Officials with Pottawattamie County Public Health, today (Monday), confirmed 18 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, one new case on Sunday, and 30 new cases today (Monday). Of the newly reported cases, two individuals are from Oakland, one each is from Carter Lake, Crescent, Neola, and Underwood. The rest are from Council Bluffs. Two of the individuals were epi-linked, while the others were tested between June 1st and June 7th.

According to the State’s coronavirus dashboard, 4,657 Pottawattamie County residents have been tested for COVID-19 (as of June 8th), with 371 having tested positive. Including epi-linked cases, PCPH reports a total of 412 COVID-19 cases. Of those, 226 persons have recovered, four are hospitalized, and 164 persons are self-isolating. Based on PCPH contact tracing investigations, 109 Pott. County COVID-19 cases are the result of community spread.

Police in Iowa are investigating after a black man found the initials for the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan organization scrawled on his vehicle. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports the initials KKK were written in a waxy substance on the back and front passenger side, apparently while the vehicle was parked at the Baymont Inn in Waterloo sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning. No arrests have been made in the case.

Montgomery County Auditor Stephanie Burke reports an audit of the June 2nd Primary Election will be held this Thursday, June 11th. The Secretary of State’s Office ordered the post-election audit, and by random selection, Precinct 5 will be the precinct audited. The polling place location for Precinct 5 is the Grant Fire Station (which was combined with the Stanton Fire Station this election).

The Montgomery County Auditor’s Office will conduct the audit beginning at 9-a.m., Thursday. The audit will take place in the North meeting room in the Courthouse, in Red Oak. The proceeding is open to the public.

Health officials in Mills County, Monday (Today), confirmed one additional positive cases of COVID-19. The case is an individual between 19 and 40-years old, who contracted the virus by community spread. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mills County is 21, with all but one of those persons having recovered.

Officials say 1,358 residents have been tested. And, that “With summer all but here, we would like to remind people that public and community swimming pools are allowed to open strictly for lap swim and/or swimming lessons.” Those rules do not apply however, to pools owned by individual families.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A leader of recent protests against police brutality and racial injustice in Iowa City has been ordered jailed on a probation violation after police charged him with unlawful assembly. Police arrested 20-year-old Mazin Mohamedali on Sunday evening on charges of unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct for his role in a June 3 protest near Interstate 80 that ended with officers using tear gas and flash grenades to disperse the crowd.

This June 7, 2020 photo provided by the Johnson County jail in Iowa City, Iowa, shows Mazin Mohamedali. Mohamedali, a leader of protests against police brutality and racial injustice in Iowa City, was charged with unlawful assembly for his role in a June 3, 2020 protest in which activists shut down roadways before facing tear gas. He was ordered jailed Monday June 8, on a probation violation. (Johnson County jail via AP)

Mohamedali has been an outspoken member of a group calling itself the Iowa Freedom Riders. He has delivered speeches ad led chants during several days of marches and gatherings throughout the city.

Police in Red Oak say a man wanted on a Fremont County warrant for Probation Violation, was arrested this (Monday) afternoon. 28-year old Matthew Cole Whitt, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 12:15-p.m. in the 300 block of E. Valley Street. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail, for Fremont County. Bond was set at $10,000.

(Radio Iowa) A 13-year-old boy drowned Saturday afternoon near Le Mars at a private pond while attending a birthday party.  The boy was reported as missing, and rescuers used a boat from the Iowa DNR equipped with a sonar system to help locate the boy at the Kellen Ponderosa. He was found about two hours after he was first reported missing in about 15 feet deep of water. The child was transported to the Floyd Valley Healthcare in Le Mars, where medical personnel declared the boy deceased.

Officials have identified the drowning victim as 13-year-old Reid M. Swaggerty-Morgan of Sioux City.

Residents of Greenfield and Griswold will experience brief power outages this week. Officials with the Nishna Valley Rural Electric Cooperative (NVREC) report that on Wednesday, June 10th, NVREC members in the Griswold area will experience a brief, 10-15 minute power outage between 9:00am and 10:00am while crews make substation equipment replacements.

Officials with Greenfield Municipal Utilities report GMU will be conducting mandatory Black Start Testing from 10-p.m. Tuesday, June 9th through 6-a.m. Wednesday, June 10th. The process allows GMU to test their ability and train their employees to re-power the town in the event of a complete loss of power from their supplier, Central Iowa Power Cooperative. During the test, some or all customers may experience an interruption of their power service for short periods of time.

Officials say if all goes as planned, the outage should not last more than 10-minutes at a time, and service may be out numerous times during the event. GMU says they understand the inconvenience of this testing, and has tried to schedule it to hours with less demand on the electric system, to avoid seriously impacting as many customers as possible. If you have any questions, call GMU during their business hours (7:30-a.m. to 4:30-p.m.) at 641-743-2741.