DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A big jump in whooping cough cases is cited in a state of Iowa report on diseases. The Iowa Department of Public Health says its 2010 Iowa Surveillance of Notifiable and Other Diseases Report covers the more than 60,000 reports of infectious disease that were submitted to state disease surveillance programs.

The state says the number of vaccine-preventable diseases dropped compared to a three-year average. But the state says mumps and pertussis cases increased: 73 percent for mumps and 229 percent for whooping cough. The health department director, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, says there were 705 reported cases of whooping cough reported last year.

She says most adults haven’t had a vaccination since childhood, so they probably have little or no immunity left to whooping cough, which also is called pertussis.

A crowd of a little more than 40 people attended Monday night’s public hearing in Greenfield pertaining to the construction of a large hog confinement operation in Adair County. Auditor Mindy Schaefer says the meeting went “very well.”She says 15 people signed-up prior to the hearing to speak, and each said they were opposed to the factory farm.

Eric Taylor has applied for a permit to construct a 2,480 head hog confinement feeding facility in Adair County’s Richland Township. Past history has shown emotions can run high in opposition to factory farms, but Schaefer said those who spoke stuck to the time limit, and were very respectful of the rules.

She says they were given three-minutes to speak. Most took less than the allotted time, but those who took the full three-minutes were very respectful, and stopped when their time expired.

The Adair County Board of Supervisors are slated to discuss the permit application and, based upon the Master Matrix Scoring and written public comments, forward their recommendation to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. That portion of their meeting takes place at 10:15-a.m., Wednesday.

A person adjusting their radio was cited for Following too Close following a chain reaction accident Sunday evening about four-miles south of Shenandoah, in Fremont County. Sheriff’s officials say Alexandria Snyder, of Macedonia, was traveling north on Highway 59 at around 6:13-p.m., when she took her eyes off the road to tune her radio. She didn’t notice a vehicle in front of her was stopped, waiting for an unknown semi to turn left onto 250th Street, and ran into the back of the vehicle.

Following the collision between Snyder’s Ford F-150 pickup and the 2002 Hyundai, driven by Andrea Candamil, of Omaha, NE,  Candamil’s car slammed into a 2005 Lexus GX, driven by Elaine Baumann, of Town & Country, Missouri, who was also waiting for the semi to turn left. Candamil and Isle Candamil suffered minor injuriesin the crash, and were transported to the Shenandoah Hospital for treatment. No other injuries were reported.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A 24-year-old Griswold woman convicted of setting a fatal fire when she was 17 is scheduled to have a commutation hearing before the Iowa Board of Parole. Tracey Dyess is serving a 45-year prison sentence for setting fire to the family’s home in Griswold in March 2005.  She told investigators she wanted to kill her stepfather, Brian Street, because of sexual abuse. He was later convicted. The fire killed her two siblings.

Dyess was given 45 years in prison after making a plea deal. The Des Moines Register says her hearing is scheduled for Friday. The board expects to make its recommendation within three weeks to Gov. Terry Branstad, who has three months to decide.