CDC issues a warning on Ebola-like virus in Iowa

Important Takeaways:

  • An Iowa resident has died after contracting a frightening viral disease, similar to Ebola, that leaves victims bleeding from their eyeballs.
  • The patient had returned to the U.S. from West Africa earlier this month bringing the disease known as Lassa Fever, rarely seen in the U.S., back with them, health officials said.
  • The person was not sick while traveling meaning the risk to fellow airline passengers is ‘extremely low,’ officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
  • Patients are not believed to be infectious before symptoms occur and the virus is not spread by casual contact.
  • The patient, who has not been identified publicly, was placed in isolation in hospital at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center in Iowa City.
  • On Monday, testing by the Nebraska Laboratory Response Network revealed the patient had died from Lassa Fever.
  • If the results are confirmed, the Iowa case would be the ninth known case of Lassa Fever since 1969 in travelers returning to the U.S. from areas where the disease is found.
  • The CDC is now assisting Iowa health officials to identify people who had been in contact with the patient after symptoms began. Those identified as being in close contact will be monitored for three weeks.
  • Lassa Fever, which is caused by the Lassa virus, is a relatively common disease in West Africa, with between 100,000 and 300,000 cases diagnosed every year with around 5,000 deaths.

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On Monday, Iowa will enact its ban on most abortions beyond six weeks while neighboring Minnesota welcomes them

Iowa-Abortion-Ban-www.cbsnews.com-minnesota

Important Takeaways:

  • As Iowa prepares to enact one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws, elected officials in Minnesota are ensuring out of state abortion seekers they are welcome to visit and access services.
  • On Thursday, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse toured abortion provider Whole Women’s Health Alliance in Bloomington.
  • “I’m really honored to be here,” Flanagan said after she and others toured the facility. “Sometimes the stigma that is attached to abortion care is just because people don’t know what happens.”
  • The Bloomington clinic provides abortions up to 20 weeks, but Founder and CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller says the hope is to expand to 24 weeks.
  • “One of the cool things about abortion is we get to sit with someone as they choose the course for their lives,” Hagstrom Miller said. “Abortion is a solution to an unplanned pregnancy, and unplanned pregnancy really shines a bright light on people’s lives. It has them examine their hopes and their dreams for their future.”
  • “Let me just be clear. For our friends in Iowa, you are welcome here,” Flanagan said. “There are people who will provide care for you, and we are good neighbors here in Minnesota. So, if you’re afraid, come to Minnesota, we’ve got you.”

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Iowa is latest state to tightly restrict access to abortion after Supreme Court upholds ban at six weeks of pregnancy

Iowans-supporting-access-to-abortion

Important Takeaways:

  • That will replace the state’s current ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
  • Abortions after six weeks of pregnancy will be allowed in cases of rape if the assault is reported to law enforcement within 45 days, in cases of incest reported within 140 days, and if the pregnancy endangers the life of the pregnant person. It allows abortion in the case of life-threatening fetal abnormalities.
  • The law had been in effect for a few days after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it last year but was blocked by a lower court in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
  • Today the court found that there is a “rational basis” to write a law banning abortion based on the detection of a fetal heartbeat, stating, “We conclude that the fetal heartbeat statute is rationally related to the state’s legitimate interest in protecting unborn life.”
  • The Midwest is still a mixed picture for abortion rights. Neighboring Iowa are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas and Illinois that still allow access to abortion beyond 20 weeks. But Missouri and the Dakotas have near-total bans and Nebraska has a 12-week ban.

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With almost 80 tornadoes since Sunday more are in the forecast for Memorial Day weekend

Severe-Weather-Threat-map

Important Takeaways:

  • The highest tornado threat on Friday will be in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa
  • On Thursday, there were 21 reported tornadoes in North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas combined.
  • Over Memorial Day weekend, the severe weather will continue from the Plains into the Ohio Valley.
  • On Saturday, the highest threat for tornadoes will be in Kansas and Oklahoma.
  • On Sunday, cities in the bull’s-eye for tornadoes will be St. Louis, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; and Indianapolis.
  • The heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — could approach or surpass 110 degrees.

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Trail of destruction after tornado plows through small Iowa town

Iowa-tornado-damage

Important Takeaways:

  • Incredible footage shows destruction as deadly tornadoes rip through Iowa and kill multiple people: 15 counties declared disaster zones with hospital forced to evacuate, homes toppled and 25 million under severe warnings
  • Incredible drone footage has captured the immense trail of destruction left across a small Iowa town after a tornado ripped through the state – killing multiple people and injuring dozens more.
  • Entire neighborhoods were flattened by several deadly twisters that gripped the region on Tuesday evening, with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds placing 15 counties under disaster emergency proclamations.
  • Hours after a tornado touched down in Greenfield, aerial footage showed where a tornado tore through the town as homes were leveled and trees were shredded down to their stumps.
  • Carnage is expected to continue through the Midwest as a storm system develops – with over 25 million people currently under severe weather warnings, stretching from Missouri to Wisconsin.
  • Iowa Police confirmed there have been multiple fatalities in the deadly weather front. One death occurred in Adams County, Iowa, around 90 miles southwest of Des Moines, when a woman was ejected from a vehicle during the brutal storm.

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Media sharpening their knives after Trump wins Iowa primary

Yuval-Harari

Important Takeaways:

  • WEF globalist Yuval Harari hints that Trump will get elected, but then what?
  • World Economic Forum adviser and globalist mouthpiece Yuval Harari has come out with some very interesting comments about Donald Trump.
  • Harari says he believes it is “very likely” that Trump will be elected in November and that such an occurrence would be the “death blow” to globalism.
  • Now, a mainstream corporate media outlet is openly announcing a plan to hogtie Trump’s second attempt at being president is already in motion.
  • Below is an excerpt from an article by Modernity News published Monday, January 15, 2024.
    • A former State Department official has warned that deep state insiders and elements of the military are planning to derail Trump’s presidency should he win the election.
    • On Sunday, NBC News reported that “a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers” are planning to use lawfare and other tactics to block Trump from exercising power on day one of his return to the Oval Office.
    • According to the article, these insiders will go all out “to foil any efforts to expand presidential power,” even if Trump has been given a mandate to do so by the American people.
    • And they are increasingly open about their plans.

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Shooting at a High School in Perry Iowa: Investigation ongoing

Perry-High-School-Shooting

Important Takeaways:

  • Perry High School shooter injures two Iowa students and an administrator on first day back from winter break before turning the gun on themselves
  • County Sherriff Adam Infante confirmed at a press conference at 11am that police officers arrived at the high school seven minutes after the first call was made.
  • The first responders found ‘multiple gunshot victims’ inside the school, but Infante said they are still working on confirming the number of victims. He did not confirm if anyone was deceased.
  • Local news outlet WHO 13 said the shooter, who may be a student, is believed dead from a self-inflicted gun wound.
  • Adam Infante said that there were few people in the building at the time of the shooting, because the school day had not started yet.
  • The sheriff said: ‘The community is safe. We are now working backwards, to see what happened.’

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Iowa Governor deployed more than 100 National Guard soldiers to assist at the U.S.-Mexico border

Important Takeaways:

  • Kim Reynolds deployed more than 100 Iowa National Guard soldiers to Texas on Wednesday to assist at the U.S.-Mexico border for the next month.
  • And she says she’ll use the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 relief funds to pay for it.
  • The 109 soldiers are tasked with “deterring illegal border crossings and preventing the trafficking of illegal substances by cartels through Texas,”
  • She was one of at least half a dozen Republican governors around the country to send personnel to the border to support “Operation Lone Star.”
  • Reynolds has been a constant critic of President Joe Biden’s handling of immigration and said Wednesday that he has “failed the American people.”

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F3 Tornado Rolls Through Central Iowa

 

Important Takeaways:

  • Official: 7 Dead After Large Tornado Roars Through Central Iowa
  • Madison County Emergency Management Director Diogenes Ayala said 25 to 30 homes were badly damaged by the tornado.
  • “This is the worst anyone has seen in a very long time”
  • The National Weather Service in Des Moines tweeted later Saturday that initial photos and videos from the damage around the community of Winterset suggested it was at least an EF-3 tornado, capable of causing severe damage
  • Officials reported a number of homes were damaged, roads were blocked by downed lines and tree branches were shredded by the strong winds.
  • At one point, power outages affected about 10,000 in the Des Moines area.

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‘Desperate for tires’ Components shortage roils U.S. harvest

By P.J. Huffstutter and Mark Weinraub

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Dale Hadden cannot find any spare tires for his combine harvester. So the Illinois farmer told his harvest crew to avoid driving on the sides of roads this autumn to avoid metal scraps that could shred tires.

New Ag Supply in Kansas is pleading with customers to order parts now for spring planting. And in Iowa, farmer Cordt Holub is locking up his machinery inside his barn each night, after thieves stole hard-to-find tractor parts from a local Deere & Co dealership.

“You try to baby your equipment, but we’re all at the mercy of luck right now,” said Holub, a fourth-generation corn and soybean farmer in Buckingham, Iowa.

Manufacturing meltdowns are hitting the U.S. heartland, as the semiconductor shortages that have plagued equipment makers for months expand into other components. Supply chain woes now pose a threat to the U.S. food supply and farmers’ ability to get crops out of fields.

Farmers say they are scrambling to find workarounds when their machinery breaks, tracking down local welders and mechanics. Growers looking to buy tractors and combines online are asking for close-up photos of the machine’s tires, because replacements are expensive and difficult to find, said Greg Peterson, founder of the Machinery Pete website which hosts farm equipment auctions.

“As harvest ends, we will see farmers at equipment auctions not for the machinery – but for parts,” Peterson said. “We’re already hearing from guys talking about buying a second planter or sprayer, just for parts.”

For some farmers, the shortages are forcing them to reuse – or repair – old parts.

At their small welding shop in western Washington, Rami and Bob Warburton can barely keep up with all the orders from farmers needing something repaired from fittings for irrigation systems to a cracked bulldozer bucket.

“We were in the middle of a drought up here,” Rami Warburton said. “At that time, they couldn’t wait to water their fields for a month. The crops will be dead by then.”

‘TYLENOL MOMENTS’

Kinks in the supply chain due to COVID-19 shutdowns in manufacturing hubs in the United States and Asia, a container shortage snarling major ports, and a dearth of workers prevent equipment manufacturers from fully cashing in on a lucrative moment, when grain prices have soared to the highest in nearly a decade.

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly measure of farmer economic sentiment, fell 10% to its lowest level since July 2020 in early October. Supply concerns are weighing heavily on growers, with 55% of farmers surveyed saying that low inventories have affected their plans to buy machinery.

Access to steel, plastic, rubber and other raw materials has been scarce during the pandemic, and manufacturers are preparing for even more shocks after power shortages forced several Chinese smelters to cut production in recent weeks.

When executives from farm machinery maker AGCO Corp visited Midwest suppliers this summer, they found some companies were operating at only 60% staffing levels, said Greg Toornman, who oversees AGCO’s global supply chain management.

Toornman said staff levels are dropping at some suppliers in the Dakotas, Nebraska and Texas, as workers object to President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate, drop out of the workforce for fear of getting COVID-19 or move to other jobs.

“It’s the perfect storm of Tylenol moments,” Toornman said. “It’s one headache after another.”

The supply squeeze has put particular pressure on equipment dealerships, who typically see their service business boom during the traditional September through November harvest season.

This year, some have resorted to sifting through decade-old inventory for solutions. One pain point for dealerships is an industry-wide shortage of GPS receivers, which are used to run tractor guidance and data systems.

At Ag-Pro, the largest privately-owned Deere & Co dealership in North America, staff in Ohio have been digging out GPS units that date back to 2004. Until now, they were essentially worthless.

But producers can still use them to record a digital harvest map of their farms – something many need when talking to their bankers, landlords and crop insurance agents.

COMPONENTS TRIAGE

Equipment manufacturers are faced with a painful choice this harvest season: Send parts to factories to build new tractors and combines to sell to farmers or redirect those parts into the field to repair broken equipment for existing customers?

For AGCO and rival manufacturer CNH Industrial N.V., the answer is the latter.

“You can’t afford not to support those customers in the field,” AGCO’s Toornman said. “When you’re harvesting, timing is everything.”

CNH estimates that supply chain constraints ranging from increases in freight to higher raw materials prices have cost the company $1 billion.

That lag has forced the company to turn some factory parking lots into storage lots. At CNH’s combine plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, hundreds of unfinished combines sit outside, waiting for parts.

Meanwhile, CNH is redirecting components that can be used on its Case IH and New Holland equipment to customers in the field, a company representative said.

CNH has been signaling to dealers that supply chain problems and parts shortages for Case IH farm equipment are ongoing, according to Reuters interviews with six dealers. The manufacturer said in a statement it is meeting customer needs “the best we can given these unprecedented challenges.”

Deere said it is reorganizing shipping containers to make more room for goods, leasing extra cranes to expedite unloading ships at ports, and expanding its trucking fleet.

But component shortages are “particularly challenging for farmers facing what is already a short window of time to harvest,” said Luke Gakstatter, senior vice president of Deere’s aftermarket and customer support.

In some cases, the company has delivered unfinished machinery to customers. Missouri farmer Andy Kapp’s brand new combine rolled off the assembly line missing some of the high-tech cameras that help provide the very efficiency he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for.

But he is using it anyway, and even has stocked up on some extra parts, in case the combine breaks down.

“As you get toward the end of harvest, machinery and people get more tired,” Kapp said. “It’s a new machine. It won’t surprise us if there are a few loose bolts.”

(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter and Mark Weinraub in Chicago; additional reporting by Dane Rhys in Monroeville, Ohio; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Marguerita Choy)