The Audubon School Board held a short, special meeting this (Tuesday) morning, via Zoom, and in the High School Board Room. Superintendent Eric Trager told KJAN News the meeting which lasted about 10-minutes, included approval of the End of Fiscal Year Expenditures – approving the year end bills, approval of an extension of their copier lease, and they approved the hiring of Summer Wulf as Head Boys Golf Coach, along with an Associate.

Trager said he went through with the Board on where they were with their facility design and renovations, as well as the asbestos abatement, which begins Wednesday. Their next, regular meeting is 7-p.m. July 27th.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Business Council’s second-quarter Economic Outlook Survey for 2020 shows some improvement in what the managers of the states’ largest businesses expect in the coming months. I-B-C executive director Joe Murphy says it’s a modest improvement. He says the overall score in overall economic outlook index rose to 41point-two-five — which is an increase of three-point-seven-five points from the first quarter. That first quarter mark was the lowest point of the survey since 2009. Murphy says this projection is a step in the right direction. “We’re optimistic that we’re seeing some sort of ascendency in our numbers as we project out the next six months. However, anything below 50 represents negative economic sentiment — so clearly we are still in that negative sentiment zone,” Murphy says. “But again, I think there are some reasons for some cautious optimism as we look ahead.”

The survey measures members’ expectations for sales, capital spending, and employment. He says the one thing that is known right now is there still remains a lot of things that are unknown about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on business. “Businesses, whether you are a small, medium or large business, you need certainty in the markets and the economy in order to make decisions and project forward a better platform to hire and invest and to do the business that you want to do,” according to Murphy.

Murphy says Iowa’s economy was doing well before the pandemic hit — and that has helped the optimism that the state will recover. “When you look at our unemployment rate — while it is quite high, particularly for Iowa — it’s still within the top five or so lowest unemployment rates in the country,” Murphy says. “Obviously that is not to say that we are happy with where we are at. But my point is that we are able to weather economic strife better than other states. That was the case in the Great Recession, and that is the case right now.”

Most members site the unfavorable business climate due to COVID-19 and other regulatory challenges coupled with an unfavorable domestic economy as their primary challenges to business. Half of the respondents noted layoffs or furloughs as a result of COVID-19. Of those employers, 80 percent expect to rehire some or nearly all of that workforce. Sixty-percent expects to make these rehire in the coming seven to nine months with an unknown rehire date for the remaining 40 percent.

Officials with the Creston Police Department report the arrest at around 1:40-p.m. Monday, of 26-year old Jacob Jones, from Creston. Jones was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, for Domestic Assault with Injury. He remained in the jail pending a bond hearing.  And, at around 10-p.m. Monday, 40-year old Justin Robertson, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County LEC on a Union County warrant for Failure to Appear on an original, Possession of a Controlled Substance, charge. Robertson was later released on a $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The Sioux Rapids City Council has decided on disciplinary action for their Chief of Police over a comment he made on social media. Chief Tim Porter posted a comment on an image of a truck attempting to drive through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in Des Moines. It read: “Hit the Gas and Hang on over the speed bumps.” Porter later apologized for the post, saying it was made on the wrong post.

After a closed session, the city council decided on two weeks suspension without pay and to have the council and Porter take a sensitivity course.

(Radio Iowa) -A soldier from the 185th Air National Guard in Sioux City is walking across Iowa from border to border to raise awareness about mental health. Technical Sergeant Jeff Campbell is on a 20 day, 389 mile journey that started in Clinton and will end back in Sioux City. “Twenty days? Nothing compared to someone who is suffering with depression for six months, someone who is legitimately struggling with a marriage,” Campbell says. “…We need to teach people that these bubbles of time are not permanent. You only do that by talking, by relating, by sitting down, having conversations.”

Campbell works as what’s called a “Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape” specialist for the 185th. He says issues concerning mental health affect everyone, plus mental health is a particular concern during these times of social distancing and isolation because of Covid019. “I’ve had a lot of people stop and talk to me about what I’m doing,” Campbell says. “I had a lady open up to me about a son that had died because of suicide and just the other day I walked with a guy who was Vietnam vet for five miles and he was just talking about his struggles.”

Campbell says mental health is a particular concern during these times of social distancing and isolation because of Covid-19. And he says it’s an issue in rural as well as urban Iowa. “It’s actually eye-opening talking to just different farmers and stuff and then just how they struggle in their suicide rate among their own community. You can’t escape it,” Campbell says. “It doesn’t matter where you re in the world, like, if you’re struggling mentally you have to be able to step outside of that…and be able to say: ‘Hey, this isn’t going to be forever.'”

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 600-thousand Iowans live with some form of mental illness.