(Radio Iowa) — As China deals with the corona virus outbreak, former Governor Terry Branstad — the current U.S. ambassador to China — plans to stay in Beijing. Governor Kim Reynolds says she hasn’t talked directly with Branstad, but one of her aides has. “The Ambassador is staying. We’re not sure what Chris is going to do, but the kids are planning on coming back,” Reynolds says.

Chris and Terry Brasntad have been married 47 years. Their daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters had been living in a guest house that’s part of the U.S. Ambassador’s complex in Beijing. Alison Branstad Costa is a teacher and she had landed a job at an international school in Beijing for the children of Americans living in China.

Reynolds says there is no evidence the corona virus is circulating in the U.S., but state public health officials have a plan if it does.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Police say a 71-year-old woman who was gravely injured in a hit-and-run as she crossed a Des Moines street has died. The Des Moines Register reported Thursday that Stephanie Markert died a week after being hit near the Drake University campus. First responders found Markert in the street with critical injuries on Jan. 30.

Police say she was the house mother for Delta Gamma sorority at Drake. Police are still searching for a man they want to question in the crash and have issued a material witness warrant for 41-year-old Isaias Flores-Morales of Des Moines.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrat Andrew Yang is restructuring his presidential campaign by laying off dozens of staffers following a distant sixth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. Campaign manager Zach Graumann said Thursday that the campaign is “restructuring to compete as the New Hampshire primary approaches.”

Graumann went on to call the plans “a natural evolution of the campaign post-Iowa, same as other campaigns have undertaken.” The statement followed a report by Politico that Yang’s campaign had fired dozens of staffers across the operation. Yang’s campaign told The Associated Press that most of those let go had been Iowa staff.

Stuart Sellers

The Atlantic Police Department reports the arrest Thursday at 10:30 a.m of 45-year-old Stuart Sellers of Red Oak on a Montgomery County Warrant for Interference with Official Acts (inflicts bodily injury) and Johnson County Warrants for Theft 1st Degree and Burglary 3rd Degree.

Sellers was observed by a concerned citizen exiting a stolen white 2006 Chevrolet 2500 pickup in the Walmart parking lot in Atlantic. The citizen followed at a distance while notifying Atlantic Police and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office. He was located a short distance away and arrested without incident. He was taken into custody and transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked in and later transferred to the Montgomery County Jail.

As we previously reported law enforcement in Montgomery County were investigating a theft from the University of Iowa Hospitals when Sellers fled from authorities. He was later suspected to have stolen the Chevy truck in Red Oak before leaving the area.

Authorities were able to recover a majority, if not all, of the stolen property from the hospital. The investigation is ongoing, and charges are currently pending against Sellers.

Red Oak Police would like to thank all of the citizens, media, and area law enforcement agencies for their due diligence in being alert and responsive to the incident. This goes to show that if you see something, say something and you can keep our communities safe.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A judge won’t allow evidence of internet searches to be used in the trial of an Iowa man accused of fatally stabbing a high school girl in Cedar Rapids more than 40 years ago. Jerry Burns is charged with killing 18-year-old Michelle Martinko on Dec. 19, 1979. Court documents say investigators found Burns’ browsing history included stories involving assault, rape, strangulation, murder and other violence. The Telegraph Herald reports that the judge ruled that the timing of the internet activity — at least 38 years after the slaying — was prejudicial and would harm Burns’ right to a fair trial.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The chairman of the Democratic National Committee is calling for a “recanvass”of the results of Monday’s Iowa caucus. Technical problems and delays have marred the first contest on the 2020 election calendar. The current results show Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders nearly tied with almost all the votes counted. But the race remained too early to call early Thursday, with 97% of precincts reporting. Party officials are scrambling to verify the remaining results three days after Iowans gathered at caucus sites across the state to begin choosing which Democrat will take on President Donald Trump in November.

A 56-year old man working for Cramer and Associates in Grimes died from injuries he suffered during a fall this (Thursday) morning, on Des Moines’ north side. According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the man – whose name was not immediately released – died after falling from a scaffolding while working on a river bridge near mile marker 133 on westbound Interstate 80. The man fell about 30-feet, according to officials. The accident happened at around 8:26-a.m.

Deputies found the man unresponsive, and suffering from a head injury. He was transported to a local hospital, where he died upon arrival.

(Radio Iowa) — A report that ranks the states on how prepared they are for emergencies now places Iowa in the highest tier of best-prepared state, up from the middle tier in 2019. Rhea Farberman, spokeswoman for Trust for America’s Health, says Iowa is doing very well in the ten main categories, including things like infection control, vaccination rates, access to safe water and public health funding. She notes 60-percent of Iowans who work have access to paid leave. “When someone has access to paid time off, be that personal time, vacation time or sick time, they tend to stay home when they’re sick and that helps control the spread of infectious disease,” Farberman says. “When someone does not have access to paid time off, they tend to go to work when they’re sick, and that spreads infectious disease.”

One category where Iowa lagged behind was in the percentage of hospitals that are part of a health care coalition. About 80-percent of Iowa’s hospitals have such alliances, while the national average is 89-percent. Farberman says those compacts are vital as resources are often taxed during an emergency, whether it’s a disease outbreak or a weather-related disaster. “They might need help from a neighboring county or a neighboring state,” Farberman says. “They might need more doctors or more nurses or more epidemiologists. Participating in these compacts and coalitions allows one jurisdiction to borrow medical personnel from another jurisdiction so the community needs are met during an emergency.”

There is growing global concern over the spread of coronavirus and officials from the Iowa Department of Public Health are already working to educate the public about the facts and the risks. “Coronavirus is just the latest example of why these indicators are important, why measuring preparedness is important, and why a standing, ready public health infrastructure is so important,” she says.

Iowa joins 24 other states in the high performance tier. There are 12 states in the middle tier and 13 in the low tier. See the full report, “Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism,” at the website: www.tfah.org

(Radio Iowa) — The latest competitiveness check released by the Iowa Business Council shows the lack of available workers remains the biggest threat to Iowa’s long-term growth. Vermeer Corporation chairwoman Mary Andringa of Pella is also chair of the Iowa Business Council. “Iowa faces a persistent shortage of available and skilled workforce and, indeed, as have been for a while we have more job openings than we have people unemployed,” she says, “so we definitely have a need to bring more people into the state.”

Vermeer manufactures heavy equipment that’s sold around the world and Andringa says 25 different languages are spoken by the company’s employees.  “We need to have immigration reform. It’s an outdated system. It’s cumbersome. I’ve got a lot of employees who have come from other countries to our country and it has taken 10 years to get their citizenship,” Andringa says. “There should be a better way.”

Andringa says Iowa’s cost of living and the short commute to work are also appealing to people who’ve moved from places like California and Portland, Oregon to work at Vermeer. During 2019, 163-thousand people worked companies that are members of the Iowa Business Council — and those 23 businesses had a total payroll of seven-and-a-half BILLION dollars.

BONDURANT, Iowa (AP) – The online retailer Amazon says it will be moving into a new warehouse in the Des Moines suburb of Bondurant. The Seattle-based company said Thursday it plans to hire 1,000 people for its fulfillment center. A smaller operation is being opened in Grimes, about 15 miles southwest of Bondurant. Local, state and company officials had tried to keep Amazon’s involvement in what was called Project Bluejay a secret. In November the Bondurant City Council approved six years of tax incentives for the project. Bondurant also agreed to improve the area infrastructure.