(Radio Iowa) – A move to get rid of the state law that forbids schools from starting the fall term before August 23rd has stalled in the Iowa House. The tourism industry objects, arguing families quit traveling and they lose student employees if school starts earlier in August. Craig Patterson is a lobbyist for Okoboji Tourism. “Every day that Okoboji loses from that summer season, it’s over a million dollars in hidden revenues that doesn’t come in,” he says.

Representative Thomas Moore, a Republican, is a retired teacher and coach from Griswold. “We don’t want to infringe on our business partners that are paying the taxes and making the money for the state government,” he says. “We also want that local school board to be able to make what the best decision for them is and so it’s a ‘Catch 22’ situation, I guess.” Moore is chairman of the subcommittee that discussed getting rid of the mandatory school start date. He announced at the end of a hearing that the bill would not advance.

Margaret Buckton is a lobbyist for the Urban Education Network, representing 22 school districts where nearly one in every four students are enrolled. She says having less time away from school avoids learning loss. “It’s important to work with communities and child care providers and staff and the local economy to figure out what is the best fit for all of these things and we trust our school boards to make those decisions in the best interests of their students and their taxpayers,” Buckton says, “so we’re in favor of this bill.”

In 2015, former Governor Terry Branstad criticized schools for starting before the State Fair was over — and he signed a law that has forbidden all public and private schools from starting before August 23rd. The mandatory starting date law does not apply to districts that have year-round school.

(Radio Iowa) – A Chicago man has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison after he was caught during a northeast Iowa traffic stop with three different kinds of illegal drugs in his vehicle. Thirty-five-year-old Brian Hale was pulled over in Dubuque County. Court records show a police dog sniffed drugs in the vehicle, despite Hale’s attempt to throw off the scent by sprinkling chili powder over the packages of drugs.

Hale pleaded guilty to distribution of meth and admitted he had meth as well as cocaine, marijuana and more than five-thousand dollars in cash in his vehicle.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill to require written permission from parents for any vaccinations for their children has cleared a Senate subcommittee. Health care groups and the Iowa Department of Public Health say parental consent is required under current law, but written as well as verbal consent is allowed. Iowa Public Health Association executive director Lina Tucker Reinders says taking away verbal consent could delay necessary vaccinations for kids.

“Verbal consent allows for parents to have those important conversations with their providers or child providers about any questions they have about the vaccinations that their children are about to be given,” she says. “Requiring written consent would impede upon these conversations.”

Members of a group that opposes vaccines say they support the bill because they’ve heard stories of teenagers who were given a COVID-19 shot without parental consent. Reinders says they should provide evidence to the Board of Medicine so those cases can be investigated.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped for the fifth straight month in July. Iowa Workforce Development Director, Beth Townsend, says more people are getting back into the workforce. “We are seeing a return to work for industries that had previously suffered the most if you will under the pandemic. Construction is up, manufacturing is up, people are returning to the retail and hospitality industries,” Townsend says. The rate dropped to three-point-five percent in December and Townsend says they want to continue to see it drop to the levels before the pandemic.

“Then we only had about 40-thousand who were unemployed and we had about 60-thousand open jobs. so, even then it was a problem — but today we have 85-thousand open jobs and we’ve got about 57-thousand unemployed,” according to Townsend. ” We really need to help employers fill all those vacant jobs if we are going to continue in our recovery.” Townsend says some of the lost workers are those who decided it was time to retire once the pandemic hit. “In Iowa, they traditionally would work longer. Most people didn’t retire at 65, if they were in good health they would continue work for a few years. I think retirements got a little bit younger, and those who maybe had stayed in the workforce a little bit longer than they originally intended decided to retire. And that definitely had a negative impact on our workforce,” Townsend says.

IWD Director Beth Townsend (file photo)

She says that’s what I-W-D is focusing on those who aren’t yet ready to retire. “How do we get people who were either recently unemployed or who have been unemployed for a while back into the workforce. Because there are some really great opportunities for people It’s a good time to try a new occupation if you are interested. It’s a good time to be on a search for a job because employers are making big changes to encourage people or incentivize people to work for them,” she says.

I-W-D recently started a new unemployment system where they pair up immediately with people looking for a job. “It’s only been in effect for not quite two weeks yet — but we are seeing good responses and we are seeing people get jobs within a week or two of taking advantage of the program. So, we are just helping them make those connections,” Townsend says.

Townsend says recruiting new people into the state to fill the jobs is something they are also doing with help from the Iowa Economic Development Authority.