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He spoke about building more support and avoiding pessimism at Northwell Health’s sixth annual gun violence prevention forum Thursday. Hospital executives, business leaders and political figures attended the event.

Dowling, who kicked off the forum, stressed that gun violence is a public health issue and one that goes beyond politics, pointing out that it’s the leading cause of death among children. Yet he also suggested greater challenges with the new political climate in Washington, even though he didn’t mention any names.

“There are headwinds, and there are more headwinds than there were a couple of months ago,” Dowling said.

But he said the tailwinds come from people who remain focused on the issue and stay resilient. He said it’s important to stay hopeful to help bring people to come together.

“Nobody follows a skeptic over time. Nobody follows somebody who’s consistently negative,” Dowling said.

He also highlighted the importance of new strategies to reduce gun violence. At the forum, the Ad Council announced it has teamed with Northwell and other hospitals to launch a new campaign to spur discussions on reducing gun violence: “Agree to agree.”

“Nostalgia is not a strategy,” he said. “We want to go forward, not back.”

Dowling sought to move away from partisan politics in addressing gun violence. “There is an opportunity for common ground,” he said.

“It should never be a partisan issue when it comes to the lives and the future of our kids, when it comes to the well-being of families, when it comes to building solid, decent communities, when it comes to safety on the streets, safety in the schools, safety in places of worship, safety in our hospitals,” he said.

The safety of hospitals has gained more attention in light of the fatal shooting at UPMC Memorial Hospital just outside York, Pennsylvania. A gunman killed a police officer and shot and wounded five others. Three UPMC staff members and two police officers were wounded before police killed the shooter.

Dowling also has rallied other hospital and healthcare leaders to take steps on gun violence. He helped form the National Health Care CEO Council on Gun Violence Prevention and Safety, and he said he’s been encouraged that more hospital executives are speaking out on the issue. Over 60 health systems have joined the council.

“Gun violence issue is such an important public health issue, it is a public health issue. That’s why healthcare organizations are more and more involved, because we all see the results of it,” Dowling said.

Matthew Cook, president and CEO of the Children’s Hospital Association, said he feels an obligation to be vocal about looking at ways to reduce the number of kids being killed by guns. He acknowledged that the association represents hospitals across the country in both red and blue regions.

Cook talked about his work leading pediatric hospitals and asking children about how often they hear gunshots.

“Those children’s hospitals serve children,” Cook said. “Children don’t vote, and so we are their voice. We’re their advocate. And if we can’t stand up and be their advocate on the issue that is the number one reason why they lose their lives, then I’m not sure what our role is, right?”

“We’ve heard a lot about courage today, and if we don’t have the courage to have a voice on the leading cause of death, then I would question our value as an association. And so that’s how I view it,” he said.

Wright Lassiter III, president and CEO of CommonSpirit Health, the Catholic health system with 137 hospitals, says that the system treats tens of thousands of victims of accidental harm from gun violence each year.

“Our data says that nearly 70% of those are preventable. And so, we have an obligation to find a way to collaborate with the communities we serve to solve this problem,” Lassiter said at the forum.

In Lexington, Kentucky, CommonSpirit has formed a partnership with the National Rifle Association to help educate the public on storing firearms safely, he said.

“That community had a lot of trust in the NRA, and we had a problem,” Lassiter said. “The problem was we had a lot of kids who needed to be educated on guns, and a lot of parents that needed to be educated on how to safely store the guns that they had.”

J.P. Gallagher, president and CEO of Endeavor Health, a nine-hospital system in the Chicago area, pointed to the mass shooting in Highland Park on July 4, 2022 as a catalyst for action. Seven people were killed and 48 others were injured, and Endeavor treated dozens of victims. “That experience is part of our community. It is part of our organization,” he said.

Since then, Endeavor Health has partnered with others in a $200 million community investment fund to spur change in areas such as violence prevention, behavioral health, food insecurity and more.

“It has created trust. It has allowed us to move the needle in some very meaningful ways. And not surprisingly, with our 27,000 team members, it’s been incredibly motivating,” Gallagher said.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination, appeared at the forum and discussed the difficult political climate hampering progress on areas where there is public support. He bemoaned Republicans opposing what he called sensible measures such as background checks.

Christie said he “never understood the objection to things like universal background checks. I haven’t understood why people who have a record of violence can’t be precluded from holding and possessing guns.”

But also chided some Democrats for deriding law-abiding citizens who want to own firearms for protection.

Christie advised hospital and health leaders to pursue small but meaningful steps to try and reduce gun violence.

“The forces of resistance are much more effective when you don’t go incrementally,” Christie said. “When you go at them in one big swoop, if you swing and miss, it usually puts you on the sidelines for a couple of years.”

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Nearly three years after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children at Robb Elementary School, parents from Uvalde are continuing to push state lawmakers to enact what they call “common-sense” gun safety measures, including a “red flag” law and legislation to raise the minimum age to purchase semiautomatic rifles.

Hundreds of Texans joined them in marching to the Texas Capitol and meeting with lawmakers Thursday — many bringing their own stories of gun violence.

College student Mireya Rodriguez was working at an outlet mall in the Dallas suburb of Allen on May 6, 2023, when she heard gunshots ring out in what became a shooting rampage that left leave eight shoppers dead and others injured, she told rally attendees from the Capitol’s south steps.

“I’ll never forget the sounds of rapid fire, gunshots, people screaming, sirens blaring from every direction,” Rodriguez said. “It wasn’t until I was leaving the mall — after having seen the deceased gunman myself — that I realized I survived a mass shooting.”

The shooter killed Rodriguez’s friend that day.

“I’m using my second chance to take to make a difference in this world, because ending gun violence is our generation’s fight,” said Rodriguez, a University of Texas at Dallas student.

As part of the day of advocacy, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, announced he was filing several proposals to restrict access to guns. Senate Bill 1657 would increase the minimum age from 18 to 21 years to purchase AR-15s and other semiautomatic rifles. His omnibus bill, SB 1658, would authorize judges to strip firearms from people who pose “an immediate and present danger” to themselves or others.

Gutierrez emphasized that Florida, a deep red state, has a law allowing for extreme risk protective orders, also known as a “red flag” law, while Texas does not. Florida conservatives championed the legislation in the wake of the 2018 Parkland High School mass shooting.

Had such a measure been in effect in Texas, Gutierrez, whose Senate district includes Uvalde, said the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary might never have occurred.

“I wouldn’t be here before you today, and these families wouldn’t be here before you today, if someone would have said, ‘This seems strange, this looks weird that this kid is buying all these guns and this ammo,’” and a red flag law was in effect, he said in at a news conference outside the Senate chamber.

‘Covered in blood’

Deep in the crowd at the rally Thursday, a group of young Texans from Houston listened. One of them, 17-year-old Adrian Sanchez, had been shot two years earlier, the bullet fracturing his arm and grazing his side.

He had a gun with him that day. Sick and in pain in the weeks afterward, he thought about revenge, Sanchez told the American-Statesman. But he has changed his perspective now. He came to the rally with the group Forgotten Third, which aims to prevent gun violence and recidivism among underserved youths in Harris County.

“Sometimes, you got to learn how to grow up and be an adult,” Sanchez said. “I had to let it go.”

Texas has some of the most gun-friendly laws in the country, including permitless carry, which lawmakers passed in 2021. Texas Republicans emphasize that law-abiding citizens have the right to bear arms and defend themselves under the Constitution.

Members of the GOP-controlled Legislature have consistently opposed expanding gun restrictions in the state, opting instead for legislation requiring additional proactive and defensive security measures at schools. A 2023 law requires every school district to hire an armed peace officer for every campus, for example, though most districts have not complied, citing a lack of dedicated funding for the additional staff.

Undeterred, Gutierrez and several Senate Democrats serving as co-sponsors are proposing several gun restriction bills including a measure that would create a mandatory three-day waiting period for certain firearm purchases; a proposal to require the state to compensate parents whose children die in Texas school shootings; a bill to ban 3D-printing of guns; and legislation to designate May 24 “Victims of the Uvalde Shooting Day.”

“It’s not normal to see a little girl covered in blood,” Gutierrez told gun safety advocates at First United Methodist Church in Austin on Thursday morning before rallygoers walked to the Capitol. “Not normal to see her shoes all over the place, strewn about. … It’s not normal that this happens to us in our country every day. It’s not normal.”

Republican leaders in the past have contemplated tightening gun restrictions after mass shootings, with Gov. Greg Abbott asking lawmakers to consider a “red flag” law in 2018, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick saying he was “willing to take an arrow” from the National Rifle Association to push for expanded background check requirements in 2019. However, Abbott distanced himself from the proposal later.

While Gutierrez’s proposals are unlikely to pass, the senator said he still hopes they’ll be heard in committee. He asked that Republicans who support restrictions call and write their representatives, noting statistics show that the majority — around 70%, according to Pew — of American GOP voters support minimum age increases for gun purchases.

Flanking Gutierrez as he announced the bills were the parents of three Uvalde children who died in the elementary school massacre: Uziyah Garcia, Tess Mata and Lexi Rubio. Their parents have become vocal advocates for firearms restrictions since the 2022 shooting, making several visits to the Capitol during the 2023 legislative session and addressing Congress in Washington.

Brett Cross, the father of Uziyah Garcia, said it was “extremely frustrating” to be at the Capitol once again, asking for many of the same reforms that they did in 2023. But, he said, they aren’t going to give up.

“I don’t care how many times we get told, ‘No,’ we will continue to come back,” Cross said. “Because, unlike these representatives in our government, we actually care about children. (And) because no matter what we say or do, we can never bring our kids back, but we can help protect other kids.”

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ERSTWHILE former U.S. President Joe Biden is not sleepy.

Well, maybe he is, but he’s not a fascist and he doesn’t want to rule Greenland. I think we’re going to miss him.

Biden’s decision to step down was a major turning point in the 2024 American electoral campaign. Some say he should’ve done it sooner, some say he shouldn’t have done it at all, but few can argue that he didn’t do it with a sense of integrity.

In his address to the nation, and the world at large, the outgoing leader of the free world demonstrated that a true leader will put personal ambition to one side for the good of his people.

In doing so, Biden gave us all a timely reminder of what America stands for:

“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands.”

During this historic speech, Biden echoed Benjamin Franklin who, when asked if America was a republic or a monarchy, replied:

“A republic … if you can keep it.”

That quotation has never been more apt.

I count myself among those who believe the pressure on Biden was badly misplaced and the reliance on Hollywood as a barometer for what matters to working people was a critical error that made the Democrats look spineless, disloyal and amateurish. As election night loomed, I warned that Democrats risked losing support in the key states they needed to win over for a successful campaign.

By failing to pitch their message on class terms and counter the “manospheric” petulance of committed class warrior and now Vice President-elect J D ”Mountain Dew” Vance, the Democrats lost their traditional working-class base and gave incoming President Donald Trump the popular vote.

Yes, JD seems nuts to anyone in the political centre or the Left, but he has an audience and that audience isn’t impressed by who George Clooney votes for. The Democrats embarrassed themselves by choosing arrogance and identity politics over grassroots issues.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said it best:

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”

Joe Biden was wide awake to the threat. That is why, even as he pulled the knives from his back, he called for party unity and made it clear that democracy is bigger than one man. This is the response of a stable, strategic mind. Hopefully, the final paragraph in his legacy is that the President took the noble path, even as the rumours of his decline were malicious and greatly exaggerated. Nobody can accuse him of falling asleep at the wheel. His successors in the Democratic Party, on the other hand, are looking pretty dozy now.

This should never have happened. A corrupt felon like Trump, with a long list of anti-worker decisions to his name, only becomes the “hero” of blue-collar America through the negligence and the incompetence of his opposition. We’re back to the creepy circus of 2016 – maybe something even worse – not because Trump became brilliant overnight, but because the Democrats lost the trust of the very people they needed.

Thanks to that error, I’ve got Nigel Farage on my bloody television again. And he’s flashing a smile.

In the wake of the assassination attempt against Trump, Farage wrote a self-pitying nonsense column in The Telegraph to ‘implore the Left to think very carefully about how they seek to play politics’. In Nigel’s mind – much drowsier than Biden’s – there remains a link between this attack and “the Left”, even as he himself admits that the motivations of shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks remain opaque.

The evidence thus far suggests that Crooks was researching a variety of potential political targets, including Biden, until Trump came to hold a rally close to the shooter’s home. This would appear to be less a case of “the Left” inspiring a violent political act and more the desperate, fame-seeking behaviour of a young man who never should have had access to a firearm.

Viewed with a sense of balance, this event has more in common with Mark David Chapman murdering John Lennonfor notoriety, or John Hinckley opening fire on President Ronald Reagan in a mad effort to impress Jodie Foster, than it does the politically motivated assassination of civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

It’s, frankly, pathetic to watch political hacks attempt to distort these events for their own personal and ideological gain. Nigel would have more credibility if he blamed the National Rifle Association for this crime, but that’s something the ex-UKIP flunky, Brexiteer and reality TV show nudist could never do. It’s too logical.

It’s also pathetic to watch people try to make Trump a “victim” of violent rhetoric. Didn’t anyone else see his disturbed outburst at the Republican National Convention? This wasn’t a reformed, reflective, magically humane Trump — this was the same deranged xenophobe dishing out hate-speak for his nearest and dearest.

Following the convention, and Trump’s recent threats against Denmark, Nigel’s scolding reads as comical:

We don’t know the motives of the 20-year-old shooter. But we do know that as our political discourse becomes more febrile; and as the Left become more desperate to attack those of us who stand up for what we believe, the more violent it becomes. 

It shouldn’t be normal to throw cement, rocks or drinks at me. And yet, for many on the Left, the language of violence has become their last resort. And we’re now seeing the consequences.

Isn’t it strange that Nigel’s sudden turn to political passivism didn’t happen as a result of the violent Far-Right coup of January 6? Did the bloodthirsty rioters escape the jungle flasher’s notice? Or did he simply refuse to see the consequences of Trump’s electoral fraud lies?

Strange too that Nigel wasn’t moved by the Sandy Hook shooting? Or Columbine? Or any of the other mass murder events that have failed to shift the needle on gun ownership in the U.S.. Why has Nigel suddenly transformed into the angel of civil discourse? Could it be that it’s politically expedient to wear a saintly mask in the wake of last year’s many upheavals?

Strangest of all, he thinks the act is convincing. A career bully crying “poor me” is as persuasive as a shark pretending to drown.

The ex-drama lecturer in me loves this new performativity of the Far-Right’s victimhood. The crowds wearing a patch on their ear in solidarity at the RNC were a little less weird than those who wore diapers to feel closer to their leader, but not by much. Suddenly being a snowflake is all the rage in right-wing circles!

When FBI director Christopher Wray – a Trump appointee – speculated that, maybe, Trump wasn’t hit by a bullet at all, the tantrum was immediate. Trump demanded Wray’s resignation, both for questioning the severity of the attempted shooting and for pointing out – as I and many others have – that there was never any real evidence that President Biden suffered from cognitive decline.

Never let the truth spoil a self-indulgent narrative.

There’s a point where all this hypocrisy becomes hilarious. Trump is desperate to beef up his victim status while calling his opponents “wimps”, his followers criticise Biden’s age while celebrating Trump’s (alleged) incontinence, and dutiful mouthpieces like Nigel try to play the voice of “peace” while gleefully supporting horrifically violent Hitler-esque rhetoric, spreading conspiracy theories around the US electoral process, and celebrating tragically weak gun control laws.

When I was in primary school, a maths teacher who shall remain nameless pulled me from class to talk about the “ethics” of my behaviour. I pointed out that he was sleeping with the gym teacher and at least one of them was married. A telling-off from Nigel Farage feels a lot like that. This is a man standing in a glass house with a fistful of pebbles. An insincere man. A smug and stupid man who is on the wrong side of history.

If we want to talk about consequences, let’s talk about the COVID lies and the death threats made against Dr Anthony Fauci for doing his job well.

If we want to talk about consequences, let’s talk about Nigel’s sickening lies surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war, or his history of lies about the EU which led to the Brexit debacle in the first place. Pinocchio would cringe from second-hand embarrassment.

Likewise, we are certainly seeing the consequences of Donnie and Nigel’s bitter anti-immigration platform, soaked in dishonesty, which has seen a steep rise in injuries and deaths at the border wall in the U.S. and the long-standing demonisation of refugees in the UK. People are suffering because these men “play politics” at the expense of rationality, truth and kindness … but now “the Left” isn’t nice enough for them?

How about that time Nigel suggested a Channel 4 news presenter should be “attacked”? Where was the sweet and cuddly version of Mr Farage then? There is no integrity to this transformation and even less consistency.

The crowd who wanted to beat up protesters and grab everyone by the pussy is offended by Tenacious D now? Whatever happened to free speech? Isn’t Nigel a libertarian? This cry for manners and courtesy is beginning to sound as censorious as the politically correct soy latté set Nigel claims to oppose. 

And Trump, no longer able to capitalise on President Biden’s age, is looking more than a little tired as he illustrates my favourite article about the victim politics of fascism:

I’m not a fascist! They’re the real fascists!! The students, the Leftists, the woke mob, the anti-fascists, the teachers, the LGBTQ! They’re putting me in danger! They’re taking away my rights!

My rights matter most of all! I’m being persecuted, violently and viciously!! I have a right to be heard — and what I have to say is that I’m superior and they’re inferior! And if you don’t allow me this view, then you’re the real fascist!

Umair Haque’s satirical take on the contemporary fascist is a neat illustration of what we’re going to see from the Far-Right once the dandruff settles and Trump is back at his bully pulpit. It’s not just the tiredness of the candidates themselves that we should be looking at, but the tiredness of their act. Unlike President Biden, who actually kept astride of policy, the Republicans have only ever really had one old song in their repertoire: “I’m not the hater, you’re the hater!”

Trump’s act is exhausted. We’ve been watching him whine since the ‘80s.

No candidate should be physically attacked (obviously), as it’s not just cruel and cowardly, but an admission of defeat by the attacker. It’s a statement of intellectual inferiority. Nigel Farage is correct in disparaging such behaviour. And yet, to project it solely on “the Left” while ignoring countless shootings, an attempted coup, and the incendiary words firing from the mouth of his so-called ”friend“ is ridiculous. It is even more ridiculous when Nigel knows the young man who shot at Trump has not been linked to any political ideology.

If you have to lie repeatedly to make your point, Nigel — maybe you never really had a point to begin with.

Meanwhile, we can only hope that the Democrats have learned from their hubris, their betrayals, their neglect of working-class people and working-class concerns, and their disastrous failure to do the one thing the world counted on them to do…

Keep idiots like Nigel and Donnie out of power.

Dr Alex Vickery-Howe is an award-winning playwright and social commentator. He teaches creative writing, screen and drama at Flinders University.

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Speechless, completely speechless. The feeling we are left with after watching the 2024 presidential debate is simply indescribable. It made us forget what an actual, civil debate is supposed to sound like, without the yelling, laughing and name-calling. We were indeed left with two questions. One, what self tanner does Donald use? And two, how much could he possibly be using that it seeped into his body and killed all of his viable brain cells. Not only does Harris have actual political experience, unlike her opponent, Donald Trump, a lifelong businessman (with no experience before his term in office) who wants to rip the country apart, she is the one who actually cares about the people in it.

Let’s take the economy, for example. Harris grew up in a working-class neighborhood with immigrant parents, she gets what it’s like to be middle class. Her plans include tax cuts for parents, financial support for people buying their first home and banning “price gouging” which is when businesses raise their prices significantly during high demand. Sure, Trump’s plan includes tax cuts too, but only for the richest of the rich, similar to former president Ronald Reagan’s policy called trickle down economics AKA Reaganomics, which failed. Harris’ “opportunity economy” based on improving the lives of the middle class was endorsed by hundreds of economists and policymakers (CNN).
For preventing gun violence, TKC agrees with many high schoolers across the country about the fear of access to guns. In our class discussion, we talked about having a larger ban on assault rifles and stricter laws that would make school safer. During the presidential debate, Harris acknowledged she is a gun owner, and still wants to enact a red-flag gun law. The goal of red-flag laws is to prevent people who are a danger to themselves or others from accessing guns. Notice how she still cares about the second amendment and wants students and teachers to be safe at the same time? See, it is possible! Trump prefers to let whoever wants to own a gun do whatever they would like without regulation. He received an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association which shows his dangerous views on gun control that leads to people getting killed.

On to immigration. Trump doesn’t seem to know basic facts about how the government works. For example, Harris’ role as VP doesn’t give her any control over the border so he needs to stop blaming her for things that aren’t her fault. Seriously, AP Gov students know more about the power of government officials than he does. Also, if Trump has such a good plan to fix immigration, why didn’t he solve the issue while he was president like maybe the border crisis? Not to mention, his VP pick claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH were eating cats and dogs with no actual proof.

For abortion rights, Harris aims to restore the Dobbs decision giving women and their doctors the ability to make decisions about their own body. She understands the importance of women making those decisions as opposed to Trump who has a different background and can’t relate to struggles women face at all. Her opponent is one of the main reasons that women across the country are dying, including Amber Nicole Thurman who died when she couldn’t get necessary healthcare to save her life, after abortion pills failed and led to infection, according to ProPublica. Trump’s decision to appoint three very conservative Supreme Court Justices helped lead to the decision of Roe v. Wade because of the strong pro-life beliefs of conservatives, instead of having a wider political range and spectrum.

Because of the importance of this election, TKC has decided to include the dissenting staff opinion (6/56) to give all students a voice.

The economy seems to be Trump’s strong suit (especially as he is a businessman) as he wants to make manufacturing based in the US. He plans to implement a four year plan to ultimately phase out imports from China and add a ten percent tariff on imported goods. Stephen Moore, who served as Trump’s senior economic advisor during his 2016 presidency, said that the added tax for other countries would hinder foreign products from coming in which would be a positive for the US. This allows the US to manufacture more products and creates jobs for American citizens, boosting the economy.

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DES MOINES — A Republican proposal to weaken legal protections for transgender Iowans by removing gender identity from the state’s Civil Rights Act appears headed for Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk soon.

On Wednesday, Republicans on an Iowa Senate Committee voted in favor of advancing the proposed legislation, and both chambers of the Iowa Legislature have the bill on their respective debate calendars for Thursday.

If both chambers pass the bill Thursday, it will go to Reynolds for her consideration.

If Reynolds signs the bill into law, Iowa will become the first U.S. state to remove a protected class from the state’s Civil Rights Act.

Reynolds’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The proposal — in the form of twin bills House File 583 and Senate File 418 — would remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, where it was placed in 2007. The Iowa Civil Rights Act provides legal protection for discrimination against protected classes regarding housing, employment, education, public services and accommodations, banking, and more.

The bill also would define the terms male and female and strike the definition of gender identity in state law, eliminate the ability of transgender Iowans to change their birth certificate, and declare that in law “separate” is not necessarily “unequal.”

Advocates for the bill say it is needed because the legal protections for transgender Iowans guaranteed by the Civil Rights Act have made some spaces — like bathrooms and locker rooms — more dangerous for women.

Attorneys, school safety advocates, legal experts and civil rights activists, however, note there is a lack of documented evidence in Iowa of transgender individuals, or men pretending to be transgender, harassing or attacking women in shelters, locker rooms, restrooms or other places.

Republican lawmakers also have argued that transgender protections in the state’s Civil Rights Act endanger state laws they passed in recent years that banned gender transition care for minors, prohibited transgender girls from playing in girls sports, and prohibited transgender students from using school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

Iowa is among 23 states that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

A public hearing is scheduled for the bill ahead of floor debate Thursday. The public hearing will be held in Room 103 at the Iowa Capitol at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Imposing death penalty for killing a law enforcement officer advances

A bill that would establish the death penalty for first-degree murder of a peace officer advanced out of a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Wednesday.

The death penalty would only apply to individuals who knew that the person they killed was a peace officer and are 18 or older. They also must not be mentally ill or intellectually disabled and must be a major participant in the commission of the crime.

The death penalty in Iowa was abolished in 1965.

Supporters argue it would provide closure to families of peace officers who are killed.

Sen. David Rowley, R-Spirit Lake, mentioned Algona Police Officer Kevin Cram, who was shot and killed last year as he tried to serve an arrest warrant.

“They’re a broken family, of course, and they would be,” Rowley said. “They’re looking for some closure dealing with the inhumanity of this individual who gunned their son, husband, father to three.”

Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, said while she sympathizes with families of deceased officers, she is opposed to the death penalty.

“I have the greatest, only the greatest, empathy and sympathy for the family of the slain officer, I cannot imagine what it is like to be in their shoes,” Weiner said. “My religion, too may not be the same religion as many people in this room, but it tells me that killing is wrong.”

Multiple faith leaders testified against the legislation, opposing the death penalty on both moral and spiritual grounds.

Rowley and Sen. Scott Webster, R-Bettendorf, signed on to advance Senate File 320 for further consideration by the full Senate Judiciary Committee. Weiner declined to sign on.

Gun safety training in schools

School districts would be required to offer a firearm safety course to students in grades seven to 12 under a bill advanced Wednesday by House lawmakers. Districts also would be encouraged to adopt the National Rifle Association’s “Eddie Eagle” program for kindergarten through sixth grade. The safety awareness program teaches children when they encounter a firearm to stop, don’t touch, run away and tell an adult.

House Study Bill 200 would require the Iowa Department of Education to develop and distribute to all school districts an age-appropriate model program for firearm safety for students enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12.

For students in grades seven to 12, the safety course would be modeled after the NRA’s hunter safety education course. The free, online program teaches students how to safely handle a firearm and informs them of hunting regulations.

An instructor for an approved firearm safety instruction course would not required to be a teacher licensed by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners.

“It would not necessarily have to be taught to students, but it would be offered,” said Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, who supports the proposal. “And it can be taught during non traditional school times, off school property, and it could be using the voluntary DNR/NRA programs that are already out there.”

Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, said nothing in state law currently prevents school districts from offering firearm safety instruction and should have the ability to choose whether to do so. She raised concerns about requiring districts to implement such a program amid existing burdens on public schools.

A similar measure introduced two years ago failed to advance.

“If one student should happen to be saved because they saw a gun and didn’t pick it up and shoot somebody else or shoot themselves, and instead they reported it to an adult, this is a win. And so I think that this is a public safety issue,” Wills said.

The House Public Safety committee advanced the bill in an 18-4 bipartisan vote, making it eligible for consideration by the full House.

New traffic camera rules advance in Iowa House

A year after passing restrictions on where automated traffic cameras can be placed on Iowa roads, House lawmakers advanced new rules over fines for speeding captured by cameras.

House File 3 advanced out the House Public Safety Committee 15-7 and is now eligible for debate on the House floor.

The bill would prohibit cities from contracting with third-party vendors to collect speeding fines from automated traffic cameras. The legislation also would exclude fines for speeding from automated traffic cameras from state collections procedures. Money owed for a traffic camera penalty could not be acquired, for instance, by withholding money from an individual’s tax return.

The bill does not address stoplight violations captured by traffic cameras.

The cities of Cedar Rapids and Marion both use a third-party company to collect unpaid fines from traffic cameras. Lobbyists for Iowa cities have said private vendors are more efficient collectors of fines, and prohibiting their use would create an inefficient local government that would be more costly to taxpayers.

Rep. Dan Gosa, a Democrat and former Davenport school board member, said he’s a proponent of the use of traffic cameras as a tool to curb speeding in school zones.

“So basically, you’re going to get a ticket and there’s no repercussion to you at all,” Gosa said of making it more onerous for cities to collect fines for speeding. “There’s no teeth in it. I feel that that’s going to put a huge safety concerns for me in our school district areas and school zones.”

Bill would charge suppliers in fentanyl deaths with murder

The House Public Safety Committee advanced House File 365, making it eligible for debate by the full House.

Under the bill, individuals who deliver or provide someone with a lethal dose of fentanyl — whether knowingly or unknowingly — could be charged with first-degree murder.

Supporters said someone who takes another person’s life with fentanyl should receive the highest degree of penalty, while opponents say the bill could penalize those who unknowingly give someone else a drug containing fentanyl that led to someone’s death.

The bill would sentence someone who delivered, dispensed or provided fentanyl to another person that resulted in their death with a class A felony punishable by life in prison without possibility of parole.

The bill states: “It is not a defense … that the other person contributed to the person’s own death by the purposeful, knowing, reckless, or negligent injection, inhalation, absorption, or ingestion of the controlled substance or by consenting to the administration of the controlled substance by another person.”

Bill requiring doctors inform patients of ‘abortion reversal’ advances

House lawmakers advanced legislation that would require health care providers to inform patients that it is possible to reverse the effects of medication abortion.

House Study Bill 186 advanced 13-6 along party lines out of the House Health and Human Services Committee with Republican support Wednesday.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Shannon Lundgren, R-Peosta, said people should have the right to be informed about the option to reverse a medication abortion.

“We’re asking for informed consent, if you have a change of heart you should have the opportunity to seek medical care and be taken care of,” Lundgren said.

Rep. Austin Baeth, D-Des Moines, said the legislation is “rooted in junk science.”

Baeth, an internal medicine physician, criticized the science behind medicated abortion reversal drugs, noting that studies behind them did not follow typical procedures for clinical trials.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines bureau

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Flareups pitting true, free-market advocates against crony capitalists are nothing new in our heavily regulated economy, with one of the latest battlefields involving fantasy sports companies.

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal law that long had made it illegal for consumers in the U.S. to bet on sports —  the “Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act” (“PASPA”). Notwithstanding that marketplace victory, and as I wrote here a year ago, unhealthy relationships between state regulators and certain fantasy sports companies continue to cause problems for other, usually smaller companies. It should come as no surprise that at times these crony capitalist efforts are camouflaged as pro-market measures, the proverbial “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” 

In a recent column, for example, a former GOP legislator wrote, “Lawmakers must recognize that not every industry requires federal interference—especially in sports betting.” While this statement appears broadly supportive of a free-market approach to fantasy sports betting — a position I happen to share — the real call to action by the author is revealed later in the opinion piece, and favors less, not more, market freedom.

In fact, the author made it very clear that he’s a fan of the likes of “FanDuel, DraftKings, ESPN Bet, BetMGM, Fanatics, Bet365, and Caesars Sportsbook,” large companies that offer fantasy sports contests (skill-based games), traditional sports betting (straight sports gambling), or both. What he is curiously not a fan of are small fantasy sports upstarts that simply seek to continue servicing their many loyal customers and growing their businesses. 

Naturally, the big fantasy sports companies, such as DraftKings and FanDuel, which together control 70 percent of the marketplace, don’t like the upstarts either, and they are spending a considerable amount of time and money lobbying policymakers to try and keep them out of the marketplace.

According to the author, these newer fantasy sports companies are “shady.” Hardly. In fact, most of the smaller, daily fantasy sports companies legally provide games of skill to millions of customers, and the only “crime” these companies might seem to have committed is cutting into the profit margins of the big market incumbents. This is likely the reason the big boys are spending so much of their attention cozying up to powerful people in the regulatory state who have the authority to kick their newer competitors to the curb; unfortunately, with at least some success.

For example, in July 2023, a lobbyist with ties to the Sports Betting Alliance, a lobbying group that represents DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and Fanatics Sportsbook, asked Wyoming’s attorney general to act against their upstart competition. A few months later, the state issued cease and desist orders to local competitors, even apologizing to the lobbyist for how long it took them to do so. 

DraftKings’ CEO Jason D. Robins even admitted that his company is pushing for such actions, calling it an opportunity for the industry to obtain “a moment of clarity” a euphemism for crony capitalism. 

Writing for Bloomberg Law, John Yun, the Executive Director of the Global Antitrust Institute and an Associate Professor of Law at George Mason University, called DraftKings and FanDuel out as “rent seekers.” He’s right — and he’s not alone in criticizing these corporate giants.

In December 2024, Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) wrote to the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission raising “concerns regarding FanDuel’s and DraftKings’s conduct,” which they stated “may be violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act[‘s] prohibition on coordination to obstruct or impair competition.” They urged them “to look into these allegations to ensure that competition is protected and consumers continue to benefit from innovation and new offerings in sports entertainment.”

Sen. Lee continued in a press release, writing, “FanDuel and DraftKings didn’t get their monopoly through a merger, so now they’re trying to achieve it by arguably acting as one company…threatening innovation, limiting consumer choice, and stifling new entrants.”

DraftKings and FanDuel lobbying to advance their business interests is not really surprising. Market leaders in all economic sectors play the game, and invariably find advocates to press their position, either directly or less so under the guise of “clarity” or other euphemisms for regulatory favoritism. For now, I suppose, all we can hope for is that “truth in advertising” comes to crony capitalism.

Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He currently practices law in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as President of the National Rifle Association.

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