Ticker: July 16

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Casey’s General Stores Inc. has reported increases in same-store sales food, groceries and gasoline in June, compared with June 2009. Food and fountain sales increased 2.9 percent and grocery sales increased 2.1 percent at stores that have been open for one year, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Gasoline sales rose 2.4 percent and gasoline margins exceeded the company’s fiscal 2011 goal of 13.5 cents per gallon. Casey’s is the target of a hostile takeover bid by Canadian-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., the largest convenience store operator in North America, with 5,878 stores in the United States and Canada.

The Purple Heart Highway Collaborative (PHHC) – a group made up of officials from six cities and two counties along the U.S. Highway 65/Iowa Highway 5 bypass – is sponsoring a bus tour for developers, veterans and landowners and those with interest in building in the area along the route on Thursday, July 22, from 3 to 5 p.m. The PHHC is currently pushing for the bypass to be redesignated as an interstate highway. The Iowa Department of Transportation will be performing an analysis of the roadway at the request of the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. For more information about the bus tour, e-mail lplathe@strategicamerica.com or call (515) 453-2042.

The Union Pacific Railroad bridge in Clinton and the Polk County Operations Center were awarded grants of $4 million and $610,000 respectively as part of the Homeland Security Appropriations bill, which was passed today. The $4 million will be used to redesign and improve a portion of a 102-year-old Clinton bridge that has been declared a hazard to navigation on the upper Mississippi River. The $610,000 will be used to renovate a building at 1907 Carpenter Ave. in Des Moines to include the emergency operation center, which will serve as the hub for homeland security operations for member cities of the Regional Emergency Management Commission in Polk County.

The Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) will unveil its plans for the Lewis and Clark Multiuse Trail at an upcoming public meeting. The Lewis and Clark Multiuse Trail is one of five trails of statewide significance as identified by the IDOT, and it will eventually traverse Iowa, extending from the Missouri border to the South Dakota border at Sioux City. The trail plans to weave together roads, waterways, parks, towns, businesses and attractions into a network travelers can use to explore Iowa.