• Hometown Connections: Expanding Centers of Excellence and developing Health Hubs with investments in telehealth, medical equipment, and care for uninsured Iowans.
• Best and Brightest: Recruiting and retaining top-tier health professionals in rural communities through targeted incentives.
• Combat Cancer – Prevent and Treat: Increasing access to cancer screening and treatment, forming cancer-specific hubs, and supporting families and research.
• Communities of Care: Co-locating providers for coordinated multidisciplinary care supported by community health workers.
• Health Information Exchange: Ensuring seamless access to health records across the state to support continuity of care.
• EMS Community Care Mobile: Bringing care directly to rural residents through mobile health services and high-risk transport support.

• Fewer emergency department visits for preventable conditions
• More rural residents receiving care locally
• Increased provider-to-population ratios
• Expanded telehealth access across rural Iowa

• Reinstating the Presidential Fitness Test in alignment with Executive Order 14327
• Adding nutrition education to continuing medical education for physicians
• Joining the PSYPACT compact to expand access to mental health providers
• Removing Certificate of Need requirements for outpatient behavioral health services

(Radio Iowa) – Two-hundred employees at the Case New Holland plant in Burlington will lose their jobs next year when the facility closes for good. The company says the Burlington facility is its most expensive plant to operate, plus demand for the backhoe loaders produced in Burlington has dropped nearly 50 percent. Production at the Burlington plant began in 1937 and is expected to end by mid-2026.

About 60 employees, most of whom are part of C-N-H’s engineering team, will still work in Burlington to test Case New Holland equipment. The United Auto Workers is holding a rally in Burlington Friday afternoon to protest the company’s decision.

C-N-H was created 25 years ago by the merger of Case and New Holland. The company is controlled by an Italian family whose patriarch co-founded the Fiat Motor Company in 1899.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s largest city had to turn away thousands of people from applying for federal housing vouchers under the Section Eight program — and that’s just for a chance to get on a wait-list, not for the rental assistance itself. It’s the first time Des Moines had to close its wait-list in two decades. Chris Johansen, director of neighborhood services, says the city received 75-hundred applications this year. That sets a new record and is three-thousand more than last year.

“We had a lot more people from not only just locally, but from other states that applied as well,” Johansen says, “and that just tells me that the waiting list in their community are either long or they’re closed as well.” Johansen says it’s a sign that incomes aren’t keeping up with the cost of housing. He says the high demand for housing might be caused by COVID aftereffects. Since the pandemic, he says there has been a large increase in rent prices.

“We’ve seen, over the last two years, our average housing assistance payment has increased by about $150,” Johansen says. “That’s a straight correlation with the rise in rental rates.” Johansen says the city is already having trouble meeting the need, as federal funding isn’t covering as many families as it used to cover.

(Radio Iowa) – For the second time in two years, bond referendums for new jails in Sac and Dallas Counties have failed. The 12-and-a-half MILLION dollar jail plan in Sac County got the support of nearly 57 percent of voters, but fell short of the required 60 percent needed for approval. Sac County Sheriff Katie Stange says it was tough to see the measure come so close to passing.

“It’s not the super majority that we want, but at the same time Sac County voters have demonstrated two years in a row that over half of voters agree that Sac County needs a new jail,” Stange said, “so although it’s not the 60%, it’s still encouraging.” Sac County’s Jail opened over 80 years and is the oldest county jail operating in the state. Due to its age and safety issues, it’s at risk of being closed by the state. Stange says she and other county officials will spend the next few weeks reviewing voter feedback and whether changes in the design of a new jail could be made and another bond issue be presented to voters.

“We’ve obviously put a spotlight on the liability of our jail, but the liability on Tuesday in 2025 is the same liability that’s been in the Sac County Jail for 5, 10, 15, 20 years,” the sheriff said, “so I would hope that we would have some options moving forward.” The Sac County Jail’s next state inspection is scheduled in the summer of 2026. If state officials order the jail to be closed, Sac County officials will have to transport prisoners to jails in other counties and deal with higher transportation costs and room/board fees.

The bonding plan in Dallas County for a new jail and law enforcement offices in Adel got 51 percent support — far short of the 60 percent needed for passage. Voters in Bettendorf approved a plan for a new police station. A bond for a new fire station was approved by Ames voters, while 70 percent of voters in Le Mars rejected a plan for a new fire station.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office, today (Wednesday), released information about a non-injury accident involving a semi tractor-trailer, that occurred on Oct. 26th. Authorities say a Freightliner semi driven by 34-year-old Dustin Woods, of Guthrie Center, was traveling north on Sycamore Avenue at around 7:45-p.m. on the 26th, and trying to negotiate a left turn onto 160th Road, when a grain trailer the semi was hauling, dropped-off into the eastbound ditch, before it rolled over and dumped its load of grain into the ditch and onto the roadway.

The semi tractor came to rest on the road. The semi sustained an estimated $35,000 damage. The grain trailer, registered to Austin Smith, of Yale, sustained $20,000 damage, according to the report.

No citations were issued.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson says it’s hard to negotiate solutions to rising health care costs when the government is shut down. “The president and the administration are doing what they can to lower the cost of prescription drugs for the American people. I applaud them for doing that,” Hinson said. “And I’ve had Iowans tell me they want lower costs, but they’re frustrated that the government is shut down, so I think most people see through what’s happening here, so we need to get the government open so we can continue those conversations.” Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra, who is running for governor, has criticized continuing the Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies for Americans with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty line that were extended during the pandemic. Hinson — who’s running for the U-S Senate — says Democrats put the subsidies in place to mask the rising cost of insurance premiums.

“We can all agree that health care costs are way too high,” Hinson says. “It’s the Unaffordable Care Act. It’s not the Affordable Care Act…I want to work on solutions to lower the cost of care, expand access.” Hinson has proposed a bill she says would improve access to breast cancer screening tests in rural areas. It calls for a 25 percent increase in the amount the U-S-D-A pays in a cost-share program for rural facilities that purchase mammograms, C-T scanners and other equipment used to test for breast cancer. “Early detection gives hope a head start and saves lives,” Hinson said. “And I’m very proud to help introduce this bipartisan legislation that would strengthen federal resources for cancer prevention.” Hinson says the shutdown is preventing discussion of this bill and other topics in congress — and she rejects the idea congress needs to pass any stop-gap measures to fund SNAP benefits or address flight delays at airports by paying air traffic controllers.

“If we get the government open, the air traffic controllers and the TSA agents will get paid and they’ll get their backpay for all of the weeks they have been working unpaid,” Hinson says. “…This is about Democrats using these people as leverage and now they’re putting the safety and security of Americans flying through our airports at risk.” Hinson made her comments this (Wednesday) morning during a conference call with Iowa reporters. Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart says Republicans are in total charge of the federal government and are failing to do their jobs. The Republican-led House passed the temporary spending plan that has stalled in the Senate six weeks ago and hasn’t reconvened since then.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, Wednesday morning, received an update from Jim Richardson with the County Secondary Roads Department, while Engineer Karen Albert was attending the 2025 Traffic and Safety Forum, in Ames.

The Board also received an Information Technology (IT) update from Beau Boeye (Boeye Tech and Design) – IT Point of Contact for Montgomery County – with regard to AI (Artificial Intelligence) Pilot Project. He said anywhere you go, in any industry, the big topic is AI. At a IT Director conference last month, the topic of discussion was with regard to having an AI policy in-place. That sparked discussions between his department and Montgomery County Auditor Jill Ozuna.

He said as the directors at the conference discussed, “You can’t block AI.”

He said they especially want to have a policy in-place in Montgomery County to help protect any sort of PII (Personally Identifiable Information).

He said they want to use the tools correctly to protect the data correctly and give useful information to the other department heads.

(Radio Iowa) – The current president of North Dakota State University is being named as the only other finalist in the search for the next president of Iowa State University. David Cook has been president of NDSU since 2022, and while he got his master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Kansas, Cook earned his B-A at Iowa State in 1992. Much of his previous work experience was at Kansas, most recently as vice chancellor. Cook will visit the Ames campus on Thursday to meet with faculty, staff, students and community members, as well as to take part in a public forum. The other finalist is Benjamin Houlton, dean of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University. The state Board of Regents will meet in closed session next Tuesday to hear from the search committee co-chairs, interview the finalists, and pick a new president to replace the retiring Wendy Wintersteen.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – By a vote of four-to-one, with Supervisor Mike Olson voting No, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday), approved a contribution of $500 to ISAC (The Iowa State Association of Counties), for an Amicus Brief presentation to the U-S Supreme Court, with regard to a case over local control of carbon pipeline projects. In October, Shelby and Story County officials filed a petition in their case against Summit Carbon Solutions, seeking to appeal the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in June that upheld a lower court’s ruling barring counties from implementing ordinances regulating carbon sequestration projects–such as the proposed Midwest Express CO2 pipeline.

MC BOS 11-5-25

Prior to his No vote, Supervisor Olson reasoned that no one has ever sponsored a fundraiser for Montgomery County to help pay for matters of repeated litigation.

Board Chair Charla Schmid was in favor of the consortium’s effort. Supervisor Bryant Amos said he had mixed feelings about the matter. He said he does believe in local control, but he thinks the whole matter of carbon sequestration is scientifically unproven.

Supervisor Alex Burton agreed. On a related note, the Adair County Board of Supervisors, during their meeting this (Wednesday) morning, in Greenfield, also approved an ISAC funding request in the amount of $500, to support the appellate review involving Shelby and Story counties.

In other business, and after considerable, sometimes heated discussion, the Montgomery County Board voted 3-to 2, to keep the County Compensation Board. Supervisors Bryant Amos and Mike Olson voted in favor of a resolution to dissolve the Comp Board. Supervisors Schmid, Burton and Peterson voted against the move.

The decision comes with the understanding the Supervisors are responsible for record keeping from this point forward. Board Member Burton will handle the communication aspect of the effort.

(Radio Iowa) – A northern Iowa organization called “Hunting with Heroes” is gearing up for an annual pheasant hunt later this week in Kossuth County. Bernie Becker, a spokesperson for the group, says six veterans from other states who’ve been wounded in combat will go hunting and four veterans who’ve been guests of the group before will be mentors. “We have probably about 1500 acres lined up that’s never been hunted just for these guys to hunt this year and we’re really looking forward to it,” Becker says. “We’ve got a great bunch of guys coming. We’ve talked to them and they’ve been chosen by people that have been here before and they are capable of doing the hunt because it’s kind of strenuous for combat wounded guys.”

Becker says they try to make sure the wounded vets are comfortable handling new shotguns. “The first day they come in we take them to a sporting club and get them used to shooting these new shotguns that we provide for them and we donate them to them to take home,” Becker said. “We try to hunt about two hours and then we take a break. Everybody has to catch their breath, even me, and then we go back at it again.”

The wounded veterans participating this year are flying in tomorrow (Thursday) and they’ll be hunting in Kossuth County this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Veterans Day, they’ll participate in an annual food distribution event in the small Kossuth County town of Lakota. Last year, the group provided over 500 complete Thanksgiving meals to area veterans and the widows of veterans. Becker says this year they’re planning on handing out over 600 meals for the upcoming holiday.