SPECIAL TOWN HALL MEETING
The Le Mars city council wants to encourage more citizen participationin their council meetings, so they’ve scheduled a special town hall meeting for next week Thursday. It will be held on Thursday, January 30, at 5:30 p.m. in the city council chambers. The agenda of the meeting is an open discussion.. Citizens can speak to topics of their concern to the city council. The council cannot take action to any proposal made at the meeting, but can put it on a later council agenda.
REP.FEENSTRA SECURES FLOOD RECOVERY FUNDS FOR SPENCER SCHOOLS
U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra has secured 1.7 million dollars for flood recovery and cleanup at the Spencer Community Schools. One of the district’s elementary schools, Lincoln Elementary, was closed for this school year due to extensive flood damages. The 500 grade 3 through 5 at Lincoln are spread out to the other two elementary schools in the city, and to the Spencer Middle School. Rep. Feenstra says he continues to seek assistance for schools in his district that have been damaged by flood or storms.
BILL WOULD REQUIRE TEACHING FETAL DEVELOPMENT IN IOWA K-12 SCHOOLS
A bill eligible for debate in the Iowa Senate Education Committee would require that public schools show students in all grades ultrasounds and computer-generated animation that explain pregnancy and fetal development. Similar bills that stalled in the legislature last year specified the “Meet Baby Olivia” video produced by an anti-abortion group would have to be shown to students, starting in 7th grade. There’s no reference to that video in this year’s bill — and the legislation no longer says what’s presented to students should be based on research by medical organizations like the American College of O-B-G-Y-Ns. Bill backers say the legislation requires students be presented with research-based, unbiased information that depicts the humanity of the unborn child. A lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa says it’s a politically motivated bill that’s meant to influence the trajectory of young Iowans’ lives.
IOWA LEGISLATIVE TOWN HALL
The League of Women Voters of Sioux City and Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa are co-sponsoring the first 2025 Iowa Legislative Town Hall on January 25, 2025 from 10:00am to 11:30pm. at the Sioux City Public Museum.
The public is invited to attend and share questions or concerns with their elected state representatives. Siouxland area legislators will be asked to share their legislative priorities for 2025, followed by questions from the audience. The event will be live streamed on LWV Facebook page, “League of Women Voters of Sioux City.” Questions may be posted in advance on the Facebook event or emailed to LWVSiouxCity@gmail.com.
Future Town Halls will be February 22, 2025, cosponsored by Siouxland Cares; and March 22, 2025.
NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE SPRING ENROLLMENT RECORD
Northwestern College in Orange City has set a spring enrollment record. This year’s enrollment is 1,661, up from 1,603 last spring. Nearly 65% of the students attend the residential campus. There are 640 students in Northwestern’s Graduate and Professional Studies division. It’s the sixth consecutive year of spring enrollment records at the college.
TROOPER’S BILL WOULD RAISE FINES FOR EXCESSIVED SPEEDING
A bill to significantly increase the fines for excessive speeding has unanimously cleared a subcommittee in the Iowa House. Representative Joshua Meggers of Grundy Center has been a state trooper for 18 and a half years.
Meggers and other state troopers wrote more than a thousand tickets in 2024 to drivers who were traveling 100 miles an hour or more on a roadway. Meggers says the highest speed he encountered came at the beginning of his career.
But it’s not just the Interstates where drivers are being clocked at triple digits.
If his bill becomes law, the fines for speeding within 20 miles an hour above the posted speed limit would stay the same, but anything above that would merit a 285 dollar fine, with five more dollars tacked on for every mile an hour above 20 miles more than than the speed limit. It means the fine for driving 100 miles an hour in a 55 mile an hour zone would be 410 dollars.
PROPOSAL TO EXPAND THE NUMBER OF MEDICAL CANNABIS DISPENSARIES
There’s a revived attempt in the Iowa Senate to double the number of medical cannabis dispensaries in Iowa. There are currently five state-licensed dispensaries. A bill to allow five more passed the Senate last year, but stalled in the House. This week, the same bill cleared a Senate subcommittee. A lobbyist for “Bud and Mary’s Cannabis Company” — which operates dispensaries in Sioux City and Windsor Heights — says without some deeper reforms to Iowa’s medical cannabis program, it’s unlikely new dispensaries would survive.
HOUSE BILL WOULD BAN MARGARINE, RED DYE 40 FROM IOWA SCHOOL MEALS
A bill under consideration in the Iowa House would ban margarine and two food additives from the lunches and breakfasts served at Iowa schools. Representative Jeff Shipley, a Republican from Fairfield, is the lawmaker assigned to lead discussion of the bill.
The bill mentions Red Dye number 40, which is made from petroleum. It’s one of a half dozen food dyes that will be banned from California school lunches starting in 2028.
Robert F. Kennedy, Junior — President Trump’s nominee to lead a key federal agency — has raised questions about the country’s food supply and the eating habits of Americans. The bill which has cleared a subcommittee in the Iowa House would ban the state’s schools from serving margarine to students.
Shipley says he personally prefers butter and the good, healthy fat that it provides. The bill as currently written also would ban Yellow Dye 7 which is used in soaps and cosmetics. Margarine, by the way, is not naturally yellow and many states had laws requiring margarine to be colored pink or banned the sale of yellow margarine. However, Wisconsin still bans restaurants from serving margarine unless the customer asks for it.