Firefighters Have Another Busy Weekend
(Le Mars) — Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department responded to a reported house fire at 12:32 a.m. Sunday morning at 420 2nd Avenue Southwest. Upon arrival, all the occupants had exited the home and firefighters found light smoke on the main floor at the one and a half story home. Firefighters discovered burnt food as the cause of the smoke inside a microwave. The microwave oven
was removed from the residence and the smoke was ventilated with fans.
Firefighters were on the scene for about 45 minutes. Also, on Sunday afternoon, firefighters checked on a tree in some powerlines in the 300 block of 4th Avenue Northeast. MidAmerican Energy was called to the scene to
handle the problem and later in the afternoon, firefighters took care of an illegal burn in the 600 block of 3rd Avenue Southeast. Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department answered a total of seven calls from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon.
Hinton Schools To Incorporate Hybrid Education System
(Hinton) — The Hinton School District is shifting classes for grades 7-12 to hybrid learning Monday because of cases of Covid-19 in the district.
The hybrid model will be used for a minimum of two weeks.
Pre-Kindergarten through 6th grade students will remain on-site.
Parents were e-mailed the plan on the Monday-Wednesday and
tuesday-Thursday schedule.
Any non-quarantined student may come in on Fridays for extra
assistance by e-mailing their teacher and setting up a time to meet.
All students have access to the internet from school parking lots.
The school district cancelled Friday night’s football game with
West Sioux because of a lack of available players.
Le Mars Man Found Guilty Of Fraud Against U-S Government
(Sioux City) — A Le Mars, Iowa man who stole government funds using a COVID-19 unemployment scheme pled guilty today in federal court in Sioux City.
Dennis George Chinn, age 54, from Le Mars, Iowa, was convicted of theft of government funds.
In a plea agreement, Chinn admitted to falsely reporting his
income, stating it was $150 per week so he could get an additional $600 weekly payment, and fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits related to COVID-19 relief funds to which he was not entitled. In total, Chinn obtained over $13,000 in COVID-19 pandemic CARES Act Iowa unemployment funds.
Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Chinn remains free on bond pending sentencing. Chinn faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and 3 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney
Ron Timmons and was investigated by the United States Department of Labor and the Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Highway 75 Paving Project On Schedule
(Sioux City) — Reconstruction of the southbound lanes of a five mile stretch of Highway 75 near Hinton is said to be on schedule. Dakin Schultz, of the Iowa Department of Transportation says paving of the highway will begin shortly.
Schultz says even if we run into a stretch of rain, the project should still finish on time before the onset of winter.
Schultz says the resurfacing of another southbound stretch of Highway 75 will begin about a week into October.
One of the southbound lanes of the highway will remain open during that work.
Iowa Has Fewer Child Care Centers Due To Pandemic
(Des Moines) — A new report finds Iowa has lost about half its licensed child care centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report by the non-profit Child Care Aware of America found the state’s licensed child care centers dropped from nearly 16-hundred in January to just over 800 in July.
Spokeswoman Kristina Haynie (HAY-nee) says some closures may be temporary, while larger centers may be struggling with additional costs associated with new cleaning and child-staff ratio requirements.
The report found in-home providers are faring much better during the pandemic. Their numbers stayed about the same from January to July, actually adding four programs during the time period. Haynie says larger licensed centers may be struggling because they have more children and staff to manage.
The report recommends investing more government support in child care and providing more resources and support for families and providers.
Iowa Republican Senators Praise Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee, While Spouses Of Democratic Presidential Candidates Say They Will Fight Against The High Court Nominee
(Washington) — Iowa’s two Republican U.S. Senators are praising the president’s choice of Amy Coney Barrett for the vacancy on the Supreme Court.
Senator Chuck Grassley says Barrett is eminently qualified and Grassley says she doesn’t deserve to the kind of “shenanigans” that happened after President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the court in 2018. Senator Joni Ernst says Barrett is an experienced jurist and a working mom of seven who
joins a growing, but still to small list of women nominated to be judges in the federal court system. Both Grassley and Ernst are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel’s scheduled to start hearings on Barrett’s nomination on October 12th. Doug Emhoff, the husband of vice presidential
nominee Kamala (COMMA-luh) Harris, suggested during a weekend appearance in Iowa that Senator Harris would have much to say about Barrett during Senate debate.
Emhoff spoke at “drive in” campaign rally in Cedar Rapids on Saturday. Jill Biden, the wife of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, spoke at the rally, too, pledging that her husband would preserve the Affordable Care Act if elected.
Polls suggest Iowa’s six electoral college votes are up for grabs. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, campaigned in Iowa last week and Vice President Mike Pence will campaign here this Thursday, October 1st.
Shooting At Waterloo Leaves One Dead And Several Injured
(Waterloo, IA) — A shooting in Waterloo this weekend left one person dead and nearly one dozen others injured. The shooting happened Saturday around 3:15 a-m at a former downtown nightclub that’s been closed for several years.
Waterloo Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald says charges are pending against the owners who leased the building, as it was not authorized to be an after-hours club. He says they know that gunfire was exchanged inside and there were around 100 people inside. The chief says of the 11 people who were injured,
eight were hit with bullets. Fitzgerald didn’t release specific information on the victims, but estimated their ages ranged from around 20 to about 45.
Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers is offering a 25-hundred dollar ($2,500) reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
FEMA Making Changes In Disaster Centers
(Cedar Rapids, IA) — FEMA is making adjustments to the drive-through derecho disaster recovery centers in Iowa. Spokesman John Mills says the center in Cedar Rapids closed Saturday evening and the Marshalltown recovery center
will be open for one more week and close at the end of the day on Saturday, October 3rd. He says they will open a new center in Ames on Tuesday at noon.
The Scott County center in Bettendorf is moving to Davenport. He says the Cedar Rapids location has been the busiest, it’s in the hardest-hit county.
He says FEMA has approved grants for some 19-hundred Iowans worth seven-point-two million dollars and more than five million has been provided to residents of Linn County. Mills says you don’t have to get to a disaster center to register — you can call or register online as well.
Bar Closings in Johnson And Story County Extended
(Iowa City, IA) — The bars in Johnson and Story counties will remain closed for another week following an extension by Governor Kim Reynolds of her public health disaster emergency declaration. The governor shut down the bars in six of Iowa’s counties on August 27th after coronavirus cases increased —
then reopened bars in Polk, Dallas, Linn, and Black Hawk counties three weeks later. Johnson and Story counties are the homes of the University of Iowa and Iowa State University. Bars in those counties will now stay closed until 11:59 p-m on October 4th.
