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The news broadcast at 7:07-a.m., from Ric Hanson.
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(Washington, D-C/KCCI) — Congressman Randy Feenstra announced his plans for re-election. KCCI says the fourth district congressman announced Wednesday he will be running to maintain his seat in 2022. In a statement released Wednesday, he said, “With the support of my family and friends, and through prayerful consideration, I launched my first campaign for Congress because we needed a conservative leader to deliver results for Iowa. In just our first 10 months in Congress, we’ve restored Iowa’s seat on the House Agriculture Committee, passed needed disaster relief for our farmers, promoted our biofuels, passed legislation to stop the Chinese Communist Party from stealing our taxpayer-funded research, defended our conservative values and fought against the advance of socialism in America. After we defeat Speaker Pelosi in 2022, we will enact a conservative agenda to end reckless spending, protect innocent life, defend our 2nd amendment and restore America’s strength around the world.”
Also in the statement, Gov. Kim Reynolds, Sen. Joni Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley gave endorsements for Feenstra’s run. Iowans elected Feenstra over Democrat J.D. Scholten in 2022 after Feenstra defeated long-time Rep. Steve King in the primaries. So far, no one else has announced a run for the fourth district seat.
(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says Iowa is scheduled to receive its first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines for younger children sometime this week. The dosage level will be different for kids between the ages of five and 11 than it has been for adults. “We will be dispersing them to pediatricians and pharmacies,” Reynolds says.
In the next couple of weeks, the F-D-A and C-D-C are expected to approve giving Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine to children who’re five through 11 years of age. Reynolds is making it clear she will oppose vaccine mandates in Iowa elementary schools. “I do not believe in mandating vaccines. I’ve been very clear about that,” Reynolds says. “I’ve been vaccinated…It’s our best defense in addressing Covid-19 and the delta variant.”
But Reynolds says parents should make the decision about whether their children get a Covid shot. “I believe that parents should be in charge of not only their children’s education, but their children’s health are, so they need to visit with their pediatrician, ask the questions they have and then parents will make the decision in what’s best for their children,” Reynolds says. “It’s not the government’s children. It’s their children.”
Reynolds says she opposes employment-related vaccine mandates for adults and may join a lawsuit challenging President Biden’s order, once the rule-making is done, to require vaccinations in the military, in the health care industry and in private companies with more than 99 employees. “We’re going to see what is the best route, what are our options moving forward and how do we get this stayed,” Reynolds says, “so we’re not mandating that an individual make this decision between feeding their family or getting a vaccine that they fundamentally do not believe that they should.”
That latest information shows two-thirds of Iowa adults are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Among Iowa teenagers, 45 percent of 16 and 17 year olds are vaccinated and 39 percent of Iowa kids between the ages of 12 and 15 are vaccinated.
(Radio Iowa) – The second set of maps proposing new boundaries for Iowa’s four congressional districts and all state legislative districts will be released after 10 this (Thursday) morning. The non-partisan Legislative Services Agency will deliver the redistricting plan to legislators first, then release it to the public via the Iowa General Assembly’s website.
On October 5th, the 32 Republicans in the Iowa Senate rejected Plan 1 for redistricting and directed the Legislative Services Agency to develop new maps with legislative districts that were closer in total population. Governor Reynolds has set October 28th as the date for a special session so lawmakers can vote on this second set of maps.
(Radio Iowa) – U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has visited the picket line outside the John Deere plant in Ankeny. Vilsack told the U-A-W members he’s there for them because they were there for him 23 years ago. The union endorsed Vilsack’s successful 1998 campaign for governor when he was trailing in the polls and Vilsack says that’s something he won’t forget. Vilsack later told reporters he hopes the strike is resolved quickly and fairly. Current Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says she’s confident the union and the company will come to some resolution. “John Deere is a great company with a phenomenal workforce,” Reynolds says, “and this is part of the collective bargaining process.”
More than 10-thousand John Deere workers went on strike last Thursday after rejecting the company’s first contract offer. Negotiations resumed Monday. “I’m just hopeful that we can find resolution sooner rather than later,” Reynolds says. Reynolds, who grew up in the St. Charles area, has family members who worked at John Deere during previous strikes.
“My dad worked for John Deere for 40 years. My dad’s dad — my grandpa — worked for John Deere for many years. My dad’s brothers, my grandpa’s brothers all worked for John Deere. It was a stressful time when they would go on strike,” Reynolds says. “I had family members on both sides of the issue, but eventually at every point they were able to reach a resolution that really benefits both sides.”
Reynolds made her comments inside a manufacturing facility in Adel. Deere and Company operates plants in Ankeny, Davenport, Dubuque, Ottumwa and Waterloo. The union is seeking better pay and health care benefits as well as an end to a two-tiered system that pays workers hired in the past 24 years less than those hired BEFORE October, 1997.
(Atlantic, Iowa) (Updated 10/21)- An Atlantic man spoke during the public forum portion of Wednesday evening’s Atlantic City Council meeting, and took Councilman Dick Casady to task for comments he made at a meeting two weeks ago. Justin Masker – who resides on E. 21st Street – asked Casady to apologize for suggesting persons with vulgar signs (or flags) on their property and refuse to remove them – should be denied any requests they make to the Council in the future….
Masker said the theme he’s heard and comments he’s read from politicians, is for Americans to “comply,” in a Quid-Pro-Quo fashion (i.e.: “you to this and we’ll do that’).
He told Casady “You proved me wrong by saying something.”
He reminded Casady that an elected official works for the people, not the other way around.
Casady did not offer a response to Masker’s statements. In other business, the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, approved a schedule of Adoption Fees for the Atlantic Animal Shelter. The current adoption fees for cats is $10.00, with an additional $55.00 to $130.00 for veterinary costs. For dogs, adoption fees are $25.00, with an additional $60.00 to $265.00 for vet fees. The resolution moves the fees to a flat rate, $100.00 for cats and $200.00 for dogs.
(Radio Iowa) – A new Grinnell College National Poll finds President Biden’s support among independent voters has fallen and his overall approval rating is just 37 percent. The poll was conducted by Ann Selzer, who does The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll. Grinnell College political science professor Peter Hanson, the poll’s director, says Biden’s approval rating is driven by economic concerns.
“We have 52% of Americans who believe the economy will be doing worse in 12 months than it is today. Now, that’s a turn around. In previous editions of our poll we found Americans to be more confident,” Hanson says. “…I think that’s rooted in the fact that there’s been a lot of concerns about inflation, continuing concerns about the job market as Covid continues to have this ripple effect throughout our economy.”
The poll found if the 2024 election were held today, it would end in a tie between Biden and former President Donald Trump. Seventy-one percent of Republicans who responded to the Grinnell College Poll said they feel democracy is facing a major threat, and 38 percent of Republicans nationally said they’re not confident the votes cast in the 2022 election will be counted correctly.
“Consistent with the broader mission of our poll, we asked a set if questions designed to assess the health of American democracy,” Hanson says, “so we asked people how they believe our democracy is doing and then different questions being who in society they trust and what some of their attitudes are about different kinds of freedoms they have.”
Only seven percent of all the Americans surveyed said they had confidence in the federal government’s ability to solve problems and only a quarter expressed confidence in their own state’s governor. The Grinnell College National Poll found large majorities of Democrats trust doctors and scientists, but fewer than a third of Republicans trust scientists and 48 percent of Republicans expressed trust in doctors.
(Radio Iowa) – A former Southeast Polk High School teacher is sentenced to 24 years in prison for enticing a student into having sex with him. Thirty-nine-year-old Christopher Smith, formerly of Pleasant Hill, pleaded guilty to enticement of a minor.
Court documents show Smith used his cellphone and the internet in 2020 to contact a minor student while he worked full-time for Southeast Polk.
The information says he enticed the minor to engage in sex and also recorded sexual activity with the student on his cellphone. Smith will have to register as a sex offender once he is released from prison.