CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa’s unemployment rate is now at a pre-pandemic level. It dropped to 2.6 percent in June. Iowa businesses added 5,100 jobs. Meanwhile, in the U.S. the number of people applying for unemployment benefits went up to its highest level in more than 8 months. It was now at 251,000. That’s up 7,000 from the week before, and is the most since November 13, 2021.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa casinos posted record profits in fiscal 2022, even as Governor Kim Reynolds and Republicans in the legislature cited “gambling fatigue” while placing a moratorium on any new casinos in the state. In all, Iowa casinos reported $1.76 billion in gross revenue for traditional casino games and slots and an additional $139 million in sports wagering, both records. The record revenue coincided with a rise in visits to Iowa casinos compared to the previous year. Casinos reported 17.8 million admissions to the state’s 19 casinos – up from 16.4 million visits the year before. That’s still well below the high point of 22 million visitors in 2012. The internet fueled growth for sports wagering in Iowa as the state made it easier to open an online sports betting account starting in 2021. In-person sports betting rose modestly in FY 2022 from a handle, or total amount wagered, going from $233 million in FY2021 to $243 million in FY2022. However, online sports betting handle more than doubled – from $985 million in FY 2021 to $2.2 billion this past year.
HIAWATHA, Iowa (KCRG) – The conservative advocacy group ‘Americans for Prosperity-Iowa’ (AFP-IA) hosted an event in Eastern Iowa to highlight the growing cost of gasoline under the Biden Administration. Thursday between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm, the group hosted an event called the “True Cost of Washington” at Big 10 Mart in Hiawatha, offering gasoline to customers at a discounted rate. On the first day of Biden’s term, the national average cost of gasoline was $2.389 a gallon, and AFP-IA scaled prices back to that level to show how high inflation has gotten in the state (Iowa’s average is now $4.31 a gallon).
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — The main terminal at Dubuque’s regional airport has been renamed to honor a Black World War II fighter pilot from the eastern Iowa city. The family of the late Robert Martin and others gathered Tuesday for a ribbon cutting at the Dubuque Regional Airport to commemorate the new name, the Capt. Robert L. Martin Terminal. Martin died in 2018 at the age of 99. He was a native of Dubuque who joined the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and flew missions with the Tuskegee Airmen. The renaming of the airport terminal followed a two-year campaign. In 2020, the Dubuque Regional Airport Commission voted unanimously to approve renaming the airport terminal for Martin.
