Iowa
Iowa teens could serve alcohol, work longer hours and apprentice in factories and mines under amended bill
The Iowa Capitol dome is illuminated by the sundown Feb. 16, 2017, in Des Moines. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
DES MOINES — Iowa teenagers might work longer hours and extra jobs, together with these previously off-limits as being hazardous, and serve alcohol below a controversial invoice superior Wednesday by Home Republicans.
Home Examine Invoice 134 handed out of the complete Home Commerce Committee on a party-line vote, with Democrats opposed, clearing a Friday legislative deadline and making it eligible for a Home flooring vote.
The laws, amongst different provisions, would let teenagers as younger as 14 to request a waiver from the administrators of the state workforce and training businesses to work as apprentices in factories, mines, building websites and warehouses, amongst others, as a part of “work-based studying” applications.
Granting a waiver would require sufficient supervision, coaching and security precautions. And that the “phrases and situations” of the proposed employment “not intervene with the well being, well-being or education of the minor enrolled within the” work-based studying program, registered apprenticeship, or profession and technical training program.
Home Republicans amended the invoice by putting a provision that might have shielded companies from civil legal responsibility if a youth employee is sickened, injured or killed on the job.
The availability drew nationwide controversy, with critics saying the proposal is harmful and would topic little one employees to hazardous environments, and permit firms already making the most of widespread use of unlawful little one labor to legalize their exploitation.
New language states employers are solely immune from civil legal responsibility if a pupil taking part in a “work-based studying program” is killed or injured driving to or from the work web site, and supplies an exception if the coed “is performing throughout the scope of the coed’s employment on the path of the enterprise.”
The modification additionally makes technical modifications and clarifies that youngsters as younger as 14 may match in industrial freezers and meat coolers labeling, weighing, pricing and stocking, offered they’re separate from the place meat is ready.
Kids as younger as 14 additionally wouldn’t be allowed to work round dry cleansing chemical compounds.
At 15, they might be capable of work as lifeguards and swimming instructors, carry out gentle assembly-line work as long as they’re away from equipment and after acquiring a waiver from state officers, and cargo and unload as much as 50 kilos of merchandise from autos and retailer cabinets with a waiver “relying on the power and talent of the fifteen-year-old.”
Republicans stated the payments would assist companies discover employees in a good labor market and to assist younger Iowans develop into extra engaged in work.
Committee chair and Peosta Republican Rep. Shannon Lundgren stated the invoice will ”permit youngsters to exit and discover new alternatives.“
Rep. Dave Deyoe, R-Nevada, the invoice’s supervisor, argued considerations raised about placing youngsters in hurt’s manner had been overblown, and that the measure is geared toward updating an previous legislation with affordable requirements reflective of present follow.
“Now we have 16-year-olds welding at John Deere,” Deyoe stated. “So that is the kind of program we’re at the moment doing. This legislation just isn’t going to alter that. It simply broadens the language to ensure that all varieties of applications that we do proper now for youth coaching are literally allowed. And, that it truly has the oversight by means of Iowa Workforce Growth and the Iowa Division of Training.”
Iowa chapters of employer foyer teams representing small companies, homebuilders and accommodations and eating places again the proposals.
Democrats and labor unions contend the measures weaken little one labor protections.
“Having it within the classroom creates a extra structured, secure atmosphere than opening it as much as work websites,” Rep. Megan Srinivas, D-Des Moines, stated of permitting waivers for work-based studying applications.
Srinivas, too, famous the proposed modifications additionally instantly contradict federal labor legislation, and questioned whether or not Iowa employers can be topic to fines.
Federal guidelines prohibit 14- and 15-year-olds from working previous 9 p.m. in the summertime and seven p.m. in the course of the college 12 months. The invoice would lengthen that two hours to 11 p.m. and 9 p.m., respectively.
Deyoe argued three states bordering Iowa have made related modifications and have but to be fined.
The proposal additionally would permit 16- and 17-year-olds to serve alcohol, with written permission of a mother or father.
Democrats objected to the supply, and stated no different state permits a 16-year-old to serve alcohol unsupervised.
Maine permits employees 17 years or older to promote and serve alcoholic drinks when an individual at the very least 21 years of age is current in a supervisory capability.
Democrats stated 16- and 17-year-olds usually lack the maturity to withstand stress from associates and others to serve somebody underage, and frightened about subjecting minors to sexual harassment and assault.
“Wherever there may be alcohol, there may be going to be sexual innuendo and touching and undesirable advances,” stated Rep. David Jacoby, D-Coralville.
Lundgren bristled on the feedback, stating “ladies, sadly, are sexually assaulted in physician’s places of work, in grocery retailer parking heaps, in purchasing malls.”
“I assure the best way I run my enterprise, and possibly the best way 95 % of our bars and eating places within the state of Iowa are very conscientious with these points,” she stated. “And to make an assumption that any time alcohol being consumed that is going to occur can be a slap within the face to those who work on this business and that work very onerous on this business.”
Lundgren and her household personal a bar and grill.
“One of many advantages of permitting (16- and 17-year-olds to serve alcohol) is that in case you are a small household enterprise that our youngsters can do just a few extra issues to assist our enterprise develop,” she stated. “And we now have to reply that as effectively.”
Lundgren, although, stated she had considerations about having minors work “in among the bars in my district — and the cops know which of them they’re.”
Deyoe urged inserting language to limiting 16- and 17-year-olds to serving or promoting alcohol in eating places and never taverns.
“There’s nonetheless an excellent likelihood there shall be modification and we nonetheless don’t know if the Senate is on board with all the things right here,” he stated.
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
Iowa
Iowa high school football computer rankings (10/10/2024)
Week 6 of the 2024 Iowa high school football season has wrapped up, and High School on SI is continuing its weekly computer rankings for the season.
The Dowling Maroons kept their top five placing in this week’s 5A Iowa computer rankings after a thrilling 41-35 victory over Ankeny Centennial. They face a strong Urbandale team on Friday, to keep their momentum going.
The top of the 5A computer rankings stay the same this week as the Bettendorf Bulldogs take home another win, this time defeating Kennedy 33-14. The Bulldogs look forward to Friday, where they will travel to Davenport Central in hopes to hold their place in the standings.
SBLive’s formula was created using its linear algebra-based ranking algorithm inspired by the Colley Bias-Free Ranking Method. Colley’s Method was created by Wes Colley, Ph.D., an astrophysicist at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He devised his algorithm to help address the subjectivity and controversy regarding BCS college football selections in the 1990s and early 2000s, using a method that used no subjective variables.
- FAQ: SBLive High School Football Computer Rankings
Here are SBLive’s latest Iowa football computer rankings, as of Oct. 7, 2024:
IOWA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COMPUTER RANKINGS
CLASS 5A | CLASS 4A
CLASS 3A | CLASS 2A
CLASS 1A | CLASS A
CLASS 8 MAN
DOWNLOAD THE SBLIVE APP
To get live updates on your phone — as well as follow your favorite teams and top games — you can download the SBLive Sports app: Download iPhone App | Download Android App
— Ben Dagg | @sblivesports
Iowa
Grinnell window manufacturer announces plans to lay off 152 workers in November
JELD-WEN, a manufacturer of windows and doors in Grinnell, has announced it will be laying off 152 workers effective Nov. 7.
The announcement was made on Iowa’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) site.
The company, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, was founded in 1960 and has 18,000 employees, with operating facilities in 16 countries in North America and Europe with 2023 sales of $4.3 billion, according to the company’s website.
JELD-WEN did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, JELD-WEN announced the closing of its Hawkins, Wisconsin facility, affecting 338 employees, and in Vista, California, resulting in the loss of 110 jobs.
Iowa
Iowa Coach Fires Brutal Quote at Players Leaving Via Transfer
The Iowa Hawkeyes lost two players from their football team this week.
Both running back Leshon Williams and wide receiver Kaleb Brown have announced that they will redshirt for the rest of the season and enter the transfer portal at the end of the year.
Despite the two players opting to leave the program, it hasn’t phased head coach Kirk Ferentz. He isn’t worried about the decisions that they made at all.
When asked about Williams and Brown transferring, Ferentz offered a short and brutal quote.
“Not to be callous, but if a player isn’t playing, you don’t lose much.”
Williams had been dealing with an injury throughout the season thus far. Before the injury, he had shown flashes of being a player that could end up making an impact. Unfortunately, those flashes were never able to come to light on the field.
As for Brown, there were big plans for him coming into the season. But, he was suspended for the first game of the year and was never able to earn his role back.
Clearly, Ferentz is not worried about how his team will respond to the news. Basically, he doesn’t think the losses of them will impact the team at all.
Ferentz isn’t necessarily wrong with what he stated. Neither player had a role that will change how the team has been operating. However, it was the way he said it that was a bit out of line.
Regardless of the role that they players had, handling the situation with a bit more grace would have been a better look.
All of that being said, Iowa is not a program that needs to be graceful necessarily. The Hawkeyes want to win football games and neither Williams or Brown was contributing to that goal so far this year.
Looking ahead to the future, we wish the best to both Williams and Brown. Hopefully, they find success in their future endeavors.
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