(Iowa News Service) DES MOINES, Iowa — Non-profits are navigating a path of financial stress and uncertainty amid the pandemic and the economic crisis it’s causing. In Iowa, a key health organization said it’s seeing the effect and making changes. The American Heart Association (AHA) division that serves greater Des Moines is expanding a key fundraising initiative to run year-round. David Stark, president of UnityPoint Health and an AHA board member, said money that’s still coming is prompting a shift in priorities. He noted there’s a lot of focus right now on short-term research looking at the effects of the coronavirus. “[For example], the impact of high blood pressure as it relates to susceptibility for coronavirus,” Stark outlined. “So very specific, very focused effort on hypertension.”

Fundraising Concept Closeup on Laptop Screen in Modern Office Workplace. Toned Image with Selective Focus. 3D Render.

Some short-term research is being done in Iowa, and Stark said that means donations can have a local impact. Hypertension awareness is part of the group’s annual “Heart Ball” campaign, which now runs an entire year to maximize donor potential. A report released this fall by the Charities Aid Foundation of America showed 9 in 10 nonprofits worldwide are being squeezed by the crisis.  Stark explained other priorities, such as childhood obesity outreach, are on the back burner for now, in part because safely connecting with students in schools isn’t possible.

Bob Montgomery, vice president and general manager of OnMedia, chairs the Heart Ball campaign and works with other local non-profits. He said there’s been consistent declines in contributions.  “It’s interesting really because what I have seen in most of these is that the number of supporters if you will – people who make donations and support the cause – is actually up for most folks,” Montgomery observed. “But the size of those donations is down and in some cases, considerably.”

He added they hope by making this year’s Heart Ball a 12-month campaign, they can attract enough support so there won’t be a drastic reduction of outreach and research done in Iowa. The actual event, the Ball, has also been pushed back from February to June.

Iowa coronavirus deaths continued to increase in the past two weeks as the state ends November posting 687 deaths. That’s a 34% increase from the 512 deaths reported in October. Iowa reported 28 additional deaths on Monday (Today), pushing the state total to 2,403. The IDPH says 1,336 of those who died had a preexisiting medical condition. Long-Term Care (LTC) facility deaths account for 1,063 deaths statewide.

There were 1,200 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours,  for a pandemic total of 228,996. Hospitalizations continued to fall but some health care officials are expressing concern that they may rise again if Thanksgiving gatherings caused additional virus spread as expected. Hospitalization data show: 1,162 Iowans are in a hospital facility; 224 COVID patients are in an ICU (Compared to 235 Sunday); 138 were admitted (compared to 131 Sunday), and 147 COVID patients are on a ventilator. Hospitals in southwest/western Iowa (RMCC Region 4) report: 63 hospitalized (Compared to 56 yesterday);  16 are in an ICU; nine were admitted (Compared to 7 Sunday), and eight COVID patients are on a ventilator.

LTC data show: a record 156 current outbreaks; 4,950 patients/staff have tested positive; 2,077 have tested negative. Area LTC data show: 211 positive cases and 129 recoveries at the three facilities in Cass County; 127 positive and 22 recovered in Shelby County (2 facilities); 139 positive and 117 recovered in Harrison County (1 facility); and 232 positive cases along with 75 recoveries at three LTC’s in Pottawattamie County.

Iowans who have recovered from the virus number 132,210, while 1,211,086 have been tested, to-date. There were 3,786 lab results returned yesterday, with 2,923 negative results and 853 positive. The individual positivity rate is 18.9%, and the 14-day rolling average is 17.8%. Cass County’s positivity rate is 19.2%. A total of 979, 932 negative results have been returned since the pandemic began. The IDPH says 132,212 Iowans have recovered from the virus.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases in each county, along with the 24-hour change in case numbers {+#}; the number of persons recovered, and the total number of [deaths] (if any), since the pandemic began,

• Cass, 816 cases {+8}; 507 recovered; 23 deaths
• Adair, 441;{+1} 229; 8
• Adams, 170 {+1}; 87; 2
• Audubon, 296 {+1}; 195; 2
• Guthrie, 754 {+2); 439; 15
• Harrison County, 1,077 {+10}; 723; 29
• Madison County, 686 {+6}; 398; 4
• Mills County, 1,048 {+8}; 488; 7
• Montgomery, 463 {+1}; 212; 11
• Pottawattamie County, 6,319 {+74]; 3,594; 70
• Shelby County, 765 {+3}; 443; 11
• Union County,  772 {+5}; 303; 6

(Radio Iowa) – Today (Monday) is the date Secretary of State Paul Pate is to certify Iowa’s election results and on December 14th the state’s six presidential electors will gather at the state capitol to cast their votes in the Electoral College. Kurt Brown of Primghar will be one of them.

“Since Donald Trump won Iowa, the six presidential electors from the Republican Party will be casting their vote,” he says. “Four years ago, since Donald Trump took Iowa, I was also a presidential elector for the Republicans, and then four years prior to that I was a presidential elector for the Republicans, but since Barack Obama won the election (in Iowa) then the Democrats got to cast their six electoral vote at that time.” However, Brown says there’s no state law that requires him to cast his Electoral College vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in Iowa.

“In some states they require you to vote as the voters chose,” Brown says. “In other states, the presidential electors can be removed for not voting the way their state law requires.” Brown says as a result, he’s used to getting all sorts of pressure on how to vote.”I had hundreds of phone calls,” Brown says “Four years ago, I had thousands of phone calls and emails trying to sway me.”

Iowa currently gets six votes in the Electoral College, one from each congressional district and two at-large electors. Brown is one of the at-large electors, chosen along with five others at the state G-O-P convention in June.  “You just basically go through a process of throwing your name out there at the county convention, the district convention and the state convention,” he says.

The Iowa Democratic Party approves its slate of electors at the party’s state convention. Other presidential candidates submit the names of electors with their nominating petitions, as Kanye West did this year when he qualified for the Iowa ballot.

(Radio Iowa) – The state website tracking coronavirus data shows while hospital numbers are improving, more Iowans have died of Covid this month than during any previous month of the pandemic.

On November 1st, there were 676 Covid patients in Iowa hospitals and that surged to more than 15-hundred by November 17th. There’s been a more than 20 percent decline in hospitalizations over the past two weeks, but the death rate is accelerating. Nearly 28 percent of all the Covid-related deaths reported in the state during the pandemic have been confirmed by state officials this month. Last night the state website showed 23-hundred-75 Iowans have died of Covid.

The state website also shows a record 153 Iowa nursing homes have current coronavirus outbreaks among residents. Active infections have been confirmed among nearly 49-hundred residents and nursing home staff.

A reminder today from Cass County Wellness Coordinator Brigham Hoegh, that on Wednesday December 2nd, the Cass County Local Food Policy Council will host a mobile food pantry through the Food Bank for the Heartland at the Cass County Community Center, from 4:00 – 6:00 PM, or as supplies last. Hoegh says they have ordered double the amount of food to be handed out at the mobile pantries in the past, given the increased food needs related to COVID-19.

Anyone in need is welcome to visit the mobile pantry, and no documentation is needed. People from surrounding towns and communities are welcome. Traffic will be directed by volunteers. Visitors are asked stay in their vehicles with the trunk open. The mobile pantry is available free of charge.

For more information on local food, farmers markets, and food access, follow the Cass County Local Food Policy Council’s Facebook page @CassCountyLocalFood.

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have arrested a 22-year-old Des Moines man in connection with a fatal hit-and-run crash that happened last week. Des Moines Police said Sunday that Lim Bol Choul was arrested after an anonymous tip led investigators to him. Police also found the dark-colored SUV that was involved in the crash Thursday night. Choul is facing charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and driving without insurance. When authorities responded to the crash shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday, they found a pedestrian who was critically injured. That man was taken to a hospital where he later died of his injuries

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa reported 2,013 new virus cases and 15 more deaths linked to COVID-19 on Sunday. As of 10 a.m. Sunday, the state had reported 227,796 cases of the coronavirus and 2,375 deaths linked to the virus since the pandemic began. The number of people hospitalized with the virus in the state declined slightly on Saturday to 1,175 from the previous day’s 1,221. Eighty-seven of Iowa’s 99 counties had a 14-day positivity rate above 15% on Sunday. Ten other counties reported positivity rates between 10% and 15%. Only two counties had a rate below 10%. Overall, Iowa had the ninth-highest rate of infection in the nation on Saturday

CLINTON, Iowa (AP) — A Republican candidate is hanging onto a single-digit lead in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District after a recount in a race that will help determine the size of Democrats’ majority in the House of Representatives. The Iowa Press-Citizen reports that Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks had just six more votes than Democrat Rita Hart after the recount wrapped up Saturday in Clinton County, which was the last of the district’s 24 counties to report its results. A state canvassing board is expected to meet Monday, the legal deadline, to certify the results of the race in which more than 394,400 votes were cast.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Thousands of streetlights still need to be repaired in the Cedar Rapids area months after they were broken when a derecho tore through Iowa. The Gazette reports that Mayuri Farlinger, the director of operations for Alliant Energy in the region, did not have an estimate as to how long it’ll take to repair the lights. The utility prioritized restoring power to homes and businesses after the Aug. 10 derecho. Streetlight repairs began at the end of October and crews have been out in “full force” to repair them, he said. The company’s crews and contractors have fixed hundreds of streetlights. Alliant says it has 12 two-person crews dedicated for streetlight repairs in every quadrant of the city.