Firefighters from more than a half-dozen area fire departments were called to a large structure fire in 200 block of 280th Street (W. 1st Street) in Bridgewater, Sunday morning. The page went out at around 12:30-a.m.  Crews from Bridgewater, Adair, Anita, Atlantic, Fontanelle, Greenfield, Massena, Orient and Wiota were all requested to provide mutual aid. Atlantic’s aerial (or, ladder) truck was requested at 1:24-a.m. Tanker trucks were provided by Anita, Wiota, Orient and other departments.  Sources say water was being drawn from a dry hydrant at Mormon Trail Lake, near Bridgewater. The Adair County Ambulance was also on the scene to provide fire fighter rehab.

Flames were still shooting through the roof of the building, at around 4:15-a.m. By 5-a.m., most of the fire departments were released from the scene. Bridgewater Fire crews were expected to remain on-site for several more hours while the building smolders, and to knock down any flare-ups. (Update 6:40-a.m.) – Just before daylight, a construction excavator was brought-in to gain better access to, and containment of, the flames.

Photos of the Bridgewater fire submitted to KJAN News.

The structure was apparently being used to store hay.

Additional information, along with a cause of the blaze, was not immediately available.

Four additional cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Montgomery County, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to fifteen (15). Health and Emergency Management officials says all four cases confirmed Saturday are due to close contact with a previously confirmed positive case. All four cases are adults (18-40) and currently isolating at home.

The current stats for Montgomery County (as of Saturday afternoon) show:

• 4 new confirmed cases
• 8 recovered cases
• 2 deaths
• 15 positive cases
• 855 individuals tested.

Montgomery County Serology testing data show:

• 3 positive
• 70 negative
• 73 tested

“Now is the time more than ever to continue to follow social distancing guidelines and avoiding large crowds,” said Montgomery County Public Health Administrator Samantha Beeson. As always, remember to stay home if you’re sick and wash your hands often.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — State health officials in Pennsylvania have neighboring Delaware and three other states to the travel quarantine recommendation aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19 in the commonwealth. Officials say people who have traveled to Delaware, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma are being asked to self-quarantine for 14 days upon their return to Pennsylvania.

The state earlier issued the recommendation for self-quarantine for people returning to the commonwealth from 15 other states. Another 17 deaths attributed to the coronavirus were announced, bringing the total to 6,897.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The number of women having abortions in Iowa climbed last year, a turnaround that critics blame on the state’s controversial decision to withdraw from a federally funded family planning program. After decades of plummeting abortion numbers, the state last year recorded 3,566 abortions. That is 8% more than the previous year.

The Des Moines Register reports last year’s increase came after the number of Iowa abortions dropped 56% from 2008 to 2018.

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

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

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The Iowa Department of Public Health today (Saturday) reports six more deaths from COVID-19, for a total of 748, and an increase of 743 positive test results over yesterday (Friday), at 34,499 altogether. The number of hospitalizations from the Coronavirus continue to surge, also. The COVID-19 dashboard, Saturday, showed one more case of the virus in Cass County, bringing the total here to 28. Adair County has one more positive case of COVID-19 for a total of 17. Audubon County’s case increase went from 16 on Friday to 18 by Saturday. Guthrie County increased by three cases to 75. Shelby County had one more positive COVID-19 case as of Saturday, for a total of 120, and Montgomery County had one more positive test result, for a total of 12.

IDPH say nine more people were hospitalized since Friday, for a total of 178, two more people were placed in Intensive Care (56 total), and four more were admitted to a hospital, for a total of 23. There are 25 patients on ventilators, down from 26 the previous day. In southwest/western Iowa, RMCC Region 4, there were two more people hospitalized (for a total of 7), one less person in an ICU (3 total), and three new hospital admissions (compared to 0 in the previous report).

Statewide:

• 369,503 Iowans have been tested for COVID-19
• 26,104 have recovered
• 333,714 have tested negative
• Long-Term Care facility outbreaks are up to 16 (compared to 15 yesterday); 335 patients/staff at LTC’s have tested positive (an increase of 36); 98 have recovered (11 more than Friday), and 396 persons have died at an LTC in Iowa (4 more than on Friday).

County-by-County COVID-19 cases, and the number of person who have recovered (   ). (Changes from Friday are highlighted)

• Cass: 28 (19)
• Adair: 17 (12)
• Adams: 8 (8)
• Audubon: 18 (15)
• Guthrie: 75 (57)
• Montgomery: 12 (8)
• Pottawattamie: 821 (661)
• Shelby: 120 (109)

(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City police chief Rex Mueller was part of a local group that participated in a discussion with people from across the state in Ames Thursday about community relations between police and minority groups. Mueller says the statewide group will address the concerns brought up since the death of a Minnesota man in police custody. “Iowa is forming with policy agency heads and local advocates an equity task force to figure out and find out how we can better serve in the wake of George Floyd’s passing,” Mueller says.

Local N-A-A-C-P President Ike Rayford and Monique Scarlet of Unity in the Community went with Mueller to the event.”I’m hoping that we learn things that we might not be doing or things that we could be doing better. But on the other side of that…Ike tells me that when he goes to N-A-A-C-P conventions, the access that he has to us, the relationship that we enjoy in our community — he says he gets to brag,” Mueller says.

He says not all communities have that kind of relationship. Unity in the Community and Sioux City Police have partnered for several years to promote understanding between minorities and local officers, and that paid off during the recent protests surrounding the death of Floyd. Mueller says they got to the point where they were talking with the organizers and they had a lot of positive give and take. “And thankfully we’ve got a community that is open to listening to and communicating with us. And it made the situation a lot better as the days of those protests went on,” according to Mueller.

The protests in Sioux City led to a renewed effort to equip Sioux City police officers with body cameras. The city council discussed the issue at their meeting this week.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

UNDATED (AP) — Iowa has registered its largest daily jump in coronavirus cases since May, leading health officials to warn people to take the threat more seriously and to stop congregating in crowded places such as bars. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases jumped Friday by 744, which is the most since the state had 796 new cases on May 26. The number of COVID-19 deaths rose by three, to 742. Among the counties with the largest jumps was Scott County, on Iowa’s eastern border. Edward Rivers, director of the Scott County Health Department, says the increase correlated with the state lifting its final restrictions on bars, restaurants, casinos and mass gatherings in early June.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A spokesman says the Iowa Department of Public Safety will hand over internal misconduct records to a federal grand jury investigating a trooper after unsuccessfully fighting a subpoena in court. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the department must comply with the subpoena, which seeks internal investigation records related to an officer who is under scrutiny for possible civil rights violations. The department had asked the courts to quash the subpoena, saying that it would have a chilling effect on internal investigations. A federal judge and the appeals court upheld the subpoena, saying the department failed to show it was unreasonable. The ruling doesn’t identify the officer under investigation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department plans to appeal a judge’s ruling that would halt the first federal execution in nearly two decades. The halt was ordered after family members of the victims raised concerns they would be at high risk for the coronavirus if they had to travel to attend. They actually oppose the execution and say they wanted to be present to counter any contention that it was happening on their behalf. The Justice Department filed its notice to appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. A federal judge had ordered that Daniel Lee’s execution must not move forward as scheduled on Monday. Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of a gun dealer, his daughter and her 8-year-old daughter.

MONTEZUMA, Iowa. (AP) — The trial of a man charged in the killing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts has been delayed. Cristhian Bahena Rivera was supposed to be tried in September, but the first-degree murder case was reset Friday to January because of of the pandemic and changing orders from the Iowa Supreme Court on when jury trials can resume. Investigators say Rivera, 25, stalked Tibbetts while she was out for a run in Brooklyn, Iowa, and stabbed her to death. Tibbetts, 20, disappeared on July 18, 2018. After a massive police and volunteer effort to find her, authorities say, Bahena Rivera led them to her body.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Friday, reported the arrest at around 4:15-p.m. that day, of 48-year-old Jesse Lee Simmons. He was taken into custody following a traffic stop at Highway 148 and Hunter Trail, in Corning.

Simmons was transported to the Adams County Jail and charged with Driving While Barred — an aggravated misdemeanor. Bond was set at $2,000.