PLEASANT HILL, IA (IRN) – A motorcyclist is dead after a high-speed pursuit in Polk County. The Iowa State Patrol said Matthew Harris was trying to get away from authorities Thursday. The 18-year-old crashed a few miles east of Pleasant Hill. State patrol crash reports show Harris was thrown from the motorcycle and died. He was wearing a helmet. It’s unclear what prompted the chase.

CORALVILLE, IA (IRN) – The Coralville Police Department was involved in a shooting after a welfare check on Thursday. According to officers, they made contact with a reportedly suicidal man, and he continued to threaten himself and others. He then came out of the garage with a rifle pointed at officers. An officer fired two rounds and both struck the man. He was secured and taken to a local hospital’s trauma center for treatment. His condition is unknown.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The U.S. Surgeon General is siding with Gov. Kim Reynolds on the topic of mask mandates. KCCI-TV reports U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Thursday said he agrees with the governor’s decision not to require Iowans to wear masks in public. Adams cited his experience running Indiana’s State Department of Health. He said being from the Midwest he doesn’t think a mask mandate would work as well here as it would for coastal states. Adams said it is very difficult to enforce a mandate and that education will be more effective.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Polly Carver-Kimm says reviewing and fulfilling public information requests was an everyday part of her job for more than a dozen years at the Iowa Department of Public Health. But she says that changed when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and the governor’s office assumed control of the release of information from IDPH. In a lawsuit filed on Thursday, Carver-Kimm says she was systematically silenced and then illegally fired as the pandemic grew worse.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – When the fall semester begins online at the Des Moines Public Schools next week, all in-person athletics and other activities will come to an end. DMPS has not been granted a waiver from the state to hold online-only classes, and have sued the state. Any games or activities scheduled over the weekend will be held.