Senator Chuck Grassley has nominated 37 outstanding Iowa students for consideration for appointments to the U.S. service academies. Grassley says “Young Iowans who want to enter the academies and serve our country are remarkable for their accomplishments and leadership. These candidates are an impressive reflection on our state and signal continued excellence in the U.S. armed forces.”

Grassley’s area nominees for the 2015-2016 school year include:
U.S. Air Force Academy
Adrianna Hines, Missouri Valley
U.S. Military Academy at West Point
Alexander Jones, Council Bluffs
Tobey Yates, Underwood
U.S. Naval Academy
Dane Livengood, Treynor

Grassley said he will make announcements as appointments to the academies are offered to Iowans. Each year, the Senator has the opportunity as a U.S. senator to nominate either current or future Iowa high school graduates for a select few service academy placements. Grassley said he encourages Iowa students to consider applying to more than one service academy due to the highly competitive nature of admissions.
Students interested in academy appointments should begin the application process in the spring of their junior year of high school. The academies select students based on the number of vacancies available for the next school year. Iowa Representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives also make nominations in addition to both of Iowa’s U.S. Senators. Traditionally, the high quality of Iowa nominees results in several Iowa students being selected to attend each of the service academies.

A box truck struck a cow Monday evening about 5-miles southeast of Creston, but the driver of the vehicle wasn’t injured. Union County Sheriff’s officials say 24-year old Jacob Cave, of Redfield, was traveling east in the 1700 block of 230th Street at around 6:50-p.m., when the 2007 Freightliner box truck he was driving hit a black cow on the road. The semi sustained $1,000 damage. The cow, owned by David Travis, of Creston, was valued at $3,000.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A report from the Iowa Department of Public Safety says lawmakers should take a wait-and-see approach toward regulating unmanned aerial vehicles because of their huge potential to help business and government. The report, requested by lawmakers in May, says a consensus has developed that drones will greatly benefit agriculture and other industries, police work and government services.

Many lawmakers are also concerned about their privacy implications. The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa is proposing legislation banning the use of weaponized drones, requiring oversight of how police agencies acquire the technology, and directing agencies to delete surveillance information that isn’t necessary for an investigation.

The report cautions against broad regulation, saying problems could be narrowly addressed later when lawmakers “have the full picture” as to the benefits that drones produce.

A new report gives Iowa good marks for preparing for a potential outbreak of infectious disease. Rich Hamburg, is deputy director of the Trust for America’s Health. He says it’s an annual report on outbreaks and emergency preparedness for everything from Ebola, the flu to antibiotics resistance. He says Iowa had a pretty good showing.Hamburg says Iowa met six of its ten indicators, which puts it in the upper half of the states.

“One that is critically important for any kind of all hazard preparedness effort is funding. This was two years running that Iowa did increase the amount of state-level funding for public health,” Hamburg explains. Hamburg says Iowa only had 48-point-six percent of residents who got a flu shot. The highest state was 57 percent, and he says to pass the indicator the state needed to have 50 percent immunized.

You can see the full report at:www.healthyamericans.org.

(Radio Iowa)