(Radio Iowa) – Some high-profile proposals have failed to advance past the final deadline requiring policy bills to have cleared at least five steps in the legislative process by the end of this week. One bill that stalled called for ending tenure at the three state universities. House Speaker Pat Grassley says Republicans will revisit the issue in 2022. “There still is interest within the legislature to do something within tenure, it just may be a different approach,” Grassley says. “It maybe is more of a reform proposal that we would see.”

One of Republican Governor Kim Reynolds’ education proposals has failed to advance in the House. It would have established state scholarships to cover private school expenses for students who transferred out of a few dozen public schools. Republican Senators included the proposal in a bill they passed early this year, but Grassley confirms there were not enough G-O-P votes in the House for what the governor called “Students First Scholarships.”

“We just were unable to find a path forward on that,” Grassley says, “but we feel very strongly about the charter piece.” A bill designed to let groups form publicly-funded charter schools in Iowa without approval from local public school boards passed the House in March and the Senate Education Committee took action on it yesterday (Thursday).

Proposals on to automatically restore felon voting rights and track racial profiling failed to clear today’s (Friday’s) deadline. The governor’s proposal to allow over-the-counter sales of birth control also stalled again this year. While today (Friday) is technically the deadline for action on policy bills, legislators typically do not meet on Fridays and are not meeting today.

JOHNSTON, Iowa –March 31, 2021­–Iowa Corn announced the 18 student recipients of the Iowa Corn Future of Agriculture Scholarship program for the 2020-2021 school year. Iowa Corn awarded the eighteen (18) $1,000 one-year scholarships to deserving, qualified students enrolled at an accredited U.S. 2-year or 4-year junior college, college or university, or graduate school, in a program of study to equip them to contribute to Iowa’s agriculture industry. The program is sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers Association® (ICGA) and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board® (ICPB).

“Our industry’s success depends on our ability to offer relevant programming, advocacy, and services to developing young leaders entering Iowa’s agricultural sector,” said Gary Petersohn, a farmer from Tingley, Iowa, and chair of the Iowa Corn Grassroots Network, Membership & Checkoff Committee. “Iowa Corn is excited for the future of agriculture in Iowa with this group of recipients leading the way.”

Selection committees evaluated applications by their essays, applications, reference letters, current grades, and activities. They also must be an Iowa Corn Growers Association member or be a dependent of a member. Iowa Corn will recognize these scholarship recipients at the Grassroots Summit in August.

High school scholarship winners include:

District 3: Dallas Wittenburg of Readlyn, IA, Des Moines Area Community College
District 4: Rylee Sloss of Guthrie Center, IA, Iowa State University
District 5: Gavin Tindle of Montezuma, IA, Iowa State University
District 6: Dylan Engelbrecht of Davenport, IA, Drake University
District 7: Alexa McCunn of Red Oak, IA, Iowa Lakes Community College
District 8: Abby Benshoof of Winterset, IA, Iowa State University
District 9: Macy Moore of What Cheer, IA, Iowa State University

College scholarship winners include:

District 1: Adam Knoblock of Rock Rapids, IA, Iowa State University
District 1: Kaleb Schutte of Sibley, IA,Minnesota West Community and Technical College
District 2: Cole Eden of Titonka, IA, Iowa State University
District 2: Grant Kuehnast of Humboldt, IA, Iowa State University
District 3: Lydia Martins of Fairbank, IA, Iowa State University
District 4: Paul Schlotman of Sioux City, IA, South Dakota State University
District 5: Katie Hall of Clive, IA, Drake University
District 6: Courtney Vondracek of Fairfax, IA, Iowa State University
District 7: Nathan Behrends of Wiota, IA, Iowa State University
District 8: Ben Vos of Pella, IA, Dordt University
District 9: Sophia Breuer of Burlington, IA, Iowa State University

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that shifts the responsibility for financing Iowa’s mental health system has cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee and is now eligible for debate in the full Senate. Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, says ending county property taxpayer support of the system and having the state take over is the wrong step. “What you get with Des Moines control is unreliable funding, less accountability and more bureaucracy,” Bolkcom said.

Senator Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, says state tax dollars will be a long-term, stable source for mental health services. “This bill puts more money into mental health It doesn’t take money out of mental health and that’s worth noting,” Rozenboom said.

The bill also calls for ending state payments to local governments that started several years ago when a state law reduced commercial property taxes.

(Radio Iowa) – State officials say while millions of doses of Johnson and Johnson’s Covid vaccine that were produced at a Maryland plant are apparently ruined, they see no impact on Iowa’s shipments of the one-dose vaccine this week or next. It means the four mass vaccination sites at four Iowa college campuses will go on as scheduled.

Greg Christy, president of Northwestern College in Orange City, says his institution’s allotment next week is 500 doses. “With their college student now in their last month or so of class, we’re excited to get as many of them possible vaccines before they head out of the summer, wherever they may be going,” Christy says, “so our plan is to set up vaccine clinic here on campus late next week for our students and encourage as many of them as possible to participate.”

The vaccination clinic will be set up in the former library that was converted into a student center on the Orange City campus. Christy says all students are eligible. “It’s a first-come, first-served basis,” Christy says. “They just need to bring a copy of their insurance card with them, complete a brief form when they arrive and then I believe that the health system will be tracking data of who has been vaccinated because that could become important in the future.”

The Northwestern College president says having the student body get vaccinated will lead to the end of face coverings, quarantines and social distancing and a return to a more normal campus experience. “We’re not requiring students to get the vaccine,” Christy says, “but we’re obviously encouraging as many as possible to get the vaccine.”

State officials are also sending Johnson and Johnson vaccine doses to Dordt University, the University of Iowa in Iowa City and Des Moines Area Community College for mass vaccination clinics next week in Sioux Center, Iowa City and Ankeny. Governor Reynolds says the plan is to send more of the single-dose vaccine to other college and universities so students can be vaccinated before they leave campus for the summer.

Atlantic, IA — Cass County Health System in Atlantic, Iowa announced today it has been recognized as a 2021 Top 100 Critical Access Hospital. Compiled by The Chartis Center for Rural Health, this 11th annual recognition program honors outstanding performance among the nation’s rural hospitals based on the results of the Hospital Strength INDEX®.

“Our vision is to be the best rural hospital in America for patients to receive care, employees to work, and physicians to practice. This award reaffirms for us that we are growing closer to meeting that vision, and we couldn’t be prouder of our staff that has worked incredibly hard to get us to this point,” said Brett Altman, CEO of Cass County Health System.

“The Top 100 program continues to illuminate strategies and innovation for delivering higher quality care and better outcomes within rural communities,” said Michael Topchik, National Leader, The Chartis Center for Rural Health. “We are delighted to be able to spotlight the efforts of these facilities through the INDEX framework.”

Over the course of the last 11 years, the INDEX has grown to become the industry’s most comprehensive and objective assessment of rural hospital performance. Based entirely on public data and utilizing 36 independent indicators, the INDEX assesses rural hospitals across eight pillars of performance, including market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspective, cost, charge, and financial efficiency. The INDEX framework is widely used across the nation by independent rural hospitals, health systems with rural footprints and state offices of rural health, which provide access to INDEX analytics through grant-funded initiatives.