Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Restaurant closures due to the coronavirus have contributed to an estimated $5 billion in losses this year for the U.S. pork industry, and almost overnight millions of hogs stacking up on farms now have little value. Some farmers have resorted to killing piglets because plunging sales mean there is no room to hold additional animals in increasingly cramped conditions. After extended trade disputes and worker shortages, this was supposed to finally be the year hog farmers hit it big with prices expected to climb amid soaring domestic and foreign demand. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is promising to send cash and buy stored pork but industry leaders say it might not be enough to stem devastating losses.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday that Iowa’s meatpacking plants will stay open and likely continue to spread the coronavirus among workers, warning that shutting them down would be devastating for farmers and the food supply. Reynolds acknowledged at a news conference that the virus spreads quickly and easily at the plants because so many workers are in close proximity. She said that “we will continue to see clusters of positive cases” in them.Reynolds said closing them wasn’t an option, calling the state’s most important objective “keeping that food supply chain moving.” Otherwise, she warned that farmers would have to euthanize animals scheduled to be sold to plants and the price of food would skyrocket.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Governors in the Midwest are working to keep large meatpacking plants operating despite coronavirus outbreaks that have sickened hundreds of workers and threaten to disrupt the nation’s supply of pork and beef. In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly has sent personal protective equipment and testing supplies to counties with meat processing plants. Gov. Kristi Noem says she doesn’t think it will be difficult to fulfill federal requirements to reopen a shuttered facility in South Dakota. And Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has warned of the dire cost of closing plants, even while acknowledging the certainty of more infection clusters at the facilities.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Milwaukee real estate company has agreed to pay $75,000 to the state of Iowa for violating asbestos regulations. The Iowa Attorney General’s Office announced Monday that Phoenix Investors LLC agreed to the consent order on Friday. The violations occurred at a former Maytag building in Newton, which was used to power the former Maytag appliance factory. The state alleged that Phoenix and a second company, JB2 Services, committed multiple violations, including not inspecting for asbestos before renovating the building. The state’s lawsuit against JB2, also of Milwaukee, remains active.