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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!
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa has won a three-point-seven-million dollar federal grant to expand mental health services in the wake of last month’s derecho. The funds will extend an effort already in place to help Iowans cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Karen Hyatt, at the Iowa Department of Human Services, says the program called Covid Recovery Iowa offers crisis counseling over the phone or online, as well as virtual support groups. “Since the derecho hit, we have seen an increase in all of those ways that people get ahold of us,” Hyatt says, “and the main thing, I would say 90% of the need right now is housing and finances.”
Staff are retooling the program so to will be inclusive for derecho survivors, who report struggling to pay bills and securing long-term housing. Hyatt says the pandemic is changing the program’s rollout. “We train the staff to go where the people are, and we work very hard at that,” Hyatt says. “In this grant, it’s the flip of that, right? It’s making sure that enough people know about it, but they have to come to us.”
The new grant will extend Covid Recovery Iowa through June of 2021. Services are available online at covid-recovery-iowa-dot-org and by phone at 844-775-9276.
(reporting By Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court is refusing to review lower court decisions that invalidated tens of thousands of voters’ absentee ballot requests at the urging of President Trump’s reelection campaign. The court issued orders Wednesday denying requests to put rulings in Linn and Woodbury counties on hold. The elections commissioners in those counties, an affected voter and Democratic-aligned groups had asked the court to intervene, saying thousands of voters could be disenfranchised and inconvenienced if the rulings stand. The court rejected all of their requests without explanation. Judges have ruled the counties overstepped by sending absentee ballot request forms to voters with their personal information already filled in.
Riverside School District Superintendent Dr. Tim Mitchell, today (Thursday), reports Pottawattamie County Public Health and Riverside Community School District have confirmed that one student in the Middle/High School Building has been confirmed positive for COVID-19. Mitchell says “Contact and location tracing has been completed by the district and Public Health and limited exposure has been determined. Any students and staff identified as having primary exposure have been notified and appropriate measures as identified by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Public Health and the Iowa Department of Education have been instituted.” The district, he says “Continues to utilize all recommended mitigation measures at school to provide a healthy and safe environment for the students and staff.”
General Mitigation Techniques
Atlantic Community School District Superintendent Steve Barber, this (Thursday) morning, issued a statement to Staff and Parents of students in the District. The statement said “We were notified last evening that we had positive COVID test results from individuals in the school district. We are following our Return to Learn plan and Cass County Public Health procedures in regards to quarantine. Individuals affected by these positive cases have been communicated with, which is our process.”
Barber says “We continue to follow mitigation strategies of social distancing, handwashing, mask usage, disinfecting, and other strategies. Although we have experienced a low positive case analysis rate, we must continue to follow our plan with fidelity.”
Mr. Barber told KJAN News if there’s any new information with regard to cancellations of games or events due to student/staff exposure, that information will be disseminated through the media and other sources. But as of today, there are no activities impacted by the positive test results.
More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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The latest edition of the Iowa Drought Monitor show significant improvements in all categories. The report shows none of the state is currently in extreme drought, and this week, almost 17% more of the state has escaped drought conditions altogether. In western and west central Iowa, the Extreme Drought we’ve been facing for months, was reduced to Severe Drought status.
Officials say the dramatic drought improvement came to many areas in the form of a multi-day rain event. Measurable rain fell each day from September 6-12 in Iowa locations such as Dubuque and Davenport, totaling 7.46 and 7.76 inches, respectively. During the same 7-day period, Moline, IL, received 5.97 inches. Broad improvements were introduced where the heaviest rain fell, but some eastern sections of the Midwest remained dry and saw some development or expansion of abnormal dryness (D0). Extreme drought (D3) was erased from Iowa, with only patch of D3 remaining in eastern Nebraska. In contrast, September 1-15 rainfall totaled just 0.04 inch (3% of normal) in Indianapolis, Indiana, and 0.50 inch (32%) in Saint Louis, Missouri.
(Radio Iowa) – The D-O-T is now offering the 90th version of a new license plate. D-O-T license plate administrator, Paul Cornelius, says the “Fly Our Colors” plate features the colors of the Iowa and U-S flags.”The top of the plate is blue and then the middle of the plate is white and the bottom of the plate would be red. And then it kind of has an eagle in the middle that is kind of gray that you can see through the plate,” Cornelius says.
Part of the money from the plate will go into the state’s flood mitigation fund. He says you can get the plate at your county treasurer’s office in a standard number version — or you can personalize the plate. “The 35 dollar initial fee would be for the flood mitigation fund…and then there’s a ten-dollar annual registration fee. That’s also for the flood mitigation fund, and that’s at the time of renewal,” according to Cornelius. “Then the personalized plates — it’s a 60-dollar initial fee — so you have your normal 25-dollar plate fee, then 35 dollars of that 60 goes to the flood mitigation fund.”
Cornelius says there are a couple of ways to order the new red, white and blue plate. You can get a standard number plate by going to the treasurer’s office. “If you want the personalized plate, then you would order that just like you would the blackout or any other one,” he says. “You can do that online. Or there’s a form that we use, there’s a special plate form that you can also fill out. You can get that from your county treasurer and mail that into the D-O-T.”
Cornelius says the hours vary at the 99 county treasurer offices, so you should check ahead to be sure they are open before you go there.
BEIJING (AP) — Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to China (former Iowa Governor) Terry Branstad says he will help Republicans campaigning in his native Iowa after returning home next month. Branstad also told Hong Kong’s Phoenix Television that he considers the “phase one” trade deal between China and the U.S. as the biggest achievement of his three years in China. The deal reached in January amid the ongoing tariff war between the sides represented a truce but did not address the more fundamental complaints of the American side.
Branstad, says he will campaign for President Donald Trump, Senator Joni Ernst and others purely as a volunteer.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police say a man has died after being shot at an apartment complex. Officers were called at 12:36 a.m. Thursday to investigate a shooting at the complex. When they arrived, they found people trying to help a 21-year-old man who had been shot. Fire department medics began treating the man and took him to a hospital, where he died. The death was the 19th homicide this year in Des Moines.
A traffic stop Wednesday afternoon in Creston resulted in the arrest of a man on a drug charge. Creston Police report 34-year old Alejandro Jose Alejo, of Del Rey, CA., was arrested at Highway 34 and W. Taylor St., a little after 3-p.m. Alejo was charged with Possession of Controlled Substance – Marijuana 1st Offense, and Child Endangerment. He was taken to Union County Jail, posted bond, and was released.