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KJAN News can be heard at five minutes after every hour right after Fox News 24 hours a day!
Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
(Radio Iowa) – The holiday weekend ahead is projected to be one of the busiest for Iowa’s highways in many months. Meredith Mitts, spokeswoman for Triple-A Iowa, says they’re predicting more than 37-million people nationwide will be traveling over the three-day Memorial Day weekend. Mitts says, “That’s still 14-percent below pre-pandemic levels but a significant step in the right direction toward traveling.”
There’s “pent-up demand” for travel this weekend, as Mitts says there’s growing confidence with more people getting vaccinated against COVID-19. “Most of the people who are planning on hitting the road for Memorial Day are hitting the road,” Mitts says. “They are going to be taking road trips and we are expecting about 34-million Americans, which is a 52-percent increase over 2020.”
That expected 34-million travelers figure compares to the 23-million who were vacationing last Memorial Day weekend. The motor club is also projecting nearly two-and-a-half million Americans will be boarding planes this weekend. That’s nearly six times more than last year.
Atlantic, IA – Cass County Board of Health Chairman, was recognized on Monday, May 24, 2021 for 51 years of service on the Cass County Board of Health. CCPH Director Beth Olsen says “Serving on a local board of health is an honorable and noteworthy task, and to do that for 51 years is astonishing. We can’t thank Dr. Wessels enough for his dedication to the health of Cass County residents and the support of Cass County Public Health. Olsen said also, “We were unable to safely celebrate Dr. Wessels in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are especially thankful for today, that we now get to celebrate 51 years.”
Dr. Gerald Wessels, DVM
Local boards of health are responsible for public health in their jurisdiction. They support the local public health vision, mission, and encourage community involvement in setting public health priorities. The Cass County Board of Health consists of five members: Dr. Gerald Wessels, Betty Johnston, Gary Dinkla, Mary Strong, and Cass County Board of Supervisors Representative Mark O’Brien.
(8a.m. Newscast)
Police in Creston, Tuesday afternoon, arrested a man on a warrant for Failure to Appear on several prior charges. Authorities say 32-year-old Kyle W. Anderson, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center on the FTA warrant for charges of Harassment 1st Degree, Carrying Weapons, Failure to Affix Drug Tax Stamp, 3 counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance 1st offense and 3 counts of Controlled Substance Violations.
Anderson was being held in the Union County Jail on a $3,000 cash-only bond.
(As of 9:25-a.m.) The Iowa Department of Public Health, today (Wednesday), reports 189 new COVID-19 positive tests and four additional deaths, after three days of no deaths reported. The latest numbers include one additional death in Union County, where the pandemic total is 34. The health department reported 401,304 total positive tests, and 6,039 total deaths since the start of the pandemic, including 2,363 at Long-Term Care facilities. Iowa’s 14-day positivity rate is unchanged, at 2.8%. The 7-day average is down from 2.7% over the past few days, to 2.5% as of today.
There are 120 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Iowa reports 32 patients in ICU, 24 COVID patients were admitted (six more than on Tuesday), and 17 patients are on ventilators. In RMCC Region 4 (hospitals in western & southwest Iowa), there are: Eight patients hospitalized with COVID or symptoms of the virus; four people with COVID are in an ICU; There was one persons admitted, and one person was on a ventilator.
There are now three long-term care facilities report active COVID-19 outbreaks. The latest is a facility in Cerro Gordo County. The other two facilities (as previously reported) are in Pottawattamie and Wright Counties. Health officials say there are a total of 22 positive cases among patients/staff at the three facilities, and four persons who have recovered from the virus.
In the immediate KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County (since the beginning of the pandemic) and the total number of deaths (Since the beginning of the pandemic) in each county to date:
Cass, 1,472 cases; 54 deaths
Adair, 991; 32
Adams, 353; 4
Audubon, 537; 10
Guthrie, 1,306; 31
Harrison County, 1,935; 73
Madison County, 1,779; 19
Mills County, 1,795; 23
Montgomery, 1,112; 38
Pottawattamie County, 12,294;170
Shelby County, 1,370; 37
Union County, 1,370; 34
(Radio Iowa) – The boyfriend of murdered University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts spent the most time on the witness stand as the defense tried to paint him as an alternative suspect to accused killer Cristhian Bahena Rivera. Defense attorney Chad Frese questioned Dalton Jack about an affair he had with a woman named Jordan Lamb that led Tibbetts to take off her promise ring. Frese asked Jack if he knew why Tibbetts took off her promise ring and he said it was because of his relationship “our affair I guess you would call it” with Jordan Lamb. Frese questioned Jack extensively about text conversations they had on various issues. He asked Jack if he mentioned to Mollie that he had a temper and Jack said he didn’t remember. He also asked if he told Mollie “that a person can’t tell until you see it in action.” The prosecutor objected to the question as hearsay, and the judge agreed.
Dalton Jack
He questioned Jack about another time when they had relationship issues. “You recall on October of 30, 2017, you and Mollie’s relationship kind of hit a real bump, didn’t it,” Frese said. Jack said he didn’t recall. “That’s when she was moving in with friends,” Frese says. Jack says it did remember that. You told her you were angry … and she was ditching you. That’s the term you used right?,” Frese said. “Yes,” Jack replied. Frese also questioned whether Jack was really away working on a construction crew at the time Tibbetts was abducted while out running. “The details were few and far between as far as the specificity of your activities on the evenings of July 18 and July 17 to investigating agents, right,” Frese asked. “I thought they were pretty clear,” Jack replied. “You couldn’t recall what night you got drunk and what night you stayed in the room, could you,?” Frese asked. “I don’t recall saying that,” Jack said.
Prosecutor Scott Brown followed up trying to make it clear Jack was not a suspect. “Have you ever admitted that you were in Brooklyn, Iowa on July 18th of 2018 near where Mollie Tibbetts was observed running,” Brown asked. “No I have not,” Jack said. “Have you ever made any statements mister Jack placing you on 385th Avenue east of Brooklyn on July 18th in the evening hours?,” he asked. “No I have not,” Jack said. He also asked Jack about the finding of Tibetts’ body in a cornfield. “Did you take officers to that location to find Mollie Tibbetts?,” he asked. “No I did not,” Jack said. “Did you place cornstalks on her body to conceal her from anyone who may have been looking?,” Brown asked. “No I did not,” Jack replied.
He summed it up with this question. “Mister Jack, did you have anything at all to do with the disappearance or murder of Mollie Tibbetts?,” Brown asked. “No,” Jack replied. The testimony will continue today (Wednesday) in Davenport at 8:30 a-m as the defense continues its case.
(Radio Iowa) – The U-S Senate has approved a proposal from Iowa Senator Joni Ernst that would ban U.S. tax dollars from funding any of China’s state-run labs. That would including the Wuhan Institute where new reports suggest researchers were seriously ill before the first cases of Covid-19 were reported in 2019. Ernst says China continues to obstruct international efforts to discover Covid-19’s origins. “Refusing to allow independent scientists to review the database of coronaviruses that were being studied in the Wuhan Institute,” Ernst says.
The ban on sending federal funding to China’s research laboratories is now included in a bipartisan bill designed to address China’s global ambitions. Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says not another dime of U.S. tax dollars should support research in the communist country. “Providing additional US funds to subsidize any state-run lab in China, especially the Wuhan Institute of Virology, goes against the very purpose of the underlying bill, which to support more research in the U.S. to better compete with China.”
Ernst’s amendment passed on a voice vote late yesterday (Tuesday) as senators considered several amendments offered by Republicans and Democrats.
(Radio Iowa) – The president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation says the state legislative session that ended last week was a great one for agriculture, with one exception. Craig Hill praised the move by lawmakers to shift the burden of paying for the state’s mental health program away from county property taxpayers, since farmers own a significant portion of the state’s land. “There’s only a couple other states that actually pay for mental health service with a property tax,” Hill says. “Shifting, dollar for dollar, costs of mental health services away from property tax to the general fund was a goal that we’ve had.”
Hill says another legislative win this session included more funding for Iowa’s water quality programs. “Those dollars that were appropriated a few years ago to address water quality with our nutrient reduction strategy, we extended those,” Hill says. “We had some new opportunities for beginning farmer tax credits, some expansion there.” Hill says there was a big legislative disappointment in the 2021 session, one that would have benefited corn and soybean growers. “The one that we made progress on but we didn’t complete and that was to expand the use of biofuels, both ethanol and biodiesel,” Hill says. “We’ll be back next session, working away at that one.”
Overall, Hill says Iowa lawmakers did a good job in approving a budget that leaves the state sitting in a good position following the pandemic.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest at around 1:50-p.m. Tuesday, of 31-year-old Dylan Thomas Griffith, from Red Oak. Griffith was taken into custody in the 300 block of Market Street, for Failure to Appear on an original, OWI charge. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $2,000 bond.
And, Police in Red Oak, Tuesday afternoon, arrested 56-year-old John Wayne Goodall, of Red Oak. He was taken into custody on an active warrant for FTA on an original charge of Delivery of a Controlled Substance, a Class-C Felony. Goodall was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $20,000 bond.
Goodall