(Radio Iowa) — Iowa State Patrol officials reports what they say is an alarming number of motorists being stopped for driving in excess of 100 miles an hour. Public information officer Sergeant Alex Dinkla says troopers have seen a 52-percent increase over a four-year period for speeds of between 135 and 150 miles per hour. Dinkla says the number-one excuse for speeding is…”We didn’t think you guys were out here actually working, out here checking and monitoring traffic,” Dinkla says. “That’s quite the contrary. We have to protect and we have to serve the citizens of the state of Iowa so therefore our troopers are out on the road. We are out watching and trying to make sure people stay safe out on the roads.”

In addition to the high speeds, he says the number of arrests for driving under the influence has also increased. Dinkla says the fines for excessive speed are hefty and can range from 300 to 500 dollars. “The total number of tickets the Iowa State Patrol has issued to motorists going 100 miles an hour or more in the month of March is 103,” he says, “and in the month of April, we had 138 motorists who were cited for going 100 or more miles an hour.”

The patrol estimates traffic volume on the state’s highways and interstates is down about 40-percent due Iowans staying close to home with the pandemic.

(Reporting by Pat Blank, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds hopes to use federal funds to cover the entire 26 MILLION dollar payment to Utah companies providing “Test Iowa” supplies. Drive-through “Test Iowa” sites have been established in Des Moines, Waterloo and Sioux City — three “hot spots” for COVID-19 activity. Under current arrangements, Reynolds says it appears the federal government will cover at least 75 percent of the costs of COVID-19 testing, so the state would have to come up with the money for the remaining 25 percent. “Then in addition to that, there’s also just some specific funding through the CARES Act for testing, because they’re really wanting states to ramp that up,” she says.

Reynolds is lobbying federal officials to allow the State of Iowa to use money allocated from the CARES Act to cover all the costs associated with COVID-19 testing in Iowa. That includes pay for the laid-off nurses and health care workers from local hospitals who’re being hired to work at the state’s drive-through testing sites in Des Moines, Waterloo and Sioux City. Volunteer nurses and some state employees are also testing Iowans passing through in vehicles.

A traffic stop at around 1:30 this (Tuesday) morning in Montgomery County, resulted in the arrest of a woman from Council Bluffs. 22-year old Danielle Baker was taken into custody in the area of Highway 34 and Dogwood Avenue. She was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and charged with Driving While Suspended. Her cash bond was set at $300.

Two people were arrested Monday night, in Red Oak.  At around 7:10-p.m., 47-year old Alex Edwon Cellan, Jr., of Red Oak, was arrested on a valid Montgomery County warrant for Theft in the 3rd Degree. Cellan, JR., was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

And at around 9:25-p.m., 23-year old Mariah Nicole Moore, of Des Moines, was arrested in Red Oak, for Driving While Barred. Moore was also being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond

(Radio Iowa) – State tax revenues plunged 39 percent in April. One reason for that double-digit drop is the delayed deadline for paying state income taxes. Individuals and corporations normally must pay their state income taxes by April 30th, but during the pandemic state officials pushed the due date to July 31st. State officials will have to come up with an estimate of the pandemic’s economic impact as they rework their state budget plans for the fiscal year that begins July 1st.

The Iowa legislature is currently scheduled to reconvene on May 15th. Leaders say their main goal is passing a new state budget plan. Governor Kim Reynolds says she’s meeting with her staff to come up with budget recommendations. Moody’s Analytics, a research firm focused on finance, has estimated the State of Iowa’s budget must be cut at least five percent.

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

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The coronavirus is devastating the nation’s meatpacking communities — places like Waterloo and Sioux City in Iowa, Grand Island, Nebraska, and Worthington, Minnesota. Within weeks, the outbreaks around slaughterhouses have turned into full-scale disasters. The virus is killing, sickening and frightening workers and devastating their extended families. In Grand Island, an outbreak linked to a JBS beef plant that is the city’s largest employer spread rapidly across the rural central Nebraska region. It killed more than three dozen people. Many of the dead were elderly residents of long-term care facilities who had relatives or friends employed at the plant.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials are reporting nine Iowa Department of Human Services employees working at five state-run facilities have tested positive for the coronavirus. Officials say six residents at a facility housing residents with intellectual disabilities also have the virus. Iowa DHS Director Kelly Garcia said Monday that the agency has asked doctors from the University of Iowa for assistance in dealing with the outbreak at the Woodward Resource Center, near Des Moines. The state has reported 534 additional cases of the coronavirus for a total of 9,703 cases confirmed in Iowa. There were four additional deaths for a total of 188.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police say a body pulled from a river during the weekend was that of an 18-year-old who has been missing for more than three months. Police say Abdullahi “Abdi” Sharif’s body was recovered Saturday afternoon from the Des Moines River. Sharif was reported missing seen Jan. 17, when he left his job at a Des Moines shopping mall. Police say there were no traumatic injuries and a cause of death has not been determined. Sharif’s disappearance drew media attention and prompted several searches with hundreds of volunteers.

WOODWARD, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Department of Human Services officials say six residents at a central Iowa facility for people with intellectual disabilities have tested positive for the new coronavirus, although none have shown symptoms of COVID-19. The first resident at the Woodward Resource Center tested positive for the virus on April 26. By Saturday, officials said, five more residents — all tied to one home on campus — had tested positive for the virus. Three employees at the multi-building campus have also tested positive. DHS spokesman Matt Highland says the state is working to get more COVID-19 testing on the campus. Those who have tested positive have been moved to an isolation area, and the home has been cleaned.

(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents held a short meeting this (Monday) morning, where they heard a proposal for tuition rates. Regents chief business officer, Brad Berg, presented the tuition plan. “All proposed tuition and mandatory fee rates remain flat with the current academic year,” Berg says. It took just a few more minutes for Board president Mike Richards to ask for input and then close the meeting.

“I hear no questions,” Richards says, “is there any other business?” A regent asked “is that it” and Richards said yes, that’s it, and several of the board members laughed as the meeting quickly closed. One of the regents commented that it must have been a record fast meeting. The board will vote on the proposal to freeze tuition rates at their meeting in June.

The base tuition and fees for in-state students at the Univerisity of Iowa are 96-hundred dollars, 93-hundred at Iowa State University, and 89-hundred at the University of Northern Iowa.

Pottawattamie County Public Health, Monday, reported 10 new COVID-19 cases. The total of COVID-19 cases in Pottawattamie County is now 59. Twenty-five individuals have recovered, 31 are self-isolating at home, one is hospitalized, and there have been two deaths.The 10 new cases are all residents of Council Bluffs.

Those individuals were tested for COVID-19 between April 29 and May 2. Four of the cases are 18-40 years old, five are 41-60 years old, and one is 61-80 years old. Five of the individuals have pre-existing conditions. Four of the new cases had contact with an existing COVID-19 case, and six are the result of community spread. All ten of these individuals are self-isolating at home.

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS), and the Iowa National Guard are opening a temporary testing site today to test Pottawattamie County long term care facility staff. Long term care facilities are at a higher risk of COVID-19 outbreaks than other community settings due to the nature of congregate living. In testing long term care facility staff, IDPH is mitigating the spread of COVID-19 by identifying potential infected staff, and anyone who may have been previously exposed and therefore developed antibodies.

The testing site location is the Mid-America Center, 1 Arena Way. Tests at the site will take place on Tuesday May 5 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Wednesday, May 6 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tests are given by appointment only and are supported by the long-term care testing strike teams initiative the state is standing up to test nursing home staff.

Note: This is not a TestIowa.com site. Pottawattamie County Public Health continues to conduct contact tracing investigations for each COIVD-19 case. A part of contact tracing is assessing risk to the general public. If