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Heatwave expected for the weekend

August 7, 2009 By

Parts of northern Iowa may only have high temperatures in the 70s today, but southwest Iowa will be roasting, with highs well into the 90s. Mindy Albrecht, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, says the heat wave will wash over much of the state by tomorrow.

Albrecht says temps will be climbing into the mid to upper 90s with heat indices in triple-digits both Saturday and Sunday. She says the approaching front will produce excessive heat, which is already creeping into southwest Iowa.

The weather pattern Iowa’s seen the past several weeks is changing and all of the heat that had been over Arizona and the desert region of the Southwestern U.S. is now pushed into the Midwest, making it feel more like summer here. Albrecht says the hot spell will last for a few days.

She says the mid-90s will last through the weekend with a slight cool-off into the 80s next week. Overall, she expects high temps to remain around normal or slightly-warmer-than-average. It follows the coldest-ever Iowa July. Last month’s average temperature was only around 68-degrees statewide, breaking a record set in 1891.

Filed Under: Weather

Des Moines airfares rank high despite efforts to cut costs

August 7, 2009 By

A new survey from the U.S. Department of Transportation says airfares from the Des Moines International Airport are some of the highest in the country. The survey says Des Moines ranks fifth highest with an average flight costing $403. Airport general manager Roy Criss says demand and competition drive the cost of air travel, and they’ve tried to make it cheaper for airlines to fly out of Des Moines.

Criss says over the last three years the management of the airport has reduced the cost of doing business from about $9.52 per person on a plane to about $8.48. He says they’ve also reduced landing fee weight charges and the rent people pay per square foot. While Des Moines’ ranking for fares went up, the average cost of the fare did go down slightly from the same period last year.

Ridership is down in Des Moines about 10% this year, and Criss says the economy is to blame. "It’s very frustrating to see that your airport ranks high as far as fares are concerned when the management of the airport works really hard to keep the cost of business down," Criss says.

The survey covers the nation’s 100 largest markets and found the nationwide fare average is now $315. The lowest average fare was in Long Beach, California at $207. Huntsville Alabama had the most expensive average at $505.

See the whole survey here .

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Elk Horn man dies in motorcycle accident

August 7, 2009 By

One person was killed, another seriously hurt, in a motorcycle accident Thursday on Interstate 80 in western Iowa’s Adair County. According to the Iowa State Patrol, 47-year-old Mark Wade Miller, of Elk Horn, died at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines, after he lost control of his 2003 Harley Davidson motorcycle on the I-80 westbound exit ramp to Stuart, and the cycle slid into a ditch.

A passenger on the cycle, 40-year-old Connie Jae Emgarten, of Adair, was seriously injured and aslo taken to Mercy Hospital. A report on her condition is not available. The Patrol says neither of the cycle occupants were wearing a helmet.

 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Iowa Lottery holds another round of compliance checks

August 7, 2009 By

Iowa Lottery officials have completed a fourth round of security checks at retail outlets. Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer says they checked 217 randomly selected businesses. The operation did not turn up any problems with store personnel.

The businesses involved in the compliance checks are located in 48 different counties. Neubauer says lottery investigators were joined by agents from the state Department of Criminal Investigation because of the amount of money involved. The agents posed as customers, presenting winning tickets that totaled $1.5 million dollars in prizes.

This month’s check follows similar efforts in February, April and May. “The difference is that there was a lot more money on the line this time around, but again all the tickets were handled appropriately,” Neubauer said. “We think it’s really good news for Iowa. I think it shows that we have a retail system here that’s working really well.”

During the Iowa Lottery’s initial checks in February, around half of the retail outlets visited failed to require signatures on the tickets. The compliance check this month found nearly two-thirds of the locations required signatures. “If there’s one area that is still causing us concern it is the issue of the signature requirements on the back of the tickets,” Neubauer said

The locations that have repeatedly failed to require signatures will receive letters of warning from the lottery. Neubauer says the best way for customers to protect themselves from possible fraud is by signing the back of their lottery tickets.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With:

Sales tax holiday begins today

August 7, 2009 By

Today and Saturday mark Iowa’s tenth annual Tax Freedom Weekend. Lyle Karre, general manager of the Mall of the Bluffs in Council Bluffs, says they’re making the weekend special for customers, with drawings for prizes, clowns and a variety of special events, like a baseball card show.

Karre says it’s a very popular weekend. "People started calling here probably in early June wondering when the tax free weekend is," Karre says. "It’s a feel-good weekend. They know the state is helping them out with their taxes for a couple of days." Karre says this weekend will be one of the year’s busiest for the mall.

He says, "Typically, this weekend will be the second-busiest weekend of the year, just kind of rivals right there with the first couple days after Thanksgiving." Shoppers will not be charged the seven-percent state sales tax on clothing and footwear costing less than one-hundred dollars. Karre says many out-of-state cars will be packing the parking lots.

"There’s a certain amount of Nebraska people who shop here all the time because of the ease of the interstate but yet there are quite a few cars here from eastern Nebraska," he says. Karre says many of the stores are also offering huge sales to entice the shoppers.

While the event is geared toward back-to-school shopping, Karre says many adults also take advantage of the savings and stock up on work clothes.

 

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Record cool July gives electric customers small break

August 7, 2009 By

Thermostat The record cool temperatures in July did give some Iowans a small break on their electric bills. Temperatures in July averaged 68-degrees, the coolest in over 130 years of record keeping.

Ann Thelen the spokesperson for MidAmerican Energy, Iowa’s largest utility company says, that did lead to lower electric bills.

She says they dropped just about 2% for residential customers, which equates to $1.65 per customer. Thelan says the drop is bigger when compared to June.

Thelen says June had several days of 90-degrees or above and customer bills went up an average of 2.4% percent in June. So overall, bills in July dropped by over 4% compared to June. The average electric bill in July was $88.84. Thelen says the overall drop in electric use was probably not bigger because of habbit.

Thelen says there’s a certain percentage of people that are accustomed to running their air conditioners all summer, and probably didn’t deviate a lot from that. She says while temperatures where cooler, they were still in the high 70′s and 80′s. So she says there wasn’t a drastic drop in residential electric use.

Thelen says some customers have also probably taken steps to cut their electrical use through new appliances. She says new appliances and air conditioners are more energy efficient. Thelan says MidAmerican has an appliance recycling program and they’ve found that refrigerators and freezers built before 1990 use three times the amount of energy compared to newer models.

MidAmerican Energy is headquartered in Des Moines and provides service to over 722,000 electric customers from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.

Filed Under: Weather Tagged With:

Debate over proposed wind farm

August 7, 2009 By

The two companies that own more wind turbines in Iowa than any other firm are in a dispute that will be aired at Monday’s Iowa Utilities Board meeting. MidAmerican Energy has asked state regulators to approve a deal which would see the utility build a huge, new "wind farm" and have the $2 billion project financed by rate-payers — in other words MidAmerican’s customers.

But NextEra Energy Resources, a Florida-based company that also operates wind turbines in Iowa, objects. "We’re a pretty big wind company, too," says Michael O’Sullivan, NextEra’s senior vice president. "We can provide that wind power as cheaply or as cost-effectively, as quickly as MidAmerican and we weren’t even given a chance."

As more wind turbines are erected in Iowa and new, high-voltage transmission lines go up nationwide, the excess power from Iowa wind turbines can be sold to utilities in other states.

If the Iowa Utilities Board approves MidAmerican’s deal, NextEra’s vice president says the decision will have a "chilling effect" on out-of-state companies considering wind development in Iowa because, O’Sullivan says, regulators will be siding with the "home team" — MidAmerican.

"It seems to be telling us that the sandbox is closed and our ‘Tonka Trucks’ aren’t allowed," O’Sullivan says. While NextEra employs about 600 Iowans to manage its wind turbines and the nuclear power plant in Palo, NextEra sells the energy to Alliant and does not have a direct link to Iowa consumers.

That means NextEra cannot make the kind of proposal that MidAmerican has, one that would see MidAmerican’s Iowa customers help finance construction of its new wind farm.

"Is there a small bit of jealousy in us? Probably. That’s probably fair," O’Sullivan says. "But this is a risk discussion and a commercial discussion and what you’re asking is for Iowans to take on more risks and give a certain shareholder or investor a premium return without taking those risks."

MidAmerican is part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway corporation and ranks as the nation’s number one generator of wind power. About half of the energy generated by wind farms in Iowa comes from turbines owned by MidAmerican.

MidAmerican officials argue their customers will benefit from the new wind turbines because MidAmerican will be able to sell the excess energy out-of-state at a profit and therefore keep electric rates low for its Iowa customers.

The wind farm MidAmerican proposes would be the largest wind project in Iowa. The Iowa Utilities Board will hold a hearing on the proposal on Monday, August 10, then both companies have until August 26 to submit legal documents to the board that outline their arguments.

 

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,
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