Push needle on Cedar Rapids’ age-friendly reputation

Push needle on Cedar Rapids’ age-friendly reputation

Gazette Column
April 4 public meeting to provide older residents' survey responses Here’s what we know: Anything designed to facilitate access, engagement, safety, enjoyment and participation by older people is good for all age groups. So, why aren’t we doing more of it? The idea of creating “age-friendly” communities isn’t a new one. In 2011 Des Moines became the first Iowa community to earn the distinction of being an Age-Friendly Community, a partnership between the World Health Organization and AARP. Sadly, it remains the only Iowa community to complete the process, although Charles City in Floyd County has been exploring the idea. Two years ago Iowa City was named the best small city for successful aging by the Milken Institute. The group ranks communities in nine areas: general livability, health care, wellness, financial security, education, transportation and convenience,…
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Iowa event keeps the momentum

Iowa event keeps the momentum

Gazette Column
We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. Those words were spoken this week by Sen. Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican, retired Air Force colonel and the first female combat mission fighter pilot, as she revealed she was 'preyed upon and raped” by a superior officer while serving in the military. "So, like you, I also am a military sexual assault survivor, but unlike so many brave survivors, I didn't report being sexually assaulted. Like so many women and men, I didn't trust the system at the time,” McSally said at a subcommittee hearing on military sexual assault Wednesday. McSally also revealed, during the 2018 campaign, that she had been sexually abused by a high school coach when she was teenager. Such revelations…
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Female Genital Mutilation: Felony or misdemeanor?

Female Genital Mutilation: Felony or misdemeanor?

Gazette Column
Committee work in the Iowa House and Senate has produced differing views on what should happen to those who engage in female genital mutilation. Legislation to prohibit the heinous practice of 'female cutting” is advancing in the Iowa Legislature, with bills now reported out of the judiciary committees in both chambers. That's the good news. The caveat is the bills have diverged, with the Senate bill continuing to call for felony prosecutions and the House bill reducing the offense to an aggravated misdemeanor. Both bills have continued language to protect only juveniles from such procedures. In addition, the Legislative Services Agency has filed fiscal reports in an attempt to show the state's cost in enacting such laws. Senate File 346 was reported out of committee on Feb. 21, with its…
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Unhappiness no justification for bad policy

Unhappiness no justification for bad policy

Gazette Column
Here's a thought: The Legislature could pass laws capable of surviving constitutional scrutiny. That was my first thought after listening to Iowa Press moderator David Yepsen query state Rep. Mary Wolfe, D-Clinton, about the ongoing, blatant GOP judicial power grab. "It will put politics right in the middle of what is supposed to be an objective, impartial process that right now is considered one of the best in the country,” Wolfe said when asked about a Republican plan that changes how Iowa judges, including Supreme Court justices, are selected. The state, she added, would be better off making small changes to the nomination and retention process approved by Iowa voters nearly 60 years ago. "If you are a conservative, and you're unhappy, what will you do then?” Yepsen asked in…
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Put people at center of public policies

Put people at center of public policies

Gazette Column
Maybe, now that the business community is raising red flags, something will change. Members of the Iowa Business Council, a group that represents the state's largest businesses, held a news conference at the Statehouse Monday to release their annual, nonpartisan review of economic trends. Dubbed Iowa's Competitive Dashboard, the report measures statewide progress in five areas relative to other states - economic growth, education and workforce, governance, demographics and diversity, and health and wellness. Headlines from the rollout have focused on demographics and diversity because the Business Council found the greatest shortcomings in that area, and because the issue rolls nicely into the larger national conversation about immigration. In the coming days, the Council plans to launch a public-private partnership to research and implement ways the state can attract and…
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Iowa Legislature is ignoring red flags

Iowa Legislature is ignoring red flags

Gazette Column
Debate on bill, amendments aimed at preventing gun violence denied Wary lawmakers in Iowa and around the nation insist ongoing debate about gun violence should center on mental illness, and not guns. So why is legislation aimed at temporarily removing guns from people in crisis being ignored? Iowa Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids, made headlines this week for killing his own amendment, a red flag law he’d attached to a bill concerning mental health. The bill, which came out of the House Human Resources Committee, added provisions for involuntary commitments and hospitalizations and provided rules about how behavioral health information is disclosed to law enforcement agencies. Staed’s amendment would have allowed concerned family members and close friends to petition the court for a temporary weapons injunction against a person who…
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More than reactionary gun violence plans needed

More than reactionary gun violence plans needed

Gazette Column
Pro-gun legislation in the Iowa Statehouse has succumbed to a barrage of bullets. Unfortunately, this is not a metaphor. The nation’s latest mass shooting, this time at a Florida high school, contributed to the demise of an Iowa bill aimed to loosen gun-permitting regulations. Instead, lawmakers want school districts to adopt security plans that address “active shooters” and other disasters. Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, who managed Senate File 2106, said the untimely and unnecessary deaths of 17 Floridians “apparently changed the optics.” Well, it’s about damn time. [caption id="attachment_1934" align="aligncenter" width="690"] Students, friends and family gather at the memorial crosses at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Fla., to remember those where were killed and injured in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)[/caption]…
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Family planning services thin under Iowa GOP program

Family planning services thin under Iowa GOP program

Gazette Column
Despite Republican promises to the contrary, changes to family planning services has resulted in less access that will cost Iowans more. Last spring, Iowa Republicans crafted a new family planning program funded only with state dollars. They did so for the sole purpose of excluding providers that perform abortions or are part of a health network that does. Although abortion providers could accept public money under the previous program that was primarily funded at the federal level, none of the funds could be used for abortion services. The state’s new rules not only resulted in the expected exclusion of Planned Parenthood, but of other significant health care providers like the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the statewide UnityPoint network. Promises of expanded access haven’t materialized, according to a…
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Iowa Republicans are devaluing women – again

Iowa Republicans are devaluing women – again

Gazette Column
Iowa Republicans are once again making clear that they value the potential of pregnancy more than they value women. Their latest missive is Senate Study Bill 3143: “An act relating to the prerequisites for and prohibition against an abortion related to the testing for, and following the detection of, a fetal heartbeat, providing for a repeal, and providing penalties.” A nearly identical bill, HF2163, was introduced in the Iowa House: “An act recognizing the rights and protections accorded each life from the moment of fetal heartbeat detection, prohibiting the performance of an abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected, providing for licensee discipline, and providing a repeal.” Both bills basically state that, once a fetal heartbeat is detected by ultrasound, a pregnant woman cannot legally obtain an abortion. Doctors who defy the…
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Iowans memorialized as face of opioid epidemic

Iowans memorialized as face of opioid epidemic

Gazette Column
Seven Iowa men are featured on a national map that has become a living memorial to the thousands of Americans lost to opioids. The Iowa list of victims is noticeably incomplete. From 2002 to 2014, as many as 1,239 people died from a prescription opioid overdose in Iowa, according to the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center. And, in each year since, the state has witnessed an increase in the number of people lost in opioid-related incidents. In 2016 — the year the seven men featured on the map died — there were 180 opioid-related deaths across the state. The Iowa Department of Public Health has projected 201 such deaths for 2017. The online map, developed in 2016 by ESRI engineer Jeremiah Lindemann, relies on users to add images and…
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