January 27, 2012

You are here: Home / 2011 / Archives for July 2011

Poll seeks to find out why women skip cancer screenings

July 26, 2011 By

Iowa women who have comprehensive health care plans sometimes decide to skip breast cancer screenings. Those women will be polled next week in four focus groups in northern and eastern Iowa to find out why they forego the potentially-life-saving tests. Lorrie Graaf, director of health care partnerships for the Iowa chapter of the American Cancer Society, explains the goal.

Graff says the focus groups seek to find out why women who have health care plans decide not to screen for breast cancer, or why women who have previously been screened for breast cancer chose not to be re-screened for at least five years. Graaf says having a regular screening for breast cancer is vital to a woman’s health.

The chances a woman in her 40s would develop breast cancer by the time she reaches the age of 50 is 1-in-55. A woman in her 50s has a higher risk of 1-in-30 by the time she’s 60. Women are encouraged to get regular screenings starting at the age of 40 so an early diagnosis can be made.

The American Cancer Society is teaming up with the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Iowa Cancer Consortium for the project. Graaf says they want to learn the reasons why women are choosing not to get screened. She says the focus groups aren’t meant to change a woman’s mind about her decision, rather to learn why and how the woman made the decision on not being screened or re-screened.

The data collected will be used with other data to help develop an action plan to increase screening rates among women who have financial access to screening but have chosen not to do so. The first focus group will meet in Osage on August 1st. The second one is scheduled for Mason City on August 2nd but may have to be rescheduled. There will also be groups on August 3rd in Davenport and August 4th in Maquoketa.

For more information, call (319) 335-4931 by Friday.

By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Bachmann says D.C. politicians out-of-touch on debt fight (audio)

July 26, 2011 By

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann held a news conference in Ankeny this afternoon to attack President Obama’s approach to the nation’s debt problem, but she stopped short of calling on her fellow Republicans in congress to join her in voting against raising the debt ceiling.

“This Republican will not vote to raise the debt ceiling. I will not vote to do that,” she told reporters. “My colleagues will have to come to their own conclusion.”

Bachmann– who has been a member of congress since 2007, representing a district in Minnesota – questioned whether August 3rd is a real deadline day for making a decision or face a default on the nation’s debt.  

“I encourage all of my colleagues in the House and Senate as well as the president to listen to what the American people are saying,” Bachmann said. “…’Don’t raise the debt ceiling.’ I hear that at every stop I’m at.”

Bachmann is not supportive of the plan being advanced by the top Republican in the U.S. House, because while it calls for cuts in federal spending, it would also raise the nation’s credit limit.

“I think it’s the wrong premise because what we need is a fundamental restructuring of our economy,” Bachmann said. “That is not occurring.”

Bachmann accused President Obama of talking-down to the American people on the issue and she accused all the politicians in Washington, D.C. of being out-of-touch with the American people.

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

Blairstown man found guilty of murder in woman’s death

July 26, 2011 By

A jury in Iowa County today found a 39-year-old Blairstown man guilty of first-degree murder for the shooting death of a woman in 2009. Tonch Weldon’s attorneys had argued it was a “crime of passion.”

They said Weldon fatally shot 35-year-old Amy Gephart “without premeditation” after learning from his wife that she and Gephart planned to leave him. Tonch Weldon’s attorneys asked jurors to consider a verdict of voluntary manslaughter.

Amanda Weldon testified during the trial that she and her husband had an open marriage and Gephart lived with them. She said Tonch shot Gephart once with a 20-gauge shotgun and then tried to shoot himself. The jury spent nearly five full days in deliberation before finding Weldon guilty of first-degree murder. He now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Sentencing is set for August 15 at 1 p.m. in Iowa County.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Lance Armstrong rides portion of RAGBRAI

July 26, 2011 By

Seven-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong stopped in Carroll this morning to join RAGBRAI for one day on his way home from the tour. Armstrong says the people are the best part of the bike ride across the state.

He says people from all states are friendly with each other and says it is good for his “Live Strong” to have a presence on the ride. Armstrong is a cancer survivor and offered some advice to others that are suffering from the disease. He says friends and family are key and that is the support structure he leaned on.

Armstrong says having knowledge of the disease is important, so when you start to turn the corner you can know it and understand what’s happening. Armstrong joined his teammates with Live Strong on the ride to Boone before returning home to Colorado.

By Jeff Blanman, KCIM, Carroll

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Woman injured in fall at Backbone State Park

July 26, 2011 By

One person was injured in a fall at Backbone State Park Monday night. It happened shortly after 5 p.m. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office says a woman was on a trail when she fell about 12 feet off a bluff and rolled down a hill.

The victim, identified only as a 56-year old woman from Evansdale, was airlifted to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City with multiple injuries. Delaware County Sheriff John LeClere says deputies found two empty pill bottles and a bottle of wine at the scene.

The woman’s husband said his wife was terminally ill with cancer and had recently stopped treatments.

By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Iowa second only to California in ag exports

July 26, 2011 By

Iowa exported $7.04 billion in agricultural products last year, up from $6.55 billion in 2009. Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey says the new numbers from the U.S.D.A. show Iowa ranks behind only California, which has consistently been the top ag exporter among the states.

“We haven’t always been the number two state, but we are very solidly number two not only in the amount of exports, but also in the amount of production of ag products. We produce somewhere around 24 billion dollars worth of ag products,” Northey said. Iowa’s leading agricultural export is soybeans and soybean products, at $3.3 billion.

Nearly one-quarter of all Iowa soybeans are shipped to China. “That’s 60% of our exports,” Northey said. “We send almost two billion dollars worth of soybeans to China.” Iowa’s other feed grain exports, including corn, accounted for $1.9 billion. Northey says international demand for Iowa’s meat products have also been growing for the past several years.

In 2010, Iowa exported $1.4 billion worth of live animals and meat – most of it pork. “We exported a billion dollars worth of pork last year. So, we continue to see that demand and hear of some rumors of the Chinese potentially entering into that pork market. Right now, our number one buyer of Iowa and U.S. pork is Japan,” Northey said.

Iowa’s top year was 2008, when the state reached $7.38 billion in ag exports. Northey says agriculture continues to produce while the U.S. trade deficit grows.

“The only area that has consistently been more exports than imports is agriculture and that has been true for, I think, in excess of 50 years,” Northey said. Total U.S. agricultural exports in 2010 reached $66.3-billion.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business Tagged With: ,

Lt. Governor announces new education advisory council

July 26, 2011 By

Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds

Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds today announced a new education advisory council focused on four key areas believed to be important in helping the state’s students and economy.

“Greater knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering and math — STEM for short — will make Iowa’s young people more competitive in the global marketplace. They should not be shut out of the growing number of jobs that pay well in these exciting field,” Reynolds said.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Politics & Government Tagged With:
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »