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.

Iowa’s Coronavirus dashboard today (Tuesday), shows 19 additional deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 since Monday’s 10-a.m. report, for a total of 2,224. The number of deaths attributed to a pre-existing condition statewide are up two, to 1,312, while deaths at Long-Term Care facilities amount to 1,008, four more than on Monday. There is one more death to report in each of Adair and Shelby Counties.

Officials say there have been 3,860 new confirmed, Positive cases of the virus reported since yesterday, for a total since the pandemic began, of 215,512. Cass County has 11 new, Positive cases of COVID, for a total of 755. There are 24 more Long-Term Care facility (LTC) outbreaks, for a record total of 143. Those care facilities report 4,553 positive cases and 1,944 recovered. Cass County’s three LTC facilities have a total of 205 confirmed positive cases and 121 recovered.

After five days of lower hospitalization rates, the stats nearly doubled, from 1,333 Monday to 1,351 today. There are: 275 patients in intensive care; 165 patients admitted in the last 24 hours, up from 135 a day earlier, and there are 155 people on a ventilator, 20 more than on Monday. In western/southwestern Iowa: there are 71 COVID patients in the hospital (Up 6 from Monday); 18 are in an ICU (4 less than yesterday); 13 people were admitted to a hospital (8 more than Monday), and seven people are on a ventilator, an increase of two from yesterday.

The state’s data shows that 1,177,279 Iowans have been tested for coronavirus. Test results received yesterday amounted to 8,101, with 6,288 coming back Negative and 1,800 Positive. Iowa’s 14-day positivity rate is 19.7%, and the Individual Positivity rate is 18.3%. Cass County’s Positivity rate is at 19.9%. Union County has the highest rate in southwest Iowa, at 25%, followed by Taylor County, at 24.1%. Audubon County is the lowest, at 11.5%.

The IDPH says 119,685 Iowans have recovered from the virus. In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases in each county, along with the 24-hour change in case numbers {+#}; the number of persons recovered, and the total number of [deaths] (if any), since the pandemic began,

• Cass, 755 cases {+11}; 494 recovered; 19 deaths
• Adair, 415 {+7}; 189; 7
• Adams, 155 {+3}; 82; 1
• Audubon, 283 {+2}; 151; 1
• Guthrie, 708 {+8); 394; 15
• Harrison County, 1,024 {+10}; 669; 28
• Madison County, 648 {+7}; 364; 4
• Mills County, 992 {+12}; 404; 6
• Montgomery, 432 {+6}; 202; 10
• Pottawattamie County, 5,867 {+121]; 3,354; 66
• Shelby County, 727 {+8}; 436; 5
• Union County,  710 {+24}; 277; 6

Red Oak Police have arrested two people on separate charges. At around 2:22-a.m. Tuesday (today), 23-year old Skylar Lee Bingham, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 500 block of E. Nuckols Street, on a Cass County warrant for Domestic Abuse Assault by impeding air flow. Bingham was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $2,000 bond. And, at around 10:32-p.m. Monday, Red Oak Police arrested 18-year old Angel Rose Arzola, of Red Oak, for Simple Assault. She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The leader of the union that represents correctional officers says it’s time for the state prison system to quit accepting new admissions from county jails. AFSCME Council 61 president Danny Homan says if that inconveniences sheriffs and others in the criminal justice system, so be it.  “We don’t need their problems coming in there,” Homan says. “We need to shut this department down. Leave all inmates where they’re at and we need and we need to do this for four weeks, so that we can figure out what’s going on inside the walls.”

A spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections says halting admissions shifts the burden to county jails, most of which are ill-equipped to handle overcrowding or deal with an outbreak of the virus. Coronavirus outbreaks have been reported at state prison facilities in Coralville, Fort Dodge, Mount Pleasant, Anamosa, Rockwell City and Clarinda. Homan says he’s concerned the state prison in Newton will be the site of the next outbreak. The department’s website shows 11 Newton inmates have recently tested positive for Covid.

“If we’re going to stop this inside the Department of Corrections, inside the state’s institution, we have to take drastic action,” Homan says, “and I believe the only way to do that is to stop admissions.” Last week, state officials confirmed a staffer at the state prison for women in Mitchellville died of Covid. Homan says the corrections department now plans to distribute N-95 face masks, which provide an elevated level of protections, to all staff, not just those who have direct contact with a Covid-positive inmate. Homan says another key concern is more staff are working double-shifts because others are sick or in quarantine because of an exposure.

“They’ve expended every ounce of energy they can and they’re just going to work on sheer will and that makes them vulnerable for a lot of other things,” Homan says. “Staffing is one of the biggest problems we have within the Department of Corrections.” Homan, who held an online news conference Monday afternoon, says staff should be able to get regular access to Covid testing. “I am a proponent of all staff getting tested, simply because they’re working inside a petri dish called a prison,” Homan says.

But Homan says he’s well aware that because of the nature of the virus, a negative test result today doesn’t mean someone might not test positive for the virus tomorrow. Cord Overton, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections, accuses Homan of trying to score cheap political points rather than focus on how to best support each other through the pandemic.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A slim lead held by a Republican candidate for an open congressional seat in Iowa has gotten even smaller as counties recount their votes. Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks led Democrat Rita Hart by 47 votes in the race for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District in unofficial results before recounts began last week. The Iowa Secretary of State’s office says Miller-Meeks’ lead has shrunk to 36 votes out of more than 394,000 cast as the recount continues. So far, 15 of 24 counties have completed recounts and sent their new unofficial totals to the state. None of the four counties Hart carried have reported new totals, including Scott and Johnson.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa surpassed 211,000 coronavirus cases and 2,200 deaths, and the state remains ranked third-highest in the nation for virus positivity rate. The Iowa Department of Public Health reports there were 1,661 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours Monday morning and 13 additional deaths. That raised the total number of cases in Iowa to 211,722 and the total deaths to 2,205. Data from Johns Hopkins University shows Iowa’s seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate was 44.7% on Nov. 22, ranking third-highest third in the nation behind Wyoming and South Dakota.

DYSART, Iowa (AP) — Twin Iowa girls who faced long odds when they were born around the 22nd week of pregnancy are celebrating a miracle milestone — they turn 2 on Tuesday. The Des Moines Register reports that Guinness World Records has recognized Kambry and Keeley Ewoldt as the world’s most premature twins. Jade Ewoldt of Dysart gave birth to the girls on Nov. 24, 2018. Kambry weighed nearly 1 pound and Keeley weighed a little over 1 pound. The girls spent the first four months of their lives in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Today, the girls love singing “Baby Shark,” doing the Chicken Dance and painting pictures.

MONROE, Iowa (AP) — House Democrats lost enough seats in this month’s elections that they’ll have the smallest majority in more than a century. To find out what happened, the party has already begun a “deep dive” examination, and so far it’s blaming a parade of missteps. They include moving too far to the left on national issues, not explaining well how they’d fix an outbreak-ravaged economy and failing to grow their appeal with enough Latinos. House Democrats also were hurt by curtailing in-person campaigning amid the coronavirus pandemic. But a major factor was President Donald Trump’s ability to drive strong turnout.

IOWA CITY – The Iowa Department of Corrections report prison inmate Timothy Christopher Bryant, who had been serving a life sentence for the crime of Kidnapping 1st Degree from Polk County, died Sunday. Officials said his death was likely due to complications related to COVID-19 and other preexisting medical conditions.

He died at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Originally housed at the Anamosa State Penitentiary, he had been taken to the hospitals several days earlier for more advanced care as his medical condition began to worsen.  Bryant was 59 years old at the time of his death.

Bryant began his sentence on February 25, 1992.