The overall economic index of a monthly survey of Midwest business leaders hit a 16-year high in October, but the manufacturing sector of the economy remains stunted from the coronavirus outbreak. The overall measure of the Mid-America Business Conditions Index improved to 70.2 in October from September’s already strong 65.1. Any score above 50 on the survey’s indexes suggests growth. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey; he says that even with the high index level, manufacturing output remains below levels seen before the pandemic.
The latest Iowa Crop Progress and Condition report shows farmers continue to make great progress on this year’s harvest. According to Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig, 87-percent of corn and 97-percent of soybeans have now been harvested…that’s more than 3 weeks ahead of last year and about 2 weeks ahead of the five-year average for both crops.
An early morning house fire in Coralville Monday put a firefighter in the hospital, but that person is expected to recover. Coralville Fire Department officials responded to the fire in the 2200 block of 14th Street just after midnight early Monday morning. It took crews about an hour to put the fire out. Eight people in the home and an attached duplex were all able to get out safely. The estimated cost of damage is around $200,000. Investigators say the fire was an accident, but no official word yet on a cause.
And if you voted by absentee ballot…the Secretary of State’s office tells KXEL news you *cannot* take it back. While some states do allow you to change your mind, Iowa is not one of them.
County election boards have started counting a record number of absentee ballots in Iowa, working toward a deadline to have those votes tabulated by 10 p.m. tonight to avoid the appearance of fraud. Nearly 956,000 people had sent in their ballots by mail, dropped them off at auditor’s offices or voted early in person as of yesterday morning, with about 75,000 ballots still outstanding. That is more than half of the total turnout in the election, which is expected to exceed 1.6 million. Bipartisan election boards could begin counting the absentee votes yesterday as allowed by state law. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office said those counties that cannot count all the absentee ballots by the deadline will be responsible to find a way to securely count those remaining votes.
A record number of Iowans are registered to vote, according to Secretary of State Paul Pate. Iowa has just short of 2.1 million active registered voters, that’s more than 90% of the state’s eligible population, making Iowa one of the top 10 states in the nation for voter registration and participation. Republicans hold the edge, with nearly 720-thousand registered voters, just more than 20-thousand more than Democrats. Another 659-thousand do not declare a party affiliation. The previous record for voter registration was in the aftermath of the last presidential election, in 2016.
One person was hurt in a two-vehicle collision in rural Linn County…it happened around 5:45 p.m. yesterday near the intersection of Covington Road and Lone Tree Road, located between Covington and Palo. Officials believe that a northbound vehicle attempted to avoid a deer and lost control, colliding with a southbound vehicle. The driver of the southbound vehicle was injured and taken to a Cedar Rapids hospital with what deputies described as non-life-threatening injuries. A passenger in the southbound vehicle and the northbound vehicle’s driver were not hurt. Everyone involved was wearing a seatbelt, according to deputies.
One person was hurt in a fire yesterday afternoon on Cedar Rapids’ northeast side. Just after 12:30 p.m., the Cedar Rapids Fire Department was sent to a report of smoke coming from the attic of a home at 429–35th Street NE. Firefighters discovered flames coming from a mattress and garbage can in the home, causing heavy smoke through the entire structure. Two people were inside the home when the fire started; one person, a male, was taken to a hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, but officials believe it was not intentional.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office say two-year-old Lillian Thuerauf was hurt when she was hit by a truck driven by her father 33-year-old Christopher Thuerauf. Deputies were called to the home along Ivanhoe Road in southeastern Linn County just before 2:30 Sunday afternoon. Lillian was taken to a local hospital but is expected to recover. She was hit while the truck was being driven on the family’s property.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans will head into Election Day likely trailing by tens of thousands of votes in Iowa but they hope to overcome that deficit with a strong turnout of their supporters at polling places. More than 62% of active registered Democrats in Iowa and 43% of Republicans have already returned absentee ballots as part of a record-setting early vote in the state. That means 123,000 more Democrats had voted than Republicans as of Saturday. But it also means the remaining electorate Tuesday will be smaller than unusual, tilt toward the GOP and feature a plurality of voters who do not belong to either party.
