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More than 16 percent of Iowa’s children are obese, that’s the latest from a new report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
This is slightly above the national average of 15.3 percent.
Jamie Bussel is the senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She says the report recommends changes to federal nutrition programs like SNAP as well as changes at the local level.
State policymakers should be allowing cities and then county leaders with the flexibility to regulate and tax or enact strong legislation related to children's health and community health.
The report found obesity is more likely to affect African-American and Latino youth in addition to kids in low-income families.
More federal land is opening up for fishing and hunting in Iowa as part of the Trump administration’s move to make public land more accessible. Margaret Everson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says 1.4 million acres were added to open areas this year, including at Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge east of Des Moines.
We’ve expanded 300 acres here for new opportunities for White Tail Deer for example, for pheasants.
Everson says the agency has also been trying to make regulations on federal land more consistent with state rules for hunting and fishing.
A powerful winter-like storm moving through the Great Plains is closing schools and causing travel headaches in multiple states.
Winter storm warnings and watches stretch from Wyoming and Montana through western Nebraska and into the Dakotas and Minnesota. Forecasters are warning the storm is packing strong winds and double-digit snowfall totals, along with blizzard-like conditions through Friday.
