Area and state News from Ric Hanson.

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(Des Moines, Iowa) – Southwest Iowa Republican Representative Tom Moore, from Griswold, says this third week of the legislative session saw a huge uptick in committee and sub-committee work. Moore, who represents District 21, says the Human Resources Committee…

• Passed three House Study Bills (HSB’s) he says will continue an attempt to put tools in the tool belt of child care providers by allowing the negotiating of pricing between CCA recipients and providers, increasing 2-year-old ratios by 1 child and 3-year-old ratios by 2 children thus providing more child care slots in Iowa, and allowing 16 and 17 year-olds to provide childcare for school-age children.
• House File 210, he says, allows for an individual on who is on a ventilator the “right-to-try” an off label use of a drug.

Moore said also, the week was packed full of Sub-committee meetings. Among the list of bills he worked on throughout week, was

• A bill for an act relating to the adoption and use of certain general permits issued by the department of natural resources.
• A bill for an act relating to the release of nursing facility reimbursement rates under the Medicaid program.
• A bill for an act relating to the membership, procedures, and functions of the Iowa council on homelessness.
• A bill for an act relating to the beginning date of the school calendar for school districts and accredited nonpublic schools.
• A bill for an act relating to the composition of a county zoning commission.

Moore says also, this week, he chaired a sub-committee for a bill (House File 656) that Moore has worked on for five years. The basic premise of this bill is that once a patient is stable on a medication their insurance company can’t switch them to a similar but often less expensive drug. This doesn’t happen often, he says, but when it does the outcome can have grave circumstances for the patient. The major issue comes from the insurance industry who says it hampers their ability to control costs. Moore says “For me it comes down to where our priorities lie, with the costs and profits of the insurance companies or the care of the individual patient.”

After working on this for so long, Moore says it was great to see House File 656 pass both sub-committee and the Human Resources committee unanimously. He said also, “It will be exciting to continue working on this as it moves to the House Floor and eventually through the Senate.”

Representative Moore can be reached for questions and comments at tom.moore@legis.iowa.gov and (712) 789-9954.

(Stuart, Iowa) – Officials with the Stuart Fire Department reported on a social media page, that just before 6:30-a.m. Tuesday, Stuart Fire crews were requested for a working residential structure fire at Diamondhead Lake. As crews arrived on scene flames and heavy smoke were visible from both the garage and house. No injuries were reported. Other crews assisting at the scene included Stuart rescue, Dexter Fire, and personnel from “The Cup on 2nd.” (Photo taken by a nearby home owner)

Via the Stuart F,D, Facebook page

(Radio Iowa) – January is going to end up on a warm note. National Weather Service meteorologist, Ashley Bury, says the relief is coming from the south. “We’re going to see some more southerly winds pushing some of that warmer air up into the area — so it’s going to be a nice relief to the temperatures we’ve been having on a little rollercoaster of ups and downs over the past week,” Bury says. Temperatures could be well about freezing in some parts of the state. “We’ll see temperatures increase back up into the 30s for much of the area. Some areas of eastern Iowa could still see temperatures in the 20s –but mainly areas of central and western Iowa could see values even in the 40’s for Saturday,” she says.

The warm conditions will continue into the early part of next week. “It looks like we’re still going to be in the 40s for Monday, and then as we get into the beginning of February — looks like it will kind of hold into the 30s for much of the area — and then dropping down back to the teens by Wednesday,” according to Bury. She says things aren’t usually this warm. “It’s about ten or 20 degrees about average for this time of year. The teens are bit more of what we’d expect, into February as well,” Bury says. The warmer temps will lead to more melting — and that melt will freeze again overnight. “Refreezing is definitely possible, so it’s important to be extra cautious when you are outside for that,” Bury says.

There have been times when temperatures were below zero in the last week, including some days with wind chills in the double-digits below zero.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a traffic stop Thursday night in Red Oak, resulted in the arrest of a woman from Cass County (IA). Deputies pulled over a vehicle at Highway 34 and 4th Street at around 9:40-p.m., and upon further investigation, arrested 23-year-old Parrish Wright, of Cumberland, for Driving While License Suspended. Wright was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court says she’d like to see more programs that encourage lawyers to live and practice in rural Iowa. Chief Justice Susan Christensen is a Harlan native, and still lives in Shelby County.

Christensen says people talk about helping doctors and dentists pay off student loans if they practice in rural communities, but no one thinks about lawyers until they NEED a lawyer.

Christensen suggests the irony is a lawyer who starts out in a small town is able to get far more experience than a law school grad who lands a job in a big city firm.

Christensen says lawyers who work in large firms often spend years carrying someone’s briefcase before they get to have their own clients. Christensen made her comments during the “Breaking Glass” women’s leadership series sponsored by the Mason City Chamber of Commerce.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety report two suspects have been taken into custody, in connection to the Jan. 7th shooting of 41-year-old Kenneth James, of Coralville. The incident occurred during a drug deal. Authorities say as the result of an investigation, 17-year-old Jaden Miller, of Columbus Junction, and 19-year-old Mya Wright, of Iowa City, were arrested Thursday. They each face Felony charges of Attempted Murder and Robbery in the 1st Degree. If convicted, they face up to 25-years in prison. Both remain held on a $500,000 cash-only bond, each. The investigation continues, and additional charges are possible.

Officials with the Washington Police Department say the suspects invited James to the town of Washington to conduct the transaction, during the course of which James was shot once in the torso by Miller, as James was sitting in his vehicle in a parking lot at 600 W. Adams Street.

James then left the area, eventually crashing his vehicle before calling 9-1-1. He was located and transported to the University of Iowa Hospital for treatment. Washington Police were assisted by the Iowa DCI, Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Columbus Junction Police and the  Washington County Attorney’s Office.

(Radio Iowa) – House Republicans, Thursday, released a tax plan that uses the governor’s outline for lowering the state income tax to a single rate of four percent and making retirement income tax exempt.  “I’ve been clear that we want to have something that’s part of our tax plan, that’s sustainable as part of our tax plan and something that works without having to raise any taxes. I think we have that bill.” That’s House Speaker Pat Grassley. He expects the plan to be debated in the House soon, but he’s not setting a date.

“The governor’s bill that she proposed — lowering the rates to four percent, addressing the retirement — is a great place for us to get a bill that can move through the process very quickly,” Grassley said. The House G-O-P plan does not include a cut in the corporate tax rate as Governor Reynolds and Republicans in the senate have proposed. Grassley says changing state tax policy toward corporations — including a review of tax breaks — should be a separate conversation — for a separate bill.

“I think our focus has to maintain on addressing the governor’s priority that she laid out for the legislature, which I would say is the retirement (income) and the 4% tax,” Grassley says. Democrats say a flat tax will wind up causing some Iowans to pay more and dramatically reduce the amount of income tax the wealthiest Iowans pay.

As Radio Iowa reported Wednesday, SENATE Republicans not only propose a corporate tax cut, their plan includes a maneuver to supply new funding for water quality and outdoor recreation projects.

(Radio Iowa) – Des Moines Area Community College is starting a new program that offers a combined degree where students learn to be a firefighter and paramedic. DMACC’s coordinator of emergency medical services, Dustin Dickhaut  says it allows students to join a fire department fully prepared for duty. “Traditionally students will enter this career field having fire experience or E-M-S experience, and then an agency would hire them and kind of help them get the other that is missing,” Dickhaut explains. “That comes at a cost for an organization that delays their utility to the community.”

They announced the degree at the brand new fire station in the Des Moines suburb of Clive. Dickhaut says having training for both fire and E-M-S is the standard. “You see firefighters you see fire stations, you think car crashes, house fires, things like that. But what you don’t oftentimes think is that there is an ambulance in that fire station too. And at any point in time the individuals who are here today they’re cross-trained. If someone from the fire engine goes home sick — the person from the ambulance jumps across and there’s not a moment’s hiccup there,” he says.

“And that’s what we want to make sure we are supporting from DMACC’S perspective, is that we are giving them these individuals who from day one they could fulfill either of these roles.” Dickhaut says the degree takes two years. He says they spend six semesters working through the prerequisites and the start of fire training — including internships in fire stations. The state already has a fire training institute — which Dickhaut says provides more advanced training.

“We actually deal with them quite regularly. In fact, they are on our advisory committee. They help inform some of the decisions we made with this degree path,” according to Dickhaut. “And I would say the training we offer is the entry-level training — the firefighter one, your E-M-T, some HAZMAT, your paramedic. Oftentimes individuals who do want to progress into the fire service accelerating their promotability — they would talk to the fire service training bureau.”

Clive Fire Chief, Rick Rowe, says there have been some good E-M-S training programs in the area — but the firefighting training wasn’t as easy to get. “Everybody had to do training on their own, a lot of duplication of efforts. And if you were not on a fire department, there was nowhere for you to get your firefighter training,” Rowe says. Rowe says he used to be able to choose from more than one dozen candidates for open jobs. Now several departments are competing for four or five applicants as the need for people has increased.

“Call volumes are going up in general, as well as you get the growing communities that get to the point where they need to add a fire station. And that takes a minimum of 18 people if you are going to have both an ambulance and fire truck in the station,” according to Rowe. He describes what he looks for in a new recruit. “Most importantly somebody who can get along with other people. They are here living with somebody 24-hours a day. Obviously we want somebody who is a hard worker, a learner, eager, enthusiastic — but the bottom line — it’s got to be somebody who can get along with other people,” Rowe says.

DMACC says graduates with an Emergency Response degree can start at around 60-thousand dollars and that can go up to 70-thousand or more with overtime. The new Emergency Response program will start for new students on the DMACC Ankeny Campus in the fall 2022 Semester, which begins on August 24th.

(Radio Iowa) – A teacher who’s also a state representative is sponsoring a bill to make it clear school-owned WI-FI systems may block access to certain internet sites. Representative Garrett Gobble of Ankeny teaches U.S. History to 8th graders.  “I can’t tell you the number of times I — in any place I’ve ever taught — have seen the kids on Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat,” he says, “and it’s just obviously not an academic purpose.”

Gobble says a lot of schools are blocking certain websites, so students using the school’s WI-FI cannot access social media, but other districts are concerned about accusations of censorship and this bill provides those districts some cover. “The goal of social media is connection, but a lot of what it comes to is judgement or you’re comparing yourself,” Gobble says, “and so I think at least giving our kids an eight hour break during the school day to focus on school, be a kid is kind of why I brought this bill forward.”

Representative Tracy Ehlert of Cedar Rapids works in an elementary school and she says this could help prevent some of the cyber bullying that’s going on. “Of course the kids could still go home and get on it later,” she says, “but it’s one less thing the children would have to experience during the day.” Ehlert says software is available that blocks certain sites and her school uses a program that lets math teachers see what each student is watching on their school-issued tablet during class.

“The teacher, on her computer, can pull up a screen that has a picture of every child’s screen and make sure that they’re actually on ST Math. If they’re not, we can kick them right off that site they keep going on it. You can block it for the day. You can block it indefinitely,” Ehlert says, “so there is software out there to do this.” There’s also software that lets WI-FI systems block access to Facebook.com and other social media sites. Gobble says he catches kids using their smart phones to play video games during class.

“Instagram, Snapchat — they’re just constantly on it,” Gobble says. “We need to just disconnect a little bit. It’s a respect thing and it’s an ‘are you actually learning thing?’ and we’ve got to teach good habits early on.” The bill has cleared a House subcommittee and is eligible for debate next week in the House Education Committee.