AMES, Iowa – May 26, 2020 – The Iowa Department of Transportation is working across the state this spring and summer, as they do every year, to determine how many cars, trucks, and other vehicles are using the state, county, and city roadways. The information gathered allows transportation officials to better predict traffic volume and weight trends, allowing them to plan improvements that will give Iowans the most benefit for each dollar spent.

This year’s efforts are concentrated in southwest Iowa, but occasionally crews will work elsewhere in the state. Some employees will spend peak hours between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. at a location counting the morning, noon, and evening traffic. They count and classify vehicles, record vehicle turning movements, and gather other data necessary to assist in planning the future of Iowa’s roadway system. Other employees will be placing and checking portable traffic recorders in the same general areas. When the recorders are set, they usually record data for one or two days and are checked periodically.

Other statewide work scheduled for this summer includes the installation, upgrading, and maintenance of permanent traffic recorders and weigh-in-motion equipment at continuous count station locations. With the COVID-19 pandemic, these recorders have shown reduced traffic totals. The manual counts and temporary recorders are used each year, as they will be this year, to collect additional data.

Employees responsible for the recorders work various shifts, including hours outside of a traditional business day. People in the area can expect to see Iowa DOT employees and vehicles in their communities all hours of the day. Officials say all of this work is critical to the future of the state’s transportation system.

A former resident of Atlantic was arrested At around 1:50-a.m. today (Tuesday), in Pottawattamie County, following a pursuit that began with a traffic stop for speeding on a 2020 Toyota Corolla. 34-year old Blue Tyler Peterson, of Council Bluffs, was arrested in Council Bluffs for Eluding (while speeding more than 25 mph over the limit), vehicle hit-and-run, Reckless Driving and Violation of Parole. He was being held in the Pott. County Jail on a $2,000 bond for the Eluding charge.

Monday night, a 16-year old male juvenile was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana-1st offense.  The unnamed teen was taken into custody at around 9:50-p.m. after a deputy made contact with a vehicle he was in, at the Lewis and Clark Monument. Early Monday morning, 45-year old Kathleen Marie Gerhardt was arrested at a residence in Oakland, following a domestic disturbance. Gerhardt was taken into custody for domestic abuse assault with intent to injure/1st offense, Interference with Official Acts, and Violation of a No Contact/Protective Order.

Saturday evening, 48-year old Theodore James Fowler was arrested in Crescent, following a report of suspicious activity at the Casey’s Store in Crescent. Fowler was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Public Intoxication. A 17-year old male and 18-year old Lauren Anne Olson were arrested Friday night in Council Bluffs, following an investigation into suspicious activity involving two vehicles parked at the end of a Dead End street.  The 17-year old was charged with Conspiracy with the Intent to Deliver/Marijuana, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Olson was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

Thursday afternoon, Pottawattamie County Deputies arrested 27-year old Mindee Lea Vorthmann, after authorities received a report of a young female child walking down the side of Highway 92 near 310th Street. After the seven-year old girl was transported back to the address she left, an investigation resulted in Vorthman being arrested for Violation of Probation. The child was released to the custody of her biological mother.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ Tuesday press conference on COVID-19. We will also have live audio on KJAN with the presser set to begin at approximately 11:00 a.m.

(Radio Iowa) – We’re told social distancing helps save lives, but a new report finds isolation and loneliness can hurt the health of people over age 50 — and Iowa has one of the nation’s oldest populations. Doctor Juliann Sebastian, dean of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, says a solitary lifestyle, void of healthy interactions with friends, can mean a higher risk of depression, heart disease and even death.  “Social isolation and loneliness are each separately associated with health problems — with health outcomes,” Sebastian says, “but together there are correlations between social isolation and loneliness and various causes of mortality or death and various causes of morbidity or illness.”

Data from the U-S Census Bureau finds almost 15-percent of Iowans are 65 or older, the fifth most in the nation, while nearly three-percent of Iowans are 85 or older, the third most in the country. Loneliness is not a one-size-fits-all type of problem and Sebastian says we all need to keep a closer eye on our family, friends and neighbors. “Social isolation and loneliness don’t fit in neatly within our typical health care environment. Those are not typically considered clinical issues,” Sebastian says. “In fact, they really are because of their connection with specific physical and behavioral health outcomes.”

One goal of the report is so that health professionals of all types, as well as direct care worker, know that we should strive to identify people who have problems with social isolation and loneliness.”Not every older adult has these issues and not every person, for example, who lives alone is lonely,” Sebastian says. “We do think it’s very important in the clinical environment for health professionals to assess older adults and determine if these are issues of concern to them and then to connect with people and community organizations that can help.”

More research is needed, she says, to determine some of the most helpful ways to intervene. Sebastian says it’s “stunning” to become more aware of the associations between social isolation and loneliness and health problems — and even mortality. “We all need to be, I think, on the alert for someone who might be lonely and find ways to help,” Sebastian says. “Whether it’s ourselves helping or making a connection, with again, with a community organization that can help.”

The report says for people who are homebound, have no family, or do not belong to community or faith groups, a medical appointment or home health visit may be one of the few social interactions they have. Sebastian serves as dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing in Omaha.
(On the web at https://www.nap.edu/read/25663/chapter/1)

Two people were arrested on separate assault charges over the past few days, in Creston. Authorities say on Sunday, 34-year old Trel Peterson, of Creston, was arrested at his home on a Cass County warrant for Assault causing bodily injury.

Trel Peterson

He was later released from the Union County Jail on a $1,000 bond. And, Friday afternoon, 48-year old Aleacha Crocker, of Shenandoah, was arrested for Assault with the Intent to Injure. She was released from the Union County Law Enforcement Center on a Summons to Appear in court.

And a woman residing in the 300 block of N. Division Street, in Creston, reported to Police Friday afternoon, that sometime between Noon and 2:30-p.m. Thursday, someone stole a package from outside her residence, that had been delivered by the USPS. The package contained a hooded sweatshirt valued at $80.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Updated 7:38-a.m.) JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — A tornado briefly touched down Monday evening in the Des Moines suburb of Johnston, uprooting trees and damaging traffic signals. The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado (rated an EF-1). The twister in the Johnston area packed winds of up to 95 miles per hour, tracked for 1.6-miles, and was a maximum of 50-yards wide. It began at around 6:26-p.m. and ended three minutes later. No injuries were reported.

In eastern Iowa, winds gusted up to 67 mph in Newton, and high winds Monday night near Luxemburg lifted the roof off a barn and crashed it into another building, causing it to collapse onto a hog nursery building. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports the nursery building then caught on fire, killing 300 hogs inside.

The Weather Service said more severe weather is expected today (Tuesday), with thunderstorms, heavy rain and a chance of tornadoes. The rain could lead to localized flooding.

(Radio Iowa) — A new documentary series explores the consequences of unplanned pregnancies outside of marriage more than a century ago, and it features a true story from Iowa. Colleen Bradford Krantz produced the series called, “Unintended: Unlocking a Nation’s Pregnancy Secrets.” Krantz says one case from 1913 involved a family from the northeast Iowa town of Hopkinton and an incident led to charges being filed. “There was a trial in this story and it actually would’ve happened in Charles City but the old courthouse there was gone,” Krantz says. “Through a lot of searching online, we ended up discovering the old courthouse in Webster City and after taking a look at it, it was the perfect filming location for recreating this trial that happened.”

Krantz says she relied heavily on the local talent pool from the Hamilton County area in recreating what transpired at the courthouse. “We worked with the community theater there to provide us with all the extras in the scenes,” she says. “So, we had them as the jury member and also as the courtroom audience members.”  In addition to supplying trained actors, the community theater was even able to provide those actors with period costumes, which Krantz says was a tremendous help.

The series is being released in stages on the platform Vimeo with more segments coming in June and July. Find a link through Krantz’ website: www.pinkspear.com.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The state’s online COVID-19 dashboard (https://coronavirus.iowa.gov/) shows (As of 6:45-a.m. today), 461 deaths have been attributed to the virus since record keeping began two months ago. Figures also showed 134,505 were tested for the virus, 17,644 have tested positive, 116,560 tested negative, and 9,401 had recovered. The most recent numbers were released as the mayors of seven Iowa cities penned an editorial appearing in the Des Moines Register calling on federal officials to approve federal aid for cities.

For Cass and surrounding Counties, the number of positive test results and (the number of recovered), have not changed much over the past three days. Cass County 11 positive cases (1 recovered); Adair County: 8 (3); Adams County: 5 (1); Audubon County: 12 (9); Guthrie County: 43 (29); Montgomery County: 6 (5); Shelby County: 31 (24) and Pottawattamie County: 215 (122).

In RMCC Region 4 (Southwest/western Iowa), seven people are hospitalized for COVID-19, three are in an ICU, and no one was admitted to a hospital. Those figures have also held steady for the past few days.  Across the State, 377 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized, 118 are in an ICU, and 33 were admitted over the past 24-hours. There was also another Long-Term Care facility outbreak across the State, bringing the total back up to 37 from the previous figure of 36. The number of deaths at those facilities stands at 244. Patients and staff who’ve tested positive number 1,585. The number recovered is 669.