The Iowa Department of Public Health reports the following COVID-19 statistics from across the State, to date:

• 146, 288 Iowans had been tested for the virus
• 18,791 tested positive for COVID-19
• 127,070 have tested negative
• 10,640 have recovered
• 520 have died.
• 376 people were being treated for the virus in a hospital
• 117 patients were in an ICU
• 38 had been admitted over the past 24-hours
• 78 patients were on ventilators.
• The number of LTC facility outbreaks is up one at 38; 1,529 LTC patients/staff have tested positive; 670 have recovered, and 243 have died.

In western/southwest Iowa, the latest RMCC data show 9 hospitalized, 9 in an ICU, 2 were admitted to a hospital, and 5 people were on ventilators.  Here are the latest County COVID-19 numbers from the IDPH COVID-19 dashboard (# of cases/# of persons recovered):

• Cass County – 11/9 (377 tested, 354 negative, 12 tests pending)
• Adair – 9/5 (203 have been tested as of 5/29)
• Adams – 7/3
• Audubon – 12/8
• Guthrie – 48/29
• Montgomery – 6/5
• Pottawattamie – 235/152
• Shelby – 34/30.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Friday), approved a 28-E (cost sharing) agreement with the Cass County Memorial Hospital, the City of Atlantic and the County, with regard to sharing the cost of ambulance services. Auditor Dale Sunderman…

Supervisor Mark O’Brien says it’s a much broader system than what is in-place currently.

The Board also approved vacating a portion of an untraveled county roadway, not affecting the nearby, traveled portion, in a portion of Cass Township, near Lewis.

The Supervisors discussed a complaint received with regard to a number of abandoned, junked or inoperable vehicles near Massena, some of which are on the Iowa DOT right-of-way. The vehicles are located just outside the Massena City Limits, on the south side of Highway 92. Supervisor Frank Waters said there are nine vehicles, five of which are on the State Right-of-way, some of which are under the County’s jurisdiction.

Waters suggested the State (DOT) handle the matter. Board Chair Steve Baier said they could talk with the property owner about moving the vehicle, but that wouldn’t solve the problem in its entirety.

The Board tabled the matter until they could further check the County’s Ordinance with regard to junk/abandoned vehicles, and any action the City of Massena may take in the interim. In other action, they approved the Secondary Roads Employee Bargaining Unit Agreement for FY2021, which basically calls for a 50-cents per hour wage increase for each employee.  The Supervisors also approved the employment of Susan Page as an additional jailer.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ Friday press conference on COVID-19 in Iowa. We’ll have live audio on KJAN as well with the presser set to begin at approximately 11:00 a.m.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Joni Ernst toured the Green Plains ethanol plant in Shenandoah Thursday to discuss biofuels-related issues with company officials. Ernst says the E-P-A Administrator’s responses during a Senate committee hearing on COVID-19’s impact on the ethanol industry has renewed the fire in both her and Senator Chuck Grassley’s office to push the E-P-A on ethanol issues. “Since hearing the really unsatisfactory answers that Andrew Wheeler gave us on the non-progress coming out of E-P-A, we now go back and push him on these issues,” Ernst said. “We need him to explain clearly to me why we don’t have those tanks re-labeled. Why is this not happening? Just simply stating, ‘we haven’t had time,’ that’s not a good enough answer.”

Ernst got to look at a new portion of the facility that produces a higher protein animal feed from the spent corn kernel. Green Plains C-E-O Todd Becker says the product is more sought after than the traditional dried distillers grain that comes out of ethanol facilities. “It’s filling this hole between soybean meal and fish meal, between 48 and 60 percent protein,” Becker says. “Nothing really exists of that high quality out there — so that’s what we’re making out there — and we are sold out. It’s a ready-made pet food today. Everything we make out there is going into products like that, which would never happen in distillers grains, ever.”

The new system is part of a 38 million dollar investment the company has made in the Shenandoah location, which includes a research facility to develop feed for the aquaculture industry. Becker says the expansion means more jobs for the area. “It starts with construction jobs and from there it starts with operator jobs and management jobs. They are all high-paying jobs in an ethanol plant — they just are. In the aquaculture, there’s P-H-Ds out there,” according to Becker. “We’re attracting people into the county here that would have never thought about coming to Iowa, number one, and Shenandoah, number two.”

He says this is the start of a process that is going to grow. “We’re doing things out here that have never been done in ethanol plants. This is going to be a model for what we roll out across the country,” Becker said. The first shipments of the new high-protein feed left the Shenandoah facility in April averaging about 20 percent more protein than traditional distillers grain.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reports the following COVID-19 statistics from across the State, to date:

• 146, 288 Iowans had been tested for the virus
• 18,791 tested positive for COVID-19
• 127,070 have tested negative
• 10,640 have recovered
• 520 have died.
• 376 people were being treated for the virus in a hospital
• 117 patients were in an ICU
• 38 had been admitted over the past 24-hours
• 78 patients were on ventilators.
• The number of LTC facility outbreaks is up one at 38; 1,529 LTC patients/staff have tested positive; 670 have recovered, and 243 have died.

In western/southwest Iowa, the latest RMCC data show 9 hospitalized, 9 in an ICU, 2 were admitted to a hospital, and 5 people were on ventilators.  Here are the latest County COVID-19 numbers from the IDPH COVID-19 dashboard (# of cases/# of persons recovered):

• Cass County – 11/9 (377 tested, 354 negative, 12 tests pending)
• Adair – 9/5 (203 have been tested as of 5/29)
• Adams – 7/3
• Audubon – 12/8
• Guthrie – 48/29
• Montgomery – 6/5
• Pottawattamie – 235/152
• Shelby – 34/30.

Senior Alumni Scholarship Foundation (SASF) scholarship recipients were announced during the KJAN AHS Senior Class Night streaming event held May 21st. Atlantic High School seniors McKenzie Waters, Ethan Pross, and Emma Templeton were each awarded $2,500.

SASF honors the school and community that provided SASF alumni an excellent educational start through an endowment that has been funded by generous donations from Atlantic High School graduates. For more information about SASF see: https://atlanticsasf.org/

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

(Radio Iowa) — Authorities spent yesterday (Thursday) digging in a Waterloo suburb, apparently looking for evidence in the month-long search for a missing Arizona man and his step-daughter, who are believed to have been murdered. The property being searched is at the end of Timber Oak Road, a cul-de-sac, in a quiet Evansdale neighborhood. Officials dressed in white hazmat suits carrying shovels and digging equipment could be seen near a chicken coop on the undeveloped property. The FBI and officers from several local agencies were involved in the search. Late Thursday afternoon, police in Chino Valley, Arizona, confirmed the digging was connected to the disappearance of 45-year-old David Batten and 28-year-old Elissa Landry, who have been missing since April 19th.

Landry’s boyfriend, 24-year-old Mitchell Mincks, formerly of Waterloo, is a person of interest in the Arizona homicide case. On April 28th, he was arrested on unrelated charges at rural Waterloo home. Authorities say two pets belonging to Landry were found in Waterloo last month and her missing vehicle is also believed to be in the Waterloo area.

The Creston Police Department reports 31-year old Lance Keaton Wood, of Lexington, MO., was arrested Thursday morning in Creston, on a warrant for Failure to Appear April 30th, on a prior charge of Public Intoxication. Wood was seen by the Union County Magistrate, plead guilty and was released. Police said also, a man residing in the 800 block of N. Spruce Street, reported Wednesday, that someone had keyed the passenger side of his 2014 Toyota Tundra pickup. The damage was estimated at $200.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS