Seven people under the age of 13 were injured during an accident Saturday evening, in Mills County. Sheriff’s officials reports the Mills County Communications Center received a 9-1-1 call at around 6:30-p.m. about a single-vehicle accident that had just occurred at the intersection of Levi and Mahaffey Roads. The accident resulted in multiple injuries. When first responders arrived, they determined the injured included five juveniles ranging in age from five-months to 13. Three of the juvenile occupants were unsecured in the bed of the vehicle at the time of the crash.

All seven occupants were transported to the UNMC in Omaha by medical helicopter or ambulance. Their injuries were determined to be non-life threatening. The crash remains under investigation by the Mills County Sheriff’s Office. No names are being released at this time.

The Mills County S/O was assisted by Glenwood Police, Fremont County Sheriff’s Deputies, the Iowa State Patrol, Glenwood Fire and Rescue, Pacific Junction Fire and Rescue, and LifeNet.

(Radio Iowa) – Rental assistance programs are bracing for a spike in eviction filings in August after the federal hold on some evictions ends this week. As of last week, the state had only distributed seven-million dollars of the nearly 200-million it received to help Iowans who are behind on rent payments. A separate Polk County program has given more than twice as much money to renters as the program meant to serve all 99 counties. Eric Burmeister is executive director of the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, one of the program’s partners. “Let’s not panic, certainly tenants, don’t panic because there is assistance available,” Burmeister says. “The tenants have legal rights.”

Burmeister says Polk County has given about 16-million dollars to renters through the program so far with the goal of keeping people in their homes. “That’s our hope, is that we’ve reached a big chunk of those folks with the rental assistance,” he says. “If not, I think we’re prepared here in Polk County to meet that surge.”

The state’s only distributed a small portion of the money it was given for rental assistance due to a deluge in requests. An Iowa Finance Authority spokesperson says the agency hopes to get through a backlog of applications by July 30th. Iowans facing eviction in any county can go to iowa-finance-dot-com for more information about assistance.

(By Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

For a time, it seemed as though in mid-June, Iowa was winning the war against COVID-19, with the positivity rates falling to 2-percent or less, depending on the day. Now (As of July 26th), however, the 14-day positivity rate has increased to 4.6%, and the seven-day rate is 4.2-percent. Positive tests (PT) over the last seven-days have increased in several area counties:

Cass – 7 total PT (10% rate); Adair – 6 TP (17%); Adams – three PT (11% rate); Guthrie – 2 PT (4% positivity rate); Harrison –  5 PT (17%); Madison – 3 PT (5%); Mills – 1 PT (3%); Montgomery – 4 PT (10%); Shelby 4 PT (9%). (See the County pandemic totals below). Fortunately, the number of deaths since June 25th in southwest Iowa have not increased as dramatically, with most counties reporting no change in the statistics. One month ago, the pandemic death toll stood at 6,124. The latest Coronavirus dashboard data show 6,170 people have died from COVID.

There are two Long-Term Care (LTC) outbreaks in Iowa. The number of persons hospitalized with COVID in Iowa, has increased from a low of 46 on June 25th, to 106 as of July 26th. Health officials report 39 patients are in an ICU, 23 were admitted over the past 24-hours, and 13 patients are on a ventilator. In RMCC Region 4 (which was down to zero hospitalizations, no ICU patients, zero new admissions, and no one on a ventilator on June 25th), there are currently nine hospitalized, 3 in an ICU, 3 were admitted, and one person was on a ventilator.

In the immediate KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County (since the beginning of the pandemic) and the total number of deaths (Since the beginning of the pandemic) in each county to date:
Cass, 1,494 cases; 55 deaths
Adair, 1,027; 32
Adams, 360; 4
Audubon, 547; 13
Guthrie, 1,328; 32
Harrison County, 1,956; 73
Madison County, 1,820 19
Mills County, 1,806; 24
Montgomery, 1,149; 38
Pottawattamie County, 12,449;174
Shelby County, 1,337; 38
Union County, 1,376; 35

(Radio Iowa) – Authorities are now releasing the name of the Hampton teenager who was killed in a head-on weekend crash in Mason City. The Iowa State Patrol says 17-year-old Cammie Haack was driving northbound on US Highway 65 at about 6:30 Saturday morning when her vehicle drifted into the center turn lane and then into the inside southbound lane, colliding head-on with a vehicle driven by 30-year-old Joanna Gautier of Charles City.

The State Patrol confirmed that Haack died from the accident, while no condition update was provided for Gautier. The accident remains under investigation

(Radio Iowa) – Authorities are investigating the apparent suicide of a man late last week, who evidently shot himself when Marshalltown police showed up to arrest him at his house in Ames. Marshalltown police were in Ames to serve an arrest warrant on the man on sexual exploitation and inappropriate sexual contact between a former Marshalltown school employee and a former student. Police heard a gunshot and found a body in the basement. It is the third related incident of sexual exploitation between an employee of the Marshalltown Community School District and students reported over the last couple of weeks. Marshalltown police says the three incidents are NOT related. The school district says counseling services will again be available for students and staff through Thursday of this week.

Twenty-six-year-old Mark Esquivel was charged on June 30th with sexual exploitation by a school employee and resigned as a teacher at Marshalltown High School. Former Marshalltown middle school teacher Adam Edgington of Nevada was found dead in his car on July 8th after being charged with having inappropriate contact with a 13-year-old student.