From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Many Iowa school districts canceled classes or announced plans to dismiss early as meteorologists predict heavy snowfall. The Des Moines Register reports that a winter storm warning is in effect from 9 a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday. Forecasts call for much of the state to receive 4 to 10 inches of snow. The National Weather Service predicts that travel will be most affected in the afternoon, when schools would normally be letting out for the day and amid the evening work commutes. Des Moines Public Schools announced that Friday’s classes would be canceled, rather than dismissed early. Several other districts announced plans to close early, including Dallas Center-Grimes and Oak View.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Heavy snow spread across a large swath of the Midwest, where travel conditions deteriorated and scores of schools closed or moved to online instruction. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for parts of Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa and Illinois, where forecasters were expecting up to 10 inches of fresh snow. The weather service tweeted that the snow will combine with gusty winds to produce slippery roads and reduced visibility. Forecasters say the fast-moving storm may make travel difficult across parts of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest into the Mid-Mississippi Valley through Saturday morning.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A surge in coronavirus cases in Iowa has significantly stressed medical centers as people rush to get tested, hospitalizations surge and health care workers are sidelined by illness. University of Iowa Health Care CEO Suresh Gunasekaran says Thursday that Iowa is likely entering a peak of virus activity with the highly transmissible omicron variant, and the next three to four weeks will be critical in determining the severity and length of the virus surge. Demand for testing at hospitals and clinics is at an all-time high, and among those infected are many health care workers or their families. Gunasekaran says that has led to staff shortages that have strained hospital resources more now that at any time during the pandemic.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa man has been arrested after hundreds of pigs died at his farm last month after they went without adequate food and were kept in conditions so cold that some of their ears froze off. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that Black Hawk County sheriff’s deputies arrested the 38-year-old man Monday on one count of livestock neglect, a misdemeanor. Court records say he had been hired to raise 2,500 baby pigs until they reached around 280 pounds. The animals were delivered to his farm in rural Cedar Falls in late December with 15 tons of feed. A consultant found by Dec. 30 that 800 of the pigs had died. Others died later.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds canceled official activities Thursday and Friday due to an illness but her spokesman says she tested negative for COVID-19. Reynolds was absent from the Condition of the Guard address Thursday morning in the Iowa House by Iowa National Guard Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Ben Corell. Alex Murphy, the governor’s spokesman, says Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg would attend the speech as well as a later event and sign a proclamation at the Iowa Capitol. Murphy noted all other events were canceled for Thursday and Friday. Reynolds has been vaccinated and received a booster shot.
SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (AP) – A Woodbury County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a man who authorities say had attacked him with a tire iron. Deputies were called to a mobile home park in Sergeant Bluff about 6 p.m. to check a report of a burglary. The Sioux City Journal reports that after deputies arrived, a witness pointed them to someone who was trying to enter a home. When deputies approached the man, they say he threatened them with a tire iron. A deputy fired a stun gun at the man but it didn’t stop him and he hit another deputy with the tire iron. The second deputy then shot the man. He was taken to a Sioux City hospital, where he died. The injured deputy was treated at a hospital and released.
