(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa District 18 House Representative Thomas Moore, a Republican from Griswold, has released his weekly report, “Moore on the Issues,” a summary of bills passed in the House. Moore said members of the House passed 33 bills, with 28 having had bi-partisan or unanimous support. Among the bills that passed through the House this week, was a State Government Realignment Bill.

Moore says “By aligning functions and services that are similar, taxpayers will have a more straightforward process for interacting with the government and receiving the proper services without unnecessarily going to several agencies. The bill now goes to the Governor for her signature.

Two other bills Moore highlighted include those pertaining to Consumer Data Privacy and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies. With regard to the CDP bill….

And, on the ESG, Moore says…

Among the other bills that passed through the Iowa House of Representatives this week, was:

·     HF340 creates a grant program to allow municipalities to provide a tax deferred award to volunteer firefighters, emergency medical care providers, and reserve peace officers.

·     HF358 increases penalties for eluding.

·     HF603 allows volunteer fire fighters, EMS providers, and reserve peace officers to purchase one set of tires per their personal vehicle each year through the state’s master contract for tires.

·     HF499 requires car insurance companies to cover the value of a car seat that is located in a vehicle subject to a loss.

·     HF570 increases penalties for assault if the victim is pregnant and the defendant knows or should have known.

Representative Tom Moore can be reached at tom.moore@legis.iowa.gov, or at 712-789-9954.

(Radio Iowa) – The State Patrol says there’s been an increase in distracted driving on the open roadways — and the D-O-T says it’s become an issue at train crossings as well. Kris Klop oversees the installation of warning devices at rail crossings for the D-O-T and says accidents started changing around the time of the COVID pandemic.  “For some reason, they’re now running into the side of trains, rather through the gates into the side of the trains, rather than trying to go around the gates and then getting hit by the trains,” he says. “I definitely have a suspicion that involves distracted driving.” Klop says racing to beat a train through a crossing is a conscious decision, but it’s hard to see how someone can just drive through gates into a train.

“Between the train through the middle of the roadway and the flashing lights and the gates, I don’t know how people can miss that and run into the train,” Klop says. Klop says there’s a yearly program to assess rail crossings and the need for warning devices or upgrades — but that doesn’t mean anything if the driver isn’t paying attention. “Nationwide, 47 percent of the accidents are at crossings that have lights and gates. So putting lights and gates at a railroad crossing does not completely eliminate the chance of there being an accident there,” he says. Klop says the number of accidents at crossings in Iowa has dropped from 300 a year in 1987 down to about 15 a year more recently.

“If everything is working properly and motorists are heeding the warning devices and not paying attention to their phone, they should be safe. If motorists are heading what’s there to warn them of the railroad crossing, they should heed that, and if everything is working properly, then they will be safe,” Klop says. Klop says Iowa has just under five-thousand railroad crossings with 22-hundred-64 that are passive and have no signals. There are 11-hundred-28 crossings with gates, 702 with just flashing lights, and 742 where the railroad track goes over or under a bridge. He says any crossing where a car has to drive over the track has some sort of advanced warning for drivers.

“At a bare minimum, it’s federally required that they have a crossbuck sign on either side with a yield sign attached to it. Or in some cases, if an engineering study determined it was necessary, they can put a stop sign there in lieu of the yield sign, “Klop says Of course, you can have a higher level of safety devices, you have flashing lights and gates or cantilevers over the roadway, with flashing lights on them. Klop says they have 15 to 18 rail signal projects during a typical year, and one to three cases each year where they close a crossing.

(Radio Iowa) – Vice President Kamala Harris visited Des Moines Thursday to talk with Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates.  “People around our country are concerned, afraid, confused, desperate, in many ways feeling very alone in terms of what are their options and what are their rights,” Harris said. The vice president’s visit came a day after a federal judge heard arguments in a case that could end nationwide access to abortion pills.

Harris said the Biden Administration is taking the case very seriously and she hinted appeals could reach the U.S. Supreme Court if the Texas judge moves to ban abortion pills. “We are prepared to do whatever we may and can if the court rules in a way that we believe is in the best interest of the public health of America,” Harris said.

Medication abortions now account for more than half of all abortions in the U.S. “Politicians are asking a court of law to undo a decision by the FDA that was made on the basis of peer review of the work of medical health professionals 20 years ago that deemed a particular medication — mifepristone — to be safe,” she said. Harris suggests if a judge is able to ban this medication, that would open the door to legal challenges for other F-D-A approved drugs.

“We should all understand that these attacks go beyond reproductive health,” Harris said. Abortion is legal in Iowa up to the 20th week of a pregnancy. Governor Kim Reynolds, though, has cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last summer that overturned the 1973 decision that legalized abortion — asking the Iowa Supreme Court to let a 2018 law go into effect. That law, which Reynolds signed, would ban abortions after the 6th week of pregnancy. Harris says for that and other reasons, Iowa is on the front lines of the fight over abortion.

“What we know in Iowa is that there is an attorney general who has joined attorneys general around the country who are asking the court to overturn an FDA approved medication — mifepristone,” Harris said. “There are attorneys general around the country, including here, who are attempting to tell pharmacies to not dispense abortion medication.” Walgreens announced recently it would not dispense or mail abortion pills in Iowa and many other states.

Iowa Republican Party chairman Jeff Kaufmann says it’s too bad Harris spent her time talking about everything other than the issues that are actually at the top of Iowans’ minds –the disastrous economy and runaway inflation.

Harris arrived in Iowa late Thursday morning and the discussion about abortion rights was held at Grand View University. Harris then watched the second half of her alma mater’s NCAA men’s basketball game. After Howard University’s loss to Kansas, Harris met the team in the locker room and told the Bison players their never-give-up attitude had been an inspiration and they had made Howard alums around the world proud.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that’s on its way to the governor would require that students in Iowa K-through-12 schools use bathrooms and locker rooms designated for the gender on their birth certificate. After a sometimes contentious debate, 57 House Republicans voted for the measure. Five Republicans and all Democrats present voted against the policy. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, says he’s heard from countless parents who’ve expressed support for the measure.

“I had four daughters,” Holt said, “and I think a lot of folks would be very, very, very much concerned about their daughters having to change clothes in a locker room with a male.” House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst, of Windsor Heights, says the policy is unnecessary. “All of us, including transgender students, care about the safety and privacy in restrooms and locker rooms,” Konfrst said. “…It is already illegal for anyone to enter these facilities to harm or harass someone or intentionally invade someone’s privacy.”

Other Democrats like Representative Austin Baeth of Des Moines say the bill is an attack on an already marginalized group of kids.  “These are sweet, innocent kids, folks, who just need to go pee,” Baeth said. “Let’s stay the hell out of it.” Holt says nothing in the bill would prevent students from peeing, as it calls for schools to make other restrooms available to transgender students.

“The folks supporting this bill did not move the goal posts. It was understood until recently that biology is what determined the use of restrooms,” Holt said. “…This bill really tries to address the concerns on both sides of this issue.” The bill passed the Senate on March 7th with the support of 33 Republicans. All Democrats in the Senate opposed it.

(Radio Iowa) – On issues ranging from electric cars and ethanol to farm subsidies for billionaires, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst questioned U-S Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack today (Thursday) during a hearing before the Senate Ag Committee. Ernst, a Republican, says it’s hard to understand why the largest ten-percent of farms are raking in 70-percent of commodity payments, and she says critical reforms are needed in how the U-S-D-A decides who gets the cash.

“Thus far, grants totaling $157 million have been awarded,” Ernst says. “Three of the largest grants total $69 million, which comprise nearly half of the funds awarded, three projects who are privately owned by some of the wealthiest people in the United States.” Vilsack, a Democrat and a former Iowa governor, says proper procedures are being strictly followed with regards to the millions of dollars in agricultural grants that are being awarded.

“The level of investment is based on the application that people have submitted,” Vilsack says. “Some of these plants are very small. The Charles City plant, for example, is very small. It needed $8 million and we provided it. The Cherokee plant needed several million dollars, we provided it. So Iowa has received several grants already and I anticipate and expect they’re going to receive at least one more.” Ernst says recent recipients of the U-S-D-A grants include a man who’s on the Forbes billionaires list, as well as a South Carolina family that owns major production facilities in five states.

“I have no objection to families succeeding and owning a lot of businesses and I wish them great success,” Ernst says, “but what I find problematic is that taxpayer dollars are being doled out as free grants to billionaires, while applications from farmer-owned startups like Cattlemen’s Heritage in southwest Iowa are deemed unworthy through these grants.” Cattlemen’s Heritage promises to be a regional cattle processing plant that’s planned for the Council Bluffs area. Owners say they’ll hire 800 workers who will process up to two-thousand head of cattle per day when the plant opens, tentatively in late 2024. Vilsack says he’s well aware of the endeavor.

“The Iowa project you mentioned is actually on the list that’s currently under review,” Vilsack says. “We’re in the process of finishing the environmental review that is required under NEPA, before grants can be issued. So, just be patient. I think you’re going to find that that is a project that merits additional investment.” Ernst applauded the U-S-D-A’s efforts to promote green energy, but denounced what she called an “ardent push toward electric vehicles,” calling Iowa-made, corn-based ethanol a ready-made resource that’s a cheaper energy solution and that’s “very beneficial for our farmers.”

Vilsack didn’t address those comments directly.

(Radio Iowa) – A mobile education simulator is now in Sioux City to provide training to emergency responders in the western third of Iowa.  Iowa College of Nursing senior advisor, Jacinda Bunch, says the “Simulation in Motion” truck will be based a the Sioux City Fire Rescue Training Center. “The truck is equipped with clinical simulation equipment. So we have a simulated emergency room bay in the front of the truck that looks like an emergency room. We have all the equipment and supplies needed to take care of a patient there,” she says. “We have a computer operation station for our educators. And then the back of the truck is set up to look like the back of an ambulance. So again, all of the equipment supplies that you would expect to see in the back of an ambulance.”

“We have an adult male, we have an adult female that can give birth, we have a young child who’s probably about seven to eight years old, and then we have a newborn up to about nine months old,” she says. Bunch says the human simulators allow them to set up all kinds of training exercises. “We create medical or trauma scenarios based on the educational needs and desires of the community that we’re serving we allow the providers to come in and to care for those patients doing hands on skills hands on clinical assessments practice or critical thinking,” Bunch says.

The truck will travel across western Iowa training E-M-T’s and return to Sioux City for training there as well. The truck is part of a University of Iowa program and is one of three covering the state.

(Radio Iowa) – Officials in a northwest Iowa city are considering whether to join other local governments in sending the Iowa Utilities Board a letter objecting to development of carbon capture pipelines. Estherville’s City Council has held a work session to gather information about the Navigator and Summit pipelines that would pass through Emmet County. Estherville Fire Chief Travis Sheridan says if there’s a pipeline rupture, his department would likely need a new mobile vehicle that’s equipped with air packs. “An electric vehicle that we can drive, go in and save people, and get them out,” he says. Sheridan is also Emmet County’s Emergency Management Director Craig Schoenfeld, a spokesman for developers of the Navigator pipeline, says the company will provide equipment and training.

“It is not to be encumbered by the City of Estherville in your general budget or whatever you allot for your fire department,” Schoenfeld says. “Those needs are incumbent upon us to provide, whether that’s personal apparatus, if we need to come up with other types of trucks, other types of personnel…those types of things are on our nickel.” Kylie Lang, the Iowa project manager for Summit Carbon Solutions, says carbon pipelines are not new technology and the companies are preparing for potential leaks.

“(Carbon dioxide) is an asphyxiant. We take that very seriously. That means it displaces oxygen, making it challenging to breathe in high concentrations, but it is not combustible and it is not flammable,” she says, “so in terms of safety and comparison to other pipelines, a lot of different leaders in the industry have come out and said CO2 is safer.” The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association has sent an alert to its members today (Thursday), saying a bill pending in the Iowa House is a major threat to the ethanol industry.

The bill establishes new rules that ethanol backers say would derail the proposed carbon pipelines.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – A food truck that drew a large crowd on March 4th, will be back in Atlantic, this Saturday. Officials with the Chick-fil-A food truck operation reports their mobile restaurant will be at A-Plus Designs (56988 635th St.) this Saturday, from 11-a.m. until 3-p.m. For more information, see the chick-fil-A Iowa Food Truck Facebook page. Speaking during the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday evening. City Clerk Barb Barrick said the company called City Hall just before they closed Wednesday, and said they had a couple of schedule changes, which will allow them to come to town.

The Council was excited to hear the news. Barrick said the company was easy to work with the last time, and Councilman Halder expressed his hope they might locate hear permanently.

Mayor Garrett was impressed with how long the line was. She said she waited about 50-to 55-minutes before she could order and get her food. Garrett went back after the food truck closed and spoke with the operators, March 4th.

Councilman Pat McCurdy said he hopes everyone turns out at Weitzel’s revamped 80’s-themed restaurant when they hold their official re-branded, re-opening.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans may be more grouchy than usual this week, as they’re not getting enough sleep due to the time change, but there’s also a greater health risk from springing forward an hour. Dr. Denise Sorrentino, a cardiologist with the Iowa Heart Center in Ames, says it’s only 60 minutes, but that can be enough to cause serious trouble. “We see the big rise in atrial fibrillation rates, heart attack, stroke, and even motor vehicle accidents,” she says, “often related to inadequate sleep and just bad decision making while driving the vehicle for that first seven to ten days.” Some of us adjust to the shift in time more quickly than others. Sorrentino says our bodies get used to going to bed and getting up at a certain time, and it’s a jolt to our system to move it.

“That 60 minutes can change what we call the circadian rhythm, which is the rhythm at which our blood pressure and heart rate change in the early morning hours to help wake us up,” Sorrentino says. “And people can have difficulties with sleep, blood pressure can become elevated and a lot of people can also feel very groggy, have poor decision making and jetlag.” One thing that can help us to adjust is to start adjusting our bedtime for a week or so before the time change, though that doesn’t do us any good right now.

“Usually, it’s a week for adults to adjust,” she says, “and to really make an effort to be out in sunlight, if available, while the day is ongoing to help that body’s circadian rhythm adjust for this hour change.” The best remedy at this juncture is to simply try and get more rest, and if your schedule permits, a power nap here and there.

(Massena, Iowa) – The Cass County Conservation Board is hosting an Introduction to Turkey Hunting program this Saturday, at the Outdoor Classroom shelter, located at 76977 Tucson Road, Massena, IA. (Two-miles south and two-miles east of Massena. Two-miles east of Highway 148 on Tucson Road, on the south sign….just look for the sign. The program begins at 10-a.m.  Cass County Conservation Director Micah Lee says turkey hunting remains popular.

Lee explains there is a big difference in hunting for pheasant and turkey: the time of year.

This Saturday’s program will focus on “Becoming a Turkey Hunter,” for first-timers and can serve as a refresher for those who may be a bit rusty where their hunting skills are concerned. CCCB employees will talk about scouting, calling, and equipment needed as well as different techniques and equipment used by successful turkey hunters.

This program will be great for someone who wants to start turkey hunting or those with more experience. The CCCB will have examples of calls, decoys, blinds and other tools used in the turkey woods. And, as with last year, there will be a drawing for a prize at the end of the event.

Bring a notepad to take notes, if you want, otherwise just show-up at the Outdoor Classroom this Saturday, March 18, 2023 at 10:00-a.m., to learn a few things and get started on your turkey hunting adventure. Micah reminds you, that we’re about three-weeks away from Youth Turkey Hunting Season.