Dem Partners With Olympic Gold Medalist To Fight Childhood Obesity

Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) and Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson announced the “Shawn Johnson Fitness for Life Act” on Wednesday to combat childhood obesity.

“Shawn Johnson has inspired countless young Iowans with her Olympic success,” Braley told reporters. “She’s inspired me with her work as an advocate for improved physical fitness. That’s why naming this bill the Shawn Johnson Fitness for Life Act is such a fitting tribute.”

The Center for Disease reports that one in every four Iowa children is obese or overweight. Such unhealthy lifestyles lead to heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, which becomes a tremendous burden on the healthcare system.

The bill would provide grants to 10 new physical education master programs selected by the Department of Education that would emphasize the use of technology and innovation in their teaching and encourage students to be physically active outside of the classroom. More and more technological equipment is becoming available to help monitor one’s exercise to determine the best physical fitness routine for each individual. By utilizing such equipment in schools, educators can better tailor activities to individual students’ physical levels.

“Expanding technology use in PE class will make fitness more engaging for kids and more effective, teaching students how to stay active and combat childhood obesity,” Braley remarked.

“To me, this is about finding new opportunities to get young people excited about fitness and exercise,” Johnson told reporters. “Kids of all ages use technology in their lives every day, from video games to iPods to cellphones. Using technology in PE class is the obvious next step, an opportunity to make exercise more fun for young people.”

Johnson, who won one gold and three silver medals in gymnastics at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, has advocated for exercise and physical fitness for a long time. Johnson met Braley in March when she was on Capitol Hill lobbying for the Paralympics and discovered a mutual interest in exposing students to the fun aspect of physical education.

“I am so passionate about trying to get kids active, trying to get them healthy and really enjoying physical activity,” Johnson told reporters. “You see in schools nowadays [that] PE is the worst thing to a kid. They hate PE, they don’t want to go to class, they don’t want to be a part of it. This is a wrongdoing on the teacher’s part for making it that way.”

“[The Shawn Johnson Fitness for Life Act] is the perfect next step to make fitness and exercise a part of kids’ lifestyles,” Johnson continued. “You see how much they [kids] enjoy being a part of the technology side of things and if you can incorporate that into exercise and physical activity, hopefully that can spark their interest enough to take the next step to leading a healthier lifestyle.”

Click here to read more about the bill.

King: Our children may end up paying our debt

By Suzia van Swol-University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service
Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) talks with TRNS correspondent Suzia van Swol at the 2009 House Republican Radio Row about the impacts that the U.S. will face by borrowing money from China. He says that if you borrow money, you have to pay it back , and “we’re either going to pay for it with inflated dollars, or it’ll be our children and our grandchildren paying this debt.” (1:01)

Giving Power Back To The People

By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service

Senator Tom Harkins (D-Iowa) and Congressman George Miller (D-Ca) held a press conference to discuss the progress of the “Employment Free Choice Act: Strengthening the Middle Class.”

Senator Harkin’s said: “We are introducing legislation that puts the power back into the hands of the people who are truly the backbone of our country. Today, Congressman Miller and I along with our co-sponsors are introducing the Employment Free Choice Act and we intend to pass this act not in a matter of years, but in weeks or months.”

Senator Harkin’s added: “In 2004 the average CEO made 431 times that of the average worker.

Congressman Miller said: “Under this bill the employees can choose to organize either through the National Labor Relations Board Election Process or through a majority sign up. Under the current law the CEO can veto employees choice when they use majority sign up. Under this bill the employee’s choice will be respected.”

The two said that from discussions they anticipated that the Senate would be first to vote on the Act and Senator Harkin’s said that by the time the vote comes he “believes” that there will be the 60 votes required for the legislation to pass.

The vote in the Senate is expected to take place after Easter recess.

Oil companies have McCain 'over the barrel'

“The reality is that Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) can visit oil rigs and do photo ops all he wants, but it is pretty clear from the policies he is advocating that he is literally over the barrel when it comes to the oil industry,” said former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. He spoke on a conference call to discuss Senator McCain’s opposition to a bipartisan energy compromise due to its rollback of tax breaks for oil companies.

Vilsack also said that McCain’s opposition to the compromise shows that he has chosen the side of oil companies over the American people, and that he is only open to policies that will help these organizations. Conversely, Vilsack says that Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) plan would roll back these tax breaks and give this money to the middle class in order to assist them with sky-high energy costs.

Vilsack said that by instituting policies that push renewable energy, he was able to create more jobs and stimulate the economy for the state of Iowa, as well as make more money available to schools and other programs. He also challenged McCain’s image as a ‘maverick’ who fights corrupt businesses and said, “I think it’s time for McCain to be accountable for the decisions he is making.”

Low corn yield equals expensive beef

Corn, apparently, is many things. It is animal feed, human food, and ethanol. I spoke with George Chadima in Fairfax, a farm owner near Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Excessive moisture has caused the nitrogen to be leeched from the soil, which is requiring farmers to buy biologically active fertilizer. The corn that was planted already has been “drowned” by water pooling in areas, and much of the rest was also damaged by a recent hailstorm. Crops, he said, would probably yield 75-80% of what they normally do.

I was shown a warehouse that housed large containers of soybeans yet to be planted. The planting schedule is three weeks behind already due to the weather, and hopefully, he said, they’ll be able to plant within the next couple of days. This is happening to many farmers in Iowa, and the result is going to mean higher prices- in everything.

Corn prices, of course, will go up, since using corn for “human food” or exporting it elsewhere, essentially removes corn from the chain of production. Ethanol, surprisingly, does not create that problem, because after the grain alcohol is removed there are still co-products from the corn, such as animal feed, plastics, and oils. The chain of production includes feeding that corn to animals, and then using the byproducts as fertilizer. Because it is costing more to harvest the corn, and there will be less of it, this will cause beef prices to rise.