(Radio Iowa)  – A report finds states that ban or severely restrict abortion are less likely to attract medical school graduates for hospital residency slots. The study from the Association of American Medical Colleges Research and Action Institute found a drop in applications across all residency slots in states that restrict abortion. Atul Grover, the institute’s executive director, says the drop was much more drastic for med school graduates looking to be O-B/G-Y-Ns. Grover says, “But in OB/GYN, what we found was that you were about twice as likely to have US MD graduates trying to avoid those states where abortion was banned, or drastically limited.”

Iowa has one of the lowest rates of O-B/G-Y-Ns per capita in the country. A new Iowa law that bans abortions at about six weeks of pregnancy was temporarily blocked this week by a district judge while it faces legal challenges. Grover says he’s concerned abortion restrictions could increasingly deter other kinds of residents, not just O-B/G-Y-Ns. “Also, if you think about a specialty, like family medicine, that does a lot of obstetrical care, particularly in rural areas,” he says, “we believe that they will also be disincentivized to go practice in states like Iowa.”

Grover made his comments on the Iowa Public Radio program, River to River.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – No injuries were reported following an accident Thursday afternoon, in Red Oak. Authorities say 79-year-old Carolyn Dee Marsden, of Red Oak, was traveling south on Highland Avenue at around 1:10-p.m., and turned east onto Forest Avenue, directly into the path of a 2023 Chevy Equinox (SUV) traveling westbound on Forest. The 2016 Buick Encalve Marsden was driving collided head-on with the Chevy, driven by 51-year-old Angela Marie Sheely-Gurwell, of Ames.

Red Oak Police say Marsden failed to yield half the roadway. Both vehicles sustained an estimated $1,500 damage. No citations or warnings were issued.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Booster Club President Brian Wagner has announced brand new packages for member to the organization.

The 2023-2024 school year begins August 23rd for the Atlantic Community School District, and the Booster Club’s campaign kicked-off with six-levels of support available for you to choose from. Starting contributions are $140 for an annual pass to all activities, and finish with $2,000 Diamond Supporter packages that offer recognition on a multitude of programs, signs and digital ads at school events.

To support the program, community members, businesses and organizations can find a flyer in the New Telegraph’s weekly mailer that goes out to every household in the county. You can also call a Booster Club Member, message them on Facebook (Atlantic Iowa Booster Club), or e-mail boosterclubhelp@gmail.com.

The Club meets every third Monday at the Atlantic High School. Their meetings are open to the public, where involvement is welcomed with enthusiasm. Wagner says “We believe that giving these kids the support and encouragement to be involved, will come back full-circle and ten-fold, as they grow-up and become community leaders themselves.”

DAVENPORT, IA – A Davenport woman was sentenced Thursday to six months in federal prison for providing false statements during federal grand jury testimony. According to court documents and evidence presented at sentencing, 30-year LaRhonda Dawnielle Jenkins, was present at a shooting at the Dam View Inn in Davenport on March 9, 2021, where an individual was shot multiple times. When Jenkins was called to testify at federal grand jury proceedings, Jenkins lied about her knowledge of the identified shooter.

After completing her term of imprisonment, Jenkins will be required to serve three years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Davenport Police Department.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. In May 2021, the Department of Justice launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak say no injuries were reported following a collision between a 2006 Freightliner semi pulling a hopper-style trailer, and a 1992 Ford Tempo. Authorities report the car, driven by 92-year-old Wallace Keith Jones, of Red Oak, was traveling west on W. Market Street at around 5:45-p.m. He stopped at the intersection with S. Broadway Street, and then pulled away from the stop sign, before his car was hit on the front by the right front passenger side of the semi. Jones told police he didn’t see the semi before pulling out into the intersection.

Jones, and the driver of the semi, 48-year-old David Lee Rydberg, of Essex, were checked-out by medics, but refused transport to the hospital. The car was a total loss. Damage to the semi was estimated at $2,000. Red Oak Police issued Wallace Jones a written warning for Failure to Yield to a Passing Vehicle.

(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department say there were two arrests Thursday night. At around 9:50-p.m., 34-year-old Kayla Sue Hoffman, of Creston, was arrested for Theft in the 3rd Degree. Hoffman was taken to Union County Jail and later posted a $2,000 cash or approved surety bond.

And, at around 10-p.m., Thursday, 22-year-old Jerimiah Lee Whitney, of Creston, was arrested for assault, at a residence on W. Summit Ave. He was taken to Union County Jail and later posted a $300 cash or surety bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A significant, new advance in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is being unveiled at a medical conference in Amsterdam, and a central Iowa physician who’s there calls it a very exciting development.

Dr. Yogesh Shah, a geriatrician at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, says a simple, finger prick blood test, much like what diabetics do daily, shows promise in the ability to detect Alzheimer’s. “It will have to go through the regular checks, regular confirmations and approvals,” Dr. Shah says, “but the way I feel, the field is moving very fast, that this will happen soon and will be available for patients all over, including in Iowa.”

In a Radio Iowa interview from the Netherlands, Shah says this streamlined finger-prick test may help detect Alzheimer’s at home or in the doctor’s office, and indications are the blood test is more than 80% accurate. How soon will it be available?   “I would say and hope that it’s not years,” Shah says. “What I would also can say it’s not going to be available next week. I feel in months, so hopefully, in early to middle next year.”

Once it’s available, Shah says only people with a family history of dementia, or those who are showing symptoms, should need to take the test. If the test is positive, preventative measures could start much more quickly. Still, the drugs that are approved for helping to slow the progress of Alzheimer’s are expensive.
“It can cost up to $26,000 per year, so it’s a significant cost, and side effects, so we have to be careful,” Shah says. “It’s not for everybody. It’s only for patients with very early stage of Alzheimer’s.” A statement released by the Iowa chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association says this new blood test, once verified and approved, “would offer a quick, noninvasive and cost-effective option.”

It’s estimated there are 66,000 Iowans living with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, and another 98,000 Iowans are their caregivers. A report out this week says the average Alzheimer’s prevalence rate in Iowans age 65 and older is 11%, while the rate is even higher in northwest Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – Fourth District Congressman Randy Feenstra says he’s focusing part of the new Farm Bill on the cost of crop insurance.

Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, says the expense of crop insurance is a major barrier to young farmers who are just getting started in production agriculture.
“There’s this big push where China and other countries are buying our farmland and the reason that’s happening is because that next generation cannot afford or cannot buy that land from their parents,” Feenstra says. “One of the big problems is the input costs.”

Feenstra says he and the other members of the House Agriculture Committee are considering discounts on crop insurance for those farmers who are just starting off. “A new beginning farmer for the first five years, you get up to a 15% discount on their crop insurance to lower that input, so we can keep that farmland in Iowa and with the Iowa farmer,” Feenstra says, “and then it slowly ratchets down after five years, four years, three years, it goes from 15% down to 10%.”

Crop insurance is one of the biggest input costs farmers pay each year and he says some may choose 85% coverage, or even as low as 70%.
“Because of the costs, a lot of farmers are going down to that lower amount and that’s where operational loans from the bank, they get a little concerned,” Feenstra says. “You have a big hail out or a catastrophic event, then all of the sudden, you put yourself in peril because you only have X-percent of coverage for that crop.”

Feenstra says the largest part of the Farm Bill is food programs, including SNAP. He says farm state members of the committee want to make the program more efficient as SNAP payments have exploded in recent years.

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(Radio Iowa) – The new map from the U-S Drought monitor show some slight improvement following rains across the state.  All of the state still has some sort of drought rating, but the area that was in extreme drought dropped below four percent in the last week. The severe drought areas dropped from nearly 39 percent to less than 14 percent. With those percentages dropping, nearly 60 percent of the state is now in moderate drought, and around 22 percent is abnormally dry. The worst drought conditions remain in northwest and southeast sections of the state.

(Radio Iowa) – The severe drought in eastern Iowa has had an impact on the Christmas tree crop that will likely show up several years down the road. Mark Banowetz started the Cedar’s Edge Evergreen Market in Ely seven years ago, and told K-C-R-G T-V he is looking forward to the first season of sale. “These trees that we put in that were a foot or 16 inches, they’ve grown to 9 feet or so,” Banowetz says. He says the drought isn’t impacting the bigger trees, but the 500 seedlings he planted this year that have struggled.

“We’re losing a lot of seedlings,” he says. Iowa Christmas Tree Association President Bob Moulds, says Banowetz isn’t alone. He said a lot of newer farmers were also struggling, and there isn’t crop insurance for Christmas trees. “If they die, they die,” he said. “There’s no insurance, there’s nothing.” Moulds is the owner of the Wapsie Pines Tree Farm in Fairbank, and says he started changing his ways after the 2013 drought. He tells K-C-R-G- T-V he started watering and mulching each of the four-thousand trees he planted this year.

“If we had not mulched all these trees and individually watered them three times while it was dry, a large percent of them would not have made it,” said Moulds. As the Association’s new President, Moulds said he wanted to show other new farmers like Banowetz, what he learned over the years. So, they too can make it through droughts like the one we’re seeing right now.

KCRG-TV photo

Moulds says when tree farmers have bad drought years they can usually plant twice the number of seedlings the following year to make up for the ones they lost. But he said that can also be a risk if there’s another drought the next year.