USDA ANNOUNCES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HPAI STRATEGY
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins today laid out the Trump Administration’s comprehensive plan to bring down the price of eggs.
Rollins, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, announced a strategy to combat avian influenza. The Agriculture Department will invest up to $1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again. This money will be repurposed from the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to cut wasteful spending. Some of those dollars will be invested in long-term solutions to avian flu. HPAI has resulted in about 166 million laying hens being culled since 2022. In the past month, there have been confirmation of bird flu in a layer flock in O’Brien County, and Turkey flocks in Buena Vista and Sac counties.
NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE SYMPHONIC BAND TOUR
The Northwestern College Symphonic Band will tour Italy during spring break, March 1 through 11.
Their tour will include performances in Salerno, Rome, Saint Mary of the Angels, Prato and Padua. They will also visit sites such as the Pompeii ruins, St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Florence and Pisa.
Following the tour, the Symphonic Band will perform a home concert on Friday, March 21, at Christ Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public.
FEENSTRA VOTES TO START PROCESS TO DELIVER PRESIDENT TRUMP’S FULL AGENDA
U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra has voted for a budget resolution to start the process to deliver on President Trump’s full America First agenda. Rep Feenstra said “The American people elected President Trump and Republican majorities to Congress to end business as usual in Washington.” The budget resolution enables Congress to deliver on the President’s agenda. This includes cutting taxes for Iowans, securing the border, expanding American energy production, and eliminating waste and fraud in the government. All four of Iowa’s U.S. Representatives, all Republicans, voted in favor of the budget resolution.
MAN SHOT BY SIOUX CITY POLICE OFFICER DIES
A man shot by a Sioux City police officer Saturday has died. Sioux City Police say 30-year-old Vincente Manzo Hernandez of Hull was pulled over in an early morning traffic stop and officers learned he was wanted on felony criminal warrants. Officers say Hernandez resisted when they tried to take him into custody and an officer shot him. Hernandez was taken to the hospital where he later died. Two Sioux City Police officers are on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation of the shooting by the Iowa D-C-I.
COVERING WEIGHT LOSS MEDS MIGHT CUT IOWA MEDICAID COSTS
Legislators may launch a study of how weight loss drugs might reduce costs in the Iowa Medicaid program. Eli Lilly, the company that makes the weight loss drug Zepbound, has proposed a bill that would have staff in the Iowa Medicaid program do a cost-benefit analysis of the short and long term health care benefits to Medicaid patients — as well as the financial impact on the Medicaid program. A spokesperson for Iowa’s Department of Human Services suggests an academic study would be better and three legislators on a House subcommittee agree that may the option lawmakers choose. Utah’s Department of Health and Human Services recently did a study. it found covering the new class of weight loss drugs for obese Medicaid patients could save the State of Utah 20 percent in health care costs for those patients.
REPORT: IOWA WILL SEE 21,200 NEW CANCER CASES THIS YEAR
The new Cancer in Iowa Report aims to raise awareness about how the state needs to immediately start planning for the future to care for the quickly-rising number of cancer survivors. Dr. Sarah Nash is research director of the Iowa Cancer Registry and an epidemiology professor at the University of Iowa. Nash says more than 21-thousand Iowans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and as survival rates rise, there needs to be an increase in healthcare professionals to handle their unique needs.
Nash says Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the country, behind only Kentucky, and Iowa has the fastest-rising rate of new cancer cases. The report says 171-thousand Iowans are now considered cancer survivors, or about one in every 20 Iowans, and they’ll need long-term medical attention.
Nash says this edition of the annual Cancer in Iowa Report lays out projections for cancer incidence during 2025.
The Iowa Cancer Registry has tracked cancer cases, survival rates, and deaths from cancer in the state since 1973. Last year’s report showed Iowa’s cancer mortality rate would fall by 100 cases, but this year’s projected rate of deaths rose.
The report allows doctors and researchers to focus on how to prevent and treat cancer, she says, and it provides Iowans with the knowledge they need to get advance screening and improve survival rates across the board. https://shri.public-health.uiowa.edu/
GRASSLEY RECALLS HIS FORT KNOX VISIT AS TRUMP QUESTIONS SAFETY OF GOLD
While President Trump says he personally plans to check on the nation’s massive gold stockpile at Fort Knox, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the new U-S Treasury Secretary verifies the supply of precious metal is indeed there and safe. Grassley sent a Tweet on Sunday to correct reports that indicated it’s been decades since outside sources confirmed the gold’s presence in the Kentucky stronghold. Grassley says he visited Fort Knox in 1974 and recalls seeing “stacks of gold brick” through peepholes in vaults. The military installation is legendary for its high level of security, though Trump’s post on X Monday said “…maybe somebody stole the gold. Tons of gold.”
