Des Moines, Iowa (March 4, 2021):    The Des Moines Airport Authority has partnered with Exemplar Care to provide travelers the convenience of onsite COVID testing at the Des Moines International Airport. Beginning March 4, 2021, Exemplar Care will offer three types of COVID tests at the airport: PCR, Rapid Antigen, and an Antibody test. International travel, as well as some domestic travel destinations, require a PCR test. Exemplar Care can test travelers at the airport or their West Des Moines location to meet this requirement. Exemplar Care is in the closed Berk & Chesters restaurant space. To book an appointment, visit www.FlyDSM.com and click the button at the top of the page.

Kevin Foley, Airport Authority Executive Director, says “As more people choose to travel, adding onsite testing helps us to provide convenience and safety in a rapidly changing travel environment. Wearing a mask and washing hands frequently remain critical in traveling safely, however through this partnership, travelers will also have the ability to monitor their health at the beginning of their trip as well as upon their return.”

All three tests are offered at low rates to the Des Moines metro: the PCR test is $90, Rapid Antigen $65, and the Antibody test is $25.  It is recommended appointments be scheduled online before travel, especially for the PCR test. However, for returning passengers, walk-in services for Rapid Antigen tests and the Antibody test are offered onsite. PCR test results are back within 24 hours, whereas the other two tests provide results within sixty minutes.

All ticketed passengers within 72 hours of travel are eligible to be tested at the easy-to-access airport testing site. Appointments and walk-in testing are available to anyone at Exemplar Care’s West Des Moines location at 7300 Westown Parkway, Suite 330.  For more information on test options or to book an appointment at either location, visit www.exemplar.care.

All travelers opting for the tests should continue to observe CDC recommendations to mask, social distance and regularly wash hands.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:07-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to ban demonstrations on the second floor of the Iowa Capitol building. The chambers where the House and Senate debate are located on the second floor, with a large, open rotunda in between. The new policy would ban chanting, rallies and marches on the second floor. Representative Brent Siegrist, a Republican from Council Bluffs, says it would ensure “ordinary citizens” can come to the Capitol and speak with legislators in the second floor rotunda area.

“Demonstrations are perfectly fine and encouraged if you want outside the Capitol, at the basement or on the first floor,” Siegrist said, “but they would not be allowed outside the chamber.”

Siegrist says chanting and singing in the area right outside the House and Senate can be disruptive as legislators debate — but the new rule is primarily designed to ensure the health and safety of elected officials, employees of the legislature, the public and lobbyists. People in the area would still be able to wear buttons and t-shirts carrying a political message under this new policy, but banners and posters would. The proposal is included in procedural rules the House approved yesterday (Wednesday), but the Senate has not voted on the package yet.

Demonstrations are already prohibited on the 3rd floor of the Capitol, where the seating galleries overlooking the House and Senate are located.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has unanimously approved state tax breaks for some unemployed Iowans as well as Iowa business owners who got grants and loans financed with FEDERAL pandemic relief funds. The plan means Iowans who qualified for temporary federal unemployment would not have to pay state income taxes on those benefits. In addition, state income taxes would not be charged on the federal Paycheck Protection Program grants and loans to Iowa businesses. Representative Brian Lohse, a Republican from Bondurant, says the total tax savings for Iowa businesses and individuals would amount to an estimated 128 million dollars. “A Covid relief package that is substantial,” Lohse says, “that takes care of both businesses and individuals in as equitable and as meaningful a way as we could possibly do.”

Lohse says this is the right mechanism to get relief to Iowans who took a financial hit during the pandemic. “Benefiting those that have been certainly impacted by the pandemic has been, I think, across the board for all 100 of us one of the foremost thoughts that we’ve had,” Lohse says, “finding the proper way to do it, finding a way that continues to be fiscally responsible.” Representative Dave Jacoby, a Democrat from Coralville, cheered the plan. “I’m smiling under my mask because finally a major bill coming through our chamber with bipartisan support,” he said.

Iowans will still have to pay state income taxes on standard unemployment benefits, but Jacoby says the bill should help as many as two-hundred thousand Iowans who got expanded benefits provided by the federal government. “This is a fantastic bill. In fact, from my point of view, this should have been the first bill we did in January,” Jacoby said. “…It’s much more important than some of the other things that we’ve tackled in the first six or seven weeks.”

Senators have already agreed to exempt P-P-P loans and grants from state taxes. The bill now goes back to the Senate for a vote on erasing state income taxes on the expanded federal benefits to Iowans who were unemployed during the pandemic.

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

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds has received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine during her weekly news conference to encourage Iowans to get vaccinated as soon as they can. The governor, her husband Iowa Department of Public Health Administrator Kelly Garcia were vaccinated Wednesday during the televised event. Reynolds says she wanted to wait to get vaccinated until after nursing home residents and staff, essential workers and other priority groups had the chance to do so. Iowa is one of several Republican-led states that have lifted most mask and distancing requirements against the advice of top health experts. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that lifting mask mandates now would be a mistake and urged state leaders to follow the science.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A decision by the superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district to stick with remote learning in the midst of a pandemic could end up costing him his job. Television station WOI reports that the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners is seeking to strip Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Thomas Ahart of his administrator license. The board says it found probable cause that Ahart failed to submit or implement a lawful plan to return students to the classroom for the 2020-21 school year as required by Gov. Kim Reynolds. The license is a state requirement to hold the position of schools superintendent in Iowa.

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Police say the discovery of a live pipe bomb at a central Iowa polling place forced an evacuation of the building. Police responded Tuesday morning after a device that looked like a pipe bomb was found outside the Lakeside Center in Ankeny, where residents were voting on an Ankeny school district special election. No one was injured. The building was evacuated, and the State Fire Marshal and agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called in. Technicians safely detonated the device, and the center was reopened around 12:30 p.m. Police later confirmed that the device was a pipe bomb. Officials don’t know whether the pipe bomb was related to the election and police say an investigation into who left the device is continuing.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Cities along the Mississippi River will take part in a global system to determine where plastic pollution comes from and how it ends up in waterways. Officials said Wednesday the project is a first step toward solving one of the top environmental crises for the world’s oceans. The project enables “citizen scientists” using a mobile application to log types and locations of litter found along the river. The Mississippi drains 40% of the continental U.S. and sends huge volumes of plastics into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Atlantic City Council breezed through their agenda in about 30-minutes, Wednesday evening. Following Public Hearings…

• The Council authorized Library Director Michelle Andersen to apply for a USDA/Rural Development grant for financial assistance to purchase new Atlantic Public Library computers, computer desks, related equipment, and to help finance new flooring in the Library, along with painting of the upper level.

Combined, both projects are expected to cost $80,970, with grants and other proceeds available, amounting to $69,440. The Library Gift Fund is likely to pick up the balance of the bill.

• The Council passed a Resolution pertaining to FY2022 Maximum Property Tax Dollars for Certain Levies, as previously explained.
• They also passed a Resolution “Taking additional action on a proposal to enter into a General Obligation Refunding Loan Agreement” (as previously explained), and “Authorizing the use of a Preliminary Official Statement in Connection” with the agreement.
• And, the Atlantic  City Council passed a Resolution Adopting the Preliminary FY2022 Budget and set the date for a public hearing on the Budget as well as the proposed FY2022 10-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Budget. Both will take place during the Council’s next meeting on March 17, 2021.
• A separate Resolution was passed to enter into a solid waste management loan agreement, with regard to the 28-E organization that operates the Cass County Landfill.

In other business, the Council approved the setting of April 1st as the bid date, and April 7th as the date for a  public hearing, on the Atlantic Animal Shelter building addition. You may recall, the engineer’s original estimate for the project was $151,620, but the lowest bid came in at $180,300. Snyder and Associates Engineer Austin Sonntag said Wednesday, there were some adjustments to the dates for the project completion.

Sonntag was asked by Councilman Dick Casady if Snyder’s had increased the amount of their estimate. Austin said they have spoke recently with the original contract bidders about that.

The Lorene Eppelsheimer estate has gifted the City $135,000 to benefit animals at the shelter, with the intention of increasing the number of cat cages and moving them to a separate area away from the dogs. It will also have a proper food storage area, an exam and grooming table, in addition to a more efficient water heater. Additional gifts have been received in the amount of $2,000, and City officials will be looking for grants and funds from the budget to help make up for the deficit.

In other business, the Council approved the reappointments of Melissa Ihnen to the Board of Adjustment as well as the Planning & Zoning Commission, along with Dave Sturm and Ted Robinson, to the Utility Board of Trustees.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police have arrested two men in the shooting death of a Clive man last month. Fifty-one-year-old Columbus Plum Lewis, of Des Moines, has been charged with first-degree murder. Police also arrested 55-year-old Virgil Alva See, also of Des Moines, for first-degree theft and accessory after the fact. Lewis is accused of shooting 52-year-old Darrell Merriweather, of Clive, who died on Saturday.

Police say Lewis fled the scene after Merriweather was shot. He was arrested Sunday on several unrelated warrants. Investigators say See was at the scene of the shooting and they later found Merriweather’s ID card, debit card and credit cards at See’s home.

Des Moines, Iowa — The Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau reports 42-year-old Dustin French, of Red Oak, was charged with one count of Insurance Fraud – Presenting False Information (Class D Felony) and one count of Theft in the 2nd Degree (Class D Felony) following an investigation by the Bureau.

The charges against French, a former licensed insurance producer, stem from an investigation which began in April of 2020. According to criminal complaints filed by the Iowa Insurance Fraud Bureau, French provided false information to his insurance company in order to obtain insurance benefits to which he was not entitled.

On March 2, 2021, French answered to the charges in Montgomery County District Court and was released on his own recognizance. Trial will be set for a future date. No additional information will be provided at this time.

Iowans with information about insurance fraud are encouraged to contact the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau at 515-654-6556.

(Radio Iowa) – As the pandemic is forcing many tens of thousands of Iowans to work from home, the state’s official jobs website is offering some new options. Iowa Workforce Development is adding a Remote/Work From Home jobs display to its website in an effort to help job seekers who are specifically looking for that type of opportunity.

Workforce director Beth Townsend says the new tab should make it easier for Iowans to identify and apply for those jobs, noting, there are more than 76-thousand overall jobs available statewide on the site. Townsend is also encouraging the state’s employers to post their remote and work from home opportunities on IowaWORKS.gov.

(Radio Iowa) – COVID-19 ruined vacation plans for countless Iowans in the past year, but more than 300 Iowa high school students are getting a full refund on a band trip that was shut down by the virus. Lynn Hicks, spokesman for the Iowa Attorney General, says a Colorado-based travel outfit, Voyageurs International, had offered what it was calling the Ambassadors of Music Tour and 307 Iowans paid in advance.

“They signed up for this band tour of Europe, it was cancelled because of the pandemic,” Hicks says. “They got part of their money back but the contract said that it was less $1,900.” The Iowa students paid more than 63-hundred dollars each for the tour and accompanying adults paid 67-hundred, while about 40 Iowans paid at least two-thousand dollars more for a side trip to Greece.

“A lot of the students and their parents came to us, we talked to the company and found out the company had received some of the money back from the vendors that they worked with,” Hicks says. “We felt it was best that they return the full amount to the students and that’s what happened.” The Iowa Attorney General’s Office alleged the company violated several laws, including the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. The company denied the charges but agreed to pay back the full 610-thousand dollars to its Iowa clients.

“We appreciate that they worked with us on this,” Hicks says. “The company did mislead the Iowans in how they handled this event, so in the end, we think it’s a nice end to the story.” The A-G’s office is in now in the process of contacting the Iowans and will send them refund checks.