(Radio Iowa) — Gasoline prices in Iowa are averaging almost a dollar lower than last year, but it won’t be enough to lure most of us to take a road trip for Memorial Day weekend. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rose White, at Triple-A-Iowa, says the motor club isn’t releasing a holiday weekend travel forecast for the first time in 20 years. “Last year, 43-million Americans traveled for the holiday weekend, it was the second-highest travel volume on record since we began tracking information,” White says, “but with social distancing guidelines still in practice, this holiday weekend’s travel volume is likely to set a record low.”

Travel Iowa ran a full page ad in some newspapers last week featuring a couple on a deck overlooking a wide vista of green hills with just four words — “Dream Now, Visit Later.” White says many Iowa families will be doing exactly that. “We anticipate that people are going to hold back. For those who maybe had planned a long-distance, maybe an overseas vacation, they’ll likely revert to a local or regional destination,” White says. “We do anticipate as the states relax their laws and regulations pertaining to social distancing, more people will travel, but it will be a slow recovery.”

In recent weeks, highway travel in the state was said to be down 44-percent from normal, according to the Iowa D-O-T, but over Mother’s Day weekend, the numbers crept up to 75-percent of normal. Even with that increase, Triple-A is still expecting a potential record low for travel this coming weekend. “The CDC does still recommend that Americans stay home and avoid non-essential travel, but if you do travel this holiday weekend, we do advise you to pack essentials, especially those toiletries that might be needed at rest stops,” White says, “and also, anticipate early closures of restaurants.”

Gasoline is averaging a dollar-75 a gallon in Iowa, that’s 13-cents below the national average. A year ago, gas prices in Iowa were averaging two-67 a gallon. The last time the average national gas price leading into the Memorial Day holiday was under two-dollars a gallon was 17 years ago — in 2003.

(Radio Iowa) — A new estimate from the U-S Census Bureau shows an eastern Iowa town is the fastest growing.  “The fastest-growing city was Panorama Park — it’s a smaller town — the current population is 319, according to Gary Krob, coordinator of the State Data Center at the State Library of Iowa. “It is a small town, but they grew by almost 150 percent since 2010. And they are over by the Davenport area. Tiffin near Iowa City — which increased by 113 percent to 41-hundred-57 (4,157). The suburbs of Des Moines and nearby towns also continued to see growth.”Both Bondurant and Grimes were in the top five in the state of Iowa and they are here in the Des Moines metropolitan area. And then Waukee, Ankeny, Johnston, and West Des Moines all saw pretty significant growth since 2010,” Krob says.

Bondurant grew 80 percent to 69-hundred-58 (6,958) and Grimes, increased by 79 percent to 14-thousand-804 (14,804). Waukee grew nearly 75 percent (24,089 population), Ankeny nearly 48 percent (67,355 population)Johnston grew by 31 percent (22,582 population), and West Des Moines nearly 20 percent (67,899 population). Krob says the growth patterns haven’t changed much. “Most of the smaller communities that we saw some large growth really are going to be centered around the metropolitan areas. Really that’s been pretty standard for us for quite a while,” he says. He says the data now available doesn’t tell if the growth is people moving in from other parts of the state or from out of state. “At some point we are going to start being able to look at some county migration data — not through this program — but through other census programs, so we can get a better sense of what is going on,” Krob says. “Historically what we have been seeing in our state, we do some movement of people living in Iowa to outside the state. We do see a significant amount of Iowans moving from rural counties to more metropolitan counties.”

Krob says the pace of the growth leads to speculation about what is happening. “You look at the slower growth rate for the state — but then you look at some of these metropolitan communities and see how quickly they’re growing — you do get a sense that is it not just people moving from the rural counties into the metropolitans,” he says, “that we are getting people moving from outside the state and outside the country into the state of Iowa.”

The data shows 213 cities have gained population since 2010 — while 712 have lost population, and 18 have had no change.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reported Thursday, that they had received several calls from residents, who said they received a call from MidAmerican Energy. A recording tells the resident they will have their services disconnected if payment is not received. The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office contacted MidAmerican Energy, and verified this is a scam. They are working with their Cyber Security Company to get these calls stopped.

(Radio Iowa) — During a debate last (Thursday) night, Congressman Steve King and his four challengers in the Republican primary for Iowa’s 4th district congressional seat talked about trying to move the country forward from the COVID-19 pandemic. King says President Trump was put in a bad situation in responding to the pandemic.  “I do think we’ve gone a little overboard with that. I think we’ve gone past the point of diminishing returns and it’s time to get this country back to work.” King says the United States needs to hold China and the World Health Organization accountable with a comprehensive review of the origins of coronavirus while gathering testing data in an attempt to reopen the economy. “We need to do more, and one of those things is to gather all the demographic data for everyone who has tested positive so that we can identify if you were pre-existing condition the outcomes for each of them so we can go on a database with the query and identify what are risks are to give ourselves the courage to go out into the public again and get this nation rolling again economically.”

State Senator Randy Feenstra of Hull praised the job done by President Trump and Governor Reynolds. “It’s such a difficult situation that we’re living through right now, but we have to continue to get on with life. We have to continue to have an economy. We have to continue to have life. It’s our responsibility that we have to make sure we watch for those who are vulnerable and help those out. We have to help our neighbors.”  Feenstra says he doesn’t want healthcare workers to rely on foreign-made personal protective equipment. “I think we have to buy America and build America. PPE should be made in America. We have to embrace America because this is a great place.”

Steve Reeder, a commercial real estate broker from Arnolds Park, says Trump and Reynolds were put between a rock and a hard place, but the COVID-19 curve is flattening and the hospitals aren’t overwhelmed with coronavirus cases. “We know that this virus is more contagious than the flu, but it’s not harming that many more people right now. We just have to protect our elderly and those who have a compromised immune system. It’s now up to people to take personal responsibility and move on with their lives and not live in fear or reliance on government.” Reeder wants to see businesses and schools move forward to get the economy back on track. He accused Democratic governors of using draconian measures and does not want to see contact tracing of COVID patients.  “These liberals are taking advantage of a crisis and those are things I will protect, our U.S. Constitution. I don’t want to see this contact tracing or anything along those lines.”

Former Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor thanked Trump for ordering meat packing plants to stay open but Congress has stalled in helping out producers.  “We are in a real struggle. I just heard yesterday from a producer who said, ‘Where is Congress right now?’ We need to make sure there’s a sense of urgency. We have producers that are euthanizing their hogs. We have those who need direct help.” Taylor blasted House Democratic leaders for last week passing a $3 trillion bill that wasn’t all about pandemic relief.  “Where is the U.S. House? The U.S. House is under the so-called leadership of Nancy Pelosi, is implementing elements of the New Green Deal that have nothing to do with getting back on their feet. We need to have direct assistance to those so that we have not only our food supply chain but also the long-term health and safety of the American people.”

Former Irwin Mayor Bret Richards says there’s always lessons to be learned after situations like pandemics. “We look at the governors around the country. There’s some governors that did a great job, and some governors that did not. That’s the beauty of our system. We have 50 experiments out there to see how we can best address this. Any problem actually, whether it be this, our budgets, how does each state do that better.” Richards says one of the positives of the pandemic was deregulation. “CMS actually came out and they waived a bunch of regulations, especially with telemedicine. A dermatologist told me it works great for them because their patients don’t have to take off time, to get off work to wait in their office. The doctor can get on and say ‘I can see what your problem is….’. One thing that shows is how complicated government makes it, and it doesn’t need to be that way.”

The debate was sponsored by KGLO Radio and the Cerro Gordo County Republicans.

(Radio Iowa) — Three of the candidates seeking the Democratic Party’s U.S. Senate nomination took aim at perceived front-runner Theresa Greenfield during the final T-V forum before the June primary. Michael Franken, a retired Navy Vice Admiral from Sioux City, brought up the Senate Majority PAC which has spent more than six MILLION dollars on ads supporting Greenfield’s candidacy. “Enormous amounts of outside money, manipulating the voters’ thought processes. We should stop this. There should be an outcry. This is a travesty,” Franken said. Greenfield interrupted: “You know what? Unfortunately, the thing you haven’t done that I have done is build the strongest grassroots team across this state and I am thrilled to have 70,000 union members endorse my campaign.”

Greenfield says she has no control over outside groups campaigning on her behalf and she accused Franken and her other competitors of reciting Republican talking points. Des Moines businessman Eddie Mauro accused Greenfield of being “well coached.” “The problem with this race that we have and I know we’re supposed to be ‘Iowa Nice’ right now, but we need to be honest and genuine with people,” Mauro said, “and you can’t tell people, smile at people and tell them you aren’t taking corporate PAC money,” Mauro said. Greenfield was quick to respond. “I haven’t taken one dime of corporate PAC money and I’m not going to,” Greenfield said.

“And I believe ‘dark money’ groups should disclose who is donating to their ‘dark money’ groups and how they’re influencing our campaigns.” Candidate Kimberly Graham, an attorney from Indianola, says Greenfield has accepted more than a 150-thousand dollars in campaign donations from people who are corporate lobbyists. “I guess I would just ask why that was necessary and why that money couldn’t have been refused,” Graham said.

Greenfield’s campaign has announced raising one-and-a-half million dollars, with contributions from more than 15-thousand Iowans in all 99 counties. Last night’s 90-minute debate was broadcast on WHO-TV in Des Moines. It was the third debate this week among the four Democratic candidates who hope to face Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ernst in November.