(Radio Iowa) – Republican Senator Joni Ernst says a pandemic relief package is an immediate priority for the Republican-led senate yet this year. “Hopefully we can get a Covid-19 recovery package. I think that’s important. It’s something that I continued to hear even while I was on the campaign trail, how Iowans really hoped we could step up get a targeted relief bill done,” Ernst says.

Ernst said also, “There are still so many people that are hurting across the nation and we would love to get them relief.” It’s still unclear how large a relief package might be. Senate Republicans opposed the one-point-eight TRILLION dollar spending level the White House and House Democratic leaders were discussing before the election. On Tuesday, Ernst’s fellow Republicans re-elected her vice chair of the Republican Conference in the U.S. Senate. “Coming through this last election cycle, which was very difficult for so many, we actually saw some pretty incredible gains by conservative women and what we could say was this was the year for the GOP women,” Ernst says. “We gained seats in the House and we are also gaining another woman in our Republican Conference, Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming.”

So far, a record 14 Republican women have been confirmed the winners of races for seats in the U.S. House. Four others — including Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa — are waiting for their House races to be called. “We hope that young conservative women will take a look a the make-up of congress,” Ernst says, “and determine that there is opportunity out there for them as well.”

Ernst won re-election to a second term in the U.S. Senate by a nearly seven point margin. She’s been on the Senate G-O-P leadership team since mid-November of 2018.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday, revisited the question of whether or not masks should be mandated in the County. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Tuesday, implored Iowans to use a mask, due to the daily increases in positive COVID-19 test results and hospitalizations. The Board has received at least two of e-mails on the matter. Board Chair Steve Baier said there’s more each person needs to do to quell the spread of the virus, aside from wearing a mask or face shield.

In fact, Governor Reynolds, as we’ve mentioned, issued a new proclamation Tuesday, asking Iowans to do more to decrease the spread, including wearing masks, but she did NOT issue a mandate. Nor have the Cass County Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Steve Green…

Green said the County’s coffers are small enough, and he didn’t want to spend the amount of money it would take to fight people who might sue over their Constitutional rights being violated. Supervisor John Hartkopf said it’s been brought to the Board’s attention that two counties in Iowa have taken some measures to implement some form of a mandate which Supervisor Green said was “cherry-picked” from Iowa Code to form a Resolution.

The interpretation comes from a gray area in the Code. Auditor Dale Sunderman…

The Board did not take action on approving a mask mandate for the County, but strongly encourage residents do whatever they can to reduce the spread of the virus. In other business, the Board also voted 5-to 2 to set a rate of $40 per month per employee, for the use of certain County employee’s personal cell phones, when conducting County business. Auditor Dale Sunderman says the policy states…

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska continues to set records with the number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus and health care providers expect that to continue because of the recent surge of cases in the state. CHI Health CEO Cliff Robertson says his group of 14 hospitals in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa is preparing for COVID-19 cases to keep increasing over the next three to four weeks.

Several new virus restrictions took effect in Nebraska on Wednesday. The state says the number of virus hospitalizations jumped to 860 on Tuesday and it reported its second-highest one-day total of new cases at 2,182.

Officials with the Creston Police Department say three Creston residents were arrested, Tuesday.

• 32-year-old Corry Johnston was arrested for Driving While Barred. He was released from the Union County Jail on a $2000 bond.
• 31-year-old Chelsey Kile, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center on a Union County Warrant for Failure to Appear on the original charge of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. She was released from the Union County Jail on a $300 bond.
• And, 36-year-old Amanda Jones was arrested at the Union County LEC on a Union County Warrant for the charge of Violation of a Protection Order. She was being held in the Adams County Jail awaiting bond hearing.

Creston Police say also, a man residing in the 400 block of S. Maple Street reported Tuesday evening, that sometime between 5:20 pm – 5:40 pm Tuesday,the windshield on his vehicle was cracked while parked in the parking lot at 600 Sheldon St. Estimated damage of $200.