‘AWESOME DISPLAY’
NATIONAL 4-H WEEK
The Creston girls cross country team won Perry’s Leon Fox Invite Thursday night. For more on the Panther harriers, see SPORTS, page 1S. >>
National 4-H Week runs Oct. 1-7. For more information on 4-H and the benefits of joining, see page 2A. >>
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
Clearfield to Bangkok Southwest Iowa native Matt Kerns has life-changing international internship experience ■
By Jake Waddingham Special to the CNA
CNA photo by CARTER ECKL
Raider royalty: Zach Murphy, left, and Alyssa Johnson
smile after being named Mount Ayr’s 2017 homecoming king and queen Thursday night during a homecoming coronation in the Mount Ayr gymnasium. Mount Ayr football takes on Pleasantville 7 p.m. today in its homecoming game.
Contributed photo
During his internship at CP Foods, Matt Kerns of Clearfield experienced a variety of tasks including working with swine, poultry, and shrimp. He also spent time helping compare the United States pork industry with the practices in Thailand as a teaching assistant at the local university.
the United States was the emphasis to convert farms to utilizing green energy. Cutting energy costs allows farms to be more price competitive. “As for comparisons between Iowa and Thailand, the biggest problem they have is their climate,” Kerns said. “It is very hot, a tropical climate. They joke they have three seasons, hot, hotter and hottest. I experienced the hottest of those. ... Pigs can’t sweat, so their buildings are engineered a little bit differently. Temperature is always a top priority there.”
Background Kerns grew up on a farm north of Clearfield. His family raised about 500 KERNS | 2A
Police: Mom flew to Germany, left 4 kids home alone in Iowa for her kids — ages 12, 12, 7 and 6 — before she left Sept. 20. Police were tipped off Sept. 21 that the children had been left unsupervised. Officers investigated and called in the Iowa Human Services Department, which took custody of them. Police called Macke in Germany, demanding she come back. She was arrested on her return. Police haven’t described the purpose of Macke’s trip.
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Volume 134 No. 85
2016
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payments — a provision included in the latest repeal bill, which never got a Senate floor vote — it could signal a new Republican strategy for altering health care rules without congressional action. Iowa says it’s just looking to save money. The Trump administration has yet to approve any major changes — some proposed months ago — to state Medicaid programs, but federal officials encouraged states in a letter earlier this year to keep suggesting them. “I would suspect that at least now in the short term that it looks like the repeal and replace efforts are in the rear view mirror, that that kind of opens up the door for some of these conversations
• IF YOU HAD AN EXTRA HOUR A DAY, HOW WOULD YOU SPEND IT? I’d
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DES MOINES (AP) — Iowa is seeking permission from President Donald Trump’s administration to cut a key benefit for all its Medicaid recipients, a move that could foreshadow other state-level efforts to change the safety net program after Congress repeatedly failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Federal health officials could decide soon whether to back Iowa’s proposal, which would cut retroactive payments for poor or disabled residents for medical needs incurred up to three months before they registered for or re-enrolled in Medicaid. The state wants a decision by Oct. 1, though such a timeline appears unlikely. Should the state successfully roll back retroactive
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JOHNSTON (AP) — Police have arrested a suburban Des Moines mother who left her four children home alone while she traveled to Europe. Johnston police say they’ve charged 30-yearold Erin Macke with child endangerment. Polk County Jail records say Macke remains in custody Friday. Court records don’t list the name of an attorney who can comment for her. Police say Macke made no child care arrangements
Contributed photo
Elephants are one of Thailand’s biggest attractions. Matt Kerns of Clearfield got an elephant-sized hug to celebrate the Iowa State Cyclones winning a Big 12 tournament game.
Iowa’s proposed Medicaid cut could signal new GOP strategy
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A passion for travel and a family tradition of caring for and raising animals on their farm north of Clearfield, Iowa, helped Matt Kerns live out a life-changing experience in Bangkok, Thailand. “I went over there with no expectations,” Kerns said. “I knew generally what I was going to be doing, but I didn’t set any high, lofty goals. Even if I did, the experience would have blown it out of the water.” The internship was with CP Foods, an agro-industrial and food conglomerate in Thailand. Kerns had a variety of experiences from spending a week working with a farrowing unit, then being in downtown Bangkok with the marketing team for 10 days before spending time on a shrimp farm. His experience also included time in CP Food’s university, where he helped students assess the differences between swine production in the United States versus Thailand. “Thailand is still considered a developing country, which you really don’t feel too much when you are in the cities, but once you get out and see the countryside, it gets very, very real,” Kerns said. “I would say their production there is just as modern as anything we have in America, especially with CP because it is a big, international company.” Kerns said one experience he was interested in trying to transfer back to
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