(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Workforce Development hosted a roundtable in Sioux City this (Wednesday) morning to partner with businesses in trying to find workers. Presenter Kathy Leggett talked about the issue prior to the roundtable and says there’s some people who aren’t coming back to the workforce for various reasons.

Leggett says businesses have to look at a variety of options for bringing in workers.

Leggett says hiring wages are making things even more competitive. She says she saw it in their summer youth work program.

The roundtable was held at Western Iowa Tech.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County Public Health “Parents as Teachers” is offering free car seat inspections. The inspections will take place this Saturday, September 25th, from 9-until 11-a.m., in the parking lot at the Ann W. Wickman Child Development Center at 703 Linn Street in Atlantic. Please enter by the north drive, off 7th Street. Multiple certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians will be on hand to inspect car seats, help parents install them correctly, give tips about car seat safety, and answer any questions. There is no cost for the inspections, but appointments are needed. Please make an appointment online at cciaph.as.me/carseat or by calling 712-243-7475.

Here are some tips and points to remember to keep kids in boosters safely and properly secured….

Why Booster Seats are Important:

Keep your growing passenger safe. A booster seat provides a step between a car seat with a harness and a seat belt alone. It boosts the child for a safer and more comfortable fit of the adult seat belt.

Is it time to move to a booster seat? Make sure your child meets the weight or height limits allowed in her forward-facing car seat. The child must also be mature enough to ride without a harness. What does “mature enough” mean? She needs to stay in the booster seat the entire ride with the seat belt properly fitted across the shoulder and below the hips.

Types of Booster Seats

• High back booster. This type is best if your vehicle has a low seat back and no head rest. Like adults, children need support behind their heads. A high-back booster may also be good for younger children who fall asleep in the car.
• Backless booster. This type may be more convenient if you carpool or travel. They are typically less expensive. However, the vehicle must have a seat back high enough to provide support behind your child’s head. What’s high enough? Your child’s ears should be below the top of the vehicle seat or head rest.

The Right Fit for Your Booster Seat

Getting a safe ride. A booster seat lifts a child’s body so the car seat belt can fit properly. The seat belt must lie flat across your child’s chest, is on the bony part of his shoulder and is low on the hips or upper thighs.

Using the seat belt. The booster seat is specifically designed for seat belt fit. Follow the arrows or guides on the booster seat that show you where to place the lap and shoulder belts. This will protect the child’s face, neck and belly. Watch for this common problem. Make sure your child doesn’t put the shoulder belt behind her back or under her arm. If she must do that to be comfortable, it’s best to use a car seat with a harness or a different booster seat with an adjustable shoulder belt guide.

Seat Belt Safety
Don’t be in a hurry. Your child is safer in a booster seat until the adult seat belt fits correctly, usually between the ages of 8 and 12. Do the Seat Belt Fit Test. If your child doesn’t pass every step in the test below, keep him in a booster seat until he does. Test in all the cars your child uses. Remember, just because the seat belt fits your child in one car doesn’t mean the seat belt will fit in all cars. Perform the Seat Belt Fit Test in every car before permanently moving from the booster seat to seat belt only.

The Seat Belt Fit Test
Check knees and feet. Your child’s knees bend at the edge of the seat when her back and bottom are against the vehicle seat back. Her feet should touch the floor for comfort and stability.
Check the lap belt. The vehicle lap belt fits snugly across the hips or upper thighs. Check the shoulder belt. The shoulder belt fits across the shoulder and chest, NOT across the face or neck.

Three people from Kansas City, Kansas, were arrested Tuesday night on drug charges, in Mills County. The arrests followed a traffic stop at around 9:10-p.m. on Interstate 29, near mile marker 28, or about 4-miles north of the Fremont County line. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office says 51-year-old Michael Grieger, 28-year-old Angel Bustillos Esparza, and 26-year-old Breanna Cheree Roberts, were each charged with two counts possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

And, 55-year-old Troy Jospeh Belt, of Carter Lake, was arrested at around 5:45-p.m. Tuesday on Highway 34 in Mills County. He was arrested for Driving Under Suspension.

(Exira, Iowa) – There are no changes to the protocol for dealing with COVID-19 in the Exira-Elk Horn Kimballton School District. Superintendent Trevor Miller says the Exira-EHK’s decision, Monday, followed a review of the District’s health data.

The Board left open the option to revisit the policy if they start to see a spike in local cases.

In other business, Trevor Miller says the board approved submitting the District’s request for $41,153.50 in Modified Allowable Growth for Special Education to the School Budget Review Committee (SBRC).

Mr. Miller said also, this is a big week for the Exira-EHK Spartans.

(Des Moines, IA) – The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced today (Wednesday), that Dr. Caitlin Pedati, State Medical Director and Epidemiologist, plans to leave the  agency effective late October. Dr. Pedati has served in the role since June 2018 and worked as medical epidemiologist for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services prior to joining IDPH. Dr. Pedati plans to pursue new career opportunities.

Governor Reynolds, in a written statement, thanked Pedati for her outstanding service throughout the pandemic. Reynolds gave Pedati a significant pay boost last year, for an annual salary of 265-thousand dollars. Kelly Garcia, the interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, says the work of the last 18 months has been difficult at best and Pedati’s personal sacrifice is to be commended.

Pedati was in the public spotlight at the beginning of the pandemic and spoke at many of the governor’s news conferences. However, it was Pedati’s boss who spoke for the agency during the governor’s most recent pandemic-related news conference.

Dr. Caitlin Pedati (File photo)

The IDPH says it will work quickly to fill the position.

(Radio Iowa) – A Fort Dodge-based farmers association took its systems offline after being hit by a ransomware attack, and officials with New Cooperative now says the hack was “successfully contained.” Iowa State University electrical and computer engineering professor Doug Jacobson says an attack like this can shake farmers’ sense of security. “Any organization that’s in possession of data, potentially the farmer data, if that data is lost or there’s a potential for that data to get leaked, the farmers or the people who use that data may lose confidence in that organization’s ability to keep their data safe.”

Jacobson says though the food system is fairly well distributed, it’s still vulnerable to attacks. He says the lasting reach of the hack remains unknown.”There’s always a potential impact,” he says. “Some of it’s confidence. A place like a cooperative holds a lot of farmer data. It’s unclear how much of that data may have been compromised.”

Jacobson says the food system is not highly interconnected like the power grid, and a co-op can move more easily to pen and paper, unlike a hospital. In May, the world’s largest meat processor, J-B-S, was hacked and had to temporarily shut down.

(Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

(Audubon, Iowa) – There’s no change in how the Audubon School District will mitigate efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. That the decision the Audubon School Board made during their regular monthly meeting, Monday evening. Superintendent Eric Trager says that means there will not be a mask mandate.

He says the District currently has a very low COVOD case count. Trager says Guthrie County Public Health Epidemiologist Jotham Arber advised the board that even though variant is more contagious than last year, it is no more severe in terms of illness in children, so while there may be more cases in children, there is less likely to be any increases in severity.

Several other, large school districts – the latest being Ankeny and Johnston – have decided to implement a mask mandate. Mr. Trager said the lack of leadership puts Superintendents in a “really tough situation.”

Eric Trager wished districts that enacted a mask mandate, well, and expects that they know what’s best for their district. In other news, Mr. Trager said the Middle School/High School Renovation project is currently out to bid. Those bids will be opened on October 20th. Trager said they’re hopeful they’ll get some competitive bids and a reasonable price tag, so the project can move forward.

Enrollment numbers for the District look to be up by 20 students, according to the Superintendent. The Audubon School Board, Monday, approved a bus bid from Hoglund for a new 65 passenger diesel bus. A grant from Volkswagen pays for 30% of the vehicle. The School Board also approved a sidewalk project easement.

(Trager said the City of Audubon received a grant from the Department of Transportation to put in a sidewalk from the High School Building down to the Audubon Rec. Center and as part of that the City needed an easement for the property the sidewalk will sit on and the Board approved that easement to support that project.)