the Audubon County Memorial Hospital, following a motorcycle accident Tuesday afternoon, near Brayton. According to Audubon County Sheriff Todd Johnson, the accident happened at around 2:38-p.m. on the Highway 71 curves, north of Brayton.

A motorcycle failed to negotiate one of the southbound curves and went off the northwest corner of the road. The single male operator of the cycle was injured and transported to the hospital by Exira Rescue.

No other details were immediately available.

(Updated) (Radio Iowa) – A Whiting man is in custody and charged with second-degree murder following a Memorial Day shooting in rural Woodbury County that left one person dead and another injured. Twenty-year-old Marvin Hildreth Junior is facing the murder charge and a charge of going armed with intent. Woodbury County Sheriff Chad Sheehan says emergency crews responded to a rural resident near Luton around 1:3o p-m Monday. “Upon arrival, a female and male were found in the front yard of 1932 250th Street, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds,” Sheehan says.

Marvin Hildreth, Jr.

Forty-year-old Russell Mohr or rural Mapleton died at the scene of the shooting. A woman who has not been identified was shot in the leg and hospitalized with what are called non-life-threatening injuries. Sheehan says they had a good description of a vehicle and a deputy spotted it on Highway 141 less than 20 minutes after they arrived on the scene. He says a witness called in and reported seeing the vehicle and the deputy stopped it and the driver was taken into custody without incident.

Sheehan says the shooting suspect and the victims knew each other — but the motive for the shooting is not known at this time. He asks anyone with information on the shooting to call the sheriff’s department at 712-224-3333.