The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office, Thursday, said they had received a report of an email scam. An individual reported they received an email that appeared to be from Mediacom Billing. The email said there was an issue with the payment method the customer used, and requested they click a link to update their personal banking information. The email address in the “From” line was: UF4@mediacombb.net.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reached out to Mediacom, who verified that the email address their customer received did not come from the company. Any email coming from Mediacom, they said, would end with: @mediacomcc.com.

Authorities say you should be “Very observant when receiving emails or phone calls requesting you provide your personal information. If you feel it’s a scam call the company directly.” Mediacom says if you receive a questionable email, should forward that email to their abuse team at: abuse@mediacomcc.com.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa’s thousands of restaurants have been closed for a full month by the pandemic, with some offering only carry-out and delivery, yet an annual contest to name the state’s top breaded pork tenderloin sandwich is still on. Kelsey Sutter, spokeswoman for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, says they wrestled with the idea. “We talked about whether or not we should postpone this contest, if we should wait until later in the year when restaurants are able to open their doors again,” Sutter says. “The more we thought about it, the more we wanted to move forward and provide as much love and encouragement — via social media — that we can to restaurants across the state. We know that they’re hurting.”

Sutter says they’re re-writing the contest rules this year to include all eateries, even the hundreds that may not reopen once the pandemic clears. “Whether a restaurant is open right now doing take-out or not, we want people to nominate their favorite tenderloin,” Sutter says. “Everyone remembers what they taste like. If they offer take-out, go order it, go get your favorite tenderloin to go, and then get on IowaPork.org and give them a nomination.”  The deadline to submit an entry is June 6th.

“We don’t need to physically start the judging until we get our top 40 which is July 1,” Sutter says, ” so we’re pretty confident and we’re hoping that restaurants will be in full swing by July 1.” The winner will be announced in mid-October during Iowa Pork Month. Last year’s winner was The Pub at the Pinicon in New Hampton.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Adair County Secondary Roads Department reports an upcoming construction project will start on Monday, April 20th, and last for 5-7 weeks, weather permitting. The slightly more than 7-mile long asphalt paving and resurfacing project on County Road (CR) G-27 (160th St.) starts at the Adair-Cass county line and continues east to Fontanelle Road. The portion from the Adair-Cass County line to Delta Ave. will be closed to through traffic. A detour for the closed portion will be as shown on the map below. The remaining portion will be open to traffic using flaggers and pilot cars.

A Red Oak woman was arrested at around 7:35-p.m. Thursday, for Public Intoxication. 37-year old Risa Mae Lutton was taken into custody in the 2300 block of N. 4th Street in Red Oak, and transported to the Montgomery County Jail. Her bond was set at $300.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa’s congressional delegation and the leaders of ag and commodity groups are warning the coronavirus pandemic significantly damaging the rural economy. Some dairy farmers have dumped milk due to the dramatic drop in demand. Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who served eight years as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, is now president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. He’s joining the call for federal purchases of dairy products for food banks.

“It’s time for the USDA to minimize the barriers to getting food supplies out to people in need,” Vilsack says, “and it’s time for them to maximize creativity in terms of the assistance and help that it can provide.” Former Iowa Agriculture Secretary Patty Judge is co-founder of a group called Focus on Rural America. She says the mom-and-pop shops that small towns depend upon will die without more federal support.

“We are facing tough, tough times,” she says. “…We cannot structure aid packages so that only the big survive.” She says bailouts to airlines, oil companies and cruise lines won’t help the rural economy. National Farmers Union President Rob Larew says aid must go to those who need it the most. “It needs to be swift. It needs to be targeted and it needs to be done with an eye toward the long-term viability of these rural communities and for family farmers.”

Senator Chuck Grassley tweeted yesterday (Thursday) that he’s asked President Trump to give special attention to the closure of pork and beef processing plants. Grassley, along with Senator Joni Ernst, Congressman Dave Loebsack and Congresswomen Cindy Axne and Abby Finkenauer have all co-signed a letter to the U-S-D-A. They’re asking the agency to compensate farmers who cannot sell their cattle and pigs because the plants in Columbus Junction and Tama are closed.

Earlier this week, Congressman Steve King accused the meatpacking industry of manipulating prices and he called for a federal investigation.

(Radio Iowa) — The federal program providing emergency loans to small businesses has run out of money. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst supports providing the program an additional 250-BILLION in federal funds. “As of Tuesday, there were more than 22,000 loans that had been approved with small businesses receiving $3.5 billion so far,” Ernst says, “and that’s just the state of Iowa.”

Senate Democrats say they support putting another quarter of a trillion dollars in the small business loan program — but they’re asking for more money for hospitals as well as states and local governments hit with pandemic-related expenses. Republicans like Ernst say a discussion about that assistance can wait and the senate needs to quickly pass a simple bill that just provides more money for small businesses.

“No political gimmicks, just a simple ask to put more money in this program,” Ernst says. “Unfortunately, politics got in the way.” Congress originally approved 350 BILLION dollars for what’s called the “Paycheck Protection Program” since the small business loans will be forgiven if the 75 percent of the loan is used to pay workers. The 350-BILLION dollars ran out yesterday (Thursday).

Also yesterday, Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann blasted a pro-Democratic group for running an ad that criticizes Ernst. The ad features a doctor who’s the spouse of a former Iowa Democratic Party leader.

(Radio Iowa) — An Iowa native who first gained fame from his role on “That ’70s Show” has a COVID-19 message for his home state.

Ashton Kutcher’s 30-second public service message about staying at home was debuted by Governor Kim Reynolds yesterday (Thursday) at her daily news conference. Kutcher is not visible in the message, but his voice narrates as video of Iowa families, at home, leads to video of health care workers on the front lines of fighting the disease. It ends with the hash tag #Iowans Unite and the new state website with coronavirus on the screen.

Kutcher is a Cedar Rapids native. Cedar Rapids is in the 14-county region of the state where the governor has just forbid most public gatherings in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. No additional business closures have been ordered in the area.

(Radio Iowa) — Officials at a pork processing plant in Sioux City say an employee has a confirmed case of COVID-19. The Seaboard Triumph plant employs 24-hundred. The company announced in a news release that the employee who has COVID-19 has not reported to work since being tested and there are no other confirmed cases of the coronavirus connected to the plant.

Two other meat packing plants in Iowa, in Tama and Columbus Junction, are closed due to outbreaks of the virus among employees. Yesterday (Thursday), Iowa’s governor said there is a suspected outbreak at the pork plant in Waterloo that is still operating.

One of the nation’s largest pork processing facilities — in Sioux Falls, South Dakota — is closed. More than 600 employees there have tested positive for COVID-19 and one worker has died.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:15 a.m. CDT

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds is ordering residents in northeastern Iowa to practice stricter social distancing amid growing concerns about coronavirus outbreaks at meatpacking plants and nursing homes. Reynolds on Thursday said she is banning “all gatherings” for social, community, recreational and leisure purpose in the region that includes Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Dubuque. Previously, the governor had banned all gatherings larger than 10 statewide. Reynolds said that residents can only gather with household members, with few exceptions, and they must do everything possible to stay six feet away from others in public. They can go outside for work and essential errands.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds refused to say whether she was asked to join with other Midwest governors in coordinating the reopening of their state economies. The governors of seven Midwestern states announced Thursday they had agreed to work together to restart their economies amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Midwest agreement includes Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kentucky. Five of the governors are Democrats and two are Republicans. Reynolds’ spokesman Pat Garrett says she will continue to have conversations with other governors but didn’t respond when asked if she was asked to join the Midwest group.

TIFFIN, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have obtained search warrants as they investigate the suspicious death of a 15-year-old boy whose body was found over the weekend in a lake near Iowa City. The Gazette reports that the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is not commenting on what led authorities to look in Coralville Lake for Noah Herring, who was last seen in nearby Tiffin on April 7. Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sgt. Brad Kunkel told The Gazette on Thursday that Herring’s body was found Saturday with assistance from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Unemployment claims continued to surge last week in Iowa as more workers lost their jobs amid efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but the numbers came in lower than the previous week’s record high. The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that 46,356 people in Iowa filed for unemployment benefits in the week that ended April 11. While high, the number is a drop from the record 67,334 people who filed in the first week of April and the 58,000 who filed the week before that. Pandemic-related layoffs in several industries, from health care to manufacturing and food services, were driving factors behind Iowa’s claims.