(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports that on January 13th, they received a report of a burglary / theft from a building in rural Page County, located south of Essex. A partial list of the property stolen includes:

• Miller Millermatic 211 MIG welder on cart
• a Honda generator
• a Large floor fan
• 2 log chains: 1- 3/8” chain and 1- ½” chain
• Electric cords: 2- 50’ and 2- 100’
• 2-forced air kerosene / diesel fuel “torpedo” heaters
• A very large anvil
• A children’s air-tired tricycle
• A set of combination wrenches
• A set of ½” sockets
• Jumper cables and welding leads

Those items were in very good condition and should be easily spotted if someone is trying to sell them. Sheriff Lyle Palmer says the Burglary / theft is now a Crimestopper’s case. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Page County Sheriff’s Office at 712-542-5193 or their local Law Enforcement agency. The caller can remain anonymous and will be given a number. They will need to give a contact phone number for member of the Page County Sheriff’s Office to call them back to get their information about the case. The case is eligible for a Crimestopper’s reward if the information given by the caller leads to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s).

(Radio Iowa) – Veterans groups are urging legislators to increase a tax break for veterans. A property tax exemption worth 18-hundred-52 dollars is available to veterans who served in a war or were on active duty during peacetime for at least 18 months. Iowa Veterans Affairs Commission chair Elizabeth Ledvina says the exemption reduces the assessed value of a veteran’s home. “There’s not been an improvement or an increase of that since 1974,” she says, “so we feel it’s very important.”

The commission is also calling for more money in the fund that provides grants to first-time home buyers who’re veterans of the first Gulf War in the early 1990s or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in this century. Each grant is worth five-thousand dollars and Ledvina says there are often more applicants than grants available. “It’s a great thing to move to Iowa and get these benefits,” Ledvina says. “so we need more support to further fund that Home Ownership Grant for our veterans and our service members coming back into the State of Iowa.”

The grants may be used to cover down-payments and closing costs on a home, townhouse or condo that will be the veteran’s primary residence.

WASHINGTON – You see them during television news and hear them on other programs multiple times per day: advertisements for prescription drugs for everything from diabetes control and maintenance, to skin treatments and arthritis relief. On Wednesday, Iowa 3rd District Representative Cindy Axne introduced legislation that would end taxpayer subsidies for prescription drug advertisements targeted at American consumers by big pharmaceutical companies. Under current law, drug manufacturers are allowed to deduct the cost of advertising expenses from federal taxes, meaning taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize drug advertisements.

According to Axne, “Iowans are paying more than ever for their prescription drugs while giant pharmaceutical companies clear record profits in part by exploiting loopholes in our tax code to flood our airwaves with T.V. ads subsidized by Iowa tax dollars. This is unacceptable and insulting to the Iowans who tell me at every town hall I hold, the incredible lengths they are going to just to afford their medications.”  Axne says she’s joining with Congresswoman Slotkin, of Michigan, and Congressman Trone, from Maryland, “to introduce legislation that will cut off these tax breaks for drug companies and stop my constituents’ tax dollars from funding the never-ending carousel of prescription ads on their televisions.”

The No Tax Breaks for Drug Ads Act would prohibit any tax deduction for direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising, thereby making sure that taxpayer money isn’t being used to subsidize drug ads. The bill would cover any ad that refers to a prescription drug product and is primarily targeted to the general public, including through journals, magazines, newspapers, broadcast media such as radio and television, and digital platforms such as social media and web applications.

DTC advertising expenses by pharmaceutical companies have more than quadrupled over the past two decades, rising from $1.3 billion in 1997 to $6 billion in 2016. In that same time period, advertising from drug companies has increased from 79,000 ads to 4.6 million ads, including 663,000 TV commercials. Margarida Jorge, Campaign Director for Lower Drug Prices Now, call the tax breaks for drug companies “…corporate welfare of the worst kind.”

The Senate companion of this bill was introduced by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).