CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (The Gazette) — An Iowa judge has ruled that a state law blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving federal money for sex education programs is unconstitutional. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that Fifth Judicial District Judge Paul Scott ruled Wednesday in the case. Scott wrote that the law violates Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s right to equal protection and “has no valid, ‘realistic conceivable’ purpose that serves a legitimate government interest …”

In his ruling, Scott issued a permanent injunction to prevent the law’s implementation.

The Atlantic School Board met in a special electronic session this (Friday) morning, and approved 2020-21 Master Contracts for the Atlantic (School District) Employee and Education Associations. The Employees Association Contract ages the schedule, affecting 70 employees, and provides for an 18-cent per hour increase in wages over 2019-20. The contract is for one-year, beginning July 1, 2020 and ending June 30, 2021. The total package cost is $68,357.

Superintendent Steve Barber explained what it means to “Age” the schedule.

The schedule covers up to seven-years. With regard to the Atlantic Education Association Contract, Barber said it’s basically an Alternative Compensation model, with the previous Certified salary schedule replaced by a Certified Base Wage schedule for 2020-21. The base wage for a BA is $32,124.

(A BA+15 would receive a $1,300 increase ($33,409 salary); BA +30: $1,500 ($34,694); BA+50 MA: $1,700 ($35,979) ; MA+15 : a $1,900 increase over the base ($37,264), and with an MA+30, a $2,100 increase ($38,549).)

The alternative compensation model has increase to the base wage of $1,325 for BA, all the way up to $1,590 for the MA+30. Barber said by equalizing the TSS payments, some individuals may receive more. Nurses receive the same percentage of increase in their respective educational lanes. The supplemental pay generator will increase by $825, so the percentages of each position outlined in the supplemental fee schedule has a base generator of $44,325 from the 2020 school year, for a duration of one-year.

The total cost of the two changes amounts to $152,076.

Police in Creston report 18-year old Gage William Meggison, of Creston, was arrested at his home recently, for Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana-1st offense. Meggison was released from the Union County Law Enforcement Center on a Promise to Appear in court.

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 CAM Community School District report 4-year old Preschool Registration will take place online for the upcoming school year. CAM Preschool is open to any child who turns 4 by Sept. 15, 2020. Kindergarten is open to any child who turns 5 by Sept. 15th. (The online form can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FkS4Sl7lsMjlGIRHfDRrP4c77AVG4ZdZgM4VtJyDVRg/viewform?ts=5eb2c3b4&fbclid=IwAR1KzHOa1K7_y8j5TogJiHWdoTiEborT1Q39EWqIgyScL5br-Zo6OpVHxRk&edit_requested=true)

If your child is in the CAM South Region, please contact: Principal Larry Hunt, at lhunt@cam.k12.ia.us, or Lora Blomme, Preschool Teacher, at lblomme@cam.k12.ia.us.

If your child is in the CAM North Region, please contact: Principal Barry Bower, at bbower@cam.k12.ia.us, or Preschool Teacher Shannon Paup, at spaup@cam.k12.ia.us.

For other questions, call the school or your building principal:

CAM South 712-779-2211

CAM North 712-762-3343

(Radio Iowa) — Black Hawk County officials say more than a thousand employees at the Tyson plant in Waterloo have tested positive for the coronavirus. That’s more than double the number released by state officials earlier this week. Joshua Pikora with the county public health department says the state-related total of 444 employees only included testing that was done onsite at the plant.

“The 1031 reported cases includes those positive results from the onsite testing, positive test results from local healthcare providers here in Black Hawk County, as well as the positive serology tests that give us the complete picture of scope of illness in our county,” he says. Pikora says those cases do not include family members or roommates who may also have tested positive.

As of Thursday, the county had 1703 confirmed cases. Tyson’s pork plant in Waterloo resumed limited operations at the plant yesterday (Thursday). More than 28-hundred usually work in the facility.

(Radio Iowa) — There’s confusion about whether the state’s medical director will be a member of the federal coronavirus task force. On Wednesday, Dr. Caitlin Pedati went to D.C. with the governor for meetings in the White House. Trump complimented Pedati, saying he’d love for her to be on the task force. On Thursday, Governor Reynolds mentioned it.

“I think Iowans should be proud,” Reynolds says. “I certainly am.” Bloomberg News is reporting, however, that Pedati will be appointed to a subcommittee of sorts, but not the actual task force. President Trump mused about disbanding the task force, but has decided to keep it.

Vice President Mike Pence, who has been leading the group, is scheduled to visit Iowa today (Friday). Pence will host a roundtable discussion about the security of the U.S. food supply early this (Friday) afternoon. The meeting will be held at Hy-Vee headquarters.

(Radio Iowa) — An iconic western Iowa restaurant is closing for good. Cronk’s Cafe in Denison opened in 1929. Eric and Terri Skoog have owned the restaurant since 1984. Presidential candidates from both political parties have campaigned in the cafe. “I think we’ve done just about everything you possibly could,” Eric Skoog says. “We’ve had weddings and funerals and birthday parties for young and old.” Skoog says he and his wife wrestled with the decision to close.

“It’s been in the back of our minds,” Skoog says. “We were trying to figure out what the exit strategy was going to be and that was even a year or two ago.” The restaurant has had a string of owners over the past eight decades. Skoog, who bought the restaurant from his father, says it’ll be a rough patch for restaurant owners in the near term, until the pandemic subsides. He is still hoping to find a new buyer.

“I really hope the Cronk’s name stays,” Skoog says. “I mean, I wasn’t a Cronk. We inherited that.” The cafe sits along Highway 30, what used to be called The Lincoln Highway. Skoog says back in the day when Cronk’s was open at all hours the Sons of the Pioneers and other bands would stop to eat in the middle of the night as they traveled from show to show.

One person died during a tanker truck rollover accident Thursday afternoon, in Page County. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2015 International truck driven by 68-year old Donald Merlin McAllister, of Farragut, was traveling west on 170th about one-quarter of a mile west of H Avenue at around 2:55-p.m., when for reasons unknown, the truck went off the road into the north ditch.

When the vehicle rolled over, McAllister was partially ejected. He died at the scene. The truck came to rest on its top and was totaled in the crash.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence has called Iowa’s response to the coronavirus “a success story” but he may find a less rosy reality when he visits Des Moines on Friday. A recent rise in confirmed infections in the city has alarmed the mayor and medical officials. Even the federal coronavirus task force Pence leads has expressed concern about the city’s toll. Pence is scheduled to encourage faith leaders to responsibly resume in-person church services, even as many say they’ll refrain for now to stop the virus’s spread. Pence will also meet with grocery and agriculture leaders to discuss food supply.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Investigators from multiple states are looking into whether a long-haul trucker from Iowa who’s implicated in three women’s slayings in the 1990s could be responsible for other unsolved homicides. Officers arrested 58-year-old Clark Perry Baldwin in Waterloo on Wednesday after new DNA evidence allegedly tied him to three women whose bodies were dumped in Wyoming and Tennessee in the early 1990s. Court documents allege that he also raped and choked a woman in Texas in 1991. A spokesman says detectives with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation are “looking at any connections” that Baldwin may have to cold cases from that era. He says other agencies are also scrutinizing Baldwin.

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — A day after Iowa’s governor appeared at the White House and took compliments for her management of the coronavirus pandemic, the state reported it has surpassed 11,000 known positive cases and 231 deaths. Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday announced a broader reopening of business in Iowa. Malls and fitness centers in 22 counties with the highest level of infections are allowed to reopen Friday, with some restrictions. Such businesses in Iowa’s 77 other counties have already reopened.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Crews working to finish fixing levees busted in last year’s deluge are getting some help from the weather. John Remus, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said Thursday that it is “much better shape” than a year ago. The flooding last spring along the Missouri River and its tributaries inundated thousands of acres of farmland in parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. Among 61 levees approved for repair in an area spanning from Rulo, Nebraska, to the mouth of Mississippi River, about half have been restored to the height they were before last spring’s deluge. Upstream of Rulo, all but one levee has been restored to pre-flood height.