(Radio Iowa) – The state unemployment rate rose one tenth-of-a-percent to three-point-five percent in April. Iowa Workforce Development director Beth Townsend says that’s because more people are looking for work. “We had five-thousand Iowans come back into the workforce, that’s the really good sign. Yeah, the unemployment rate ticked up a tenth of a point, but I would take that every day if I could get five-thousand more people coming into the workforce each month,” Townsend says.

Townsend says manufacturing continues to be a down area. “We’ve lost 74-hundred jobs over the last 12 months,” she says. “So all of 2024, we continue to see a decline in manufacturing jobs in Iowa as a result of the bad shape the economy was in 2024, so it’s going to take some time to recover from that. ” Townsend says there’s no clear evidence yet on the impact of tariffs on the job market.

“I think the tariffs went into effect sometime in the last couple of weeks of April, which was probably too short of a time to say whether that’s going to have a negative or positive impact,” she says. Townsend says the private service industries were responsible for most of the job gains in April, adding about 41-hundred new jobs.

(IWD graph)

“We saw good producing secret sectors, added 800 jobs. We saw and professional and business services are the ones that gained the most, and that’s professional, scientific and technical services,” she says, “and includes administrative support and waste management. Construction gained 13-hundred jobs last month. That’s the third month we’ve seen an increase and they’re up 28-hundred jobs since the beginning of the year. ”

Townsend says adding more people to the workforce will help the economy continue to grow. “If we could add five-thosuand new Iowans in the workforce, you know five-thousand over the next six months, that would be, you know, 30-thousand people. That would get us closer to our pre pandemic numbers,” Townsend says.

The U-S unemployment rate remained at four-point-two percent in April.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – Officials with the Council Bluffs Police Department, report officers were called at around 1:15-p.m. today (Thursday) to the area of 1200 Fairmount Ave., in response to a possible suicidal subject. Officers arrived and found a teenage male with a firearm in his possession. The teen stated that intended to harm himself.

Negotiator’s were called to the scene, and as they attempted to deescalate the situation, the teen fired one round from the weapon, striking himself in the abdomen. Medics had staged in the area and were on scene immediately to provide medical treatment. The teen was transported to UNMC for treatment.

Council Bluffs PD Shield

The investigation is ongoing and due to the age of the male, authorities said no other information will be given at this time.

(Radio Iowa) – The legislature has sent Governor Reynolds a bill to implement her plan to seek 150 million dollars in federal funding to train more doctors in Iowa. Republican Senator Mike Klimesh of Spillville says that cash infusion is estimated to establish 114 residencies for doctors at Iowa’s 14 teaching hospitals. “When fully implemented over four years, there’s projected 460 new physicians being trained through the residency programs,” Klimesh says.

The bill also combines five loan repayment programs into one. Representative Carter Nordman, a Republican from Dallas Center, says the new initiative is called the Health Care Workforce and Community Support program. “This program will award loan forgiveness or bonuses based on high need health care professions in shortage areas,” Nordman said. Representative Austin Baeth, a Democrat from Des Moines, is a doctor who specializes in palliative care. He says the bill’s initiatives are sorely needed in Iowa.

“We need to better support our health care professionals with loan repayment and we need more doctors trained, homegrown, right here in the state of Iowa,” Baeth says. “This is an investment worth investing in.” The bill had strong bipartisan support in the legislature. Senator Cindy Winckler, a Democrat from Davenport, is one of four lawmakers who opposed the bill. Winckler says she’s concerned state agencies will have too much power to determine where the money is spent. “This is a concept. It is a not a bill,” Winckler said. “…Why would we move to programs with not any kind of assurances that we will be meeting the needs of the local communities?”

The bill cleared the Senate this week. It passed the House in March. Governor Reynolds says access to quality health care is vital for Iowans in every corner of the state and have the House and Senate pass he bill is an incredible win.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer is reporting a significant dip in income compared to a year ago.Quad Cities-based John Deere reports second quarter net income of one-point-eight billion dollars, a drop from nearly two-point-four billion at the end of the same quarter last year. For the first six months of the fiscal year, Deere’s net income was almost two-point-seven billion, versus four-point-one billion a year ago.

Radio Iowa file photo

Worldwide net sales and revenues for the agricultural equipment maker were down 16 percent for the quarter and 22 percent for six months. Deere chairman and CEO John May says he’s proud the company’s employees and dealers are showcasing resilience in supporting customers amidst heightened uncertainty.

(Radio Iowa) – The spokesperson for the Food Bank of Iowa says the annual Feeding America survey isn’t very positive for the state. Annette Hacker says there are people in all 99 counties who don’t have enough food to meet their needs. “It shows that food insecurity only continues to grow across our state. Three-hundred-85 thousand Iowans face food insecurity, and 120-thousand or more are children,” Hacker says. Hacker says there are a variety of reasons the problem isn’t getting better.

“A reduction in poverty relief programs, reduction in SNAP benefits is one reason. Rising prices, wages that haven’t kept up,” Hacker says. “Any number of things can affect a person’s ability to be able to keep food on the table.” The ten counties with the highest percentages of residents who don’t get enough to eat are: Appanoose (16.9%), Wapello County (I5.2%) Cass County (14.7%), Crawford County (14.6%0, Clarke County (14.2%), Des Moines County (14.2%), Lee County (14.2%), Clayton County (14.1%), Decatur County (14.1%) and Lucas County (14%). Hacker says most of them are rural counties.

“Many people think that food insecurity only affects urban areas, and when you look at the Iowa counties facing the state’s, highest levels of food insecurity, the top ten counties are largely rural, and Food Bank of Iowa serves seven of those counties,” she says. Hacker says the increase puts more pressure on food banks to try and fill the gap. “You know we can’t continue doing more with less. Our communities need help. And the only way you know when there’s a the federal cuts that we’ve seen lately to U-S-D-A, the only way to make up that shortfall is to buy more food. And the only way we can buy more food is through the help of generous donors,” Hacker says. The study is based on 2023 data.

You can see the full survey at feedingamerica.org.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports four arrests this week.

Today (Thursday, May 15th), 58-year-old Kimberly Dawn Koenck, of Atlantic, was arrested for OWI/1st offense.

There were three people arrested Tuesday (May 13), in Cass County:

• 25-year-old Jordyn Lynette-Kay Hill, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Violation of Probation. Hill was later released on a court order.
• 39-year-old Albert Alexander Johnson, of Atlantic, was arrested Tuesday for Possession of drug paraphernalia. He was later released from the Cass County Jail.
• 58-year-old Danny Todd Devore, of Cumberland, was arrested Tuesday for Interference with official acts, Possession of controlled substances, and Possession of drug paraphernalia. Devore was being held in the Cass County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) – Strong thunderstorms rumbled across parts of northern Iowa this (Thursday) morning, and a wide area of the state is under a Wind Advisory today. The Advisory covers 34 counties in northwest, west-central and north-central Iowa from noon until 8 o’clock tonight. In the KJAN listening area, Harrison, Monona, Sac, Crawford and Carroll Counties are included in the Wind Advisory.

Meteorologist Rod Donavon, at the National Weather Service, says the powerful winds can make driving difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles, so use extra caution. “We will have increasing winds behind that boundary where we’ll see some wind gusts up towards 45 miles an hour,” Donavon says, “and that will likely last into the early evening hours.” Some gusts may be over 50 miles an hour, and he says anything in your yard that’s not secure could vanish, while tree limbs might snap, causing power outages.

Wind Advisory for counties in light brown

Donavon says we may see a repeat tomorrow.  “We will have another boundary, actually a colder front coming down during the day on Friday and that will be spreading strong winds across the state once again, mainly across the northern half,” he says. “That will have wind gusts up towards 45 miles per hour once again.”

After a warm week with unseasonable highs in parts of Iowa in the mid- to upper-80s, Donavon says it should be a cooler weekend, with highs in the 70s and the chance for rain Sunday night and Monday.

(Creston, Iowa) –  Officials with the Creston Police Department report the arrest of a man on a drug charge, Wednesday night. 35-year-old Jabon Allen Lee Diercks, of Creston, was arrested at around 11:50-p.m., for Possession of a Controlled Substance/3rd or Subsequent Offense. Diercks was taken to Union County Jail and released after posting a $5,000 cash or surety bond.