Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The number of Iowa residents who have tested positive for the new coronavirus has climbed to 44. The number of positive cases was up from 38 on Wednesday and followed Gov. Kim Reynolds’ order earlier in the week for restaurants, bars and other public gathering spots to close for two weeks. Speaking Thursday at a news conference, Reynolds and Dr. Caitlin Pedati, the state public health medical director, declined to give specifics about whether there were enough testing kits or protective equipment for health care workers. Instead, they emphasized the need to take simple actions that would slow the spread of the disease.

WEBSTER CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa authorities have identified a man shot to death earlier this week as he held a woman hostage, as well as the troopers involved in the shooting. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said in a news release Thursday that 35-year-old Darwin Barnett Foy, of Fort Dodge, was killed by troopers Monday afternoon in Webster City. The three Iowa State Troopers involved were Sgt. James Smith and Troopers Tyrel Williamson and Jeremy Schaffer. The Iowa Public Safety Department says Foy was shot hours after officers responded to a woman’s 911 call. Officials say Foy had threatened to shoot the woman when the troopers went into the home and shot him.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska man who was fired upon by a Sioux City officer has been convicted of several charges. The Sioux City Journal reports that a judge found Douglas St. Cyr guilty of assault on a police officer, leaving the scene of an accident and guilty of several other crimes. The nonjury trial was held Nov. 5, and the judge filed the verdicts Monday. Police have said St. Cyr rammed the undercover officer’s car on July 31 and fled. The officer fired at St. Cyr but missed him and three other people in the car.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The civil service commission in Cedar Rapids has upheld the firing of a police officer who’d pleaded guilty to drunken driving. The Gazette reports that the commission Monday affirmed the firing of 29-year-old Austin Mensen. Police Chief Wayne Jerman fired Mensen on Sept. 24 last year. Anamosa police arrested Mensen early in the morning of May 27 last year, and he later pleaded guilty to drunken driving, second offense. Mensen’s attorney says Mensen had diagnosed, work-related disabilities from responding to shootings. He says Mensen is weighing further action.

(Radio Iowa) — Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Iowa Department of Transportation is making a series of concessions for the state’s motorists which have never been made before. For starters, D-O-T spokeswoman Andrea Henry says extensions are being granted for anyone whose driver’s license should have been renewed in the past two months.

“If your driver’s license has been expired from anytime between January 16th to the end of this disaster period, you will not be docked for an expired license,” Henry says. “If you get pulled over, even if your license is expired, they’re going to consider it valid for driving purposes.”

The D-O-T is also forgiving motorists whose vehicle title, registration or license plates have expired since mid-January. “Until the end of the disaster, you’re still okay,” Henry says. “If you’ve purchased a new vehicle or are transferring a vehicle, you’re not required to obtain a title or registration within that 30-day period that you normally would, or if you purchased it from a dealership, normally it’s 45 days, that’s all waived until this disaster is over.”

If you want to renew or get a new license or I-D, all business at Iowa D-O-T service centers is now being done through appointment only. Henry says it’s an effort to limit the number of people waiting in any one location at a time. “We’re really trying to practice strong social distancing so we’re trying to reduce the number of people in our service centers,” Henry says. “If someone does show up and they don’t have an appointment, we’ll do our best to serve them, but if there are a lot of people in the facility, we may ask them to come back later or we may ask them to wait in their cars until we can serve them.”

D-O-T staff members have been advised on how close they should get to customers, even when doing a vision screening. “They’ll do their best to keep a distance from the customer and we are sanitizing those machines between every customer,” Henry says, “as well as high-touch areas like counters, door knobs and other locations like that are being sanitized on a much more frequent basis.”

All customers who visit a D-O-T service center will be asked a series of questions to evaluate their risk of exposure to COVID-19. For now, the D-O-T is halting and rescheduling all non-commercial driving tests.

For appointments, visit: https://iowadot.gov/mvd/other-appointments

WEBSTER CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa authorities have identified a man shot to death earlier this week as he held a woman hostage, as well as the troopers involved in the shooting. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said in a news release Thursday that 35-year-old Darwin Barnett Foy, of Fort Dodge, was killed by troopers Monday afternoon in Webster City.

The three Iowa State Troopers involved were Sgt. James Smith and Troopers Tyrel Williamson and Jeremy Schaffer. The Iowa Public Safety Department says Foy was shot hours after officers responded to a woman’s 911 call. Officials say Foy had threatened to shoot the woman when the troopers went into the home and shot him.

BULLETIN – EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
Severe Thunderstorm Warning
National Weather Service Omaha/Valley Nebraska
438 PM CDT Thu Mar 19 2020

The National Weather Service in Omaha has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for…
Southeastern Montgomery County in southwestern Iowa…

* Until 515 PM CDT.

* At 437 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Villisca, or
13 miles west of Corning, moving northeast at 40 mph.

HAZARD…Tennis ball size hail.

SOURCE…Radar indicated.

IMPACT…People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect
damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles.

* Locations impacted include…
Villisca, Stanton and Viking Lake State Park.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A Tornado Watch remains in effect until 1100 PM CDT for southwestern
Iowa.

This storm is producing large hail. SEEK SHELTER NOW inside a sturdy
structure and stay away from windows!

The deadline to file nomination papers for the Nov. 3rd General Election, is fast approaching. Candidates must submit their nomination papers to your Auditor’s Office by the end of business, Friday. In Cass County, all candidates need to call 712-243-4570 to set up a time to file their papers at the courthouse before 5-p.m., due to the fact the courthouse is closed to the public.

There are still three candidates needed for the Cass County Soil & Water Conservation District, which is a non-partisan post. Four people are needed to file for the Agricultural Extension Council. The filing deadline for that office is August 26, 2020.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (March 19, 2020) — Hy-Vee, Inc. announced today (Thursday), additional changes to its operations in response to the evolving coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Effective Friday, March 20, customers will no longer be allowed to bring in reusable bags until further notice since it is difficult to monitor their cleanliness. Because it is not always easy to know the sanitization procedures customers are taking at their homes to keep the bags clean, this is one more way the grocer is helping prevent the spread of the virus.

Customers also will start seeing temporary window panels installed at checkouts to help provide an additional layer of protection for both our employees and customers.

These panels are being installed at the checkout, as this is the point in the store visit where customers and employees are in the closest contact. In the aisles or at our service counters, customers and employees have more flexibility in placing distance between themselves but the setup of the checkout limits that ability. These panels are in place in our Des Moines-area stores, and will be installed in all other Hy-Vee locations over the next few days.

“The spread of this virus is asking us all to take extraordinary measures and change the way we live our lives,” said Randy Edeker, Hy-Vee’s chairman, CEO and president. “We are continuing to adapt at Hy-Vee so that we can serve our customers and keep everyone in our stores as safe and healthy as possible.”

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) has been notified of 6 additional positive cases of Iowans with COVID-19, for a total of 44 positive cases. 642 negative tests have been conducted at the State Hygienic Lab.

According to IDPH, three individuals reside in Polk County, one adult 19-40, one middle aged adult 41-60, and one older adult 61-80.  One adult 19-40 living in Muscatine County, one middle aged adult 41-60 living in Dubuque County; and one adult 19-40 living in Johnson County is an adult in. Two additional non-residents of Iowa tested positive at Iowa healthcare facilities for COVID-19.

The Iowa Department of Homeland Security said also, there are several RUMORS that need to be addressed with regard to the COVID-19 outbreak:

1. The Governor is NOT announcing a 15 day shelter in place recommendation at her press conference today as you may have heard from an email that came from the Secretary of State office.

2. The National Guard is NOT being called up to close interstates, borders or anything else in Iowa.

AMES, Iowa – March 19, 2020 – The Iowa Department of Transportation is requesting public input on the proposed replacement of the U.S. 30 bridge over the stream located 2.3 miles east of Harrison County Road F-32, and the proposed detour route.

The proposed project provides for removing the existing 50-foot by 30-foot steel girder and floor beam bridge and replacing it with a single span, 80-foot by 44-foot beam bridge. This bridge will be constructed using accelerated bridge construction (ABC) methods, where the bridge will be constructed off-site and will then be slid into place once the existing bridge is removed. This method was chosen to expedite the project and reduce the amount of time the road is closed. For more information, please go to www.iowadot.gov/pim to view a video showing an example of how the ABC process works.

Through traffic on U.S. 30 would be detoured during construction using Harrison County Road F-32, Iowa 191, and Iowa 37. The closure would be approximately two weeks in length to allow for the removal of the existing bridge and slide the new bridge into its place. Local traffic will have access to U.S. 30 during construction.

For general information regarding the proposed improvements or public meeting, contact Scott Suhr, transportation planner, Iowa DOT District 4 Office, 2210 E. Seventh Street, Atlantic, Iowa 50022, phone 712-243-3355 or 800-289-4368, email scott.suhr@iowadot.us.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new survey of bankers in rural parts of 10 Plains and Western states suggests they expect the economy to slow down over the next few months as the nation deals with the coronavirus outbreak. The overall index for the region fell to 35.5 in March from February’s healthy 51.6 reading. Any score below 50 suggests a shrinking economy. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss said 61 percent of the bankers surveyed expect the measures being taken to fight the coronavirus to lead to a recession.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

Des Moines, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Revenue today (Thursday), extended the filing and payment deadline for several state tax types, including income tax. The changes, prompted by COVID19, are designed to provide flexibility to hard-working Iowans whose lives have been disrupted. The changes are a result of an order signed by Director of Revenue Kraig Paulsen. The order extends filing and payment deadlines for income, franchise, and moneys and credits taxes with a due date on or after March 19, 2020, and before July 31, 2020, to a new deadline of July 31, 2020.

Specifically, the order includes:

IA 1040 Individual Income Tax Return and all supporting forms and schedules
IA 1040C Composite Return and all supporting forms and schedules
IA 1041 Fiduciary Return and all supporting forms and schedules
IA 1120 Corporation Income Tax Return and all supporting forms and schedules
IA 1120F Franchise Tax Return for Financial Institutions and all supporting forms and schedules
IA 1065 Iowa Partnership Return and all supporting forms and schedules
IA 1120S S Corporation Return and all supporting forms and schedules
Credit Union Moneys and Credits Tax Confidential Report