Des Moines, Iowa — Data released today (Friday) by the Iowa Department of Public Health shows the state is headed in the wrong direction on the spread of COVID-19. There were 8,047 positive tests in the last week, up from 7,616 at last report on Wednesday. The state’s 14-day positivity rate climbed from 8.9% to 9.2%. That number has been increasing for about two weeks.

Hospitalization numbers have declined. There are 487 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, down from 524 on Wednesday. Of those hospitalized with COVID-19, 75.8% are unvaccinated, while 87.1% of those listed in intensive care with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. There have been 3,895,495 vaccine doses administered in Iowa, with 68.3% of those 18 and older fully vaccinated, and 71% of those 13 and older with at least one dose.The number of long-term care facilities reporting a virus outbreak dropped from 29 to 26 since Wednesday.

IDPH provides new COVID-19 data every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Altoona, Iowa — Greenfield Artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen announced Thursday night, the location of his soon to be 100th and final mural on the Freedom Rock Tour in Iowa. His official “Freedom Rock” Facebook page said the site will be Adventureland Park, in Altoona. When completed, the boulder will wrap up Sorensen’s tour of the state, painting a Freedom Rock in all of Iowa’s 99 counties, plus the bonus rock in Polk County. Sorensen says he hopes to have the Adventureland Freedom Rock completed by July 4, 2022.

Ray Sorsensen and his wife Maria at Adventureland, the site selected for the 100th Freedom Rock, in Iowa.

The chance to host the 100th Freedom Rock came during an online auction. The winning bid was $20,000. The rules said the winning town must not have had a Freedom Rock already. Proceeds from the sale will be divided between the TAPS and PuppyJake non-profit organizations.

DES MOINES ­– Iowa Third District Representative Cindy Axne is reminding Iowa parents who do not regularly file taxes and have not received a Child Tax Credit (CTC) payment, to sign up for 2021 payments before Monday’s deadline. Monday, November 15 is the last day for eligible non-filers to apply for monthly payments of up to $300 per child from the expanded Child Tax Credit. Eligible families can sign up for the monthly payments here. The expansion was approved by Rep. Axne and her colleagues in March through the American Rescue Plan, the most recent federal COVID-19 relief package.

Families are eligible for the expanded CTC if they have at least one child under the age of 18 and made up to $150,000 for a couple or $112,500 for a family with a single parent (also called Head of Household). Eligible families who do not sign up by the November 15 deadline can still claim the CTC through a 2022 tax filing.

Iowans with questions are encouraged to visit ChildTaxCredit.gov to learn more.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has taken the rare step of rejecting the candidates a commission had nominated to be a district court judge in northern Iowa. Reynolds sent a letter to the commission making nominations for the district court vacancy created when Judge Gina Badding of Carroll was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. Reynolds says she heard from several commission members that the judge who led the interview process had coached one candidate and made unprofessional and disturbing comments about others. Reynolds says her staff discovered Judge Kurt Stoebe of Humboldt also misled commission members by saying one applicant had withdrawn after being interviewed. That person adamantly denied that when contacted by the governor’s office. The commission is to reconvene November 18th and redo the entire process.

According the letter from Reynolds, the only other time nominees for an opening in DISTRICT court have been rejected happened during Governor Robert Ray’s tenure. In 2011, Governor Terry Branstad rejected a slate of candidates for Iowa SUPREME Court openings. The nominating commission reconvened and submitted a second set of names to Branstad. In Iowa’s process of filling openings in the judicial system, governors make appointments from the list of names submitted by judicial nominating commissions.