Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst, from Red Oak, paid a visit to Rex Pharmacy, in Atlantic, Saturday afternoon, as part of her 99 County Tour for 2020. Earlier in the day, she stopped in Carroll for a Main Street Tour, and in Onawa.

In Atlantic, Ernst said she learned about how Rex Pharmacy has adapted to serve the community and area in the age of COVID.

Ric Hanson/photos

Cass County Supervisor Mark O’Brien, who owns a construction company, stopped-by during Ernst’s visit and asked what the odds are of the new $600 per week Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), being extended in the next COVID-19 stimulus package. Ernst said “We don’t want it to go on the next one, because what we see here in Iowa…is that we have employers that are opening-up and they can’t get their people to come back to work.” O’Brien says he has seen that happen with his own business.

He says if the PPP continues, he’s “In trouble.” The deadline to qualify for forgiveness and funds is June 30th. If approved, the funds could be used to cover costs over the next 24 weeks or until December 31, whichever is earlier. Previously, the program covered 8 weeks. (Learn more at https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program)

Ernst says the economy would be damaged if the plan is continued, and she will be a “No” vote.”

Ernst said the next package she and Senator Grassley will focus on is specific COVID-19 areas, not bailing out large cities, etc. That process is expected to begin in mid-July, or early August. When asked if State officials around the country relaxed restrictions too soon, in light of a resurgance in the virus in some area, Ernst said the increase in case-positives is not necessarily due to an upsurge in cases.

She said the country can make it through pandemic if everyone does their part to stay safe.

A trio of local school boards will hold their respective, separate meetings, Monday. The Griswold School Board meeting begins at 5:30-p.m. in the Elementary School Library. The Exira-EHK Board meeting is at 6-p.m. in the Conference Room at the Elk Horn Building, and the CAM School Board will meet 6:30-p.m., Monday, in the CAM High School Superintendent’s Office.

Among the agenda items for the Griswold School Board, is a Public Hearing on the proposed issuance of approximately $1,800,000 (1.8-million dollars) School Infrastructure Sales, Services and Use Tax Revenue Refunding Bonds. Action of approving the issuance will be taken later on in the meeting. Other, new business, includes: Approval of the aforementioned bonds; approval of a STEM Matching grant application and funding; approval of fuel bids, and Tech Support bids. The Griswold School Board will also act on approving a continued School Resource Officer (SRO) contract.

The Exira-EHK School Board will hold a Public Hearing on a Resolution for continued participation in the ISL (Instructional Support Levy). Discussion and/or Action items include: Return to Learn Plans; approval of a Transportation Director Sharing Agreement with the Harlan CSD; Approval of continued participation in the ISL; the appointment of Kyle Wagner as Treasurer (effective July 1st); Approval of an RTI Chromebook bid, and, approval of personnel matters.

And, finally, the CAM School Board will: Act on personnel matters (Resignations/contracts); Consider/approve and agreement with Casey Computing for the 2020-21 school year; approving a sharing agreement with the Atlantic CSD for a School Business Official (SBO) position for 2020-21. The Atlantic School District approved the agreement during their meeting last Wednesday. The CAM Board will also act on a Sharing Art agreement, and discuss the Facility Study.

(Radio Iowa) – After ten days, the revived 2020 Iowa Legislative Session has ended and the partisan debates waged in the closing hours are likely to continue through the fall campaign. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver of Ankeny says unprecedented is the best word to describe the session. “The state of Iowa has never seen a legislative session that takes a two month pause and comes back and still has a productive session,” Whitver says.

The legislature’s big policy pieces, Whitver says, were dictated by the times. “The pandemic that hit Iowa caused a lot of concern for a lot of people. It caused concern for our state budget and so finalizing a solid budget that keeps us in a strong fiscal position will be one of the great accomplishments,” Whitver says, “and then the liability protections for all the churches and schools and cities and businesses that want to open up I think is really important.”

This weekend, the Republican-led legislature voted to cut the state budget for conducting elections by a quarter of a million dollars and to force the state’s top election official to get permission from legislative leaders if he intends to send absentee ballot request forms to voters. The G-O-P has also voted to create new voter verification steps for casting an absentee ballot. Senator Roby Smith, a Republican from Davenport, says if a ballot request form has the wrong voter I-D number on it, a county auditor cannot use voter registration data to correct it and send a ballot out, but must contact the voter by phone, email or letter to verify the person is a qualified voter.

“This is about security,” Smith said. “This is about making sure the people that voter are the right ones.” House Democratic Leader Todd Prichard and all the Democrats in the legislature opposed these election-related moves. “I can’t believe that I’ve had to do more in this House in defense of voter rights,” Prichard said. “…What’s more fundamental to democracy than elections?” Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen of Des Moines railed against another bill G-O-P lawmakers sent the governor to establish a 24-hour waiting period for abortions.

“In the middle of a global pandemic when we have Iowans in the hospital fighting for their lives, Iowans scared to go to work because they’re not sure if their employers would tell them the truth if they’ve had a COVID outbreak — and this is what we see,” Petersen said. “This is wrong.” Republican Representative Gary Mohr of Bettendorf — chairman of the House Appropriations Committee — says many new ideas “had to be put on the shelf” because of the pandemic, but while other states are dealing with massive deficits, Iowa lawmakers shaved about 360 million dollars from next year’s state budget plan without using any of the state’s emergency and cash reserves.

“We expect to take in enough revenue to maintain the status quo,” Mohr says, “and maintain our commitments to our schools and our health care system.” Democrats like Representative Chris Hall of Sioux City say Republican legislators are giving Republican Governor Kim Reynolds too much leeway to spend federal money and adjust the state budget plan in the midst of the pandemic. “We hope to goodness that nothing bad happens, that we don’t see another second wave of outbreak, but this was our opportunity to prepare for it and this legislature’s punting.”

A move to automatically restore voting rights to released felons stalled in the final hours of the 2020 legislative session. In 2019, Governor Kim Reynolds began lobbying legislators to advance a proposed constitutional amendment on the topic. The Iowa House took bipartisan action last year, but there were never enough Senate Republican votes for it. Republican Senator Brad Zaun of Urbandale says there has always been concern about the message it would send to victims.

“It’s a very emotional issue and secondly all indications are the governor is going to sign an executive order,” Zaun said. On Friday, Governor Reynolds and a group of Black Lives Matter protesters discussed using her executive authority to automatically give released felons the right to vote now, rather than waiting until the constitution might be amended in 2022. Representative Ras Smith, a Democrat from Waterloo, says a permanent solution of a constitutional amendment is always the best.

“If it’s a bargaining chip every year that we can count on them pulling back from the table when it comes time to ante up, that’s disappointing,” Smith says. The Senate completed action on bills at six o’clock Sunday morning. House suspended debate at about 10 p.m. Saturday, then resumed debate mid-day Sunday.

The Iowa Department of Public Health and Audubon County Public Health, Sunday, identified an additional case of COVID-19 in the county. The individual is an older adult aged 61-80. The additional case brings Audubon County’s total to 14 positive confirmed cases of COVID-19, this number includes 12 that have recovered, and one death.

Due to confidentiality and HIPPA regulations any additional information including the person’s race, ethnicity, gender, city or employer is considered confidential information and cannot be given out.

State Health officials report an additional death over the past 24-hours (ending at 6-a.m. today) from COVID-19. The total number of deaths from the virus now amount of 651. There were 663 fewer positive test results, for a total of 23,792, and an increase of 5,867 Negative test results, for a total of 198,171. The number of Iowans tested (test results processed) amount to 222,334, which is an increase of 5,650 from Saturday. The IDPH says 59 more people have recovered from the virus, for a total of 14,357.

Regional Medical Coordination Center (RMCC) data show: 203 persons are hospitalized with COVID-19 (5 more than Saturday); 77 are in an ICU (an increase of 2); 27 were admitted to a hospital (15 more than Saturday), and 47 were on a ventilator. In RMCC Region 4 (southwest/western Iowa): 8 people were in a hospital (one more than Saturday); 5 were in an ICU; 1 was admitted, and 1 person was on a ventilator.

In area county information: Cass County recorded an additional, positive case of COVID-19, Saturday, with 13 having recovered; Adair County has 11 positive cases and 9 recovered; Adams County has 7 cases and 5 recovered; Audubon County has 13 cases, with 10 recovered; Guthrie County dashboard data show 58 positive cases and 41 recovered; Montgomery County shows 9 positive, 6 recovered; Pottawattamie County data show 503 positive COVID-10 cases, with 256 having recovered; and Shelby County shows 47 cases, with 35 recovered. Crawford County has the most positive cases in western Iowa as of today (Sunday), at 614, with 353 recovered.

Long-Term Care (LTC) facility data show: 36 current outbreaks, one more than Saturday; 1,316 residents/staff have tested positive (which is 16 less than the previous report); 777 residents/staff have recovered, as compared to 782 Saturday; and, 341 have died at LTC’s, two more than Saturday.

The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department Board of Directors will hold one more electronic meeting, Monday. The session takes place by Zoom (link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89345157289?pwd=ZE1xY2RnbHpwVVVqckc4b2plclZEZz09), beginning at 5:15-p.m.  On their agenda is an update on COVID-19 and related matters; And, Update/Discussion with regard to: Community Gardens; The Schildberg Campground;Pool Painting and Fireworks. The Board will also discuss a request for proposal (RFP) for a new mower.

In his report, Parks Director Bryant Rasmussen will talk about:

• Nest Boxes/Eagle Scout Project
• Mulch in the City Park and Schildberg flowerbeds
• Thinned-out Willows around Schildberg lakes
• Wild Parsnip
• July: “Parks and Recreation Month”
• and the Parks and Rec Bikes are tuned-up and ready to use.

(Radio Iowa) — Delegates to this weekend’s state conventions for Iowa’s two major political parties participated remotely, rather than in person. Iowa Republican Party delegates are casting paper ballots to conduct party business, with results to be announced later in the month. The Iowa Democratic Party used online voting and paper ballots — and announced its final slate of national convention delegates Saturday. Iowa Democratic Party chairman Mark Smith says having hundreds gather in person for a state convention just wasn’t feasible in a pandemic.

“Most people expect the Iowa Democratic Party to follow best practices and that’s what we’ve attempted to do all the way through this process,” Smith said. “I’m very pleased with the amount of participation. We had quorums in all 99 counties.” State conventions serve as the kick-off for the General Election campaign, giving activists a chance to hear directly from their party’s candidates and officeholders. Governor Kim Reynolds recorded a video message for her fellow Republicans.

“We have reasons to be optimistic about our chances, but there’s too much at stake to take anything for granted,” she said. “This election will be one of the closest in our nation’s history.” Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann’s recorded message challenged Republicans to do MORE than just VOTE for U.S. Senator Joni Ernst in November. “I’m just going to be real straightforward: get out a check book, get on the streets and door knock,” Kaufmann said. “…If you really believe that GOP leadership is important…it’s got to be more than just saying: ‘I love Joni.'”

The Des Moines Register Iowa Poll released Saturday evening shows Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield leading Ernst by three points, 46 to 43 percent. Greenfield’s campaign called that a good sign of momentum after her June 2nd primary win. The Iowa Democratic Party’s chairman says fundraising for the party is going well, too. “I have to tell you as I’ve been calling all across our state there is a fair amount of enthusiasm among the Democrats,” Smith says, “and we are fired up to turn this state blue come November.”

Iowa Democrats are still developing their 2020 party platform. Republicans will report results of their state convention business in late June.

(Radio Iowa) — The Republican-led Iowa House has voted to establish a 24-hour waiting period for abortions performed in the state. Two years ago, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled a 72-hour waiting period was unconstitutional. During debate late Saturday night, Representative Shannon Lundgren of Peosta made it clear Republicans aim for this new proposal to reverse that.

“Maybe this will provide an opportunity for the courts to rectify the terrible situation that they’ve created here in our state,” Lundgren said. The chief justice who wrote in the 2018 opinion that Iowa women had a right to an abortion under the Iowa Constitution died in November. And Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has now appointed a majority of the justices in the Iowa Supreme Court. That raises the possibility the court might overturn the previous ruling that has essentially blocked all legislative attempts to restrict access to abortion.

Representative Sandy Salmon, a Republican from Janesville, says 17 other states have 24 hour waiting periods for an abortion. “Waiting periods help ensure that decisions are made not under duress and under undue influences,” Salmon said. The proposal requires a doctor to get written certification from a woman that she is eligible to obtain an abortion. It passed with the support of 52 House Republicans and one Democrat. Other Democrats in the House opposed the move.

Representative Vicki Lensing, a Democrat from Iowa City, says legislators shouldn’t second guess the medical decisions women make. “It is presumptuous, disrespectful and in my opinion insulting,” Lensing said. Representative Heather Matson, a Democrat from Ankeny, says requiring two medical appointments within 24 hours creates hardships for poor women and for women from rural areas who have to travel a greater distance.

“The intent of a 24 hour ban is the same as a 72 hour ban…Make it harder for a woman to get the care she needs and she just won’t get it,” Matson said. The bill now goes to the Senate for a vote. Lawmakers started this Saturday with plans to conclude the 2020 legislative session this weekend.

Around midnight, the House adjourned with plans to reconvene at 10 am. Sunday morning. Senators were still debating and voting on bills past midnight.

Police in Red Oak arrested a woman Saturday, who allegedly placed items from the Dollar General Store into her purse, without intending to pay for them. When confronted with the crime, 64-year old Sheryl Lynne Franzen, of Red Oak, tried to put the items back onto the shelves. She was taken into custody at around 1:50-p.m., for Theft in the 5th Degree (for items valued at under $200), and held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.