(Radio Iowa) A group of national Democrats has taken another step toward excluding Iowa from a group of five states to host the first voting in the 2024 presidential campaign. Mo Elleithee, a member of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws panel, says it shows the party is not being held hostage by history. “We wanted to send a message that the Democratic Party’s values, that the Democratic Party’s coalition is ever evolving,” Elleithee says. Elleithee and other national Democrats are giving party officials in Georgia and New Hampshire more time to work out voting details for their presidential primaries.

The Democratic National Committee will meet February 4th to approve the new list of early states and end the Iowa Democratic Party’s first-in-the-nation Caucuses. Former Iowa Congressman Dave Nagle of Cedar Falls was chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party during the 1984 presidential campaign. Nagle says Iowa Democrats should ignore the new rules.
“We need to plant our flag and we need what I did in 1984 when we confronted the same situation and hold our Caucuses irrespective of what the DNC thinks or says or does,” Nagle says. “…The constitution still protects the free right of assembly. We can do the Caucus whenever we want.”

Two former Iowa REPUBLICAN Party leaders joined Nagle at a news conference in the state capitol. David Oman — a former co-chair of the Republican Party of Iowa — says he hopes Iowa Democrats choose a new party chair this Saturday who will fight to keep their Caucuses first. Former Iowa Republican Party chairman Mike Mahaffey says the Caucuses are a tradition worth preserving because they’ve given little known candidates like Barack Obama a chance to compete and win.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans on a committee in the Iowa Senate have approved a bill to set a $1 million cap on non-economic, so-called pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Governor Reynolds has said it’s one of her legislative priorities. Sandra Conlin, a lobbyist for the Iowa Hospital Association, told senators there’s been a tipping point — last spring’s $97 million jury verdict in a medical malpractice claim against an Iowa City hospital and a doctor. “We are in a place of crisis now,” Conlin said. “There’s been inaction on this issue for several years in a row and we continue to see the consequences of that build up over time.”

Conlin said there are significant rate increases in medical malpractice insurance and lawsuits are being settled for higher amounts. Chip Baltimore, a former Republican legislator, told lawmakers $97 million isn’t “egregious” for the family of the baby boy who will require 24/7 medical care his entire life after his skull “was crushed.” Baltimore is working as a lobbyist for Trial Lawyers for Justice. “The position of conservatives in this building is that every life, every single life at every stage is priceless,” Baltimore said. “…But you’re about to put a price tag on it and a very small price tag, quite honestly.”

The bill has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee with the support of 11 Republicans. Mikayla Brockmeyer of Spirit Lake, a medical student at Des Moines University, told lawmakers many of her classmates are looking to practice elsewhere because of the liability issue. “We need medical liability reform now and don’t let this slip away,” she said, “along with the doctors in training who are considering other opportunities in other states.”

Sam Clovis, a former Trump Administration official and the Republican Party’s nominee for state treasurer in 2012, is urging lawmakers to kill the bill. Clovis is suing western Iowa health care providers, alleging their negligence has left him paralyzed from the chest down after emergency surgery in 2019. “We have legislators who think they are smarter than the people sitting in a jury box…they say they protect life and then they turn right around and try to set a value to that,” Clovis said. “That frankly is wrong and it’s immoral.”

Thomas Slater, a West Des Moines attorney, said the rights of patients who’ve been profoundly injured by malpractice need to be protected. “I scratch my head when my party attempts to put an arbitrary cap on the value of life or the quality of that life,” Slater said during a senate subcommittee hearing.

Hospital executives say the new limit on medical malpractice awards would help with recruiting. “We’ve been trying to recruit an OB/GYN for the last year,” said Erin Muck, CEO of the Crawford County Hospital in Denison. “A lot of people are asking: ‘What is your cap in your state?’ and when you’re telling them there is none, they have no interest anymore.”

If the bill becomes law, Iowans would still be able to sue for larger amounts if the alleged negligence causes significant expenses or monetary losses to an injured patient, but non-economic or “pain and suffering” awards would be limited to a million dollars. Nebraska and South Dakota have a half a million dollar cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Wisconsin’s is $750,000. Missouri’s limit is adjusted annually to account for inflation and it’s nearly $800,000 this year.

(Radio Iowa) – A federal E-P-A report says Iowa’s soil has the nation’s worst concentration of radon, with about seven in every ten Iowa homes containing enough of the gas that action is needed. Liz Orton, outreach coordinator for the Iowa Cancer Consortium, says radon is invisible, tasteless and odorless — and it’s also radioactive. “Radon occurs naturally in the soil. It’s given off by radium and uranium,” Orton says. “Iowa has a large concentration of this and the reason that it’s harmful is because radon gas can get into your lungs and it can actually cause lung cancer.”

Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in Iowa, behind only tobacco use. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services says radon results in about 400 deaths in the state every year. Orton recommends every Iowa homeowner invest in a radon test kit as radon levels in Iowa are almost seven times higher than the national average. “Radon test kits are very easy to use. They’re available at local hardware stores and they’re usually $20 or less,” Orton says. “You just follow the directions. You set it in your basement and then when it’s done, you mail it into a lab that has free shipping and then you’ll get the results back.”

If those results come back showing a dangerous level of radon in your home, it’s recommended you take action right away. “You do need to hire a professional radon mitigator to come mitigate your home and a list of those can be found on the Iowa HHS website,” Orton says. “The typical cost in Iowa for mitigation is about $1,200. It is a substantial cost but definitely lower than the cost of getting lung cancer and being treated for that.” Although radon is most-often found in basements, it can be present on any story of a home or building. January is Radon Action Month in Iowa.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak have arrested a woman for Interference with Official Acts. Authorities report 33-year-old Madison Marie Bowling, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 2400 block of N. 8th Street at around 11:22-a.m. today (Wednesday), after knowingly resisting Law Enforcement Officers, by attempting to flee on foot from them. Bowling was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 cash bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A key Republican lawmaker says the Iowa House will not move forward with a proposal that would have prevented Iowans from using government food assistance to buy things like fresh meat, butter or flour. Representative Ann Meyer of Fort Dodge says they’ll instead rewrite the bill to try to bar SNAP recipients from buying candy and soda. “SNAP is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance. These are not nutritional items,” Meyer says. “We can’t take it out of a state. What we’re asking for is a waiver.”

The federal government has twice denied Maine’s request to prohibit food assistance benefits from being used to buy sugar-sweetened drinks or candy. The beverage industry successfully blocked attempts to include the prohibition in the 2018 Farm Bill, where the rules for what are commonly called food stamps are written. Iowa Hunger Coalition chair Luke Elzinga says he’s glad the severe restrictions on how poor Iowans may use food assistance are being removed, but he’s concerned about other parts of the bill, like asset limits which would make it hard for families with two vehicles to qualify for food assistance.

“We think it’s a really misguided and harmful bill that would results in Iowans being kicked off the program,” he says. A public subcommittee hearing on the bill is scheduled for tomorrow at the Iowa Capitol.

(Reporting by Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)