BILLION PILL PLEDGE
Floyd Valley Health in Le Mars is one of four Iowa hospitals to join an initiative designed to prevent opioid addiction before it happens.
The ‘Billion Pill Pledge’ is a program designed to support patients through surgery and recovery. Through the program each hospital will enhance its surgery protocols and optimize pain management around surgery. The approach is designed to enhance patients’ preparation for surgery, better manage any surgery-related pain, and minimize opioid use both before and after surgery.
The mission of the pledge is to reduce leftover opioids after surgery in the United States by 1 billion pills each year. Studies show 9% of surgery patients who have never used an opioid become long-term users of opioids after being legally prescribed opioids after a surgery. The program is backed by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller.
Floyd Valley Healthcare in Le Mars and Cherokee Regional Medical Center, are two of the first four hospitals to announce participation in the program.
HOMELESS ASSISTANCE
The Iowa Finance Authority Board has approved 4.7 million dollars in grants to help 44 agencies, including 4 in northwest Iowa, provide assistance to the homeless in 2023.
Three Sioux City agencies, the Center for Siouxland, Commnity Action Agency of Siouxland, and Safeplace, will receive a total of 113-thousand dollars from the Authority’s Shelter Assistance Fund.
Family Crisis Centers of Sioux Center will receive a grnt of 72-thousand dollars from the Authority’s Emergency Solutions Fund. FCC hosts a statewide suicide hotline, and a statewide domestic violence hotline. This is in addition to their shelter at their Sioux Center campus.
RNG LINE
Several Sioux County dairies are working on a plan to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) with the construction of methane digesters. The company producing this natural gas, West Branch RNG, wants to connect it to Sioux Center’s natural gas distribution system to inject and sell the gas to Sioux Center.
Sioux Center would construct the 8-mile natural gas line to connect the digester to the community’s system, and West Branch RNG would then pay for this connection. The proposed line would extend from Sioux Center south to near Maurice, at Hoogland Dairy. There would also be a proposed branch line to Maassen Dairy, which is east of Maurice.
Before injecting gas into the system, the natural gas would be scrubbed and monitored to ensure the quality meets the same standards of Northern Natural Gas, which currently transports natural gas to Sioux Center. West Branch RNG could supply up to 300 MMBtu of natural gas a day, which is roughly 1/3 of what Sioux Center uses on an average summer day. Winter usage is much higher.
The proposed project could be completed as soon as summer of 2023. The plan and requires approvals from several entities including the Sioux County Board of Supervisors and the Iowa Utilities Board.
TRUMP IN SIOUX CITY
Former President Donald Trump has used an appearance in Sioux City to tout two Iowa Republicans who are seeking reelection this year — and to hint that HE will run again for president in 2024.
During remarks outdoors to a crowd gathered at the Sioux City Airport, Trump called Senator Chuck Grassley courageous and Kim Reynolds a great governor.
Former President Trump, in Sioux City last night, endorsed
the campaigns of Governor Kim Reynolds and Senator Chuck Grassley. Reynolds joined Trump on stage and briefly spoke to the crowd.
Trump invited Grassley on stage, too.
As Trump’s plane landed in Sioux City, Mike Franken — Grassley’s Democratic opponent — was rallying with a crowd in Des Moines.
Franken described his campaign’s gathering as “second fiddle” to Trump’s, but Franken told his crowd Trump and Grassley no longer appeal to a winning majority of Iowa voters.
Democratic candidate for governor Deidre DeJear says Reynolds and Trump are focused on dangerous rhetoric rather than solutions to problems.
DeJear made her comments while campaigning last night in Indianola.
VOTE SECURITY
The state’s top election official says there’s zero evidence Iowa’s vote counting systems could be hacked or infiltrated. Secretary of State Paul Pate says every ballot is a paper ballot and none of the ballot tabulators poll workers will use next Tuesday are connected to the internet.
Pate held a news conference Thursday with federal and state officials who are monitoring election-related threats. Pate referred to a situation in Arizona, where armed people were observing voters putting their absentee ballots at drop boxes.
Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens says voter intimidation hasn’t traditionally been a problem in Iowa.
About 10-thousand Iowans will be working at precinct sites around the state next Tuesday and Pate is urging voters to treat them with respect.
The day after the election, Pate will order a hand count of ballots cast in a randomly selected precinct in each Iowa county. Two statewide races will be identified as the subject of the recounts. Pate says these post-election audits in the past have clearly shown Iowans that the vote tallies announced on Election Night are accurate.
TURNING COLDER
Much colder weather, rain — and possibly snow — is coming soon. Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff, at the National Weather Service, says precipitation will return today.
A strong cold front is coming through the day on Friday. Temperatures may start off in the 50s and 60s on Friday morning, but they’re expected to fall throughout the day as showers and thunderstorms move across the state.
While many Iowans have been enjoying outdoor activities in this week’s unseasonable November warmth, the rainfall will be welcome in helping to recharge soil moisture levels.
The driest months of the year for Iowa are just ahead, December, January and February.
ASSAULT AND IMPAIRMENTS
Students in Plymouth County’s Citizens Academy this week learned about assault cases, and how law enforcement responds to them. SGT Lenny Flack of the Le Mars Police Department
says one trend he’s seen is that the number of domestic assault cases they’ve responded to has been dropping since 2018-19. A greater awareness of domestic violence in the community has helped.
The numbers appear to have spiked during the pandemic.
The overall trend, however, has been fewer domestic assaults.
Last night, the Academy learned about alcohol and drug impairment, and how law enforcement detects and measures intoxication. The class was led by Le Mars Police Officer Bob Rohmiller, and Plymouth Sheriffs Deputy Kyle Petersen. Both specialize in field sobriety instruction.
