WAVERLY, Iowa (AP) — Two northeast Iowa men are raising awareness about a critical shortage of emergency medical technicians in rural areas of the state and calling for changes in law so ambulance service is deemed essential.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that Bremer County’s Emergency Management Coordinator Kip Ladage and the EMS association’s president Jim Schutte spoke about the state’s EMS crisis at a Waverly town hall meeting on Oct. 11.

Ladage says small-town agencies are struggling for volunteers, especially as many members reach retirement age. He says the shortage means area medics sometimes aren’t available to respond to calls. Calls then get deferred to another community, which increases response time.

Residents discussed funding EMS services through sales or property taxes to help address the issue.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Some members of a high school marching band in central Iowa say they were highlighting inequality when they walked off a football field during a performance of the national anthem. The Des Moines Register reports 13 members of the Ames High School marching band linked arms Friday night and walked off the field during a performance of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

The incident happened prior to a home football game against another high school. Some other band members reportedly did not play their instruments during the performance. The newspaper reports some spectators in the stands cursed at the band members who left the field.

Band director Chris Ewan declined to comment after the incident. Athletes, primarily national football players, have been protesting police brutality in recent weeks by either kneeling or linking arms during the national anthem. Others have stayed in their locker rooms.

(Des Moines – Radio Iowa) About five-percent of all Iowans are born with the condition called spina bifida, a congenital disorder where there’s incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord. October is Spina Bifida Awareness Month. Carlyn Crowe, executive director of the Spina Bifida Association of Iowa, says they hope to educate people about the condition, while also raising funding.

“It’s the most common, permanently-disabling birth defect in the United States and what’s so striking about that is that a lot of people don’t know about it.”  In addition to education, Crowe says the mission of the organization is to help families with infants who are impacted by this birth defect. “We raise money to help those families get to those medical appointments and to have equipment and medical supplies that they may not be able to get otherwise,” she says.

Crowe says it’s not clear exactly what causes spina bifida, but it’s believed to be due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Learn more at: www.sbaofia.org

A restaurant in north-central Iowa is being crowned this year’s king of the breaded pork tenderloin. The Iowa Pork Producers Association announced today (Friday) the Grid Iron Grill in Webster City has the state’s best pork sandwich for 2017. Owner Burke Risetter is thrilled with the title and says it all starts with top quality Iowa-grown pork. “It’s an everyday process,” Risetter says. “We shop a certain product, a center-cut pork loin product is what we’re always looking for. It just yields out better. It’s got a great flavor.”

There were more than three-thousand nominations this year for 271 different establishments across Iowa. A panel judged 43 restaurants this summer on the quality of the pork, taste, physical characteristics and eating experience. Risetter says his staff has been specially-trained to make this Iowa delicacy. “We treat it with a lot of TLC as far as the trimming and the cutting and the tenderizing,” Risetter says. “Just from start to finish, it’s handled with care. We’ve learned from some of the best people in this pork business in making the tenderloin, some secrets that they’ve taught us.”

The Grid Iron Grill first opened for business in 2008. The eatery serves about 400 tenderloins each week and Risetter says winning this state title is a tremendous honor. He notes, he knew the winner was being named today. “I’m on Cloud Nine,” he says. “I heard that and couldn’t wait and hardly slept last night. My Cubs won last (Thursday) night and this honor this morning, I don’t know what’s next. I couldn’t be happier and I couldn’t be more proud of our team here at the restaurant.”

The Grid Iron Grill will receive a check for $500, a plaque and a large banner to display. The runner-up was the Northside Café in Winterset. It will receive a check for $250 and a plaque. The Buffalo Tavern in Burlington, Lake View’s Thirsty Carp and the Double Dip in Chariton rounded out the top five finalists.

(Radio Iowa)

Democrats gathered in Des Moines Friday for a discussion about the future of their party. The event was organized by “New Democracy.” The group describes its mission as making an appeal to voters who are Republicans or not aligned with either of the country’s main political parties. Former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius says Democrats have to start explaining how government can make a positive difference in the lives of Americans.

“You can’t cede territory,” Sebelius says. “You can’t just say: ‘Well, I’ll only campaign in the seven urban counties where 70 percent of the vote comes from,’ so you start there,” Sebelius says. “…People want to know you’re more like them than different from them.”

Maryland Congressman John Delaney has already announced he intends to run for president in 2020. He says rather than present “a thousand” issues to voters, the party should focus a simple message about “jobs, pay and the dignity of work.”

“Sixty percent of kids in this country live in a county where there’s no demonstrated upward economic mobility,” Delaney says. “That means the American Dream’s really not alive in those places. They care about that stuff and that’s what our message should be focused on.”

Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander ran a close but losing race for the U.S. Senate in 2016. Kander says politicians should stop trying to “crack the code.” “I tell Democratic politicians all the time…’People can tell if you’ve taken a position and you’re acting,'” Kander says. “Don’t act. Just go out and say what you believe.”

The three Democratic politicians made their comments during a joint appearance on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program Friday night.

(Radio Iowa)