The Cass County Board of Supervisors will hold their regular weekly meeting this Friday, at 9-a.m. The meeting will be held both in-person in their courthouse boardroom, and electronically (Meeting ID: 138 870 131 Password: 012064 ). On their agenda is the following:

• A regular report from Cass County Attorney Vanessa Strazdas (if available)
• An annual report from the Cass County Library Association, & FY 2022 funding request (To be taken under consideration)
• A regular, Secondary Roads Dept. report from Cass County Engineer Trent Wolken, and: action on approving a contract with the Iowa DOT for County Bridge Federal Aid SWAP funding for a bridge on Indian Creek Road from White Pole Road, north .4 mile.
• Action on passing a Resolution establishing a speed limit on Memphis Road (620th to Highway 71).
• Action on passing a Resolution for Posted Weight Limits on County Bridges.
• Discussion and action on the closing of a County roadway (570th Street/the I-80 underpass).
• Approval of an Abatement of Taxes on parcels owned by the City of Lewis (405 Minnesota St., and a separate parcel)
• Approval of an Abatement of Taxes for a parcel owned by the City of Atlantic (Lot 2, Block 2, Oaks Addition).
• Action on passing a Resolution to abate taxes on mobile home.
• A Review and update of a County policy with regard to reimbursement for use of personal cell phones.
• And, if available, a regular report from the Cass County Mental Health/General Relief Coordinator Deb Schuler.

(Radio Iowa) – A local health official is scolding University of Iowa football fans for packing into downtown Iowa City bars on Saturday to watch the first game of the season. At times, the lines at some establishments stretched out the door. The crowded, indoor social gatherings during the pandemic are a concern for Sam Jarvis, the community health manager for Johnson County Public Health.

Elsewhere in town, students held large house parties, or pulled TVs outside to watch the Hawks in small groups. Jarvis says it’s incredibly important for Iowans to continue to take precautions to slow the spread of coronavirus.

COVID-19 cases in Johnson County declined dramatically after Governor Kim Reynolds closed bars earlier this fall. Now that those restrictions are lifted, a resurgence in cases is a constant worry. Statewide, hospitals are seeing a surge in patients as cases and deaths increase. According to the New York Times, Iowa’s death rate is twice that of the nation as a whole.

(By Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio)

The Creston Police Department reports 24-year old Chance Newton, of Corning, was arrested Sunday night. Newton was arrested a little before 8-p.m. in the 600 block of New York Ave. on a charge of Driving While Revoked. He was released from the Union County Jail on a $1000 bond.

And, last Friday morning, a Creston man residing in the 400 block of N. Sumner Street, informed Police that sometime during the overnight of Oct. 20th, someone broke into his vehicle that was parked at his residence. A DeWalt Vacuum cleaner and a wallet containing cash were taken. The loss was estimated at $190.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Police in eastern Iowa say a woman was shot to death inside a busy Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Davenport. The Quad-City Times reports that the shooting happened just after 7:30 p.m. Sunday — the second of two fatal shootings Sunday in Davenport. Police say a woman shot another woman inside the restaurant, then fled. Officers arrived to find a woman unresponsive with gunshot wounds. She was taken to an area hospital and pronounced dead. Police have not yet released her name or reported any arrests in the case. Police say the first shooting occurred around 11 a.m. Sunday outside a home, killing 19-year-old Lavonte Lee Baker.

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — Officials say Ocala (Florida) Police Chief Greg Graham died in a single-engine plane crash in north Florida. Marion County Sheriff’s officials say Graham was the only person in the plane when it crashed Sunday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash. Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn says Graham had recently received his pilot’s license. Graham had been in the Ocala police department for many years. He left in 2008 to become chief in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He returned to Ocala to head the agency when the police chief resigned in late December 2011.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s fourth congressional district race features a Republican who knocked out G-O-P incumbent Steve King in the June Primary and a Democrat who came within three points of defeating King in 2018. Republicans have a 77-thousand voter registration edge over Democrats in the fourth congressional district. Democrat J.D. Scholten of Sioux City, a former professional baseball player who is a paralegal, is counting on his strategy of visiting all 374 communities in the district this year. “I think one of the biggest strengths of our campaign both last cycle and this cycle is showing up,” Scholten says. “We went to all 39 counties at least three times last cycle. Last fall, we did the ‘Don’t Forget About Us’ tour where we went into towns of under a 1000 people and did town halls there.”

Republican Randy Feenstra of Hull, a Dordt University business professor, is a former Sioux County Treasurer who promises to push for more federal tax cuts. “I’ve served in the Iowa Senate the last 12 years where I have produced results time and time again,” Feenstra says. “…When I get to congress, I’ll do the same thing. I’ll also fight against the Green New Deal and the government take-over of health care.” Feenstra says he wants to serve on the House Ag Committee if elected and help write the 2022 Farm Bill. “We’re the second largest district in the nation when it comes to agriculture,” Feenstra says. “Virtually everything pivots around agriculture. When our agriculture is successful, our Main Streets are successful.”

Scholten says he’ll pressure federal agencies to break up the monopolies in agriculture. “Right now in hogs, four companies control 70% of the market share,” Scholten says. “Right now cattle, four companies control 85% of the market share.” Scholten says if elected, he will not support giving Nancy Pelosi another term as House Speaker and will press for campaign finance reform. Feenstra met with President Trump in the Oval Office in late September and Trump, who won the 4th district overwhelmingly in 2016, has tweeted his “compete and total endorsement” of Feenstra.

(Radio Iowa) – With just over a week to go in the campaign, incumbent Republican Senator Joni Ernst spent the weekend in D.C. taking procedural votes before today’s (Monday’s) vote to confirm a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Theresa Greenfield, the Iowa Democratic Party’s U.S. Senate candidate, campaigned in seven counties this weekend. Greenfield started out Saturday touring a Waukee hardware store that’s been in business for 140 years. She stood in the back near the shop where snowblowers were being prepped for winter to visit with people, including local Y-M-C-A director Eric Kress. “If there was a topic I’d advocate for, it’d be relief for non-profits in any stimulus funding,” Kress said.

Greenfield’s stops at small businesses, farms and a public park featured face masks and small groups. “We’re working hard to follow public health guidelines as best we can,” Greenfield says. The “Team Joni” bus made campaign stops Saturday for Ernst — with Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig doing the talking. Senator Ernst spoke with Radio Iowa by phone from Washington, D.C. “It is hard because I’d much rather be in Iowa, covering as many miles as possible,” Ernst said. Ernst, though, says she has a duty to stay in D.C. to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. “How important it is that we continue to fight for Iowa values and she is going to be an incredible Supreme Court justice,” Ernst says. “…We’re hearing that from Iowans, too…Those that watched the hearings, I think her support has just become more and more firm.”

This race is the most expensive in Iowa history and Iowans are being bombarded with advertisements. Ernst says with eight days left in the 2020 campaign, the ground game is what’s most important to her. “Those ads are becoming ineffective, I believe,” Ernst says. “But what we’ve told supporters is: ‘Talk to your neighbors. Talk to people on the fence, because they will believe you more so than they will some random TV ad.'” Greenfield is emphasizing the ground game, too. “We’re on the phones, we’re texting and we’ve really been working hard to build what I call more of a neighbor-to-neighbor contact program where you’re responsible for your block, for your neighborhood — just talking to people when they’re out mowing the lawn, more casual relationship building,” Greenfield say. “Must be working. People are voting.”

As of Saturday, more than 722-thousand Iowans had already voted early.

(Radio Iowa) – Open enrollment is now underway for Medicare for thousands of Iowans and others across the country. The administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Seema Verma says it’s time to review your plan. “They can stick with the traditional program if they like what they have, they don’t have to make any changes,” Verma says. “But what’s really interesting about this year is that over the last few years, the president has been really working to strengthen and modernize the program, and because of that, we are seeing significant price decreases.”

She says one of the new programs is for insulin. She says if you are taking insulin you can get it for 35 dollars a month. “So a lot of new choices, a lot of new plans.” Verma says there are some other options for services in the plans as well. “Maybe you just need a ride to the doctor’s office, or you are recovering from surgery and you need a little bit of help in your house and they can send you a meal service. Or you are having trouble going up and down the stairs — they may install a ramp,” she says. “It’s just giving a little bit more flexibility to the health plan.”

Verma says you can do everything online. She says it will let you enter the medications you take into the system and it will tell you if the plan covers those medications. Verma says you can still call the helpline if you have questions and want to talk to someone. The helpline is 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).  You can also go to medicare.gov to review your plan. There are more than 637-thousand Iowans on Medicare.