The number of first-time unemployment claims in Iowa filed last week was 9,505 but the number of continuing weekly unemployment claims during that time dropped by nearly 18,000 from the week before. Total unemployed in Iowa now 116,810.
A new COVID-19 phone scam has been reported. In it, people are receiving phone calls from “public health” saying they have been exposed to a positive COVID-19 case. The caller then asks for $50 for a COVID-19 test kit processing fee. Experts say real public health employees will never ask for banking or credit card information.
Another sign of a return to a new normal…jury trials are set to resume in Iowa in mid-September. On Wednesday, the Iowa Supreme Court issued an order detailing policies and procedures for the safe resumption of trials in the state. One of the new policies will be to cast a wider net for potential jurors due to the coronavirus pandemic. While there will be more potential jurors, the courts are scheduling fewer trials to operate at the same time, hoping to cut down on potential exposure. Each person will receive a face covering. During trials, only a few jurors will be physically in the jury box and the rest will be spaced out throughout the rest of the courtroom, which will be marked out to show where attorneys can stand when speaking to witnesses. Anyone speaking during a trial will be forced to wear a face shield, so everyone can see their full face.
The National Cattle Congress has decided to postpone its 110th annual fair until next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was scheduled to be held in mid-September in Waterloo. The National Cattle Congress is planning on having the rides, attractions, livestock shows, rodeo, exhibitors, live music and more—including the annual News/Talk 1540 KXEL Celebrity Cow Milking Contest—next year, from September 15-19.
The 111th Drake Relays has officially been postponed to April of next year, it was announced yesterday. This year’s Drake Relays were first postponed March 18th due to COVID-19. Since then, staff has worked in conjunction with local public officials and track & field governing bodies, to explore the potential for a 2020 event, but in the interest of safety, the decision was made to skip an event this year and look toward April of 2021.
A Waterloo man has been charged with leading officers on a chase across three counties Tuesday night. A Cedar Falls patrol officer attempted to pull over a vehicle at W. First and Center streets around 7 p.m. because the driver, 41-year-old Kurtis Jensen, had an outstanding probation warrant. The vehicle then took off, heading west and running stop signs and a stop light. The chase reached speeds up to 100 mph in a 45 mph zone and headed out of town, passing through Butler and Grundy counties. The vehicle was found parked and unoccupied in Dike. Officers found Jensen walking nearby with the keys to the vehicle in his pocket. Police discovered meth and marijuana in the vehicle. Jensen was charged with felony-level eluding.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate will send an absentee ballot request form to every registered voter ahead of November’s election, just as he did before the June primary. But at least two county auditors are still sending their own mail-in ballot applications with pre-filled voter information, a move some state leaders and the secretary of state’s office says undermines Iowa’s voter ID law. Linn County Auditor Joel Miller and Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert are both sending absentee ballot request forms with auto-populated information like the voter’s name, address, date of birth and voter ID pin number filled out. All voters would need to do is sign it and send it back to receive an absentee ballot starting October 5, when early voting begins. The state Legislative Council approved the statewide effort last Friday, including a provision requiring counties to send blank forms, and not the pre-filled forms being sent in Linn and Johnson counties.
The latest coronavirus figures in Iowa show a continued roller coaster in the number of confirmed cases…the number of positive tests nearly doubled in the 24-hour period from Wednesday to Thursday, pushing the state’s total to more than 40,500. The state health department’s virus tracking site showed that as of 10 a.m. Thursday, there had been 716 cases confirmed from the day before, when 374 cases were confirmed. The state also reported seven more COVID-19 deaths yesterday, bringing Iowa’s total to 815 since the beginning of the outbreak. In addition, 232 people were hospitalized for the virus as of yesterday morning.
A Grundy Center man who bought drugs on the dark web and sold them in eastern and central Iowa was sentenced this week to more than six years in federal prison, plus five years of supervised release after that. 22-year-old Jack Arthur Stumberg received the prison term after entering a guilty plea to charges of conspiring and possessing with intent to distribute LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin mushrooms. The judge found that Stumberg recruited and directed the activities of an accomplice into the drug conspiracy, as well.
