The American Red Cross is recruiting volunteers for a host of positions across Iowa. Matthew Thieschafer, a volunteer services specialist for the agency, says they have great opportunities for people who want to help others in their hometowns or abroad. “We are looking for volunteers to fill a wide variety of roles,” Thieschafer says. “Those include people to respond to disasters both large and small. They include tornadoes, floods, home fires.”

If disaster response isn’t appealing, the Red Cross could use a hand with its community outreach efforts. “We install smoke alarms for individuals,” Thieschafer says. “We also have pillow case projects where we work with schools and work on educating students how to be prepared in case of emergency.” Volunteers must be at least 18 years old and commit to one year of service.  “Other roles include those that coordinate behind the scenes,” he says. “We also have individuals who dispatch to report to those house fires. They do that from their home and coordinate those responses. We also have individuals that work with mental health and medical expertise.”

The agency’s training is provided at no cost to the volunteers. Learn more at redcross.org.

(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Karla James in Omaha)

VINTON, Iowa (AP) — A fire has gutted four downtown buildings in the small eastern Iowa city of Vinton. The Des Moines Register reports that the fire started Thursday night in the Michael and Dowd furniture store and spread to Clingman Pharmacy, Fischer Law Firm and the Benton County Title Company. The fire burned through much of the night, with firefighters battling the blaze while temperatures hovered in the teens and heavy snow fell. No injuries had been reported by this (Friday) morning.

Vinton’s volunteer fire department received help from the fire departments of several surrounding communities. Vinton is a city of about 5,300 located about 100 miles northeast of Des Moines.

Republicans in the Iowa Senate have voted for a plan that cuts nearly 32 million from the current year’s state budget. It is about 20 million dollars less than their earlier proposal. Senator Charles Schneider is a Republican from West Des Moines. “We’re trying to make these adjustments in a fiscally responsible way,” Schneider said. “First, we’re prioritizing where we’re making these adjustments.” The bill still calls for carving millions out of the budgets for the state’s prisons, courts and community colleges. It cuts funding for the three state universities by about 14-and-a-half million. “This is what thousands of Iowa families had to do during The Great Recession when a lot of them faced salary reductions or a loss of income, they had to take a look at their own spending and make adjustments,” Schneider said. “That’s the approach that we believe is the right approach and what we’re proposing today.”

Senator Brad Zaun, a Republican from Urbandale, would have preferred deeper cuts to state universities. He accuses the board that governs the schools of being “addicted” to erecting new campus buildings that rival the “Taj Mahal.” “See, the Board of Regents doesn’t understand the concept of tightening belts,” Zaun said. Democrats in the Senate called the G-O-P’s bill reckless and misguided. Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, says Iowans are suffering through “G-O-P budget whiplash.”  “We don’t have a spending problem. We have a priorities and a management problem,” Bolkcom said. “…Iowa Republicans, unfortunately, are falling far short.”

Senator Rich Taylor, a Democrat from Mount Pleasant, is a retired correctional officer. He says the three-and-a-half million to the state’s prison system will make an already dangerous situation worse. “The only thing they have left to cut is staff,” Taylor said. “There is no more room for cutting the Department of Corrections.”  This debate about cutting the current year’s state budget will continue next week. The House must debate its own plan to reduce state spending to ensure the budget stays in the black.

(Radio Iowa)

Two separate proposals to expand gun owners’ rights in Iowa advanced through initial review in the Iowa Senate on Thursday. One calls for adding an amendment to the state’s constitution that calls on courts to “strictly scrutinize” any future gun regulations. The other calls for doing away with the requirement that Iowans get a government permit to carry a concealed weapon. Supporters call it “constitutional carry.” Richard Rogers is with the Iowa Firearms Coalition. “Certainly all human beings have the desire, the need and the right to defend themselves, their families and their communities. Their ability to do so effectively is often dependent on having tools — arms — available for that purpose,” Rogers said. “In the past, those tools may have been a stick, a blade or a bow. In the modern era the most effective tool for this purpose is typically a defensive firearm.”

Supporters of the move say if the government has the power to issue gun permits, it might some day use that power to take those guns away. Reverend Wendy Abrahamson, the rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Grinnell, says Second Amendment rights are assured by the constitution. “As a law-abiding citizen of the United States, I don’t fear my government…and I trust that my right to own a weapon is not under attack.” And Abrahamson described the gun permit process as a “minimal” step. “The right to own a gun is not something that comes simply from being alive or simply from being an Iowan,” she said. “Like other rights, it has responsibilities.”

Last year, the Republican-led legislature passed a sweeping gun rights package. This year’s gun-related proposals have the backing of key lawmakers who worked on last year’s bill.

(Radio Iowa)

ALL the Republicans in the legislature agree on giving a one percent boost in general state support to Iowa’s public schools. However, action on that is held up as Republicans in the House and Senate debate how to address another issue — excessive transportation costs in geographically large school districts. HOUSE Republicans like Representative Cecil Dolecheck, of Mount Ayr, promise to revisit that school transportation issue next week. “The average is around $370 per student,” Dolecheck said. “We have some school districts that have transportation costs as high as $1000 per student. What the House proposal does, rather than give a blanket amount to school districts for every student, our proposal starts to address those with the highest transportation costs and buy them down.”

HOUSE Republicans are offering about 10 million dollars to cover busing costs for one year. SENATE Republicans have been pushing for a permanent fix, one that would go equally to all schools. Most Democrats in the HOUSE voted yesterday (Thursday) to support THAT plan. Representative Sharon Steckman is a Democrat from Mason City. “When someone tells me they’re going to do something over and over, pretty soon I just quit believing them,” Steckman said. “For eight years we’ve been working on the transportation inequity and the per pupil funding inequity — eight years — and now that we actually have something, we’re hearing, ‘Oh, reject this. We’ve got something better.'”

This busing issue along with a final vote on how much state money to give public schools next year are still on the legislature’s “to do” list for next week.

(Radio Iowa)