(Update 10-a.m.) The Iowa Department of Public Health’s Coronavirus dashboard today (Monday), indicated the number of Positive cases in the State continue to rise, along with the number of deaths. There were 1,469 new cases statewide, and 17 deaths reported for a total of 1,733. Pre-existing conditions account for 1,132 of the total deaths. Cass County has one more death (total of 4), 16 more Positive cases, for a total of 495. Pottawattamie County has 29 new Positive cases.

Long-Term Care Facility deaths are up seven, 847. The number of outbreaks at LTC’s are down one, to 80. In Cass County, two facilities: Atlantic Specialty Care and the Griswold Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, have a combined total of 116 positive cases, with 17 recovered. Harrison County has 251 cases among three facilities, and 125 recovered.  (For more data not seen here, go to https://coronavirus.iowa.gov/)

Hospitalizations total 718 today (compared to 676 Sunday). There are 156 COVID patients in an ICU (Down from 164 on Sunday), 108 have been admitted since Sunday (down from 128 previously), and 57 are on a ventilator (up from 53 yesterday). In western/southwestern Iowa: there are 46 people hospitalized with COVID (compared to 43 yesterday); 10 are in an ICU, four were admitted and three are on a ventilator.

The IDPH reports a total of 984,539 Iowans have been tested for the virus, with 131,713 testing positive, and 851,139 testing Negative. The Individual Positivity rate is 13.4%, and the 14-day rolling average is 14.4%. There are 11 counties with a Positivity rate of 20% or greater, including: Cass County, at 21.9%;  Harrison County at 21.5%, and Taylor County at 20.1%.  Officials say 93,813 Iowans have recovered from the virus.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases in each county (as of 6-a.m., 11/2), 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, 495 cases {+16}; 308 recovered; 4 deaths
• Adair, 230 {+9}; 77; 1
• Adams, 88 {+1}; 51; 1
• Audubon, 193 {+2}; 105; 1
• Guthrie, 440 {+13); 284; 15
• Harrison County, 745 {+5}; 351; 17
• Madison County, 401 {+5}; 275; 3
• Mills County, 489 {+16}; 233; 3
• Montgomery, 214 {+3}; 162; 7
• Pottawattamie County, 3,585 {+29]; 2,552; 45
• Shelby County, 430 {+4}; 360; 2
• Union County,  291; 232; 5

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa has four congressional districts and, once the votes are counted in this election, at least two but perhaps three of the four districts will be represented by women. University of Northern Iowa political science professor Donna Hoffman says getting more female representation, at all levels, is a national trend — and national studies show women are better than men at constituent case work. “The more experience that voters have with diverse models of representation, quite frankly the better off representation in the United States will be,” Hoffman says.

Iowa currently has two congresswomen, both seeking reelection to a second term. Democrat Cindy Axne of West Des Moines is in a rematch in the third district with former Republican Congressman David Young, a Republican. In Iowa’s first district, incumbent Abby Finkenauer, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, faces Republican Ashley Hinson of Marion. She’s a former T-V reporter in the Cedar Rapids market. Hoffman says both have emphasized how they have responded to derecho victims in the district. “This is one of the races that people across the country are watching,” Hoffman says, “the parties are sinking money into, lots of people are sinking money into.”

Hinson, who spoke with Radio Iowa this weekend, raised one-point-six million dollars for her campaign in the third quarter. “It shows the strength of our campaign and I think it shows that we are going to win this race on Tuesday,” Hinson said. Hinson has highlighted her votes as a member of the state legislature to reduce state taxes. During the president’s rally in Dubuque Sunday, she declared Iowa “Trump Country” and this was her message to a crowd in Maquoketa.”Abby Finkenauer is marching in lockstep with Pelosi and Biden as well,” Hinson said this weekend in Maquoketa. Finkenauer spoke Saturday at a rally with other Democrats in Marion.”We are going to keep this congressional district blue. We are going to send Joe Biden to that White House,” she said.

Finkenauer worked on Biden’s 2008 Iowa campaign and she endorsed him before this year’s Iowa Caucuses. In Iowa’s second congressional district, two women — Democrat Rita Hart of Wheatland and Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottuwma — are competing for that seat. Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Iowa City, is not seeking reelection .

The countdown clock for the 2020 election has shifted from days to hours. President Trump spoke in Dubuque Sunday afternoon. “What a crowd,” Trump said, to cheers as he took the stage. “We had a great victory here four years ago.” Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar campaigned with Democrats in Marion on Saturday. “All eyes are on Iowa right now in the country. They are!” The outcome of Iowa’s U.S. Senate race may determine which party holds a majority in the Senate next year. Incumbent Republican Joni Ernst and her campaign bus rolled into Maquoketa early Saturday afternoon.

“We are seeing a level of enthusiasm and energy all across the state of Iowa. It’s not doom and gloom. It’s not the dark winter some might want you to believe…We know that there is a brighter future ahead,” Ernst said, to cheers. Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield told the crowd in Marion it’s a “tough race…but I’ll tell you what — it’s a race we can win.” Greenfield’s closing pitch this weekend focused on issues like Social Security’s solvency and health care. “Another thing that people tell me about everywhere I go is they want the divisiveness to end. They want the bickering and the name-calling to end, yeah. I do, too. It’s part of why I’m in this race. I’ll work with anyone if they’ve got a good idea to help our country to move forward.”

Ernst spoke with Radio Iowa just before leaving Maquoketa, headed for Clinton. “This has been a long, long journey obviously,” Ernst said. “But no matter the outcome, I know this is in God’s hands and I’ve loved traveling the state of Iowa, so on to victory,” Ernst said.  Greenfield told Radio Iowa by the end of the weekend, her campaign will have made two million voter contacts by via text or direct phone conversations. “We are fired up, honestly. People are voting. They’re talking to their neighbors and friends, so I know it’s going to be a competitive race,” Greenfield said.

According to the Secretary of State’s website, nearly 925-thousand Iowans had already voted by Saturday.

Red Oak Police, Sunday night, arrested a man for Violation of a No Contact Order. 42-year-old Brian Keith Shaver, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 10:18-p.m. in the 400 block of E. Corning Street. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

Sheriff’s officials in Ringgold County report a man from Union County was arrested Friday night, following a complaint about a suspicious vehicle northeast of Diagonal. The vehicle was followed by a citizen who was able to give deputies the suspect vehicle’s location. The vehicle was stopped at around 7:30-p.m. and the driver, 33-year old Nicholas Bryan Crenshaw, of Afton, taken into custody on a Union County felony warrant for Amphetamine Possession.

Crenshaw was released to the Union County Sheriff’s Office.

A pursuit initiated by an Iowa State Patrol Trooper Sunday afternoon in Scott County, led to a fatal crash. The State Patrol reports a Trooper was attempting to make a traffic stop on a 2005 Buick passenger car on I-80 eastbound approaching I-280, when the driver of the Buick, 31-year old Kathryn Anne Burkhead, of Donahue, failed to yield.

The chase exited I-80 onto I280 and then onto Kimberly Road eastbound, where the Buick went out of control just west of the intersection with Wisconsin Avenue. The Buick went into the opposite lane, and was struck broadside by a 2013 Jeep, driven by 22-year old Emilie Anne Heggen, of Iowa City. The accident happened at around 4:35-p.m.

After the impact, the Buick rolled onto its roof, and the Jeep came to rest in the north ditch. Burkhead died at the scene. Heggen was transported to a local hospital by ambulance. Both women were wearing their seat belts. The Scott County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.

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

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Five of the six states with the nation’s lowest unemployment rates are in the Midwest, have Republican governors and have almost no restrictions intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Those governors have said their lack of mask mandates or other restrictions are a big reason why their states are riding out the pandemic relatively well, but economists say it’s not so simple. Economists say a lack of mandates might help, but of even greater importance is the fact that Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and Missouri have economies that rely heavily on industries that weren’t hit as hard by the pandemic.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A surge in coronavirus cases across the country, including in key presidential battleground states, is creating mounting health and logistical concerns for voters, poll workers and political parties ahead of Election Day. In Iowa, county officials said they were preparing for scores of confirmed or potentially infected people to vote curbside. It’s an option typically used by disabled people that must be available outside every polling place. In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers sought to assure voters in the critical swing state that going to the polls would not be risky, even as officials announced more than 5,000 new coronavirus cases.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — President Donald Trump and other Republicans will head into Election Day likely trailing by tens of thousands of votes in Iowa but they hope to overcome that deficit with a strong turnout of their supporters at polling places. More than 62% of active registered Democrats in Iowa and 43% of Republicans have already returned absentee ballots as part of a record-setting early vote in the state. That means 123,000 more Democrats had voted than Republicans as of Saturday. But it also means the remaining electorate Tuesday will be smaller than unusual, tilt toward the GOP and feature a plurality of voters who do not belong to either party.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa reported nearly 3,000 new virus cases Sunday, and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 continued to soar. The state reported 2,887 additional cases of the virus Sunday to give the state 130,244 cases total since the pandemic began, according to Iowa’s online virus tracker. One additional death was also reported to give Iowa 1,716 deaths. Iowa officials said 676 people were hospitalized with the virus on Sunday, up from the previous day’s record of 630. The state said that over the past 14 days, Iowa was averaging a 14.1% positivity rate for the virus, but 43 of Iowa’s 99 counties had rates above 15% on Sunday.

(Radio Iowa) – At a windy outdoor campaign rally in Dubuque Sunday afternoon, President Trump promised what he described as a “super boom” in the U.S. economy if he’s reelected. “Our country has such unbelievable potential, let’s not blow it,” Trump said. “Go vote.” The Trump campaign distributed hand warmers to the crowd to combat below-freezing temperatures in a brisk November wind. Trump invited several Iowa Republicans who’re on the 2020 ballot on stage, including Joni Ernst, the U.S. Senator who’s seeking a second term.

“President Trump, we love you! Thank you so much. God bless you. There is not a finer president and one that has done so much for our farmers,” Ernst said, before leading the crowd in a chant. “…Iowa loves you. I love you. Four more years!” Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks — the two Republicans running in the congressional districts the border the Mississippi River — spoke as well.

“Iowa is Trump country!” Hinson said, to cheers. Miller-Meeks said: “We’re going to say to Nancy Pelosi: ‘You’re fired.'” Trump touted a Des Moines Register Iowa Poll released Saturday night which found him leading Joe Biden here.  “Thank you very much Iowa and we appreciate it,” Trump said, to cheers. “And we’ve had a great run together and I’ve been working very hard with the farmers and making them, hopefully, very rich.”

Governor Kim Reynolds mentioned the poll’s margin for Trump when the president invited her on stage. “We are going to bring it home!” Reynolds said. “We’re not satisfied with seven. We’re going for 10!” Senator Chuck Grassley praises the president for keeping his 2016 campaign promises. “Iowa’s going to go for you big time,” Grassley said.

Former Governor Terry Branstad, who until the end of September served as Trump’s Ambassador to China, gave a short speech, too, praising the president’s approach to trade negotiations with China.

The President of the Iowa Association of Auditors, Roxanna Moritz, Sunday, said “The 2020 General Election has been unprecedented in the challenges facing County Auditors in Iowa. The COVID-19 pandemic and record early voting are among those challenges. Auditors have been planning for months and are prepared to both accurately count votes as well as safely serve all voters on Election Day.”

Mortiz added, “On Saturday October 31st many County Auditors convened the absentee boards of their counties to begin the process to review and open absentee ballot envelopes. Starting Monday, November 2nd and ending on Tuesday, November 3rd, County Auditors will have 46 hours to undertake the task of tabulating all the ballots.”

She concluded by sayig “Even though this has been an unprecedented year, as always, Iowa’s County Auditors are positioned to deliver this Election in the same manner as they have for years; providing all citizens of Iowa a safe, fair, timely and accurate election.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man in Des Moines. Shortly before 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Des Moines police officers found the 45-year-old man with a gunshot wound in the 2600 block of Ingersoll Avenue in central Des Moines. The man was taken to a hospital where he died. Des Moines Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek said in a statement that investigators arrested 24-year-old Rythm Huddleston of Des Moines on suspicion of first-degree murder and a gun charge in connection with the shooting. The victim was identified as 45-year-old Marcellas McNeil of Des Moines.