The Atlantic Police Department reports four arrests took place over the past week. On Thursday, 28-year old Morgan Dvorak, of Atlantic, was arrested on a Cass County warrant for Unauthorized Use of a Credit Card, and Theft in the 4th Degree. On July 29th, 35-year old Aaron Rebarcak, of Atlantic, was arrested for OWI.

On July 26th, 37-year old Stephanie Cooley, of Guthrie Center, was arrested on a warrant for Violation of Probation, and on the 25th of July, 62-year old Jeffrey Nelson, of Avoca, was arrested in Atlantic for Theft in the 2nd Degree, and Possession of a Controlled Substance. All four subjects were booked into the Cass County Jail and held pending a court appearance.

(Radio Iowa) – New data from the federal government shows a segment of Iowa nursing homes are still struggling to acquire personal protective equipment for staff. Nursing homes were required to file a report to the U.S. Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services about P-P-E stockpiles. The data from Iowa’s 434 nursing homes shows 15 percent have less than a week’s supply of surgical masks and 26 percent lack a week’s supply of the N-95 masks which provide a higher level of protection.

Smaller percentages of nursing homes in the six states that surround Iowa reported having less than a week’s worth of face masks on hand for employees.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, today (Tuesday) responded to reports some schools will defy her proclamation that districts begin the school year with in-person instruction. During a news conference late this (Tuesday) morning, Reynolds said those school districts (Waukee and Urbandale) may think they are defying her, but that’s not the case.

The Waukee School Board and the district’s superintendent issued a written statement Monday night. It included what was described as “a reminder” to Governor Reynolds and other state officials that state law gives local school officials the power to establish rules for the governance of their own districts. Waukee Superintendent Brad Buck served as former Republican Governor Terry Branstad’s state education director for nearly two years. Earlier this summer, the Urbandale School District had permission to continue operating its year-round elementary school online, but state officials notified the district students would have to return to the classroom this Friday. Urbandale’s school board voted Monday night to continue online classes at the elementary school until at least August 25th. The board will meet again on August 10th to discuss its “Return to Learn” plans for all students in the Urbandale district.

Governor Kim Reynolds announced last week state education officials will only grant waivers from in-person instruction to school districts in communities where at least 15 percent of residents have tested positive for Covid-19 AND at least 10 percent of students are absent. The statement from Waukee school officials said they will not follow that guidance, but instead will follow other “sources of expertise which indicate more reasonable” standards that should trigger temporary suspension of in-person classes and a shift to distance learning.

She said the vast majority of Iowa schools have plans in place to meet the 50% in-person instruction requirement. Only a few schools have requested waivers to return by remote learning. Reynolds said they are actively working with those districts.

Farmers have been busy caring for their growing crops, and soon it will be time to hit harvest them and bring those crops to market. When they are as busy as they are, it’s not easy to find time to grab something to eat, especially when you don’t want to have to stop and lose valuable time. The Exira Lions Club has a way to keep you fed and going, with their Hoagies for Farmers project.

Allen Zobel is a 17-year member of the Exira Lions Club. He says after speaking with area farmers, they agreed it would be a great idea to have sandwiches with them. The submarine-style sandwiches are three-for $10, and will be ham, turkey and salami. Zobel says they’ll only be sold in a three-pack.

Funds raised through the sale of the hoagies will be used for Lions Foundation Projects, with only a minimal amount for the local building upkeep.

(Most of the funds are used for the Iowa Lions Foundation which funds kid’s sight, cornea transplants and Torrie’s Angels and many other causes.)

Sales of the hoagies begin today (Tuesday), and will continue through August 22^nd, and they would like for the tri-pack to be pre-paid.

The deadline for orders is Saturday, August 22^nd. The sandwiches will be made available curbside, beginning Monday, August 24^th. Call Allen’s wife and Lions Secretary Crystal Zobel, at 712-304-5197, to place your order and learn where to send your payment.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests: At around 7:30 this (Tuesday) morning, 57-year old David Joseph Tindle, of Creston, was arrested following a traffic stop. Tindle was charged with driving while barred and later released from the Union County Jail on $2,000 bond.  Late Monday morning, 34-year old Anthony Charles Wasson, of Van Meter, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center. He was taken into custody on a Union County warrant for failure to appear on a violation of probation charge. Wasson was being held in the Union County Jail on $1,000 bond.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports one person was arrested Monday night. 39-year old Larry Leigh Rice, of Lenox, was arrested near 400th Street & Highway 34, for having a concealed knife, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Rice was taken into custody at around 11-p.m.  His bond set at $1,300.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says extending the 600-dollars per week unemployment benefit is one of the bigger sticking points in negotiations over the latest COVID-19 relief package in Congress. While an earlier pandemic relief bill passed unanimously, compromise is slow with this one, according to Grassley, and the federal jobless payments are a key issue. “Well, we’ve got some people that think they ought to continue $600 even to the end of 2021,” Grassley says. “Then, we’ve got some that think that at four months, with the economy turning around, that we shouldn’t do anything.”

At recent town hall meetings in Iowa, Grassley says he heard from business owners in a range of professions, including in turkey processing, ethanol production and in physical therapy clinics. The chorus is always the same, he says, that they can’t get workers to come back as unemployment pays more than returning to the job. Grassley says, “When you pay people more not to work than to work, and at $600, it’s about two-thirds of the unemployed people getting more not working than working, there’s not an incentive to go back to work.”

In recent weeks, a top Democrat said the extended jobless benefits didn’t need to be 600-dollars a week, so Grassley says his fellow Republicans suggested lowering the benefit to 200-dollars, but that didn’t fly in negotiations either. “It’s a bad government policy and we have to take some guilt for it being in place in the first place,” Grassley says. “We wanted to help people that had dire need but you can’t discourage people from going back to work.”

Under the plan, Grassley says the federal government is essentially “out-competing private employers for workers.” There’s also disagreement over the second round of stimulus checks to most taxpayers. Some suggested one-time checks of between one-thousand and 12-hundred dollars, while Democrats suggested checks of up to two-thousand dollars — per month — but that proposal has no chance of passage.