The Iowa Lottery says it saw record sales of $489.9 million in the just-completed 2024 fiscal year.

The lottery released its unaudited annual results Tuesday, finding that sales had increased 1.7% from the previous year, beating the previous record. Proceeds from the lottery to the state totaled nearly $107 million, according to a news release.

While the proceeds decreased roughly 1.6% from fiscal; year 2023, the lottery reported they were the second highest after that year’s $108.4 million.

Prizes to players also reached a record level at $312.6 million — a 2.4% increase — according to the news release, and lottery sales commissions to Iowa businesses grew by 2%.

“The Iowa Lottery continues to deliver on its promise to responsibly generate revenue for important state causes,” Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn said in the release. “I’m grateful to lottery players, retail partners, and our amazing team of public-minded professionals who produced these record results.”

What were the top-selling Iowa Lottery products in fiscal 2024?

The top-selling lottery products in Iowa were scratch games, at $302.1 million, followed in a distant second by Powerball at $77.3 million, and in third, Mega Millions at $39.1 million.

Fourteen Iowa Lottery players claimed prizes of at least $500,000 during the fiscal year, with the largest winnings being $2 million in Powerball games — one for a Clinton man in April, and one for a Treynor man in January. A Powerball Double Play prize of $500,000, won in March in Mason City, remains unclaimed.

Proceeds from the lottery go to multiple sources, including the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund and programs supporting Iowa law enforcement, firefighters and corrections employees who die in the line of duty, as well as to projects through the state general fund.

Dana Wingert, Des Moines chief of police and chair of the lottery commission, praised the lottery’s efforts to highlight National Gambling Awareness Month and the services available in the state for people facing gambling addiction disorders.

“As a citizen commission member, it’s gratifying to me to see this ongoing demonstration of lottery integrity,” Wingert said. “And as a public servant myself, I appreciate the lottery team’s focus on responsibly producing results for vital causes.”

A train with around three dozen cars derailed in Carroll County on Monday.

While derailments don’t happen often, here’s what you need to know.

Where is Glidden, Iowa, the site of a train derailment Monday?

The train derailed east of Glidden, Iowa, a town of around 1,000 in Carroll County, around 5 p.m. Monday, July 29. Glidden is about 60 miles west of Ames on U.S. Highway 30.

The derailment happened on the Union Pacific Railroad.

Clean-up is underway, according to a Facebook post from the city.

The post said all crossings were open as of 9:30 p.m. Monday.

How did the train derailment happen in Glidden, Iowa?

The incident is still under investigation, Union Pacific Railroad spokesperson Mike Jaixen told the Register in an email.

“Union Pacific crews are responding to the incident,” he said.

Were there any injuries or fatalities from the Iowa train derailment?

No, there are no injuries associated with the incident.

How often do trains derail?

Derailments are unlikely, Jaixen said.

“A Union Pacific train can travel a distance equivalent to traversing around the earth around 49 times before a derailment,” he said.

There have been four derailments in Iowa through April of this year. There were 31 in 2023, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.

Kyle Werner is a reporter for the Register. Reach him at kwerner@dmreg.com.

BURLINGTON, Iowa (KCRG) – Another heatwave is here, but not everyone in Iowa has access to adequate cooling in their homes. An i9 investigation reveals that, in Iowa, there are no laws requiring that access.

Kody Hardin is a renter in Burlington who lives with his girlfriend and their 4-month-son.

Hardin’s home is modified with the family’s efforts to keep cool. Curtains block off the western part of the house where the afternoon sun hits hardest. In the bedroom, a box fan sits in a laundry hamper, which is placed right in front of a window unit air conditioner. The jerry-rigged set up is the main cooling system in the part of the house that Hardin rents.

“I spent time in the service. I know what hot is. I’ve been in hot temps. But this isn’t something we want to live in everyday,” said Hardin.

On the day TV9 visited Hardin and his son Khyler, the thermostat in the living room read 79 degrees. Hardin said, in heat waves, it can get even hotter.

“It’s 80 degrees in here, sometimes its 90 degrees in here.”

During the summer, Hardin says he, his son, and girlfriend basically live in the bedroom trying to stay cool. Getting better air conditioning would mean costly upgrades from his landlord.

“I’ve reached out to the landlords and the maintenance guy before in regards to maybe getting some central air put in or something just better in general,” said Hardin.

TV9 reached out to Hardin’s landlord, but we have not yet received a comment.

Air conditioning is expensive to install and maintain, and it’s also not a right for renters.

“In Iowa, landlords aren’t required to provide air conditioning,” said Patrick Bigsby, a staff attorney with Iowa Legal Aid. Bigsby said the law only stipulated that if landlords do provide air conditioning, they maintain it in good and safe working order.

That’s in contrast to winter, when Iowa landlords are required to maintain adequate heating systems, deemed just as essential as running water.

“We worry historically more about keeping people warm in winter. We have policies to do that. We haven’t invoked policies like that for extreme heat. We need to do so,” said Peter Thorne, a professor in the department of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Iowa.

With climate change, Iowa State scientists say the state’s average temperature is up about 1.5 degrees in the last 15 years. That means we’ve had hotter summers and more heat waves.

“Unusually hot summers are becoming more common,” said Thorne.

That’s why Thorne said access to adequate cooling is becoming a public health crisis.

“Heat and extreme heat is basically the biggest killer of people in terms of weather-related disasters,” he said.

The U.S. has already seen the impact of dangerous heat. At least 16 people died of heat-related issues during a heat wave this month in Oregon, a state not used to extreme heat.

Some states like Arizona have made it a law: air conditioning is an essential service that landlords must provide to tenants.

A similar law in Iowa would benefit people like Hardin, who knows he won’t see relief until fall.

“We really don’t know what to do. Just waiting for a miracle,” said Hardin.

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