(Radio Iowa) – One of the people at the top of the legal ladder in Iowa will find himself in a new position today (Monday). Iowa Supreme Court Justice Matthew McDermott, from Carroll, says he got a notice asking him to report for jury duty. “I’ve never previously been called for jury duty — but I am set to be juror number 299 in Polk County,” McDermott says.  The lawyers from both side question members of the jury pool and each can remove or strike a juror if they choose. McDermott is not sure if his status at the top of the court system will lead to a seat in the jury box. “I don’t know — often times lawyers tend to strike other lawyers — and certainly I think lawyers might be inclined to strike judges,” he says.

McDermott says its a role in the legal process that he is interested in seeing how it all works. “I am excited by it — I mean obviously as a citizen there are a lot kind of public opportunities that you have to kind of do your civic duty — you can vote, you can serve on a jury. I’ve never had this chance. The irony of course is that I have spent a lot of time working on the protocols so we can have safe jury trials,” McDermott says. He says he is prepared for anything that might happen. )”I wouldn’t be shocked if ultimately I wasn’t one of the names in that jury box when the trial starts,” McDermott says.

McDermott was appointed to the high court by the governor in April to replace retiring Justice David Wiggins.

The Atlantic City Council is scheduled to hold a regular meeting 5:30-p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 16), in their Chambers at City Hall. Action items on their agenda include:

• An Order to partially close the alley behind the Fireside Lounge on Sat., Sept. 26th, from 11-a.m. until Midnight, for a fundraiser to benefit Ryan Ward.
• The second reading of an Amended Ordinance pertaining to Sanitary Sewer System hook-up requirements and billing for those on a septic system.
• A Public Hearing on an Ordinance vacating a “Phantom,” Dead-end alley that does not connect to another street, located in Pellet’s Addition to the City of Atlantic.
• The first reading of an Ordinance Vacating the aforementioned “Phantom” alley.
• The Council will also act on approving the Street Finance Report for FY 2019-20, as required by Iowa Code for those cities receiving Road Use Tax funds.
• A Resolution approving the Transfer of Funds for the 1st Quarter of FY 2020-21, a routine process the City uses to transfer money between its 26 separate funds that makes the Budget work effectively, and, according to City Administrator John Lund, “reconciles accurate cost-accounting with the desire to create transparency on what is being spent in each of the line items in each fund.”
• The final action item for the Council is approving a Change Order with regard to the Downtown Facade Improvements Project, in the amount of $15,611, bringing the entire project total to $427,766, which, with several participants dropping out, still saves the City a substantial amount of money overall, according to Lund. The idea being to make the downtown improvements and bring increased property valuations over the long-term.

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to China will step down early next month, ending a three-year tenure marked by a trade war and increasingly bitter relations between the world’s two largest economies. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing says former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad confirmed his decision in a phone call with President Donald Trump last week. It did not give a reason for his departure.

FILE – In this June 28, 2017, file photo, U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad makes comments about pro-democracy activist and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo during a photocall and remarks to journalists at the Ambassador’s residence in Beijing. Branstad appears to be leaving his post, based on tweets by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo thanked Branstad for more than three years of service on Twitter on Monday, Sept. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Trade relations soured under Trump, and other disputes followed over technology, human rights and the response to the coronavirus pandemic. Branstad became embroiled in a recent controversy when China’s official People’s Daily newspaper rejected an opinion piece by him.

Anita, Iowa – In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Iowa state parks in 2020, you are invited to join the staff and Friends Group of Lake Anita State Park on Sept. 26th,  to help care for the park at a special clean-up event. Nearly 30 parks across Iowa are hosting volunteer events. Todd Coffelt, DNR Bureau Chief of State Parks says “Iowa state parks are important places many people enjoy for their natural beauty and outdoor recreation. We know volunteering in state parks is important to many people who want to help care for them, and Statewide Volunteer Day is a great opportunity to lend a hand.”

The volunteer event at Lake Anita State Park will start at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 26th. Volunteers will help add rock along the multi-use trail and various spots. As an alternative, volunteers can also pick up trash around the campground. Please bring gloves, hard rakes, brooms or blowers if you have them.

For details about the statewide Volunteer Day, visit www.iowadnr.gov/volunteer. Activities will be unique for each park depending on clean-up needs, but may include litter pick-up, staining or painting buildings, planting trees, clearing trails and more. Park staff will encourage social distancing.

Volunteers are encouraged to share their activities on social media with #IowaStateParks100.

The Iowa Department of Public Health’s Coronavirus dashboard today (Monday), said (as of 10 a.m.) there were 406 new (Positive) COVID-19 cases and three deaths since 10-a.m. Sunday. Officials report 74,767 total cases, 53,319 recoveries and 1,221 deaths since the pandemic began. IDPH reported 703,682 Iowans have been tested for COVID-19. There were 3,274 lab results received in the previous day, with 258 positive cases. Officials reported an 8.8% positivity rate over the last 14 days.

Of those who died, 849 had a pre-existing condition, and 650 of the deaths took place at a Long-Term Care (LTC) facility. In the KJAN listening area: Audubon County has 3 more positive COVID-19 cases (total 146); Guthrie County had three more cases (201 total), and Madison County has one new case (184 total). There are five more cases in Pottawattamie County (1,828 total).

Across the State, hospitalizations are down slightly, to 272. The number of patients with COVID-19 who are in an ICU is 75 (4 less than Sunday); 34 people were admitted to a hospital with symptoms of the virus, and 29 patients are on ventilators. In western/southwest Iowa, hospitals report: four more patients hospitalized for a total of 13; one more person was placed in the ICU (5 total); three more people were admitted to a hospital (4 total), and one person remains on  ventilator.

There is one less LTC outbreak, at 34, with 835 patients/staff testing positive, and 367 have recovered.

Here are the latest positive case numbers for southwest/western Iowa (County; Positive Case #’s; number of persons who have (recovered); {deaths since the outbreak began}.

• Cass County: 122 cases; (113); 2 deaths
• Adair County: 56 cases; (40); 1 death
• Adams County: 27 cases; (21)
• Audubon County: 46 cases; (29); 1 death
• Guthrie County: 201 cases; (148); 5 deaths
• Montgomery County: 83 cases; (78); 5 deaths
• Pottawattamie County: 1,828 cases; (1,543); 36 deaths
• Shelby County: 234 cases; (222); 1 death.
• Madison County, 184; (147); 2 deaths
• Harrison County, 162 cases; (142); 2 deaths
• Union County: 104 cases; (83); 3 deaths.
• Mills County: 149 cases; (102); 1 death.

(Radio Iowa) – Jury trials resume this week in Iowa after a couple of pilot trials to try out social distancing and COVID-19 prevention measures. Supreme Court Justice Matthew McDermott co-chaired the committee which reviewed and made recommendations on the issue — and says they surveyed the judges. “For the most part, all of the judges that we talked to that had these trials seem to indicate there were nears as many issues as they perhaps thought there might be and by and large the trials went a little faster,” McDermott says.

He says they’d like to think the months of preparation and planning made the pilot trials go well. The recommendations call for clear shields to be worn in the courtrooms so jurors can both see and hear witnesses in the trials. McDermott says that was one issue they had to be sure worked. “They had to space people apart pretty far to get their physical distancing there. So with masks and with that distance, we had to focus very hard on making sure that everyone could see and hear everything that is going on,” McDermott explains. “And so, we are really trying to work hard to ensure sight lines and audio magnification.”

Jurors in the pilot gave an average score of four-point-eight-eight out on a scale where five was the best in how well they could see the proceedings. Some attorneys noted that instantaneous communication with their clients was made more challenging because of the face coverings. There was a concern that more jurors would not show up because of the pandemic — but McDermott says that was not the case. “It was about the expected number that you would see for people asking to defer or for whatever other reason they might have for being able to not serve on that day,” according to McDermott. “And so we were pretty encouraged by that. That at least at this point with three trials at this point — and granted that was a fairly small sample size — we didn’t see a whole lot of people saying they weren’t comfortable with serving.”

McDermott says they will watch for outbreaks in particular counties as part of the monitoring as the jury trials resume. He says the judges in each trial will make the decisions on proceeding. “District courts have pretty broad discretion, and they had that even prior to COVID. They can look at all the issues going on in their case and they are the ones who will make that call whether a case ultimately moves forward,” McDermott says.  He says it is hard to tell when each court may be caught up. He says the case backups differ among the 99 counties, with some having more than others to work through.

There is a protocol for which cases will be heard. “Some counties they are going to be dealing with criminal cases — because that’s kind of the first priority of case that needs to be dealt with — they will be dealing with those for some time,” McDermot says. “And other counties where they maybe aren’t quite the backlog on criminal cases, they’ll be moving to civil cases.”  McDermott points out that a lot has been going on in the courts and with cases while the jury trials were put on hold. He says there have been filings, and motions and depositions being taken as everyone prepared to return.

(Radio Iowa) – President Trump made an ethanol announcement via twitter this weekend. Trump indicated E-P-A rules will be changed so states may choose to let gas pumps dispense a 15 percent blend of ethanol — called E15 — from pumps currently used for E10. Trump called Iowa Senator Joni Ernst Saturday as she was meeting with campaign volunteers.

“I’m just putting out an order that…our important ethanol industry will be allowed to use the 10% pumps for the 15% blend. That saves tremendous amounts of money for the people in the ethanol industry, like hundreds of millions of dollars I hear is the conversion and there’s no reason to do it,” Trump said.

Farm groups said the news will help promote consumer acceptance of the higher blend of ethanol and suggested it will increase demand for corn and corn prices. Critics called Trump’s announcement an election year gambit that depends upon state approval and faulted Trump for failing to deny waivers the oil industry seeks to get out of the requirement that ethanol be blended into gasoline.

As Trump spoke by phone with Ernst on Saturday, he thanked the campaign volunteers in the room and revealed former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad — the current U.S. Ambassador to China — will be flying back to Iowa to campaign for Trump’s reelection. Branstad’s son, Eric, played a key role in Trump’s 2016 victories in Iowa and Wisconsin and is a senior advisor to Trump’s 2020 campaign.

Sheriff’s officials in Fremont County report two pets died in a house fire Sunday night. Authorities were notified of the blaze at a residence in the 1000 block of Filmore Street, in Sidney, just before 9-p.m.

Sheriff’s deputies, Sidney Fire and Rescue, Hamburg Fire, Riverton Fire, and Tabor Fire all responded to the call. Sheriff Kevin Aistrope says the homeowner was not home at the time fire, however two dogs were inside the home and were found deceased due to smoke inhalation.

Bystanders advised they observed smoke coming from the home and gained entry, in an attempt to rescue animals located inside. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time.

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials said the number of coronavirus cases in the state increased by 814 Sunday and two additional deaths were reported. Health officials said that as of 10 a.m. Sunday 74,361 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported since the pandemic began, and 1,218 people have died. The state said Iowa had an 8.9% positivity rate over the past 14 days, but six Iowa counties reported positivity rates over 15% over the past 14 days. The high rate means that public schools in Sioux, Lyon, Bremer, Plymouth, Carroll and Chickasaw counties may be able to apply for a state waiver to provide instruction entirely online.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City woman has been charged with stealing scratch tickets from her work and redeeming the tickets for herself. KCAU-TV reports that 19-year-old Ricki Shear is free on bail after she was arrested and charged with 21 counts of forgery or theft of a lottery ticket. She is accused of stealing 94 scratch tickets earlier this month while working as a clerk for Transit General Store. Court documents say she redeemed 21 of them for $195.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic congresswoman Madeleine Dean calls herself a “big hugger,” but there’s none of that in-person campaigning in the COVID-19 era. The House freshman from Pennsylvania is running for reelection largely online in the Philadelphia suburbs to protect against the health risks. But in the heartland, Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is taking the opposite approach. She just completed an annual 99-county tour of her state, mostly masked, but sometimes not, talking to modest-size groups. It’s the different tactics underway in a pandemic election year unlike any other. In the races that will determine control of Congress, it’s a high-stakes gamble as the pandemic rewrites the rules of political campaigning.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Many teachers are choosing not to return to the classroom because of the coronavirus threat, and schools around the U.S. are scrambling to find replacements. In some places, that means lowering certification requirements to help get substitutes in the door. Several states have seen surges in educators filing for retirement or taking leaves of absence. The departures are straining staff in places that were dealing with shortages of teachers and substitutes even before the pandemic created an education crisis. Teachers in at least three states have died after bouts with the coronavirus since the dawn of the new school year.le as the pandemic rewrites the rules of political campaigning.

In an update to our earlier reports, the Iowa State Patrol, Sunday, afternoon, said a women who was injured during a motorcycle accident in Crawford County Saturday night, has died from her injuries.  52-year old Julie Promes, of Denison, died after being transported by ambulance to the Crawford County Hospital.

Authorities had said earlier, that the woman was a passenger on a 2020 Can-Am Spyder that was traveling north near 522 Highway 39. When the three-wheeled motorcycle operated by 59-year old Craig Promes, also of Denison, made a sharp turn, Julie Promes fell off. The accident, which happened at around 9:25-p.m., Saturday, remains under investigation.