WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is plowing ahead with its plan to resume federal executions next week, for the first time in more than 15 years. That’s despite the coronavirus pandemic raging both inside and outside prisons and despite stagnating national support for the death penalty. Three people are scheduled to die by lethal injection in one week at an Indiana prison, beginning Monday. One of those set to be executed, is Dustin Honken, who was originally from Britt (IA), who was convicted in 2004 of murdering a family in a rural area outside of Mason City in 1993. Authorities say Honken was a meth king pin at the time and the man he murdered was another drug dealer who had become an informant. Honken shot the man, his wife and two children in the head.

The decision to go ahead with the executions has been criticized as a dangerous and political move by the Trump administration, at a time when there is great scrutiny on racial disparities in the death penalty and on larger criminal justice system.

(Radio Iowa) – The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate addressed a virtual gathering of about 250 Polk County Democrats last (Tuesday) night and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told the group the party’s agenda fits the moment.  “The country is thirsting for real and dramatic change,” Schumer says.

Schumer says Republicans are “on a different planet” on a variety of issues and he accused G-O-P leadership in the U.S. Senate of blocking votes on important bills, like one that would have forbidden insurance companies from dropping policies for people with pre-existing conditions. Schumer pointed to polls showing Iowa’s U.S. Senate race is competitive — and he said flipping control of the senate from Democrats to Republicans may rest on whether Democrat Theresa Greenfield defeats Republican Senator Joni Ernst this November. “We all know deep down that this truly may be the most important election of our lifetimes,” Schumer said. “It’ll be up to us to turn the page from this dark chapter in our history and let me tell you, I have never been as optimistic about our chances as I am today.”

Ernst and other Republicans have been referring to Greenfield as Schumer’s “hand-picked” candidate. Ernst told reporters yesterday (Tuesday) that she wants to debate Greenfield to hear what Schumer is telling Greenfield to say or not to say on key issues.

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa summer school program has been been moved from in-person to online after several students screened for coronavirus symptoms registered fevers this week. The Hawk Eye reports that North Hill Elementary School in Burlington suspended it’s in-person summer school program on Tuesday after eight students showed up with temperatures of 100.4 degrees or higher. About 60 students attended the program, which began Monday.

Principal Mark Taylor says students were screened for symptoms and temperatures upon arrival to the building before getting out of the car. Officials say the district is working closely with Des Moines County Public Health to determine if or when the summer program can resume in-person instruction.

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) said today (Wednesday), eight more people died from COVID-19 since Tuesday’s report, for a total of 732, and there were 414 new, positive confirmed cases of the virus (total 32,343). Negative test results to date amount to 311,494. The IDPH says 25,860 Iowans have recovered from the virus, and 341,941 have been tested to date, in-all.  Completed Assessments number 854,638, to-date. (Data current as of 10-a.m. [24-hour cycle])

The latest statewide hospitalization data show: 165 are hospitalized with COVID-19 (unchanged from Tue.); 44 are in an ICU (also no change from Tue.); 23 were admitted to a hospital (4 less than yesterday), and 23 were on a ventilator (3 more than yesterday). In southwest/western Iowa (RMCC Region 4), five people remain in a hospital, 3 are in an ICU, no one was admitted over the past 24-hours, and no one was on a ventilator. Long-Term Care (LTC) facility outbreaks are up again, this time to 18. In those facilities, 399 residents/staff have tested positive for COVID-19, 287 have recovered, and there have been 387 deaths.

County-by-County COVID-19 cases, 24-hour change (if applicable) [   ], and the number of person who have recovered (   ).

• Cass: 24 (18)
• Adair: 17 [1 more than yesterday] (12)
• Adams: 8 (8)
• Audubon: 16 (15)
• Guthrie: 68 [+2] (58)
• Montgomery: 10 (8)
• Pottawattamie: 754 (645)
• Shelby: 117 [+3]    (103) [+3]