Vice President Mike Pence will visit sites in Carter Lake and Des Moines, Thursday. According the Trump-Pence campaign, The V-P in Carter Lake is expected to “deliver remarks highlighting the historic accomplishments of the Trump administration at Noon, during a Make America Great Again! Event” at Owen Industries, Inc. (501 Avenue H) (Register for tickets here.) Doors will be open for the event beginning at 10-a.m.

In Des Moines, Pence will deliver remarks on the importance of faith in America at Faith in Leadership: The Need for Revival.” No further information was released.

(Radio Iowa) – In the year since Logan’s Law went into effect in Iowa, almost three-thousand people signed up as organ, eye and tissue donors when getting a hunting, fishing or fur harvester license through the D-N-R. Heather Butterfield, spokeswoman for the Iowa Donor Network, says they couldn’t have hoped for a better response. “When Logan’s Law first went into effect, we really didn’t know what to expect,” Butterfield says. “There weren’t a lot of states to model after with this, so we are thrilled with the impact Logan’s Law has had in the first year — 2,900 new registrants have joined Iowa’s Donor Registry, which is really incredible.”

The law passed the Iowa legislature in the spring of 2019 and took effect that September. While most people register as donors when they renew their driver’s license, backers of Logan’s Law wanted to reach out to a different audience. “This is just another opportunity for people to register as organ, eye and tissue donors,” Butterfield says. “Most people do register at the DMV but now, with a lot of the changes they’ve made, people may go five, six or seven years in between the time they have to renew their license, whereas, when someone’s getting a hunting or fishing license, they’re typically doing that every single year.”

Logan’s Law is named after Logan Luft of Charles City. He died in 2017 at the age of 15 and saved many lives as he was an organ and tissue donor. “Logan just loved the outdoors, he loved hunting, he loved fishing,” Butterfield says. “Logan’s family were really the ones that championed the passage of this law. They were in Des Moines, working with legislators to get this bill passed and they are just so thrilled with the impact that it has had.”

More than one-point-eight million Iowans are registered as organ, eye and tissue donors. Nationwide, there are about 112-thousand people on transplant waiting lists, including about 600 in Iowa. Butterfield says a single organ donor can save up to eight lives, while a single tissue donor can enhance as many as 300 lives.

Learn more at iowadonornetwork.org/

(Radio Iowa) Republican Senator Joni Ernst and Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield engaged in a combative debate last (Monday) night on Iowa P-B-S. The candidates disagreed on taxes, immigration, infrastructure, the minimum wage and when the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court should be filled. Ernst, who described herself as “proudly pro-life,” downplayed the idea confirming President Trump’s nominee will get the ultimate result abortion opponents have long sought.

“I think the likelihood of Roe v Wade being overturned is very minimal,” Ernst said. Greenfield called the decision “settled law.”  “I will always defend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions with the guidance of her doctor,” Greenfield said. Tens of millions of dollars is being spent by outside groups on this Senate race and each candidate accused the other of being beholden to special interest money.

“Senator Ernst has taken $2 million in corporate PAC donations and folks, there’s too much money in our politics. I put a plan together. She doesn’t have one.” Ernst responded: In one hand, she’s saying: ‘Oh, we’re not going to have dark money in this campaign.’ She’s got the other hand behind her saying: ‘Please hand me some dark money.'” Neither candidate ruled out the idea of raising new fees to supplement the per-gallon gas tax, but their views of the federal minimum wage diverged. Ernst said it may be time to “index” the minimum wage, so it automatically goes up based on inflation.

“There are a lot of solutions out there,” Ernst said, “but overall I do believe that this should be a state-based issue as well.” Greenfield expressed support for doubling the federal minimum wage. “No one can feed a family on $7.25 an hour,” Greenfield said. “…I believe we need to move it up to $15 over time.” Due to the pandemic, the debate was held in an empty auditorium and the candidates were separated by plexiglass.

Ernst mentioned she wears a face mask, but she said requiring face coverings in public doesn’t appear to be enforceable. Greenfield cited the recent increase in Covid cases and pointed to the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendation that Iowa have a statewide mask mandate.