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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Record Number of Iowans Behind on Power Bills

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Tuesday, January 15, 2013   

DES MOINES, Iowa - Temperatures since December have been running below normal for Iowa, and those heating bills are coming due any day now. Jerry McKim, Iowa LIHEAP director, says Iowa started the winter with the number of households owing money on their power bills at an all-time high.

"The rate-regulated utilities reported for the month of November, 279,706 total residential accounts past due. That's the highest number ever reported for a single month, going back to 1999."

He says there has been a surprising 7 percent drop so far this year in the number of Iowans seeking help paying those bills.

"I get calls every morning from folks who either know they can't afford to pay that bill or they've got a disconnection notice from the utilities and they are certainly desperate to find some help to avoid that."

McKim says this year they have at least $49 million to help low-income Iowans pay some of what they owe. He says those getting bills they can't pay this month can contact his office and at least get protection from having their power cut off within 14 days - but that protection only lasts until March.




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