COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Mar. 11, 2021 – Council Bluffs residents and interstate travelers will soon notice construction activities beginning near the Interstate 29/I-480/West Broadway System Interchange. According to the Iowa DOT, the I-29/I-480/West Broadway System Interchange project includes the area of I-29 north of the Union Pacific Railroad bridge to a point just west of North 25th Street, along with the I-480 corridor to the Iowa side of the Missouri River crossing.

Officials say the project will improve traffic flow, safety, and the functional design at this location and at the adjacent interchanges at 41st Street, 35th Street, Avenue G and 9th Avenue. Construction activities are currently underway and are expected to continue until late 2024. An overview of construction activities and impacts has been updated on the program website at: www.CouncilBluffsInterstate.iowadot.gov.

(March 11, 2021) – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued revised nursing home visitation guidance Wednesday (March 10), that now also includes consideration of the impact of COVID-19 vaccination.  The guidance (QSO-20-39-NH), includes the following changes:

* All visitors who enter the facility will need to be screened for COVID-19 symptoms, regardless of the visitor’s vaccination status.
* Facilities can allow indoor visitations for all residents (regardless of vaccination status), except for a few circumstances when visitation should still be limited due to a high risk of COVID-19 transmission, such as:
– For unvaccinated residents if the nursing home’s COVID-19 county positivity rate is greater than 10% and fewer than 70% of residents have been vaccinated.
– For residents with confirmed COVID-19 infection, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated until they have met the CMS criteria to discontinue Transmission-Based Precautions.
– For residents in quarantine, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, until they have met criteria for release from quarantine.
* Procedures for handling visitations during an outbreak situation, and how to determine if such visits can occur depending on how far the outbreak has spread in the facility.
* Encouraging, but not requiring, visitors to become vaccinated.

Iowa Health Care Association President and CEO Brent Willett said “We are still reviewing [the] guidance, but it appears that it does what we have called for and longed for: an orderly reopening of nursing homes in Iowa and across the nation.”It is almost exactly one year to the day since nursing homes were closed to visitors nationwide and 357 days since the first COVID-19 case was reported in an Iowa nursing home. [Wednesday’s] action by CMS is historic: thousands of Iowa families will soon be able to visit their loved ones once again.”

To read the CMS guidance in its entirety, visit: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-39-nh-revised.pdf

Area news at 8:05-a.m. with News Director Ric Hanson.

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A collision that occurred T-bone style in Red Oak, Wednesday, caused a total of $7,000 damage, and suspected minor/non-incapacitating injuries to the driver of a car. Red Oak Police say the collision happened at around 5:40-p.m. at the intersection of Walnut and N. Broadway, when a 2005 Chevy Impala registered to David Fussell and driven by 18-year old Dashon Fussell, of Red Oak, failed to yield the right-of-way, to a 2006 Chevy pickup truck driven by 83-year old Michael Norris, of Red Oak.

Dashon Fussell was checked out by Red Oak Fire and Rescue, but did not require transport to the hospital. He was cited for Failure to Obey a Stop sign and yield the right-of-way.

The Creston Police Department reports one person was arrested Wednesday night. 34-year-old Matthew Rinehart, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, on a charge of False Report of [an] Indictable Offense to a Public Entity. Rinehart was being held in the Union County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

Some of the latest local/area news at 7:07-a.m., with Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) – Brides who want intricate braids, up-dos or chignons for their wedding day could have a professional stylist on site if a bill that cleared the Iowa House becomes law. Representative Ann Meyer of Fort Dodge explains: “It will allow licensed cosmetologists to practice cosmetology at a wedding venue, on the day of the wedding,” she says. “Currently they can only practice in a licensed salon.”

In addition to hair styling, some licensed cosmetologists do nails. That means if this bill becomes law, brides could get touch ups on their manicures and pedicures at their wedding venue, too. Hair salons took a hit during the pandemic as they were closed for weeks last spring to curb the spread of Covid. Supporters say this bill could provide cosmetologists with a welcome source of new income.

A Red Oak man was arrested on a Montgomery County warrant, Wednesday evening. Red Oak Police report 22-year old TYson Joseph Uhlmann was arrested at around 7:50-p.m. in the 2400 block of N. 8th Street. He was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $2,000 cash-only bond.

(Radio Iowa) – All Republicans and ten Democrats in the Iowa Senate have passed a bill designed to penalize cities that “defund” the police. Republicans senators passed another bill that would boost penalties for rioting. Senator Julian Garrett, a Republican from Indianola, says it’s about supporting law enforcement officers who dealt with violent rioters last summer.

“Those are folks out violating the law,” Garrett said. “That’s why we’ve got these provisions…to try to make the penalties enough that people will think twice about it.”Garrett’s bill would keep arrested protesters in jail for 24 hours before they’d be eligible for release. Garrett calls it a cooling off period.

“Someone who is out rioting and violating the law who is arrested, just hang onto them a little while so they don’t go right back out and start rioting again,” Garrett said. Democrats called Garrett’s list of enhanced penalties extreme. Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, says Republicans seem to have forgotten why people were protesting last summer. “We’re acting now like it was an isolated incident of a bunch of nuts that came out and just started destroying property. We’re not ever talking in this place about the inequality,” Bisignano said.

“…It’s like the freedom of speech, you only get excited when we don’t like what somebody says…You didn’t like what you saw last summer, but what I saw last summer was frustrated people who have been mistreated for hundreds of years.” Senator Kevin Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, is a retired Johnson County Sheriff’s deputy. He questions boosting the penalty for criminal mischief — for painting graffiti, breaking windows or defacing statues.

“Do we really want that to be a Class D felony that affects a kid the rest of their life?” Kinney says. The bill also creates a new crime called “interference with public disorder control.” Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, is a special agent with the Division of Criminal Investigation. “What our law enforcement saw around the Capitol last summer that while there were many peaceful protesters to show up…there were also actors out there who decided to agitate,” Dawson says.

Dawson says it’s a charge that could be leveled at someone who does something like throw tear gas canisters back at police.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans on a senate committee have voted to phase OUT the state inheritance tax. The bill also would accelerate the plan to phase IN state income tax cuts. Democrats oppose the moves, warning the state’s budget could take a billion dollar hit in a couple of years. Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, says the original plan in 2018 put guard rails in place, so income tax cuts were only triggered if total state tax revenue rose to certain levels.

“So that deep cuts were not going to be required on public safety — we would not have to defund the police,” Jochum said, “that we would be able to meet our obligations on educating our children and all those other services and programs that Iowans need.”

Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, says for Iowa to be more competitive, the tax burden must be lowered. “It’s permanent tax relief for a vast majority of Iowans who earn income in our state,” Dawson says. And Dawson says the state doesn’t have a compelling interest to collect inheritance taxes. “Whoever you choose to give your money to in the end after you pass from this Earth, it’s between you and the individual and not some concocted, morbid, 24-page section of code that says that you can do this at 0% or give it to this person at 15%.”

Under current Iowa law, lineal descendants — that would be children, grandchildren and great grandchildren — pay no income tax on inherited property. Brothers, sisters and inlaws pay between five and 10 percent, while uncles, aunts and cousins could pay up to 15 percent.