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Briefly

Guard unit going to Guantanamo

STILLWATER (AP) — One of the first Minnesota National Guard units to respond to unrest following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis is headed out on a new mission.

The 34th Military Police Company, based in Stillwater, is deploying on a year-long mission to provide security at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. A send-off ceremony Sunday at the Stillwater armory was scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Company commander Capt. Troy Davidson said while the unit has had a year to prepare for the Guantanamo Bay deployment, it had just hours to respond to the unrest over Floyd’s death. The unit went right back to training for Guantanamo Bay after it served in the Twin Cities.

The back-to-back deployments were emotional for many of the families at Sunday’s event, the Star Tribune reported.

“Knowing for a year that he’s leaving, that’s hard,” Kristy Stauffer said of the deployment of her husband, Staff Sgt. Fred Stauffer. “But I was more scared for him during the state active duty than I was for his last deployment because of the constant news coverage and it was at home. There’s something to be said about feeling safe at home, and while it wasn’t in Cottage Grove, it was still very close to home.”

University of Iowa pushes ahead

IOWA CITY (AP) — University of Iowa administrators pushed ahead Monday with plans to resume in-person classes and on-campus housing, even as student leaders argued those steps were too risky during the coronavirus pandemic.

The university said it would not test students who will begin moving into the Iowa City campus in the coming days, unlike last week’s mass testing at Iowa State University that identified dozens of infected students.

The campus health officer, Dr. Dan Fick, said one-time testing could give students a false sense of security and would require “significant resources” to administer correctly.

He said the university has focused on other public health measures that would be more effective to stop the spread, including reducing campus density, modifying classrooms and buildings to allow for social distancing and requiring face coverings.

Students with symptoms and those who have been exposed to the virus will be able to get tested, Fick said.

Fick said that Iowa has also not finalized metrics for determining whether to shut down face-to-face instruction in the event of an outbreak during the semester. He promised those measures will soon be made public and will consider a number of factors.

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