February 9, 2012

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White House chef touts upcoming “Let’s Move” party in Iowa (audio)

February 7, 2012 By

Sam Kass

The assistant White House chef who is coordinator of the first lady’s food initiatives says Michele Obama’s trip to Iowa later this week is intended as a salute, a celebration and, hopefully, an inspiration to Iowa kids. 

As you may know, the first lady launched an initiative aimed at America’s kids, to promote healthy eating habits and encourage exercise. The goal is to end childhood obesity within a generation. Over 10,000 Iowa kids are expected in Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Thursday to see First Lady Michele Obama and participate in “Let’s Move Day” in Iowa.

Sam Kass is the first lady’s chef and chief assistant in the nationwide “Let’s Move” effort.  During a telephone interview with Radio Iowa early this morning, Kass said Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s “Healthiest State Initiative” is the reason Obama’s coming.

“We want to celebrate the great work that’s going on there, show how the country’s really unifying around these issues: trying to ensure that our kids and our communities are as healthy as they can be,” Kass said.

Republican Terry Branstad has been a vocal critic of Obama Administration policies, but on this particular issue he’s in harmony with Mrs. Obama.

“We share the goal of a healthier nation and people taking ownership of their own health,” Branstad said.

Private companies in Iowa are participating in the governor’s “Healthiest State” iniatitive, along with hundreds of individual Iowans who’ve signed up for this winter’s “Live Healthy, Iowa” 100-day weight-loss challenge. Kass, the chef in the White House, suggests one way to live healthier is to buy local.

“In Iowa, I know there’s great work being done to try to produce more food and more vegetables for Iowans to eat and, you know, we think that’s great,” Kass said. “But every community is going to have to step back and take a look at what’s happening around them and figure out what are the best solutions.”

AUDIO of Radio Iowa’s five-minute interview of Sam Kass.

Kass helped plan and plant the White House garden. From that garden experience, Kass understands kids can play a role in improving their family’s approach to food.

“When they dug up a carrot, they ended up taking it home and saying, ‘Mom, dad, let’s have some carrots tonight.’ When a kid’s asking for that, you can’t say, ‘No,’” Kass said. “We’ve kept in touch with these kids and they telling us how they’re eating (differently) in their home…They’re baking the chicken instead of frying it. That’s the true power and essense of all that we’re doing here.”

Thursday’s “Let’s Move” party in Wells Fargo Arena will feature some notable sports figures, like skater Michele Kwan, gymnast Shawn Johnson and NASCAR driver Carl Edwards. TV star Bob Harper — one of the trainers on “The Biggest Loser” — will be there, as will Iowa State basketball coach Fred Hoiberg, a former player in the NBA. Kass hopes Thursday’s event will be a motivating experience for the more than 10,000 sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth graders who’ll participate.

“I honestly believe, and I know the first lady does as well, that kids who are stepping up and making changes and being leaders in their communities is maybe our greatest tool in overcoming some of these challenges,” Kass said.

Kass has been involved in behind-the-scenes discussions about federal strategies that could improve the health of America’s children.

“Just two weeks ago, the first lady celebrated the finalizing of the new standards for school lunch and they’ve been raised for the first time in 15 years,” Kass said. “These new standards are going to be transformative to the food that kids are being served every day. Thirty-two million kids every day eat breakfast and lunch — or some combination — in our schools, so knowing that our kids are going to school eating the best food possible is just critical.”

The new standards call for doubling the amount of fruits and vegetables served in school cafeterias and cutting in half the sodium content in school lunches. Kids can still drink chocolate milk, but it has to be skim — fat-free — milk.

Filed Under: Featured Story, Health & Medicine, Human Interest, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Branstad says elected officials should “lead by example” on health insurance costs

February 3, 2012 By

Governor Terry Branstad says he along with other statewide elected officials and all 150 members of the legislature should start paying for 20 percent of the health care coverage state taxpayers now provide them.

“If you look at most private sector (companies), employees pay at least 20 percent,” Branstad says. “Some pay more than that and, obviously, if you’re a farmer or self-employed, you pay 100 percent.”

For the second year in a row, Republican legislators have proposed requiring all 45,000 state employees, including legislators, pay $200 per month toward their health care coverage. Branstad says that’s unlikely to happen as it would require re-opening union contract negotiations. He suggests legislators should pass his alternative plan this year.

“I do think it would make sense for those of us that are elected officials and legislators to pay at least 20 percent of our health insurance,” Branstad says. “I think we could lead by example by doing something like that.”

According to Branstad, 84 percent of state employees — and that includes him and legislators — currently pay nothing toward their health insurance.

“I think that’s just and that needs to be corrected,” Branstad says, “and I want to do what I can to see that that happens.”

According to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, U.S. citizens who received health care coverage through a private employer in 2006 paid nearly $3000 out of their own pockets to cover over a third of the premium costs.

Filed Under: Featured Story, Health & Medicine, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Iowa Attorney General joins other Democrats in brief supporting federal healthcare

January 13, 2012 By

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat, joined his counterparts from four other states today on a conference call to announce they are filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the federal health care plan.

Maryland Attorney General, Douglas Gansler, is leading the group and says their brief supports the portion of the healthcare plan that says Congress has the right to require people to buy insurance under the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Miller spoke about why he supports the brief. “The healthcare industries across our system takes up one-sixth of our economy, of or our total economy, if anything is interstate commerce, it’s health care,” Miller says. “That gives I think the congress consistent with the court decision the authority to enact a comprehensive resolution.”

He continued, “You know there’s been some suggestion that there should be limits on the commerce power, particularly on the mandates of an individual, maybe there should, maybe there shouldn’t, but I would argue this is clearly not the case to explore the limits of the authority because of the massive amount of the economy that’s being taken up by the healthcare system.”

The other Attorney’s General involved are from California, Oregon and Vermont, and all are Democrats. Many Republican elected officials, including Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, have spoken out against the healthcare law. Gansler was asked if the lack of Republicans supporting the brief indicates it is more of a political issue than a legal issue.

Gansler said the healthcare law has become political, but he says this brief is not political and is intended to help all states.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Health & Medicine, News Tagged With:

Gingrich gets a mandate question in Decorah (audio)

December 28, 2011 By

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich faced a “tougher question” in Decorah late last night about his past support of a health care mandate. The question came from a man in the crowd.

“It’s not going to be mean, but it’s going to make you justify an answer,” the man told Gingrich. “Throughout the GOP debates you were strongly against RomneyCare and tonight you also said you were against ObamaCare, but back in 2006 I believe it is when the Massachusetts health care bill was passed, a newsletter under your name called Newt’s Notes came out and said that you fully supported that Massachusetts health care and then went further to say that the goal should be 100 percent coverage for all citizens. How can you reconcile that apparent contradiction?”

Gingrich responded by saying the goal is laudable, it’s just figuring out how to get 100 percent coverage for all citizens “in a constitutional way.”

“I would like to see all citizens have access to health care and I think everybody here wants to see that. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to have a mandate,” Gingrich said. “But I think everybody here recognizes we’re not going to let people die in the streets.”

AUDIO of the question and Gingrich’s answer.

Gingrich said he first talked about health care mandates “with the Heritage Foundation” in 1993 when he was trying to defeat “HillaryCare” — a reference to then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s failed health care reform effort.

“The Heritage Foundation was positive about RomneyCare also in 2006. First of all, neither the Heritage (Foundation) nor I realized that Romney Care pays, uses taxpayer money to pay for abortions and neither of us realized that they had accepted Planned Parenthood by law as one of the members of their health board or I think we would have both said, ‘You ought to veto the whole bill if that’s what’s going to happen.’” 

Gingrich told the crowd in Decorah the health care mandate is “too expensive” and “too bureaucratic.”

“The difference between Romney and me is we both used to have the wrong idea. I’m willing to say it was the wrong idea. He’s not and I think it’s funny that they want to attack me for admitting that I was wrong, but they won’t admit that he’s when now wrong to think that he’s still right when he’s wrong,” Gingrich said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Gingrich fielded questions about farm policy, military deployments and a child in the crowd asked Gingrich what his favorite color was – it’s red.

(Additional reporting by Darin Svenson, KDEC, Decorah)

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

Perry says reelecting Obama would be “insanity”

December 22, 2011 By

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says 1,300 people move into Texas every day, mainly because of the business climate he helped create there as governor of Texas for the past 11 years. 

“If a state decides that they want to have a rather high tax burden or…if they wanted to have mandated insurance that everyone was required to buy, I mean you could go live in Massachusetts,” Perry said late Wednesday.

That’s a dig at rival Mitt Romney who signed a law when he was Massachusetts governor that requires Massachusetts residents to have health insurance.  Romney has said it’s the solution people in his state decided upon and he has vowed to repeal the national health care mandate President Obama signed into law. Perry says the insurance mandate is an example of how the federal government has become “too intrusive.”

“That, I will suggest to you, is part of what the conversation with Americans is about at this particular point in time as we go into this 2012 presidential election,” Perry told a crowd in Mount Pleasant Wednesday. “And who is it on the stage or in the White House today who we want to lead America for the next four years?”

Sticking with Obama for another four years would be “insanity” according to Perry.

“I’m sure our founding fathers would recognize the country today, as we see what America has kind of transformed into where Washington has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger,” Perry said in Burlington this morning, “and our liberties have gotten smaller and smaller.”

About 100 people gathered to hear Perry in Burlington this morning and they applauded Perry’s promise to repeal the health care mandate.

“In my home state, $2.7 billion more every year to comply with ObamaCare,” Perry said. “My first day in office, I will sign an executive order to wipe out as much of ObamaCare as I can and introduce legislation to kill the rest of it.” 

Perry is among three GOP presidential candidates who are campaigning in Iowa today.

(Theresa Rose from KILJ in Mt Pleasant and Michael Cation from KBUR in Burlington contributed to this report.)

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

“Traveling” trophies for communities, corporations that win at losing (audio)

December 19, 2011 By

Doug Reichart, Iowa Sports Foundation chair, stands beside trophies

Iowa communities and companies will be able to compete for two new titles — and the winners get a huge, silver “traveling” trophy. The “Live Healthy Iowa” challenge will start January 23, 2012.

“The ‘Live Healthy’ 100-day challenge is a great part of our wellness program at Meredith, in fact we’ve been participants in the challenge since 2006,” says Tim O’Neil, wellness director at Meredith Corporation. “Last year over 70 percent of our workforce participated.”

According to O’Neil, Meredith employees have shed 21,000 pounds over the last six years — including 6000 pounds in the past year alone.  He spoke this morning at a statehouse news conference where the trophies were unveiled and, as leaders from other notable Iowa corporations stood nearby, O’Neil put them on notice that Meredith intends to win the trophy.

“We at Meredith are happy to participate again in the overall program and compete against other Iowa employers in the Corporate Cup Challenge, so Bill, Rick and Laura — game on!,” O’Neil said this morning. “Let’s take the  ‘Live Healthy’ challenge to a new level and another big step to becoming the healthiest state in the nation.”

The healthiest state initiative is Governor Branstad’s brainchild, and he was asked this morning if the statehouse cafeteria might start serving healthier fare.

“That’s a great question,” Branstad said, laughing. “I think that deserves to be looked into, not only the statehouse cafetera, but my daughter and I talked about this — the school cafeterias, too.”

Branstad’s daughter, Alison, is a teacher in Waukee. Branstad, though, does not expect legislators to pass any new mandates for school cafeteria menus, or for the cafeterias in the state capitol complex.

Last year over 30,000 Iowans participated in the “Live Healthy Iowa” challenge and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds said the goal is to have twice as many Iowans participate in 2012.  The Community Cup Challenge can pit cities or even counties against one another.

“The winning community will be recognized in a press conference in May of 2012 and they will be presented with the traveling trophy,” Reynolds said. “Governor Branstad and I encourage all Iowa communities to compete in the Community Cup Challenge to help us meet our goal of being the healthiest state in the nation.”

Listen to the AUDIO of Branstad’s weekly news conference.

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

Vaile insurance company agrees to settlement in crop insurance fraud case

December 12, 2011 By

The owner of a Vail insurance company has agreed to a settlement over claims of fraud involving crop insurance. The U.S. Justice Department says Russell Hawley and Hawley Insurance Incorporated of Vail have agreed to pay $834,897 dollars to settle allegations that they caused false claims to be submitted to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.

The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed against Hawley federal district court in Sioux City, the principal owner of Hawley Insurance in. The lawsuit alleged that Hawley submitted forged crop insurance applications and other false documents to a private insurance company designated by the federal government to sell federally reinsured crop insurance policies.

The government was required to pay out on these policies when the insured crops failed.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Crime & Courts, News Tagged With:
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