The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports a 17-year old male was arrested at around 10:45-p.m. Tuesday, following a reported, possible disturbance on the lawn of a residence in the 18,800 block of Evergreeen, in Council Bluffs. The unidentified juvenile faces a charge of Assault with the intent to inflict serious injury on a 39-year old male. No serious injuries were reported, though.

The City Council in Walnut will hold an electronic meeting 5-p.m. Thursday, with some members present at the Walnut Community Center. On their agenda, is discussion with regard to the closure of City properties: Concession Stands, and Community Center/Fitness Center. The Council is expected to act on:

• Permission to close: One block of Walnut Street June 5th & 6th for a Chalk Art Event; Streets for the Walnut Fall Festival on Oct. 10th and 11th.
• They’ll also act on merchants’ request for Street Displays June 19th, 20th & 21st.
• The appointment of a City of Walnut Zoning Administrator.

Other discussion items will include:

• Reinstating utility disconnections for non-payment
• Possibly raising customer water deposits and water re-connection fees.
• Consider the possible adoption of a Resolution setting fees relative to zoning in the City of Walnut.
• Consideration of the possible adoption of Resolutions pertaining to the transferring of funds into the Debt Service, General, Capital Improvement, and other funds.

Persons interesting in viewing/attending the meeting at 5-p.m. on Thursday, may do so via go-to-meeting.com, may use this link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/600257781

You can also dial in using your phone: United States: +1 (646) 749-3112   Access Code: 600-257-781

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Iowa state parks, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources DNR partnered with three organizations, the Iowa Walking Club, the Nebraska Wander Freunde Trailblazers, and Iowa Parklands, to create 5k and 10k walking routes in 20 Iowa state parks. Maps and directions are free and available for download at https://www.iowadnr.gov/20walks. The 5k and 10k walks are intended for visitors to explore on their own or with a small group. Route starting points are marked with a Walk Box containing free maps, along with supplies for walking club members to submit donations as part of their membership. Walkers who are not members may use the maps and enjoy the walking routes as a free service for the 100th anniversary celebration.

The Iowa Walking Club and Nebraska Wander Freunde Trailblazers are non-profit organizations dedicated to physical fitness for all ages through long-distance walking and encourage social connections through membership. Both organizations are part of the American Volkssport Association. Iowa Parklands is an Iowa-based company that creates state park-themed maps and merchandise. Parks included in 20 Walks in 2020 are:

• Beeds Lake
• Big Creek
• Geode
• Lake Anita
• Lake Darling
• Lake Macbride
• Lake Manawa 
• Lake of Three Fires
• Ledges
• Lewis and Clark
• McIntosh Woods
• Mines of Spain
• Palisades-Kepler
• Pikes Peak
• Pilot Knob
• Prairie Rose 
• Stephens State Forest
• Stone
• Volga River
• Waubonsie 

DES MOINES, IA – This week, more facilities are open in Iowa state parks according to the Governor’s proclamation. Here is a list of openings for the week of June 1:

• Lodges and shelter reservations can be made on the DNR’s park reservation system for June 6 and after. Groups are limited to 50 percent capacity of the facility and must follow social distancing protocols. To make a reservation, visit: https://iowastateparks.reserveamerica.com/
• Playgrounds are open, but user discretion is advised. Playgrounds will not be sanitized.
• Youth and group camps are open. Groups are limited to 50 percent capacity of the facility and must follow social distancing protocols.
• Some events are now able to take place with social distancing protocols. Please check iowadnr.gov/parks2020 for event updates.
• Campgrounds are now open to visitors of overnight campers.

State park museums and visitor centers have varying plans to re-open, depending on staffing and ability to implement social distancing protocols:

• Backbone State Park, Dundee – the CCC Museum at Backbone is closed until further notice.
• Bellevue State Park, Bellevue – The visitor center is closed until further notice.
• Cedar Rock State Park, Quasqueton – the Wallace Estate home will open June 3, offering tours on a reservation-only basis. Masks are encouraged and groups will be limited to 9 or less. For more details, visit http://www.friendsofcedarrock.org/
• Lewis and Clark State Park, Onawa – The visitor center will open June 8 with limited hours – Tuesdays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to noon.
• Loess Hills State Forest, Pisgah – The visitor center will open by June 10. Visit https://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Forests/Loess-Hills-State-Forest for hours.
• Maquoketa Caves State Park, Maquoketa – the Sager’s Museum is closed until further notice.
• Mines of Spain State Recreation Area, Dubuque – The EB Lyons Nature Center is closed until further notice. Look for updates at https://www.minesofspain.org/visitorcenter/
• Wildcat Den State Park, Muscatine – the Grist Mill is closed at least through June as the Friends Group determines its ability to provide staffing. The Melpine School will be closed for the 2020 season. Find updates on the Friends Group Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Pine-Creek-Grist-Mill-181915185162487/

According to DNR park staff, many visitor centers and museums are run by volunteer groups with people in higher-risk health groups, which limits ability to re-open. For more details on park alerts and updates, visit: www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Parks/Alerts-and-Closures

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) — Former Third District Congressman David Young has cleared the first hurdle in his bid to regain a seat in the U-S House. Young easily defeated challenger Bill Schafer in Tuesday’s Republican primary, winning just under 70-percent of the vote, to set up a rematch with Incumbent Democrat Cindy Axne. Young — who served as the district’s representative from 2014-2018 — lost a bid for a third term to Axne in 2018. Since then, Young says Axne has misled voters. “Back in 2018, she ran as a moderate, ran as a common sense candidate and mainstream,” said Young. “But, she has just followed the line of the left really hard and votes 98% of the time with Nancy Pelosi. She’s not who she said she was going to be. We are ready to take this seat back and lead again for this district.”

In the 2018 matchup, Young fell 2.2% short in the race. Young won 15 of the 16 counties in the district, but Axne held a large majority in Polk County — the largest county in the district. Young says the COVID-19 pandemic has forced his campaign mostly online for the time being. “We’re wired to be together,” said Young. “We want to be together, and we need to be. We have to be conscious of COVID-19. It is serious, but I believe that we can do both: get back to work and protect one another.”

As he pivots towards the general election, Young says he feels his past record in Congress aligns with the values of the district. “We are not for raising taxes and high amounts of government regulation that chokes our economy,” said Young. “My opponent is a regulator. She wants to repeal the tax relief that was given a few years ago by President Trump and the Republican Congress and that means raising taxes on Iowans.” Prior to serving in Congress, Young was chief of staff for long-time Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and served as chief of staff for Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning prior to that.

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) says in their most recent COVID-19 dashboard report, there were four more deaths from the virus over the past 24 hours, for a total of 564. and 61 new cases, for a total of 20,017. Officials said also, 164,139 Iowans have been tested for COVID-19, while 11,890 have recovered. Iowans who have tested negative for the virus, number 143, 691. Those figures, and the number of persons hospitalized due to COVID-19, continue to remain relatives flat since an apparent peak around May 6th.

IDPH reports 314 are currently hospitalized with the virus, while 116 are listed in intensive care. There were 15 persons admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours and 76 patients on ventilators. IDPH also reports one more LTC outbreak, for a total of 42. There have been 1,595 positive cases, with 764 recovered and 283 deaths. The numbers continue to remain flat with increased testing.

The Region 4 Regional Medical Coordinator Center – covering hospitals in western/southwest Iowa – (RMCC) reports 10 Iowans are hospitalized, 8 are in an ICU, none were admitted over the past 24-hours, and 2 are on ventilators. Those numbers continue a downward trend. Here are the latest county-by-county numbers for Cass & surrounding Counties (with the number recovered in parenthesis) and a 24-hour change marked by an *:

• Cass: 12 (11)
• Adair: 9 (6)* [1 more recovered than Tuesday]
• Adams: 7 (4)
• Audubon: 13 (8)* [1 more positive case]
• Guthrie: 53 (30)
• Montgomery: 8 (6)
• Pottawattamie: 274 (172)* [2 more positive cases/3 more recovered]
• Shelby: 37 (31)

While most eyes in Iowa during the Primary Election were on State races, there were also a handful of locally contested races in Cass and surrounding counties, with the winners advancing to the November General Election. In Cass County, incumbent Republican District 4 Supervisor Steve Baier of Griswold, defeated fellow Republican challenger Travis Erickson, from Cumberland, 236-to 89. In the Republican race for Supervisor/District 5, Bernard Pettinger, of Anita, handily defeated challenger Linda Reineke, of Massena, 182-to 92. Current District 5 Supervisor Frank Waters is not running for re-election.

In Audubon County, in the Republican race for two Supervisor At-Large seats, incumbents Todd M. Nelson and Rick Thompson were the winners, with 448 and 418 votes, respectively. Challengers Duane Deist and Louis J. Wanninger, Jr., garnered 287 and 168 votes, respectively.

In Montgomery County, incumbent Republican District 3 Supervisor Bryant Amos lost to challenger Randy Cooper, by a vote of 235-to 196. In Pottawattamie County, Brian Shea and Tim Wichman garnered the most votes out of five candidates, to take the two At-Large seats on the Board of Supervisors. And, Andy Brown was the winner for Pottawattamie County Sheriff, with 3,415 votes to challengers Rob Ambrose’ 2,588 and Danielle Bentzinger’s 1,732.

And finally, in Shelby County, the two At-Large seats on the Board of Supervisors will be filled by Steve Kenkel and Charles Parkhurst, who were not challenged for those seats.

Voter turnout across the immediate listening area averaged 25.4%, with the highest turnout of 32.5% being among voters in Montgomery County.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Longtime Rep. Steve King has been ousted in Iowa’s Republican primary after being ostracized by party leaders for comments about white nationalism. State Sen. Randy Feenstra won the five-way race Tuesday after he argued the nine-term conservative Republican had cost the district a voice in Congress by losing his committee assignments over comments in a 2018 New York Times story that seemed to defend white nationalism.

Randy Feenstra

King has a long record of incendiary comments about immigrants and white supremacy. Feenstra becomes the heavy favorite to win in the district, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by roughly 60,000. He faces Democrat J.D. Schoulten, who lost by 2 percentage points to King in 2018.