Rep. Kerry Burt of Waterloo, who is also a Waterloo Firefighter, joined Governor Culver at a bill signing Friday to to expand health benefits for police officers and fire fighters in Iowa.
Senate File 226 ensures that police and fire fighters stricken with cancer or other work-related diseases get the disability and health benefits they deserve.
On a 93-3 vote, the Iowa House approved a bill today to make Iowa’s sex offender laws stronger, smarter, and more effective.
“I’m proud of the bi-partisan effort today that will protect our kids from dangerous sexual predators. We’ve listened to law enforcement officials across Iowa who requested that we update our sex offender laws to make them both smarter and tougher,” said State Representative Jim Lykam of Davenport, who helped author the bill and chairs the House Public Safety Committee.
Senate File 340, the Adam Walsh Child Safety & Protection Act, was approved by the Iowa Senate on a unanimous vote last night. Some of the highlights include: better tracking of the most dangerous sex offenders; new exclusion zones for child sex offenders to keep them away from schools, daycares, and parks; and new work and volunteer restrictions for child sex offenders at places with children.
Iowans can track sex offenders in their neighborhood on Iowa’s sex offender registry at www.iowasexoffender.com. The bill now goes to the Governor.
The Iowa House will hold a public hearing on a bi-partisan plan to make Iowa’s sex offender laws both stronger and smarter. The public hearing will be held on Monday, April 20 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm in the House Chambers. To sign up to speak, call the Legislative Information Office at 515-281-5129.
State Representative Sharon Steckman, D-Mason City, won approval of the first bill she managed in the Iowa House today that will establish a shaken baby prevention program. (more…)
In the House Democrats’ “2009 Agenda for Securing Iowa’s Economic Future” we talk about how we need to pass legislation to crack down on corporate CEO’s who knowingly recruit and hire illegal immigrants – including tough new penalties for violation of child labor laws and wage laws. The Iowa Independent has a story:
The Iowa Independent broke the news today that former Agriprocessors CEO Sholom Rubashkin has been arrested by federal officials for allegedly conspiring to hire undocumented workers for financial gain. Since Election Day is only days away, the story is likely to have a political impact.
So who’s the big winner from all of this?
My first instinct is to say that this helps Democratic candidates for the Iowa House, who have been proposing to “protect our jobs by cracking down on CEOs who hire illegal immigrants” in television ads, mailings, and other communications for some time.
That these were federal charges and not state charges is unlikely to matter. Iowans will wake up tomorrow to newspapers that say a CEO has been ‘cracked down on,’ and Democrats’ television ads will begin to resonate even more.
Here are ads from two candidates for Iowa House — Larry Marek and John Beard — that both use the ‘cracking down on CEOs’ line at about the 25-second mark:
You can find the ads at the House Democratic Caucus YouTube page.