(Radio Iowa) — An estimated 30-BILLION “robo-calls” were made in the U.S. last year — and so far this year, the pace of these nuisance calls in Iowa and the rest of the country is dramatically accelerating. According to YouMail.com, three-point-three billion automated robocalls were made in the U.S. in April — a 34 percent increase from April of 2017. The area code in Iowa getting the most automated calls is the 515. So far this year, there have been more than 33 million robocalls to phones with a 515 area code. In the 319 area code, there have been nearly 19 million robocalls this year and there’s been nearly 12 million into the 563 area code. People with the 712 area code code got nearly nine-point-nine million robocalls and in the 641 area code there were about six-point-two million.

By YouMail.com’s calculation, people with one of the five Iowa area codes got more than 135 million robocalls in 2017. A small percentage are legitimate, like pharmacies notifying patients they can pick up a prescription, but the vast majority are recorded messages from spammers.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:47 a.m. CDT

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — A new health center in Mason City is expected to provide much-needed medical and dental care to low-income residents of the community who currently need to travel to other cities for help. The Globe Gazette reports that the Community Health Center of Fort Dodge is set to open another location in Mason City in October. Officials say one of the center’s main goals is to help those who’ve been incarcerated or are facing social challenges.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa school advocates hope a bipartisan push to extend a statewide sales tax for schools receives legislative approval early next year. State Sen. Dan Dawson, a Council Bluffs Republican, says a bill to extend the 1 cent sales tax until 2050 will be a top priority next session. A bill passed the House last session but didn’t receive a vote in the Senate.

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — The reward for information into the disappearance of a University of Iowa student has doubled to $2,000, thanks to a pledge from the power utility in the woman’s hometown. The FBI, state and local investigators have been searching for 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts since she was last seen jogging in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa, the evening of July 18.

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa State Patrol says an 18-year-old woman has died after her car was hit by a train in southeastern Iowa. Television station KCCI reports that the crash happened just after 1 a.m. Saturday at a railroad crossing in Mount Pleasant. A report by the State Patrol says Lydia Johnson, of Brighton, tried to drive around crossing gates when her car was hit by a westbound train.

Police in Council Bluffs said Sunday that a transient man was attacked by another transient Sunday afternoon, who fled the scene. Officers were called at around 3-p.m. to assist the medics at the Joshua House (1435 N 15th St). When officers arrived with medics they located a victim, 57-year old Douglas E. McCall, of Council Bluffs, who was bleeding from his head and hands.

McCall was transported to Jennie Edmundson Hospital and treated for his injuries. The man told police he was sitting in a chair in the 1700 block of N. 15th Street in a wooded area when the suspect attacked him with a sharp object. The suspect fled the scene prior to officers’ arrival.

None of McCall’s injuries appeared to have been life threatening. If anyone has information on this case please contact the Criminal Investigations Division at (712)328-4765 or, to remain anonymous (712)328-STOP.

One person is dead following a single vehicle accident this (Sunday) morning, in Fremont County. The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office reports the driver of the a 2010 Dodge Ram truck, 67-year old Marsha Kay Moore, of Riverton, was trapped in her vehicle and had to be extricated by mechanical means. She died from her injuries at the Grape Community Hospital, in Hamburg.

Photo courtesy Fremont County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities say deputies responded to the scene of the crash in the 2900 block of Highway 275, at around 10:25-a.m. An investigation determined the pickup, which was traveling south, had exited the west side of the roadway and rolled over several times.

An autopsy will be performed on Moore by the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner in Ankeny. The manner of her death is being withheld until a full autopsy report is complete. The accident remains under investigation.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — A new health center in Mason City is expected to provide much-needed medical and dental care to low-income residents of the community who currently need to travel to other cities for help.

The Community Health Center of Fort Dodge is set to open another location in Mason City in October, according to the Globe Gazette. Start-up costs for the new center total $2.4 million, said center CEO Renae Kruckenberg. Center funds, fundraising and federal, state and private grants have provided the money.

The center will charge patients on a sliding fee scale based on income and household size, Kruckenberg said. One of the center’s main goals is to help those who’ve been incarcerated or are facing social challenges, she said. “It’s a non-judgmental, open environment,” Kruckenberg said. “We’re not worried about what kind of past you have, we want to make you feel welcome and that it’s a safe place to receive health care.”

The downtown location will also help with overall access, Kruckenberg said.
Other health organizations in Mason City are discussing partnerships with the new center. The Prairie Ridge Treatment Center may move some of its services to the center, said Jay Hansen, executive director of the treatment center. “We see them as another good resource for patients and another partner to collaborate with health care,” he said.

Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa may also work with the new center. The center will help increase local dental care options, said Debbie Abben, community health manager and community benefit ministry officer at Mercy Medical. “Collaboratively, we’ll be working arm-in-arm,” she said. “We all serve patients of North Iowa, so if we’re not able to access-wise get somebody in, hopefully we’re make a referral … hopefully in our community, and keep them here.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As they call for more money for classrooms, Iowa school advocates hope legislators will extend a sales tax levy that pours millions of dollars each year into infrastructure and technology for the state’s public schools.

Bipartisan negotiations over the past couple years have resulted in a plan to extend a statewide 1 cent sales tax for another 20 years to fund school infrastructure projects while limiting the need for schools to issue bonds that drive up property taxes. The efforts have been underway as funding for school aid remains a hot-button issue with regular partisan clashes.

A bill was overwhelmingly passed by the Iowa House last spring to reauthorize the sales tax, known as the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education program, but the Senate never voted on it. Legislative leaders indicated they plan to revisit the issue in January. State Sen. Dan Dawson, a Council Bluffs Republican who managed this year’s bill, said “It is going to be a top priority coming into this next session.

Dawson said the sales tax extension was a victim of an eleventh-hour push for $2.1 billion in property tax cuts that passed in the final hours of the legislative session. He said state senators didn’t want a second major piece of tax legislation at the end of the session, and there wasn’t enough support to bring it to the Senate floor.

Legislators will have a clearer picture of tax revenue estimates next session, Dawson said. He expects the “consensus strategy” developed around expanding the sales tax will carry over into the 2019 session. In the meantime, schools should receive more than $22 million in new sales tax revenue this fiscal year, according to an analysis by the Iowa Department of Revenue.

Emily Piper, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of School Boards, said the Senate had some holdouts who view the sales tax extension to be a new tax, which they oppose on ideological grounds. Piper said the agreement is that legislators will spend some of the proceeds of a sales tax increase on providing property tax relief while still giving the majority of the money collected to schools.

“The commitment is there from Republican legislators to take a serious look at it next year,” Piper said. “This is not a partisan issue.” Despite that optimism, some school districts have stopped waiting and are pressing ahead with bond issues backed by property taxes. The Council Bluffs Community School District, for example, announced Tuesday it would ask voters this fall to approve $37 million in bonds — backed by property taxes — to renovate two middle school

Troy Arthur, president of the Council Bluffs school board, said he worries that interest rates will spike before the sales tax could be extended. Arthur said he feels not acting in past years “missed an opportunity” to lock in even lower rates, but that “millions of dollars in interest” can still be saved by acting soon. Other schools are adopting a wait-and-see approach.

The first district to use sales taxes for infrastructure was the Sioux City Community Schools, which saw a local option sales tax approved by Woodbury County voters in 1998. Similar local levies were replaced by the statewide tax in 2008. Sioux City is currently updating a school built in the late 1800s, said superintendent Paul Gausman, noting the district continues to have facility needs.

Critics have argued the sales tax revenue has sometimes been squandered on lavish athletic facilities and other wasteful projects. The House bill would have mandated a cost-benefit analysis and allowed voters to petition for a referendum on any proposed spending for athletic facilities.

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — The reward for information into the disappearance of a University of Iowa student has doubled to $2,000, thanks to a pledge from the power utility in the woman’s hometown. The FBI, state and local investigators have been searching for 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts since she was last seen jogging in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa, the evening of July 18.

Brooklyn-based TIP Rural Electric Cooperative announced Saturday that it will match a $1,000 standing reward for information that leads to the discovery of Tibbetts’ whereabouts or to an arrest and conviction in her disappearance.

The utility has also set up a hotline where anonymous tips on the case may be left. The cooperative says information called in to 800-452-1111 will be shared with the Poweshiek Sheriff’s office.