Harry Hillaker, Iowa’s state climatologist for the past three decades, is stepping down this week. “March 22 will be my last day in the office and basically it’s been, gosh, almost 37 years I’ve been working in this office,” Hillaker said. The state climatologist monitors weather activity to compile monthly and annual reports about precipitation totals, shifts in temperatures, and other climate-related data. Iowa’s only other state climatologist, Paul Waite, hired Hillaker. “He hired me to do a little, three-month long research grant,” Hillaker said. “It’s almost 37 years later and I’m still here. That research grant led to one thing and then another, and then another, and I’ve been here all that time.”

Harry Hillaker

Waite was Iowa’s state climatologist from 1976 to 1988, when Hillaker took the job. Hillaker plans to do some traveling, but will keep Iowa as his home in retirement. He’s looking forward to digging deeper into the state’s historical weather data. “There is still a lot of work to be done with that,” Hillaker said. “There’s a lot of stuff I’d like to do that I never had time to do with the regular job, so I’m hoping to do some of that with retirement.”  The state climatologist’s office is part of the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

(Radio Iowa)

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a traffic stop at around 10:30-p.m. Sunday, resulted in the arrest of a Villisca man. 31-year old Jerome Powell Burch was charged with Driving While License Suspended, and Interference with Official Acts. Burch was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

First Daughter Ivanka Trump, a senior advisor to President Trump, is scheduled to visit Iowa today (Monday). Ivanka Trump and Governor Kim Reynolds will visit a center in Waukee where high school students gain professional experience by working on high-tech projects for local businesses. It’s the same center Apple C-E-O Tim Cook visited last August.

Last Friday, Ivanka Trump said in a written statement she and Reynolds “have worked closely on a number of workforce development initiatives.” Trump said her visit to Iowa is meant to “highlight how important” workforce development and the president’s infrastructure plan are to “unleashing the economy and promoting…prosperity.”

Ivanka Trump and Iowa’s governor will host a roundtable discussion today (Monday) with some of the students working on high-tech projects for local Iowa businesses. Educators and state officials will also be part of the discussion.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Police in Davenport are investigating after an 80-year-old woman fell victim to a scam artist who claimed he was checking water meters. KCRG-TV reports that Velma Holmes answered a knock on her door Thursday from a man claiming he was with Iowa American Water Co. She took him to the basement to show him her meter. The next day she realized money and valuables worth $20,000 were missing, including her wedding ring.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A member of the Iowa Legislature has reunited with the daughter she released for adoption 47 years ago. On a Saturday morning this year, State Rep. Marti Anderson’s phone rang, and her daughter, Shellie Price Wardlaw, was on the other line. Wardlaw tells the Des Moines Register that she found Anderson after taking a DNA test through Ancestry.com in January, which identified a maternal match. Anderson had taken the same test in December. Anderson says she hopes to make up for lost time.

CORNING, Iowa (AP) — Federal loans will help utilities in Iowa and Missouri upgrade electric lines in rural parts of those states. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced $276 million in loans to help rural utilities improve the efficiency and reliability of their networks.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — If you bought a Powerball ticket in Pennsylvania for Saturday’s drawing, you may be holding a piece of paper worth $457 million. Powerball officials say a single winning ticket was sold in Pennsylvania that matches all of the winning numbers: 22-57-59-60-66 and Powerball 7. The specific location where the winning ticket was sold has not been announced.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Police in Davenport are investigating after an 80-year-old woman fell victim to a scam artist who claimed he was checking water meters. KCRG-TV reports that Velma Holmes answered a knock on her door Thursday from a man claiming he was with Iowa American Water Co. She took him to the basement to show him her meter. The next day she realized money and valuables worth $20,000 were missing, including her wedding ring.

Experts encourage residents to make sure a company name is on the car of anyone who comes to the home. Iowa American Water Co. says their employees always carry a company-issued photo identification and will never enter a customer’s home demanding access or a payment to avoid shutting off water.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — If you bought a Powerball ticket in Pennsylvania for Saturday’s drawing, you may be holding a piece of paper worth $457 million.
Powerball officials say a single winning ticket was sold in Pennsylvania that matches all of the winning numbers: 22-57-59-60-66 and Powerball 7. The jackpot from Saturday’s drawing is the eighth-largest ever for the Powerball game.

The specific location where the winning ticket was sold has not been announced.
Powerball is played in 44 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The largest jackpot in Powerball history was $1.6 billion. Three winning tickets were sold in that Jan. 13, 2016, drawing.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A member of the Iowa Legislature has reunited with the daughter she released for adoption 47 years ago. On a Saturday morning this year, State Rep. Marti Anderson’s phone rang, and her daughter, Shellie Price Wardlaw, was on the other line. “I was having breakfast with my dad and my husband and I got a phone call out of the blue,” Anderson said. “And this woman said, ‘This is Shellie Wardlaw, and I think you’re my mother.'”

Wardlaw told the Des Moines Register that she found Anderson after taking a DNA test through Ancestry.com in January, which identified a maternal match. Anderson had taken the same test in December.

“Once I went to my matches and saw there was a maternal match, it just sent a flood of emotions through me, and I just wanted to find out more,” Wardlaw said. Anderson said she’d been waiting for that phone call for four decades. Anderson then met up with her daughter at her home just across town in Des Moines. “I had absolutely no idea where she was, and for her to be here all my life, never to have left, on the other side of town,” said Wardlaw.

Anderson said she was “a 19-year-old single girl” when she was pregnant with Wardlaw. “Nobody was happy or excited for me, not just because she was out of wedlock — which was pretty important back then — but because she was part African-American,” said Anderson. She said her mother kicked her out of the house, and she decided “to release her daughter for adoption so she could have a family.”
Wardlaw said she doesn’t hold any grudges against Anderson.

“It’s kind of hard for me to compartmentalize my emotions right now,” Wardlaw said. “Because I still think that while this was great, the times that she lived in and the pressure that she was under and the racism that was out there makes me angry. I find myself getting angry at society because someone’s color of their skin can make somebody feel less than. And that bothers me.” Wardlaw said she’s reached out to her birth father too. Anderson said she hopes to start making up for lost time.

“I was just getting ready to send her flowers that say, ‘With love and celebration for all the events I missed,'” Anderson said. “I want to send her something today that tells her it was real, and I am here.”

Red Oak Police report the arrest at around 11:45-p.m., Saturday, of 25-year old Dustin James Danick, of Red Oak. Danick was taken into custody for Criminal Mischief in the 3rd Degree, an aggravated misdemeanor. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 cash bond.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports three people were arrested and one person was cited, late Saturday. Just before 5-p.m., Deputies cited James W. Wynn, of Omaha, for possessing an open container of alcohol as a passenger in a vehicle. At around 6:45-p.m., 21-year old Gary Anthony Brenden, of Bellevue, NE., was arrested on a Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charge. Brenden was cited into court and then released at the scene near Highway 34 and A Avenue.

And, two people were arrested at around 11:45-p.m. in the 100 block of E. Coolbaugh Street, in Red Oak, Saturday. 25-year old Dustin James Danick, and 27-year old Kirstin Lynn Wilwerding, both of Red Oak, were charged with Public Intoxication. In addition, Danick faces an Interference with Official Acts charge. Danick and Wilwerding were transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 bond, each.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 5:15 a.m. CDT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A nonprofit overseeing Davenport’s Nahant Marsh wants to ensure it can protect and preserve the natural resources already under its watch before buying 40 more acres of adjoining land. Nahant Marsh has seen a sharp increase in the number of visitors within the past 10 years from about 2,500 annually to almost 18,000 this past year. Nonprofit Nahant Marsh board of trustees is considering purchasing 40 acres of adjacent land, including wetlands, to expand its property.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors say a man convicted of killing his girlfriend can’t use allegations of juror bullying as grounds for a new trial. The Telegraph Herald reports that assistant Dubuque County Attorney Brigit Barnes made the argument in his response to Fontae Buelow’s motion for a new trial. Buelow’s attorneys claim that a juror who did not believe Buelow was guilty of murder was bullied by two other jurors, and then was then improperly removed by the judge.

CENTERVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Officials in south-central Iowa say an elderly couple has been killed in a fire that tore through condominiums in Centerville. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that the fire occurred late Thursday night at the Diamond View Condominiums. Centerville police officers had rescued two residents from one building, but two other residents couldn’t be reached.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa power company has sent help to restore power to the East Coast, which has been slammed by three powerful winter storms in the span of two weeks. MidAmerican Energy of Des Moines sent 78 employees to Rye, New York, late last week to help utility crews restore power after recent major winter storms left 200,000 people without electricity. MidAmerican Energy’s response followed New York-based energy company Con Edison’s mutual aid request.