(Radio Iowa) – The state court system is moving closer to returning to holding jury trials across the state. Supreme Court Justice Matthew McDermott co-chaired the committee which reviewed and made recommendations on the issue. He says it’s important to have the jurors in the courtrooms. “There have been some states that have tried remote video conferencing jury trials — and I think there has been very limited or mixed success with most of those,” McDermott says. The Supreme Court released a list of guidelines Wednesday it will follow for jury trials, and McDermott says they could be put in place soon.  “It’s our hope that the jury trial process will get going in the next couple of months, ” he says. “We think that we have these protocols in place that can keep people safe and we can start giving people their right to a jury trial that is enshrined in the constitution.”

McDermott says many of the protocols are things we’ve already seen as other businesses and services opened back up. “Obviously everyone has had to deal with it and I don’t there’s anything that’s going to particularly shock anyone with any of the rules we have here. I think most of them are kind of standard practice now,” McDermott says. One of the biggest challenges the court system faces is there are different types of courthouses in the 99 counties of the state. “It’s really adopting all of them for 99 counties where these trials will take place,” according to McDermott. “That could be a challenge — because you have courthouses like the one in Polk County that is devoted almost solely to court operations. And then you have courthouse in more rural counties that might have a lot of other operations going on to — the county auditors office and recorder’s office and things like that.”

He says those smaller courthouses pose a social distancing challenge. “Those courtrooms are perhaps a little bit smaller and so just addressing all of the different iterations of the courthouses that our out there. It’s going to be challenging — but I think that we are up to it,” McDermott says. He says one big issue is keeping the juror’s space six feet apart. “Jurors might have to sit in the gallery. They might have to sit in chairs that are situated outside the regular jury box. The hope is that we can get everyone in our courtrooms to make that happen. Otherwise were are going to have to find or try to find spaces outside of courthouses to hold trials,” McDermott says.

He says there will be some differences in how jurors are called to serve. He says they will have to call them in smaller groups and keep them out of the courthouses for as long as they can until they have to come in. “Like most other businesses we are going to have markings on floors, doing all of the regular measures that everyone seems to be doing with keeping spacing and wearing masks and things like that,” McDermott says.  They may summon larger jury pools than in the past in anticipation of some jurors not being able to come in because of virus symptoms. All of the proposed guidelines for restarting jury trials are on the judicial system’s website.

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

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — One of the first coronavirus outbreaks at an Iowa meatpacking plant was more severe than previously known, with over twice as many workers becoming infected than the Iowa Department of Public Health publicly confirmed. The department announced at a May 5 news conference that 221 employees at the Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Columbus Junction had tested positive for COVID-19. But records show that days earlier, Tyson officials told workplace safety regulators that 522 plant employees had tested positive to their knowledge. A dozen of the plant’s roughly 1,300 workers were believed to have been hospitalized by then, and two died after contracting the virus.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An aide to Gov. Kim Reynolds says concerns with the quality and safety of coronavirus testing at a busy clinic in Dubuque prompted the state to sharply reduce its operations this week. Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett says the state will send 2,000 additional kits to Dubuque County to make additional testing available to residents at other area clinics to fill the gap. Dubuque announced Monday that the governor’s office had ordered that testing at the Epic Health and Wellness Clinic be open only from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday and take no more than 100 samples per day. The site had been processing up to 550 samples per day.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — The FBI has raised to $10,000 the reward for information related to the disappearance of a 10-year-old Iowa girl who went missing earlier this month. Kristi Johnson, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Omaha, says that agents from around the country were searching for 10-year-old Breasia Terrell of Davenport. She says the “number one goal” is to find the person who is responsible and bring that person to justice. Terrell was reported missing July 10, after going to spend the previous night at an apartment with her half-brother and his father, 47-year-old Henry Dinkins.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — State health reports show Iowa has surpassed 800 COVID-19 deaths as confirmed cases continue to climb. The state health department’s virus tracking site showed that as of 10 a.m. Wednesday, there had been 10 more deaths reported in the previous 24 hours. That brought the state’s total deaths to 808 since the beginning of the outbreak. The site also shows another 374 cases confirmed from Tuesday to Wednesday, bringing the state’s total to 39,793. As of Wednesday morning, 224 people were hospitalized for the virus — higher than what had been seen in recent weeks, but still far lower than the state’s peak of 417 on May 6.

The Atlantic Community School District’s nearly 65-page Return-to-Learn plan will be released tomorrow to parents and district staff via e-mail, and to the general public on the district’s website. The Atlantic School Board discussed the plan for well over an hour Wednesday night during their Work Session. (You can see and listen to the entire meeting on the KJAN Video Network page at kjan.com. Just click on the KJANTV logo and then the “On Demand” tab)

Superintendent Steve Barber said it is still the District’s plan to hold school in-person, beginning August 24th, just like a normal school year. But there will be adjustments both during the school year and on an as-needed basis for some students with special needs. Barber says the document “reflects the work that we’ve done from the District Leadership Teams, Sub-Committees in critical areas, some CDC (Centers for Disease Control), some IDPH (Iowa Dept. of Public Health) and the Governor’s Proclamation  guidelines that are followed in regards to that.”

Mr. Barber says it also reflects “remote learning, and provides some schedules for that.” The document provides guidance as well, with regard to safety, Iowa Academic Standards, tools being used for remote learning. Barber says “We are attempting to create social distancing as one of our major mitigation strategies. We have many other mitigation strategies that are going to be helpful for the health and safety of people.”

For example, he says: they will removes soft surfaces; doors will be kept open; the district has personal protective equipment (PPE) in inventory; Handwashing will be required; masks are available to staff and students who request them; gloves are also available; (disinfecting) foggers, and more. In fact, the district has on-hand: 1,000 cloth masks; 100 face shields; N-95 masks for school nurses, gloves and gowns.

Social distancing in the classrooms will be accomplished by using the square footage in the most accommodating means possible to spread kids out, but Barber asked rhetorically, “Will it look like the traditional start to the school year,” No was the answer. He says “Where you have 25 kids to one classroom? No. It may look a little bit different, but they will try to maintain a six-foot separation as a priority, and teachers “Will try to figure out innovative ways to serve them [the students], if they are in two different locations.”

The District has a 1:1 (One-to-One) rollout for laptop computers so every student has access to a computer. “Currently,” Barber says, “Our staff is being trained in Google Classroom, Zoom and SeeSaw, IXL and a few other tools, that not only are going to be helpful if you’re being educated in remote learning, but it’s also going to be helpful in the regular classroom.”

Barber says with new guidelines possible from the CDC or the legislature, the RTL plan is subject to change. For example, he says, the CDC has recommended persons attending school be fever-free for 24 hours instead of 72. That was adjusted in the district’s plan as well. Barber says there will be changes throughout the process, but that “Hopefully we’re successful in our on-site [learning] so we can remain doing that.”

In other business, the Atlantic School Board discussed various board policies, including those affected by public health regulations, excused student absences, appropriate use of online learning, and district operation during public emergencies.

Officials with Mills County Public Health, Wednesday, said two additional cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the County. The two new cases are persons ranging in age from 18-to-40, who contracted the virus through community spread.

As of Wednesday, there are 61 total confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Mills County, with 34 persons having recovered, and 2,361 residents tested, for a positivity rate of 2.6%. Mills County Public Health encourages everyone to wear a cloth face cover when you are in public.

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office, Wednesday evening, released the identity a man who was found laying in the roadway in rural Madison County Tuesday afternoon. He was identified as 39-year old Jonathan Michael Hoffman, of Des Moines. Authorities say Hoffman died from gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jonathan Michael Hoffman

The Iowa DCI is assisting the Madison County Sheriff’s Office in an investigation into Hoffman’s death. Anyone who has information or was on the Macksburg Rd between 2pm and 3:30pm on Tuesday July 21, 2020 and saw something, they are asked to contact the Madison County Sheriff’s Office at 515-462-3575 (extension 8).

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An aide to Gov. Kim Reynolds says concerns with the quality and safety of coronavirus testing at a busy clinic in Dubuque prompted the state to sharply reduce its operations this week. Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett says the state will send 2,000 additional kits to Dubuque County to make additional testing available to residents at other area clinics to fill the gap.

Dubuque announced Monday that the governor’s office had ordered that testing at the Epic Health and Wellness Clinic be open only from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday and take no more than 100 samples per day. The site had been processing up to 550 samples per day.