(as of 10-a.m. today) The Iowa Department of Public Health reports an increase in coronavirus cases in the state over the last week. A change to reporting has also shown a large increase in recoveries. Officials says there are 213 new, positive cases, and five deaths. That brings the statewide total to 28,941 positive cases and 712 deaths. IDPH reported 303,772 Iowans have been tested for COVID-19, while 23,035 have recovered from the virus.

Some Iowa counties have shown an increase in positive cases in the last week. On Monday, Polk County Health officials said the last seven days have shown an increase of 20% of new cases reported in both Polk and Dallas Counties. Johnson County saw a 38% increase in a week. Positive cases in Story County reached 677, a 44% increase since June 22. Gov. Kim Reynolds today (Tuesday), said nearly 1 in 10 Iowans have now been tested for the virus. She said also, TestIowa has now exceeded its goal for daily testing, with more than 3,000 tests administered in each of the last 7 days. Reynolds said the daily positive result percentage was 5.1% on Monday.

Iowans testing positive for COVID-19 will now be considered recovered after 28 days without the virus, unless health officials have been notified otherwise. The governor said that change has been made to the IDPH website, which accounts for the large increase in the number of recoveries overnight. Despite an increase in cases, hospitalization rates continue to show a downward trend in the state since an apparent peak in early May. IDPH reported 133 hospitalized patients, with 34 of them listed in intensive care and 20 on ventilators. There were 25 patients admitted in the last 24 hours. IDPH reported approximately 3,410 inpatient beds available in the state, with 503 ICU beds and 809 ventilators available. There are now coronavirus outbreaks in 21 of Iowa’s long-term care facilities. IDPH reported 669 current positive cases, 520 recoveries and 365 deaths within care facilities.

The numbers for southwest and western Iowa (RMCC Region 4) are nearly steady, with 5 hospitalized, 2 in an ICU, 0 admitted and one person on a ventilator. Area County-by-County figures show:

• 8 more people have recovered from COVID-19 in Adams and Guthrie Counties
• 3 more have recovered in Audubon County
• 11 more have recovered in Shelby County
• and 42 more persons have reportedly recovered in Pottawattamie County. There were also 8 more positive cases noted on the State’s COVID-19 database today.

DES MOINES – Today (Tuesday), Iowa Gov. Reynolds signed Senate File 2403, legislation that will lower the cost of E-15 and higher blends of renewable fuels in Iowa by changing how the state taxes higher-blend biofuels. The governor signed the bill during her weekly press conference at Pine Lake Corn Processors in Steamboat Rock. “Iowa continues to lead on innovative ways to drive demand for biofuels,” said Gov. Reynolds. “This legislation makes higher blend biofuels even cheaper at the pump while driving demand for homegrown renewable fuel.”

The governor also announced an additional $7 million in funding, through the federal CARES act, for the Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program. This state program offers cost-share dollars to fuel retailers who install or convert their equipment to allow the expanded use of renewable fuels in Iowa.  Yesterday, Governor Reynolds joined a bipartisan group of governors from Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska, calling on EPA Administrator Wheeler to reject the excessive number of retroactive small refinery exemptions to the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. The law exists for a reason and we need the EPA to stand by it.

The Justice Department announced today (Tuesday), that it has filed a lawsuit alleging that the owner and manager of rental properties in Davenport, Iowa violated the Fair Housing Act by subjecting a female tenant to sexual harassment and retaliation. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, alleges that Juan Goitia, the manager of multiple residential rental units in Davenport, sexually harassed a female tenant from March 2018 until August 2018. According to the complaint, Goitia made repeated and unwelcome sexual comments, touched the tenant’s body without her consent on multiple occasions, and retaliated against the tenant for filing a fair housing complaint. The United States also named 908 Bridge Cooperative, the corporate owner of the rental property where the harassment occurred, as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit arose from a complaint about Goitia’s conduct that the former tenant filed with the Davenport Commission on Civil Rights (DCRC) and HUD. After DCRC and HUD investigated the complaints, HUD issued a charge of discrimination and the matter was referred to the Department of Justice. Today’s lawsuit seeks monetary damages to compensate the victim and a court order barring future discrimination. The complaint contains allegations of unlawful conduct; the allegations must be proven in court.

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at http://www.justice.gov/crt. Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of sexual harassment or other types of housing discrimination at rental dwellings owned or managed by Juan Goitia or 908 Bridge Cooperative, or who have other information that may be relevant to this case, can contact the Housing Discrimination Tip Line, at 1-800-896-7743, and select option number 91 to leave a message.

Individuals can also report sexual harassment and other forms of housing discrimination by visiting civilrights.justice.gov.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest Monday evening, of a woman from Ringgold County. 37-year old Nichole Jean Ott, from Diagonal, was arrested on a Union County warrant for failure to appear on a charge of burglary in the 3rd Degree. Ott was transported from Black Hawk County and was being held on $5,000 bond for Union County, in the Adams County Jail.

AMES, Iowa – June 30, 2020 – The Iowa Department of Transportation is requesting public input for proposed improvements at the I-80 interchange with U.S. Highway 169 at De Soto, in Dallas County. The proposed improvements include installation of traffic signals at the I-80 ramp terminals along with turn lanes to improve traffic operations at the interchange. Traffic would be maintained via staging at all times throughout the project. It is anticipated that lane closures would be limited to non-peak travel hours.

For general information regarding the proposed improvements please view the information online at www.iowadot.gov/pim or contact Scott Suhr, transportation planner, Iowa DOT District 4 Office, in Atlantic. Phone 712-243-3355 or 800-289-4368, email: scott.suhr@iowadot.us. If you do not have access to the internet, please feel free to contact Scott regarding this project.

The Audubon School Board held a short, special meeting this (Tuesday) morning, via Zoom, and in the High School Board Room. Superintendent Eric Trager told KJAN News the meeting which lasted about 10-minutes, included approval of the End of Fiscal Year Expenditures – approving the year end bills, approval of an extension of their copier lease, and they approved the hiring of Summer Wulf as Head Boys Golf Coach, along with an Associate.

Trager said he went through with the Board on where they were with their facility design and renovations, as well as the asbestos abatement, which begins Wednesday. Their next, regular meeting is 7-p.m. July 27th.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Business Council’s second-quarter Economic Outlook Survey for 2020 shows some improvement in what the managers of the states’ largest businesses expect in the coming months. I-B-C executive director Joe Murphy says it’s a modest improvement. He says the overall score in overall economic outlook index rose to 41point-two-five — which is an increase of three-point-seven-five points from the first quarter. That first quarter mark was the lowest point of the survey since 2009. Murphy says this projection is a step in the right direction. “We’re optimistic that we’re seeing some sort of ascendency in our numbers as we project out the next six months. However, anything below 50 represents negative economic sentiment — so clearly we are still in that negative sentiment zone,” Murphy says. “But again, I think there are some reasons for some cautious optimism as we look ahead.”

The survey measures members’ expectations for sales, capital spending, and employment. He says the one thing that is known right now is there still remains a lot of things that are unknown about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on business. “Businesses, whether you are a small, medium or large business, you need certainty in the markets and the economy in order to make decisions and project forward a better platform to hire and invest and to do the business that you want to do,” according to Murphy.

Murphy says Iowa’s economy was doing well before the pandemic hit — and that has helped the optimism that the state will recover. “When you look at our unemployment rate — while it is quite high, particularly for Iowa — it’s still within the top five or so lowest unemployment rates in the country,” Murphy says. “Obviously that is not to say that we are happy with where we are at. But my point is that we are able to weather economic strife better than other states. That was the case in the Great Recession, and that is the case right now.”

Most members site the unfavorable business climate due to COVID-19 and other regulatory challenges coupled with an unfavorable domestic economy as their primary challenges to business. Half of the respondents noted layoffs or furloughs as a result of COVID-19. Of those employers, 80 percent expect to rehire some or nearly all of that workforce. Sixty-percent expects to make these rehire in the coming seven to nine months with an unknown rehire date for the remaining 40 percent.

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

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(Radio Iowa) – For the first time in 69 years, there will not be a Midwest Old Threshers Reunion in Mount Pleasant. The Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers board of directors  has decided to cancel the event, held for five days every year, always ending on Labor Day. The Reunion draws thousands of people from all over the United States and around the world. Terry McWilliams, the C-E-O and administrator, says the health implications of holding the Reunion could have had a far reaching impact. “The safety and the health and the well-being of our visitors, our volunteers — all of that played a key factor in making this decision,” McWilliams says. “We waited as long as we could…Every day things changed — the loss of key volunteers, the loss of community civic groups doing their support because people are scared — and that has an impact.”

McWilliams says expense estimates were going up and up every day as they navigated through necessary health precautions they’d have to take to hold the event. Plans are now focused the 2021 Old Threshers Reunion.