SPM News

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds acknowledged the increase of COVID-19 cases in the state during a news conference today. The CDC reported last week, Iowa saw the highest rate of new cases in the nation and 5 th highest number of positivity rates. Reynolds says the biggest increase is with younger adults in the college towns of Iowa City, Ames and even Iowa Falls. The governor didn’t call for further action as recommended by the CDC for impacted areas, including a mask mandate. Recently, she did close

A local advocate launched an on-line petition calling for mandatory face coverings and masks for the state of Iowa. Cindy Waitt, who works with the Kind World Foundation, the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention and many other charities, talked to Siouxland Public Media about her push for wearing masks. The petition can be found here .

The Hinton Community School District is making changes after high COVID-19 positivity rates in Plymouth County. A letter to families says the community is now seeing an increase. Cases were previously seen on other parts of the county. Starting tomorrow, all 4 th grade to 12 th grade students will move to hybrid learning. Students will be in class two days and online the other three days. All P-K to third grade students will stay on-site. The current positivity rate in Plymouth County is 22.4%.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of so many events this summer, including ArtSplash. Siouxland Public Media’s Sheila Brummer with the online evolution of this annual festival to meet the times. Every Labor Day weekend for 26-years, thousands of people packed Sioux City’s Riverside Park for ArtSplash. The annual event showcasing more than paintings, pottery and photography. With ArtSplash canceled this year, there’s an alternative, on Facebook and on the website artsplashonline.com .

A new report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force has found Iowa has the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the country. The report released yesterday puts the state in the red zone for both cases and test positivity, which is more than 10 percent. It says community transmission continues to be high across the entire state. The task force recommends that state leaders close bars and gyms in many counties as well as limit indoor capacity at restaurants to 50 percent or even less. It

During this first week of class for students in the Sioux City Community School District, two staff members tested positive for the novel coronavirus. That’s according to school officials who say Siouxland District Health did contact tracing and everyone impacted has been directed to self-isolate or self-quarantine. The district plans to provide the public with positive test updates each Friday and will not disclose specific schools with cases of COVID-19. Another dozen people battling the

Another 12 people with COVID-19 have died in Iowa, and there have been an additional 2,663 confirmed cases, the state reports today. At 10 a.m. today, the state reported 1,091 total COVID-19-related deaths, an increase of 12 deaths since yesterday, according to the state's Coronavirus.Iowa.gov website. There have been a total of 62,031 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Iowa so far. The state says changes in the way it reports data have caused spikes in positive data rates. Before the changes,

304 news 082720 Today, Gov. Kim Reynolds has closed all bars, breweries, and nightclubs in six Iowa counties with a coronavirus case spike.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says she is allocating $100 million in federal funds to help livestock producers, the biofuels industry, beginning farmers and small-scale meat processors recover from the coronavirus pandemic. As many Iowa farmers deal with the impact of a massive storm and continue to suffer from lower demand for corn and soybeans and extremely low prices, Reynolds says she will use money from the federal CARES Act to programs to help agriculture related businesses and farmers. Included

Today most Sioux City Community School students were back in school for the first since Friday, March 13 th , when schools across Iowa were shut down because of the Coronavirus. Students returned to school using a hybrid modely. This morning school superintendent Paul Gausman welcomed students at Bryant Elementary school. “Feels a little different this year. We still are running our buses and opening all of our schools, but we are doing so with only half the students at each time, so that we are