(Radio Iowa) – The latest Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) quarterly survey shows a continued positive attitude despite some ongoing challenges. A-B-I president, Mike Ralston, says a majority see their businesses continuing to grow. “Seventy percent of them expect to see sales expand in the next quarter. And boy, that’s positive for them and positive for Iowa,” Ralston says. That is down from 79 percent in the last quarter, which Ralston says is due to a couple of ongoing issues.

“For decades now the primary issue facing Iowa employers and manufacturers too, is workforce, everybody is looking for more people,” Ralston says. “But now since the pandemic has struck — really the supply chain has become a big issue. Not only not being able to find stuff — but the cost or quality is in question when you can find items. So, it’s a real concern now.” Nearly 56 percent of businesses said they expect the number of employees in their business to grow — which is down from 72 percent in the previous quarter. Ralston says Iowa businesses haven’t sat back and waited on the supply issue. He says they have been proactive in identifying new sources of products and paying a little more if they have to, so they can have the material they need to make products.

Ralston says another key finding is that the number of businesses expecting to invest in their companies has only dropped by one percent from the last quarter. “Seventy-six percent of the respondents to the survey plan to make a capital expenditure in the next quarter. That’s just incredible and that’s a real testament to their view of where things are headed. That’s a pretty optimistic view,” Ralston says.

A-B-I says around half of its 15-hundred member companies are manufacturers.

(Radio Iowa) – The D-C-I says a man who was despondent about a medical condition was shot and killed by a Winnebago County Deputy Saturday at a residence in Thompson. The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office had received a 9-1-1 report of an assault at that residence. Upon arrival, Deputy Josh Douglas encountered 48-year-old resident James Anderson, who was armed with a loaded 9 millimeter handgun.

Anderson admitted the 91-1 call was a ruse and that there was no assault. Anderson refused to drop his handgun as officers negotiated with him for nearly ten minutes. Anderson pointed his weapon in the direction of officers and was shot one time. Anderson later died of his injuries.

AMES, Iowa —Iowa State University said it will suspend crew club activities for at least the 2021-2022 school year following two reviews of a fatal boating accident that killed two club members at Little Wall Lake. ISU crew club members Derek Nanni and Yaakov Ben-David died March 28 in the boating accident. KCCI reports separate reviews of the incident by the U.S. Council for Athletes Health and a committee of university personnel found the school’s implementation of health and safety policies for the club to be “deficient.”

The reviews found that the crew club experienced inadequate levels of health and safety oversight, training and support and that there was an “incomplete analysis of the relative risks and necessary safety considerations” for the club. Both reviews found that the university failed to establish effective oversight for the crew club, resulting in inadequate safety, but stated that club leadership and recreation services at the school failed to address known safety concerns.

Initial findings from both reviews listed health and safety standards that were not applied on March 28, including ignoring high wind speeds prior to activity, failing to respond to worsening weather, failing to deploy a safety launch boat and failure to provide proper safety and communication devices.

The reviews also found that two crew club members lacked the on-water experience necessary to practice in high wind and worsening weather. An email sent by the crew club to the university’s recreation services in February 2020 listed multiple safety concerns within the club, including the club’s lack of a launch boat. ISU told KCCI in April that the club struggled to obtain a launch boat due to fundraising issues.

The university listed several immediate actions it will take following the reviews, including the suspension of crew club activities until at least 2022. The school said it will conduct risk reviews of each of its sport clubs, implement policy revisions and analyze recommendations made by each review of the March 28 incident.

(Radio Iowa) – Police say a long-running fight over a lawn tractor led to the shooting death of a Des Moines woman. On Sunday night, a 9-1-1 caller expressed concern about a woman and police found 42-year-old Amber Burton of Des Moines dead of what was originally thought to be a stab wound.

An autopsy determined she died of a gunshot wound. Fifty-year-old Des Moines resident Nery Arnoldo Lopez Morales has been charged with the woman’s murder. Police say Morales and Burton had an ongoing dispute about the ownership of a lawn tractor and witnesses and surveillance video connected him to her death.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa Senate committee has dismissed complaints against Republican senators who voted to ban schools from requiring masks. Six Iowans accused G-O-P senators of violating Senate ethics rules by backing a ban that could put medically vulnerable students, staff and families at greater risk of getting Covid. Senate Republicans, in a written response, said voting for a bill isn’t an ethics violation.

Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque who voted against the bill, says she’s sympathetic to the concerns of parents — but Jochum says the Senate Ethics Committee isn’t the proper forum to resolve the issue. “Unfortunately I believe the remedy really is in a court of law,” Jochum says.

On Monday, a judge issued a temporary order that lets school districts require face masks be worn on school grounds until the lawsuit challenging Iowa’s ban on mask mandates is decided.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State Education Association president Mike Beranek says it is a welcome relief to have a federal judge issue an order that blocks Iowa’s ban on mask mandates in schools.  “The number is increasing of our students that are contracting the virus,” Beranek says, “and one of the best protocols that we could be utilizing here in the state is to be wearing masks.”

Beranek spoke during an online news conference shortly before a federal judge issued a temporary injunction barring enforcement of the law that has prevented schools from requiring people wear face coverings on school grounds. According to Beranek, more than 80 percent of school districts required students and staff to wear masks last year. Beranek says with the more contagious delta variant of Covid now circulating, the number of students testing positive for the virus is increasing.

“The number of students below 12 years of age that are contracting the virus is a concern since they do not have the ability to have a vaccine yet,” Beranek says. Beranek says the people in the best position to decide what is right for the health and safety of a school community are the people in that school district.

Governor Kim Reynolds signed the statewide ban on school mask mandates in May and she says the state will appeal the federal judge’s ruling. Reynolds says parents should decide whether their own children wear masks at school. House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, says the law took the necessary step to return decision-maker power to parents and the judge’s order strips parents of those freedoms.