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Here’s something more to scare and depress you: An Iowa Senate subcommittee voted 2-1 to advance a bill banning mRNA vaccines like those used against Covid-19. The bill was put forward by Republican schmoes from Klemme and Mason City after hearing from the sincerely misinformed, like a chiropractor who said he did some research on this stuff. And others who think vaccines cause autism or whatever they hear. It’s bunk, but the senators fed on it.
Vaccines work. They wiped out polio. They prevented measles. They saved millions of people from dying of Covid. A few people who actually know what they are talking about tried to talk some sense to the senseless:
“I will tell you this right now — our students want no part of practicing here when bills like this are on the table,” Dr. John Crosbie, family physician and faculty member at Des Moines University, testified. “You are chasing them off. You go ahead. Pass it. Chase off the best and brightest.”
So they did. They passed it.
The House declined to take it up before a so-called funnel deadline last Friday. It could recess and pop up at midnight for the governor’s signature. You never know. What we do know is that it actually advanced in the Iowa Senate. Our ignorance never ceases to amaze. It is chasing people off. We are trying to move Iowa back to the Dark Ages in denying basic science at the legislature. Why should a young person with brains hang around to see how it turns out? For the weather? Because it smells good in Klemme?
Fools with their hands on the levers.
A blizzard here, a snow squall there, a taste of spring sunshine, we must be fully into the throes of tournament basketball. This is written after the Newell-Fonda girls lost in the state championship game, a familiar place for the Mustangs and Coach Dick Juengers, and before the Storm Lake boys hit the hardwoods at Wells Fargo Arena (with just one senior starter).
Drake punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a Missouri Valley Conference championship and a surprising 30-3 record so far — the most wins in the nation — under the guidance of Storm Laker Ben McCollum. Iowa State has its eyes on the Final Four behind Ames native Tami Lipsey. Cyclone Audi Crooks should be an All-American. Drake’s Katie Dinnebier just finished five consecutive games with more than 30 points, tying former Bulldog Jan Jensen (now the Iowa head coach) for total scoring at 1,799. Our hero Lisa Bluder was just inducted into the Missouri Valley Hall of Fame. It is a feast for a fanatic.
Basketball is enough of a distraction from the dregs of February and March to keep us sane. It gets a lot of us out of the house. Keeps the ticker ticking in those late seconds. We can love Jaidyn Coon and Cam Boyd — Boyd passes to Coon, Coon dunks it. That’s entertainment. We’re whooping it up for the home team. And, a note to our friends at Council Bluffs St. Albert’s: It is “Saints,” not “Saintes.” No “e” required. They won, anyhow, so they can put a spare vowel where they like.
Politicians should take care when approaching cuts to Medicaid. A survey from the nonpartisan KFF Polling, which tracks health care issues, shows that more than 80% support Medicaid funding at current or greater levels. The public strongly disapproves of cuts to Medicaid, while Congress considers massive cuts in order to deliver tax relief to the wealthy. Ninety-five percent of those surveyed said Medicaid is important to their community.
Most people support work requirements for the able-bodied, unless it adds to administrative costs. People do not believe in an open checkbook, but they understand that Medicaid covers most health care expenses for the disabled, elderly and poor. Our local hospitals and nursing homes depend on Medicaid and Medicare. People understand that.
President Trump has said that he does not want to mess with Medicare or Social Security (despite Elon Musk’s goons getting their hands on the Social Security Administration’s computers). Congress should understand that cutting direct aid to the working poor and rural elderly is not that popular. House Ag Committee members likewise would like to gut funding for nutrition programs upon which many rural Trump voters depend in order to find savings for corporate ag subsidies.
Trump also suggested that Musk lay down his chainsaw and take up the scalpel. It’s about knowing when your audience is tiring of the show. Maybe we won’t have a full-blown trade war with Mexico and Canada after all. Trump takes things to the extreme and then moderates, after a fashion. This poll’s numbers are so strong that margin of error is meaningless. People want to know that grandma will be taken care of in the nursing home. Leave Medicaid alone. Medicare, too.
Carbon pipelines continue to be frustrated by the political process. Last week South Dakota enacted a law that effectively bans the use of eminent domain. The law appears to be another significant hurdle for Summit Pipeline, a project that seeks to transport CO2 from Northwest Iowa ethanol plants to North Dakota for burial in spent fracking holes. The $8.9 billion project would be financed by federal carbon tax credits.
Following South Dakota, Iowa legislators led by Rep. Steven Holt of Denison advanced legislation similar to South Dakota’s that would inhibit use of eminent domain. A significant number of legislators are signed on. Persistent and genuine local opposition has galvanized a political front that crosses party lines. The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and the company assailed the position as one that hurts corn growers.
Every delay to the project gives the opposition more time to organize against it. Summit says it is moving forward in states that favor innovation and investment, suggesting that South Dakota might not. The governor of South Dakota suggested it was a good time for Summit to “reset.” That suggests that the company is bidding too low.
Steve Holt and Steve King are the opposition in Iowa. They are formidable. Ultimately, so is money. Iowa has made way for the pipeline route already. Summit is not throwing in the towel by any means. The implications for other right-of-way projects, such as transmission lines for wind power, are significant and will attract powerful attention that politicians cannot simply dismiss.
If it isn’t wage fixing in the broiler houses it’s price fixing in the henhouse. The Justice Department in Chicago is reportedly investigating major egg producers for price fixing during an avian flu epidemic. Rembrandt Foods is not named. There was an egg price-fixing investigation in 2022, which resulted in a $17.7 million judgment. The judgments do not keep pace with the profits fed in part by indemnity payments for avian flu losses. If they did, the price-fixing would not continue.
In February, JBS was ordered to pay $83.5 million in a beef price-fixing settlement. Before that, chicken producers were ordered to pay distributors more than $300 million as part of a settlement over price-fixing. In December, nine poultry companies agreed to pay $180 million over wage fixing. Then there was this kerfuffle about 13-year-olds working night clean-up. The poor kids probably got deported.
This is how the system is built. It’s all a cost of doing business and ultimately is assessed on you at the meat counter. This is what happens in extremely concentrated industries where just a few players can make and keep such deals. They own the chicken, the egg and the workers. The benefits seemingly outweigh the risks for the select few. The settlements can be viewed as government assessments. If you want to play, you fix prices and wages, you get disaster subsidies and indemnity payments, and you pay fines. It seems to all work out in the end for the investor. It has been this way forever, and it is tolerated.
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