(Radio Iowa) – A bill to require written permission from parents for any vaccinations for their children has cleared a Senate subcommittee. Health care groups and the Iowa Department of Public Health say parental consent is required under current law, but written as well as verbal consent is allowed. Iowa Public Health Association executive director Lina Tucker Reinders says taking away verbal consent could delay necessary vaccinations for kids.

“Verbal consent allows for parents to have those important conversations with their providers or child providers about any questions they have about the vaccinations that their children are about to be given,” she says. “Requiring written consent would impede upon these conversations.”

Members of a group that opposes vaccines say they support the bill because they’ve heard stories of teenagers who were given a COVID-19 shot without parental consent. Reinders says they should provide evidence to the Board of Medicine so those cases can be investigated.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric)

(Radio Iowa) – The sponsor of a bill to set statewide rules for which roads all-terrain vehicles may travel on, says he’s changing his plan. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, of Wilton, says city officials would retain authority over where A-T-Vs can travel within city limits, but he still plans to seek statewide rules for roads where county boards of supervisors have jurisdiction.  “Local control does not work when boards of supervisors ignore tens of thousands of signatures and refuse to even so much grant a meeting,” Kaufmann says. “When local control is not working, then it is our job to step in.”

Two-thirds of Iowa counties DO have local ordinances that spell out which roads and local highways A-T-Vs may use. Kaufmann says he’s considering other ideas, like requiring licenses for A-T-Vs that operate on roads with other vehicles. Those proposals will be reviewed if and when the bill is debated by the full House.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped for the fifth straight month in July. Iowa Workforce Development Director, Beth Townsend, says more people are getting back into the workforce. “We are seeing a return to work for industries that had previously suffered the most if you will under the pandemic. Construction is up, manufacturing is up, people are returning to the retail and hospitality industries,” Townsend says. The rate dropped to three-point-five percent in December and Townsend says they want to continue to see it drop to the levels before the pandemic.

“Then we only had about 40-thousand who were unemployed and we had about 60-thousand open jobs. so, even then it was a problem — but today we have 85-thousand open jobs and we’ve got about 57-thousand unemployed,” according to Townsend. ” We really need to help employers fill all those vacant jobs if we are going to continue in our recovery.” Townsend says some of the lost workers are those who decided it was time to retire once the pandemic hit. “In Iowa, they traditionally would work longer. Most people didn’t retire at 65, if they were in good health they would continue work for a few years. I think retirements got a little bit younger, and those who maybe had stayed in the workforce a little bit longer than they originally intended decided to retire. And that definitely had a negative impact on our workforce,” Townsend says.

IWD Director Beth Townsend (file photo)

She says that’s what I-W-D is focusing on those who aren’t yet ready to retire. “How do we get people who were either recently unemployed or who have been unemployed for a while back into the workforce. Because there are some really great opportunities for people It’s a good time to try a new occupation if you are interested. It’s a good time to be on a search for a job because employers are making big changes to encourage people or incentivize people to work for them,” she says.

I-W-D recently started a new unemployment system where they pair up immediately with people looking for a job. “It’s only been in effect for not quite two weeks yet — but we are seeing good responses and we are seeing people get jobs within a week or two of taking advantage of the program. So, we are just helping them make those connections,” Townsend says.

Townsend says recruiting new people into the state to fill the jobs is something they are also doing with help from the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

The broadcast News at 8:06-a.m., from Ric Hanson.

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(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, county offices in the southwest area, have announced award recipients for outstanding achievements in 2021. Krista Downing, Guthrie County Program Coordinator and Mollie Clark, Guthrie County Youth Coordinator received the Excellence in COVID Recovery award for developing and engaging partnerships that implemented innovation in programming. In the fall of 2020 and again in the fall of 2021 “Fall Feel Good” bags were delivered to 100 area farmers and 100 area small businesses. Items in the bag included resources for mental health such as; Iowa Concern magnets, stress balls, fidget toys, brain break games, exercise moves at a desk, healthy snacks, as well as a few other fun resources.

ISU Extension and Outreach builds a strong Iowa by engaging all Iowans in research, education, and extension experiences to address current and emerging real-life challenges. Learn more at www.extension.iastate.edu.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider. For the full non-discrimination statement or accommodation inquiries, go to www.extension.iastate.edu/diversity/ext.

(Des Moines, Iowa/KCCI) – A total stranger walked into the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at MercyOne medical center in Des Moines and bottle-fed a baby that wasn’t his. KCCI reports Des Moines Police are trying to identify the man seen on surveillance footage while he was in the hospital. The station says according to police, the man slipped by a nurse, bottle-fed a baby in the NICU and then left the hospital. Des Moines police say the unidentified man was trespassing, but what they don’t know is why the man did this.

Thomas Slater, a lawyer in West Des Moines who deals with medical malpractice cases says the hospital has a duty of care to the baby in the NICU. He said an unidentified person claiming to be a parent should not have been allowed in. Slater adds that the baby being fed and other babies in the NICU were put in danger when the man entered the unit.

MercyOne sent KCCI a statement that read:
“MercyOne takes the safety and security of our patients and families very seriously. The incident that took place last month is extremely troubling. We are actively cooperating with the Des Moines Police Department on this ongoing investigation and have conducted an internal investigation into the matter, which prompted several changes to our policies and protocols to expand our security and prevent this from occurring in the future.

Des Moines Police say they want to find the man and figure out what his motive was. Authorities say MercyOne is cooperating with their investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans are spotting vast numbers of bald eagles this winter, but time’s running out to admire the big birds. More than 400 eagles were counted recently along one mile of the Iowa River in Johnson County, but D-N-R wildlife biologist Stephanie Shepherd says nesting season is almost here, and that means it’ll be much harder to find eagles. “They can begin as early as February and sort of the peak of them initiating nesting is in March, so they’re actually going to be breaking up here pretty soon, probably in the next three weeks or so to start getting back to their nest sites and initiating that nesting cycle,” Shepherd says. “I think we’re probably going to see numbers dwindling a little bit over the next few weeks.”

While many of the eagles we’re seeing are migrating here from states like Wisconsin and Minnesota, Shepherd says Iowa has many hundreds of resident eagles. “We probably have at least 500 active nests in the state but of course they’re not as gathered together or congregated around open water sites,” Shepherd says. “There’s still a lot of eagles here, it’s just they’re spread out across the countryside, hanging out in their nest and being busy and not congregated around open water.”

The Mississippi River has traditionally hosted Iowa’s highest eagle numbers — both resident and wintering — but in recent years, the Iowa and Des Moines rivers have hosted even more.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that’s cleared a House subcommittee would let Iowa doctors prescribe a medication used to treat parasites as an EXPERIMENTAL treatment for Covid patients on a ventilator. Republican Representative Lee Hein of Monticello says he sponsored the bill after learning two families wanted ivermectin used as a last resort treatment for a critically ill relative, but hospital policies prevented it. Both patients died of Covid.

“I don’t know whether any of these drugs work, but I think at that late stage in the game, once you’re on a ventilator, families ought to have at least a glimmer of hope to try something,” Hein says. The Food and Drug Administration has authorized ivermectin tablets as treatment for worms in humans, but the agency says currently available data does not indicate ivermectin is effective in treating or preventing Covid. Representative Ann Meyer, a Republican from Fort Dodge who’s a nurse, says ivermectin has been around for many years and the bill would allow what’s called “off-label” use of the drug for Covid patients on life support.

“I think that we should give patients the right to try,” Meyer says. Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, says a number of medical groups sent lobbyists to merely monitor subcommittee discussion of the bill. “I’m curious about that,” Mascher says. “There’s a lot of folks in the room…and I have heard no one in support of the bill.” Mascher opposed the bill in subcommittee, but with the support of two Republicans on the panel, the legislation is now eligible for debate in a House Committee.

(Radio Iowa) – Officials in several Iowa school districts have announced temporary mask requirements for students have ended after a panel of federal judges issued a ruling on Iowa’s statewide ban on school mask mandates.

Last fall, after a group of parents sued, a federal judge based in Iowa put a hold on the state law banning mask mandates in schools. Yesterday, a panel of federal judges based in Missouri ruled the Iowa judge’s action was too broad and the State of Iowa may enforce its ban on masking in most schools. Disability rights advocates who’ve analyzed the ruling say it appears masking could be required around students with disabilities.

A spokesman for Iowa’s attorney general released a statement to The Des Moines Register late yesterday. It indicates the state will not be enforcing the ban on school mask mandates as it files an appeal that seeks a ruling from all 11 judges on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.