A handful of Iowans with chronic epilepsy are waiting for the state to grant their request for a card that shields them from state prosecution if they are caught using cannabis oil to try to reduce their seizures. The 2014 law that had granted state registration cards to chronic epileptics was repealed last month when Governor Branstad approved a NEW medical marijuana law.

Sarah Reisetter, deputy director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, says “At this point in time, we don’t have a way to approve applications for patient and primary caregiver cards that we’re getting, even for patients with intracible epilepsy.”

That’s Today (Thursday), the State Board of Healh voted to ask a legislative committee to approve EMERGENCY rules for issuing the medical cannabis registration cards.

Because of the NEW state law allowing Iowans to use cannabis oil as treatment for more than a dozen conditions, the board’s PROPOSED rules call for issuing cards for patients who have diagnosed with a terminal illness like cancer or debilitating conditions like M-S, Parkinson’s and A-L-S as well as chronic epilepsy.

The legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee will consider the issue at its meeting next Tuesday.

(Radio Iowa)

An Iowa research group says the number of manufacturing jobs continues to fall in the state, even after a new sales tax break was given to manufacturers, likely costing the state tens of millions of dollars. Mike Owen, executive director of the Iowa Policy Project, says backers of the tax break cited a common policy idea that lowering taxes leads to more jobs, but that’s not what’s happening.

“What we can clearly see is that from the first nine months, that certainly hasn’t produced — with the sales tax break,” Owen says, “and it’s costing us more money than we expected, so it’s kind of a double hit.”

The tax break allows more exemptions for manufacturers when they’re purchasing supplies. The report says it could cost the state 80-million dollars more than the original projection. Owen says mixing politics with economic analysis may have led to overly-optimistic revenue projections.

Owen says, “At the same time, we’re seeing lower revenues in the sales tax, we’re also seeing jobs continue to decline in the manufacturing sector.” Governor Kim Reynolds is now weighing options to deal with the additional revenue shortfall.

(Radio Iowa w/Thanks to Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

The Iowa Board of Regents today (on Thursday) approved another tuition increase for resident undergraduate students who will attend Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI. The vote was unanimous. The tuition increase for the upcoming fall semester amounts to five-percent, or $358, more than last fall.

The board had approved a two-percent tuition hike back in December, but decided to boost it another three-percent after the Legislature cut state support to the Regents institutions by nearly 21-million dollars for the current budget year and 9.6-million dollars in 2018.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After more than two months without a winner, the Powerball jackpot has grown to $435 million. The jackpot for Saturday night’s drawing would tie for the nation’s 10th largest lottery prize. No one has matched all the balls drawn in the Powerball game since April 1, when a player in Arizona won $60 million.

Powerball drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturdays and Wednesdays. To win the jackpot, players must match six numbers drawn from a drum. There are five white balls drawn from a drum with 69 balls and one red ball drawn from a drum with 26 balls.

The chance of winning the jackpot is one in 292.2 million. Powerball is played in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The state treasurer is “raising the red flag” about state government finances. Michael Fitzgerald says the state had to dip into cash reserves to pay all its bills in April. “We have a serious issue here,” Fitzgerald says. “Our financial condition has deteriorated tremendously.”

April is a significant month in the state’s fiscal year. The state must make its monthly payment to public schools and another 325-million or so to health care providers who treat Medicaid patients. In addition, April is the month the state is writing tax refund checks before all the state income taxes owed to the state are paid. “We just squeeked by,” Fitzgerald says. “We came dangerously close to not being able to pay our bills on time.”

Fitzgerald, a Democrat who has been state treasurer since 1979, is asking Republican Governor Kim Reynolds to give her blessing to some “cash flow” borrowing. The state treasurer has the authority to sell short-term bonds to investors to raise money to cover cash flow problems. “Our surplus has been wiped out,” Fitzgerald says. “Our reserve funds are being eaten into and the trend continues to slide.”

Fitzgerald says the state has engaged in cash flow borrowing “many times” in the past. He suggests issuing short-term state bonds in September. “We’re on the brink of not being able to pay our bills on time,” Fitzgerald says. “…I’m raising the red flag.”

Governor Reynolds plans to meet with Republican legislative leaders soon to discuss the state’s troubling finances. The latest report from the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency indicates that over the last 11 months, state tax collections were 100-million dollars below expectations. Reynolds says the numbers “fluctuate daily,” but she isn’t ruling out calling legislators back to Des Moines for a “special session” to enact a plan that ensures the state budget doesn’t slide into a deficit.

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A hospital in Omaha will be closing its doors after 40 years and opening a new emergency room six blocks away. The Omaha World-Herald reports that Creighton University Medical Center will stop taking patients on Friday. Opening at the same time that the hospital closes will be a new emergency room six blocks east at Creighton University Medical Center University Campus.

The decades old hospital’s Level I trauma center and role as a teaching facility for Creighton’s medical school will move to a third facility, the expanded Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy. Chief medical officer at CUMC-Bergan Mercy Dr. Devin Fox said Wednesday that the closure of the hospital won’t leave northeast Omaha without medical services.

A father and son are spending their summer on the Mississippi River to raise awareness about veteran suicides. On Wednesday, Jeff and Logan Hastings paddled their kayaks into Dubuque, where they spoke with KCRG-TV.

The Hasting operate a nonprofit organization called Warrior 180 Foundation. They travel around the country to help veterans who are experiencing suicidal thoughts and having a hard time adjusting to civilian life.

Logan and Jeff Hastings (KCRG photo)

Jeff and Logan Hastings are both army vets. Logan served two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The father and son plan to travel over 2,300 miles in their journey to the Gulf of Mexico. Logan said it’s already been a grueling trip.

Despite his sunburn and aching limbs, Logan says the journey is worth making as he and his father work to spread their message. The Hastings say people who wish to donate to the cause can do so at their website: www.warrior180.org.

(Radio Iowa via KCRG-TV)

Out of more than 18-thousand applicants, NASA is naming a dozen new astronauts to the corps including an Iowa native. Radio Iowa’s Matt Kelley reports:

(As said) –
Thirty-nine-year-old Raja Chari grew up in Cedar Falls and has degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Air Force Academy and M-I-T. He’s a lieutenant colonel and a test pilot for the Air Force and flew combat missions over Iraq. Chari was told a few weeks ago that he was among the final 12 astronaut candidates but was ordered to only share the secret with his immediate family.

Raja Chari (NASA photo)

“I was able to call my wife and that’s when there was screaming on her end and I was still in my office with all of the folks right outside the door,” Chari says, laughing. “I had to just do a little happy dance in place. It was about all I could do at the time to not totally give everything away.” Chari’s wife, Holly, is a Cedar Falls native and they have three children. His mother still lives in Cedar Falls. Chari graduated from Waterloo Columbus High School in 1995 before heading to the academy. He admits he hasn’t always dreamed of becoming an astronaut but learning to fly was one of his early goals, along with studying science.

He’ll report for duty at NASA in August and will face two years of rigorous astronaut training, but says he’s excited at the prospects of rocketing into orbit and perhaps — going well beyond.

This is a particularly exhilarating time to be joining the space program, he says, with so many new possibilities on the horizon as NASA looks past the space station and toward missions that may lead to the Moon and to Mars. He’s piloted all sort of aircraft and has helped in developing America’s newest fighter, the F-35. With the space shuttle fleet long since retired, the prospects of being the first to pilot a completely new spacecraft into orbit are a thrill for Chari: “I wouldn’t say daunted so much as excited.”

(Radio Iowa)