WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, secured major wins to protect U.S. troops in the annual defense bill – the Fiscal Year 21 National Defense Authorization Act – that passed out of the Senate Armed Services Committee this week.

“As a former company commander in Kuwait and Iraq, I understand just how important it is for all servicemembers to be equipped for the battlefield,” said Senator Ernst, the first female combat veteran elected to the United States Senate. “From ensuring female troops have body armor that fits to helping stop sexual assault within military ranks; and from funding effective treatments for traumatic brain injury to getting our troops the hazard pay they deserve for fighting on the front lines of COVID-19, this annual defense bill includes a number of my efforts to ensure our military men and women are protected as they defend our nation and way of life.”

Earlier this week, Ernst outlined her priorities for the bill, including her proposals to improve protection, safety, and treatment for the men and women of our Armed Forces. Senator Ernst’s provisions to protect the troops is intended to:

• Develop and field proper-fitting body armor for female soldiers
• Work to stop sexual assault in the military before it happens and lower the barriers for reporting by victims, including the Coast Guard
• Make the military courts handling sexual assault and other cases more efficient and accountable
• Fund proven and effective medical treatments for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Provide hazard pay for National Guard troops on the front lines to fight COVID-19
• Improve survivability and safety for military combat vehicles

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa’s colleges and universities are plotting courses for the fall semester in this pandemic era, with shifting schedules and a host of new rules. While programs like Zoom helped deliver classes to remote students this spring, at least one Iowa school is turning to a different technology for fall. Tim Laurent, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Mount Mercy University, explains their newest acquisition: “The Meeting Owl allows a 360-degree picture. It also allows a 360-degree microphone and speakers,” Laurent says. “The owl can be in the middle of a classroom and the students who are remote can actually see everything as if they are there.”

The Cedar Rapids institution has purchased 65 of the devices, one for every classroom, along with T-V monitors and stands. The 12-inch-tall Meeting Owl actually resembles an owl, with eyes and a beak. Laurent says they will enable Mount Mercy to offer in-person and blended/hybrid classes, as well as the ability to pivot to fully remote, if necessary. “We’ve been using that in some programs in our MBA program for a year and that is giving us great flexibility,” Laurent says. “We’re saying to faculty, ‘Hey, be flexible as you might not have as much space in the classroom,’ and this is our way of making it work.”

According to Laurent, the university’s hybrid model should allow for flexible instruction, as some students will attend class on one day while others take part virtually.  “Not only our local students but the national response from students is, ‘We want face-to-face,’ and so as we are putting our classes — our hybrid — together, it has face-to-face,” Laurent says. “They should be pretty quick to adapt to the remote learning as well. That’s what all the students had to do this last spring.”

Mount Mercy administrators decided not to shift fall dates, but instead will have classrooms mapped out to keep everyone distanced, while faculty, staff and the 18-hundred students will need to wear cloth face masks, face shields or both.

(More info. at mtmercy.edu/safe-return)

On Wednesday, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a new proclamation continuing the Public Health Disaster Emergency. The proclamation, effective at 8-a.m. today (Friday, June 12) continues to ease restrictions on businesses and extends other public measures until Thursday, June 25, 2020. It still encourages all vulnerable Iowans to continue to limit their activities outside of the home. The full proclamation is available here, with and a summary of substantial information is shown below:
REOPENING OF ESTABLISHMENTS
Establishments that were previously ordered to be closed statewide may reopen or remain open, but only to the extent that the facility takes reasonable measures under the circumstances to ensure social distancing, increased hygiene practices, and other public health measures to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 consistent with Guidance issued by the Iowa Department of Public Health.
MASS GATHERINGS
Social, community, recreations, leisure, or sporting events of more than 10 people may be held, if the following requirements are met:
(1) Social distancing: The gathering organizer must ensure at least six feet of physical distance between each group or individual attending alone.
(2) Other social distancing, hygiene, and public health measures: The gathering organizer shall also implement reasonable measures under the circumstances of each gathering to ensure
social distancing of gathering participants, increased hygiene practices, and other public health measures to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 consistent with guidance issued by the Iowa Department of Public Health and, for any food service, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals.
(3) Non-school sporting and recreational events: Practices, games, and competitions for baseball, softball, and individual sports, such as running, biking, swimming, tennis, and golf, are
not prohibited by this section even where athletes may have some contact within six feet, provided that the organizer of such activities and events implements reasonable measures under the
circumstances of each gathering to ensure reasonable social distancing, increased hygiene practices, and other public health measures to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19
consistent with guidance issued by the Iowa Department of Public Health.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa legislature has unanimously passed a police reform bill — responding to the police misconduct the nation saw when a bystander in Minneapolis videotaped the death of George Floyd. Representative Ras Smith  of Waterloo calls the legislature’s gesture of unity historic. “I’m hopeful because in this time in Iowa, we stepped up to make real change,” Smith said. “…As a body, by default, we’ve committed here today to shouldering a burden, to ensure that George Floyd, or the scores before him, doesn’t take place in our state — not on our watch.”

Representative Ako Abdul-Samad, of Des Moines, says the moment came because legislators are listening to a new generation of “game-changers” who have been protesting. “My beloved brothers and sisters — and I mean all of you — not only are you part of history, you are rectifying history,” Abdul-Samad said. House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, of Missouri Valley, turned to the Black Lives Matter protesters in the gallery watching last (Thursday) night’s debate and said three words: “We hear you.” “Is this the solution to every problem that we have, to every injustice? No,” Windschitl said, “but it’s a damned good start.”

The legislation forbids choke holds in nearly every situation and lets the state attorney general investigate deaths caused by police. Once the bill is signed into law –as the governor says she’ll do — police officers with a proven record of misconduct may not be rehired in Iowa. The House and Senate debated the bill at the same time. For the first time in her tenure, Governor Kim Reynolds walked into both chambers and stood to listen. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver of Ankeny says the times require government solutions and this bill is a starting point. “Tonight, we are showing our state and the world that the Iowa Legislature listens to Iowans,”Whitver said, “and we are willing to lead on tough issues.”

Whitver emphasized the bill’s requirement that Iowa law enforcement officers have annual training sessions in “de-escalation” techniques and the prevention of bias. It took less than two-and-a-half hours for the bill to be formally introduced and passed by the House and Senate. The bill wasn’t really debated. Instead, legislators rose to share their perspectives. Seventy-three-year-old Ruth Ann Gaines, a state representative from Des Moines, says the first time she really understood racism was as an eight-year-old, after she heard Emmett Till’s mother speak about her son’s lynching. “I’ve lived a long life in the civil rights movement,” she says. “I’ve sat here year after year listening to debate which I thought showed indifference to what my cause was, so today I am jubilant, I am happy, I am surprised and I am really glad to be a part of it.”

Dozens of Des Moines Black Lives Matter protesters who’d been in the capitol building all day were part of the moment, too. They sat or stood silently in the viewing galleries, many with a fist in the air, as lawmakers spoke, then cast their votes for the bill. Governor Reynolds, in a written statement, says the bill is the result of listening and making a commitment for meaningful change.