The Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative (FFI) has announced it is seeking requests for activities to support and build on its efforts. This initiative is about people working together to create vibrant communities where the healthy choice is the easy choice.
This work began in April 2007 when the W.K. Kellogg Foundation selected Northeast Iowa as one of nine communities locations across the country to become models of community change. Each Read the rest of this entry »

DES MOINES, Iowa -
health officials want to increase
rules and fees for tattoo artists in the state.
The Iowa Department of Public Health wants to more than double
fees, require more education and ban tattooing in private homes and
by minors.
Talissa Miller, a state health department administrative
assistant, says Iowa’s tattoo rules haven’t changed since 1989 and
that officials want to bring them up to higher standards.
Miller says few complaints Read the rest of this entry »

Sens. Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley are playing key parts in the effort to rewrite the nation’s health care laws, a top legislative priority for President-elect Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress.
The leading roles illustrate the clout that Iowa’s U.S. Senate duo has amassed as they begin their 25th year together.
“They are really one of the longest-lasting, most effective, split-party delegations and make for a pretty potent combination,” Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not about Reva and Ingrid anymore – it’s about their son. In the journey to achieve same-sex marriage in the state of Iowa, their view of marriage has changed.
In 2005, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of Reva Evans and Ingrid Olson of Council Bluffs and five other Iowa same-sex couples against Polk County Recorder Registrar Timothy Brien, who refused to issue them marriage licenses because Iowa Code 595.2(1) defines marriage as between Read the rest of this entry »

January 15, 2009 (AP)–
Key Iowa legislators say they’ll back a measure allowing workers at small businesses, local governments and nonprofit groups to buy into the health care system covering state workers.
Sen. Jack Hatch of Des Moines says if approved, the measure would help small businesses compete.
Speaking Thursday at a Statehouse news conference, Hatch acknowledged that in the past, many business owners resisted efforts to expand health Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine being a teenager, taken by your family to another state and dropped off at a hospital — so someone else would take responsibility for you.
It’s happened twice over the last week in Nebraska.
In one case, a 13 year old Michigan boy got in a car with his mom, who drove over 700 miles to Omaha to leave him at a medical center in the middle of the night.
In another case, a 15 year old Iowa girl was deposited by her grandparents at Omaha’s Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine being a teenager, taken by your family to another state and dropped off at a hospital — so someone else would take responsibility for you.
It’s happened twice over the last week in Nebraska.
In one case, a 13 year old Michigan boy got in a car with his mom, who drove over 700 miles to Omaha to leave him at a medical center in the middle of the night.
In another case, a 14 year old Iowa girl was deposited by her grandparents at Omaha’s Read the rest of this entry »

ELGIN, Iowa – A West Union man has been arrested after
police say he was caught with drugs during his son’s school field
trip.
Thirty-eight-year-old Jeffrey Blue was charged with possession
of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
Officials with the Fayette County sheriff’s office say that an
off-duty deputy saw Blue possibly using the drug at Gilbertson’s
County Park about 1 p.m. Friday. Deputies says Blue’s son was on a
school field trip at Read the rest of this entry »

When Lighten Up Iowa began eight years ago, the program’s focus was to help people shed the pounds.
Since then, the goal has expanded to encompass more overall health, said Jim Hallihan, executive director of the Iowa Sports Foundation, which runs the program. That shift meant finding a more appropriate name for the statewide, 100-day, team-based weight loss and physical activity challenge.
The program’s new moniker, Live Healthy Iowa, debuts Read the rest of this entry »

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 14-year-old Iowa girl was abandoned Tuesday in Nebraska under its safe haven law, but the person who left her could face prosecution in the girl’s home state, Nebraska health officials said.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said the girl is from Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the Missouri River from Omaha. She was left at Creighton University Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon, and her case was Read the rest of this entry »