IRETON, Iowa (AP) — A body was found inside a burned vehicle in a northwest Iowa cornfield. The Sioux County Sheriff’s office said the burning vehicle was reported around 9 p.m. Friday in a cornfield about 1.5 miles north of the northwest Iowa town of Ireton. The 2007 Jeep Commander was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.

The sheriff’s office said the body was found inside the Jeep after the fire was extinguished. An autopsy will be performed on the body. Authorities didn’t immediately release the name of the victim.

(A-P) – Iowa election officials will begin mailing out absentee ballots Monday, and it’s the first day voters can go to their county auditor’s offices or a satellite locations to vote early in person. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says as of Friday that 632,549 voters have requested an absentee ballot. Democrats requested more than 335,000 ballots, Republicans requested nearly 187,000 and no-party voters asked for about 108,000 ballots.

County officials are saying the pace is far ahead of previous elections. In Polk County, for example, Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald said he received 111,462 ballot requests as of Oct. 1, compared with 45,191 requests at the same time in 2016. Election Day is Nov. 3.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies, Saturday, arrested two people on assault charges. 25-year old Jaymie Ilene Rowe and 38-year old Barbara Lea Johnson, both of Shenandoah, were arrested for an assault that occurred near the intersection of 200th Street and Fernwood Avenue. The women were transported to the Montgomery County Jail and charged with Serious Assault. Their bonds were set at $1,000 each.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican Senator Joni Ernst and Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield sparred Saturday in a televised debate in W-H-O T-V studios, each accusing the other of being dishonest. The debate was taped 24 hours after President Trump entered the hospital and it began with an announcement that both candidates had recently tested negative for Covid. The first words from Greenfield were: “Thank goodness.”

“It is a solemn time right now with our president in the hospital, with a number of senators, with Americans sick with this virus,” she said. Ernst says congress must provide another round of loans to small businesses and economic assistance to the child care industry as well as more money for testing. “We’ve been successful with the packages that we’ve moved before and we continue to work on the next relief package,” Ernst said.

Greenfield twice criticized Ernst for saying in September that she’s skeptical of Covid tests because she’d heard conversations about health care providers being reimbursed at a higher rate for Covid patient care. “She did push a conspiracy theory that suggested our doctors and our nurses are liars and cheats and that’s just appropriate and wrong,” Greenfield said. “Senator Ernst, if you don’t believe in our doctors and nurses, why should they believe in you?”

Ernst said she was sorry if her words “may have offended” health care workers. “It was the culmination of a number of conversations we have had, whether we were getting false positives, false negatives. It’s a matter of reporting,” Ernst said. “…Certainly, we want to make sure that testing is accurate. We want to make sure it’s being reported accurately.” At the end of the debate, Ernst asked Greenfield — who works in real estate — to apologize for moving businesses out of a central Iowa strip mall to make way for an Aldi grocery store.

“You booted the mom-and-pop shops out of a development area to make way for a foreign corporation,” Ernst said. Greenfield says it was an economic development project. “We gave every single tenant more notice than was required and we helped many of them move on to a new location,” Greenfield says. Iowa’s senate race is among the most competitive in the country.

A recent Des Moines Register “Iowa Poll” found Greenfield with a narrow lead over Ernst. Last (Saturday) night’s debate was also broadcast on K-C-A-U in Sioux City and W-H-B-F in the Quad Cities.

FORT DODGE – The Iowa Department of Corrections, Saturday, said 43-year old Andrew James Nielsen, convicted of Burglary 1st Degree and other crimes in Webster County, failed to report back to the Fort Dodge Residential Center as required Friday night.

Andrew James Nielsen

Nielsen is a white male, 5-feet 9-inches tall, and weighs 230 pounds. He was admitted to the work release facility on October 1, 2020.  Persons with information on Nielsen’s whereabouts should contact local police.

(DES MOINES) – Gov. Kim Reynolds has ordered all flags in Iowa at half-staff in honor of the Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service on Sunday, October 4, 2020. Flags should be lowered from sunrise to sunset on October 4, 2020. All firefighters who have died in the line of duty are honored every year during the first weekend in October.

Flags will be at half-staff on the State Capitol Building and on flag displays in the Capitol Complex. Flags will also be half-staff on all public buildings, grounds and facilities  throughout the state. Individuals, businesses, schools, municipalities, counties, and other government subdivisions are encouraged to fly the flags at half-staff for the same length of time.

More State and area news 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.

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The State of Iowa’s COVID-19 dashboard today (Saturday), indicates that since 10-a.m. Friday, there were 10 more deaths attributed to the virus, for a total of 1,377, and (as of 10-a.m.), 1,107 more Positive cases, for a total of 91,861. Deaths attributed to a pre-existing medical condition number 938. There have been 5,741 lab results returned since Friday, with 5,096 coming back Negative for the virus, and 638 positive. The total number of tests administered to-date, amount to 816,710, with 723,312 Negative. The 14-day rolling average remains 8.8%. Health officials say 71,301 Iowans have recovered from the effects of COVID-19.

In the KJAN listening area, Cass County has four new Positive cases of COVID-19, for a total of 192. Other new, Positive test results include: 27 in Pottawattamie County; 13 more in Harrison County; 12 more cases in Guthrie County; six new positive cases were reported in Madison County; five more in Audubon County; three more each in Montgomery and Union Counties; there are two new cases in Shelby County, and one more case in Adams County. There was also one more death that took place in Pottawattamie County, for a total of 41.

Hospitalization data due to COVID-19 show: 402 are hospitalized as of today (compared to 393 yesterday); 100 patients are in an ICU (compared to 95 yesterday); 58 people have been admitted to a hospital (there were 66 yesterday), and 38 COVID patients are on a ventilator (2 more than on Friday). In western/southwest Iowa, 23 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, nine are in an ICU, two were admitted since yesterday, and no one is on a ventilator.

There are currently 52 long-term care facilities with coronavirus outbreaks, in Iowa. IDPH reports 1,132 positive cases and 684 recoveries within those facilities. There have been 709 deaths in Iowa’s long-term care facilities, five more than yesterday.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases in each county, the number of persons recovered, and the total number of [deaths] (if any), since the pandemic began:

• Cass, 192 cases; 163 recovered; 2 deaths
• Adair, 76; 50; 1
• Adams, 39; 28; 0
• Audubon, 103; 39; 1
• Guthrie, 287; 179; 10
• Harrison County, 310; 180; 5
• Madison County, 261; 186; 2
• Mills County, 214; 143; 1
• Montgomery, 108; 93; 5
• Pottawattamie County, 2,314; 1,803; 41
• Shelby County, 282; 254; 1
• Union County,  152; 102; 3