Parents of students in the Harlan Community School District are suing the district over its mask mandate. KETV reports the parents say they’re frustrated with Harlan Community Schools as they say other districts in the area are ending their mandates. The action comes as the CDC said fully vaccinated people do not need to wear a mask in most indoor places. Interim Superintendent Lynn Johnson said they want to make room for families who aren’t comfortable with the mask mandate. But she added said they’re also following recommendations from health experts since all students aren’t fully vaccinated.

On Wednesday, the district started separating students who choose not to wear a mask from students who do. Thursday was the second day the district placed students who don’t wear a mask in other areas like the auditorium and library. But Johnson said it is not a punishment. She told KETV “(We’re) trying to find the means to continue to keep educating those students but yet separating from the classrooms where masks are required.” Parents said they heard of students being denied meals if they didn’t wear masks. Johnson said there was a situation Thursday morning where a food service personnel told a student they had to wear a mask to get breakfast. Johnson said that situation has been taken care of, and won’t happen again. She said also, the mask guidelines are put together by the school board.

School board president Amy Rueschenberg said in a statement to the tv station:

“The Harlan Community School District Board of Directors is committed to providing the students, staff, and visitors to the school a safe environment when in the district’s buildings and attending school functions. The district has successfully navigated the pandemic with minimal disruption. Harlan Community School District has been successful in keeping students and staff safe and in face-to-face learning all year by following the CDC and state and local public health guidelines and recommendations. The district is trying to adjust and accommodate quickly to those students who are recently needing mask accommodations for specific reasons. The Harlan Community School Board is willing to consider modifying current practices if the conditions or data indicate that is what is best for students and staff.”

The Iowa Department of Public Health today (Friday) reports 283 new positive COVID-19 tests and three additional deaths. The health department reported 399,074 total positive tests, and 5,997 total deaths since the pandemic began. State data show more than 2.55-million vaccinations have been given in Iowa, and nearly 1.23-million vaccination series are completed.

Iowa’s COVID-19 positivity rates continue to decline. In the last 24 hours, the 14-day average dropped from 3.6% to 3.4% and the 7-day average dropped from 3.2% to 3.0%. COVID-19 hospitalizations are down, from 162 on Thursday to 151 on Friday. There are 41 patients in ICU and 19 patients on ventilators. In RMCC Region 4 (hospitals in western & southwest Iowa), there are: Nine patients hospitalized with COVID or symptoms of the virus; two people with COVID are in an ICU; No new admissions to area hospitals were reported, and no one was on a ventilator in the latest report.

There remains a single long-term care facility with a COVID-19 outbreak. The Risen Son Christian Village, in Pottawattamie County, reports 10 positive cases among residents and staff. There have been 2,335 deaths reported in Iowa’s care facilities.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County; The # of new cases since yesterday {+} if any; and the total number of deaths in each county to date:
Cass, 1,469 cases; {+0}; 54 deaths
Adair, 985; {+0}; 32
Adams, 350 {+1}; 4
Audubon, 530 {+0}; 10
Guthrie, 1,298 {+0}; 30
Harrison County, 1,930; {+0}; 73
Madison County, 1,765; {+2; 19
Mills County, 1,792; {+1}; 22
Montgomery, 1,110;{+0}; 38
Pottawattamie County, 12,236; {+10}; 168
Shelby County, 1,370 {+1}; 37
Union County, 1,364; {+0}; 33

A woman from Creston reported to police on May 6th, mail was stolen from the mailbox at her residence in the 800 block of W. Mills Street. Creston Police say the woman was missing a package from Amazon that contained a child’s backpack. The loss was estimated at $35.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University expert on cybersecurity says the hacker attack on the southern gas pipeline could have been a lot worse. Professor Doug Jacobsen says the attack could have been a lot worse. “The good news with this pipeline is they didn’t get control of the pipeline. If they had gotten control of the pipeline they cold have overpressurized the pipe. You could paint a hundred bad, bad scenarios,” he says. Media reports say the pipeline company paid five million dollars to the hackers. Jacobsen says technology has made hacking more tempting.”Early forms of ransomware have been around for probably 15 years. We didn’t see it much because we didn’t have Bitcoin — so it was hard to make a transaction without being traced. Bitcoin enabled anonymous transactions,” Jacobsen says.

He says instantly backing up data helped fight ransomware, as companies could wipe computers and install the backed up data and get back to work. He says now those who use ransomware are saying they will release the sensitive data to get companies to pay. Jacobsen says the introduction of malware has changed too as the defense against it has gotten better. He says that’s led to other ways of getting employees to be fooled into letting hackers in. “We actually don’t see this stuff come in too much as attachments any more, because we’ve done a good job of creating tools to detect that,” according to Jacobsen. “So it migrated away form a lot of email attachments, and have moved to driving you to a website where you end up downloading this malware.”

He says hacks against individuals are very uncommon for one reason. “They are not worth enough money to make it worth it to these organizations to do this. It’s a pretty sophisticated tool they employ and they are after the big score,” Jacobsen says.

Jacobsen says the hackers have focused on businesses that need their computer systems to operate — such as hospitals — to look for that big payoff.

A central Iowa man was arrested Thursday on a charge of Animal Neglect, in connection with the alleged neglect of a puppy who was discovered with a collar deeply embedded into her neck. The Animal Rescue League of Iowa reports 21-year-old Jeremy Bronigan, of Des Moines, was booked into the Polk County Jail on a $300 bond. The puppy, named “Junie,” remains at the ARL under the close watch of three staff veterinarians and the rest of the ARL’s “Miracle Medical Team.”

Officials say Junie was rescued from near death at Bronigan’s home. He’s accused of never adjusting her collar as the puppy grew up and it dug into her neck like a vise, causing pain and infection. The A-R-L says the wound on Junie’s neck was one-and-a-half inches wide and less than a half inch from her jugular.

(Left) Jeremy Bronigan and “Junie.” (ARL photo)