DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — State Sen. Janet Petersen says she will not seek reelection as Senate minority leader. Peterson was the first woman to be elected to lead Senate Democrats when she won the post in 2017. She says Wednesday she was asked by several members of her caucus to continue on as leader but decided against it. Senate Democrats retained 18 seats in last week’s election, and Petersen won a third four-year term. Republicans hold large majorities in the state Senate and House. Senate Democrats will meet Sunday to select caucus leaders for the coming legislative session scheduled to begin Jan. 11.

Atlantic School District Superintendent Steve Barber, Wednesday evening, updated the School Board on the status of COVID-19 in the district.

For the most part, he said, they have been able to accomplish social distancing at the Middle School and High School, but after the mask mandate the Washington Building ran into some difficulties.

Steve Barber said while County’s COVID-19 has come down from more than 20% on Oct. 21^st to 17.8% Wednesday morning, the District, which is eligible to enact their Hybrid learning program, will not do so because attendance has not been a problem and because there is not widespread of the virus among the district’s buildings.

He said “I have no reason to believe that we need to change our model at this time.” In other news, Mr. Barber said last week, the District learned the Federal Food Program will be free for the remainder of the school year. Food Service Director Natalie Ritter will provide the Board with an update with regard to feeding the students, during their work session on Nov. 18^th.

And, the Superintendent said technology has been ordered to create an interactive experience for recorded and possibly live streamed School Board meetings.

The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education met Wednesday evening and held an election for new officers. They selected Jenny Williams as Board President and Laura McLean as Vice President. Sarah Sheeder was re-appointed as Board Treasurer and Secretary. The Board furthermore decided to continue holding their regular meetings on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 6-p.m., and their Work or Special Sessions on the 4th Wednesday, also at 6-p.m. Unless otherwise noted, the meetings will be held in the High School Media Center.

The Atlantic School Board, Wednesday approved the resignations of Olivia Newberg, Central Office Secretary; Beverly Jones and Christina Simonton, Paraeducators, and Kim Meurer, Food Service. They approved contract recommendations for: Pam Klar, Substitute Special Education Car Driver; Alyssa Dovenspike, Interim Assistant Girls Soccer Coach, and Shelly Schlake as Floating Substitute Teacher.

In other business, the Atlantic School board approved an overnight/out-of-state trip for the Spanish Club to Costa Rica in the Summer of 2022. The move allows the club to begin fundraising for the trip, which is similar to one they are taking in 2021 and was supposed to have taken place this past Summer. Atlantic Activities Director Andy Mitchell says by going again in 2022, they keep the rotation of every other year with the band trip.

Their final order of business was to approve the purchase of a Suburban from Deter Motor Company in the amount of $43,506. The purchase is part of the District’s Transportation Plan. School officials say with the purchase, there should be no need to add new vehicles to the fleet in FY22. During their meeting in December, the Atlantic School Board is expected to act on approving an Engineering Services Agreement with Snyder and Associates, with regard to the west High School Parking lot.

Snyder Engineer Dave Sturm said the current parking lot is starting to turn to the gravel in some areas and is displaying numerous cracks. The idea is grind the current surface off and use the rock in the pouring of seven-inch thick Portland Cement Concrete. A contractor from Anita is capable of crushing the pavement on-site, saving the district a good chunk of money, as opposed to hauling it off-site.

The result would be a wider entrance for the buses on the north end, 22 additional parking stalls with basically the same amount of pavement, and alleviating some of the congestion in the area where the east/west lots come together. The pavement should last some 40-to 50-years, according to Sturm. The Board also mentioned they would be interested in having work done on the sidewalks in front of the High School, as well. The project as presented, without the addition of the sidewalks, is estimated to cost $746,900.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Wednesday evening, said a Union County man stopped for speeding at around 3:30-p.m. Wednesday, was found to be intoxicated. 21-year old Lyndon Daniel Bright, of Creston, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. He was being held in the Adams County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Dan Haynes, Director of the Nishna Valley YMCA in Atlantic, said Wednesday, “Due to the latest governor’s proclamation and the rising cases of covid 19 in our county the Nishna Valley Family YMCA Staff and Board of Directors has decided to postpone the “Community Discussion” on the future of “recreation and quality of life” in Atlantic and the surrounding area.”

The community meeting, which was announced November 2nd, was originally scheduled to take place Tuesday, November 17^th at 6:30pm at the Cass County Community Building. The YMCA will try to reschedule this meeting for some time in January contingent on the current conditions.

If you have any questions or concerns you can contact Dan at 712-243-3934 or email to dhaynes@nishnavalleyymca.com.

ONAWA, Iowa (AP) — A judge in western Iowa says he will announce a verdict Friday in the case of a man accused of killing his grandmother in 2018. Eliot Stowe is charged with first-degree murder for the beating death of 66-year-old Cheryl Stowe at her rural home in Castana in June 2018. The Sioux City Journal reports that Stowe waived his right to a jury trial, so a judge heard evidence during a four-day trial in August.

Cheryl Stowe’s body was found wrapped in a rug and duct tape at the edge of a cornfield near her home. Prosecutors say Eliot Stowe had beaten her with a baseball bat. Eliot Stowe’s defense team has argued he’s not guilty by reason of insanity.

(Radio Iowa) – All classes in Cedar Rapids schools will shift online, starting Thursday, while the district asks the Iowa Department of Education for a two-week virtual learning waiver. So far this month, 18 Iowa school districts and parochial schools have gotten state permission to conduct all classes online. Iowa Department of Education director Ann Lebo says a handful of others — including Cedar Rapids — have received permission for online-only instruction for students in specific buildings.

Three elementary buildings in Ames closed today and students are taking classes online. The district is asking state officials to allow all Ames students through the eighth grade to shift online. Ames superintendent Jenny Risner says they’re running out of substitute teachers.

Other school administrators say they cannot find enough bus drivers to run the routes that get students to school. Lebo says there are a variety of reasons schools are seeking waivers to end in-person instruction.

Lebo says the state has pandemic benchmarks for when school districts may shirt to virtual classes, but administrators do not have to wait until those are met. Schools may hold all classes online for 48 hours while waiting for state officials to waive the requirement for in-person classes.  Among the waivers granted yesterday (Tuesday) was one for the Glenwood Community School District.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican Senator Joni Ernst says a pandemic relief package is an immediate priority for the Republican-led senate yet this year. “Hopefully we can get a Covid-19 recovery package. I think that’s important. It’s something that I continued to hear even while I was on the campaign trail, how Iowans really hoped we could step up get a targeted relief bill done,” Ernst says.

Ernst said also, “There are still so many people that are hurting across the nation and we would love to get them relief.” It’s still unclear how large a relief package might be. Senate Republicans opposed the one-point-eight TRILLION dollar spending level the White House and House Democratic leaders were discussing before the election. On Tuesday, Ernst’s fellow Republicans re-elected her vice chair of the Republican Conference in the U.S. Senate. “Coming through this last election cycle, which was very difficult for so many, we actually saw some pretty incredible gains by conservative women and what we could say was this was the year for the GOP women,” Ernst says. “We gained seats in the House and we are also gaining another woman in our Republican Conference, Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming.”

So far, a record 14 Republican women have been confirmed the winners of races for seats in the U.S. House. Four others — including Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa — are waiting for their House races to be called. “We hope that young conservative women will take a look a the make-up of congress,” Ernst says, “and determine that there is opportunity out there for them as well.”

Ernst won re-election to a second term in the U.S. Senate by a nearly seven point margin. She’s been on the Senate G-O-P leadership team since mid-November of 2018.

(Radio Iowa) – While an active La Nina pattern continues to form over the Pacific Ocean, questions remain about what impact it will have in Iowa. Past La Ninas have led to colder winters here with some increase in snowfall. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, says it appears November will be more mild than cold. “It looks like, after this cold stretch, we may be getting into a bit warmer period again for a decent part of November,” Todey says. “Are we done with La Nina and what it’s going to do for the overall winter? No, I don’t think so. I think we’re still going to see some cold coming in and more of that may be occurring later in the winter.”

Some longer-range climate maps indicate warmer-than-normal temperatures early next year, but Todey says nothing’s certain. “We’re not locked into what we are at this point and if you look at the outlooks, they are still shifting as the winter goes on,” Todey says. “The cold may be coming in and it may be the warmth of the central plains, so let’s keep an eye on this.” While we can study what’s happened during past La Ninas, there’s no guarantee this latest one will follow the playbook. “While there are some averages we can look at in the way of La Ninas, and those have been reflected in the outlooks, there are some of these big events that have not looked quite the same and have taken on a different view,” Todey says.

“That may be what we’re seeing here, at least for the first part. There’s plenty of winter to come. I don’t think the story is written about this La Nina yet this winter.”  A La Nina occurs when sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean cool below long-term normal trends.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday, revisited the question of whether or not masks should be mandated in the County. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Tuesday, implored Iowans to use a mask, due to the daily increases in positive COVID-19 test results and hospitalizations. The Board has received at least two of e-mails on the matter. Board Chair Steve Baier said there’s more each person needs to do to quell the spread of the virus, aside from wearing a mask or face shield.

In fact, Governor Reynolds, as we’ve mentioned, issued a new proclamation Tuesday, asking Iowans to do more to decrease the spread, including wearing masks, but she did NOT issue a mandate. Nor have the Cass County Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Steve Green…

Green said the County’s coffers are small enough, and he didn’t want to spend the amount of money it would take to fight people who might sue over their Constitutional rights being violated. Supervisor John Hartkopf said it’s been brought to the Board’s attention that two counties in Iowa have taken some measures to implement some form of a mandate which Supervisor Green said was “cherry-picked” from Iowa Code to form a Resolution.

The interpretation comes from a gray area in the Code. Auditor Dale Sunderman…

The Board did not take action on approving a mask mandate for the County, but strongly encourage residents do whatever they can to reduce the spread of the virus. In other business, the Board also voted 5-to 2 to set a rate of $40 per month per employee, for the use of certain County employee’s personal cell phones, when conducting County business. Auditor Dale Sunderman says the policy states…