While tornadoes can strike during any month of the year, Iowa is now out of the “peak” season for tornadoes and the numbers are well below the norm, according to meteorologist Craig Cogil at the National Weather Service. “So far this year across Iowa, we’ve seen 15 tornadoes,” Cogil says. “Typically by this point in the year, we’re much closer to 30 or 35 tornadoes, so, half of what we normally see.”  Even with the 15 twisters, none of them were very powerful and there were no reports of any injuries or significant property damage. “Out of the 15 tornadoes, 13 of them were EF-0s and there have only been two EF-1s,” Cogil says, “and most of them have been in just corn fields or soybean fields, causing very little damage.”

While some storms this spring and summer have dropped significant rain that caused severe flooding in parts of the state, Iowa has managed to miss most of the -very- bad weather.  “A lot of the systems that are really problematic for us just haven’t been occurring across the state,” Cogil says. “They’ve either gone south of us, some of them have been north of us. We just haven’t seen the set-up that really produces those big, dangerous days where we get a lot of the strong tornadoes.”

While Iowa’s only had 15 tornadoes this year, the state had 55 twisters in all of last year, including a dozen that were classified as EF-2s.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 4:15 a.m. CDT

DOON, Iowa (AP) — BNSF Railway says less oil spilled from derailed tanker cars in northwest Iowa last month than originally believed. BNSF spokesman Andy Williams says officials now believe 160,000 gallons (605,648 liters) of tar sand oil spilled from 10 of 32 tanker cars that derailed on June 22 into floodwaters of the Little Rock River near Doon. Officials had previously said 14 tanker cars were compromised, spilling an estimated 230,000 gallons (870,619 liters).

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former Des Moines hospital pharmacy worker accused of stealing painkillers from hundreds of patients has been sentenced to more than 2 years in federal prison. Federal prosecutors say 30-year-old Victor Van Cleave was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months. Officials say Van Cleave was a pharmacy technician at Iowa Methodist Medical Center who used a syringe to steal fentanyl and other powerful painkillers from vials, then replaced the painkillers with sterile water.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa plans to cut staff, sell property in Des Moines and make other moves in response to state funding reductions. The university announced the move Tuesday in a news release, saying it will close seven centers and lay off 33 full-time staffers whose positions are not directly tied to student instruction.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for a deadly hit-and-run crash last year. Cedar Rapids television station KCRG reports that Ashley Pennington was sentenced Tuesday at the Linn County Courthouse. She had pleaded guilty in April to leaving the scene of a fatal accident and forgery. In exchange for her plea, other counts were dropped.

A Special Election was held Tuesday in the City of Shelby, to fill two open seats on the City Council. There were four candidates for the position, with the winners being Donavan Gail Dontje who received 92 votes, and Robert Morton, who had 77 votes.

Candidate Karen Schlueter garnered 73 votes, and candidate Steven Edward Myers had 31 votes, according to Shelby County Auditor, Mark L. Maxwell. The votes remain unofficial until canvassed by the County Board of Supervisors.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors have filed a murder charge against a Pottawattamie County man accused in the death of a toddler. Council Bluffs police said Tuesday, that 23-year-old Javon Jennings, of Council Bluffs, was in the Pottawattamie County Jail when notified of the first-degree murder charge. He’d already pleaded not guilty to a child endangerment charge and was scheduled to go on trial Aug. 14.

Jennings was arrested in April after Council Bluffs officers and medics responded April 19^th to an apartment, to check a report about an unresponsive child. The 16-month-old girl was pronounced dead there.

Police say Jennings was the sole caretaker of the girl when she was fatally injured. Her injuries included a broken left leg.

A female justice is likely to join the all-male Iowa Supreme Court.  One of the Iowa Supreme Court justices is retiring in September. The Iowa Judicial Nominating Commission has submitted the names of three women to Governor Reynolds for the opening. The commission met this week to interview 21 applicants for the post. Late Wednesday, the group submitted its slate of finalists to the governor. They are Susan Christensen of Harlan, who is a district court judge; Terri Combs, an attorney from West Des Moines and District Court Judge Kellyann Lekar of Waterloo.

While two women have previusly served on the state’s highest court, the only state supreme court in the country right now that is entirely made up of men is Iowa’s.

Iowa has a merit-based system for selecting judges. The Judicial Nominating Commission reviews the resumes and comes up with a slate of candidates for each opening. Iowa governors have the option of rejecting the slate of names and asking the commission to come up with three more. Unlike the federal government, the Iowa Senate has no role in confirming judges. Iowa judges, instead, have their names printed on General Election ballot periodically in what are called “retention” elections.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former Des Moines hospital pharmacy worker accused of stealing painkillers from hundreds of patients has been sentenced to more than 2 years in federal prison. Federal prosecutors say 30-year-old Victor Van Cleave was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months.

Van Cleave pleaded guilty in February to product tampering. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a charge of obtaining fentanyl by misrepresentation, fraud, deception and subterfuge.

Officials say Van Cleave was a pharmacy technician at Iowa Methodist Medical Center who used a syringe to steal fentanyl and other powerful painkillers from vials, then replaced the painkillers with sterile water. Many of the painkillers were to be used for patients undergoing surgery or giving birth.

Several lawsuits filed against the hospital say patients suffered needless pain because of the thefts.

Officials with the City of Audubon Tuesday afternoon, issued a statement with regard to an officer involved shooting of a dog: “At approximately 1:18 P.M. on Wednesday, July 4th, an Audubon police officer responded to a report of an aggressive dog running at-large on the 600 block of South Division Street. Upon arrival, the officer was able to locate a dog of indeterminate breed. The officer’s initial attempts to subdue the animal were unsuccessful.

The Department then arranged for veterinary assistance in order to attempt to tranquilize the dog. While such assistance was pending, the dog left its property and charged the officer, who fired one shot, injuring the dog. Veterinary personnel then responded to the injured dog, which was later euthanized.

The dog’s owner was cited for keeping a vicious dog and allowing the animal to run at large, in violation of the City Code of Audubon, Iowa.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa plans to cut staff, sell property in Des Moines and make other moves in response to state funding reductions. The university announced the move Tuesday in a news release, saying it will close seven centers and permanently furlough 33 full-time staffers whose positions are not directly tied to student instruction.

The centers closing are: the University of Iowa Center on Aging; Confucius Institute; Iowa Center for Assistive Technology Education and Research; Iowa Center for Higher Education; Labor Center; Office of Iowa Practice Opportunities; and UI Mobile Museum.

Since the 2016 fiscal year, the Iowa Legislature has cut UI’s budget by $16 million. A midyear cut in April of nearly $5.5 million also forced the university to adopt a five-month moratorium on construction projects.

The university says it will continue to offer classes in Des Moines but will close the former AIB College of Business campus and will seek a buyer for the property.

Officials with the Shelby County Emergency Management Agency report 1200^th St between Linden Road and Highway 59, between Lincoln Township sections 1 and 12, has re-opened. The road was closed late last month for culvert repair.

The Iowa D-O-T has gotten a lot of feedback on the proposal to close down some state rest stops. The leader of the D-O-T Highway Division, Mitch Dillavou, updated the Transportation Commission this (Tuesday) morning. “We are getting a lot of comments — and that’s good,” Dillavou says. The D-O-T released a draft plan last month that ranked the 38 full-service rest areas and listed 11 that could possibly be closed in the next 20 years. The D-O-T asked for public input on the idea and Dillavou says so far most people don’t like the idea of closing any rest areas.

“I would say that there’s a lot of support to keep ’em. Both from the trucking industry to people driving — even my own personal side of it. People like the convenience of the rest areas,” according to Dillavou. The proposal has gotten a lot of attention since it was first revealed by Radio Iowa and other media. Dillavou made his comments after being asked about the issue during a workshop with the Transportation Commission prior to their regular meeting in Ames.

“I thought we had a pretty laid out plan, it’s not that we are just going to go in and shut down all of these rest areas. We have the truck parking component to put in there too,” Dillavou says. “I would say there is a lot of support to keep the rest areas open.” Commission chair John Putney of Gladbrook says he’s heard from a lot of people about the plan.

“I think this is a very sensitive issue — not only from a public relations standpoint, but from a political standpoint,” Putney says. “I think this is something we have to have a very hard look at.” Putney says he’s also heard a lot of support for the rest stops.

“Some of the rationale I think has been that now we have all these truck stops and so on. People have told me, ‘you know when we travel we don’t stop at truck stops. We look forward to stopping at bonafide rest stops that we’ve created,'” according to Putney. “Like I said, I think it’s just something that needs a lot of hard study.”

The D-O-T plans to continue taking public input through September of 2019. A study on the availability and need for truck parking will be done by that time and be used along with the public comments to determine how the D-O-T will proceed with the rest stop proposal.

(Radio Iowa)