(Radio Iowa) – A local health official is scolding University of Iowa football fans for packing into downtown Iowa City bars on Saturday to watch the first game of the season. At times, the lines at some establishments stretched out the door. The crowded, indoor social gatherings during the pandemic are a concern for Sam Jarvis, the community health manager for Johnson County Public Health.

Elsewhere in town, students held large house parties, or pulled TVs outside to watch the Hawks in small groups. Jarvis says it’s incredibly important for Iowans to continue to take precautions to slow the spread of coronavirus.

COVID-19 cases in Johnson County declined dramatically after Governor Kim Reynolds closed bars earlier this fall. Now that those restrictions are lifted, a resurgence in cases is a constant worry. Statewide, hospitals are seeing a surge in patients as cases and deaths increase. According to the New York Times, Iowa’s death rate is twice that of the nation as a whole.

(By Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio)

The Creston Police Department reports 24-year old Chance Newton, of Corning, was arrested Sunday night. Newton was arrested a little before 8-p.m. in the 600 block of New York Ave. on a charge of Driving While Revoked. He was released from the Union County Jail on a $1000 bond.

And, last Friday morning, a Creston man residing in the 400 block of N. Sumner Street, informed Police that sometime during the overnight of Oct. 20th, someone broke into his vehicle that was parked at his residence. A DeWalt Vacuum cleaner and a wallet containing cash were taken. The loss was estimated at $190.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Police in eastern Iowa say a woman was shot to death inside a busy Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Davenport. The Quad-City Times reports that the shooting happened just after 7:30 p.m. Sunday — the second of two fatal shootings Sunday in Davenport. Police say a woman shot another woman inside the restaurant, then fled. Officers arrived to find a woman unresponsive with gunshot wounds. She was taken to an area hospital and pronounced dead. Police have not yet released her name or reported any arrests in the case. Police say the first shooting occurred around 11 a.m. Sunday outside a home, killing 19-year-old Lavonte Lee Baker.

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — Officials say Ocala (Florida) Police Chief Greg Graham died in a single-engine plane crash in north Florida. Marion County Sheriff’s officials say Graham was the only person in the plane when it crashed Sunday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash. Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn says Graham had recently received his pilot’s license. Graham had been in the Ocala police department for many years. He left in 2008 to become chief in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He returned to Ocala to head the agency when the police chief resigned in late December 2011.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s fourth congressional district race features a Republican who knocked out G-O-P incumbent Steve King in the June Primary and a Democrat who came within three points of defeating King in 2018. Republicans have a 77-thousand voter registration edge over Democrats in the fourth congressional district. Democrat J.D. Scholten of Sioux City, a former professional baseball player who is a paralegal, is counting on his strategy of visiting all 374 communities in the district this year. “I think one of the biggest strengths of our campaign both last cycle and this cycle is showing up,” Scholten says. “We went to all 39 counties at least three times last cycle. Last fall, we did the ‘Don’t Forget About Us’ tour where we went into towns of under a 1000 people and did town halls there.”

Republican Randy Feenstra of Hull, a Dordt University business professor, is a former Sioux County Treasurer who promises to push for more federal tax cuts. “I’ve served in the Iowa Senate the last 12 years where I have produced results time and time again,” Feenstra says. “…When I get to congress, I’ll do the same thing. I’ll also fight against the Green New Deal and the government take-over of health care.” Feenstra says he wants to serve on the House Ag Committee if elected and help write the 2022 Farm Bill. “We’re the second largest district in the nation when it comes to agriculture,” Feenstra says. “Virtually everything pivots around agriculture. When our agriculture is successful, our Main Streets are successful.”

Scholten says he’ll pressure federal agencies to break up the monopolies in agriculture. “Right now in hogs, four companies control 70% of the market share,” Scholten says. “Right now cattle, four companies control 85% of the market share.” Scholten says if elected, he will not support giving Nancy Pelosi another term as House Speaker and will press for campaign finance reform. Feenstra met with President Trump in the Oval Office in late September and Trump, who won the 4th district overwhelmingly in 2016, has tweeted his “compete and total endorsement” of Feenstra.