As of this (Friday) morning, positive cases of COVID-19 are on the rise in Shelby County and now stands at 56 positive cases, 40 people have recovered, there have been 3 positive serology test, 333 negative tests and 5 tests are pending. 83% of the positives are under the age of 60 which is consistent with the overall state numbers.

Throughout the state, this morning the state site is reporting 197 individuals are hospitalized with 7 of those individuals being from our RMCC area. One week ago Shelby County had 41 cases of COVID-19 with 5 individuals being monitored. This is a 27% increase in one week.

Health officials ask you to “Please as group settings become larger and more individuals venture out into public keep in mind the efforts that have helped us keep the positive case counts down in Shelby County – social distancing, wearing a face covering and washing your hands.”

(KNOD)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s unemployment rate was 10% in May, down from April but still remarkably high as many businesses and organizations curtailed operations due to the coronavirus. Iowa Workforce Development reported Friday that the May unemployment rate was down from 11% in April but was more than triple the 2.7% rate in May 2019. Beth Townsend, the director of the agency, noted the number of unemployment claims has declined, indicating more people are returning to work. The number of unemployed Iowa residents dropped from 188,000 in April to 168,100 in May. The U.S. unemployment rate for May was 13.3%.

The Adair County Fair Board is excited to announce that the 2020 county fair will occur from Thursday, July 16 – Sunday, July 19, with changes due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The Adair County Fair Board and Adair County ISU Extension and Outreach have been working together to navigate through all the guidance provided by Iowa 4-H, Governor Reynold’s Proclamations, CDC, Emergency Management and the Department of Public Health.

This year’s Friday night Grandstand event will be the Demolition Derby. Saturday’s Grandstand event will be the Mid America Truck and Tractor Pullers. The Wright Rodeo Company will be on Sunday. There will be food vendors on the fairgrounds and camping allowed. Unfortunately, there will not be open class or vendors allowed in the Varied Industries Buildings. The 4H/FFA Center will not be open to the public.

In coordination with Adair County ISU Extension, the primary focus will be on our youth, and to provide a safe and healthy experience for them to showcase their hard work and projects in a ‘show and go’ format. Adair County ISU Extension will be sharing additional details on 4H and FFA events soon.

Although fair plans are moving forward, the fair board is taking extra precautions to ensure the health and safety of all fairgoers. Plans are in place to increase sanitation, including increasing hand sanitizer throughout the grounds. Additionally, the fair board plans to disinfect main seating areas, including the show ring, grandstand and bleachers daily and provide signage to remind people to social distance and to use good hygiene practices. Following the State of Iowa’s lead, personal responsibility is requested for people to determine if they feel comfortable attending the fair during this time and implement social distancing if they choose to attend. We encourage high risk, vulnerable individuals or anyone not feeling well to stay home.

The Adair County Fair Board and Adair County ISU Extension wants to thank our local communities, sponsors, volunteers, families, and other partners for continuing to support the Adair County Fair as we navigate through this challenging time. An updated schedule will be released as soon as events are confirmed. Thank you for your patience and cooperation. Please stay tuned to www.adaircountyfair.org, www.extension.iastate.edu/adair or our Facebook pages Adair County Fair-Iowa or Adair County ISU Extension & Outreach for additional details.

(Radio Iowa) — There’s still no word from the U-S-D-A on requests from Iowa leaders to help the state’s turkey producers recover from serious production problems caused by COVID-19. Iowa Turkey Federation executive director Gretta Irwin says the pandemic brought a sharp drop in sales and created a backlog of turkeys to be processed. “Iowa’s turkey farmers were impacted by the COVID virus by decreased sales in restaurants,” Irwin says. “As people locked down for those three-plus months and did not go out and eat at a lot of quick-serve restaurants that serve a lot of turkey deli meats, we saw those sales go down.”

Many Iowa restaurants closed or saw a significant drop-off in customers as they shifted to carry-out or delivery only during the height of the pandemic. “That has obviously created an excess inventory in the processors’ warehouses,” Irwin says, “and then that is going to now adversely affect the turkey farmers as they look to cut back production to try to work through that excessive inventory.” Irwin says federal funding is critically needed for the state’s turkey producers as well as for the processors that were hit hard by the pandemic.

“We’re asking for some support for those farmers who are going to be asked to not produce turkeys because of this excess inventory,” Irwin says. “For the processing plants, we are taking advantage of a lot of the other food assistance programs that the government is providing to food banks and to school food service programs.”

Both of Iowa’s U-S senators and the state’s agricultural leaders have asked the U-S-D-A for assistance for turkey producers. In their letter, they asked that agency economists work to devise a formula that allows this niche sector of the nation’s poultry industry to get the help it needs. Iowa is the nation’s seventh-largest turkey producer and ranks fifth in turkey processing.

(Radio Iowa) — Quad Cities-based John Deere is restructuring and implementing a new operating model. Spokeswoman Jen Hartmann says it’s been eleven years since the last “global” restructuring. The new model is called the Deere Smart Industrial strategy.  “The new org model is making sure — and this is really at that corporate-level– looking at how we can structure ourselves to be much quicker to market, much more responsive to what customer needs are, and to deliver on those needs very efficiently and quickly,” Hartmann explains.

For the Agriculture and Turf Division, Hartmann says Deere teams will use different approaches to serving customers with large-scale farms in North and South America, plus Australia, compared to mid-size and small growers and producers around the world.  “Whether we are talking about the equipment or technology — what do those corn and soy farmers need most, because that is going to be very different than what a dairy or livestock producer might need,” according to Hartmann, “And certainly very different from what a guy who’s producing oranges in an orchard. So this is going to be looking at that entire lifecycle of the needs of that farmer or producer or rancher.”

The restructuring includes expanding the role of the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, since, Hartmann says, technology is the key to improving customer service before, during, and after the sale. They have a chief technology officer Jamie Hindman who she says will be overseeing the intelligent solutions group and the entire technical staff.

She says the intelligent solutions group had been focused on precision agriculture, but all of the tech and support will now be focused on the entire lifecycle of the product lines from construction and forestry to ag and turf. Deere plans to invest in research and development of new technologies. Hartmann says the company’s “smart, connected” machines will help customers save money, increase productivity, and ultimately make more money.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Des Moines City Council is set to consider a resolution supporting the decriminalization of marijuana in the city. The resolution is on the council’s agenda for its meeting Monday and would be the first step toward decriminalizing marijuana in Iowa’s capital city. If approved, the move would create a six-person task force to study the issue and provide recommendations to the council by Oct. 1.

The resolution is sponsored by City Council members Josh Mandelbaum, Connie Boesen, Carl Voss and Joe Gatto. Decriminalizing marijuana in Iowa is among the priorities listed by Black Lives Matter, which is seeking passage of a ban on racial profiling by Des Moines police.

w/ Chris Parks

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The Red Oak Police department reports the arrest of 59-year-old Tony Joe Christensen of Red Oak for Public Intoxication on Thursday night. Christensen was arrested at about 9:16 p.m. in the 1400 block of Broadway in Red Oak. He was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A white Cedar Rapids police officer who shot a black man in 2016, leaving him paralyzed, has been fired for violating department rules. Department spokesman Greg Beulow says Sgt. Lucas Jones was dismissed Thursday following an internal investigation. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the investigation was linked to the shooting of Jerime Mitchell during a traffic stop in November 2016.

Jones pulled Mitchell over in November 2016 because the license plate lights on his pickup truck were out. Police video shows Mitchell driving away with Jones caught in the door of his truck. Jones says he ordered Mitchell to stop before shooting him.