(Radio Iowa) – A new report finds Iowa’s adult obesity rate rose significantly from 2019 to 2020. The study by the non-profit Trust for America’s Health found 36-percent of adult Iowans were considered obese last year, putting Iowa among 16 states with a rate above 35-percent. The Trust’s Dara Lieberman says the shift in many people’s daily routines and a reported decrease in physical activity during the pandemic may have contributed to the increase. Lieberman says, “We have seen several studies come out in the last year, including surveys of adults nationwide, that showed a large proportion of adults with unwanted weight gain and in some cases very significant weight gain.”

Adult obesity prevalence map. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (9/2021)

Lieberman says obesity is linked to an increased risk for many conditions like diabetes, heart disease and even getting severely ill from COVID-19. She says obesity rates differed along racial lines due to social and economic factors, with black Iowans having higher rates than white and Latino Iowans. “In Iowa, if you’re a black adult, you have a higher risk of poverty and a lack of insurance,” Lieberman says, “so those also put people at risk for obesity.”

Iowa is tied with Delaware for the seventh highest obesity rate in the country. Lieberman says lawmakers need to push for more resources to be invested in combating obesity.

(By Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Webster City is being invaded by Doodle Bugs. They’re not insects, but four-foot-long motorized scooters that were popular in the late 1940s. A reunion for scooter owners got underway Wednesday, and will run through Saturday, at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds. Organizer Jerry Wells of Webster City says the little machines saw drastic price jumps over just a few years — and are very rare and valuable now. “They started out at $69.95 and by the end of 1948, they were retailing at $169.96,” Wells says. “It’s not uncommon to see old ads that were $149. Now, they’re going for anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000, probably.”

A Doodle Bug

The Doodle Bugs were made by Beam Manufacturing in Webster City — by the thousands. “They made them in four production runs of about ten-thousand each,” Wells says. “Of that first production run, there were about 750 of them that had Clinton engines, so they’re pretty rare. I don’t know how many bikes there are totally. One of our members estimated, there may be 1,000 of them in existence out of that 40,000.”  Wells says Doodle Bug scooters have been found in such far-flung parts of the globe as Brazil and the Netherlands.  “It seems like every day we see on Facebook, somebody has found one in a junk pile,” Wells says. “They bring it back in a year and it looks like it was resurrected.”

The original scooters had one-and-a-half horsepower engines and ran around 23 miles an hour top speed. As part of the 35th annual reunion, collectors will be riding their scooters around Webster City this week, with the help of the police department.

More at www.wcdoodlebug.com

(Radio Iowa) – How do you go from teaching Advanced Events In World History at a charter school in Austin Texas to being Commandant at the Iowa Veteran’s Home in Marshalltown? For Iowa native Matt Peterson, the chance to come back home and, as a retired Marine, work with Veterans was too good for him to pass up. With his Mom from Spencer and his Dad an Army doctor from Red Oak, Peterson, and his parents got to know Joni Ernst. Peterson says the Senator had been trying to find a way to get him back home.  “She had done some heavy lifting to try and get me back to Iowa and it just didn’t work out, so I went to Texas. She stayed on it and was committed to figuring out something I could do here,” Peterson says. “So, when she called and said ‘would you be interested, I said yes and she said, I’ll let the Governor’s office know and they’ll take it from there.”

With two months at I-V-H in his rear-view mirror, Peterson says the staff couldn’t have done a better job in dealing with the COVID. He says they have conducted over 44-thousand tests and have just recently gone above the 50-positive results level. As far as the possibility of a federal mask mandate being issued for long-term care facilities, Peterson says the bottom line is simple. “President Biden has expressed his desires and to leverage his desired outcome, he’s got the federal funding that we depend on…about 40 percent of our budget comes from the federal government and that makes if difficult for us to do anything but comply should that order become law,” he says.

Peterson notes he does not have a health care background, but he has a background in leadership. Among the concepts Peterson is already exploring, making sure more Iowa Veterans are aware of what I-V-H has to offer, having an on-site child care program, adding a canine program for the residents…and installing the biggest flag pole and flag they can find.

(Radio Iowa) – The pandemic’s been rough on some Iowa kids, many of whom are back to in-person classes and wearing masks again. A child psychologist suggests parents and teachers need to keep an eye on the children to see how they’re adjusting. Dr. Jason Horowitz says most kids are better off being with their peers, but that’s not always the case.  Horowitz says, “Kids who may be prone to anxiety particularly in social situations may have difficulty making the transition from what may have been more comfortable for them, doing school at home or doing school virtually.”

There are some warning signs parents can watch for that may indicate the child is having a hard time with the transition. “It comes out in a lot of ways,” he says. “It comes out behaviorally, it may come out in sort of externalized behavior and misbehavior, acting out. For some kids it comes out in the more internalizing way, they become withdrawn or anxious or depressed.” Horowitz says other red flags your child might be having trouble adjusting include new mis-behaviors you haven’t seen before. He says, “Teachers are really good at looking for those kinds of warning signs and I’m sure that they will be doing that.”

He says it’s up to parents and teachers to help kids make the adjustments needed to flourish with their peers.

(Radio Iowa) – Congresswoman Cindy Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, says she supports the president’s vaccine requirements for federal employees and contractors. “I’ve looked at this all along as continuity of government…it’s absolutely what we should do. You know, government should never shut down and government needs to be here to serve the people,” Axne says. “…Same with the military.”

As for forcing larger companies, with more than 100 employees, to ensure workers get vaccinated or tested for Covid regularly if they’re not, Axne says she will defer to the experts. “If OSHA believes that we’ve got an opportunity to keep people safe — and that’s their job, to keep employees safe in the workplace — and they believe there should be a vaccine mandate put in place and so does the CDC, as I’ve done every step of the way I will go with CDC guidelines,” Axne says, “because it’s the right thing to do.”

A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee says President Biden’s executive orders — like the ones on vaccinations — are unconstitutional and taking away the rights of Hawkeye Staters.

(Radio Iowa) – The big reveal happens later this (Thursday) morning at the Iowa Capitol, as the plan for redrawing congressional and legislative district boundaries gets delivered to lawmakers and released to the public.  Reapportionment happens every 10 years, to adjust for changes in Iowa’s population, so some incumbent legislators may be thrown into the same House or Senate district with another incumbent as boundaries change.

At 10 a.m., the Legislative Services Agency will deliver paper copies of what’s called Plan 1 to the House and Senate. The maps will be posted on the legislature’s website shortly after that.