A prayer vigil will be held tonight (Tuesday night, Oct. 27th) at the Trojan Bowl, for an Atlantic teen who suffered a serious head injury during an accident Sunday afternoon near Anita, and remains in critical condition at the UNMC in Omaha. The event for 17-year-old Steele McLaren takes place at 7-p.m.  You are welcome to wear plaid and gray if you can, or any Trojan apparel. Since candles cannot used on the new FieldTurf, organizers ask you to use anything else that will provide solemn illumination, such as glowsticks and cell phone lights.

The hope is to light the field up for Steele, who is an Atlantic Trojan Football player with jersey number 32. Support and prayers for his family are coming in from many states away via #32Strong. In addition to the vigil, there is a benefit account set up for the family at Rolling Hills Bank and Trust, and bracelets with the words “Strong as Steele,” and “#32Strong” are being made available for $2 each, with all proceeds to benefit the family. The bracelets will be available Thursday, Oct. 28th, from 11-am until 1-p.m., and then again from 5-until 6-pm, in the Atlantic High School parking lot.

CAM Small Business Class designed stickers for Steele

Also, the CAM Small Business Class is selling decals to benefit Steele McLaren’s family. The decals are $5 each, and the proceeds will go to the family for each sticker purchased. To order your decal, email Mrs. Miller: smiller@cam.k12.ia.us.

And, Udderly Delicious in Atlantic will be grilling hamburgers and serving chips this Saturday, from 11-am to 1-pm, with your free-will donation benefiting the McLaren family. All donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to another family that has stepped forward to help out.

The Iowa Department of Public Health Tuesday (today, as of 10-a.m.), reports 22 more deaths have been attributed to COVID-19, for a total of 1,658, and, there have been 1,178 additional, positive test results for the virus processed through the labs, since 10-a.m. Monday (1 out of every 27 Iowans), for a pandemic total to-date, of 117,630.  Officials say 1,096 deaths involved persons with pre-existing medical conditions, and 820 have occurred at Long-Term Care facilities across the State, with 12 reported since 10-a.m. Monday. In western Iowa, Harrison county has four more deaths, for a total of 15, and Shelby County has one more death, for a total of two.

Health department data shows more Iowans are hospitalized with coronavirus now than at any other time during the pandemic. There are currently 564 hospitalized, up from a record of 561 the previous day. There were 78 patients admitted in the last 24 hours, up from 73 the previous day. There are 128 patients listed in intensive care, down from 129 the previous day. There are 46 patients on ventilators, up from 45 the previous day. The health department reports approximately 3,100 available hospital beds, with 400 ICU beds and 769 ventilators available.

Western/southwest Iowa hospitals report 39 patients hospitalized with COVID, 13 in an ICU, five have been admitted, and one remains on a ventilator. Long-Term Care facility data show: 70 outbreaks (4 more than on Monday); 2,030 LTC patients/staff tested positive; and 841 have recovered.

IDPH reports 943,995 Iowans have been tested for the virus. The state received 4,075 lab test results in the previous day, with 630 positive results. The state receives test results from prior days that add to the overall total. Iowa reports a 10.6% positivity rate over the last 14 days. There are 15 Iowa counties reporting a 14-day positivity rate greater than 15%, down from 17 the previous day. That means public schools in counties such as Cass, Harrison, Carroll, and Adams, can apply for a waiver to provide 100% online learning.

Area counties with a recent, notable increase in positive COVID-19 test results, include: Adair County, with nine new cases; Pottawattamie County has 16 new cases. In Cass County, the number of positive cases increased by one, to 391.

There are currently 70 long-term care facilities reporting COVID-19 outbreaks in Iowa, up from 67 the previous day. The state reports 2,030 positive cases and 841 recoveries within those facilities. There have been 820 deaths in Iowa’s long-term care facilities.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases in each county, along with the 24-hour change in case numbers {+#}; the number of persons recovered, and the total number of [deaths] (if any), since the pandemic began,

• Cass, 391 cases {+1}; 273 recovered; 3 deaths
• Adair, 171 {+9};73; 1
• Adams, 81 {+2}; 44; 0
• Audubon, 149 {+5}; 89; 1
• Guthrie, 396 {+4); 260; 15
• Harrison County, 660 {+4}; 291; 15
• Madison County, 364 {+4}; 255; 2
• Mills County, 408 {+3}; 204; 3
• Montgomery, 178 {+5}; 152; 7
• Pottawattamie County, 3,252 {+16]; 2,377; 44
• Shelby County, 374 {+2}; 332; 2
• Union County,  233 {+4}; 208; 4

(Radio Iowa) University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook has overruled a decision by the school’s student government and supreme court that denied a request for a campus chapter of the national Students for Life of America organization. President Nook’s ruling says the student government’s decision in the case was not “content-neutral and if not overturned would violate the group’s First Amendment rights.” The group’s organizer says student government leaders attacked fellow students for their pro-life views and denied a request for a new club based on their “personal support of abortion.”

Nook’s ruling says based on the review of the documents and recordings. the student Senate appears to have “denied recognition of the U-N-I Students for Life based on the content of the student organization’s viewpoint, speech and assumed potential activities.” Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins responded to the U-N-I decision. “Students for Life of American is very pleased that president Nook recognized the First-Amendment rights of pro-life students,” Hawkins says. “Clearly it’s viewpoint discrimination to say that pro-life students are a hate group because they hold different view on abortion than they do.” Hawkins says this should never have been an issue.”It’s very troubling that members of the U-N-I community weren’t willing to hear another point of view on what is literally an issue of life and death in this country,” according to Hawkins.

Hawkins says there should be open discussion — especially on a college campus. “Being pro-life in American is not something that needs to be shoved out of public view. It is a legitimate concern — and frankly — one that our students have every right to communicate,” Hawkins says. President Nook’s decision gives the U-N-I Students For Life chapter full recognition as a student organization on the Cedar Falls campus. That includes access to university facilities and services.

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest at around 11:15-p.m. Monday, of 41-year-old Meri Ellen Kling, from Red Oak. Kling was charged with Driving While Barred. She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley wore a face mask patterned after the Iowa flag last (Monday) night as he announced the Senate vote on President Trump’s third nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court

All but one of the Republican Senators who voted for Barrett clapped and cheered the announcement. Grassley is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate, so he is the Senate President Pro Tempore  and he was the Senate’s presiding officer last (Monday) night.

Vice President Mike Pence was in the presiding officer’s chair to announce Trump nominees Neil Gorsuch and Brent Kavanaugh had been confirmed by the Senate. While Pence has tested negative for Covid, at least five of his staff members, including his chief of staff, have tested positive for the virus and Pence was not on the Senate floor to announce the vote for Barrett.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa is again among the small group of battleground states that may decide this year’s presidential election. David Schultz is the author of “Presidential Swing States: Why Only Ten Matter” — and he puts Iowa is that group. “It has been a state where both Republicans and Democrats have been competitive and actually over the last 40 years, Republican presidential nominees and Democratic presidential nominees have actually won the state,” Schultz says.

Over the past 40 years. Republican candidates won four presidential elections — in 1980, ’84, 2004 and 2016 — and Democrats won the other six presidential races here — in 1988, ’92, ’96, 2000, 2008 and 2012. Schultz says Iowa has a classic mixture of characteristics that make it a swing state in presidential elections. “Iowa, like the other swing states, has a high percentage of voters who declare themselves to be independent.

Also Iowa, like many of the swing states, is really sort of two states — the eastern part of the state being more Democratic and the western being more Republican and also one more,” Schultz says. “It has both a high percentage of college educated people and still a high percentage of white working class.”

David Kochel, who managed Mitt Romney’s Iowa campaign in 2012, says Donald Trump’s nine-point margin of victory in Iowa four years ago was a bit of an outlier. “And it was all baed on a deep-seeded antipathy to Hillary Clinton,” Kochel says. “Other than, of course, Chuck Grassley’s races and a few of Governor Branstad’s, we’ve had competitive elections at almost every level.”

Romney’s running mate held an Election Eve rally at the Des Moines airport back in 2012. And, on the same night, President Obama rallied with thousands in downtown Des Moines. Brad Anderson was state director of President Obama’s 2012 Iowa campaign. “As Iowa becomes more and more of a battleground state, which all of the polls suggest that it is, it is smart on both campaigns parts to schedule a visit here in the closing days of the campaign,” Anderson says.

Vice President Pence will headline a rally at the Des Moines Airport Thursday afternoon and, on Friday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is scheduled to campaign in the state. Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford says in-person appearances are a boost because ads have diminishing returns at this point in the campaign. “Face-to-face, even in a pandemic era, is a welcome change. That’s why the president does so much of it,” Goldford says. “But even for Vice President Biden to come to Iowa, he’s showing the flag.”

Twenty years ago, George W. Bush beat Al Gore in Iowa by fewer than five-thousand votes. In 2004, Bush won the state by 10-thousand. Both margins of victory were less than one percent. Recent polls have shown the 2020 presidential race in Iowa may be just as close.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Record numbers of people are being treated in Iowa hospitals for the coronavirus as the illness spreads across the state. The number of people hospitalized with the virus increased to 561 on Monday, and a 14-county area of southeast Iowa reported record hospital admissions, patients in hospitals and patients in intensive care units. Iowa had 677 new confirmed cases Monday and two additional deaths for a total of 1,636. Weekend numbers continued last week’s high new case numbers and deaths. The state posted more than 3,000 new confirmed cases Saturday and Sunday and 17 additional deaths.

OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) — The coronavirus is getting worse in states that President Donald Trump needs the most. The upper Midwest is bearing much of the brunt of new infections surging across the U.S. That includes Wisconsin, where Trump is fighting to catch Democrat Joe Biden in a state Trump narrowly won in 2016. Also seeing a surge is Iowa, where Trump is now in a toss-up race with Biden after carrying the state by 9.4 percentage points four years ago. Both states are in the top 10 of those with the fastest-growing number of cases per capita over the past two weeks.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Many residents in Nebraska and Iowa were breaking out the shovels and snow blowers following a significant snowfall — including some record snow — over the weekend. The National Weather Service says Norfolk in northeastern Nebraska set a record for snowfall Sunday with 4 inches. That topped the previous Oct. 25 record of 2.7 inches set in 1997. In Sioux City, Iowa, about 3 inches of snow fell, breaking the previous record for the day of 0.7 inches more than a century ago in 1918. The service says higher totals were seen in other communities Sunday, including 8 inches recorded in Valentine, Bassett and Anselmo in northern Nebraska. Ocheyendan in northern Iowa saw more than 6 inches

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — Officials say Ocala Police Chief Greg Graham died in a single-engine plane crash in north Florida. Marion County Sheriff’s officials say Graham was the only person in the plane when it crashed Sunday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash. Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn says Graham had recently received his pilot’s license. Graham had been in the Ocala police department for many years. He left in 2008 to become chief in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He returned to Ocala to head the agency when the police chief resigned in late December 2011.