(Radio Iowa) – Republican Governor Kim Reynolds says the bipartisan infrastructure spending plan that just cleared the U-S Senate is well-intentioned, but Reynolds says an extra one trillion dollars for infrastructure nationwide is a concern.  “We’re trying to take the money that we’re getting and really plug it into infrastructure — into water and sewer and bridges, so we have that opportunity to do that already with a lot of the money that’s coming in,” Reynolds says, “so I’m just concerned that this is another layer.”

Iowa’s two Republican U-S Senators split their votes on the plan. Chuck Grassley voted yes and Joni Ernst voted no. Reynolds made her comments Tuesday during a visit to Sioux Center, on the one-year anniversary of the derecho that swept through central and eastern Iowa. “I’m telling you that it’s hard to believe it’s been a year, but I can tell you without hesitation that I saw the goodness and just the tenacity and kindness of Iowans shine through in the middle of another disaster — in the middle of Covid-19,” Reynolds said, “and so Iowans have had quite a year and we’ve come through it in a really good position.”

Reynolds also made stops in Cherokee, Sheldon and Sibley yesterday (Tuesday).

Officials with the Pottawattamie County Department of Public Health report this week, they are seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases and local hospitalizations due to the emergent COVID-19 variant. As of Tuesday, August 10th, the 14-day positivity rate in Pott. County was 17.2%, which officials say is a significant jump from weeks prior.  Vaccines have shown to be one of the best methods of slowing the spread and severity of COVID-19. Vaccine clinics are available in Pottawattamie County every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 4-to7-pm, and on Saturday from 8-am too Noon. Vaccinations will be administered at the Veterans Affair Building in Council Bluffs (623 6th Ave.).

In addition, IDPH asks that residents limit activities that can potentially expose you or your family. If you are unvaccinated and are exposed to COVID-19, please follow standard guidance: quarantine at home, monitor your symptoms, and get tested if you notice a change in your health. Isolate if necessary. PCPH has home test kits available for pick up. Please call 712-242-1155 for an appointment.

PCPH recommends residents remain vigilant with mitigation methods. Continue to wear a mask and socially distance indoors, regardless of vaccination status, practice good hand washing, and stay at home if you are sick.

(Radio Iowa) – We are getting closer to having driverless vehicles cruising on the streets of Iowa. The state Transportation Commission approved the rules for automated vehicles at its meeting Tuesday. Daniel Yeh with the D-O-T says the rules apply to fully automated cars and trucks. “We know that there’s a lot of vehicles out there now that have what we would be called advanced driver assist systems — things like lane-keeping and automatic stopping, and even some of your advanced adaptive cruise controls. So, these proposals and these rules really don’t impact anything like that,” Yeh explains. The Iowa Legislature cleared the way for driverless vehicles in the last session, and this sets up some of the rules of the road. “What we’re looking at there is the potential to issue some restricted registrations to those types of vehicles just to make sure that they are not operating in scenarios that they might not be prepared for,” Yeh says.

He says some of the rules are pretty common sense. “For example, if you have a vehicle that is not designed to operate autonomously on gravel roads — we just want to reflect that in the registration. So that maybe when the vehicle is being directly operated by a human, it could be on a gravel road — but that it would be very clear to both us and the operator that the vehicle shouldn’t be operated in automated mode on a gravel road,” according to Yeh.  He says automated systems are being used — just not in Iowa yet. “There are live examples in other states of vehicles that carry passengers. Such as very short-distance and low-speed automated shuttles. There are vehicles that carry freight, typically small delivery,” Yeh says. “A very good example is the vehicle that is seen on the Domino pizza ads nationwide. That would be considered an automated freight vehicle.”

Yeh says it will be up to companies that use the vehicles to decide when they come to Iowa. “We just want to be ready. We don’t know for sure when a manufacturer, when an operator might call up and say ‘Hey we are ready, we think there is a good situation or perhaps a good market we want to tap into.’ So, we really just want to make sure that we’ve thought this through in advance,” he says.

The rules adopted by the Transportation Commission have to be published in September and the legislature’s Administrative Rules Committee will likely vote on them at its October meeting.

(Radio Iowa) – Today’s date is August 11th, or in numerical terms, eight-eleven. That means it’s time for Eight One One Day which is celebrated as a reminder by Tyler Jass at Iowa One Call as an important telephone number which homeowners need to remember. “The number to call is 811 to have any locates marked before you dig,” Jass says. “It is the law to call 811 at least 48 hours before any digging occurs, including Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays.”

The call and the service are free, but if you skip the call and damage a buried utility, you could face fines and expensive repair costs. Jass says the call center for Iowa One Call logged more than three-and-a-half million locate requests last year. “So, as you can tell, the construction industry has not been impacted by COVID,” Jass says. “If anything, it has gone up and we are seeing the results of that.”

Homeowners should contact Iowa One Call whenever they plan to excavate, whether it’s to put up a fence, plant a tree or for a large project like a deck or a home addition.

A woman wanted in Harrison County on a warrant for Theft in the 5th Degree, was arrested late Tuesday night, in Red Oak. According to Red Oak Police, 31-year-old Linsey Marie Williams, of Omaha, was arrested at around 10:40-p.m.  She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.