Siouxland District Health reported two more deaths in Woodbury County for a death toll of 210 due to complications of COVID-19. The positivity rate is up slightly to 6%. Hospitalizations are up almost 15% with 14 patients at Sioux City’s two medical facilities. Statewide there are 241 patients, with 60 in intensive care. That’s a small decrease from the day before.
There have been 18 new cases added in Woodbury County. Statewide, there are more than 550 new cases and 15 deaths in a 24-hour period that ended this morning at 10 a.m.
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is defending the state’s decision to prioritize the elderly for coronavirus vaccination shots over people with underlying health conditions, noting that most Nebraska residents who have died so far were at least 65 years old.
People who have cancer, diabetes and other major health problems were previously eligible in the current phase of the state’s vaccination plan, but they were removed from their spot on the list.
The Sioux City Community School District reports one new positive case with students and three staff member this past week of classes. Currently, about 200 students are in quarantine. That’s a decrease of about 30% from the week before.
For the second year in a row the organizers of Sioux City’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade have canceled the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A post on Facebook says they are hopeful to return with a bigger and better event, where everyone can celebrate safety, in 2022.
Attorneys say the widow of the man who died after being struck by the South Dakota attorney general’s car will file a wrongful death lawsuit. Prosecutors announced Thursday that they charged the state’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, with three misdemeanors but no felonies in the death of 55-year-old Joseph Boever. Lawyers for the victim’s widow, Jenny Boever, said in a statement Friday that they will soon file a lawsuit against Ravnsborg, partly in the hopes of getting answers to lingering questions about the September crash. Ravnsborg said through a spokesman Thursday that he doesn’t plan to resign and looks forward to his day in court.
Top officials from all three branches of Nebraska government have announced a new effort to learn why the state prison population keeps growing and what they might do to safely reduce the number of inmates.
State officials have applied for a federal grant to join forces with the Crime and Justice Institute. That nonprofit has worked with other states to help identify what’s causing the increases. Nebraska’s prison system has chronic overcrowding, even though many other states have managed to reduce their numbers. Previous attempts to address the problem yielded mixed results. Nebraska’s prison population is projected to continue growing through at least 2025.
Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate have approved 21-million dollars for a new personnel and accounting computer program for the state.
Governor Kim Reynolds’ administration agreed in 2019 to pay Workday 50-million dollars over five years.
Last year, Reynolds used 21-million dollars of federal coronavirus relief funding for the computer system. The federal government later asked her to return the money to pandemic relief efforts because that wasn’t allowed.
Democratic lawmakers say they agree the older system needs to be replaced. But they still have a lot of questions about the process used to choose Workday.
Gov. Reynolds is also considering a bill that would provide a $36.5 million increase to public schools in Iowa but will result in higher property taxes in 137 school districts where parents kept about 7,000 young children home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the funding formula is a per-pupil allowance and based on current enrollment, when the at-home students return in the fall state money won’t be there to cover them boosting local taxes for those districts.
House and Senate Republicans agreed to increase base state aid by 2.4% in a bill sent to Reynolds on Wednesday. That increases state K-12 spending to $3.41 billion, up from $3.38 billion in the current year.
Meanwhile, The Iowa House has passed a 27 million dollar funding package for schools to cover COVID-related costs.
The money would be available to all districts, but schools that spent the most time in-person would receive the largest share of funding.
Republicans say the bill is meant to address the cost of having students in school during the pandemic, but Democrats say that ignores the cost of hybrid and remote learning.
Under the House bill, schools that were in hybrid or remote learning because of damage caused by the summer derecho would funded as though students were in-person.
Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota is criticizing activists and party leaders for engaging in “cancel culture” by rushing to censure GOP senators for voting to convict former President Donald Trump at his impeachment trial. The Senate's No. 2 Republican says although he voted to acquit Trump last week, Republicans who found him guilty of inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol should not be censured for taking a “vote of conscience.” Thune’s remarks come as the GOP looks for a path back to majorities in the House and Senate while grappling with Trump’s enduring hold on the party.
