WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Officials with Hy-Vee announced Tuesday, “In an effort to protect its customers and employees from COVID-19” the company’s stores will distribute free masks to persons entering those stores, beginning Monday, July 27. The company says it will hand out more than 3 million free masks in an effort to help support the CDC’s recommendation to wear masks in public by launching a new initiative called “Mask It Up To Shut COVID Down. It’s Your Choice.”

Starting July 27, employees will be stationed at the front doors of all stores to hand out masks to customers who are not wearing one prior to shopping. Customers will also see signage, employee attire, and other reminders around the store about the educational campaign. Hy-Vee employees have been wearing masks since nearly the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The AARP reports that 28 of the top 40 U.S. retailers require shoppers to wear masks, including Walmart, Target and Whole Foods.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports a man wanted on a warrant for Violation of Probation, turned himself-in to the Sheriff’s Office, Tuesday afternoon. Once the warrant for 33-year old Troy Maurice Taylor was confirmed, the man was transported to Pott. County Corrections and turned over to corrections staff, without incident. And, an inmate at the Pott. County Jail, 37-year old Joseph Daniel McNeal, of Council Bluffs, was served with a warrant Tuesday afternoon, for Violation of Probation. McNeal remains held in the jail on a total of $6,000 bond associated with other charges.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa D-O-T worker was killed in northwest Iowa Tuesday morning in an accident on Highway 18 near Boyden. Sioux County Sheriff’s Office reports that 64-year-old Lynn Roder of Ashton was standing in the westbound lane with a traffic sign signaling for westbound traffic to stop of slow down ahead of a road construction area when he was hit by a 2017 Chevrolet Equinox being driven by 94-year-old William Plantage of Sheldon who was driving westbound. Plantage struck Roder on the roadway.

Roder was transported by the Boyden Ambulance to Sanford Sheldon Medical Center where he was pronounced dead as a result of his injuries. Plantage’s vehicle sustained approximately $4,000 in damage. The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by the Boyden Ambulance and the Iowa State Patrol. The accident remains under investigation.