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Expanding state-financed pregnancy prevention

February 4, 2010 By

A senate committee has approved legislation that would make more women, and even some men, eligible for state money to help prevent pregnancies.

The state currently provides “family planning services” — like “the pill” — for low income women between the ages of 13 and 44. The bill would allow low income women to remain eligible until they reach the age of 55. Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, supports extending those services to women over the age of 44 who can still become pregnant. 

 ”The tendency for high-risk pregnancies and complications increases and so by having access to family planning services I think we’ll find that families will avoid these unintended pregnancies that could result in complications and difficulties for these families and for these women in particular,” Bolkcom says.

Senator David Hartsuch, a Republican from Bettendorf who is a physician, agrees it make sense to cover older women. But Hartsuch says in a tight budget year, it doesn’t make sense to expand this program.

“There is a blip, shall we say, in the older group. If we look at unintended pregnancies, it actually exists in the younger age and also the older age as well, so I can understand the expansion into the 55-year-old age bracket,” Hartsuch says. “But again I would question whether the additional cost of doing this expansion is going to be wise in light of the fact that we’ve got these other priorities, shall we say, within the Medicaid population.”

The bill which passed the Senate Human Resources Committee this afternoon does not provide any money for the expanded pregnancy prevention effort. The bill would stipulate that low-income men would be eligible for “pregnancy prevention services” which might include vasectomies.

Advocates of the bill, wearing hot pink t-shirts, watched as the bill was adopted in committee. Amanda Kimber Kelinson, a regional organizer for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, was among them.

“So many people in Iowa are losing their jobs and subsequently losing insurance and we want to be able to provide for them while they’re in that tough spot,” Kelinson says. “…You know, being a person that recently got out of college there was a point that I was working without health insurance and had it not been for family planning I would not have been able to cover my reproductive health care, so I’ve benefitted from this and I see the need for it.”

In addition to covering contraceptives, the program as it currently stands also covers annual reproductive health exams for women who are under the age of 44.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Iowa and Iowa State say they’ve filled needs with recruiting class

February 4, 2010 By

College football’s second season ended this week with national signing day. Coming off an 11-2 season and an Orange Bowl championship the Iowa Hawkeyes signed a recruiting class that many have ranked in the middle of the Big Ten.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says it was an unusual year as a lot of their commitments they knew about before the end of the season. He says the recruiting class totals 21 players. He says 19 of them were captains on their high school teams, all were multi-sopport athletes, 18 participated in state playoffs and 14 were honor rolls students.

Ferentz says they are thrilled with the class and believe they will fill the needs they have.

Coming off a win at the Insight Bowl Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads signed a class of 28 players. He says the numbers were even, offensively and defensively and also included a punter.

Rhoads says the key for this class was to get them to visit. he says they brought in 15 for official visits during games, and 14 of those signed letters. They brought in 312 total kids and of those, 28 signed national letters of intent. Rhoads says in 21 years of coaching he’s never seen that high a success rate in signing the recruits they brought in.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: , ,

Lawsuit filed over manure management, settlement reached in another case

February 4, 2010 By

Iowa’s Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against two north-central Iowa companies alleging they have failed to file the required manure management plans for their hog confinement operations. A-G spokesman Bob Brammer says the lawsuit seeks to have General Development, and Kollasch Land and Livestock Incorporated both of Whittemore, to comply with the law.

Brammer says the law also allows a $5,000 penalty per day, per violation. The companies have two hog facilities in Kossuth and six in Palo Alto County with a combined capacity of over 23,000 hogs. Brammer says the operations need to have adequate plans for land application of manure produced by the animals.

He says the plan is a tool to protect the environment, and says the great majority of operations comply with the rules. Brammer says the operations have failed to produce manure plans after many reminders from the D.N.R. Brammer says they produce tons of manure and there are many different ways to store, dispose of and spread that manure on the ground, but it has to be done within the rules. He says the rules protect the streams and environment from manure runoff.

General Development and Kollasch Land and Livestock are two different companies operated by two brothers, Charles and Luke Kollasch.

In an unrelated case, a Cresco livestock operation owner has agreed to a $60,000 settlement over manure management violations.

Brammer says Kenneth Moellers who operated, large dairy, cattle and hog operations had numerous violations in 2005, 2008 and 2009. He says they were water pollution violations was well as failing to file manure management plans. Brammer says the fine was just one part of the settlement.

He says the court prohibited any future violations and set down a whole battery of measures that he would have to undertake to comply and prevent water pollution. Brammer says the violations including allowing manure to get into the Turkey River and Chialk Creek, a brown-trout stream.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Crime & Courts, Environment & Conservation Tagged With:

Teen accepts plea agreement in assault of CR police officer

February 4, 2010 By

A teenager accused of seriously injuring a Cedar Rapids Police officer last year has avoided a trial by pleading guilty today to a number of charges. Eighteen-year-old Jose Rockiett was arrested in connection with a robbery and an assault on police officer Tim Davis.

Davis suffered a serious head injury in the attack on March 29, 2009. Rockiett’s trial was scheduled to begin next month in Burlington, but today his attorneys announced a plea deal. Rockiett pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree robbery, interference with official acts and willful injury.

The plea deal calls for a 25-year sentence plus fines. Rockiett did not make a statement at today’s court appearance, but he could do so when he is sentenced on March 19.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Legislative leaders react to tuition surcharge refund plan

February 4, 2010 By

Legislators from both parties are applauding the decision the Board of Regents made today to rescind a $100 surcharge for students at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. There’s a caveat, however.

The nine-member board indicated the surcharge would be refunded only if legislators forward another $31-million to the universities for the current budgeting year. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs says it’s “highly likely” legislators will vote to send that money to the universities.

“We appreciate the Regents concern about access to higher education in this state,” Gronstal says. But House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha says the surcharge should be immediately refunded to university students, regardless of whether legislators provide the universities with more operating money.

Paulsen, for one, isn’t prepared to give the schools anything more. “My expectation would be no,” Paulsen says. “I mean, it’s simply more spending.” Paulsen is a product of the state university system, getting his undergrad degree from I.S.U. and his law degree from the U-of-I. Gronstal is a graduate of Antioch College in Ohio.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , ,

Senate gives final approval to early retirement incentives

February 4, 2010 By

The Iowa Senate has given final approval to a package of incentives lawmakers hope will entice at least a thousand long-time state employees to retire early.  

The incentives include a bonus of up to $25,000.  The size of the bonus depends on how long the employee has worked for the state.  In addition, the retiree would get health care coverage for five years.  The package will be offered to executive branch employees only. Legislative leaders are considering extending these incentives to employees in the legislative branch of state government, too. 

“We will have that discussion with Republicans on what we may do in that area,” says Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal. “We have such a relatively small part of state government that we want to be careful not to talk too much about who is eligible (to retire early) because it’s pretty easy to figure out, ‘Oh, I know who that is.’” 

There are 187 full-time, year-round employees in the legislative branch of state government.  Early retirement incentives have been offered to legislative branch employees twice in the last decade when workers in the executive branch were being offered an “early out” option. 

Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton didn’t support this latest round of early retirement incentives for executive branch employees. ”There are many issues that have been raised by the early retirement bill that was passed. Will it really meet the goals that they desire?” Paulsen says. “We’re continuing to look into that.  I believe it was designed in such a way that it will not achieve what it was designed to achieve, so reopening those issues and perhaps doing some tweaks would perhaps be a positive thing, I think.” 

There are over 50,000 employees in the executive branch of state government, about half of whom work for the state universities in Ames, Cedar Falls and Iowa City. 

Over 1700 people work in the judicial branch of state government. The state’s chief justice hasn’t yet announced whether she intends to offer similar early retirement incentives to judicial branch employees.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Regents approve tuition increase, give back $100 surcharge

February 4, 2010 By

The board that governs the three state universities today approved a 6% increase in tuition for the next school year. The also voted to refund the $100 tuition surcharge approved for the spring semester of this year.

Regents Michael Gartner and Ruth Harkin voted against the tuition increase. Gartner says the latest economic figures don’t show much improvement in the state’s financial situation.

“Life is still very, very difficult for the families that are trying to send their sons and daughters to the universities,” Gartner says. He says when you figure in tuition and fees, the increase adds up to an 8.7% increase at the University of Iowa. he says the cost is higher at other schools too when the fees are figured in. The governor is asking lawmakers to give the regents back 31-million dollars for this year’s budget, and Gartner says if all that money went to tuition, there would not have to be an increase.

“Although I realize life is very tough at the universities from a financial standpoint, I do believe…that it is easier for the universities as institutions to swallow this hardship than it is for the parents of the Iowa students, for that reason, I will oppose the motion that is on the board,” Gartner said.

Harkin said she is voting no, and stands with regent Gartner in his comments about the economy of the state and the families of the state. The Board of Regents staff told boardmembers it would take a 26% to make up the entire 131-million dollar cut in the regents budget. The presidents of the student bodies at the University of Iowa, Iowa State and University of Northern Iowa said they felt the tuition increase was reasonable in light of the budget situation. Regent Bonnie Campbell said that is why she is voting for the increase.

Campbell says, “I’m going to vote for this, but it has kept me awake many nights, as I’m sure it has you, and I am persuaded by the student leaders, and I no doubt will hear from their parents. It is a very painful vote, I must say.” Regent Robert Downer said he would vote for the increase, but still has concerns.

Downer says he has heard the information that this increase is relatively low compared to peer institutions, but he says they also need to look at income levels in the state of Iowa, which he says are low compared to schools in other states. Downer says one other thing that concerns him is the need to find more efficiencies and eliminate duplication to save money.

Downer says they need to look at “consolidation of programs across institutional lines where those programs at individual universities don’t have critical mass.” He says they can’t try to deliver all the educational services that they deliver in traditional ways. Regents president David Miles said this is the third time they have looked at tuition increases since he has been on the board, and the other two increases were 25-year record lows.

Miles says he doesn’t take the idea of increasing fees lightly, but says if the governor’s budget is approved as submitted they are looking at 132-million dollars less in appropriations than in 2009. “And that is very real.” Miles says this increase now could help hold off bigger financial problems later.

“I am very concerned that if we do not do this, what I believe is at the minimum at six-percent, we will harm the quality of the institutions and will find ourselves a year form now looking at something even more in terms of increases and making a difficult system even worse,” Miles says. The final vote to increase tuition was 7-2. Miles says the board is able to refund the tuition surcharge because of the extra money the governor has asked be given back to the regents.

 The vote to refund the surcharge was unanimous. The Iowa Legislature must approve the governor’s request to give the regents the additional $31-million for the surcharge to be refunded to students.

See the tuition information for each school here: Tuition word document.

Filed Under: Business, Education Tagged With: , ,
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