(Radio Iowa) – The Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain today (Friday) announced the closing of its 580-million dollar acquisition of the Bucky’s Convenience Stores. The company says the Bucky’s acquisition gives them more presence in Nebraska and Illinois, and brings their total company-owned and operated stores to more than 23-hundred.

The company says in its announcement that the acquisition marks “the most significant transaction in Casey’s 52-year history.” Casey’s was required to get rid of six stores as part of the consent order the agreed to with the Federal Trade Commission.

(Des Moines, IA) Today (Friday) Iowa Dept. of Public Health Director Kelly Garcia sent the following letter to school superintendents, child care providers and local public health departments regarding updated COVID-19 guidance:

Dear Education and Child Care Professionals,

I write to you today to underscore the continued importance of supporting children as we navigate this recovery phase of our COVID-19 response. From the beginning, this response effort has been grounded in mitigating risk and protecting our vulnerable populations, realizing that completely eliminating risk was never an option. We appreciate the difficult position school administrators and child care providers, who are not necessarily health professionals, have had to navigate. Your efforts over the last year have required patience, grace, and flexibility. For that, we are tremendously grateful.

For the 2020-2021 school year—knowing that spread of disease in schools is minimal and can be mitigated with strong infection control measures—Iowa shifted to support safe, in-person learning. And for child care settings, Iowa’s child care providers remained open, supported by DHS. To successfully implement that strategy, Iowa issued guidance that allowed children exposed to COVID-19 while wearing a cloth face covering to avoid quarantine. This allowed kids to remain in school, with all of the benefits that in-person learning provides. Cloth face coverings have been one of the tools in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and, along the way, additional tools to treat and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have also come along, such as therapeutics and vaccines.

Our response today does not, and should not, look the same as it did a year ago. In fact, yesterday the CDC announced updated guidance rolling back mask usage for adults. Our guidance is also evolving as we learn more information. This evolution allows people to hone in on what is risky and what is not—which ultimately keeps our collective public health response strong.

With that in mind, and with acknowledgement that the goal of every educational institution and child care provider is to safeguard children from harm and foster inclusion, today, the Iowa Department of Public Health has adjusted its guidance to recommend that schools and childcare settings approach COVID-19 like other child illnesses. For ease of reference, please see this link for a detailed list of common child illnesses and exclusion criteria, which now includes COVID-19. This guidance comes in consultation with the Department of Education, and underscores that the overall health and well-being of children must be our primary focus.

We are concurrently revising our COVID-19 guidance for school and child care settings, including quarantine guidance, to recommend that while COVID-19 positive and symptomatic children should be excluded, exposed children should no longer be required to stay home, regardless of mask usage. Moreover, when there is a positive case, parents should be given information around exposure to COVID-19 in order to make their own informed decisions regarding risk. To that end, while we acknowledge that some parents may want their child to continue to wear a cloth face covering for reasons that make sense for their family or that child’s individual health condition, we urge schools and child care settings to provide parents and students with the option to make their own decision about mask usage.

As this school year winds down and summer school and camps begin, we must work together to continue to support a flexible approach. We stand ready to provide the support necessary to ensure our children’s success.

Sincerely,

Kelly Garcia

Director, Departments of Public Health and Human Services

Six people were arrested on various charges over the past week, in Mills County. Three people were arrested Friday (today): 35-year-old AJ Sydney Kerchaval, and 30-year-old Imesha Michelle Davis, both of Omaha, were arrested on I-29 near mile marker 40 early Friday morning. Both were charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance. Davis was additionally charged with Interference with Official Acts, and Fugitive from Justice. He total bond amounts to $1,300, with no bond on the Fugitive charge. Bond for Kercheval was set at $1,000.

And, 63-year-old Jim Dean Avis, of Neola, was arrested at around 8-a.m. Friday, for Driving While Barred. Bond was set at $2,000. On May 9th, 49-year-old Michael James Florian, of Glenwood, was arrested for Theft in the 3rd Degree. Bond was set at $2,000.

On May 7th, 22-year-old Sarah Jeanette Croson, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail, on a Mills County warrant for Kidnapping in the 3rd Degree, Assault while participating in a felony, and harassment. Her bond was set at $17,000. That same day, 39-year-old Joshua James Codr, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at the Pott. County Jail, on a Mills County warrant for Violation of Probation, with bond set at $6,700.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s largest grocery chain is now offering COVID-19 vaccines to young people, ages 12 to 15. Hy-Vee says the Pfizer vaccine is available free, but kids DO need their parents’ consent and a parent needs to accompany them for the shot. Dr. William Ching, a pediatric hospitalist at Unity Point Health St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, says if more children are vaccinated, it will get us closer to herd immunity.  Dr. Ching says, “These things are game changers that will do so much to restore normalcy for our children and our families.”

Dr. Joel Waddell, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Unity Point Health in Des Moines, says there’s much more to consider with a vaccine other than just protecting children against developing severe cases of COVID, because it will do that. It will also help with mental health and let kids start to return to a sense of normal, like visiting friends and family and even going to summer camps.

“There is an immediate benefit of giving this vaccine,” Dr. Waddell says, “and I think it’s going to loosen things up a little bit in terms of what activities are safe.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends the Pfizer vaccine be given to kids as young as 12. Ching says in the trial, out of children who got the vaccine, zero contracted the virus and there were no serious side effects related to the vaccine. Both doctors made their comments on Iowa Public Radio’s program “Talk of Iowa.”

(reporting by Kassidy Arena, Iowa Public Radio)