The Iowa Republican reports that Sioux City businessman and social conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats could raise $200,000 for his gubernatorial campaign at an event hosted by Chuck Norris at his ranch outside Navasota, Texas. A fleet of private jets carrying the roughly 40 Iowa attendees is reportedly en route. The price is $5,000 per couple — probably not including the cost of getting there.

Norris endorsed Vander Plaats in a syndicated column last June.

The two latest victims reported lived in Floyd and Johnson counties. Both had risk factors that increased the chance of complications from the virus.

Among all H1N1 cases in Iowa, the most common risk factors for complications from the virus were immune-compromised (such as cancer), respiratory (such as asthma, and neuromuscular. In addition, more than 50 percent of the Iowans hospitalized were overweight or obese, which may be associated with medical conditions, such as diabetes, which increase the chance of complications.

According to health department officials, deaths in Iowa have mirrored the state population, with age groups and all major racial and ethnic groups being impacted. Nearly half of the deaths have occurred in adults between the ages of 25 and 49. Five of the deaths were among adults from age 50 to 64, while three deaths were among adults 18 to 24. In Iowa, there has only been one child death and one death for persons over the age of 64.

Two of the state’s fatalities were cases that had no underlying risk factors from medical complications.

Iowans who want more information about influenza surveillance in Iowa should visit the department’s Web site. The state also maintains a public 24-hour hotline for those with questions about the virus, 1-800-447-1985.

The State Police Officers Council (SPOC) has agreed that its 640 members will take five furlough days during the remaining 7 months of FY2010, a move that will create approximately $847,435 in savings.

The state would also suspend contributions to a deferred compensation retirement plan, according to the agreement. The governor’s office estimates this provision will create approximately $226,232 in savings.

The agreement mirrors one reached by the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 61 last week that saved 479 jobs.

By agreeing to these measures, SPOC members will be safe from layoffs during the current fiscal year, which ends July 30, 2010.

Next week , the SPOC Board will submit the agreement to union members for a full vote. An announcement on the outcome of the vote is expected close to the AFSCME vote on Nov. 25.

“I want to thank the leadership at SPOC for joining with us to protect essential public safety jobs,” Culver said in a statement. “This understanding will help to keep Iowans safe while meeting our obligation to balance the state budget.  I am very pleased by the agreement and I encourage the membership to vote yes on this measure.”

Last month, Culver ordered a 10 percent across-the-board cut to the state’s budget. Initial budget cut proposals called for more than 800 layoffs. Culver announced that unions representing employees from the Department of Public Safety and Department of Corrections would have to open up their contracts in order to avoid layoffs. Two of the three unions have now come to understandings with the state government, with the third, Iowa United Professionals (IUP), deciding to accept 55 layoffs.

IUP represents 3,000 members, including social workers and corrections counselors.

According the report, Iowa families earning less than $20,000 a year — the poorest fifth of Iowa non-elderly taxpayers — pay 11 percent of their income in state and local taxes. Middle-income families — those earning between $37,000 and $56,000 — pay 10 percent of their income in Iowa state and local taxes.

The richest Iowa taxpayers, with income averaging $989,200, pay 7.4 percent of their income in state and local taxes.

When a state tax law that allows residents to write off federal taxes on state returns is factored in, the wealthiest Iowans pay only 6 percent of their income in state and local taxes. Low-income taxpayers see no benefit from the deduction.

“No one would ever design an income tax with lower tax rates for the best-off taxpayers,” said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and lead author of the report. “But that is exactly what Iowa’s tax system overall does. It allows the very wealthiest individuals to contribute less of their income, on average, than middle- and lower-income families must pay. In other words, Iowa has an unfair, regressive tax system.”

Peter Fisher, research director of the Iowa Policy Project, said the report shows the need in Iowa for dramatic income-tax reform. He said the report confirmed Iowa’s reliance on “regressive” taxes — sales, excise and property taxes — which fall heavier as a share of income on lower-income families, and the weak progressivity of the state income tax.

During the 2009 legislative session, Democrats proposed to end federal deductibility and rework the tax code to lower the overall tax rate for every citizen. However, those making more than $125,000 a year would have ended up paying slightly more under the new system, up to $1,400 a year for Iowans making $250,000 or more a year.

Fierce opposition from conservative groups like Iowans for Tax Relief ultimately killed the proposal. The Muscatine-based group, which helped derail a similar proposal in the 1980s when it was pushed by former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, said ending federal deductibility “flies in the face of common sense Iowa values and is simply unfair.”

Iowa State University economist David Swenson told the Iowa Independent during the session that federal deductibility was an “archaic holdover from a long ago time that nobody really knows why it exists anymore.”

Iowa, Alabama and Louisiana are the only states that allow federal taxes to be deducted on state returns.

The latest attack was delivered in Dubuque by state Rep. Chris Rants against former Gov. Terry Branstad. Rants said he spoke earlier in the day with activists who wanted him to support an increase of the gas tax.

“I told him ‘if you’re looking for someone to raise taxes, I’m not your candidate,’” Rants said, adding: “You’re not going to find a candidate that is going to tell you what you want to hear. And he told me that’s not true – Terry Branstad will raise the gas tax.”

Rants said he defended Branstad by saying “just because he raised it once doesn’t mean he’s going to raise it again.”

“He said, ‘No, he’s already told us he’s going to raise the gas tax,’” Rants said.

Iowa Democrats posted video of the speech on their “Iowa Knows Better” Web site. IDP Chairman Michael Kiernan called the speech “deeply troubling in that it would seem Terry Branstad has not learned his lessons about tax increases on Iowans and intends to be a repeat offender.”

This isn’t the first time the IDP has highlighted GOP intra-party conflict. In September, Democrats pointed to Rants’ criticism of rival Bob Vander Plaats’ tenure as CEO of the nonprofit Opportunities Unlimited and his statements regarding paying off state bonds. Last month, a meeting between Branstad and social conservative leaders resulted in two separate IDP attacks against the four-term governor.

The Democrats’ strategy also points to one of the dangers posed by a contentious GOP gubernatorial primary. Observers have said a nasty primary fight could create fissures within the party structure that may not heal before Election Day. However, there are also those who believe the eventual nominee will benefit from a rigorous primary, as all potential attacks will be made public, avoiding an “October Surprise” in 2010.

Though each Iowan seems to have his or her own ideas for how money should be cut from the budget, few blame the Democrats for overspending on their key priorities over the past few years.

In all, majorities support Democrats’ expansion of health insurance coverage for children, spending on public schools, repairing roads and bridges, raising teacher pay, and developing renewable energy. A plurality supports expanded free preschool.

On most budget items, pluralities of Iowans agree with the idea of cutting everything by an equal amount, except when it comes to health insurance for low-income residents and the Iowa State Patrol, which majorities say should be spared from cuts. This seems to conform to Gov. Chet Culver’s decision to make an across-the-board budget cut now and use the beginning of the legislative session next year to restore some funding for key priorities.

That said, Iowans have mixed feelings about the decisions that have been made to cut the state budget. Though only 19 percent of respondents said they were “Very Confident” or “Mostly Confident” about the budget-cutting decisions, 44 percent were “Just Somewhat Confident.” 35 percent were not confident.

(Incidentally, it seems strange that this question had three positive responses and just one negative response. These responses may fit people’s opinions best, but they also can also be confusing to interpret. The Register story itself seems to add up “Somewhat Confident” and “Not Confident” to demonstrate a disapproving majority, but “Somewhat Confident” doesn’t sound very disapproving to me. It was the closest thing to a middle ground that pollsters offered, and it implies slight approval, not disapproval.)

You can read the Register’s write-up of the poll here.

The project would create a central location for people to store the college credits they have received from multiple institutions. Colleges and universities then essentially would bid for the opportunity to enroll students for the completion of their degrees.

The study is being funded by a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Culver’s job approval rating, at 40 percent, has hit the lowest point since taking office and has dropped 20-percentage-points since January. In a head-to-head matchup with several potential GOP challengers, Culver loses to Branstad 57 percent to 33 percent. An October poll conducted by Research 2000 had Branstad beating Culver 48 percent to 43 percent.

In the October poll, Culver bested other Republicans by at least 20 points. But in the latest Register poll, Vander Plaats beats him 45 percent to 37 percent.

The governor doesn’t reach 50 percent against any Republican opponent, but does defeat state Rep. Chris Rants and Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong.

The study, Iowa Statewide Rural Water Well Survey Phase 2, was led by the University of Iowa Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination. It followed up on the results of a similar study conducted in 1988 and 1989 and concluded that many of the problems of 20 years ago remain today.

Scientists who tested samples from Iowa rural drinking water wells discovered that 48 percent had arsenic, with 8 percent containing it at a level above the Safe Drinking Water Act standard for public water supplies. Wells with high arsenic contamination (greater than or equal to 0.01 mg/L) are marked in red on the above map. The blue marks are wells that had low levels. Click the graphic to read the full study.

Investigators sampled 473 wells in 89 Iowa counties for bacteria, nutrients, metals, common use herbicides and insecticides, and herbicide degradates from May 2006 to December 2008.

Peter Weyer, the study’s lead investigator and associated director for the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, said that while nitrate and bacteria detections were expected despite efforts to address such contamination, the presence of arsenic was potentially worrisome.

“Nearly half the wells sampled had some level of arsenic, and 8 percent of those had a level that could be considered a health concern,” he noted.

One of the positive findings of the study was that the levels of the commonly used herbicide atrazine appear to be decreasing.

Of the wells tested, 43 percent had total coliform bacteria, 19 percent had enterococci and 11 percent had E. coli. In addition, 49 percent had nitrate, with 12 percent of those having levels above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for public water supplies.

Pesticides parent compounds were found in a small percentage of wells. A total of 8 percent had very low concentrations of atrazine, 2 percent had metolachlor and less than 1 percent of the wells had acetochlor, alachlor and trifluralin.

Herbicide degradates, or the breakdown products of the parent compound that are generally believed to be less toxic, were also found in a percentage of Iowa wells. The degradate most commonly found was metolachlor ethane sulfonic acid (ESA), which was present in 33 percent of the wells. Alachlor ESA was detected in 27 percent of the wells, while desethyl-atrazine and acetochlor ESA was present in 11 percent of the wells tested. In addition, 8 percent of the test wells had metolachlor OXA (oxanilic acid).

“If you do have a problem with your well — certainly bacteria is a problem — and if you had bacteria contamination of your well, you definitely want to boil your water,” said Weyer. “With nitrate, the research on it is kinda mixed on whether it is a problem. We have looked at things like cancer and blue baby syndrome. Some people think that the nitrate standard should be a lot higher, maybe 20 or 25. And there are others who have done research, including myself, who have found problem with nitrate at less than 10, think we ought to leave the standard alone.”

But, by and large, is the drinking water from these wells safe?

“You know, it is hard to say. I think, in general, the well-water quality in the state of Iowa really hasn’t improved that much,” Weyer said. “Compared to the study that was done in 1988 and 1989 the water quality just hasn’t improved very much with respect to nitrate and bacteria. We hadn’t looked for arsenic before, but now we are seeing that. It is really up to the individual well owner as to how they want to deal with this.”

While there was no one major indicator to determine which wells might contain contaminants, there were variables, such as well depth, that were considered by the researchers to be associated with detection. Wells under 100 feet deep had higher concentrations of nitrate and more total coliform bacteria and herbicide degradate detections than deeper wells. Wells that were constructed prior to 1991 had also had more detections. Other factors, including the construction characteristics of the wells and the presence of a liner, also were factors that could impact a well’s vulnerability to contamination.

Wells located in the northwest, southwest and south-central portions of the state were more likely to have detections of total coliform bacteria, E. coli and enterococci. In addition, wells located in the northwest and southwest regions were also more likely to have higher nitrate concentrations.

Perhaps alarmingly, the study is the state’s first systematic sampling of private wells since 1994. Although water quality in public water supplies is monitored and regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, private drinking water wells are not monitored under any regulatory framework. In addition, despite an estimated 450,000 Iowans using private wells for drinking water, statewide monitoring has been sporadic during the past two decades, often only following catastrophic events like the 1993 floods.

Because there is so little government monitoring and over-sight of contaminants, one of the best factors to determine the health of well water was monitoring, assessment and treatment by well owners themselves. And while some may point to Iowa’s agricultural industry as a potential culprit in the issue of groundwater contamination, Weyers warns that there are many other potential culprits.

“Agriculture is one of the sources — certainly if you are looking at herbicides and pesticides, and we found some herbicide breakdown products in the well water in this study. That is certainly an agricultural source,” he said. “For things like nitrate and bacteria, not only is nitrogen fertilizer use a problem, but it is also potentially septic systems or municipal wastewater systems. So it is sort of an urban-rural mix as to the source of these contaminants.”

Researchers recommend full use of Grants-to-Counties funds for annual testing of private wells for possible contaminants as well as a consumer education initiative to provide information on the sources of bacteria, factors impacting bacterial contamination of wells, possible health impacts of consumption of such water, and available well treatment options.

Because the tested samples revealed the presence of chloride, which typically is only detected in groundwater near deep saline brine, it was also recommended that the state investigate for possible surface activities (such as de-icing compounds and fertilizer salts) that could be impacting groundwater throughout Iowa.

In the meantime, what should private well owners do?

“We suggest that if you have bacteria or high arsenic [levels] that you don’t drink that water, that you do something to treat the water to effectively remove those contaminants,” Weyer said. “It is something the well owner needs to discuss with their doctor or someone like that to determine if that water is OK for them.”

Marijuana (Photo: Wikipedia)

Several states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and other states, including Iowa, are considering it.

Prompted by a court decision, the Iowa Pharmacy Board held public hearings on the subject across the state this year, and they could issue a recommendation to the legislature for further action on marijuana policy before the 2010 session begins.

The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette caught up with patients who are using the substance and were willing to speak openly about it, even though their actions could result in criminal charges and even jail time:

“It allows me to get up every day and function as a mother,” said Lisa Jackson, 43, of rural Crawfordsville, who has the long-term pain syndrome fibromyalgia.

[...]

Jackson and Jimmy Morrison, 23, of Muscatine were among those who testified in favor of allowing medical marijuana.

They said they struggle to get out of bed, and smoking marijuana helps.

Morrison said he suffers from anxiety and bipolar disorder and smoking marijuana about three times a day helps him manage his illnesses.

“My productivity has gone up so much, people don’t even know,” Morrison said. “I run a painting business, and I’m a media director at a church,” says Morrison.