(Radio Iowa) – When school starts in less than a month, students in 10 Iowa districts will go to school just four days a week. Iowa Senate President Amy Sinclair says it’s happening because of a recent change in Iowa law. It lets schools choose to calculate the required amount of classroom instruction each school year by the total number of days or just over a thousand hours.

“I have started the process of looking at the results,” she says. “We always want to know how this is impacting student achievement, how this is impacting families who utilize public schools.” Over 16-hundred districts in 24 states have opted for a four-day week and most offer child care on the other weekday. Sinclair says research shows parents depend upon schools for child care.

“Unless the data prove us otherwise in student achievement or in a family’s ability to maintain meaningful work, I’m happy letting those local school districts make those decisions,” she says. There’s been some push-back in other states on a four-day school week. A bill introduced in Louisiana sought to ban four day school weeks and legislators in Missouri and Texas have considered limiting which districts can switch to four days a week.

(The following Iowa school districts will have four-day weeks: Cardinal Community, East Union, Highland, Martensdale-St. Mary’s, Mormon Trail, Moulton-Udell, Murray, North Iowa, Saydel and Waco.)

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa advocate for Ukrainian immigrants says it’s become harder to get people out of the war-torn country. Martha Hulshof of Ireton has helped about 150 Ukrainians move to northwest Iowa through her sister, who is a missionary in western Ukraine. Hulshof says the process that has taken a couple of months can now take more than six months. She hasn’t being told why there’s been a delay, but says it is putting lives at risk.

“It’s heartbreaking what is going on over there. It’s war. And people forget since we don’t see on the news anymore what war’s really like with all the death and torture.” And Hulshof says flooding has compounded the issue of finding help for the refugees.“The situation here is hard, and it’s just that much harder to find houses and vehicles when people here have lost so much, too,” Hulshof says.

Hulshof says she is looking for northwest Iowans who want to open their homes to Ukrainian refugees.

(By Sheila Brummer, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa is mirroring the national trend with a slight drop in deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide, according to a report from a non-partisan public health policy organization.

Dr. Nadine Gracia, president and CEO of Trust for America’s Health, says figures for 2022 show the first substantial drop in those deaths in five years, though there’s still much work to be done. She says the long-term trend is still alarmingly high.

“In the state of Iowa, the data show that there were over 1,600 individuals who died due to alcohol, drugs and suicide,” Gracia says. “That was about a 1% decrease from the previous year. We saw decreases in alcohol induced death and drug overdose deaths, but there was actually an increase in suicide deaths by 6%.”

Over the past two decades, the study finds deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide in the U.S. increased by 142 percent. Gracia says drug overdoses, in particular, rose relentlessly in the past ten years as synthetic opioids gained in popularity. She says rural residents appear to be especially at risk.

Trust for America’s Health graphic

“We do see, for example, higher death rates among people who died from suicide from people who are living in rural areas, people who are men,” Gracia says. “For drug overdose deaths, we also see higher rates for adults who are ages 35 to 54, as well as males.”

In the report, “Pain in the Nation 2024: the Epidemic of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths,” researchers found a slight drop in the combined rate of alcohol, drug, and suicide deaths, but that rate is still more than double what it was 20 years ago. Gracia points to a lack of access to treatment options.

“You look at the state of Iowa, for example, about 59% of the state’s residents actually live in an area that has a mental health care shortage,” Gracia says, “so we need to assure that we’re bolstering and increasing access to mental health care services for anyone and everyone who needs them.”

To save lives, she says more work needs to be done to implement prevention and harm reduction strategies, and to ensure access to mental and behavioral health care.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County Deputy Auditor Sheri Karns, today (Wednesday), said the first person to file as a candidate for the November General Election, is Linda L. Pelzer, who is running for one of three positions as a member of the Cass County Hospital Board Trustees. Candidates running for that Board may file their papers any time.

As a reminder:   the filing period for candidates for Non-party political organization (NPPO) and Non-Affiliated persons for the upcoming General Election to be held November 5, 2024, are as follows:

• Non-Party candidates and Township Trustees- August 5^th-August 28th
• Soil & Water Commissioners and Agricultural Extension-August 5^th – August 28th
• Hospital Board of Trustees- Anytime with a deadline of Wednesday August 28^th.

County positions open are:

1. Board Of Supervisors District 1, District 4 & District 5
2. County Auditor
3. County Sheriff
4. Edna Township Trustee
5. Union Township Trustee
6. Soil & Water Commissioners (3)
7. Hospital Board of Trustees (3)
8. Ag-Extension (4)

For more information and for the number of signatures required for each office, please contact the Auditor’s office at 712-243-4570

(Bagley, Iowa) – The 16-year-old male from Bagley escaped injury, after the vehicle he was driving struck a bull on the road north of Bagley early Tuesday morning, in southern Greene County. According to the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office, the accident happened on Quail Road/K Avenue just north of the intersection with 100th, at around 4:45-a.m., Tuesday.

The truck, a 2015 Dodge Ram 2500 was traveling northbound when it struck the bull owned by Christopher Laws, of Bagley. The Sheriff’s report said the pickup’s driver swerved to avoid the collision but was unable to do so. The bull ended-up in the west ditch after it was struck. The pickup sustained disabling damage amounted to an estimated $8,500. The bull was valued at $2,000.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Utilities Commission heard public testimony Tuesday on proposed changes to its rules on hazardous liquid pipeline. Several of the people who commented were involved in the process for the Summit Carbon Solution’s carbon dioxide pipeline permit that was ultimately awarded despite their opposition. Sheri Webb, a landowner in Shelby County, says holding hearings during the harvest leaves people out of the process. “If they’re 24-7 and a lot of those combines are going 24-7, they just switch operators or they’ve got chores to do they didn’t make it to those meetings,” she says. “that is so wrong those people were left out in the dark in many instances.”

Webb also said many older landowners don’t use computers and trying to file things online was not easy. “I even hesitated the first time I was getting on the I-U-B site, which now is our utilities commission. I didn’t know what I was doing,” Webb says. “The website’s not super friendly. And now it’s I think it’s even worse now. But I guess the point is, is when you’ve got senior citizens that either don’t have a computer or don’t have the skills, they are left in the dark and that is wrong.” She says posting public notices in newspapers is not a good way to get information out, as many people no longer take the paper. “Most counties now have a website and a lot of them have a Facebook presence so I would suggest that they also be asked to put notifications in those areas,” Carter says.

Kathy Carter of Rockford also talked about using the Iowa Utilities Commission website. “One of the first things that I would like to bring to the attention of the commission is how very hard and frustrating it was to try to find on the I-U-B website the revised rules that showed not only the red lining but additions,” she says.

The hearing is part of the Governor’s executive order requiring all state agencies to review administrative code and an update and streamline rules and regulations. The I-U-C will consider any changes to the rules and then will host public hearings before the rules are adopted.