A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for eastern Johnson, northwestern Nemaha and southern Otoe counties in Nebraska until 3:15 p.m. Sunday. A tornado watch is in effect until 10 p.m. Sunday for southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa, including Omaha, Council Bluffs and Lincoln.
U.S. Census data show Iowa household incomes have risen, but so has the percentage of Iowans living in poverty.
According to the Des Moines Register, census reports say the median household income in Iowa climbed less than $1,000 between 2007 and 2009, as the poverty rate was rising nearly a percentage point.
Iowa median household income in 2009 was a little over $48,000, compared with the national figure of a little over $50,200.
Last year's poverty rate in Iowa was 11.8 percent, compared with 11 percent two years earlier. Last year's national poverty rate was 14.3 percent.
Iowa State University economist David Swenson told the Register that Iowa's economy didn't expand as rapidly as the economies of some other states, "and therefore it didn't have to contract as sharply."
