The Chiefs and Texans will open the NFL season with a Thursday night matchup at Arrowhead Stadium, where about 17,000 fans will be allowed under coronavirus restrictions. The game features the defending Super Bowl champions, led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, against a team in the Texans that they defeated in the divisional round of the playoffs.
Houston is led by Deshaun Watson, its own young star quarterback.
MONTREAL (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif will spend the next few months studying at one of the world’s most prestigious universities instead of playing football. The Canadian addressed the media Wednesday, speaking about his decision to opt out of the 2020 NFL season after spending the past few months as an orderly at a long-term care facility an hour away from Montreal during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Duvernay-Tardif will take online classes at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The 29-year-old McGill University medical school graduate first revealed he would try to take classes in nutrition, biostatistics and epidemiology in an article with Sports Illustrated released Wednesday.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge who nullified 50,000 absentee ballot requests in Iowa’s second-largest county seems poised to void thousands more in a neighboring county at the urging of President Trump’s reelection campaign.Judge Ian Thornhill heard arguments Wednesday in Johnson County, the state’s most Democratic-leaning, in a similar lawsuit brought by Trump’s campaign and Republican Party groups.
He said he would issue a ruling soon but raised several points that he did in his Linn County ruling last month that gave Trump a sweeping legal victory.Trump’s campaign argues that county elections commissioners in Johnson, Linn and Woodbury acted improperly when they mailed absentee ballot request forms to voters with their personal information already filled in.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy is embracing high expectations as the Cyclones get set to host Louisiana in their opener. The Cyclones have been to three straight bow games and hope to make a serious run at the Big-12 Championship game this fall.
Purdy admits there were times this summer he did not expect to have a season.
Purdy expects the second season under offensive coordinator Tom Manning to show significant progress.
(Radio Iowa) – The Fort Dodge Community School District was hit by a cyber attack on Wednesday. Officials with the Fort Dodge Community School District issued a statement Wednesday afternoon that said the district was hit by a cyber attack. The attack took down servers for the district and disabled internet and phone services.
The district then made the decision in interest of safety for students and staff members to cancel classes on Thursday. Fort Dodge administrators say they are working with authorities to get the systems back up and running and they hope to have the issues resolved by Friday.
(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says if a school district moves to virtual instruction because of fears about Covid spreading through crowded classrooms, then it makes sense to cancel sports and other extracurricular activities in the district. Students from Des Moines and Ames Public School Districts marched to the governor’s mansion Monday to protest the suspension of their extracurriculars, including volleyball and football. Reynolds, who says she played every sport imaginable when she was in high school, calls this an unfortunate situation.
The governor says if social distancing is the main concern from educators seeking to teach classes online, then she says they should be worried about the lack of social distancing in sports.
A judge is letting the Des Moines School Board’s lawsuit proceed that challenges the governor’s authority to determine when schools may shift classes online, but the judge has declined to issue a temporary injunction — so the school district is violating the state’s order to have students in the classroom this week. Reynolds is expressing confidence the impasse between her administration and Des Moines Public Schools can be resolved.
Reynolds made her comments Wednesday in Atlantic, where she met with a non-profit group focused on improving Atlantic’s economic prospects.
The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Mills County Public Health have identified six cases of COVID-19 at Glen Haven Village, a long-term care facility in Mills County. That includes four residents, and two staff members. According to IDPH, an outbreak occurs when three or more cases of COVID-19 are identified among residents of a facility.
Officials Wednesday evening said the facility has notified residents and their families, and consistent with IDPH guidelines, the affected residents are in isolation. Glen Haven staff are working closely with IDPH and Mills County Public Health to protect the health of all residents and staff, with additional testing of residents and staff as directed by IDPH.
Mills County Public Health Director Julie Lynes said “Protecting the health and wellbeing of the residents and staff is of the highest priority. We know our older population is at the highest risk for serious COVID-19 illness, so we are monitoring the situation carefully and taking the highest precautions to prevent virus spread.”
As of today (Wednesday), there are 144 total cases of COVID-19 in Mills County. The Mills County Health Department continues to work closely with the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), and other state and local partners to respond to this ongoing pandemic.
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman has been charged in the death of a dog that was locked inside a bathroom with no food or water. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that 22-year-old Alicia Cai Swanson was arrested Friday and charged of animal neglect causing death. She was released from jail pending trial. The landlord called the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 22 after finding a black and white dog whose remains that had been there for so long that they stuck to the floor. The landlord told deputies he was evicting the former tenant, who hadn’t lived at the rural Waterloo house for three months.
The Cass County Republican Party has announced that there will be a grand opening event for their headquarters, 1-p.m. Sunday, September 13th, at 506 Chestnut Street (The old Bonnesen’s Building), in Atlantic. Congressman David Young is scheduled to make an appearance. 
Beginning Monday, September 14, hours for the headquarters will be every Monday-Wednesday-Friday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., and 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and every Saturday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. through Election Day.
Come and sign-up to assist, or to add your name to the list of persons who the party will distribute signs to, when we they become available.
(Atlantic) – Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds paid a visit to Audubon, Atlantic and Greenfield this (Wednesday) afternoon. In Audubon, she visited the Blue Grass Inn & Suites. In Atlantic, she met with SHIFT ATL organizers and investors in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. In Atlantic, the Governor learned the mission of SHIFT ATL is “To revitalize Atlantic through projects, services and programs that will enhance the community and foster a sense of development and growth.” That includes the pursuit of a wine bar/tap room, in downtown Atlantic. The Governor was impressed with the efforts the group of young female entrepreneurs and investors have made in bringing vitality to the community.
SHIFT ATL announced late last month they are seeking to partner with a restaurateur that has experience successfully operating and managing a bar and/or restaurant. The objective is to provide a modern atmosphere complete with an upscale experience with a small town feel within the establishment coupled with food items customarily associated with wine bars or tap rooms.
Gov. Kim Reynolds (Left) speaks with SHIFT ATL organizers and investors (9/9/20) Ric Hanson-photo
SHIFT ATL acquired the building formerly known the Downtowner Café with the goal to completely renovate the building for a bar/restaurant space on the first floor and a residential unit on the second floor. The building’s first floor is 1,426 square feet for commercial space and 509 square feet for the kitchen area towards the back of the building. The building is currently a blank slate for the business to work with SHIFT ATL through renovations to occupy the space.
After the session with SHIFT ATL organizers and investors, Gov. Reynolds said when asked, she could not confirm what the Trump Administration may be planning to announce regarding oil company waivers from ethanol blending requirements. Reynolds says she saw the Reuters report on Tuesday evening that indicated Trump has directed the E-P-A to deny waivers the oil industry requested in previous years.
The E-P-A has yet to announce its decision on dozens of oil industry requests to be excused from the federal mandate that a certain amount of ethanol be blended into gasoline each year. These so-called “gap year” waivers date back to 2011. The oil industry just filed a request for the U.S. Supreme Court to review a circuit court decision that the E-P-A has failed to follow federal law when granting past waivers. There’s also a separate batch of ethanol waivers for 2019 and 2020 and Reuters reporting does not indicate the president’s rumored directive would apply to those.
She was also asked about the recent Iowa Court rulings where judges declined to halt enforcement of a State requirement for schools to return students to classrooms.
Her last stop of the day was in Greenfield, at “The Corner.” Earlier in the day, she was in Blencoe and Dunlap. Her schedule Thursday include stops in Casey and Jefferson.
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