(Radio Iowa) – Today (Monday) marks the start of PanCAN Action Week as pancreatic cancer survivors and advocates work to raise awareness about the world’s deadliest form of cancer, and to raise more federal funds for research. Beth Day of Urbandale, a seven-year pancreatic cancer survivor, says they usually go to Washington D-C to lobby lawmakers in person, but due to the pandemic, they’ll be making their case by phone. “We are calling it Voices in Action and we want to be heard,” Day says. “We are calling our senators and we’re going to do some Facetime videos and just tell them that it’s claimed too many lives.”

Day, who was diagnosed Memorial Day weekend of 2014, says there’s an urgent need for more research funding to develop better treatment options as well as an early detection method to help change patient outcomes. “All cancers are important but when there is one that doesn’t have a test…” Day says. “When you are diagnosed, you’re usually Stage 3 or 4 — and it’s too late.” When federal research funding increases, Day says so do pancreatic cancer survival rates.  “We need to be heard. We want to advocate for the friends and loved ones we’ve lost and for the people that are yet to be diagnosed,” Day says, “because 450 Iowans will die from pancreatic cancer in a year.”

When Day was diagnosed, the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer was only four-percent. Today, it’s ten-percent. While that’s progress, it’s nothing compared to the five-year breast cancer survival rate of 95-percent. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated what researchers can really do when they’re properly motivated — and well funded.  “I am so surprised how fast the vaccine came,” Day says. “Yes, it affected everyone in the world and I said, ‘If they could only use that money fast to help find cures for cancer — for pancreatic cancer.’ It’s just amazing that medical science -can- do that.”

The fast-moving disease is difficult to diagnose because the symptoms can be vague and are often ignored until it’s too late. They include abdominal pain and back pain, changes in stool, yellowing skin, weight loss, appetite loss, and a feeling of being full after only eating a little food.

On the web: www.facebook.com/groups/pancaniowa  and  www.pancan.org.

(Radio Iowa) – The University of Northern Iowa’s Green Iowa AmeriCorps program has received its third straight federal grant. Program manager, Carmen Finken, says they focus on environmental service projects like home weatherization. “We’ve been doing these services for several years now, but we primarily try and target vulnerable populations in need that are looking to say money on their utility bills. We do a lot of this in the winter months — but we do it year-round and it’s always a completely free service,” Finken says. They also work with partners on clean water projects. She says they have a partnership with Practical Farmers in Ames and with the City of Oskaloosa for water quality efforts. “So, very broad work that our members do, but they do a lot of work that is dedicated to environmental efficiency, restoration, and stewardship,” Finken says.

The one-point-one million dollars federal grant this year is the largest they’ve ever received and is spread over three years. “So it’s going to mean that we are going to be expanding into more communities in Iowa and kind of having a greater impact I guess, in other communities that we haven’t been able to serve in past years,” Finken says. The expansion creates more positions in the organization that need to be filled. “By mid-September of 2021 we will need to have 68, 11-month positions filled. So we are absolutely recruiting, interviewing, hiring right now as we speak,”according to Finken. “We interview and hire on a rolling basis — so if anyone is interested in applying to serve with us — they can go to greeniowaamericorps.org,”

Finken says the payment is different compared to other traditional positions. “You will get a living allowance from the University of Northern Iowa…and then you would get a monthly living stipend at the end of each month. And then you also get a scholarship at the end of the service. So that scholarship can be used to pay for student loans, or continuing one’s education in some way. It’s also supplemented with health care, child care,” she explains. And she says there is a federal loan deferment.

Finken says Green Iowa AmeriCorps recruits members statewide and nationally.

An investigation into a reported incident of assault, Sunday afternoon, led to the arrest of a woman from Shenandoah. According to Shenandoah Police, 25-year-old Taylor Dawn Fleming was arrested on several charges, after officers were called at around 4-p.m., to the 1300 block of West Lowell Street, for a reported assault on a child.

Officers conducted an investigation on scene and found the report to be false. Upon further investigation, Fleming was located and arrested for False Reporting with Public Safety Entities, Harassment 2nd degree, Disorderly Conduct, Interference with Official Acts, and Harassment by False Reporting.

She was transported to the Page County Jail and held on $2,900 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Construction will begin later this month on a seven-million dollar solar installation that will provide power for Grinnell College. Rob Hach is C-E-O of Storm Lake-based Trusted Energy, the firm that’s installing more than 10-thousand solar panels in a 30-acre field.

“The project is located to the northeast of the Grinnell campus,” he says. “It is being connected to the Grinnell campus with a 3500 foot transmission line underground.” Estimates indicate the solar field will provide about 30 percent of the electricity for the campus and reduce the carbon footprint of Grinnell College by about 20 percent. “This is definitely something the students want from Grinnell…to be a carbon neutral college,” Hach says. The solar panels will stand about nine feet above the ground.

The 30-acre field will be seeded with native grasses and Hach says the plan is to have sheep graze among the solar installation. “Once in a while we’ll put some goats out there in order to get the weeds out of the pasture ground, so a solar field, previously a corn field, will be a grazing field,” Hach says. “…It’s a nice rolling hill. The solar field will follow the terrain. It’ll be very complimentary to the landscape.” Sensors in each panel will help guide it to positions that best capture the sun’s rays.

“In the morning they’ll be pitched to the east and then midday they’ll look flat,” Hach says, “and then at the end of the day they’ll be facing the west.” Hach expects construction to be completed by the end of the year. In 2019, Grinnell College signed an agreement to buy power generated by the solar field. Hach’s company estimates the college will save about three million dollars in energy costs over the 20 year contract.

Des Moines – The Iowa Department of Corrections, Sunday, reported 29-year-old Erica Shales, who was convicted of Assault with Weapon–Peace Officer and other charges in Boone County, failed to report to work from the Des Moines work release facility as required, Saturday.

Shales is a white female, height 5′ 7″, and weighs 167 pounds. She was admitted to the work release facility on 5-10-2021.

Erica Lynn Shales

Persons with information on Shales’s whereabouts should contact local police.