Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 4:55 a.m. CST

DES MOINES (AP) — Iowa is reporting more than 2,000 new cases of COVID-19. The Des Moines Register reports the state announced another 2,369 confirmed cases Saturday. There have been more than 242,000 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic first hit Iowa. At least 2,665 people have died, including 62 more deaths reported by the state Saturday. One Sioux City, Iowa church has been hit particularly hard. The Sioux City Journal reports that 18 members of Morningside Lutheran Church have died from COVID-19.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A former Iowa newspaper reporter and his wife have left a $3 million estate for local causes. The Quad-City Times on Saturday reported the paper’s former reporter John Willard and his wife Carol donated the estate to the Quad-Cities Community Foundation. Interest from the $3 million estate will be divided evenly between nine organizations each year. The foundation’s CEO says that’s about $15,000 per organization based on current interest rates. Money will go to a local public library, animal shelter and other groups. Willard worked for the newspaper for more than three decades.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — After facing a workforce shortage for months, Iowa has awarded an emergency $2.3 million contact-tracing contract to a company owned by a Republican Party insider. The Iowa Department of Public Health selected Iowa City-based MCI for the contract out of 14 companies that applied, saying it submitted the best proposal and that political considerations did not play a role. The company is expected to supply 200 contact tracers to supplement the hundreds of public health workers who have failed to keep up with Iowa’s fast-growing virus caseload. The first 60 graduated training and were beginning state work Friday. MCI is owned by GOP donor Anthony Marlowe, and has done work for President Donald Trump and Gov. Kim Reynolds’ political campaigns.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Deaths from the coronavirus in Iowa have reached their highest level since the beginning of the pandemic. The Iowa Department of Public Health said Friday that 84 more residents were reported dead from the virus, a one-day high for the second straight day after recording 70 deaths Thursday. Before Friday, the state of 3.1 million people has been averaging between 25 and 30 daily virus-related deaths for weeks. Their total since the beginning of the pandemic surged past 2,600 on Friday. The rapid rise in deaths comes after the state’s caseload peaked in mid-November, overwhelming hospitals.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A former Iowa newspaper reporter and his wife have left a $3 million estate for local causes. The Quad-City Times on Saturday reported the paper’s former reporter John Willard and his wife Carol donated the estate to the Quad-Cities Community Foundation. Interest from the $3 million estate will be divided evenly between nine organizations each year.

The foundation’s CEO says that’s about $15,000 per organization based on current interest rates. Money will go to a local public library, animal shelter and other groups. Willard worked for the newspaper for more than three decades.

Two adults and a child died in a crash early Saturday morning, in Polk County. The Iowa State Patrol reports the crash happened at around 12:50-a.m. on Interstate 80 eastbound, near mile marker 141, near Adventureland. Officials say a 2002 VW Golf driven by 28-year old Gustabo Salcedo, of Des Moines, entered I-80 from the 142 interchange going westbound, in the eastbound lanes.

The car struck a 2021 Freightliner semi tractor head-on. Salcedo, and his passengers, 24-year old Diana Sanchez-Tello, and a one-year old child, both from West Des Moines, died at the scene. The woman and child were not wearing seat belts. The driver of the semi was not injured.

The crash remains under investigation.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors will meet in-person and electronically via Zoom, beginning at 9-a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9th.  During their session, the Board will hold a Public Hearing concerning the status of expenditure funding the County received for COVID-19 response. According to Auditor Dale Sunderman, the County, working with the Cass County Food Policy Council, SWITA, County Food Pantries, and Public Health, increased its capacity with a food delivery system and food access in Cass County, through an $86,580 Community Development Bloc Grant (CDBG). As of Nov. 16th, $76,086.63 had been expended.

The Board will also hold a Public Hearing on County Ordinance 37: Adoption of Cass County Code – a re-compiling of county ordinances, in accordance with the Code of Iowa. They are also set to receive a report from the Cass County Committee on Aging, and will act on accepting the resignation of a member of the Cass County (elected officers) Compensation Board, followed by the appointment to the Compensation Board member for the remainder of a four-year term ending June 30, 2021.

In other business, the Cass County Supervisors will discuss and/or act on the establishment of Deputy Sheriff classification, and, a Natural Conservation and Wildlife Areas Property Tax Exemption, per Iowa Code. The in-person part of their meeting for a limited number of attendees (including Board members), will be held in the Supervisor’s Board room at the Cass County Courthouse.