DES MOINES – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Thursday (today) announced that Iowa State Patrol officers will be deployed to the U.S. Southern Border to aid law enforcement and border security efforts. The governor is responding to a request from Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC).  She says “My first responsibility is to the health and safety of Iowans and the humanitarian crisis at our nation’s southern border is affecting all 50 states. The rise in drugs, human trafficking, and violent crime has become unsustainable. Iowa has no choice but to act, and it’s why I am honoring Texas’ Emergency Management Assistance Compact following assurances from the Iowa Department of Public Safety that it will not compromise our ability to provide all necessary public safety services to Iowans.”

In May, there were roughly 180,000 border encounters, a 20 year high. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in March of 2021 there was a 233% increase in fentanyl seizures from the previous year. In May, that year over year increase climbed to 300%. In Iowa, law enforcement officials are recovering drugs, illegal narcotics, and weapons being smuggled across the nation’s southern border by drug cartels.

According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety, in the first quarter of 2021, Iowa saw the highest amounts of methamphetamine seized in any one quarter since 2018. Compare that to May of 2020 when both the purity and seizure of methamphetamine dropped significantly when the border was completely closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. As for Fentanyl, Iowa saw 532 grams seized in January – May of 2020. Over that same time period in 2021, roughly 6,641 grams of Fentanyl was seized, an increase of roughly 1,148%.

The Iowa National Guard (ING) is also currently conducting a mission with 24 soldiers from the Unit 2/34 IBCT to assist law enforcement agencies at the southern border, per an October 2020 request from the federal government under Title 10 active duty mobilization orders.  On June 10, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey formally requested law enforcement support from all 50 states. This request was made through Iowa’s existing EMAC, a national interstate mutual aid agreement that enables states to share resources during a disaster. More information about EMAC can be found here.

The state of Iowa joins Florida, Nebraska, and Idaho, in sending law enforcement to the southern border to assist Texas and Arizona.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a deal to buy Covid-19 test kits that can be used by Iowans at home, but a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Public Health says details of how to get those kits will be released in the coming weeks. The governor told reporters she signed the contract to buy the test kits on Tuesday. “So they will be in place as we phase out Test Iowa, which our numbers are just down to nothing right now,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds did not disclose the purchase price. The first drive through Test Iowa sites were established in late April of last year as Covid cases began to spike here. By THIS spring, just five state-run testing sites remained. The Council Bluffs site closed yesterday (Wednesday).The site in Cedar Rapids will close at the end of testing late this (Thursday) afternoon and the Waterloo Test Iowa location is closing Friday at 4 p.m. On Friday, July 16th, the final two locations in Davenport and Des Moines will close for good. The governor says the State Hygienic Lab will be involved in distributing the at home test kits for Covid 19.

“They’ll be available for anyone and there’s no preconceived conditions that quality and so we’re just moving to a better system to implement with the numbers that are going down with Test Iowa,” Reynolds says. “It doesn’t make sense to keep that infrastructure in place.”

One-hundrd-10 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed by tests reported to the state yesterday (Wednesday) and about 47 percent of eligible Iowans are fully vaccinated. In some rural counties, fewer than one in three residents are vaccinated and some medical professionals fear more contagious variants of the virus may already be circulating. Reynolds says a majority of Iowa adults statewide have had at least one dose of vaccine and she does not plan to offer the kind of incentives or prizes governors in some other states are offering to fully vaccinated residents. “We’re doing well,” Reynolds says. “I’m really proud of where we’re at and we’re just going to continue to talk about the importance of it.”

Iowa’s vaccination rate ranks 22nd among the states, with more than one-point-four million Iowans fully vaccinated according to the state’s website.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports five recent arrests and two accidents of interest.

• On a little before 1-a.m. Wednesday, June 23rd, 29-year-old Keith Patrick Schreck, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at Ebaugh and Locust Avenues. Schreck was taken into custody for two counts Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and Possession of Contraband in a Correctional Institution. His bond was set at $7,000.
• Tuesday evening, 34-year-old William Dean Meredith, of Glenwood, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant for Violation of Probation. His bond was set at $2,000.
• On Sunday, June 20th…36-year-old Clifford Duane Doyle, of Glenwood, was arrested at a residence on Garfield Lane, for Domestic Abuse Assault. He was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond; At around 5:15-a.m. Sunday, 21-year-old Major Alexander Fisher, of Tabor, was arrested at a location on Nims Road in Mills County, on charges that include Obstruction of Emergency Communications, False Report in a 911 call, and Interference with Official Acts; and, at around 2-a.m. Sunday, 46-year-old David James Duncan, of Glenwood, was arrested in the area of 225th and Gillens Court, for Assault/Willful Injury. His bond was set at $5,000.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office says also, a Shenandoah woman suffered minor injuries early Tuesday morning, when the 2015 Buick she was driving struck a deer on southbound Highway 59. 65-year-old Jo Beck was transported by Malvern Rescue to the Shenandoah Hospital. On June 18th, the operator of a 2008 Harley Davidson motorcycle, 33-year-old Dustin Barrett, of Nebraska City, NE., suffered unknown injuries, after the cycle went through a T-intersection, and into a corn field. The accident happened at around 9:50-p.m. at the intersection of 315th Street and Gaston Avenue.

Authorities say Barrett was northbound on 315th and approaching the intersection with Gaston Avenue. Due to the darkness, and his unfamiliarity with the area, Barrett didn’t know he was approaching the T-intersection, and was unable to stop in-time. He refused medical treatment at the scene. The motorcycle was determined to be a total loss.

The Iowa Department of Public Health’s Coronavirus Dashboard, Thursday morning, indicated there were 62 additional, positive cases of COVID-19 over the previous 24-hours, for a pandemic total of 404, 132. There were three additional deaths reported, for a statewide pandemic total at 6,120. Deaths at Iowa’s Long-Term Care facilities since the start of the pandemic, amount to 2,372.

Long-Term Care (LTC) facility outbreak data is essentially unchanged since Wednesday. Officials say there are a total of 26 positive cases among patients and staff at two facilities, and 11 persons who have recovered. Iowa’s 14-day positivity rate is steady at 2.1%. The seven-day positivity rate is also 2.1%.

There are a total of 57 Iowans hospitalized with COVID (Statewide). Health officials report 20 patients are in an ICU; seven COVID patients were admitted to a hospital, and 12 patients are on a ventilator. In RMCC Region 4 (hospitals in western & southwest Iowa), there is just one person hospitalized with COVID-19, and one person in an ICU.

In the immediate KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County (since the beginning of the pandemic) and the total number of deaths (Since the beginning of the pandemic) in each county to date:
Cass, 1,478 cases; 55 deaths
Adair, 996; 32
Adams, 356; 4
Audubon, 553; 11
Guthrie, 1,318; 32
Harrison County, 1,936; 73
Madison County, 1,790 19
Mills County, 1,808; 24
Montgomery, 1,116; 38
Pottawattamie County, 12,369;174
Shelby County, 1,379; 37
Union County, 1,382; 35

(Ames, Iowa/Iowa DOT News) – It’s not unusual to travel down an Iowa interstate alongside a semi loaded with livestock or poultry. Easy access to world-class transportation and an abundance of corn and soybeans grown here make Iowa ideally suited for raising these animals. What we don’t often see, but can be a real issue, is the aftermath when one of these livestock trucks crashes, tying up a busy highway for hours, delaying your trip and increasing the risk of secondary crashes in the area. The more people you have at a crash scene, the higher the risk.  These types of crashes often require the assistance of animal handlers and veterinarians who aren’t used to being alongside a busy highway in a stressful situation.

Other unusual tasks such as rounding up loose animals and constructing temporary holding pens may be needed and cause additional delays and complications at the crash site. If the first responders are not trained in how to deal with traffic crashes involving livestock, the risk to the people at the scene, the animals, and drivers near the incident increases. To help educate responders, the Iowa Pork Producers Association developed a webinar series highlighting specific challenges when a livestock carrier is involved in a crash. Jamee Eggers from the Iowa Pork Producers Association explained why the training was initiated.  “We recognized that crashes, especially roll-over crashes that involve livestock, can impact both public safety and animal welfare,” she said. “We developed this series that includes topics like animal handling and scene management to help responders understand what they might encounter. First responders aren’t typically trained animal handlers and animal handlers don’t typically understand traffic incident management. The more we can educate first responders on what to expect and who to contact, the safer we’ll all be in the event of an incident.”

(Photo via IADOT, courtesy Hitz Towing)

Because these incidents don’t happen regularly, Eggers said there really are no trends or consistency in response. “It’s particularly important in these types of crashes that responders have relationships with animal handlers and veterinarians so they can reach out quickly. Finding rescue trailers and other equipment is another topic we touch on in the series.” Bonnie Castillo who works with traffic incident management for the Iowa Department of Transportation said, “From a road user perspective, the cost of these incidents is very high because they often take several hours to clear. Much of that time is spent trying to find the resources to provide care for the animals involved. If we can get the word out to responders on who to contact, that will speed up clearance times, reducing the inconvenience and increasing safety to the other drivers on the road.” Castillo continued, “The responders are very well trained on dealing with human crash victims, but not necessarily livestock and especially animals that may be injured. Since these types of crashes tend to take hours to be removed, it’s critical that responders know who to call to care for the livestock that are involved, but also maintain the safety and  security of the crash scene.”

Bringing people to crash scenes who don’t have experience in traffic incident management or chain-of-command can be a challenge in and of itself. “In one of the sessions we go over basic scene management and chain-of-command,” said Eggers. “This helps responders explain these elements to animal handlers and others who are called to the scene who may have never been involved in an effort like this before.” Eggers says the response to the webinars has been very positive. “We used real-world examples that resonated with the attendees,” she said. “These examples generated a lot of great questions and allowed us to provide resources that folks may not have been aware of. The series started conversations between people who don’t typically interact, but the relationships are essential in an emergency situation.”

This training is also being considered as part of the Statewide Traffic Incident Management conference being planned for 2022. Castillo said exercises with Iowa DOT district staff, the Iowa State Patrol, and others are also in the planning stages as funding is available. Eggers said, “Iowa pig farmers prioritize both animal welfare and human safety. We appreciate this partnership with DOT to help address both issues.”

(Radio Iowa) – The new report from the Iowa Association of Realtors confirms it’s a sellers’ market. The Realtors’ report says multiple records were set for home sales in May. First, houses across the state were selling faster than usual, spending an average of 41 days on the market, which is 34-percent fewer than during May of last year. The number of homes sold rose by more than 11-percent compared to a year ago, while median sale prices were up more than eight-percent.

The median price last May was 184-thousand dollars versus 199-thousand this May. Also, since there’s such high demand, a record number of homes are selling well over the asking price.