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Iowa early News Headlines: Monday, Nov. 20 2020

News

November 30th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have arrested a 22-year-old Des Moines man in connection with a fatal hit-and-run crash that happened last week. Des Moines Police said Sunday that Lim Bol Choul was arrested after an anonymous tip led investigators to him. Police also found the dark-colored SUV that was involved in the crash Thursday night. Choul is facing charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and driving without insurance. When authorities responded to the crash shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday, they found a pedestrian who was critically injured. That man was taken to a hospital where he later died of his injuries

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa reported 2,013 new virus cases and 15 more deaths linked to COVID-19 on Sunday. As of 10 a.m. Sunday, the state had reported 227,796 cases of the coronavirus and 2,375 deaths linked to the virus since the pandemic began. The number of people hospitalized with the virus in the state declined slightly on Saturday to 1,175 from the previous day’s 1,221. Eighty-seven of Iowa’s 99 counties had a 14-day positivity rate above 15% on Sunday. Ten other counties reported positivity rates between 10% and 15%. Only two counties had a rate below 10%. Overall, Iowa had the ninth-highest rate of infection in the nation on Saturday

CLINTON, Iowa (AP) — A Republican candidate is hanging onto a single-digit lead in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District after a recount in a race that will help determine the size of Democrats’ majority in the House of Representatives. The Iowa Press-Citizen reports that Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks had just six more votes than Democrat Rita Hart after the recount wrapped up Saturday in Clinton County, which was the last of the district’s 24 counties to report its results. A state canvassing board is expected to meet Monday, the legal deadline, to certify the results of the race in which more than 394,400 votes were cast.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Thousands of streetlights still need to be repaired in the Cedar Rapids area months after they were broken when a derecho tore through Iowa. The Gazette reports that Mayuri Farlinger, the director of operations for Alliant Energy in the region, did not have an estimate as to how long it’ll take to repair the lights. The utility prioritized restoring power to homes and businesses after the Aug. 10 derecho. Streetlight repairs began at the end of October and crews have been out in “full force” to repair them, he said. The company’s crews and contractors have fixed hundreds of streetlights. Alliant says it has 12 two-person crews dedicated for streetlight repairs in every quadrant of the city.