(Radio Iowa) — High school students from across Iowa are invited to a virtual event this weekend that might help them chart a career path. The Future Career and College Fair is being held Sunday and features more than 70 colleges, universities, and career resources from across Iowa and across the U-S. Brittania Morey, spokeswoman for ICAN — the College Access Network for Iowa, is helping organize the online gathering.  “It’s a single event that can help a student explore all of their options,” Morey says. “We start with career assessments. We have business and industry exhibitors who can talk about what career options are available and what, as employers, they expect. And we have education and training exhibitors, registered apprenticeship programs, military academies, and colleges and universities to talk about all of their different programs.”

Last year, the event attracted about two-thousand students and their parents but by going virtual, Morey expects the draw to be much larger. “Normally, this would have taken place at the end of March in Cedar Rapids. We did push it back to the end of May, hoping that we could hold it in person,” Morey says. “It’s now switched to virtual and that really opens it up to any student in the state. We probably wouldn’t have had western Iowa students drive across the state to attend a physical fair in Cedar Rapids but now they have the opportunity to attend virtually.”

The online experience is designed to offer the same face-to-face connections as the in-person event, just through a screen from the comfort of home. Each exhibitor will have a virtual booth complete with webcam and audio features, so students and parents can chat with the representatives. “It is a little harder to catch someone’s eye, so what we’ve done is create a scavenger hunt that we will provide to all of the registered students that will get them to explore booths that maybe they wouldn’t have initially thought to stop at,” Morey says. “The idea will be to get them to talk with a multitude of exhibitors and not just the ones they initially thought they might be interested in.”

The free event will be held Sunday from 1 to 3 PM. To attend, students need to register at www.icansucceed.org/icrfuture-student.

(Radio Iowa) — Three young people from Fort Dodge have died in an out-of-state accident. The accident occurred Wednesday morning when 20-year-old Richard Davis was driving along Highway 7 in Benton County, Missouri, when his vehicle went off the road and hit a tree. Davis, along with two passengers, 18-year-old Matayah McLoughlin and a 14-year-old boy, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The name of the 14-year-old boy has not been released and no further details were available.

Police in Creston report 18-year old Jacob Rushing, of Creston, was arrested Wednesday night, for Possession of a Controlled Substance/1st offense. The Creston Police K9 “Jax” was deployed and assisted during the interview process and subsequent arrest. Rushing was later released from the Union County Law Enforcement Center on a Promise to Appear in court. And, Wednesday evening, 26-year old Jacob Jones, of Corning, was arrested in Creston for Public Intoxication. He too, was later released on a Promise to Appear in court.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reports 500 Iowans have died from COVID-19, 12 more than what was reported Wednesday.  Iowans tested for the virus number 142,023, with 18, 474 testing positive. Test that have come back as negative for COVID-19 amount to 123,128. A total of 10,137 have recovered from the virus.

For Cass and surrounding counties, here is the latest data on positive cases and those who have recovered (in parenthesis):

• Cass: 11 (2) * no change from Wed.
• Adair: 8 (3)
• Adams: 7 (1)
• Audubon: 12 (8)*
• Guthrie: 45 (29)
• Montgomery: 6 (5)*
• Pottawattamie: 228 (140)
• Shelby: 34 (25)*

Across the State, the Regional Medical Classification Centers (RMCC’s) report: 383 patients are hospitalized for COVID-19;  112 patients are in an ICU; 30 people were admitted to hospitals in the last 24-hours; 67 patients are on ventilators. In RMCC Region 4 (western/southwest Iowa): 9 patients are hospitalized for COVID-19 (1 more than yesterday); 8 are in an ICU (up 5 from Wednesday), and 4 people were admitted over the past 24-hours. Three patients are on ventilators.

Rescue crews and law enforcement were called at 5:15-a.m. today to a residence in Griswold, for a report of a 30-year old male who was suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. The victim was in a vehicle in front of the residence. The Medical Examiner’s Office was also notified.

KJAN is withholding the street and house number information at this time, pending further details from law enforcement, and out of respect for the family.