Lab results stemming from an investigation into a January accident in Taylor County has resulted in charges for the driver. The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office late Wednesday night, said charges of operating while under the influence of a combination of alcohol and drugs were filed against 60-year-old Ricky Scott, of Lenox.  Scott was driving a 2002 Ford F-150 on J-20 southwest of Lenox January 16th,  when he swerved to miss a dog. His pickup left the road and flipped onto its side in a ditch.

Scott was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Des Moines after the crash. Authorities say a specimen taken from Scott following the accident was sent to the Iowa DCI Laboratory for analysis. The Iowa State Patrol assisted in the crash investigation.

(Radio Iowa) — Sioux City’s homeless shelter has closed one month earlier than normal. Warming Shelter director Lindsay Landrum says board members made the difficult decision to close the shelter doors Wednesday for the season. “The coronavirus is the main reason — just because we don’t have the capabilities to quarantine people within the shelter,” Landrum says. “Not if they get sick, but when they get sick. We just don’t have the capabilities to do that.”

Landrum says their were concerns about the health of those staying at the shelter, as well as her staff. Around 30 people were standing on the streets around the shelter after they were told the building was closing — including this man. “This morning they just closed it down because they said someone had a high fever…so the closed down the warming shelter for the rest of the season, so a lot of us don’t have anywhere to go,” he says.

Landrum says some of the people staying there have been ill, but anyone coming in to stay was screened. “And what that screening process was, was taking their temperature and asking them some questions. And we did have a couple of people with a high fever — and they came back with a strep throat diagnoses. So, it wasn’t the virus at all,” Landrum says.

Landrum says she’s working with the city to find some housing and hotel vouchers for the homeless population. The shelter will continue to take donations for next season and also for the renovation of the building to expand their services.

(Radio Iowa) — One man is dead, another injured after a shooting in Marshalltown. Police found two gunshot victims when they arrived on the scene in the 400 block of Union Street just before 9:30 last (Wednesday) night. One of the victims, a 22-year-old male died at the scene. The other, a 27-year-old male was taken to Unity Point Health-Marshalltown with gunshot wounds.

No arrests have been made, the DCI is among the departments assisting Marshalltown Police with the investigation. It is the second fatal shooting in Marshalltown is less than two weeks.

Police in Red Oak arrested a woman following a minor injury accident Wednesday afternoon at the intersection of N. Eastern Avenue and E. Corning Street. Authorities say 49-year old Kai Dione Swanson, of Red Oak, was driving a 2011 Ford Explorer southbound on N. Eastern Ave., when the SUV went out of control, left the road, and struck a tree head-on. Swanson suffered a minor injury. She was checked out by medics but refused treatment and transport to the hospital.

Swanson was arrested for OWI/1st offense and transported to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, where her cash bond was set at $1,000.

(Radio Iowa) — State officials say there 280 ventilators available for use in the state right now. Critically ill COVID-19 patients will experience respiratory failure and need ventilators to breathe. Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management director Joyce Flinn says the state hopes to get more ventilators.

“We have some ventilators on order,” Flinn says. “I believe it’s a very small number because they’re very hard to find.” State officials are encouraging hospitals to use plans from the Centers for Disease Control and convert anesthesia machines into ventilators. Early last week, government officials indicated the number of ventilators in the state was confidential information because they’re part of emergency plans.

On Wednesday, officials released those numbers, along with an estimate that there are enough doctors, nurses and other caregivers employed today to hospitalize nine-thousand people. Flinn says data on the amount of face masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment currently available in Iowa is a constantly changing number.

“We’re buying lots of gowns, lots of gloves, swabs, test kits,” Flinn says. Purchases are being made by the state as well as individual hospitals around the state, according to Flinn. Iowa National Guard soldiers delivered protective equipment for medical staff to more than 20 county distribution sites around the state on Wednesday.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As the coronavirus becomes more prevalent in Iowa, the leaders of two large hospitals in the county with the most infections say they’re not pushing for a shelter-in-place order as adopted by neighboring states. Brooks Jackson, dean of the University of Iowa’s medical college, says it would be “very disruptive” economically. Sean Williams, the CEO of Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, says it would create unintended consequences hampering the hospitals’ ability to provide care. Both are in Johnson County, where most of Iowa’s cases are located. Officials said Wednesday that the number of Iowans who tested positive increased by 21 to 145.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Attorney General’s Office says those who operated an alleged national puppy-laundering ring masquerading as pet rescues have agreed to dissolve and pay the state $60,000 as part of a settlement. Attorney General Tom Miller last year sued two nonprofit rescue groups — Hobo K9 Rescue of Britt and Rescue Pets Iowa Corp. of Ottumwa — and others. The lawsuit accused them of working together to illegally transfer thousands of designer puppies through the sham rescue groups to out-of-state pet stores from September 2016 to September 2019. The defendants denied the allegations but agreed to the consent judgment.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The staff adviser to Iowa State University’s student government has resigned and received a $47,000 severance payout, weeks after student activists demanded his firing over an old social media post showing him in blackface. A separation agreement shows that Alex Krumm and university President Wendy Wintersteen agreed that his continued employment was no longer “in their best interests” and he resigned March 1. His departure came days after administrators met with a group called Students Against Racism to discuss its demand for Krumm’s termination and other changes. Krumm came under fire for a 2015 Instagram post that showed his face painted black when he played a mime in a student production at Wartburg College.

NASHUA, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 77-year-old man was fatally injured when an all-terrain vehicle rolled onto him in northeast Iowa. The accident happened Tuesday afternoon near Nashua. The Iowa State Patrol says Larry Moine was igniting some grass fires on his property when he tried to ascend a steep embankment. The ATV didn’t make it and instead rolled atop him. Authorities say he was pronounced dead later at Floyd County Medical Center in Charles City.

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds said Wednesday, she is not yet ready to recommend Iowa’s K-through-12 school closures be extended due to coronavirus concerns. “Initially, we recommended schools closing for four week (and) said we would reassess it, too,” Reynolds says “So we continue to, every day, evaluate where we’re at as a state and what or if additional steps need to be taken.”

Reynolds last week signed legislation that ensures schools are not required to make up any missed days through April 10th. Governors in other states have ordered schools to be closed for a longer period. Wisconsin’s schools, for example, are closed through at least April 24th. Iowa’s governor says it’s just too soon to say whether Iowa students may be returning to class on April 13th.

“I am not at a place that I can say we hope, at this point, we’ll be able to do something different,” Reynolds says, “because, you know, it is fluid.” Reynolds says her education director has assembled a task force to examine how online learning could be implemented statewide and ensure every child has access, but the group has not made any recommendations.

“We continue to every day evaluate where we’re at as a state and what or if additional steps need to be taken,” Reynolds says. The governor of Minnesota has just issued a “Stay at Home” order and the mayor of Cedar Rapids has sent a letter to Iowa’s governor, urging her to do the same. Reynolds addressed the issued during her daily news conference.

“Many of the steps that we have already taken are equivalent to the ‘stay at home’ orders that we are seeing in several of these states,” she says, “like closing schools and some businesses, implementing work-from-home and distant learning and reducing gatherings to 10 people.” Reynolds says those steps reduce the risk that COVID-19 patients will overwhelm the state’s hospitals.  “It’s important, also, that we keep Iowa open for business in a responsible way that protects the health of our people and our economy,” Reynolds says.

On Tuesday night, there were 23 patients being treated for COVID-19 in an Iowa hospital. The governor’s spokesman says there are currently 280 ventilators available in the state that are NOT in use and Iowa hospitals are using federal guidelines to convert anesthesia machines into ventilators.