(Radio Iowa) — A group representing Iowa’s largest chambers of commerce is urging lawmakers to take steps to address the shortage of qualified AND available workers in the state. Iowa Chamber Alliance executive director Dustin Miller says many people stop looking for work because they can’t find — or afford — childcare.  “It’s about entrepreneurs. How do you get more people into the childcare industry? And how do you help the people in the childcare industry have the employees that they need?” Miller asked. “So, it’s something that we think that there’s going to be a big push for this session.”

The Chamber Alliance also supports recommendations from the governors criminal justice reform committee that call for improving education and training programs so more people are ready to work when they’re released from prison. The Iowa Chamber Alliance held its annual policy forum yesterday (Wednesday). The group’s executive director says the group supports overall tax reform if lawmakers raise the state sales tax. A ballot initiative passed by voters in 2010 says that 3/8ths of the next penny sales tax increase must go toward conservation and water quality. That leaves a debate for the legislature over how to use the rest and Miller says his group will argue for a reduction in the taxes businesses pay, because some neighboring states have far lower sales tax rates. “We have members competing across the river in South Dakota at 4.5 cents. So how do you balance those sorts of things?” Miller asks.

Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver has said Senate Republicans will not support a sales tax increase unless it is part of an overall tax reduction.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Grant Gerlock)

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) – An Ames man has been imprisoned for burning at LGBTQ flag flying at a church in the central Iowa city. Court records say 30-year-old Adolfo Martinez was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years for the hate crime of arson and given a year for reckless use of explosives or fire and 30 days for harassment. The sentences are to be served consecutively. He’d been arrested in June. He’s said he tore down the flag that had been hanging from the United Church of Christ and burned it because he opposes homosexuality.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa is seeing a slight upturn in the number of uninsured children but the Hawkeye State still has one of the lowest rates in the country. Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, says there are many reasons more children are falling into the ranks of the uninsured. “We’re seeing more red tape that states are requiring families to provide more pay stubs more frequently,” Alker says. “Some families are simply getting cut off because they never got a piece of mail saying it was time to renew their coverage.”

A report finds more than 20-thousand Iowa children, or about two-point-seven percent, were listed as uninsured in 2017, the most recent year the figures were released. That’s a modest increase from two-point-two percent uninsured Iowa children in 2016. Nationwide, the rate of uninsured children increased from four-point-seven percent in 2016 to five-percent in 2017, almost twice Iowa’s rate.

“These results are so troubling because they are occurring during a period of relatively low unemployment and economic growth — when you think children should be gaining health coverage, but they’re not,” Alker says. “That really reflects the high cost of dependent coverage for low-wage families.”

The report finds more than four-million children nationwide have no health insurance. “It’s really, frankly, a high cost for many families, regardless of income,” Alker says. “Because of this, we believe the uninsured child rate may increase even more rapidly should an economic downturn occur, which we know it will, eventually.”

The Georgetown report finds more than half of all uninsured children live in the South. More than one in five uninsured kids in the nation live in Texas, where the rate in 2017 was 835-thousand children or ten-point-seven percent, almost four times Iowa’s rate.

Police in Creston say a man was arrested Wednesday afternoon on an assault charge. 34-year old Steven Bochniak, of Creston, was arrested at the Law Enforcement Center on the charges of Domestic Assault – Simple, and Obstruction of Emergency Communications. He was being held in the Union County Jail while awaiting a  bond hearing.

FAIRPORT, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a one person has died in a house fire in a community along the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa. The blaze was reported around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Fairport, which sits about 7 miles east of Muscatine. The victim’s name, the fire cause and other details have not been released.

An Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Conference will be held January 3rd through the 5th, in Shelby County. Assistant Shelby County Emergency Manager Jason Wickizer reports the classes will be held: from 6-until 10-p.m., Jan. 3rd; 8-a.m. to 4-p.m., Jan. 4th, and 8-a.m. to 1-p.m. January 5th, at 706 Victoria Street, in Harlan. Topics to be covered include:

• Friday – A review of Multi-Casualty vs. Multi-Patient incidents, Incident Command, and EMS Documentation to set those incidents apart for legal considerations.
• Saturday – EMS Skills: 12 Lead; Automatic CPR Devices; King Airway; CPR Code/Mega Code (ALS); EMS Documentation off-scenario; Trauma/Medical Assessment; Tourniquet/Quick Clot/Trauma Dressing Station; C-Spine immobilization after traction splint application.
• Sunday – EMS & Law Enforcement Driving Policies, Driving Course.

The classes and meals are free. Vendors have been invited to attend. For more information, call Jason Wickizer at 712-755-2124.