Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ Friday press conference on COVID-19. We plan on having live audio of the presser on KJAN as well. The press conference is set to begin at approximately 11:00 a.m.

Two men from Creston were arrested on separate warrants, Thursday afternoon.  Creston Police say 34-year old Trel Peterson was arrested on an outside agency warrant. He was charged with two-counts Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd Degree, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Bond at the Union County Jail was set at $10,300. And, 27-year old Kevin Davis was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center on an outside agency felony warrant. He was later released on a summons to appear.

Creston Police said also, a woman residing in the 200 block of N. Maple Street, reported Thursday that sometime between March 30th and 31st, someone stole money out of her drop box and her rental building. The loss was estimated at $750.

(Radio Iowa) — The release of around one-thousand gallons of wastewater into a creek near Ainsworth this week is prompting another reminder about flushing the wrong things down your toilet. The D-N-R’s Brian Lee says a plugged sewer line was the cause of the problem. He says the contractor did confirm that flushable, wipes, Kleenexes and other material had plugged the pipe. Lee says they continue to get calls about problems like this with sewer systems. “Just continue to remind people to only flush toilet paper…anything else can be discarded in the trash. There’s other services out there that can help get rid of your trash as needed,” Lee says.

Lee says the materials that aren’t supposed to be flushed can do several different types of damage. “Failures of electronic equipment. Pumps can burn up causing facilities to have to contact a contractor or get other people in there and fix it because they have other things that they need to do as far as operating the system normally otherwise,” he says.

Lee says they don’t believe the wastewater that was released did any harm to the environment.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office, Thursday, said they had received a report of an email scam. An individual reported they received an email that appeared to be from Mediacom Billing. The email said there was an issue with the payment method the customer used, and requested they click a link to update their personal banking information. The email address in the “From” line was: UF4@mediacombb.net.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reached out to Mediacom, who verified that the email address their customer received did not come from the company. Any email coming from Mediacom, they said, would end with: @mediacomcc.com.

Authorities say you should be “Very observant when receiving emails or phone calls requesting you provide your personal information. If you feel it’s a scam call the company directly.” Mediacom says if you receive a questionable email, should forward that email to their abuse team at: abuse@mediacomcc.com.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa’s thousands of restaurants have been closed for a full month by the pandemic, with some offering only carry-out and delivery, yet an annual contest to name the state’s top breaded pork tenderloin sandwich is still on. Kelsey Sutter, spokeswoman for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, says they wrestled with the idea. “We talked about whether or not we should postpone this contest, if we should wait until later in the year when restaurants are able to open their doors again,” Sutter says. “The more we thought about it, the more we wanted to move forward and provide as much love and encouragement — via social media — that we can to restaurants across the state. We know that they’re hurting.”

Sutter says they’re re-writing the contest rules this year to include all eateries, even the hundreds that may not reopen once the pandemic clears. “Whether a restaurant is open right now doing take-out or not, we want people to nominate their favorite tenderloin,” Sutter says. “Everyone remembers what they taste like. If they offer take-out, go order it, go get your favorite tenderloin to go, and then get on IowaPork.org and give them a nomination.”  The deadline to submit an entry is June 6th.

“We don’t need to physically start the judging until we get our top 40 which is July 1,” Sutter says, ” so we’re pretty confident and we’re hoping that restaurants will be in full swing by July 1.” The winner will be announced in mid-October during Iowa Pork Month. Last year’s winner was The Pub at the Pinicon in New Hampton.

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

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The Adair County Secondary Roads Department reports an upcoming construction project will start on Monday, April 20th, and last for 5-7 weeks, weather permitting. The slightly more than 7-mile long asphalt paving and resurfacing project on County Road (CR) G-27 (160th St.) starts at the Adair-Cass county line and continues east to Fontanelle Road. The portion from the Adair-Cass County line to Delta Ave. will be closed to through traffic. A detour for the closed portion will be as shown on the map below. The remaining portion will be open to traffic using flaggers and pilot cars.

A Red Oak woman was arrested at around 7:35-p.m. Thursday, for Public Intoxication. 37-year old Risa Mae Lutton was taken into custody in the 2300 block of N. 4th Street in Red Oak, and transported to the Montgomery County Jail. Her bond was set at $300.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa’s congressional delegation and the leaders of ag and commodity groups are warning the coronavirus pandemic significantly damaging the rural economy. Some dairy farmers have dumped milk due to the dramatic drop in demand. Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who served eight years as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, is now president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. He’s joining the call for federal purchases of dairy products for food banks.

“It’s time for the USDA to minimize the barriers to getting food supplies out to people in need,” Vilsack says, “and it’s time for them to maximize creativity in terms of the assistance and help that it can provide.” Former Iowa Agriculture Secretary Patty Judge is co-founder of a group called Focus on Rural America. She says the mom-and-pop shops that small towns depend upon will die without more federal support.

“We are facing tough, tough times,” she says. “…We cannot structure aid packages so that only the big survive.” She says bailouts to airlines, oil companies and cruise lines won’t help the rural economy. National Farmers Union President Rob Larew says aid must go to those who need it the most. “It needs to be swift. It needs to be targeted and it needs to be done with an eye toward the long-term viability of these rural communities and for family farmers.”

Senator Chuck Grassley tweeted yesterday (Thursday) that he’s asked President Trump to give special attention to the closure of pork and beef processing plants. Grassley, along with Senator Joni Ernst, Congressman Dave Loebsack and Congresswomen Cindy Axne and Abby Finkenauer have all co-signed a letter to the U-S-D-A. They’re asking the agency to compensate farmers who cannot sell their cattle and pigs because the plants in Columbus Junction and Tama are closed.

Earlier this week, Congressman Steve King accused the meatpacking industry of manipulating prices and he called for a federal investigation.

(Radio Iowa) — The federal program providing emergency loans to small businesses has run out of money. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst supports providing the program an additional 250-BILLION in federal funds. “As of Tuesday, there were more than 22,000 loans that had been approved with small businesses receiving $3.5 billion so far,” Ernst says, “and that’s just the state of Iowa.”

Senate Democrats say they support putting another quarter of a trillion dollars in the small business loan program — but they’re asking for more money for hospitals as well as states and local governments hit with pandemic-related expenses. Republicans like Ernst say a discussion about that assistance can wait and the senate needs to quickly pass a simple bill that just provides more money for small businesses.

“No political gimmicks, just a simple ask to put more money in this program,” Ernst says. “Unfortunately, politics got in the way.” Congress originally approved 350 BILLION dollars for what’s called the “Paycheck Protection Program” since the small business loans will be forgiven if the 75 percent of the loan is used to pay workers. The 350-BILLION dollars ran out yesterday (Thursday).

Also yesterday, Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann blasted a pro-Democratic group for running an ad that criticizes Ernst. The ad features a doctor who’s the spouse of a former Iowa Democratic Party leader.