A man from Albia has died in a Saturday night (6/20) accident in Ottumwa. Ottumwa Police tell the No Coast Network 44-year-old Joshua Gerald Gutcher of Albia was westbound on Highway 34 near the intersection of Venture Way around 7:35 Saturday night when he lost control of his vehicle, crossed the eastbound lanes and went into the south ditch. Gutcher’s vehicle rolled over and he was ejected from the vehicle. Gutcher was pronounced dead at the scene.
Juneteenth: A day of joy and pain – and now national action
By AARON MORRISON and KAT STAFFORD
AP – In just about any other year, Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that all enslaved black people learned they had been freed from bondage, would be marked by African American families across the nation with a cookout, a parade, a community festival, a soulful rendition of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.”
But in 2020, as the coronavirus ravishes black America disproportionately, as economic uncertainty wrought by the pandemic strains black pocketbooks, and as police brutality continues to devastate black families, Juneteenth is a day of protest.
Red velvet cake, barbecued ribs and fruit punch are optional.
For many white Americans, recent protests over police brutality have driven their awareness of Juneteenth’s significance.
“This is one of the first times since the ’60s, where the global demand, the intergenerational demand, the multiracial demand is for systemic change,” said Cornell University professor Noliwe Rooks, a segregation expert. “There is some understanding and acknowledgment at this point that there’s something in the DNA of the country that has to be undone.”
Friday’s celebrations will be marked from coast to coast with marches and demonstrations of civil disobedience, along with expressions of black joy in spite of an especially traumatic time for the nation. And like the nationwide protests that followed the police involved deaths of black men and women in Minnesota, Kentucky and Georgia, Juneteenth celebrations are likely to be remarkably more multiracial.
“I think this year is going to be exciting to make white people celebrate with us that we’re free,” said 35-year-old Army veteran David J. Hamilton III, who has organized a Juneteenth march and protest through a predominantly black, Hispanic and immigrant neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
Hamilton, who is black, said this year is his first treating “Juneteenth with the same fanfare as the Fourth of July or Memorial Day.”
In Tulsa, a day ahead of a planned presidential campaign rally Saturday for Donald Trump, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Tiffany Crutcher, the twin sister of a black man killed by a city police officer in 2016, plan keynote addresses about the consequences of racial prejudice. Their commemoration will take place in the Greenwood district, at the site known as Black Wall Street, where dozens of blocks of black-owned businesses were destroyed by a white mob in deadly race riots nearly a century ago.
In Washington, D.C., and around the country, activists affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement will host in-person and virtual events to celebrate the history of the black liberation struggle and amplify their calls for defunding police in the wake of high-profile police killings of African Americans.
As of Thursday, organizers with the Movement for Black Lives said they had registered more than 275 Juneteenth weekend events across 45 states, through its website.
Rashawn Ray, a David Rubenstein Fellow at the nonprofit public policy Brookings Institution, said many now view Juneteenth as an opportunity for education and to push to dismantle structural racism.
“There’s going to be a lot of people who are also going to double down on the push for reparations,” Ray said. “There’s no reason why black people have been the only group in the United States to be systematically discriminated against, legally, by the federal government and not receive reparations.”
Juneteenth marks the day on June 19, 1865, that Union soldiers told enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War had ended and they were free. The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the South in 1863 but it was not enforced in many places until after the end of the Civil War in 1865.
The day is recognized in 47 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation. Hawaii, North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states without an official recognition. And it is not yet a federal holiday. It took roughly 18 years after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. before his birthday was observed as a federal holiday.
Full Coverage: Racial injustice
Still, more workers than perhaps ever in history will have the day off on Friday: Nike, the NFL, Twitter and its mobile payments services company Square, along with a handful of media outlets, have announced plans to observe Juneteenth as a company holiday. On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order recognizing Juneteenth as a paid holiday for state employees.
The abolition of slavery in the U.S. was followed by the birth of Jim Crow segregation, relegating many black Americans to poor, redlined neighborhoods with under-resourced schools. After the passage of landmark civil rights protections in the 1960s, decades of mass incarceration policy and employment discrimination eroded opportunities and economic stability for black people and families. All along, police brutality has been a fixture of the black American experience. And now, COVID-19 is killing black people at more than three times the rate that it kills white people.
Much of the systemic racism and atrocities visited on black Americans have gone unanswered. This week, the Equal Justice Initiative, which in 2015 cataloged thousands of racial terror lynchings of black people by white mobs, added nearly 2,000 Reconstruction-era lynchings confirmed between 1865 and 1876, bringing the total number of documented lynchings to nearly 6,500.
“Our continued silence about the history of racial injustice has fueled many of the current problems surrounding police violence, mass incarceration, racial inequality and the disparate impact of COVID-19,” said Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative.
“We need a new era of truth and justice in America,” he said in a statement. “We must acknowledge our long history of racial oppression and then repair the damage this history has created — including the presumption of dangerousness that gets assigned to black people by police and others.”
Juneteenth also comes at a time when the nation is at a political crossroads, and Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown said it is shaping up to be a politically defining moment ahead of the November election.
“The devaluing of black lives is built into this American system to the point that the ideas around democracy don’t apply to us the same way that they apply to white folks,” Brown said, adding black voters are demanding change.
“So Juneteenth is a celebratory event but we’re not celebrating the country. We’re celebrating our own freedom and our own ability to be liberated and the resiliency of black people.”
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Stafford and Morrison are members of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow Morrison on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison. Follow Stafford on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kat__stafford.
Iowa unemployment at 10%
Iowa’s unemployment rate was 10% in May, down from April but still remarkably high as many businesses and organizations curtailed operations due to the coronavirus. Iowa Workforce Development reported Friday (6/19) that the May unemployment rate was down from 11% in April but was more than triple the 2.7% rate in May 2019. Beth Townsend, the director of the agency, noted the number of unemployment claims has declined, indicating more people are returning to work. The number of unemployed Iowa residents dropped from 188,000 in April to 168,100 in May. The U.S. unemployment rate for May was 13.3%.
Iowa’s governor ends COVID-19 briefings
BY
RADIO IOWA – The news conference Governor Kim Reynolds held Thursday is the last to be televised statewide as part of state government’s response to the pandemic.
“A heartfelt thanks to all the Iowans and the notes and the prayers that you’ve sent my way throughout this really difficult time,” Reynolds said in closing, choking back tears. “It really has sustained me and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate those notes and cards that I’ve received.”
Back on Sunday evening, March 8, the governor’s staff quickly organized a news conference to announce the state’s first three positive cases of the coronavirus. By mid-March Reynolds was holding news conferences nearly every weekday.
Notes on the desks of the governor’s office.
Yesterday, Reynolds thanked Iowa PBS for making the technical arrangements to broadcast her news conferences during the pandemic.
She also thanked the interpreters who relayed the governor’s remarks in sign language and in Spanish. Reynolds announced she’ll return to having news conferences once a week.
(Photos from the Governor’s Twitter account)
Bridge View Center fundraising drive
The Bridge View Center in Ottumwa has begun a fundraising drive to make up for revenue lost when the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“Our world came to a crashing halt on March 17 when the Governor shut down our building, so we could slow the spread of the virus. And that was right in the middle of our busy season. It was one day before possibly the biggest show of the year, which was Foreigner. Foreigner was scheduled to be here on Wednesday, March 18. And all that went away for almost three months.”
Bridge View Center Executive Director Scott Hallgren tells the No Coast Network losing the scheduled events over the last three months has cost the Center around $258,000. You can donate by going online to bridgeviewcenter.com and clicking the support tab, or by sending a check to Bridge View Center, Incorporated at 102 Church Street in Ottumwa 52501.
Prosecutor: Officer kicked Rayshard Brooks after shooting
By KATE BRUMBACK
ATLANTA (AP) — As Rayshard Brooks lay dying in a Wendy’s parking lot, prosecutors say the Atlanta police officer who shot him in the back kicked him and didn’t give him medical attention for more than two minutes.
Rolfe, who is white, shot Brooks after the 27-year-old black man grabbed a Taser and ran, firing it at the officer, the prosecutor said. But when the officer fired his gun, Brooks was too far ahead of him for the Taser to be a danger, and it had already been fired twice, so it was empty and no longer a threat, Howard said.
“I got him!” Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard quoted Officer Garrett Rolfe as saying.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor announced a murder charge against Rolfe and an aggravated assault charge against a second officer, Devin Brosnan, who the district attorney said stood on Brooks’ shoulder as he struggled for his life.
The decision to prosecute came less than five days after the killing rocked a city — and a nation — already roiling from the death of George Floyd under a police officer’s knee in Minneapolis late last month.
Rolfe’s lawyers said he feared for his and others’ safety and was justified in shooting Brooks. Rolfe opened fire after hearing a sound “like a gunshot and saw a flash in front of him,” apparently from the Taser.
“Mr. Brooks violently attacked two officers and disarmed one of them. When Mr. Brooks turned and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe, any officer would have reasonably believed that he intended to disarm, disable or seriously injure him,” the lawyers said in a statement.
The prosecutor said Brooks “never presented himself as a threat” during a more than 40-minute interaction with officers before the shooting. An officer found him asleep behind the wheel of his car in the restaurant’s drive-thru, and a breath test showed he was intoxicated.
“Mr. Brooks on the night of this incident was calm, he was cordial and really displayed a cooperative nature,” Howard said.
The charges reflect a potential “sea change” in tolerance for violence by police, said Caren Morrison, a Georgia State University law professor who used to be a federal prosecutor in New York.
“If they were to get a conviction, I feel like what they’re saying is that policing as we know it needs to change,” she said. “This I think five years ago wouldn’t have been charged.”
Morrison said the view until now has generally been that officers are justified in using deadly force when the suspect has a stun gun or other weapon that could cause them “grievous bodily harm.”
The Atlanta Police Department tweeted late Wednesday that it had more officers calling out than normal but that it had “enough resources to maintain operations & remain able to respond to incidents.”
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on CNN that many of the department’s partners had been notified in case they needed to call in others. She said the true test would come Thursday.
“If we have officers that don’t want bad officers weeded out of the force then that’s another conversation we need to have,” Bottoms said.
The felony murder charge against Rolfe, 27, carries life in prison or the death penalty, if prosecutors decide to seek it. He was also charged with 10 other offenses punishable by decades behind bars.
The district attorney said Brosnan, 26, is cooperating with prosecutors and will testify. But one of his attorneys, Amanda Clark Palmer, denied that and said Brosnan was not pleading guilty to anything.
Clark Palmer said the charges were baseless and that Brosnan stood on Brooks’ hand, not his shoulder, for just seconds to make sure he did not have a weapon.
A lawyer for Brooks’ widow cautioned that the charges were no reason to rejoice.
“We shouldn’t have to celebrate as African Americans when we get a piece of justice like today. We shouldn’t have to celebrate and parade when an officer is held accountable,” attorney L. Chris Stewart said.
Brooks’ widow, Tomika Miller, said it was painful to hear the new details of what happened to her husband in his final minutes.
“I felt everything that he felt, just by hearing what he went through, and it hurt. It hurt really bad,” she said.
The news came as Republicans on Capitol Hill unveiled a package of police reform measures and as states pushed forward with getting rid of Confederate monuments and other racially offensive symbols.
Brooks’ killing Friday night sparked new demonstrations in Georgia’s capital against police brutality after occasionally turbulent protests over Floyd’s death had largely died down.
Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned less than 24 hours after Brooks died, and the Wendy’s restaurant was burned. Rolfe was fired, while Brosnan was placed on desk duty.
Police had been called to the restaurant over complaints of a car blocking the drive-thru lane. Police body-camera video showed Brooks and officers having a relatively calm and respectful conversation before things rapidly turned violent when officers tried to handcuff him. Brooks wrestled with officers, grabbed one of their stun guns and fired it at one of them as he ran through the parking lot.
An autopsy found he was shot twice in the back. One shot pierced his heart, the district attorney said. At least one bullet went into a vehicle that was in line at the drive-thru.
The district attorney said Rolfe and Brosnan have until 6 p.m. Thursday to surrender. He said he would request $50,000 bond for Brosnan and no bail for Rolfe.
A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says more Americans today than five years ago believe police brutality is a very serious problem that too often goes undisciplined and unequally targets black Americans.
In the Minneapolis case, Derek Chauvin, the officer who put his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes, has been charged with murder. Three other officers have been charged with aiding and abetting. All four were fired and could get up to 40 years in prison.
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Associated Press writers Sudhin Thanawala; Matt Ott in New York; Lisa Mascaro and Jim Mustian in Washington; and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., contributed to this report.
Indians baseball sweeps Grinnell
Oskaloosa’s baseball team improved to 3-0 on the season by sweeping a doubleheader from Grinnell Wednesday (6/17) at the High School. The Indians scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to beat the Tigers 4-1. Colton Butler’s two run single was the big hit in that inning. Wyatt Krier got the victory. The Indians won the nightcap 7-2 as Colin Snitker and Alex Crist both had two hits and two runs batted in. Tyler Miller was the winning pitcher. The Indians play at Dallas Center-Grimes Friday night (6/19). You can hear that game on KBOE-FM with the play-by-play at 7:30.
Agee, VanDerwal Among Winners As Southern Iowa Speedway Welcomes Fans
By: Jerry Mackey
Oskaloosa, Iowa: The Southern Iowa Speedway hosted Kids Night by Bill & Rays Truck Repair on Wednesday night with a nice crowd in attendance on the first night of racing with fans in 2020.
The headliner of the night was the 16 lap Mid State Machine Stock main event. The race saw several lead changes with great racing throughout. Jason McDaniel led early before 6th starting Nathan Wood was able to move into the lead. Wood appeared to be en route to the win but Derrick Agee had other ideas. Agee caught Wood and made the pass in turn four late in the race to take over the point. Agee recorded the win with Wood crossing under the checkers ahead of McDaniel.
The Oskaloosa Quality Rental Sportmod feature belonged to Curtis VanDerwal on Wednesday night. VanDerwal advanced to the point from a third row start and went on to score a comfortable win over Blaine Webster.
The Parker Tree Service Hobby Stock feature belonged to Hedrick’s Dustin Griffiths on Wednesday night. Griffiths took advantage of a front row start and sailed on to the win over Aaron Martin.
The DirtnAsphalt Sport Compact feature provided plenty of wheel to wheel racing in the 10 lap feature. Nathan Chandler made the tow down from Norway pay off in scoring a hard fought win ahead of Billy Cain and Denny Berghahn.
Rocking It Pilot non-wing sprinters ran their ten lap feature flag to flag on Wednesday night and it was a regular visitor to victory lane capturing the checkers. Jonathan Hughes overtook Doug Sylvester on lap 7 and went on to the win. Sylvester took second.
Racing will continue at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Hall of Fame voting night presented by KBOE on Wednesday June 24th. Please note the new start time in 2020, the grandstands will open at 5:45 with hot laps scheduled for 7:15 with racing to follow.
Also schedule update, racing will be held on Wednesday, July 1st, due to the late season start caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic and rain outs the officials of the SIS have decided to race on July 1st with a full five class racing program.
Southern Iowa Speedway, Wednesday, June 17 Feature Results (top 5)
Mid State Machine Stock Cars
- 14 Derrick Agee-Moberly, MO
- 52 Nathan Wood-Sigourney
- 85 Jason McDaniel-Eldon
- 40 Scott Dickey-Packwood
- 022 Andrew Schroeder-Clive
Oskaloosa Quality Rental Sportmods
- 1V Curtis VanDerwal-Oskaloosa
- 7 Blaine Webster-Ottumwa
- 26 Scott Brau-Brooklyn
- 7V Jarrett VanDenberg-Oskaloosa
- 29 Colton Livezey-New Sharon
Parker Tree Service Hobby Stocks
- 10G Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
- 73 Aaron Martin-Delta
- 55 Brad Stephens-Bussey
- 1R Rick VanDusseldorp-Oskaloosa
- 54 Jesse Williams-New Sharon
Dirt n Asphalt Sport Compacts
- 57 Nate Chandler-Norway
- 52 Billy Cain-Bloomfield
- 6jr Denny Berghahn-Plattesmouth, NE
- 41 Nathan Moody-Oskaloosa
- 5 Tyler Harring-Oskaloosa
Rocking It Pilot Non-Wing Sprints
- 67 Jonathan Hughes-Knoxville
- 12 Doug Sylvester-Ottumwa
- 25 Kelly Graham-Hedrick
- 717 Garrett Alexander-Russell
- G2 Tyler Graves-Chariton
Thomas retrial moved to October
The retrial for Kelsie Thomas has been pushed back to October. The Ottumwa woman is accused of killing her five-year-old daughter, Cloe Chandler, in July of 2018. Back in March, Thomas was cleared of child endangerment, but the jury couldn’t decide if she was guilty of first degree murder. Thomas’ retrial is scheduled for October 13.
Beijing outbreak raises virus fears for rest of the world
By KEN MORITSUGU, DAVID RISING and ROD McGUIRK
BEIJING (AP) — China raised its emergency warning to its second-highest level and canceled more than 60% of the flights to Beijing on Wednesday amid a new coronavirus outbreak in the capital. It was a sharp pullback for the nation that declared victory over COVID-19 in March and a message to the rest of the world about how tenacious the virus really is.
New infections spiked in India, Iran and U.S. states including Florida, Texas and Arizona as authorities struggled to balance restarting economic activity without accelerating the pandemic.
European nations, which embarked on a wide-scale reopening this week, looked on with trepidation as the Americas struggled to contain the first wave of the pandemic and Asian nations like China and South Korea reported new outbreaks.
Chinese officials described the situation in Beijing as “extremely grave.”
“This has truly rung an alarm bell for us,” Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of Beijing’s Communist Party Standing Committee.
After a push that began June 14, the city expects to have tested 700,000 people by the end of the day, said Zhang Qiang, a Beijing party official. About half of them were workers from the city’s food markets, nearby residents and close contacts.
The party’s Global Times said 1,255 flights to and from the capital’s two major airports were scrapped by Wednesday morning, about two-thirds of those scheduled.
Since the virus emerged in China late last year and spread worldwide, there have been more than 8.1 million confirmed cases and at least 443,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say the true toll is much higher, due to the many who died without being tested and other factors.
The U.S. has the most infections and deaths in the world, with a toll that neared 117,000 on Wednesday, surpassing the number of Americans who died in World War I.
Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak
Arizona reported a daily high of nearly 2,400 new infections for a total of more than 39,000, while in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott insisted the state’s health care system could handle the fast-rising number of new cases and hospitalizations.
Tuesday marked the eighth time in nine days that Texas set a new high for COVID-19 hospitalizations at 2,518. State health officials reported 2,622 new cases.
“It does raise concerns, but there is no reason right now to be alarmed,” Abbott said.
Texas began aggressively reopening its economy May 1. Abbott noted that Texans may have become lax in wearing masks or practicing social distancing and urged people to stay home as much as possible.
Canada and the U.S. extended to July 21 a deal to keep their border closed to nonessential travel, with many Canadians fearing cases arriving from the U.S.
As the U.S. struggles with the first wave of the virus, other countries where it was widely thought to be under control faced disturbing developments.
In South Korea, authorities reported 43 new cases amid increased public activity. Authorities said 25 of them came from around Seoul, where hundreds of infections have been linked to nightclubs, church gatherings, e-commerce workers and door-to-door salespeople. Twelve of the new cases came from international arrivals.
Not long after declaring itself virus-free, New Zealand saw a reemergence of the virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern assigned a top military leader to oversee the border quarantines after what she described as an “unacceptable failure” by health officials.
Two New Zealand citizens who had returned from London to see a dying relative were allowed to leave quarantine before being tested. After the women tested positive, New Zealand began tracing their potential contacts to ensure the virus is contained.
Their cases raised the specter that international air travel could ignite a new surge of the virus just as countries seek to boost devastated tourism industries.
China also limited other travel around the capital, keying in on hot spots. Beijing had essentially eradicated local transmissions until recent days, with 137 new cases since last week.
On Wednesday, the city of 20 million raised its threat level from 3 to 2, canceling classes, suspending reopenings and strengthening requirements for social distancing. China had relaxed many lockdown controls after the Communist Party declared victory over the virus in March.
India, with the fourth-highest caseload after the U.S., Brazil and Russia, added more than 2,000 deaths to its tally after Delhi and Maharashtra states included 1,672 previously unreported fatalities. Its death toll of 11,903 is now eighth-highest in the world. India has reported 10,000 new infections and more than 300 deaths each day for the last two weeks.
Iran’s latest outbreak comes after a major Muslim holiday last month and as travel and lockdown restrictions were relaxed. Health Minister Saeed Namaki said he realized the extent of the challenge when he took a domestic flight.
“Many people have become careless, frustrated with wearing masks,” he said. “They did not observe (social) distancing in the flight’s seating and the airliner’s ventilation system was not working.”
In Europe, which has seen over 184,000 virus-related deaths, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the country will hold a ceremony July 16 to honor its more than 27,000 dead.
German officials said 400 people at a large western meatpacking plant had tested positive for COVID-19. The industry has seen several outbreaks in recent weeks, prompting the government to impose stricter safety rules.
Denmark’s health minister urged anyone who joined a large racial injustice protest on June 7 to be tested “whether you have symptoms or not” after one person in the crowd was found to be infected.
“As long as we have the virus in Europe and in Denmark, it will flare up. We are dealing with a very, very contagious disease,” said Health Minister Magnus Heunicke.
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Rising reported from Berlin and McGuirk reported from Canberra, Australia. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed.
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Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak