(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who are looking for seasonal work and a little exercise might consider going brown for the season of red and green. U-P-S plans to hire about one-thousand workers in Iowa for the holidays, including some 150 positions in Des Moines and another 300 in Omaha-Council Bluffs. Steve Jones, talent acquisition director for U-P-S, says they’re hiring for three types of positions, both full- and part-time.

UPS photo

“We have package handlers or warehouse workers that handle the packages within our warehouses,” Jones says. “We have driver helpers, so if you’ve ever wanted to ride on one of our brown trucks, you can go help our drivers deliver packages into neighborhoods and businesses. And we have personal vehicle drivers. That’s where you drive your own car in a UPS brown uniform and deliver packages to our customers.” The pay starts at $14.50 an hour and if you like the job, there’s the opportunity to stay on once the holiday season is over.

“Thirty-seven percent of our seasonal workers last year came back as permanent employees,” Jones says. “Right now, about 123,000 of our current UPSers started as seasonal employees. That’s nearly one-third of our U.S. workforce.” The delivery giant’s peak season is already beginning and will run through mid-January, as returns are a big part of the business after Christmas. With the COVID-19 pandemic still underway, Jones stresses that the company follows all local, state and federal guidelines.

“We provide PPE to all of our employees,” Jones says. “We have upped the cleaning of all of our facilities and now we also have contactless delivery. We don’t have our customers sign our diad anymore, the computer our drivers carry, and the package is set down instead of handed to them.” Positions are available in many communities across Iowa at UPSjobs.com.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is urging residents to follow her new partial mask mandate, while claiming “there’s science on both sides” about whether face coverings reduce the spread of coronavirus. After months of opposition, Reynolds signed an order Monday that requires people to wear masks in indoor public places under some circumstances.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds gives a primetime televised address announcing new efforts to combat COVID-19 in the state, on Monday, Nov. 16, 2020, at Iowa PBS, in Johnston, Iowa. (Kelsey Kremer/The Des Moines Register via AP)

She said that she changed course because the state has seen an exponential increase in the number of people hospitalized with the virus this month. She warned that without action, hospitals will be overwhelmed and people will be at risk of not being able to get medical care of any kind.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — As Iowa’s coronavirus outbreak worsens, state officials are collecting information on individual hospitals’ capacity, staffing and resources — but they won’t share it with the public. Cedar Rapids television station KCRG reports that the state gathers and maintains such information on a service called the Iowa Health Alert Network.

But the Iowa Department of Public Health won’t allow local health departments to release that information to the public. Only statewide information on hospital capacity and resources is currently shared on the state’s COVID-19 public data portal. The Iowa Department of Public Health did not immediately answer questions Tuesday about why the data on individual hospitals in not publicly shared.

The Exira-EHK School Board, Monday evening, passed a mask/face covering mandate. Their action came at about the same time Governor Reynolds was enacting a statewide mask mandate. Superintendent Trevor Miller says the district’s mandate will be in-place longer than what the Governor imposed.

(The district mandate is in effect until Jan. 18^th)

Miller said their Elementary kids were doing a great job with wearing masks, but it was “Hit-and-miss” with the middle school/high school students.

In other business, the Exira-EHK Board re-elected their current President, Kevin Petersen, and Vice President, Tammy Fahn. They also approved the resignation of Rick Nielsen from Instrumental Music after more than 40 years in education.

Other resignations include Andrew Nulle (Assistant Volleyball) and Doug Newton (Junior High Football). Hires include Trent Megchelsen and Alex Hansen for Junior High boys basketball along with Andrea Nulle and Courtney Peppers for Junior High Girls Basketball.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday (Today) approved two Administrative Assistants for Cass County Attorney Vanessa Strazdas, and a Victim Advocate for her office. The appointments are allowed for County Officers who were elected on Nov. 3^rd. The assistants include current staffers Beverly Groves and Eva Jensen.  Maureen Doherty was approved a Victim Advocate. Doherty’s position is paid for through a grant.

And, the Board approved the abatement of taxes in the amount of $219, on a parcel owned by the City of Anita, at 630 Main Street.

(Radio Iowa) – Des Moines police leaders are considering adjustments to how officers use force and manage crowds after large demonstrations were held this summer protesting police violence and racial injustice. Police Chief Dana Wingert says the goal is to manage crowds while respecting free speech rights, but city council member Josh Mandelbaum says it should be more clear that police want to avoid making arrests.”To specifically say a goal of the policy is to minimize enforcement action,” Mandelbaum says, “and a goal or objective is to obtain voluntary compliance.”

Mandelbaum pushed the department to specifically rule out the use of “kettling,” where police block protesters into a confined area. Wingert says the policy states demonstrators should always have a way out, although it does not mention kettling by name. The department’s policy instructs officers to use force only when it’s “objectively reasonable” to bring a situation under control. Mandelbaum said the department should instruct officers to react differently to someone who’s not responding to their orders at all compared to someone resisting them verbally or violently. Chief Wingert said those situations are covered, even if they’re not spelled out. “The reasonableness standard applies to all force,” Wingert says. “You’d have a 100-page policy if you tried to break down every incident where someone could get arrested.”

Des Moines police policy does not allow the use of chokeholds and officers are required to intervene if they witness a colleague using unreasonable force.

(By Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The recount of more than 400-thousand ballots cast in Iowa’s second congressional district race has begun. Democrat Rita Hart asked for the recount after preliminary results last week showed her trailing Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks by just 47 votes. There have already been recounts in two of the counties, after human error produced incorrect vote counts in Lucas and Jasper Counties from Election Night. Now, all 24 counties in the district will conduct recounts. The first is underway in Scott County.

The secretary of state certifies statewide election results on November 30th, so that’s the deadline for getting this recount completed. This second congressional district contest is the closest federal race in the country. Each of the 24 counties in the district will have a “Recount Board” that consists of one person picked by Hart’s campaign, one person picked by Miller-Meeks and a third member who’s acceptable to both campaigns. This three-person board does the recount — and decides whether it’s done by hand or whether the ballots are counted by machine.

The board is only tabulating the second district race and will NOT review ballots that local election officials disqualified previously, like provisional ballots cast by someone who never showed up to confirm they were an eligible voter.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican senator, says he is quarantining after being exposed to the coronavirus. Grassley is 87. He did not say how he was exposed. He said he would follow doctor’s orders and “immediately quarantine” and work virtually as he waits for results of a test. The Iowa Republican is the president pro tempore of the Senate, meaning he presides over the Senate in the absence of Vice President Mike Pence and is third in the line of presidential succession.