Dan Haynes, Director of the Nishna Valley YMCA in Atlantic, said Wednesday, “Due to the latest governor’s proclamation and the rising cases of covid 19 in our county the Nishna Valley Family YMCA Staff and Board of Directors has decided to postpone the “Community Discussion” on the future of “recreation and quality of life” in Atlantic and the surrounding area.”

The community meeting, which was announced November 2nd, was originally scheduled to take place Tuesday, November 17^th at 6:30pm at the Cass County Community Building. The YMCA will try to reschedule this meeting for some time in January contingent on the current conditions.

If you have any questions or concerns you can contact Dan at 712-243-3934 or email to dhaynes@nishnavalleyymca.com.

ONAWA, Iowa (AP) — A judge in western Iowa says he will announce a verdict Friday in the case of a man accused of killing his grandmother in 2018. Eliot Stowe is charged with first-degree murder for the beating death of 66-year-old Cheryl Stowe at her rural home in Castana in June 2018. The Sioux City Journal reports that Stowe waived his right to a jury trial, so a judge heard evidence during a four-day trial in August.

Cheryl Stowe’s body was found wrapped in a rug and duct tape at the edge of a cornfield near her home. Prosecutors say Eliot Stowe had beaten her with a baseball bat. Eliot Stowe’s defense team has argued he’s not guilty by reason of insanity.

(Radio Iowa) – All classes in Cedar Rapids schools will shift online, starting Thursday, while the district asks the Iowa Department of Education for a two-week virtual learning waiver. So far this month, 18 Iowa school districts and parochial schools have gotten state permission to conduct all classes online. Iowa Department of Education director Ann Lebo says a handful of others — including Cedar Rapids — have received permission for online-only instruction for students in specific buildings.

Three elementary buildings in Ames closed today and students are taking classes online. The district is asking state officials to allow all Ames students through the eighth grade to shift online. Ames superintendent Jenny Risner says they’re running out of substitute teachers.

Other school administrators say they cannot find enough bus drivers to run the routes that get students to school. Lebo says there are a variety of reasons schools are seeking waivers to end in-person instruction.

Lebo says the state has pandemic benchmarks for when school districts may shirt to virtual classes, but administrators do not have to wait until those are met. Schools may hold all classes online for 48 hours while waiting for state officials to waive the requirement for in-person classes.  Among the waivers granted yesterday (Tuesday) was one for the Glenwood Community School District.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican Senator Joni Ernst says a pandemic relief package is an immediate priority for the Republican-led senate yet this year. “Hopefully we can get a Covid-19 recovery package. I think that’s important. It’s something that I continued to hear even while I was on the campaign trail, how Iowans really hoped we could step up get a targeted relief bill done,” Ernst says.

Ernst said also, “There are still so many people that are hurting across the nation and we would love to get them relief.” It’s still unclear how large a relief package might be. Senate Republicans opposed the one-point-eight TRILLION dollar spending level the White House and House Democratic leaders were discussing before the election. On Tuesday, Ernst’s fellow Republicans re-elected her vice chair of the Republican Conference in the U.S. Senate. “Coming through this last election cycle, which was very difficult for so many, we actually saw some pretty incredible gains by conservative women and what we could say was this was the year for the GOP women,” Ernst says. “We gained seats in the House and we are also gaining another woman in our Republican Conference, Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming.”

So far, a record 14 Republican women have been confirmed the winners of races for seats in the U.S. House. Four others — including Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa — are waiting for their House races to be called. “We hope that young conservative women will take a look a the make-up of congress,” Ernst says, “and determine that there is opportunity out there for them as well.”

Ernst won re-election to a second term in the U.S. Senate by a nearly seven point margin. She’s been on the Senate G-O-P leadership team since mid-November of 2018.

(Radio Iowa) – While an active La Nina pattern continues to form over the Pacific Ocean, questions remain about what impact it will have in Iowa. Past La Ninas have led to colder winters here with some increase in snowfall. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, says it appears November will be more mild than cold. “It looks like, after this cold stretch, we may be getting into a bit warmer period again for a decent part of November,” Todey says. “Are we done with La Nina and what it’s going to do for the overall winter? No, I don’t think so. I think we’re still going to see some cold coming in and more of that may be occurring later in the winter.”

Some longer-range climate maps indicate warmer-than-normal temperatures early next year, but Todey says nothing’s certain. “We’re not locked into what we are at this point and if you look at the outlooks, they are still shifting as the winter goes on,” Todey says. “The cold may be coming in and it may be the warmth of the central plains, so let’s keep an eye on this.” While we can study what’s happened during past La Ninas, there’s no guarantee this latest one will follow the playbook. “While there are some averages we can look at in the way of La Ninas, and those have been reflected in the outlooks, there are some of these big events that have not looked quite the same and have taken on a different view,” Todey says.

“That may be what we’re seeing here, at least for the first part. There’s plenty of winter to come. I don’t think the story is written about this La Nina yet this winter.”  A La Nina occurs when sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean cool below long-term normal trends.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday, revisited the question of whether or not masks should be mandated in the County. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Tuesday, implored Iowans to use a mask, due to the daily increases in positive COVID-19 test results and hospitalizations. The Board has received at least two of e-mails on the matter. Board Chair Steve Baier said there’s more each person needs to do to quell the spread of the virus, aside from wearing a mask or face shield.

In fact, Governor Reynolds, as we’ve mentioned, issued a new proclamation Tuesday, asking Iowans to do more to decrease the spread, including wearing masks, but she did NOT issue a mandate. Nor have the Cass County Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Steve Green…

Green said the County’s coffers are small enough, and he didn’t want to spend the amount of money it would take to fight people who might sue over their Constitutional rights being violated. Supervisor John Hartkopf said it’s been brought to the Board’s attention that two counties in Iowa have taken some measures to implement some form of a mandate which Supervisor Green said was “cherry-picked” from Iowa Code to form a Resolution.

The interpretation comes from a gray area in the Code. Auditor Dale Sunderman…

The Board did not take action on approving a mask mandate for the County, but strongly encourage residents do whatever they can to reduce the spread of the virus. In other business, the Board also voted 5-to 2 to set a rate of $40 per month per employee, for the use of certain County employee’s personal cell phones, when conducting County business. Auditor Dale Sunderman says the policy states…

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska continues to set records with the number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus and health care providers expect that to continue because of the recent surge of cases in the state. CHI Health CEO Cliff Robertson says his group of 14 hospitals in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa is preparing for COVID-19 cases to keep increasing over the next three to four weeks.

Several new virus restrictions took effect in Nebraska on Wednesday. The state says the number of virus hospitalizations jumped to 860 on Tuesday and it reported its second-highest one-day total of new cases at 2,182.

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

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Officials with the Creston Police Department say three Creston residents were arrested, Tuesday.

• 32-year-old Corry Johnston was arrested for Driving While Barred. He was released from the Union County Jail on a $2000 bond.
• 31-year-old Chelsey Kile, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center on a Union County Warrant for Failure to Appear on the original charge of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. She was released from the Union County Jail on a $300 bond.
• And, 36-year-old Amanda Jones was arrested at the Union County LEC on a Union County Warrant for the charge of Violation of a Protection Order. She was being held in the Adams County Jail awaiting bond hearing.

Creston Police say also, a man residing in the 400 block of S. Maple Street reported Tuesday evening, that sometime between 5:20 pm – 5:40 pm Tuesday,the windshield on his vehicle was cracked while parked in the parking lot at 600 Sheldon St. Estimated damage of $200.

The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education will meet tonight at 6 in the High School Media Room. During their session, the Oath of Office will be administered to the Board Members (there were no newly elected members), and an election held to determine the Board President and Vice President for 2020-21. The Board Secretary and Treasurer will also be appointed, the regular date, time and place of Board meetings set for the coming term, and other administrative matters will be conducted.

The Atlantic School Board is set to hear a Special Presentation with regard to Cross County and Football, and act on approving resignations, to include: Olivia Newberg, Central Office Secretary; Beverly Jones and Christina Simonton, Paraeducators, and Kim Meurer, Food Service. They’ll also act to approve contract recommendations for: Pam Klar, Substitute Special Education Car Driver, and, Alyssa Dovenspike, Interim Assistant Girls Soccer Coach.

In other business, the Board will discuss: improvements to the west high school parking lot, which is estimated to cost $746,900, and the Board’s Strategic Plan. They will also receive a Facility Project Update. Additional action items on their agenda include:

• An overnight student trip for the Spanish Class to Costa Rica in the Summer of 2022, the cost of which will be paid for by each individual who travels. The trip is similar to one they are taking in 2021, which was supposed to have taken place this past Summer. Atlantic Activities Director Andy Mitchell says by going again in 2022, they keep the rotation of every other year with the band trip.
• The purchase of a Suburban from Deter Motor Company in the amount of $43,506. The purchase is part of the District’s Transporation Plan. School officials say with the purchase, there should be no need to add new vehicles to the fleet in FY22.