BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to China says he doesn’t believe Beijing is deliberately blocking exports of masks and other medical supplies to fight the coronavirus, and that the shipment of 1,200 tons of such products to the U.S. could not have been possible without Chinese support. Ambassador (and former Iowa Governor) Terry Branstad also says the U.S. has concerns about how China initially handled the virus outbreak in the central city of Wuhan, but that such issues should be addressed after the pandemic has been brought under control.

Chinese officials are believed to have delayed reporting the outbreak for several crucial days in January due to political concerns, allowing the virus to spread further. China has adamantly denied doing so, despite strong evidence.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a Red Oak man was arrested Tuesday night on a methamphetamine-related charge. 38-year old Paul Earl Lemberg II, was taken into custody on a Class-C Felony charge for Delivery of Methamphetamine.  Lemberg was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $50,000 cash bond.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it will not visit the site of a deadly helicopter crash in Audubon County due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to KCCI in Des Moines, the NTSB said it is taking action to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and is deciding how much on-site investigating needs to be done on a case-by-case basis.

The agency decided not to respond to the accident site but did work with local officials to document the wreckage before it was removed. It will continue to gather information remotely.

Investigators said they believe the chopper hit a power line at around 4:30-p.m. March 31st, causing it to crash and kill two people from Minnesota. The victims were identified as the pilot, 30-year old Ryan Doolittle, of Minneapolis, and a passenger, 23-year-old Benjamin Peterson of Marshall, MN., and originally from Des Moines. Peterson was employed by Western EcoSystem Tech to perform an aerial wildlife survey of raptor nests, when the crash happened.

(Radio Iowa) — New data indicates racial disparities in COVID-19 cases that have been reported in other parts of the country are also occurring in Iowa. Nearly 16-and-a-half percent of Iowa’s COVID-19 cases are among Hispanics, who make up about six percent of the state’s population. Blacks account for another four percent of Iowa’s population, but nearly nine percent of all the COVID cases here.

Dr. Caitlin Pedati, the state medical director, says this data is on a new state website, along with information about when Iowans with COVID-19 first started showing symptoms of the illness. “It also helps us understand the magnitude of the number of people affected and the progression of an outbreak,” Pedati says.

Test results released by state officials yesterday confirmed nearly 19-hundred Iowans have COVID-19.

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

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa has reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases yet, as dozens more employees at a large pork plant tested positive and the number of outbreaks at long-term care facilities doubled. Gov. Kim Reynolds on Tuesday announced 189 new cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. The total number of patients hospitalized with the virus in Iowa increased by 14% from a day earlier, to 163, and deaths grew by six to 49. The governor said 86, or nearly half of the new cases, were related to the outbreak at the Tyson Foods plant in Columbus Junction.

O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — The nation’s two largest rivers top a new listing of the most endangered waterways. The Washington, D.C.-based conservation organization American Rivers on Tuesday released its list of the 10 most endangered waterways in the United States. The Upper Mississippi River was cited as the most endangered, followed by the lower Missouri River. For both rivers, American Rivers cited increasingly severe flooding driven by climate change. Extreme flooding has become increasingly common on the Upper Mississippi. Meanwhile, parts of the Missouri River saw record and near-record flooding last spring in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A newly-released report by the Iowa State Auditor says a former Buffalo city employee failed to deposit more than $42,000 in collections over a three-year period into the city’s bank account. The audit says the special investigation was prompted by a request from Buffalo city officials who had concerns about transactions processed by the former Deputy City Clerk Riki Harrington. The audit found $42,390 in undeposited collections from April 2015 through August 2018. That amount included $28,039.42 of checks substituted for cash collections recorded in the city’s accounting system but not deposited, as well as $5,079 in utility customers’ payments and $3,600 in utility security fees not deposited.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Police in northeastern Iowa say a one-time boxer and suspect in a deadly, botched armored car heist last month is now charged in a fire that destroyed a well-known Waterloo restaurant. The Courier reports that 29-year-old Kevin Cruz Soliveras was arrested Monday on arson and burglary charges in the March 5 fire that gutted the Wishbone Restaurant and Bar. Police say security video shows Cruz and another person breaking into the restaurant and coin-operated machines there before setting fires in the restaurant. Days later, police say, Cruz was part of a group that hatched plan to rob an armored car outside a Waterloo bank. The robbery failed when guards opened fire, wounding Cruz and another man and killing Bryce Miller.

DES MOINES – The state of Iowa, late Tuesday evening, released an updated dashboard on coronavirus.iowa.gov that will be updated daily to include comprehensive tracking of COVID-19 in Iowa. The new dashboard includes cases, deaths, and tests conducted in each county. The state will also be providing demographic information that was not previously provided as well as Iowa’s epidemiological curve.

Governor Reynolds, joined by Dr. Pedati and Sarah Reisetter at IDPH, highlighted the new dashboard at her daily press conference, Tuesday morning. (View Tuesday’s press conference here. )

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) has been notified of 189 additional positive cases for a total of 1,899 positive cases. This includes 199 surveillance tests conducted of Tyson Plant employees, 86 of which were positive. There have been additional 481 negative tests for a total of 17,467 negative tests to date, which includes testing reported by the State Hygienic Lab and other labs.

According to IDPH, an additional six deaths were also reported (including one we previously mentioned on KJAN, that occurred in an adult from Pottawattamie County, age 61-to-80).  Officials said also, 163 persons are hospitalized, and 790 Iowans have recovered.

The additional 6 deaths were reported in the following counties:

• Polk County, 1 adult (18-40)
• Pottawattamie County, 1 older adult (61-80)
• Linn County, 1 older adult (61-80), 1 middle-age adult (41-60)
• Scott County, 1 elderly adult (81+)
• Tama County, 1 elderly adult (81+)

(SWIPCO Press Release) (Atlantic, Iowa April 14, 2020) Hiring new staff can be difficult, even without a global pandemic, but some things must keep moving forward during this crisis, especially recovery from the Floods of 2019. It has been a little over a year since parts of Southwest Iowa experienced major flooding. Since then, Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO) has been working with local communities and counties in many ways to help rebuild. Thanks to a grant from the US Economic Development Administration, SWIPCO was recently able to create a new staff position to focus on flood recovery. After a national search, the organization is happy to report that they were able to hire Leslie Wright, an Alabama native with a background in public administration and community engagement to take on this additional planning and grant writing work.

Leslie Wright

In normal times, moving someone from Alabama to Southwest Iowa would be a challenge. What no one could prepare for was hiring someone from out of state in a world of COVID-19, social distancing, and working from home. As planners do, SWIPCO looked at the bright side to see a path forward because even though onboarding a new staff member at this time is difficult, the problem pales in comparison to the problems area residents and businesses face dealing with the aftermath of the flood and COVID-19. In fact, flood recovery work is beginning to ramp up and SWIPCO could not be the weak link in that process, so an innovative approach needed to be taken to keep up with it. “As we were working through the challenges of setting up our staff to work from home because of COVID-19, I was also focused on the logistics of getting our new hire from Alabama to Iowa. I thought, if we are having people working remotely, why couldn’t we start onboarding someone in Alabama? It has gone well so far due to use of technology but more importantly, working with people that are resilient, positive, and can roll with the challenging times.” said Community Development Director, Alexsis Fleener.

Ms. Wright appreciates the flexibility as well during this challenging time, saying “I was so excited when I was offered the Community Development Specialist position with SWIPCO and immediately began planning how to move from Alabama to Iowa. There were several concerns about how a move this large would play out during a national quarantine due to CoVid-19, but things seemed to work out flawlessly. My parents, who helped me move, especially enjoyed the lack of heavy traffic on the thirteen hour trip. We were nervous about being able to find housing because of social distancing requirements, but once we were in Atlantic it seemed people were willing to bend over backwards to help us out and make sure that we were able to find what we needed. I immediately felt welcomed and at home, which made leaving the South for the Midwest less scary. From what I’ve experienced so far of Atlantic and its residents, I believe I am going to thoroughly enjoy my time here and will quickly settle into life in Iowa!”

Now residing in Atlantic, Ms. Wright will self-isolate for two weeks per the Iowa Department of Public Health recommendations before actually setting foot at the SWIPCO offices. In the meantime, her work is not that much different from many other staff who are working from home as Zoom meetings and conference calls have become the new normal. “The hard thing for me,” said SWIPCO Executive Director, John McCurdy, “is that since the interviews were done online and Leslie has started work remotely, I’ve never shaken her hand and welcomed her to the agency. On the other hand, I did have a good excuse to not help her unload her U-Haul.”