Friday before holiday weekend news dump, part 2: Governor Terry Branstad line-item vetoed a $500,000 appropriation for the Food Bank of Iowa Iowa Food Bank Association (see clarification below). It was a surprisingly heartless play by the politician who said in September 2011, “If we want to be the healthiest state in the nation, we have to confront the issue of hunger in our communities.”

Over the weekend I looked into what an extra half million dollars might have meant to the growing number of Iowans who can’t always buy enough food.  

I don’t write many posts in the “wacky and mean-spirited things conservative say” genre, but I’m making an exception today.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was poised to implement new rules on sunscreen labels and marketing this summer, more than 30 years after the first sunscreen labeling rules were introduced in 1978. However, sunscreen manufacturers may keep using misleading language when packaging and advertising their products for at least another six months.

What’s on your mind this weekend? In the spirit of past Mother’s Day diaries at this site, I’ve posted some mother-related links after the jump. I also added my thoughts on the latest TIME magazine cover, a sexualized depiction of a three-year-old breastfeeding next to a provocative “Are You Mom Enough?” tag line.

Domestic violence has become a political football lately as members of Congress spar over reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.

Since April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I posted below numerous non-political links about ways to prevent violence and resources for victims of violence.

This is an open thread. What’s on your mind this weekend, Bleeding Heartland readers?

The U.S. Department of Labor announced yesterday that it will not seek to regulate agricultural work done by children under age 16. Several members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation welcomed the news. Their statements are after the jump, along with background on the proposed rules and the full statement from the Labor Department.

UPDATE: I’ve added Senator Tom Harkin’s comments below. He was the only Iowan in Congress to express concern about the government walking away from “regulations that were, at their core, about protecting children.”

The number of Iowa children living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty more than doubled over the last decade, according to a new report.

Last week the Des Moines-based Child & Family Policy Center released “Iowa Kids Count 2010: Trends in the Well-Being of Iowa Children.” Highlights from the report are after the jump. While several indicators showed improvement in children’s health between 2000 and 2010, the economic circumstances of Iowa children and families deteriorated significantly.

I was intrigued by an article in today's Des Moines Register about Dr. David Nash, who advocates training “oral health therapists” to handle simple procedures for children's teeth.

My cousins who are dentists probably wouldn't like this idea, but Nash made a compelling case:

Nash, who spoke at a conference in Johnston, framed the problem as an issue of justice and fairness. He criticized fellow dentists for concentrating on profitable treatments, including cosmetic procedures. He said they should spend more time on public-health needs, including care for poor children insured under Medicaid.

Dentists often say they limit their Medicaid work because the program pays them too little. But Nash said states that have dramatically raised reimbursements have not seen corresponding increases in dentists willing to accept more Medicaid patients. “Many dentists just do not want to see these people in their offices,” he said.

[…]

The professor has made waves nationally with a proposal to create a new class of “oral health therapists,” who would receive two years of training in the treatment of children. They could perform typical dental-hygienist duties, plus simple fillings, crowns and extraction of baby teeth. They could be posted in schools, pediatricians' clinics or mobile clinics, he said. Such therapists provide safe, economical treatment in 53 countries, including New Zealand, Britain and Canada, he said.

I have a friend whose family is on Medicaid, and I know she has struggled to find a dentist to fill her daughters' cavities. The family dentists or pediatric dentists recommended by me and other friends do not take Medicaid patients. She wants to avoid getting mercury amalgam fillings, and the only dentists in the Des Moines area she can find who take Medicaid patients use mercury in the fillings.

I'm sure there are arguments to be made against Nash's idea, but it seems to merit serious consideration. 

When I was in college nearly 20 years ago, I remember reading an article in the Des Moines Register about the rising rate of births by cesarian-sections in Iowa. At some rural hospitals, the rate was approaching 25 percent, and that was alarming to some doctors.

Now almost a third of all births in Iowa are by c-section, and in some counties that figure is above 40 percent.

During the past week, the Des Moines Register, Cedar Rapids Gazette and several other newspapers  published this piece from the Associated Press about the rising rate of cesarean births, which quotes several women in Linn County and Johnson County.

Unfortunately, the article does a poor job of assessing the causes of the this trend and ignores the most significant problems associated with unnecessary c-sections. I explain why after the jump.