Sales Tax Holiday Ends Tonight At Midnight
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s annual sales tax holiday is wrapping up as people across the state – and plenty from neighboring states like Nebraska and Missouri – scramble to get their back-to-school shopping done.
The holiday is held the first Friday and Saturday in August, and exempts sales tax on clothing and footwear items priced under $100. The exemption ends at midnight Saturday.
Sales tax in Iowa ranges from 6 cents to 7 cents on every dollar,
depending on location. So, shoppers spending $200 on clothes and shoes in Iowa this Friday and Saturday would save between $12 and $14 they would normally have to pay in sales tax.
The exemption does not include back-to-school supplies, like backpacks, notebooks, calculators or sporting equipment.
Woman Arrested In Connection With Hit-and-Run Fatal Accident
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The wife of a man being sought in a fatal Des Moines hit-and-run crash has been arrested in the case.
Police say 31-year-old Jennifer McGilvrey, of Newton, was arrested Friday and charged with permitting an unauthorized person to operate a motor
vehicle.
Police say she allowed her husband, Anthony McGilvrey, to drive her sport utility vehicle on July 28 knowing that he wasn’t licensed to drive.
Police say while driving that day, Anthony McGilvrey hit a bicyclist, identified as Darrel Ford, who later died.
An arrest warrant has been issued charging Anthony McGilvrey with leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death. He has yet to be found or turn himself in.
Police say the red SUV he was driving was found Wednesday abandoned and hidden in a rural area east of Mitchellville.
Survey Shows Some Iowa Regions Are Lacking Child Care Facilities
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) – A recent survey has found Iowa residents are struggling to find child care in communities that lack options or have few providers.
The Telegraph Herald reports that researchers with the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C., think tank, last year surveyed U.S. Census tracts in 22 states. They found that about half of the population that they studied lived in neighborhoods or communities that lacked child care
services.
Researchers say 24 percent of Iowa residents live in child care deserts, places where child care is scant. That figure jumped to 37 percent in rural areas.
According to the study, Cascade and portions of Dubuque are considered a child care desert.
Mary Janssen is the regional director of Iowa Child Care Resource & Referral of Northeast Iowa. She says reasons for the shortfall are multifaceted.
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