The COVID-19 pandemic took a big toll on Iowa’s health care workforce. Today, the state is facing a critical shortage of workers.

Iowa has the second highest incidence rate of cancer in the country, and it is already feeling Trump's cuts to the workforce and research institutions trying to solve the rural cancer problem.

Charles Benbrook told an Iowa City audience this week that the state’s agriculture is too pesticide intensive, and the chemicals are “harming the soil, harming public health, and it is harming fish populations and birds and the deer.

Iowa lawmakers advanced a bill Monday banning the administration of mRNA vaccines. The bill, Senate File 360, would outlaw any person in the state of Iowa from administering an mRNA and would impose penalties of up to $500 for anyone found guilty of doing so.

Around 750 employees for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, have been laid off in recent weeks, according to reports from NPR. The CDC is among a multitude of federal agencies losing employees due to efforts from President Trump’s administration.

A bill aiming to increase cancer and other health coverage for public servants is moving through the Iowa state legislature.

Bri McNulty, 23, won her dream job as a CDC fellow working on cancer prevention in Iowa, the state with the second highest incidence of cancer. But she was fired, like so many federal workers.

Agricultural economist Charles Benbrook will lead a pair of discussions this week in Des Moines and Iowa City about pesticide use, agricultural economics and public health. The first event, “Pesticide Litigation,