Gazette Daily News Podcast: Monday, January 29, 2024

Featured Stories

– North Liberty forum on AEA proposal

– Linn County Supervisors ask USDA for summer EBT funds that Reynolds rejected

– Riders face hilliest route ever in this summer’s RAGBRAI

Episode Transcript

You’re listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast on Monday, January 29th. This podcast gives quick bites from the latest headlines coming out of The Gazette newsroom. I’m Becky Lutgen Gardner.

About 150 parents, educators and concerned citizens packed a community room in the North Liberty Public Library Sunday afternoon to advocate for area education agencies. Democratic lawmakers heard the challenges the proposed AEA reform bill could create for families and educators.

Dozens of educators and parents spoke in opposition to a bill proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds earlier this month that would drastically change how area education agencies function and the services they provide.

AEAs provide disability services, counseling and mental health services, professional development, and other critical education functions in communities across Iowa. The governor’s plan would eliminate some of those services and consolidate others, raising serious concerns among educators, parents, and communities throughout the state.

“Staff with the AEA never made my child feel like a number,” Cole Gabriel said. “they’re learning and catching up with their schoolmates. Anything that messes with that magic sauce that helps our children get from point A to point B is inappropriate and not up to the values of Iowa.”

The Linn County Board of Supervisors is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to disburse to the county federal summer EBT funds that Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds rejected to meet the nutritional needs of food-insecure children and families.

In a 2-1 vote last week, Supervisor Ben Rogers and Kirsten Running-Marquardt, both Democrats, signed a letter Rogers drafted to send to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. It formally asks to receive and disburse funds in partnership with local nonprofit providers.

Reynolds opted for a state-funded program to avoid spending what she said was $2.2 million a year on administration and offer better nutrition.

The Supervisor’s letter cited a recent Iowa State Extension report on food insecurity in Linn County that found more than 24,000 residents experience food insecurity, including 7,550 children under age 18.

“This figure includes almost 4,000 children who are likely income-ineligible to receive federal nutrition assistance,” the letter states. “This number will surely increase with Governor Reynolds’ decision to end the Summer EBT Program for children.

According to the ABC affiliate in Des Moines, Vilsack said the law prohibits the USDA from working with individual counties. “We are limited to working with states, territories, and tribes. So, we can't work with any other political subdivision,” he told the TV station.

And finally, thousands of riders this July will tackle the hilliest route ever in the 51-year history of the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

The 2024 RAGBRAI route will take riders from Glenwood in Western Iowa on July 20th along a southern route ending in Burlington on July 27th. At 424 miles, organizers said the route is the eighth shortest in RAGBRAI’s history.

But it means 18,737 feet of climb over the entire route.

You can find a link to each of the stories featured in today’s episode in this episode’s description or at the gazette dot com.

Now let’s look at today’s weather in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Patchy fog today between 10am and 2pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 37. Monday night will be mostly cloudy with a low around 33 and Tuesday will be mostly cloudy with a high near 37.

Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. Stay updated with the latest news from Eastern Iowa at the gazette dot com. I’m Becky Lutgen Gardner.

Comments: becky.gardner@thegazette.com