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Positive COVID tests continue to increase in Iowa; Positivity rate now at 9.2%

News

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

Des Moines, Iowa — Data released today (Friday) by the Iowa Department of Public Health shows the state is headed in the wrong direction on the spread of COVID-19. There were 8,047 positive tests in the last week, up from 7,616 at last report on Wednesday. The state’s 14-day positivity rate climbed from 8.9% to 9.2%. That number has been increasing for about two weeks.

Hospitalization numbers have declined. There are 487 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, down from 524 on Wednesday. Of those hospitalized with COVID-19, 75.8% are unvaccinated, while 87.1% of those listed in intensive care with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. There have been 3,895,495 vaccine doses administered in Iowa, with 68.3% of those 18 and older fully vaccinated, and 71% of those 13 and older with at least one dose.The number of long-term care facilities reporting a virus outbreak dropped from 29 to 26 since Wednesday.

IDPH provides new COVID-19 data every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

And…the 100th Freedom Rock goes to….Altoona

News

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

— Greenfield Artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen announced Thursday night, the location of his soon to be 100th and final mural on the Freedom Rock Tour in Iowa. His official “Freedom Rock” Facebook page said the site will be Adventureland Park, in Altoona. When completed, the boulder will wrap up Sorensen’s tour of the state, painting a Freedom Rock in all of Iowa’s 99 counties, plus the bonus rock in Polk County. Sorensen says he hopes to have the Adventureland Freedom Rock completed by July 4, 2022.

Ray Sorsensen and his wife Maria at Adventureland, the site selected for the 100th Freedom Rock, in Iowa.

The chance to host the 100th Freedom Rock came during an online auction. The winning bid was $20,000. The rules said the winning town must not have had a Freedom Rock already. Proceeds from the sale will be divided between the TAPS and PuppyJake non-profit organizations.

Rep. Axne Reminds Iowans of Monday Deadline for Child Tax Credit Sign-Ups

News

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES ­– Iowa Third District Representative Cindy Axne is reminding Iowa parents who do not regularly file taxes and have not received a Child Tax Credit (CTC) payment, to sign up for 2021 payments before Monday’s deadline. Monday, November 15 is the last day for eligible non-filers to apply for monthly payments of up to $300 per child from the expanded Child Tax Credit. Eligible families can sign up for the monthly payments here. The expansion was approved by Rep. Axne and her colleagues in March through the American Rescue Plan, the most recent federal COVID-19 relief package.

Families are eligible for the expanded CTC if they have at least one child under the age of 18 and made up to $150,000 for a couple or $112,500 for a family with a single parent (also called Head of Household). Eligible families who do not sign up by the November 15 deadline can still claim the CTC through a 2022 tax filing.

Iowans with questions are encouraged to visit ChildTaxCredit.gov to learn more.

The weather experts are still puzzled by long-range winter possibilities

News, Weather

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – As flurries fly across much of the state today (Friday), the experts still aren’t able to nail down what type of winter may lie ahead for Iowa or the Midwest. National Weather Service meteorologist Brett Albright says the forecast of another La Nina weather pattern will drive the winter weather across the Northern Plains, but how much snow may fall is still anyone’s guess. “In terms of total precip that we’re expecting here in Iowa and Nebraska, we could be above normal or below, there really isn’t a strong way to predict where that’s going to fall,” Albright says. “It does look like to our south, it’s going to be below, and then we’re caught in between a couple of areas here of above-normal precip being most likely this winter.”

The forecast models also show essentially a 50-50 chance of below- versus above-normal temperatures. Still, Albright says there is a narrow possibility of more snow in Iowa later in the winter. “There’s no strong signal for total precipitation, but there is a weak signal for more snowfall, particularly during the second half of the winter,” Albright says. “We’re looking for maybe when will more of our snow fall? We’d be looking more at certainly January into February if not latter January into February for the best, the highest chances of more of that snowfall.”

Despite recent heavy rains, the Climate Prediction Center is forecasting drought conditions to linger across much of the region into next spring.

(Podcast) KJAN News, 11/12/21

News, Podcasts

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

News from around Iowa, with Ric Hanson.

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Reynolds cites ‘tainted’ process, orders search for new judge to restart

News

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has taken the rare step of rejecting the candidates a commission had nominated to be a district court judge in northern Iowa. Reynolds sent a letter to the commission making nominations for the district court vacancy created when Judge Gina Badding of Carroll was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. Reynolds says she heard from several commission members that the judge who led the interview process had coached one candidate and made unprofessional and disturbing comments about others. Reynolds says her staff discovered Judge Kurt Stoebe of Humboldt also misled commission members by saying one applicant had withdrawn after being interviewed. That person adamantly denied that when contacted by the governor’s office. The commission is to reconvene November 18th and redo the entire process.

According the letter from Reynolds, the only other time nominees for an opening in DISTRICT court have been rejected happened during Governor Robert Ray’s tenure. In 2011, Governor Terry Branstad rejected a slate of candidates for Iowa SUPREME Court openings. The nominating commission reconvened and submitted a second set of names to Branstad. In Iowa’s process of filling openings in the judicial system, governors make appointments from the list of names submitted by judicial nominating commissions.

(Podcast) KJAN News, 11/12/21

News, Podcasts

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

Area and western Iowa News from Ric Hanson.

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1 dead, 2 injured in eastern Iowa rollover accident

News

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Anamosa, Iowa) – One person died, and two others were injured during a single-vehicle rollover accident early today (Friday), south of Anamosa, in eastern Iowa’s Jones County. The Iowa State Patrol says a 2009 Ford Focus was traveling north in the 9200 block of Jones County Road X-40 at around 1-a.m., when the car entered the west ditch and rolled several times before hitting farm equipment. One person died at the scene, the two surviving occupants were transported to area hospitals. Authorities were withholding the names, pending notification of family.

The Patrol was assisted at the scene by Anamosa Police, Fire & Ambulance.

Sioux City’s General Bud Day honored on Veterans Day

News

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – One of the ceremonies on Veterans Day honored Iowa military hero George “Bud” Day of Sioux City, and his wife Doris. The event was a ribbon cutting at the Interpretive Center at the Siouxland Freedom Park in South Sioux City. Day’s son George Junior was at the ceremony. “When I think of our dad’s legacy and our mom’s legacy — and the fact that in a way we are honoring them — but more importantly we are honored by the people of this community in America and what it’s doing to inspire the youth of future generations,” he says.

Brigadier General Day received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service after being shot down over Vietnam and put in a prison camp. He was tortured, escaped, and was caught and tortured again. “It’s incredible to hear him talk about that and then share it with others. One of the biggest things that he shared was his faith in God,” Day says. “He never expected to survive in Vietnam. He never expected to live as many years as he did. He never expected to live through two bailouts in fighters. And yet, God kept him on this earth for a reason, and we are so thankful for that.”

The Bud Day Center

His children grew up without him while he was in the prison camp until the war ended. His daughter Sandra wore his flight jacket to the ceremony, and says she didn’t realize for a time what her dad had gone through.

George Jr and Sandra Day. (KSCJ photo)

“Probably my biggest revelation was when I actually sat down and read his book. Then it really hit home about what he went through and how bad it was,” she says. Sandra learned more about what he endured in the North Vietnam prison camp as she took care of her dad.

“In taking care of him when he was sick I could see the lash marks on his back. And that was really difficult — when you see it like that and you realize what it is — that really brings a new meaning to freedom and a meaning to torture and what he went through,” Sandra says.

George Junior graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1985 and went on to become an F-16 pilot. He later flew plans for Southwest Airlines after leaving the military.

New course teaches Iowa State students how to be their own first responders

News

November 12th, 2021 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – A class in disaster preparedness is being offered at Iowa State University for the first time this fall to ready students for everything from severe weather to hazardous materials spills. I-S-U’s emergency manager Clayton Oliver is teaching the course to students in the Honors Program who need to pass special classes as part of their requirements to graduate with honors.  “The name of the class is You Are Your Own First Responder,” Oliver says. “The general concept behind it is teaching baseline first responder skills, disaster medicine, triage, how to use a fire extinguisher, light duty search and rescue to, in this case, honor students.”

As part of the course, an Ames apartment was turned into a simulated tornado disaster area as students learned how to respond to and manage an emergency. “This is a class that offers them a lot of skills where, hopefully, they’ll never be in a situation where they have to use them, but if they are, they can take definite action,” Oliver says. “There’s a strong interest in our students in learning how to take care of themselves — and how to take care of others — in emergencies.”

The seminar is built around Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, training. It includes academic elements like studying reports from disasters like the 1993 Iowa floods and the 2011 tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri. “What I’m trying to do with this is pilot what I hope will be a larger program someday where we can spread these skills to more people across the campus, whether that’s students, faculty or staff,” Oliver says, “and ultimately, build a campus that is more prepared to respond to disasters, more resilient and more capable of recovering from them.”

Besides the tornado drill, students are also learning about disaster medicine and stabilizing victims with Thielen Student Health Center staff, search and rescue and extrication with the Ames Fire Department, and disaster psychology for victims and responders with I-S-U Student Counseling.