JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — Iowa reported 143 nursing homes with coronavirus outbreaks, and thousands of residents have tested positive for the virus. The state Department of Public Health says more than 4,500 residents of care center are infected with the virus. State data shows 1,008 residents of long-term care facilities have died with COVID-19 in the past eight months. The deteriorating situation for nursing homes is reflective of overall virus trends in Iowa, which on Tuesday reported 18 additional deaths.

More than 500 people with COVID-19 have died in Iowa so far this month and 2,224 overall. In the past 24 hours as of Tuesday morning, there were 3,860 additional confirmed cases.

(9-a.m. News) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports three arrests. Early today (Tuesday), 35-year old Shane Scott Oliver, of Omaha, was arrested on a warrant for providing false identification, and interference with official acts. He was also arrested on a Fremont County warrant for Interference with official acts. Total bond for Oliver was set at $900. And, 36-year old Travis Mitchell Long, of Honey Creek, was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail on a Mills County warrant for Failure to Appear on a Burglary in the 3rd Degree, charge. His bond was set at $7,500.

Monday afternoon, 32-year old Bobby Brice Horn, of Maryville, MO., was arrested at the Bulter County, MO., Sheriff’s Office, on a Mills County warrant for Violation of Probation. Bond was set at $7,500.

The Adair County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing Wednesday on the Northwest Wind Farm Urban Renewal Plan (URP). The hearing is part of their regular meeting that begins at 9-a.m. in the courtroom at the Adair County Courthouse, in Greenfield.(The public may attend via dial-in at (605)-313-6157 and using access code 526272#)

In addition to the public hearing on a proposed Amendment (#2) to the URP, the Board will act on a Resolution “determining an area of the County to be an economic development area, and that the rehabilitation, conservation, redevelopment, development or combination” of those options, in said area, “is necessary in the interest of the public health, safety or welfare of the residents of the County,” and designating the area as appropriate for urban renewal projects, as well as adopting the Amendment number 2 to the Adair County Northwest Wind Farm URP.

The Board will also consider an Ordinance for the “division of revenues,” for “Amendment #2 to the Adair County Northwest Wind Farm” URP. In other business, the Adair County Supervisors will hear a report from County Auditor Mandy Berg, and Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Kempf, who will present his preliminary FY22 Emergency Management budget discussion.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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A traffic stop at around 5:17-a.m. Tuesday (Today), in Red Oak, resulted in the arrest of a man from Creston. Red Oak Police say a vehicle driven by 37-year old Jimmy Spencer Cooper, of Creston, was stopped near Highway 34 and Ironwood Avenue. Upon further investigation, Cooper was arrested for OWI/1st offense. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond. Red Oak Police were assisted by Deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

Two accidents took place in Red Oak Monday due to slick, snow covered roads, but there were no injuries. Red Oak Police say an accident involving a pickup and an SUV took place at around 11:47-a.m. in the 1600 block of E. Summit Street, as the 1998 Dodge Dakota pickup, driven by 64-year old Marcia Lehman, of Griswold, was turning from westbound Summit Street into a storage unit parking lot. A 2009 Cadillac Escalade driven by 47-year old Hugo Lepe Duenas, of Red Oak, was attempting to go around the pickup, when the SUV went out of control and struck the rear of the pickup. Authorities say there was heavy snow and slick/slushy roads at the time. No citations were issued. Vehicle damages amounted to $1,000.

The second accident happened at around 12:10-p.m. Monday, in the 800 block of E. Summit Street. When officers arrived, they found a 2013 Ford Explorer in a yard on the south side of the street. The SUV, driven by 59-year old Drue Powers, of Red Oak, was eastbound, but had traveled west, gone down a hill and was in the intersection of N. 8th and E. Summit Streets. A 2007 Ford Fusion driven by 25-year old Malachi Hayes, of Adair, was westbound on E. Summit, and as it traveled down the hill, was unable to make the curve and traveled in the SUV’s lane before striking the SUV on the driver’s side. The Ford then traveled down the hill and stopped at the intersection. Damage amounted to $17,000. There were no citations issued due to the weather/road conditions.

MARION, Iowa (AP) — More than a year after his death, an Iowa soldier has received a promotion. KCRG-TV reports that 22-year-old Mason Webber, of Marion, was killed on Sept. 5, 2019, in an accident on the military base in Fort Hood, Texas. On Monday, Webber was posthumously promoted to specialist. His mother, Tonya Grefe, called the promotion “a good part of the closure.” Grefe received her son’s honor at the National Guard Armory in Marshalltown.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) – While there have been scattered showers, parts of Iowa have had very little rain since mid-summer and the continued dry weather is drawing down soil moisture levels. State climatologist Justin Glisan says while drought conditions are lessening in some areas, they’re worsening elsewhere, as much of Iowa’s western third is now in moderate to severe drought. “Subsoil conditions across much of the region show a below-normal percentile,” Glisan says. “Recent warm and windy days produced higher evaporate demand in the atmosphere, so the atmosphere is thirsty, especially for this time of year, those conditions allow for extraction of any subsoil moisture or surface moisture that we see.”

We’re heading into a drier time of year, so Glisan says it will be difficult to recharge soil moisture levels before spring. “With a lack of precipitation, this makes rainfall infiltration when we do get it harder to get down deep,” he says. Glisan says that lack of soil moisture may bring some help to Iowa’s farmers in the spring. “The silver lining here is that moving into the growing season, drier-than-normal conditions will make field work and planting easier,” Glisan says. “If you go back, the last two or three years, we’ve had pretty wet conditions going into the growing season with record subsoil moisture which delayed planting.”

Conditions could change within a matter of several weeks, as Glisan says the trends point to above-normal precipitation for January through March.

(Radio Iowa) – The annual Farm Bureau survey finds the cost of a typical Thanksgiving dinner for ten people has dropped by two dollars this year. The Iowa Farm Bureau’s director of agriculture analytics and research, Sam Funk, says the drop in overall meal cost comes as the turkey cost fell seven percent — to around one-dollar, 21 cents per pound. The other dishes include: stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and coffee and milk. Funk says the producers of some of the side dishes haven’t had the easiest year. “Some of the dairy products — such as the whipped cream that might be going on that pumpkin pie — or you think about of some of these other products coming to the marketplace, overall its been a year of ups and downs, but overall it ends up being a more affordable Thanksgiving dinner,” he says.

Funk says some people like to have a ham for the holiday too — and they did a side survey on their cost and found no change. “While we may have an unchanged price for hams to go on the table, according to the survey, that’s still a pretty good factor to think about the recovery that the meat industry has been able to have — that they have enough hams through all this adversity through this pandemic to again put hams on your plate,” according to Funk.

Funk says the actual cost for the meal came in at 46-dollars, 90 cents. He says the inflation-adjusted price was lower than we have had in a very long time. “That’s a multiplied blessing for a lot of families.” Funk says farmers have seen some recent increases in commodity prices, but he says they go into next year with concerns. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty as you look at it going forward. I think one of the aspects that we need to consider now and to be thankful for is the fact that we have an abundance of food in the United States,” Funk says. “We still have one of the lowest costs of food that you’ll find. The percentage our disposable income that we will pay for food in the United States is frankly one of the lowest that you will find across the world.”

This is the 35th year the Farm Bureau has conducted its Thanksgiving dinner survey.