(Radio Iowa) It’s said a dog can be a man’s best friend, but a dog can also be a family’s worst enemy if they’re adopting an animal and don’t know about its origins and full medical history. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s introducing a bill called the Healthy Dog Importation Act which aims to keep a closer eye on the million-plus dogs that are brought into the U-S every year.

Grassley says this kind of vigilance on biosecurity is important to maintain for Iowa’s livestock producers, and it’s equally important for potential pet owners.

He says more needs to be done at the federal level to shield our country’s residents from an array of infectious diseases that can be transmitted to people by canines.

The C-D-C has released a list of dozens of countries that are considered “high risk” for the importing of dogs.

(Radio Iowa) AARP Iowa state director, Brad Anderson, says the organization is pushing for state lawmakers to enact a cap on insulin costs like the one now in place for federal Medicare users

He says no Iowans should have to worry about how they are going to pay for insulin.

AARP Iowa would like to see a state cap on insulin somewhere between 35 and 100 dollars per month.

He says insulin was created 100 years ago and has gone up about 600 percent in price in the last 20 years.

He says the time has come to get the insulin cap to the finish line.

(Radio Iowa) Friday marks one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and experts from across the Midwest are gathering in Iowa City tonight for a panel discussion about the war and what may be next for that region — and for the world. Marina Zaloznaya (ZAL-ohz-NY-ah), a sociologist and political science professor at the University of Iowa, says she’s surprised the conflict has lasted this long, and it’s an ill omen that we’re now entering a second year.

Zaloznaya, director of the U-I’s European Studies Group, says there’s “no clear offramp” for Russia, while the Russian people support the war because they don’t know the full story, being cut off from Western media.

Russia has the resources to continue the war for years, while Ukraine is being backed by the United States and numerous other countries, setting up the potential genesis of another much larger war. While the future of the conflict may have a profound impact on millions of people around the world, she says there are also resurrected fears of nuclear escalation.

Various sources show the U-S has spent between 25- and 75-billion dollars on weapons, training and supplies for Ukraine since the war began a year ago. Zaloznaya says Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has shaken Europe to its core and set off a global humanitarian crisis.

Tonight’s panel discussion will include experts from the U-I, the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It starts at 5:15 at the Iowa Memorial Union on the U-I campus and is free and open to all.