Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CDT

ALTOONA, Iowa — Altoona police, Monday morning, shot and killed a middle-aged white male, who they say was armed with a weapon outside a motel. According to a Press Release from the Altoona Police Department, officers responded at around 8:33-a.m., to a report of a suspicious person with a weapon went to Motel 6. Altoona police Sgt. Alyssa Wilson said in the announcement, officers arrived on-scene and located a man outside the motel, with a gun in his hand. Authorities began to negotiate with the subject, but their attempts were unsuccessful. At around 9:08-a.m., Officers reported “Shots fired.” The subject died at the scene.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As demand continues to surge at food banks, the federal government is preparing to spend another $1.5 billion on a program that has provided a key source of fresh food to charities this summer as they work to feed the hungry. Despite initial criticism about some distributors chosen for the program and a few logistical headaches, food banks have praised it for helping provide high quality produce, meat and dairy products to millions of Americans who abruptly lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. But food bank officials say the government could help more by expanding the food stamp program, known as SNAP, which reaches far more people.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Hundreds of students from the Des Moines Public Schools and the Ames Community School District marched to the governor’s mansion Monday to protest the decision to suspend sports and start the school year online. The “Student March for Fairness” comes after the Iowa High School Athletic Association told the schools last week that all in-person activities and sports will be suspended starting Tuesday. The students say they want fairness and equity to compete in fall and winter activities.

UNDATED (AP) — Authorities say a Missouri woman died after she was ejected from a golf cart, The Missouri State Highway Patrol said 75-year-old Donna Young of Hollister was a passenger in an EZ Go Golf Cart that was traveling three miles south of Hollister on Saturday, The Springfield News-Leader reported that the driver lost control of the golf cart, it overturned and all passengers were ejected. Young was declared dead at a hospital in Springfield. The driver, 58-year-old Carol Rhodes of Des Moines, Iowa, and a 68-year-old passenger, Sandra Harris of Grimes, Iowa, were both transported to the hospital with serious injuries.

Officials with the Iowa National Guard report deployment send-off ceremonies for several Iowa National Guard units deploying to carry on the Kosovo Force NATO mission have been scheduled throughout the month of September. Due to ongoing COVID-19 related public health concerns, the send-off ceremonies are not open to the public. The ceremonies will be instead by livestreamed via social media.

The following ceremony will take place Tuesday, Sept. 8th from Johnston:

Approximately 37 Soldiers from Company D, 224th Brigade Engineer Battalion, and Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, will be honored at a formal ceremony starting at 10 a.m. at the Camp Dodge Freedom Center. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/IowaNationalGuard

The following send-off ceremonies will take place on Sept. 13th:

Boone: Approximately 74 Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, will be honored at a formal ceremony starting at 8 a.m. at the Boone Readiness Center. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/IowaNationalGuard

Sioux City: Approximately 95 Soldiers from Headquarters, 1st “Red Horse” Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, will be honored at a formal ceremony starting at 9 a.m. at the Sioux City Readiness Center. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Facebook @https://www.facebook.com/hht113cav/.

Johnston: Approximately 131 Soldiers from Troop B, 1st “Red Horse” Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, will be honored at a formal ceremony starting at 8:15 a.m. at the Camp Dodge Freedom Center. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/bushmastercav/

The following send-off ceremony will take place on Sept. 23rd:

Johnston: Approximately 30 Soldiers from 671st Troop Command “Task Force Typhon,” will be honored at a formal ceremony starting at 3 p.m. at the Camp Dodge Freedom Center. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/IowaNationalGuard

This is the single largest Iowa National Guard mobilization in support of the KFOR mission since 2004. The 1-113th Calvary Regiment, headquartered in Sioux City, Iowa, with units in Le Mars and Johnston, will be deploying nearly half of its Soldiers to Kosovo.

The Iowa National Guard has already mobilized over 1,000 Soldiers and Airmen to support international operations this year. Additionally, nearly 200 service members continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the state. Despite the pandemic, these deploying Soldiers have continued to train and are ready to complete their missions.

Units will travel to their mobilization station in Ft. Bliss, Texas, to complete final training and readiness checks before deploying overseas. The deployment is expected to last approximately one year.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans rank low in one category and high in another in a study of how well we’re staying socially distanced during the pandemic. The report analyzed publicly-available cell phone location data to determine the frequency people interact with other people — or at least when their phones are near other phones. Sean Lansing, spokesman for TOP Data, says they compared figures from a year ago, the pre-COVID times, to today.

“What we found is that, really, across the board and in every state, social interactions are down,” Lansing says. “Certainly, they’re down more in some states than others and Iowa ranks 42nd.” Even though Iowa is in the bottom ten states, Lansing says it’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison.

“While Iowa ranks 42nd because their interactions are at about 75% of what they were a year ago,” Lansing says, “comparatively, Iowans are still interacting with fewer people on a daily basis than a lot of other states.” California ranks first on the study because interactions there have dropped from ten people a day down to about three, but three interactions is still more than most Iowans have each day.

The study found Iowans engaged with an average of 2.7 people in August a year ago, and this August, interacted with an average of 2.04 people. “It would not count your spouse or your neighbor, your brother or sister or whomever you may live with or may be with on a regular basis in your neighborhood, it does account for that,” Lansing says. “This is really looking at interactions with other cell phones that you’re not frequently in contact with.”

The report finds former “hot spots” for COVID-19, like New York, California, Arizona, Texas and Florida, are now adhering to social distancing regulations, while parts of the South and Great Plains have become more relaxed in their distancing and could become future hot spots.

(On the web at https://topagency.com/report/top-data-social-distancing-ranking-report/)

(A-P) – Authorities say a Missouri woman died after she was ejected from a golf cart, The Missouri State Highway Patrol said 75-year-old Donna Young of Hollister, MO., was a passenger in an EZ Go Golf Cart that was traveling three miles south of Hollister on Saturday, The Springfield News-Leader reported that the driver lost control of the golf cart, it overturned and all passengers were ejected. Young was declared dead at a hospital in Springfield.

The driver, 58-year-old Carol Rhodes of Des Moines, Iowa, and a 68-year-old passenger, Sandra Harris of Grimes, Iowa, were both transported to the hospital with serious injuries.

ALTOONA, Iowa  — Altoona police, Monday morning, shot and killed a middle-aged white male, who they say was armed with a weapon outside a motel. According to a Press Release from the Altoona Police Department, officers responded at around 8:33-a.m., to a report of a suspicious person with a weapon was at the Motel 6.

Altoona police Sgt. Alyssa Wilson said in the announcement, officers arrived on-scene and located 51-year-old Jeffrey Meyer, of Des Moines outside the motel, with a gun in his hand. Authorities began to negotiate with the subject, but their attempts were unsuccessful. At around 9:08-a.m., Officers reported “Shots fired.” Meyer died at the scene.

No police officers were injured. The names of the Officers and suspect were not immediately released. The incident remains under investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI). Other agencies responding to the scene during the incident, include: Officers with the Iowa Department of Public Safety; Mitchellville and Pleasant Hill Police Departments, and Iowa State Fair Police.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Hundreds of students from the Des Moines Public Schools and the Ames Community School District marched to the governor’s mansion Monday to protest the decision to suspend sports and start the school year online. The “Student March for Fairness” comes after the Iowa High School Athletic Association told the schools last week that all in-person activities and sports will be suspended starting Tuesday. The students say they want fairness and equity to compete in fall and winter activities.