Iowa casino officials worry they will lose business when several Nebraska casinos open…now that voters in that state have approved gambling. Iowa officials say they worry that when casinos are built in Omaha and Lincoln, they could hurt Iowa gaming revenues, especially in Council Bluffs, where four casinos currently operate. Other Iowa border towns with casinos include Sioux City, Onawa and Sloan. Wes Ehrecke is president of the Iowa Gaming Association; he says the development of casinos in Nebraska could be another blow to Iowa casinos already reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Iowa prison officials reported a coronavirus outbreak has infected nearly half of the inmates at the prison in Anamosa. Cord Overton of the Iowa Department of Corrections said testing this past week revealed 476 inmates among 985 at the prison tested positive for the virus. A report provided by the department indicates 37 staff members also tested positive. Across the nine institutions the department manages, 601 inmates were infected as of Friday afternoon.
Police say one person sustained non-life threatening injuries in a shooting early yesterday in Waterloo. It happened near the 500 block of Jefferson Street around 1:45 a.m. yesterday. Police say they have not made any arrests and are still investigating.
A West Des Moines police officer was seriously injured when a car crashed into his patrol vehicle during a traffic stop early yesterday morning. Officer Jon Kaufman pulled over a vehicle on northbound Interstate 35 at 12:10 a.m. Sunday. As Kaufman was sitting in his patrol car behind the subject vehicle during the traffic stop, another car hit his patrol car from behind. Kaufman suffered serious injuries and was taken to a hospital, but is expected to survive.
Officials say a vote-counting mistake has changed the leader of an Iowa congressional race. Election night results had shown Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks leading the open U.S. House District 2 race over Democrat Rita Hart by 282 votes out of more than 393,000 cast. However, Jasper County elections officials spotted a problem Thursday, and after working with the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, determined the numbers had been inaccurately reported from one precinct. After the correction, officials said Friday that Hart now leads the race by 162 votes. Poll workers in Jasper County spent several hours Saturday recounting all ballots cast in Tuesday’s election…including more than 9,200 election day ballots and nearly 11,000 absentee ballots. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate has ordered a hand recount of all votes cast in the precinct affected, the Clear Creek-Poweshiek precinct. That is scheduled to take place today at 10 a.m. at the Jasper County courthouse.
Police say a Dyersville woman was hospitalized after she was shot by her 2-year-old child Wednesday night. Police revealed the shooting Friday morning in a news release, saying investigators determined the 21-year-old woman was shot after the child found a handgun “that was left unsecured.” The woman was taken by ambulance to a Dubuque hospital, then airlifted to Iowa City for treatment. Police have not released the woman’s name and said authorities are considering whether to file charges in the case.
Meanwhile, a 2-year-old boy was being treated at a hospital after an accidental shooting at Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids Friday afternoon. Officers said the child was shot in the forearm after a gun accidently fired just after 1:30 p.m. The person who had possession of the gun and the child are related, according to police. The child was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
All of Iowa has seen a 14-day average positivity rate in tests for the novel coronavirus above the federal government’s definition for at least moderate transmission of the virus, with the majority of counties above state guidelines for the potential for virtual learning waivers to be granted to local schools. The Iowa Department of Public Health’s website yesterday afternoon showed that the 14-day average positivity rate for COVID-19 tests is at or above 20% in 47 of Iowa’s 99 counties…including Black Hawk, Linn and Bremer. The positivity rate is at or above 15% in an additional 34 counties. The rest of the state’s counties are above 10% for two-week average positivity…the one exception is Ringgold County at 8.8%. The White House Coronavirus Task Force defines a 10% positivity rate as indicative of high rates of transmission of the virus.
The Marion Public Library is closing its Uptown Branch location for two weeks due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in the community. The notification was sent Friday by the City of Marion. They anticipate reopening the library on Saturday, November 21, but will monitor virus activity closely. Library officials say the Technology Station at the Marion Columbus Club is still open.
The Iowa Department of Public Health’s media relations specialist is no longer with the department. Emails sent to the now former IDPH spokeswoman Amy McCoy are returned with an automatic response that says McCoy is no longer with the department as of last Friday. McCoy began handling COVID-19 related media inquiries back in March, just as the pandemic began. In July, the department terminated the department’s communications director, Polly Carver-Kimm, who had been responsible for all IDPH communications, including public information requests, until McCoy took over those duties. Her various duties are being spread out among at least four other department staff members.
Linn County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a motorcycle that went into the ditch in the 100 block of Squaw Ridge Road just after 2:30 Saturday afternoon. 32-year-old Richard Burnell Jr. of Cedar Rapids was driving east on Squaw Ridge Road when he lost control of his motorcycle. He was taken to a hospital by ambulance with non-life-threatening injuries. Burnell was not wearing a helmet at the time of the incident, and has been charged with failure to maintain control and not having required insurance.
