(Radio Iowa) – The counties in Iowa that are not home to a state-licensed casino still received some of the gambling revenue again this year through the County Endowment program. Iowa Gaming Association C-E-O, Wes Ehrecke, says foundations in these 84 counties receive eight-tenths of one percent of the gambling tax. “So this past year is 160-thousand dollars to each of those non-casino counties,” Ehrecke says. “They have to put 25 percent in a permanent endowment the rest can be provided grants anyway they feel. Each have a separate board of directors for each county.” He says the program was started in 2004.

” Thirty-five-thousand grants and 136 million dollars since the inception of this program to the qualified community foundations in the non-casino counties. And just in this past year was 18-hundred and 38 grants and 10-point-7 million was provided out,” Ehrecke says. The 15 counties which have casinos have non-profits that hold the gambling license and they each are required by law to distribute a percentage of the gambling funds throughout their counties.

You can see the full details on how much grant money each of the 99 counties receives on the Iowa Gaming website at iowagaming.org.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill being considered in the legislature would eliminate the state sales tax on the sale on beehives. State Apiarist Andy Joseph estimates there are about half a million beehives in Iowa. “Most beekeepers are pretty small scale, between two and 10 hives,” he says, “and then we have a handful of beekeepers, maybe a dozen, maybe 15 on a commercial industry level and a lot of those have thousands and thousands of hives.” In total, there are an estimated 45-hundred beekeepers in Iowa. North Dakota produces the most honey of any state. Iowa currently ranks 16th.

“Once upon a time, ancient history, Iowa was number one. We had more beekeepers, more hives and produced more honey than anywhere else, so by basically every metric we were number one, but that’s going back almost 100 years,” Joseph says. “That changed with all the farm changes in the ’40s, you know, Farm Bill changes and then technology changes increased farming.” Jamie Beyer of Boone is a lobbyist for the Iowa Honey Producers Association. He says the economic benefit of bees is immense.

“How do you measure good pollination versus poor pollination? When we have a lot of bee colonies across the state, we have better pollination,” he says, “even in our soybean fields.” Beyer, who is from Boone, manages about 50 hives for his business, called Beyer’s Bees. He says bees are just as valuable to the state’s economy as pigs and cattle — and the state sales tax shouldn’t be assessed when bee hives sold or rented for pollination. The Iowa Honey Producers Association hosted Honey Bee Day at the Iowa Capitol yesterday (Thursday).

Iowa Honey Bee Day at the Capital, Thursday (RI Photo)

“One of the goals of the Iowa Honey Producers Association is to become better at producing honey,” Beyer says. “We actually import twice as much honey as what Iowans consume.” The association served legislators, staff and Capitol visitors an array of food with honey as an ingredient. They also had a display of honey products that included a bottle of mead made in Iowa. Mead is fermented honey and the association had to get special permission to bring the alcohol into the Capitol — and keep the bottle capped.

March 17, 2023 (DES MOINES, IA) – Today (Friday), the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) Board approved awards for two established companies in Cedar Rapids and Muscatine, which will assist in the creation and retention of 69 jobs and result in a $102 million capital investment for the state. Innovation funding was awarded in support of four startups located in Ankeny, Des Moines and Hiawatha. The board also provided final approval on a reinvestment district plan for Newton. (A spreadsheet of the awards can be found HERE)

Collins Aerospace to upgrade Cedar Rapids facility
Collins Aerospace delivers advanced technology products and services to the aviation and defense industries. The company plans to remodel their manufacturing facility in Cedar Rapids to accommodate expanded microelectronics fabrication processes. The project represents a capital investment of $22 million and is expected to create and retain 41 jobs at a qualifying wage of $30.24 per hour. The board awarded the company tax benefits through the High Quality Jobs (HQJ) program.

Kent Pet Group to construct facility in Muscatine
A subsidiary of the family-owned Kent Corporation, Kent Pet Group produces natural and sustainable cat litter under brands World’s Best Cat Litter, BreederCelect and Back-2-Nature. The company plans to construct a new 113,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Muscatine. The project represents an $80 million capital investment and was awarded a $150,000 forgivable loan and tax benefits through the HQJ program. It is expected to create 28 jobs, of which 27 are incented at a qualifying wage of $22.08 per hour.

Awards made to four startups

With a focus on apprenticeship opportunities, AxisU of Ankeny connects pre-qualified candidates to local trades-based employers. The platform also provides ongoing apprenticeship training that, when combined with on-the-job training, is recognized with a certificate from the U.S. Department of Labor. The company was awarded a $100,000 Demonstration Fund loan for product refinement, market planning and entry activities, and key personnel.

Ankeny-based Enceinte Health Inc. developed a smart commode to understand an individual’s health and wellness behavior within their home. The monitoring technology offers a more efficient and effective method of identifying potential health issues or preventative care opportunities. The company was awarded a $100,000 Demonstration Fund loan for proof of concept work, product refinement, market planning and entry activities, key personnel and equipment.

MetaFuel, based in Des Moines, created a system to help truck fleets manage fuel tax compliance. The technology provides assurance through data visibility and unlimited cloud storage for fuel records and seamless integration with a truck’s existing telematics hardware. The company was awarded a $50,000 Proof of Commercial Relevance loan for product refinement and market planning and entry activities.

Headquartered in Hiawatha, Shaka Culture, Inc. provides software that addresses team morale in remote or hybrid work environments. A subscription offers companies access to virtual culture programs with the goal of improving employee retention and recruiting costs. The company was awarded a $100,000 Demonstration Fund loan for market planning and entry activities and key personnel.

 Award recommendations for these funds are made by the Technology Commercialization Committee to the IEDA Board for approval.

Newton reinvestment district plan receives final approval
The Iowa Reinvestment District Program is designed to assist communities in developing transformative projects that improve the quality of life, create and enhance unique opportunities, and substantially benefit the community, region and state. The program provides for up to $100 million in new state hotel/motel and sales tax revenues to be “reinvested” within approved districts that cannot exceed 75 acres in size and must be in an Urban Renewal Area.

On June 25, 2021, the board approved provisional funding for six reinvestment district applications. Final application materials fully meeting all the program’s requirements were due prior to February 25, 2022. Newton submitted a pre-application during the 2021 annual filing window. Since that time, project representatives worked with IEDA staff to complete the final application for board review. Final application materials were received by the deadline, and today they received approval conditions subsequent on additional documentation.

The board approved the maximum benefit amount of $14 million for the Newton Legacy Reinvestment District submitted by the City of Newton. The project is focused on adapting existing facilities from Maytag’s departure, including apartments, a boutique hotel, event space and green space, as well as downtown improvements and trail connections. The plan proposes a capital investment of nearly $48 million.

(Radio Iowa) – A new report from the Alzheimer’s Association predicts a worsening shortage of family and professional caregivers in Iowa as more people are diagnosed — and more caregivers quit. Iowa chapter spokeswoman Lauren Livingston says there’s already a high demand for direct care workers, which includes nurse aides, nursing assistants and home health aides. She says they play a vital role in caring for people who are living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.  “By 2030 nationwide, we’ll need over a million more of these direct care workers, and in Iowa, we’ll need to see an increase of over 30-percent, so that’s pretty staggering,” Livingston says. “And on top of that, these jobs are really hard and they don’t pay very well, so there’s a really high turnover rate, too.”

She notes the median pay for these workers in Iowa is a little over 14-dollars an hour. Also, many tens of thousands of Iowans are getting -no- pay as they’re caring for a parent or other loved one. “There are 98,000 unpaid family caregivers, so those are loved ones caring for people that are living at home with them with Alzheimer’s and dementia,” Livingston says, “and they are providing an estimated 125-million hours of unpaid care valued at over $2.2 billion.”

Potential solutions to the looming shortage include getting better training for caregivers so they can better handle the rigors of the job, and mandated higher pay rates. The report says family caregivers in Iowa face significant emotional, physical and health-related challenges as a result of caregiving.  “These dementia family caregivers are putting in so much time that’s really taking a toll on their well-being and their mental and physical health,” she says, “on top of the health of their loved one living with dementia.”

Sixty-percent of Iowa caregivers report having at least one chronic condition, 27-percent report depression, 59-percent report high-to-very-high emotional stress due to caregiving, and 38% report high-to-very-high physical stress. According to the report, there are six-point-seven million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, including 66-thousand Iowans.

See the full report at: alz.org/facts

Police in Creston, Thursday morning, arrested a man on a charge of Sexual Abuse in the 2nd Degree. 21-year-old Tenkeno Latraill Shaun Gipson, of Creston, was arrested at his residence. He was transported to the Union County Jail and held on a $25,000 cash or surety bond.

(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.