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January colder than normal with some above normal snowfall

Posted on by Rick Watts

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RADIO IOWA – January saw colder than normal temperatures statewide and parts of the state had above average snowfall.

State climatologist Justin Glisan compiles the temperature data. “We were five degrees below average across the state and anywhere from two to eight degrees below average if you look at eastern Iowa where we had a little more snowpack,” Glisan says.

January was drier than normal if you average it out statewide. “We were about a quarter-inch below average, but January is the driest month of the year and it doesn’t take a lot to be above or below average,” according to Glisan. “And then if we look at the actual snowpack that we’ve had — about eight and a half inches across the state. And that was basically above average across much of southeast and central Iowa. And that’s about an inch above average.”

With groundhog day coming up — many are wondering what is ahead for the rest of winter. Glisan says the early indications show February not being as cold as the month was one year ago. “Now we see in the short term getting out into the middle of February — near normal to slightly elevated shots of warmer conditions,” he says.

Glisan says that could mean not as much precipitation. “This time of year when we do see warmer conditions we generally see a drier signal or near-normal conditions — but we are seeing an elevated signal for drier conditions for the first half of the month,” Glisan says. “If we look at the monthly outlooks in general that were issued on January 31st — we are not seeing any real clear guidance for the full month.”

Glisan joked that without a clear signal we’ll have to wait to see what Puxatawny Phil says will happen.

(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)

Hite’s plan would speed up teacher licensing

Posted on by Rick Watts

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RADIO IOWA – The chairman of the House Education Committee has come up with a plan that would let college graduates with three years of work experience get a teaching license within a year. Republican Representative Dustin Hite of New Sharon says Iowa school administrators tell him they’re having a hard time hiring teachers.

 “Making sure that we have quality, qualified teachers for years to come is just important to all Iowans,” Hite says. “It’s certainly important to people like me who have kids in school.”

These alternative licenses would be for potential teachers in 7th through 12th grade courses and Hite’s proposal would require applicants to complete an internship in a classroom and 15 additional hours of college credit. That’s faster than the current pathway for college grads seeking a license to teach in Iowa. Hite says he hopes his plan will appeal to people with life experience in key occupations who are looking for a second career….and that his idea would find new teachers for urban and rural schools.

 “There’s people who have a range of different jobs. Down where I live we have a lot of different industries. We have Cargill, so we have chemists who work there. We’ve got Vermeer and Musco, so we have engineers who work there, so I think you actually will find a lot of those people throughout the state.”

Hite expects his plan will be considered in the House Education Committee later this week or early next week.

Omicron amps up concerns about long COVID and its causes

Posted on by Rick Watts

By LAURA UNGAR and LINDSEY TANNER

AP – More than a year after a bout with COVID-19, Rebekah Hogan still suffers from severe brain fog, pain and fatigue that leave her unable to do her nursing job or handle household activities.

Long COVID has her questioning her worth as a wife and mother.

“Is this permanent? Is this the new norm?” said the 41-year-old Latham, New York, woman, whose three children and husband also have signs of the condition. “I want my life back.’’

More than a third of COVID-19 survivors by some estimates will develop such lingering problems. Now, with omicron sweeping across the globe, scientists are racing to pinpoint the cause of the bedeviling condition and find treatments before a potential explosion in long COVID cases.

Could it be an autoimmune disorder? That could help explain why long COVID-19 disproportionately affects women, who are more likely than men to develop autoimmune diseases. Could microclots be the cause of symptoms ranging from memory lapses to discolored toes? That could make sense, since abnormal blood clotting can occur in COVID-19.

As these theories and others are tested, there is fresh evidence that vaccination may reduce the chances of developing long COVID.

It’s too soon to know whether people infected with the highly contagious omicron variant will develop the mysterious constellation of symptoms, usually diagnosed many weeks after the initial illness. But some experts think a wave of long COVID is likely and say doctors need to be prepared for it.

With $1 billion from Congress, the National Institutes of Health is funding a vast array of research on the condition. And clinics devoted to studying and treating it are popping up around the world, affiliated with places such as Stanford University in California and University College London.

WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?

Momentum is building around a few key theories.

One is that the infection or remnants of the virus persist past the initial illness, triggering inflammation that leads to long COVID.

Another is that latent viruses in the body, such as the Epstein-Barr virus that causes mononucleosis, are reactivated. A recent study in the journal Cell pointed to Epstein-Barr in the blood as one of four possible risk factors, which also include pre-existing Type 2 diabetes and the levels of coronavirus RNA and certain antibodies in the blood. Those findings must be confirmed with more research.

A third theory is that autoimmune responses develop after acute COVID-19.

In a normal immune response, viral infections activate antibodies that fight invading virus proteins. But sometimes in the aftermath, antibodies remain revved up and mistakenly attack normal cells. That phenomenon is thought to play a role in autoimmune diseases such as lupus and multiple sclerosis.

Justyna Fert-Bober and Dr. Susan Cheng were among researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles who found that some people who have had COVID-19, including cases without symptoms, have a variety of these elevated “autoantibodies” up to six months after recovering. Some are the same ones found in people with autoimmune diseases.

Another possibility is that tiny clots play a role in long COVID. Many COVID-19 patients develop elevated levels of inflammatory molecules that promote abnormal clotting. That can lead to blood clots throughout the body that can cause strokes, heart attacks and dangerous blockages in the legs and arms.

In her lab at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, scientist Resia Pretorius has found microclots in blood samples from patients with COVID-19 and in those who later developed long COVID. She also found elevated levels of proteins in blood plasma that prevented the normal breakdown of these clots.

She believes that these clotting abnormalities persist in many patients after an initial coronavirus infection and that they reduce oxygen distribution to cells and tissue throughout the body, leading to most if not all symptoms that have been linked to long COVID.

IT CAN HIT NEARLY ANYONE

While there’s no firm list of symptoms that define the condition, the most common include fatigue, problems with memory and thinking, loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath, insomnia, anxiety and depression.

Some of these symptoms may first appear during an initial infection but linger or recur a month or more later. Or new ones may develop, lasting for weeks, months or over a year.

Because so many of the symptoms occur with other illnesses, some scientists question whether the coronavirus is always the trigger. Researchers hope their work will provide definitive answers.

Long COVID affects adults of all ages as well as children. Research shows it is more prevalent among those who were hospitalized, but also strikes a significant portion who weren’t.

Retired flight attendant Jacki Graham’s bout with COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic wasn’t bad enough to put her in the hospital. But months later, she experienced breathlessness and a racing heart. She couldn’t taste or smell. Her blood pressure shot up.

In the fall of 2020, she became so fatigued that her morning yoga would send her back to bed.

“I’m an early riser, so I’d get up and push myself, but then I was done for the day,” said Graham, 64, of Studio City, California. “Six months ago, I would have told you COVID has ruined my life.”

Hogan, the New York nurse, also wasn’t hospitalized with COVID-19 but has been debilitated since her diagnosis. Her husband, a disabled veteran, and children ages 9, 13 and 15 fell ill soon after and were sick with fever, stomach pains and weakness for about a month. Then all seemed to get a little better until new symptoms appeared.

Hogan’s doctors think autoimmune abnormalities and a pre-existing connective tissue disorder that causes joint pain may have made her prone to developing the condition.

POTENTIAL ANSWERS

There are no treatments specifically approved for long COVID, though some patients get relief from painkillers, drugs used for other conditions, and physical therapy. But more help may be on the horizon.

Immunobiologist Akiko Iwasaki is studying the tantalizing possibility that COVID-19 vaccination might reduce long COVID symptoms. Her team at Yale University is collaborating with a patient group called Survivor Corps on a study that involves vaccinating previously unvaccinated long COVID patients as a possible treatment.

Iwasaki, who is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which supports The Associated Press’ Health and Science Department, said she is doing this study because patient groups have reported improvement in some people’s long COVID symptoms after they got their shots.

Study participant Nancy Rose, 67, of Port Jefferson, New York, said many of her symptoms waned after she got vaccinated, though she still has bouts of fatigue and memory loss.

Two recently released studies, one from the U.S. and one from Israel, offer preliminary evidence that being vaccinated before getting COVID-19 could help prevent the lingering illness or at least reduce its severity. Both were done before omicron emerged.

Neither has been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but outside experts say the results are encouraging.

In the Israeli study, about two-thirds of participants received one or two Pfizer shots; the others were unvaccinated. Those who had received two shots were at least half as likely to report fatigue, headache, muscle weakness or pain and other common long COVID symptoms as the unvaccinated group.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

With few clear answers yet, the future is murky for patients.

Many, like Graham, see improvement over time. She sought help through a long COVID program at Cedars-Sinai, enrolled in a study there in April 2021, and was vaccinated and boosted.

Today, she said, her blood pressure is normal, and her sense of smell and energy level are getting closer to pre-COVID levels. Still, she wound up retiring early because of her ordeal.

Hogan still struggles with symptoms that include agonizing nerve pain and “spaghetti legs,” or limbs that suddenly become limp and unable to bear weight, a condition that also affects her 13-year-old son.

Some scientists worry that long COVID in certain patients might become a form of chronic fatigue syndrome, a poorly understood, long-lasting condition that has no cure or approved treatment.

One thing’s for sure, some experts say: Long COVID will have a huge effect on individuals, health care systems and economies around the world, costing many billions of dollars.

Even with insurance, patients can be out thousands of dollars at a time when they’re too sick to work. Graham, for example, said she paid about $6,000 out of pocket for things like scans, labs, doctor visits and chiropractic care.

Pretorius, the scientist in South Africa, said there is real worry things could get worse.

“So many people are losing their livelihoods, their homes. They can’t work anymore,” she said. “Long COVID will probably have a more severe impact on our economy than acute COVID.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Iowa COVID hospitalizations dropping

Posted on by Rick Watts

AP- The number of people hospitalized due to the coronavirus and the number of confirmed infections have dropped in Iowa, but hundreds of people in the state remain seriously ill with the virus, according to state data released Monday.

While hospitalizations have dropped about 10% in a week, Iowa continues to have 849 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and 130 in intensive care, the state Department of Public Health reported.

The seven-day moving average of daily cases fell to around 4,200 from a recent peak of over 5,500 on Jan. 18.

The number of nursing homes with outbreaks increased to 107 in Monday’s report, up from 95 reported on Friday. Schools also continue to see a significant number of infections.

The Centerville district in southern Iowa called off classes Jan. 24 and 25 after “experiencing high absenteeism within our certified and support staff and students due to COVID-19, influenza and a variety of other illnesses,” Superintendent Tom Rubel said in a letter to the district posted Friday. The county has the 13th lowest vaccination rate in the state, with 49.5% of the county population without at least one dose of vaccine.

State data shows 242 people have died with COVID since Jan. 1. Since the pandemic began, Iowa reports 8,501 have died. Federal data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists slightly more, with 8,553 deaths.

Casey’s asks for law change, so teens can roll out pizza

Posted on by Rick Watts

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RADIO IOWA – Iowa-based Casey’s General Stores — the country’s 4th largest pizza chain — is asking the Iowa legislature to let 16 and 17 year olds man the machines that roll out the pizza dough.

“Casey’s, like any other employer across the state of Iowa, we’re really struggling in finding employees,” Tom Cope, a lobbyist for Casey’s, said during a Senate subcommittee hearing Monday afternoon.

Cope said unlike surrounding states like Illinois and Missouri, current Iowa law bars anyone under the age of 18 from operating a pizza dough rolling machine.

“We make the dough fresh every day at the store. It’s not a frozen dough,” Cope said. “And so the way it works is we have a ball of dough and (for) each pizza that’s ordered, that dough has to go through a rolling machine before it then can be made into a pizza.”

The Senate subcommittee approved the bill that adopts federal guidelines, so 16 and 17-year-olds would be able to operate pizza dough machines in Iowa. Senator Todd Taylor, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids who was a member of the panel, said as long as minors aren’t allowed to do maintenance on the machines, which could be dangerous, he’ll support the move.

“I think that’s all we need to do and it’s a win-win, you know, kids make pizza all over this state,” Taylor said, “but we want them to be safe.”

Peter Hird, a lobbyist for the Iowa Federation of Labor, said unions aren’t opposing the attempt to add older teenagers to Casey’s pizza-making enterprise, but Hird questioned whether increasing child labor is the best way to address Iowa’s workforce shortage.

“We do really worry about bringing more kids into the workforce,” he said during the subcommittee hearing. “Are we protecting them during these years, too?”

He cited last year’s vote in the legislature to let 16 and 17 year olds operate the rides at Iowa amusement parks as well as legislation proposed this year that would no longer require adult supervision of older teens working in child care facilities.

Russia, US to square off at UN Security Council over Ukraine

Posted on by Rick Watts

By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Russia are squaring off at the U.N. Security Council over Ukraine, with Washington calling Moscow’s actions a threat to international peace and security, while a Kremlin envoy ridiculed Monday’s meeting as a “PR stunt.”

The session kicks off more high-level diplomacy this week, although talks between the U.S. and Russia have so far failed to ease tensions in the crisis. Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, stoking fears in the West of an invasion.

Russia denies it intends to launch an attack but demanded that NATO promise never to allow Ukraine to join the alliance, halt the deployment of NATO weapons near Russian borders, and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe. NATO and the U.S. call those demands impossible.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken didn’t make any visible progress in easing the tensions at their meeting in Geneva earlier this month. They are expected to speak by phone Tuesday, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

U.S. President Joe Biden warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call Thursday that there is a “distinct possibility” Russia could begin an incursion in February, but the Ukrainian leader sought to play down the war fears, saying Western alarm over an imminent invasion has prompted many investors in the country’s financial markets to cash out.

Zelenskyy said Friday that “we aren’t seeing any escalation bigger than before,” and charged that the Russian buildup could be an attempt by Moscow to exert “psychological pressure” and sow panic.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Ukraine on Tuesday for talks with Zelenskyy, and will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin later Monday, to urge him to “step back,” Johnson’s office said. Johnson says he is considering sending hundreds of British troops to NATO countries in the Baltic region as a show of strength.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that “hysteria promoted by Washington triggers hysteria in Ukraine, where people are almost starting to pack their bags for the front line.”

While Russia could try to block the Security Council meeting if it gets the support of nine of the 15 members, the U.S. was confident it had “more than sufficient support” to hold it, according to a senior official in the Biden administration who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly.

Any formal action by the Security Council is extremely unlikely, given Russia’s veto power and its ties with others on the council, including China.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia’s actions pose “a clear threat to international peace and security and the U.N. Charter.”

Speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Thomas-Greenfield said: ”We’re going into the room prepared to listen to them, but we’re not going to be distracted by their propaganda.”

She said last week that council members “must squarely examine the facts and consider what is at stake for Ukraine, for Russia, for Europe, and for the core obligations and principles of the international order should Russia further invade Ukraine.”

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky tweeted that he hoped other Security Council members “will not support this clear PR stunt.”

Assuming the meeting goes ahead, the council will first hear a briefing by a senior U.N. official followed by statements from its 15 members including Russia, the United States and European members France, Ireland, United Kingdom and Albania. Under council rules, Ukraine will also speak.

China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun indicated Beijing supports Moscow in opposing a council meeting.

“Both sides have shown willingness to continue their negotiations,” he told several reporters on Friday. “Let them settle the differences through dialogue, through negotiations.”

“Russia has said clearly they have no intention to have a war” and the Security Council should “help to deescalate the situation instead of adding fuel to the fire,” Zhang said.

Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland’s U.N. ambassador, said her country wants to see calm prevail.

“We want to see de-escalation, diplomacy and dialogue,” she added.

On Sunday, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, said that in the event of an attack, lawmakers want Russia to face “the mother of all sanctions.” That includes actions against Russian banks that could severely undermine the Russian economy and increased lethal aid to Ukraine’s military.

The sanctions under consideration would apparently be significantly stronger than those imposed after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Those penalties have been seen as ineffective.

Menendez also raised the prospect of imposing some punishments preemptively, before any invasion.

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Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Jill Lawless in London contributed.

—-

Follow AP stories on the crisis in Ukraine at: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

DNC panel members question whether 2024 Iowa Caucuses should go first

Posted on by Rick Watts

BY 

A group of national Democratic Party officials has begun debating whether Iowa’s Caucuses should be the first event in the 2024 presidential nominating process. None of the speakers at a Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting this afternoon defended Iowa’s lead-off position.

Panel member Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said there’s “nothing written in stone” that says Iowa’s Caucuses and New Hampshire’s Primary should be first and she says no one who set up the current system in 1972 expected the two lead-off states to “winnow the field” of potential candidates.

“The beginning is important, right? The early states are important,” she said. “…I think this will be a topic of rich discussion and we can start from scratch.”

Molly Magarik, a Democrat from President Biden’s home state of Delaware, said the “pages and pages of rules” for how a caucus should be run aren’t welcoming to would-be voters.

“Obviously there’s a lot of nostalgia and there’s a lot of: ‘This is how we do things,’” Magarik said. “…A caucus is incredibly intimidating to people.”

Mo Elleithee, head of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics, experienced Iowa’s Caucuses as the traveling press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign. As a member of the DNC’s Rules panel, he’s urging the party to make sure the first set of early states hold primaries, represent the diversity of voices in the Democratic Party and will be battleground states in the General Election.

“In my opinion and I’m sure we’re going to be talking about this more, three of the four current ‘early window’ states satisfy at least two of those criteria. One does not satisfy any of them,” he said, “at least in recent years.”

Iowa was considered a swing state in the first four presidential elections of this century, but not in 2016 or 2020. In a written statement, the Iowa Democratic Party’s chairman said Iowa plays an important role in the presidential nominating process and he will continue to fight for Iowa’s Democratic Caucuses to remain first.

The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party has said he’s been assured by national party leaders that Iowa’s Caucuses will be the first event on the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominating calendar.

Auto dealers propose generic license plates with no county name listed

Posted on by Rick Watts

BY 

RADIO IOWA – A Senate committee may soon debate the concept of leaving the county name off the bottom of some Iowa license plates.

Iowa is one of five states that have county names listed on the standard state license plate. Brad Epperly, a lobbyist for the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association, said the proposal would create the option for a generic plate that doesn’t list the county where the vehicle’s owner lives.

“We have a number of plates already, specialty plates that don’t have county names on them,” Epperly said.

Iowa offers 63 “specialty” license plates and only three list county names at the bottom. The Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association is opposed to the bill.

“The concern from law enforcement at the local level is that it is an investigational tool. A lot of times people won’t get or remember the number on a license plate in a situation, but they might remember the county,” Susan Daeman, the association’s lobbyist, said. “…The other issue is these names on the plates are just highly popular with the people.”

Daeman said a survey of county sheriffs in Iowa found 77% were opposed to the idea.

“I realize that it could be useful on occasion,” Epperly said of the county imprint on a license plate, “but I don’t think that those 45 states have a bunch of cold case files simply because they don’t have county names on plates…We know what the fight is to remove county names…We just want a generic option.”

The Iowa D-O-T estimates it could save nearly a quarter of a million dollars over a 10 year period if all the standard-issue license plates were generic and county names were not imprinted on the bottom. According to the Automobile Dealers Association, a generic option could help with supply chain issues, as some counties don’t have an adequate supply of license plates stamped with the county name.

The generic license plate concept has cleared a subcommittee and the bill is now eligible for debate in the Senate Transportation Committee.

Ottumwa website introduces poll feature

Posted on by Rick Watts

The City of Ottumwa’s website has launched a new Poll feature to obtain feedback from citizens on various topics and issues in the community. The topic of their first poll is the Bird scooters that launched in Ottumwa last July.  Go to www.ottumwa.us and click Polls to answer questions about this new mode of transportation the City has been utilizing. The City of Ottumwa will continue to update the poll feature in the future.

Human chain formed to help after Pittsburgh bridge collapse

Posted on by Rick Watts

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A two-lane bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh early Friday, prompting rescuers to rappel nearly 150 feet (46 meters) while others formed a human chain to help rescue multiple people from a dangling bus.

The collapse came hours before President Joe Biden was to visit the city to press for his $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which includes bridge maintenance.

There were minor injuries from the collapse but no fatalities, said authorities, who also said they were flying drones to make sure no one is under any collapsed sections.

Police reported the span, on Forbes Avenue over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park, came down just before 7 a.m.

A photo from the scene showed a commuter bus upright on a section of the collapsed bridge.

City officials said the collapse caused a gas leak but the gas has since been shut off.

Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire Chief Darryl Jones said three or four vehicles were involved in the collapse and there were 10 minor injuries with three brought to the hospital. None of the injuries were life-threatening, Jones said.

Authorities told motorists to avoid the area.

In a statement, the White House said Biden would proceed with his planned trip to Pittsburgh.

“Our team is in touch with state and local officials on the ground as they continue to gather information about the cause of the collapse,” the statement said. “The President is grateful to the first responders who rushed to assist the drivers who were on the bridge at the time.”

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