(Radio Iowa) – From one to none. Another positive milestone in Iowa’s pandemic experience, as the state website with coronavirus data now shows there are NO Covid outbreaks in Iowa nursing homes this (Thursday) morning. State officials say a nursing home is cleared from being labeled with Covid outbreak status if the facility goes 28 days without a new positive case among residents and staff. Yesterday, the Vista Wood Care Center, which Radio Iowa incorrectly reported Tuesday as being in the town of Wapello rather than in Wapello County — was shown to have two active cases. A total of 13 residents and staff had tested positive for the virus in March. The facility has now gone four weeks without a new case of Covid.

Last spring, the state of Iowa began listing classifying nursing homes as being the site of a Covid outbreak is at least three residents tested positive for the virus. This (Thursday) morning, the state website shows 22-hundred-24 long term care residents have died of Covid during the pandemic. State officials say they do not have a list of how many of Iowa’s 436 nursing homes had Covid outbreaks.

If you have a “Green thumb” or an interest in growing your own produce or even flowers, the Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department is offering you the opportunity to do so, through the use of one of 10 raised garden bed boxes in the Community Gardens at Mollett Park. The park is located at 1020 E. 3rd Street Place, which curves off of N. Mulberry Street and has a cul-de-sac. Parks and Rec Director Bryant Rasmussen says when you rent one of the boxes. you can plant just about anything, and they even give you some of the tools needed to make your garden grow.

The raised gardens are designed to show people they can become self-sufficient by raising their own food for themselves and/or others.

The raised beds allow nutrients in the soil to be stored in the box, and they allow for proper soil drainage.

The boxes can be rented for $35 each.

Rasmussen says a couple of the main rules are, to make sure what you’re growing doesn’t encroach on a neighboring garden box, and that any use of chemicals not be sprayed or drift onto adjacent boxes. For more rules and regulations, or more information, contact Bryant Rasmussen, Atlantic Parks & Rec Director, at (712)-243-3542.

More area and state news from Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

• 1 (2 1/2 to 3 lb.) broiler fryer, cut up
• 1 1/2 cups ground oat flour (see below)
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika or sage
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted

Coat chicken with combined dry ingredients; dip into combined milk and egg.  Coat again with dry ingredients.  Place in foil lined, large shallow baking pan.  Drizzle butter over chicken.  Bake in preheated hot oven (400 degrees) for 45 to 50 minutes, or until tender and golden brown.  Makes 4 servings.

Ground Oat Flour:  Place 1 to 1 1/2 cups Quaker oats (quick or old-fashioned, uncooked) in blender or food processor.  Blend or process for about 60 seconds.  Makes about 1 cup ground oat flour.

Dip ‘N Bake Pork Chops:  Same recipe as chicken except use marjoram or thyme leaves, crushed rather than paprika or sage.  Use 6 pork chops.  Makes 6 servings.

(Julie Benton Sporrer)

A man from Clarke County was arrested Wednesday night on drug charges, in Creston. Police in Creston say 46-year-old Corey Scott Hites, of Osceola, was arrested at around 9-p.m., at 302 N. Pine St., in Creston, with the assistance of the K9 “Baxo.” Hites was charged with: two-counts Possession of Controlled Substance – 3rd Offense; Possession of Drug Paraphernalia; Failure to Affix Drug Stamp; a Controlled Substance Violation – Marijuana, and Controlled Substance Violation – Methamphetamine.

Hites was taken to Union County Jail them transferred to the Adams County Jail.

The News at 7:07-a.m. from News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

(Radio Iowa) – Many Iowans had trouble sleeping before COVID-19 hit, but there’s been a surge in people losing sleep due to stress in the past year, what’s being dubbed “coronasomnia.” Amy Kluver, an outpatient therapist at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, says the pandemic and all it encompasses has soaked into our collective psyche. “It’s definitely impacting a lot of people’s sleep,” Kluver says. “It’s impacting our thoughts during the day that can also carry into our struggle with sleep later because we’re tense, our activities aren’t the same, there’s a lot of uncertainty.”

Kluver runs what’s called the Clinical Sleep Training Program at the hospital. It aims to help people improve their sleep through relaxation processes and exploring lifestyle habits that may be working against them. “Part of it is actually getting people to understand some of the myths they may have been holding onto about sleep,” Kluver says, “like, that we have to have eight hours of sleep every night or it’s terribly unhealthy.” The program consists of five group sessions over seven weeks and Kluver says people sometimes need to unlearn bad habits.  “That frustration of, ‘I slept horrible last night so I’ve got to get some good sleep tonight, because I just can’t sleep horrible again,’ and what I just said would be what we call a negative sleep thought,” she says, “and having to watch out for those negative sleep thoughts and how much power they can hold.”

Studies find about one in ten Iowans have chronic insomnia disorder, or problems with sleep at least three nights a week for three months or more. Some tips for better sleep include: Create and keep a going-to-bed routine, avoid screens in the bedroom, get some exercise during the day, get some sunlight, and don’t eat dinner late. The pandemic isn’t over, but more than a million doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered to Iowans and there are frequent signs of life returning to semi-normal, or at least the promise of it, in the months ahead.   “Hopefully, that will come to fruition,” she says, “and a little more sunshine in our days with milder weather and hopefully then more activities, that will also play into people -hopefully- sleeping better.”

In addition to the in-person program at the Des Moines hospital, Kluver offers a virtual option as well. Coincidentally, tomorrow (Friday) is World Sleep Day, which is billed as: “a call to all sleep professionals to advocate and educate the world about the importance of sleep for achieving an optimal quality of life and improve global health.”

Police in Red Oak, Wednesday, arrested 43-year old Brian Keith Shaver, of Red Oak. Shaver was taken into custody at around 6:08-p.m. in the 300 block of W. Coolbaugh Street, for Violation of a No Contact Order. He was transported to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, and held on a $300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Thirty Republicans in the Iowa Senate have voted to deny future state and local tax breaks to big tech companies found to have illegally stifled speech on social media platforms. However, Senate President Jake Chapman of Adel, a Republican who is the plan’s lead sponsor, seems to admit the bill has an uncertain future. “If they choose to follow a path of tyrannical propagandists…we will still be here,” Chapman said. “We will continue to fight them, we will continue to introduce legislation until they respect the dignity of thought and opinion.”

Democrats in the Senate voted against the bill, predicting lawsuits would be filed to block it and warning the mere mention of the plan harms the state’s image. Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls of Coralville said “This bill is about making a political point,” Wahls said. “It is anti-jobs, it is anti-business, it is anti-growth and it is anti-investment.”

Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, says the damage has already been done. “So way to go,” Dotzler said, “you just gave Iowa another black eye.” Senator Zach Whiting of Spirit Lake, a Republican who backs the bill, says it’s time for congress to bust up the Big Tech companies because they’re monopolies. “We need to stand up to the bullies in Silicon Tech. They feel they are untouchable,” Whiting says. “That’s the autocratic, plutocratic nature.”

The bill now goes to the Iowa House, where lawmakers are drafting a slightly different response. A House committee has approved pulling state and local tax breaks for social media companies that block or delete comments from Iowans who are elected officials or political candidates. If the content is restored, the tax breaks would be as well.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa House have passed a bill that would let Iowans buy guns and carry concealed weapons without getting a state permit to do so. House Republican Leader Matt Windschitl says the bill is for Iowa’s Second Amendment community. “Those are my people. Those are House Republicans’ people…It’s those same people who saw fit to give us a 59-seat majority. It’s those same people whose basic human rights we are trying to respect and uphold with the advancement of this legislation,” Windshitl said shortly after 10 p.m. “I’ve been fighting for this bill ever since I got down here and, by God, we’re going to get it passed tonight.”

One Democrat voted for the bill, the other House Democrats opposed it, suggesting it would create a clear loophole to allow PRIVATE gun sales in Iowa without a background check. Republican Representative Steven Holt of Denison says the bill establishes a felony for those who know or should have known a prospective gun buyer was not allowed to own a gun. “Which means, to me, that you’d better darned well know who you’re selling to,” Holt said, “and I think that is a powerful deterrent.”

Holt also says there would be federal background checks if someone who doesn’t have a state permit tries to buy a gun at a LICENSED dealer. Representative Steven Hansen, a Democrat from Sioux City, expressed his doubts.  “If this was tightening up things and there were going to more background checks, the NRA would be all over this place and saying: ‘Don’t vote for it,'” Hansen said. “This bill doesn’t tighten anything up.”

Representative Mary Wolfe, a Democrat from Clinton, says getting rid of the state permit to carry a concealed weapon also does away with the required training session that goes along with the permitting process. “It also ensures that everybody carrying a firearm in Iowa has at least a rudimentary knowledge of our laws surrounding self-defense and basic gun safety,” Wolfe says, “and that is a good thing.”

The bill would make permits optional, however bill backers say some Iowans would still get a concealed weapon permit to show when traveling in states where permits are required. After four-and-a-half hours of debate, the bill passed shortly after 11 o’clock. Senators have been working on similar legislation.