(Radio Iowa) – Revenue for Casey’s General Stores in its just-concluded fiscal year reached eight-point-seven BILLION dollars. Casey’s C-E-O Darren Rebelez says in the midst of the most challenging business environment of our lifetime, that’s an astounding figure. “Casey’s ’21 Fiscal Year yielded the strongest results in our 53 year history,” Rebelez says.

Rebelez says Casey’s adjusted what it stocked inside its stores more than a year ago, selling less grab-and-go food while selling more P-P-E and groceries. He says there was also higher demand for beer and alcohol as restaurants and bars closed and people began consuming more alcohol at home. In February, March and April of this year, Rebelez says in-store sales were up 13 percent.

“We’re now seeing recovery in our prepared food and fountain business as the world moves toward normal traffic patterns,” Rebelez says. “Guest traffic is rising and we’re seeing a resurgence in pizza slices, dispensed beverages and bakery as our guests return to their normal daily routines.”  Retail gas sales dropped throughout the country during the pandemic and the decline is shown on Casey’s ledger, too. “We finished the year down 8.1% in same-store gallons sold,” he says, “with an all time high fuel margin of 34.9 cents per gallon.”

That record fuel margin pushed Casey’s profits from fuel sales up nearly 24 percent. Casey’s share price ended the fiscal year 18 percent higher than the previous year. Casey’s employs 40-thousand people and operates more than 21-hundred convenience stores in 16 states.

The Iowa Department of Public Health in their latest COVID-19 update, Saturday (today) reports 157 additional, positive cases of COVID-19 from over the previous 24-hours, for a pandemic total of 403,079. The Coronavirus dashboard also shows two additional deaths, for a total of 6,097. Deaths at Iowa’s Long-Term Care facilities since the start of the pandemic, amount to 2,370.

There remain four LTC outbreaks in Iowa, with 31 positive cases among patients and staff, and four persons who have recovered. Iowa’s 14-day and seven-day positivity rates are both up slightly, to 1.9%.

The number of Iowans hospitalized by COVID are up from 73 on Friday, to 81 Saturday. Officials report 19 patients are in an ICU; 19 COVID patients were admitted to a hospital, and sven patients are on a ventilator. In RMCC Region 4 (hospitals in western & southwest Iowa), there are three people hospitalized with COVID-19, one person was in an ICU, one personwas admitted over the previous 24-hours, and no one was on a ventilator.

In the immediate KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County (since the beginning of the pandemic) and the total number of deaths (Since the beginning of the pandemic) in each county to date:
Cass, 1,476 cases; 54 deaths
Adair, 993; 32
Adams, 355; 4
Audubon, 546; 10
Guthrie, 1,312; 32
Harrison County, 1,935; 73
Madison County, 1,786 19
Mills County, 1,801; 24
Montgomery, 1,118; 38
Pottawattamie County, 12,343;173
Shelby County, 1,374; 37
Union County, 1,381; 35

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest early Saturday of 45-year-old Johnny Thomas Houser of Villisca for OWI 1st Offense. Houser was stopped in the area of 250th Street and Q Avenue, just south of Viking Lake State Park. He was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The communications director for the Republican Party of Iowa says the party is aware of a gift card scam using the party chair Jeff Kaufman’s name, and they are working on filing a report with the proper federal authorities. Woodbury County Republican Party chairman, Bob Henderson says one of the central committee members was sent the fake email request. “This person used his name (Kaufman) to ask for funding, but the funding was requested in the form of gift cards,” Henderson says. He knew immediately the request was not from the G-O-P.

“I said right away, when they ask for funding in something other than normal currency — you can pretty well bet that it’s a scam,” Henderson says. “And especially if it happens to be the name of somebody that is known by you, more than somebody nationally.” Henderson says anyone who gets this type of email should immediately contact their local G-O-P chairman, or any member of the executive committee to confirm it.

(Radio Iowa) – A man who served as an interpreter for U-S troops in Afghanistan is hoping to have better luck in immigration court after being denied political asylum in the United States. Zalmay Niazy has lived in Iowa Falls since 2015. He has an appointment with an immigration judge in Omaha late this month. “I am crossing fingers,” he says, “and I am very hopeful that it goes the right direction and I get to stay.”

The U-S Department of Homeland Security cited involvement in a terrorist organization as the reason for denying him asylum and Niazy says that’s very frustrating since he worked with U-S soldiers to fight against terrorism in Afghanistan. Niazy says his life will be in danger if he is deported back to Afghanistan and immigration court is his last hope. “If I get a denial from the court, that will be a death sentence for me to go back home,” Niazy says.

Niazy made his comments on Iowa Public Radio’s River to River program. Niazy’s case drew national attention in 2017 when he went to one of U-S Senator Chuck Grassley’s town hall forums to ask for help. Niazy told Grassley he’d been shot twice and survived a roadside bombing during his work as an interpreter for U-S troops in Afghanistan.  “I already have a stamp on me and my family as a US spy back there,” Niazy told Grassley. “I have lost my uncle and I have went through a lot of bad situation.”

Grassley told Niazy he would help and two months later Niazy was interviewed by immigration officials. Niazy didn’t hear again about his case until he received a letter this past January, informing him his asylum request was denied.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Kasidy Arena)