The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.9MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Here’s a reminder from the Station Where Your Friends Are: On Wednesday September 2, the Cass County Local Food Policy Council is hosting a mobile food pantry through the Food Bank for the Heartland at the Cass County Community Center from 4:00 – 6:00 PM, or as supplies last. There is no charge. Anyone in need is welcome to visit the mobile pantry, and no documentation is needed. People from surrounding towns and communities are welcome.
Visitors are asked to arrive AFTER 3-p.m. Enter on Fair Avenue. Traffic will be directed by volunteers.
For more information on local food, farmers markets, and food access, follow the Cass County Local Food Policy Council’s Facebook page @CassCountyLocalFood.
(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University study shows how plants’ genetic factors are impacting crop stress as it relates to climate change. Stephen Howell, a distinguished professor of genetics, development and cell biology at I-S-U, says they’re making critical advances. “There are two very different systems within plants that recognize heat stress and help to protect plants from heat stress,” Howell says. “They’ve been thought to work very independently, and what we’ve been able to show is that the systems actually are coordinated and they work together.”
He notes it’s completely coincidental the study is being released at a time when Iowa is seeing crops impacted by drought — and by the derecho. “All of these issues about climate change have had an influence on the kind of work that we’re doing,” Howell says. “We’re very concerned about how well our crops in Iowa are able to tolerate heat stress and so this has motivated quite a bit of our studies.”
Howell says the study is being done through the use of a state-of-the-art facility called the Envirotron at the I-S-U Ag Engineering/Agronomy Research Farm. “We can simulate different climate conditions and ask then how plants perform under those conditions,” Howell says. “We have this fantastic robot that’s able to travel from one incubator chamber to another to be able to monitor plants and how they’re doing.”
The complete study is appearing in the academic journal, The Plant Cell.
The Iowa Department of Public Health reports as of 10-a.m. today (Monday), there have been two additional deaths attributed to COVID-19 statewide since 10-a.m. Sunday, for a total of 1,112, and 611 additional, positive cases of COVID-19, for a total of 64,713. Persons with preexisting medical conditions made up for 778 of the deaths, while 598 of the total number of deaths took place at a long-term care facility, since the beginning of the outbreak. There have been a total of 46,663 persons who have recovered from the virus and 3,346 additional negative test results, for a total of 556,996 since testing began. A total of 633,664 individuals have been tested for COVID-19. The combined positivity rate (including Antigen tests), remains 10.2%.
IDPH reports 12 Iowa counties with a positivity rate greater than 15%, which triggers considerations for schools to apply for a waiver to change to online-only learning. Plymouth, Johnson, Sioux, Story, Howard, Carroll, Lee, Marion, Fremont, Wayne, Crawford and Clinton counties all report a positivity rate greater than 15% over the past 14 days.
Here in the KJAN listening area, three counties reported increases in positive COVID-19 test results: Adair and Guthrie Counties have two new cases each, for a total of 51 in Adair County and 173 in Guthrie County. Pottawattamie County has 19 additional cases, and Montgomery County reports one additional death, for a total of five.
There are 299 Iowans hospitalized with coronavirus. IDPH reported 85 patients in intensive care. There are 46 patients on ventilators in the state, 23 patients were admitted to the hospital in since 10-a.m., Sunday. In western/southwest Iowa: 7 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19; 4 remain in an ICU and were no new admissions to area hospitals, and two patients on ventilators.
There are 36 coronavirus outbreaks reported at Iowa’s long-term care facilities. IDPH reported 1,136 positive cases and 658 recoveries within those facilities.
Here are the latest positive case numbers for southwest/western Iowa (County; Positive Case #’s; number of persons who have (recovered); {deaths since the outbreak began}.
(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City’s 185th Air National Guard Refueling Wing has a new recruit with who will potentially have the weight of someone’s world on him. Lincoln is a 10 week old English Cream Golden Retriever puppy that is a therapy dog in training at the base. Lieutenant Colonel Steve Peters is the 185th Air Refueling Wing chaplain and Lincoln’s caretaker. He says the English Cream variation of the golden retrievers seem to want to be with people more and care for them.
ING Therapy Dog
Peters said Lincoln started preparing for his career the day he was born. “After they’re born they begin training that specifically leads them to all the qualities that makes them great therapy dogs,” Peters says, ” calmness, loving people, slow to react to startling noises ARE being distracted from things that are going on around them.” Peters says the calming presence of a dog like Lincoln can put people at ease and make it easier for caregivers to address spiritual, mental and physical health issues.
“When interacting with a dog — especially with the qualities and the training that a therapy dog would have — to then open up perhaps to a chaplain, a therapist, psychologist, medical person, to then get the help that they need. It’s a barrier breaker,” according to Peters. Lincoln’s arrival is just in time for the military’s observation of National Suicide Prevention Month in September. The September training weekend is when most 185th unit members will get their first opportunity to meet the new recruit.
(Radio Iowa) – Two Iowa judges have now ruled in favor of the Republican Party and President Trump’s campaign and nullified about 55-thousand absentee ballot request forms from voters in Woodbury and Linn Counties. A hearing over a similar lawsuit against Johnson County’s Auditor for sending ballot request forms that included the voter’s I-D number is scheduled September 8th. Republicans argue the three county auditors did not follow a state order that only blank absentee ballot request forms be mailed out.
Alan Ostergren, the former Muscatine County Attorney, represented the Republican Party in both of last week’s court hearings. “The secretary of state’s directive specifically ordered auditors — if they were going to send out their own forms…that they needed to be blank because of the need to have it uniform across the state,” Ostergren says. Attorney Jeff Wright, representing Woodbury County’s auditor, argued the secretary of state did not have authority to issue his order. “This is a public health emergency, a public health disaster,” he said, “and the legislature did not give Mr. Pate in the secretary of state’s office emergency powers for a public health disaster.”
In June, the Republican-led legislature voted to require Pate to seek Legislative Council approval for any changes in state election procedures. In July, the Legislative Council gave Pate permission to send BLANK absentee ballot request forms to every active voter. Secretary of State Paul Pate spoke on Iowa P-B-S this weekend, saying “They wanted those forms sent out with no information on those,” Pate says, “particularly with personal information that is confidential.”
That mailing from the state is set to go out on Labor Day weekend. The auditors in Woodbury and Linn Counties — AND in Johnson County if a similar decision is made in that case — face a tight deadline to notify voters that their absentee ballot request has been invalidated by a judge. Pate says his office will coordinate with the two and perhaps three affected counties. “To make sure its being communicated to those folks who’ve already sent in their request on the wrong form, based on what the courts are saying, so they’re successful in being able to vote,” Pate says.
Absentee ballot mailings from OTHER county auditors have not been challenged. Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzerald oversees voting in Iowa’s largest county and his mailing did NOT include voter I-D numbers. “We’ve had a lot of movement in our county, people moving from one apartment to another, so the blank form allowed us to put “or current resident’ because there was no information on it other than a blank form,” Fitzgerald says.
Iowans may request absentee ballots now. County election officials can’t send out the ballots, though, until October 5th.
Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Adam Wainwright turned back the clock with a complete game on his 39th birthday as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cleveland Indians 7-2 Sunday. Wainwright threw a four-hitter for his 23rd career complete game and first in four years. The Cardinals snapped a four-game skid in which they scored six total runs. Dexter Fowler homered and had three RBIs for St. Louis, which stopped Cleveland’s four-game winning streak. The Indians had won nine in a row on the road. Wainwright settled in after allowing a two-run homer to Tyler Naquin in the second inning. The right-hander struck out nine and walked two.
CHICAGO (AP) — Prized rookie Luis Robert hit his first game-ending homer, a three-run drive in the 10th inning that gave the Chicago White Sox a 5-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday. Dane Dunning threw five no-hit innings before being pulled from his second major league start, and the surging White Sox won for the 11th time in 13 games to move into a first-place tie with Cleveland in the AL Central. Kansas City reliever Tyler Zuber intentionally walked José Abreu to start the 10th, putting runners on first and second. James McCann struck out, but Robert drove the next pitch to left field for his ninth home run — tops among big league rookies.
MADISON, Ill. (AP) — Josef Newgarden raced to his second IndyCar victory of the season Sunday, holding off rookie Pato O’Ward before a late caution ended the race at World Wide Technology Raceway under the yellow flag. It’s the second IndyCar race to finish under caution in one week. Takuma Sato won the Indianapolis 500 under yellow last Sunday. In the second of two weekend races at the short oval outside of St. Louis, it was Sato who brought out the caution with four laps remaining when he hit the wall. The pace car picked up the field with three laps remaining and IndyCar did not have enough time to restart the race.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Los Angeles Clippers have advanced to the Western Conference semifinals by getting 33 points and 14 rebounds from Kawhi (kah-WY’) Leonard in a 111-97 downing of Dallas. Paul George and Ivica Zubac (ih-VEET’-sah ZOO’-bahts) added 15 points apiece for the Clippers, who turned up their defense after winning Game 5 with the best offensive performance in their postseason history. Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (DAHN’-chihch) capped a superb first postseason with 38 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Denver Nuggets have forced a Game 7 in their opening-round series with Utah. Jamal Murray extended his torrid run with 50 more points to lead the Nuggets to their second straight win, 119-107 over the Jazz. Murray had his second 50-point game of the series to equal Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, who finished with 44 in this one. No player has ever had more 50-point games in an entire postseason.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Boston Celtics have opened their NBA Eastern Conference semifinal series with a surprisingly easy victory against the defending champs, 112-94 over the Toronto Raptors. Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart each scored 21 points for the Celtics, who never trailed and improved to 4-1 versus Toronto this season. Kemba Walker added 18 points and 10 assists, while Daniel Theiss (tys) delivered 13 points and 15 rebounds.
Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CDT
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The numbers on Iowa’s online coronavirus tracker varied widely this weekend because of a maintenance problem with the site. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported Saturday morning that 1,108 Iowans had died from COVID-19. Later in the day, the number of deaths dropped to 894 before rebounding Saturday evening to 1,109. Several other key statistics also fluctuated on the state website Saturday. Department of Public Health spokeswoman Amy McCoy said that the problem caused by a maintenance upgrade to the state website appeared to be fixed.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines raised $38.1 million in the first year of a one-cent sales tax increase, but officials expect that to decline significantly in the next year because of the coronavirus pandemic. City officials said sales tax revenue will decline because the retail and travel industries have been hit hard by restrictions related to the coronavirus. Typically, spending by visitors accounts for roughly one-third of the city’s annual sales tax revenue. Mayor Frank Cownie said the new sales tax that took effect in July 2019 helped the city make progress on projects that had previously been delayed because of a lack of funding.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A second Iowa judge has ruled in favor of President Donald Trump’s campaign and ordered a county to invalidate at least 14,000 absentee ballot requests. In his ruling Friday evening, Judge Patrick Tott found that Woodbury County elections commissioner Patrick Gill acted improperly when he sent absentee ballot request forms to 57,000 registered voters that had their personal information filled in. About 14,000 have been returned so far. The Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups sued three Iowa counties. The decision came a day after another judge ruled that Linn County officials also had violated the secretary of state’s directive.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Adam Wainwright turned back the clock with a complete game on his 39th birthday as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cleveland Indians 7-2 Sunday. The oldest active player in the majors, Wainwright threw a four-hitter for his 23rd career complete game and first in four years. The Cardinals snapped a four-game skid in which they scored six total runs. Dexter Fowler homered and had three RBIs for St. Louis, which stopped Cleveland’s four-game winning streak.
St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) delivers during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Indians Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Scott Kane)
The Indians had won nine in a row on the road. Wainwright settled in after allowing a two-run homer to Tyler Naquin in the second inning. The right-hander struck out nine and walked two.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The numbers on Iowa’s online coronavirus tracker varied widely this weekend because of a maintenance problem with the site. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported Saturday morning that 1,108 Iowans had died from COVID-19. Later in the day, the number of deaths dropped to 894 before rebounding Saturday evening to 1,109.
Several other key statistics also fluctuated on the state website Saturday. Department of Public Health spokeswoman Amy McCoy said that the problem caused by a maintenance upgrade to the state website appeared to be fixed.