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.

Democrat Senate candidate for Iowa House District 20, Warren Varley, of Stuart was at the Cass County Fair, Saturday. Varley, a local farmer and attorney who ran unopposed in the June Primary Election, will face a challenge from Greenfield Republican candidate Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II in the November 6th General Election. Sorensen defeated Dodge Perrigo in Republican primary election. Both men hope to succeed retiring District 20 Representative Clel Baudler. District 20 covers Adair, Guthrie, the northeast part of Cass and a section of Dallas Counties.

Warren Varley

Varley has over 25 years of experience as a main street businessperson in Stuart and has served as president of Midwest Partnership and Stuart Enterprise for Economic Development. He says he’s concerned with the direction the Iowa Legislature is taking the state in, with regard to economic development, and especially public education. He says it’s crucial to the future of our children, and as an economic development tool. A more pro-active approach to public education, he says, is to get students who aren’t interested in a four-year college education, engaged in becoming skilled workers in the trades industry.

He says there is a shortage of worker housing in the state, and there needs to be an investment in the infrastructure to make workers available and attract jobs. He says Iowa is losing businesses because they want to expand, but don’t have the workforce to do so, and therefore are unable to do so. Varley says he wants to focus the legislature’s attention to developing rural Iowa, because the population shift to the urban areas means they have the power to change rules, and rural areas need to “Punch above our weight,” and have a strong advocate in the State Legislature.

He says there is too much extremism on both the State and Federal level, and not enough decision making down the middle of issues. Varley says he wants to go back to the time when Iowa was more like when his dad was in the legislature, and Bob Ray was Governor, when there was a lot more working across party lines, cooperation and moderation. He says “I think I represent that.”

His father, Andrew Varley served as a Republican legislator for 12-years.

IA House District 20

Activities at the Cass County Fair continue today, in Atlantic. On the schedule:

7:30-a.m. Swine Show (Indoor Show Ring)

10:00-a.m. 4-H Exhibits Open (Community Center)

10:00-a.m. Poultry Show (Poultry Barn)

10:30-a.m. Dance Atlantic Performance

Noon-to 4-p.m. Decorator’s Showcase (Community Center)

The Noon Special today at the Foodstand is Windsor Chops, and don’t forget hot beef is sold each day of the Fair after 4:30-p.m. Other food can be found on the fairgrounds at the FFA Foodstand and Chuckwagon.

2:30-p.m. Pedal Tractor Pull (Community Center parking lot)

3-to3:30-p.m. Feeder Calf weigh-in

4:30-p.m. County Fair Church Service (Indoor Show Ring)

5:30-p.m. Cow/Calf Show (Outdoor Show Ring)

6:00-p.m. Feeder Calf Show (Outdoor Show Ring)

6:30-p.m. Horse Fun Show (Horse Arena)

7:00-p.m. All American Lunberjack Show (Grandstand)

Tomorrow’s line-up includes: The Beef Show & Beef Fitting Contest; Best of Iowa; Rotary Watermelon Feed; Building Awards; Parade of Champions; Grand Champion Beef Selection; Villa Dance Performance, and Youth Council Activity. The 2018 Cass County Fair concludes Tuesday morning, with the Livestock Sale.

Don’t forget to look for a chainsaw artist, with carvings to be sold after the Parade of Champions Monday evening. Ride wristbands will be on sale this afternoon, and don’t forget there’s lots of great food available, including at the Fair Foodstand, where the Noon Special is Lamb or Ham balls.