KJAN News can be heard at five minutes after every hour right after Fox News 24 hours a day!
Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
KJAN News can be heard at five minutes after every hour right after Fox News 24 hours a day!
Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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Officials with the AHSTW School District announced Thursday, the District’s Board of Education will hold a Special Meeting 4-p.m. today (Friday), in the Elementary School Library in Avoca. The only action item on their agenda is a “Return to Learn” Plan. The District began a continuous learning/remote education plan on Tuesday, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. That plan is set to run through today.
In a separate message, school officials said Thursday, they are continuing to assess absenteeism percentages, and are hoping to have decisions and plans regarding their learning format for the week of October 5th ready to share, following today’s Special Meeting.
Iowa health officials reported that over the past 24-hours (as of 10-a.m. Friday) there were 1,142 new, positive COVID-19 cases (including 4 more in Cass County) for a statewide total of 90, 754, and nine more deaths (including 2 more in Harrison County and 1 more in Pottawattamie County), for a total of 1,367. Deaths attributed to a pre-existing medical condition amount to 933. There have been 7,137 Lab results returned since 10-a.m. Thursday, for a total of 810, 551. Of the latest results, 6,337 came back Negative for COVID-19 (for a total of 718,259), and 791 were positive, for a 14-day rolling average of 8.7%. The number of Iowans who have recovered from the virus is 70,420. As of Friday, 85 of Iowa’s 99 counties have a positivity rate exceeding 5%, the rate at which many public health experts recommend a mask mandate.
New, positive test results in the KJAN listening area include: 43 more in Pottawattamie County; 8 new cases in Madison County; 7 more cases in Harrison County; 6 new cases of COVID-19 in Mills County; 5 more cases in Cass and Montgomery Counties; 2 new cases in Guthrie and Shelby Counties, and 1 additional case in Union County.
Hospitalization data due to COVID-19 show: 393 are hospitalized as of today, compared to 407 yesterday; 95 patients are in an ICU (compared to 104 yesterday); 66 people have been admitted to a hospital (there were 53 yesterday), and 36 COVID patients are on a ventilator (3 more than Thursday). In western/southwest Iowa, 24 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, 10 are in an ICU (2 more than Thursday), 4 were admitted since yesterday, and no one is on a ventilator.
There are now 53 long-term care facilities with coronavirus outbreaks in Iowa. IDPH reports 1,127 positive cases and 695 recoveries within those facilities. There have been 704 deaths in Iowa’s long-term care facilities, six 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:
Members of the Griswold School Board will hold a Special Session 5:30-p.m. Monday, in the Griswold Elementary School Library (20 Madison Street). Superintendent Dave Henrichs says the purpose of the meeting is to consider and act on: the format of parent-teacher conferences, and implementing a mask mandate.
(Radio Iowa) – Vice President Mike Pence drew cheers from crowds in Iowa yesterday as he vowed Republicans will soon fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. “And Judge Amy Coney Barrett is going to be Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court of the United States,” Pence said, to cheers in Des Moines.
Pence spoke at a manufacturing plant in Carter Lake early Thursday afternoon, then addressed about 600 people at an event in downtown Des Moines hosted by The Family Leader. Pence says the president nominated a remarkable, conservative woman and he challenged Democrats to provide her a “respectful” Senate confirmation hearing.
“When she was nominated to the Court of Appeals, during Judge Barrett’s confirmation hearing, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee criticized her Catholic faith, saying: ‘The dogma lives loudly within you.'” California Democrat Dianne Feinstein is the senator who questioned how Barrett’s faith would influence her opinions as a judge. Pence says that criticism had been revived by “Hollywood elites” opposed to Barrett’s ascension to the Supreme Court.
“That dogma lives loudly in me. That dogma lives loudly in hundreds of millions of Americans and every American who cherishes faith has the right to live and work and worship according to the dictates of our faith and conscience, enshrined in the Constitution of the United States,” Pence said. The crowd gave his statement a standing ovation. This was the vice president’s fifth trip to Iowa this year. He promised his Iowa audiences a Covid vaccine is “weeks away.”
Joe Biden’s deputy campaign manager issued a written statement responding to Pence’s visit, saying after nearly 90-thousand Iowans contracted Covid, there’s no end in sight to the pandemic’s impact on the health and finances of Iowans.
Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT
UNDATED (AP) — Another 16 people in Iowa have died of the coronavirus as the number of confirmed infections continues to soar. Iowa reported the 16 deaths in the past 24 hours Thursday as well as 1,057 new confirmed coronavirus cases. There now have been 1,358 deaths and 89,612 confirmed positive cases. The state reported 18 deaths Wednesday. The high numbers come as hospitalizations surged past 400, a number not reached in Iowa since May. More than 50 patients a day have been admitted for treatment of COVID-19 in each of the past nine days, the most consecutive days of that level of hospitalizations.
LE MARS, Iowa (AP) — Relatives of four people people killed in a 2018 plane crash in central Iowa allege in new lawsuits that a maintenance error caused carbon monoxide to enter the plane’s cabin, causing the crash. The lawsuits, announced Thursday, name Ultra Flight LLC, an aviation maintenance facility in Le Mars, and its owner, Tomas Mullally. The single-engine Piper took off from the airport in Le Mars on Nov. 9, 2018, and crashed into a cow pasture near Guthrie Center, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) away. Autopsies determined that all four victims suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld has announced plans to retire after the school’s board finds his successor. Harreld, a former corporate executive and Harvard Business School instructor, has led the Big Ten university since 2015. His tenure has been difficult in recent months as the school has faced a coronavirus outbreak, deep budget cuts and heavy turnover in key administrative positions. Harreld said that he has asked the Iowa Board of Regents to begin the search for his replacement, saying he believes it could take longer than usual given the pandemic. He says he’ll stay on until his successor begins.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Des Moines school board approved a plan to return to in-classroom learning, but it included metrics for allowable coronavirus infection rates that the district doesn’t currently meet. That makes it unclear if students will actually return to school as planned. The board voted 6-1 on Wednesday night to gradually implement a hybrid learning plan, starting with prekindergarten on Oct. 12. Students can choose to remain in all remote learning or opt for 50% instruction in classrooms. Despite approving a plan to return to classrooms, the board set several metrics for coronavirus infection rates as well as student and staff absences. If school were to begin immediately, the district would not be in compliance with at least one of those standards.
(Radio Iowa) – With 33 days left until Election Day, Vice President Mike Pence is campaigning in Iowa.
During a speech early this (Thursday) afternoon in western Iowa, Pence began by praising Trump’s performance in Tuesday night’s debate.
Early this (Thursday) afternoon, Pence spoke to about 275 people in a Carter Lake plant that makes galvanized metal parts for bridges and other structures. The visit gave Pence an audience in Iowa, where polls suggest there’s a tight race for Iowa’s six Electoral College votes, and in Nebraska, where one of its Electoral College votes in the Omaha area is up for grabs.
Pence touted President Trump’s appointments to federal courts drawing huge cheers from the crowd. Pence promised a Covid vaccine would be available before the end of this year and the country’s economy would continue its comeback.
This is Pence’s sixth visit to Iowa this year and he hinted at his own aspirations to run for president in 2024. After the crowd chanted: “four more years” for Trump, Pence gave the audience a check list for speaking with their neighbors.
Later this (Thursday) afternoon Pence will speak at a fundraiser in Des Moines for The Family Leader, a Christian conservative group. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — a potential Pence rival for the Republican Party’s 2024 nomination — spoke to the group this summer.
(Radio Iowa) – Fifteen inmates and one staff member at the state prison in Clarinda have tested positive for the coronavirus according to a spokesman for the state prison system. Jessica Erdman, the Page County Public Health Administrator, says the source of the outbreak hasn’t been pinpointed. “They’re pretty inundated right now so they haven’t really been able to sit down and go over everything with us as of yet,” she says. “We’re hoping to get that done just sometime today or tomorrow.”
A total of 30 cases of Covid in Page County were confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) — the highest one-day total for the county since the pandemic began. “Keep wearing your mask and keep social distancing and you know we are seeing a good amount of spread here in the county and we would really like to get that number back down,” Erdman says. “The month of September has been our highest month, to date, so we are hoping October is a better month for us.”
Erdman says the Clarinda Lutheran School will shift all students online Monday because at least seven confirmed Covid cases are associated with the school.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A man who shot and killed two people and injured two others in a Cedar Rapids parking lot has been sentenced to 75 years in prison. KCRG-TV reports that 27-year-old Andre Richardson was sentenced Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in June to two counts of second-degree murder, attempted murder and other charges. The shooting happened in May 2019 outside a smoke shop near Kirkwood Community College. Matrell Johnson and Royal Abram, both 18, died in the shootings. Two others also were hit by bullets but survived.
Audubon Police Chief Matt Starmer has issued a report on arrests. The dates, location and other pertinent information in each case, was not released. Chief Starmer says: