FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) — A judge has ordered DNA testing on a hat left at the scene of a fatal 1976 shooting that an Iowa inmate hopes will prove he has been wrongly imprisoned for decades. Judge John Wright ordered the hunting cap shipped to a Virginia laboratory for testing that could show whether Gentric Hicks or someone else was responsible for killing 28-year-old Jerry Foster at a Fort Madison motel.

Scientists will seek to extract genetic material from inside the cap to create a DNA profile that could be compared to Hicks. Results from the Bode Cellmark laboratory could be available in coming months. Iowa has never had an inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports three people were arrested, Monday. At around 8:30-p.m., a Deputy was dispatched to a residence on Cornelia Lane in Missouri Valley, for an assault between a father and his son. While the deputy was en route, he was advised the son was walking toward the DeSoto Avenue Mini-Mart. The deputy made contact with 19-year old Ethan Soderstrom, who had a visibly bloody nose and several scratches on his face. The deputy waited with him until Soderstrom’s mother arrived and then went tot the residence, where 44-year old Jeffrey Nichols Soderstrom was placed under arrest for Domestic Abuse Assault causing bodily injury/1st offense.

And, at around 4-p.m. Monday, a deputy served 21-year old Jordan Walter Love with a temporary protection order, in Council Bluffs. Another deputy made contact with Jordan and placed him under arrest for having an active warrant out of Pottawattamie County, for Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense, and Carrying a concealed weapon. 21-year old Julies Akeen WInston was arrested at the same location, for Carrying a Concealed Weapon.

WATERLOO, Iowa (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier) — A judge has upheld the city of Waterloo’s new law that bans many businesses from asking about applicants’ criminal records in the early stages of the hiring process. The Courier reports that Black Hawk County District Judge John Bauercamper sided with the city in a lawsuit by a business group that had challenged the so-call “ban-the-box” measure adopted last fall.

In its lawsuit, the Iowa Association of Business and Industry said the new measure violates a state law that prevents cities from adopting rules that exceed or conflict with federal or state law. But Bauercamper rejected that challenge, saying the city properly adopted the ordinance under its “home rule” authority under the Iowa Constitution.

Atlantic Public Library Director Michelle Andersen reports the library will offer another opportunity for library card-holders to check out new materials, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, this week. The material check out will take place similar to the curbside delivery offered in March, but Andersen says now, they are asking patrons to set an appointment to pick up materials in the reading garden.

Here are the rules:

• Patrons must request materials at least one day in advance of the day they wish to pick them up.
• Requests can be specific or general, but must include how many TOTAL items you would like.
• The policy of 4 DVD’s per account will continue.

Requests can be made through your online library catalog account, by e-mailing atlanticpubliclibrary@gmail.com, by calling 243-5466, or texting 712-201-3280. The Library staff will process your request and checkout to your account. Someone will then contact you to set up a pick-up appointment. Anyone who has reserves already waiting will be notified that they can set a pick-up appointment as well.

Grab & Go pick-up service will be available 11-a.m. to 5-p.m., Thursday and Friday (April 9-10), and 9-a.m. to 1-p.m. Saturday (April 11). At your scheduled time, walk into the garden, and your materials will be waiting for you. Please arrive at your scheduled time and maintain a six-foot social distance from staff. If you are sick, please do NOT come to pick up your materials. You can send someone else in your place.

Andersen says the Atlantic Public Library will re-evaluate this service on a weekly basis, and will follow recommendations from public health agencies. She says “We hope to offer some sort of materials checkout until the building is able to be open, but it may be discontinued at any time.”

(Radio Iowa) — In what may be the first cases of Iowans being penalized for violating state guidelines on the size of social gatherings, two people were charged at a weekend party in Storm Lake. Officers encountered a gathering in excess of 20 people at a Storm Lake apartment shortly after 4 am Sunday. Police secured the apartment and ultimately identified the tenant as 28-year-old Stephan Ali of Storm Lake. Ali was charged with allowing a gathering of ten or more persons, a simple misdemeanor.

Police further allege that after those that participated in the gathering were ordered to disperse, a female identified as 19-year-old Karla Rodriguez of Denison, returned to the apartment against officers orders. Rodriguez allegedly physically resisted officers as they were attempted to take her into custody, and she was ultimately subdued. Rodriguez was charged with Public Intoxication and Interference with Official Acts, both simple misdemeanors.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa State Fair is scheduled to start in 127 days. The annual event has been drawing over a million people to the fairgrounds in Des Moines for the past several years. Iowa State Fair secretary and C-E-O Gary Slater says it’s way too early to speculate about how COVID-19 may impact the event that starts August 13th. “Certainly we’ll have to make that decision prior to the fair, sometime in the summer,” Slater says. “But sometime within the next 70 to 90 days, I would guess.”

The fairgrounds were closed to the public in mid-March as Governor Reynolds started issuing orders to businesses to close. The World Pork Expo that was to be held on the fairgrounds in June has been cancelled. Slater says he’s monitoring COVID-19 developments on a daily basis. “I think it’s a touch-and-go situation in the next couple of weeks as to how quickly the state can get back to any sense of normal,” Slater says.

The last time the Iowa State Fair was cancelled was during World War II. The state fairgrounds were used as a military supply depot between 1942 and 1945. Slater posted a message on the Iowa State Fair’s website on Friday. Slater wrote that while there may be some changes related to COVID-19 protocols, he believes in uncertain times like these people will need the reassurance of State Fair traditions this summer.

Creston Police says a resident reported Monday morning, that her fathers home located at 1105 W. Adair, in Creston, had recently been broken into and vandalized. China was reported to have been destroyed. The loss was estimated at $200

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Atlantic School Board will once again hold an electronic school board meeting, when they gather 6-p.m. Wednesday, for their regular session. The meeting will be accessible through YouTube at https://youtu.be/m1bRIXuEt-w. Persons who wish to comment during a Public Hearing on the Certified FY 20-21 Budget, will be directed to call 712-243-4252, during the hearing. If you have any questions, or, if you prefer to submit your comments in writing, please e-mail Sarah Sheeder at ssheeder@atlanticiaschools.org. The Public Hearing will be held prior to the start of the Board’s Regular Meeting. The District must submit its annual Certified Budget to the State, prior to April 15th. The Budget calls for a tax rate of $14.22 per thousand dollars of taxable assessed value, as compared to $14.72/$1,000, for the current school year (a reduction of 50-cents/$1,000).

During their regular meeting, the Atlantic School Board will discuss a Facility Project Update, the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) Needs Assessment Survey, and a Continuous Learning Plan, with regard to the Governor’s April 2nd directive. Action items on the agenda include:

• A Resolution Levying a tax for FY 2020-21 for the future optional redemption of General Obligation (G.O.) School Bonds, Series 2019. The amount of $195,000 will come from the Debt Service Fund.
• The Board will act to approve the 2020-21 Certified Budget.
• They are expected to act on approving Change Orders/Proposal Requests for the Athletic  Facilities Project, including:

1. Trojan Bowl Flag Poles: Reducing the number of poles from three, to one, 30-foot tall pole & installation. ($3,212.48 – which is actually a cost savings)
2. Softball Field Grading/Storm Drainage: Resolves a run-off issues from the hill on the softball diamond by removing the underground drainage, grading, sealing the inlet and running tile to the reservoir.
3. The installation of a Water Meter (based on a recommendation & requirement from AMU)
4. And a change in the cost associated with redesigning the Trojan Bowl Concession Stand Ticket Booth ($2,718.68)

Another action item pertains to a Pandemic Pay Resolution for: 1) Hourly/Non-Exempt Employees, and 2) Contracted/Salaried Employees. Approval would mean district employees will continue to receive regular and customary pay, through April 30th.

(Radio Iowa) — Officials are advising Iowa nursing homes to take additional steps to protect residents and staff. COVID-19 outbreaks have been confirmed in nursing homes in Linn, Washington and Tama Counties. Sarah Reisetter, the deputy director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, says ALL Iowa nursing homes have been encouraged to screen every resident for fever and cough or breathing problems daily.

“If residents do become ill, those residents may worsen on day 7 to 8 of their symptoms,” Reisetter says. Every Iowa nursing home is urged to have a plan for who to call and how to transfer a resident who needs hospital care. Reisetter says there are new guidelines for nursing home staff, too.

“We are asking employees to use face masks and eye protection at all times for all resident care,” Reisetter says. “…We’ve asked them to consider gown and glove use at all times for all resident care to the extent the (personal protective equipment) is available, but certainly at facilities where outbreaks are being experienced.”

No visitors have been allowed inside Iowa nursing homes since March 10th, unless it’s an ‘end of life’ circumstance for a resident that’s NOT related to COVID-19. All staff must have their temperature taken at the beginning and end of their shifts.  “We’ve asked them to identify any other health care facilities where staff work, including recommendations that staff not work in other facilities, if possible,” Reisetter says, “and, at a minimum if they do need to work, to use a face mask and eye protection for all patient care in any health care setting where they may be working.”

Reisetter says state officials are making other recommendations, like moving residents who have COVID-19 symptoms to a single room and ensuring staff who care for them are not interacting with other nursing home residents. “So that dedicated staff are working with ill residents and not with health residents,” Reisetter says. There are more than 440 long term care facilities in Iowa.

Ten percent of all the Iowans who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 are either a nursing home resident or employee and nearly half of the Iowans who have died of COVID-19 have been nursing home residents.