By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has suspended his presidential campaign, six days after finishing a distant second to former President Trump in the Iowa Caucuses.

“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis said. “…He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yester year, a repackaged form of warmed over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”

DeSantis made his announcement Sunday afternoon in a video posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. With the New Hampshire Primary coming up on Tuesday, DeSantis said he could not ask his supporters to volunteer their time and money if there was not “a clear path to victory.”

A month ago, DeSantis was predicting he’d win the Iowa Caucuses. DeSantis and political action committees supporting his campaign spent $35 million in Iowa and he visited each of Iowa’s 99 counties. He received 23,420 straw poll votes compared to the 56,260 caucus-goers who backed Trump.

“Nobody worked harder and we left it all out on the field,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis, in announcing his endorsement of Trump, mentioned he had signed a pledge to honor the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. Governor Kim Reynolds, who endorsed DeSantis in November, has also been saying she’ll back Trump if he’s the nominee.

“I supported (Trump) in ’16. I supported him in ’20. I wish he would have won,” Reynolds said Friday on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS. “…I can tell you without hesitation whoever our nominee is, I’m going to get behind them because this country is in trouble.”

Governor Reynolds issued a statement on X late Sunday afternoon. “It was an honor to support @RonDeSantis. His record as Governor of Florida is phenomenal, and I know he will continue to be an effective leader for years to come.”

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in December after four months of slight increases. Iowa Workforce Development director, Beth Townsend, says the rate dropped one-tenth of a point to 3.2% in December.

“It’s a small change. But I think just people getting back into the workforce, who maybe hadn’t been in before. And also, if you remember, December, weather was actually pretty good,” she says, “so, you know, more people probably worked longer end of the month than we might normally see.” Construction is one industry that saw more work for employees with the better weather. “I thought the good news that we saw this, in December was that construction added 1,400 jobs, they’re up 3,000 jobs over the year, and manufacturing added 1,100 jobs in December, and they’re up over 4,800 jobs in the last 12 months,” she says. “And those are two key industries in Iowa. So the fact that they both added jobs in December and are up from up over the previous year is a very good sign.”

The number of people in the workforce did drop by 8,500 in December. “Most of them reported that it was a voluntary leave. So it could just be, you know, December holidays, that kind of thing. But the fact that they left voluntarily, and it was not the product of you know, mass layoffs or layoffs across an entire industry is a good indication,” Townsend says.

Townsend says there are still some 60,000 jobs open in the state, and says industries like health care have a lot to offer. “They’re always probably the number one industry with openings. And so you know, if you’re looking for a good job and a good industry with great pay and benefits healthcare is a really good area to be looking into,” Townsend says.

Townsend says Workforce Development can help you assess your skills and help you apply for a job, so you should contact them to take advantage of that help.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig today reminded farmers and landowners who planted cover crops this past fall to apply for the state’s Crop Insurance Discount Program ahead of the Friday, January 26 deadline.

Eligible Iowans can receive a $5 per acre discount on spring crop insurance premiums.  To sign-up, visit Apply.CleanWaterIowa.org.

“Iowa farmers and landowners continue to utilize conservation and water quality practices, including cover crops, at record levels,” said Secretary Naig. “The Crop Insurance Discount Program helps defray some of the costs of getting these cover crops established, so I encourage farmers to get their eligible acres enrolled before the deadline.”

Now in its seventh year, this innovative program, offered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, has become a model for other states and the federal government. To date, nearly 2,000 Iowa farmers have enrolled over 1,000,000 acres of cover crops in the program. To qualify for the program, the cover crop acres cannot be enrolled in other state or United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) cost share programs.

Program Details

The Crop Insurance Discount Program is jointly administered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA). Iowa’s program has served as a model and has been replicated by the USDA as well as Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. To qualify for the Crop Insurance Discount Program, the cover crop acres cannot be enrolled in other state or federal cost share programs. Farmers should visit the local USDA Service Center to learn about other cost share funding available to support the implementation of conservation practices. Some insurance policies, such as Whole-Farm Revenue Protection or those covered through written agreements, may be excluded. Participants must follow all existing farming practices required by their respective policy and work with their insurance agencies to maintain eligibility.