Health Care and a trip in the time machine

The Iowa Journal tries to get their arms around the debate of health care reform. The issue is huge and we take our bite tonight. We look at the "Summer of Discontent" when lawmakers went to their home districts to hold regularly scheduled town meetings. Those meetings were dominated by healthcare discussion. At times, it got loud, even a little uncomfortable. What does that mean? Will that help us solve any issues?

The reform bill is moving forward. What does this mean to insurance, hospitals and those helping craft the changes?

Great question, Paul.

We just happen to have people from those fields in our studio for tonight's show. We'll put the Iowa Journal on the monitors seen in the picture above.

Three guests with stakes in the health care debate will be in our studio: Iowa State Senator Jack Hatch, (D-Des Moines), chair of the White House Working Group of State Legislators for Health Reform; Kirk Norris, president/CEO of the Iowa Hospital Association; and Joe Teeling, chairman and CEO of Bearence Management Group, a consulting group that helps employers with the purchase of health insurance.

In our efforts to get more topics in the show, we've also hop into the time machine to go back to 1959. That year Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev took a whirlwind trip through the U.S. including a stop in Iowa. The story includes interviews with Khrushchev's son who made the 1959 trip with his father, and Roswell Garst’s granddaughter, Liz Garst, who was 8 years old when Khrushchev visited her grandfather's farm.

See if you notice any changes in the beginning of the show tonight. We are trying some things. See if you notice.

On a personal note, no baby yet. We are close, due date is Friday. We just hope to not deliver on the side of the road like our friends Brad and Carie. Great story here about their experience earlier this week. I did blog about it here with the link to the WQAD story. http://tr.im/zsJW

Maybe the monkey knows what the delay is all about.

See you tonight at 8p on IPTV in full HD. Also Friday at 630p.

If you watch The Office or Grey's or CSI, we are commercial free. No commercials to skip through on our program. So, watch us in real time and record the other show.

The entire show will be posted on Friday to www.iptv.org/iowajournal Some parts of the show are already posted.

We also have an official Iowa Journal Twitter page at www.twitter.com/IowaJournal

Thank you for reading this far.

Norman Borlaug, Economy and the Dead Zone

The first show of the new season is in the books, now its time for episode two of The Iowa Journal.

I've mentioned before that we playing with the format a bit. Did you notice?

This week we also do something different. No studio discussion. Its just three stories this week. We had a discussion scheduled on the Dead Zone and Iowa's contribution, but have dropped that for another big story. The death of Iowa native Norman Borlaug.

We've got a hold of a documentary that was in the works about Borlaug and will air a part of that Thursday night at 8p on statewide Iowa Public Television. Market to Market is also working on a feature as well. Andrew Batt is on the case. Look for his report Friday night. On a side note, I had just mentioned Borlaug's health to Batt about ten days ago after hearing that Borlaug was not in good health. I will stop mentioning anyone and their health for quite sometime.

We also will look at the economy according to Creighton University Economics professor Ernie Goss. Earlier this month, Rick Fuller and I traveled to Omaha to spend a couple of days with Dr. Goss. He's been on show in a couple of other times to talk about gambling, and regional economies. He's a good friend of the show and always enjoyable to talk to. We already aired one feature on his MidAmerica Business Conditions Index on Market to Market. You can watch that story here. We'll air our feature on Thursday and then post the full interview about Iowa's economy on our website.

--UPDATE-- The full interview lives here. If the video is not there, check back, it will be soon.

Another fun side note about Borlaug as said by Penn and Teller. Ok, really just Penn since Teller is silent. Here's a fun video sent to me by Derek Balsley.





Producer Nancy Crowfoot also is putting the finishing touches on Iowa's contribution to the Dead Zone. What are Iowans doing to put chemicals in the Mississippi River and eventually the Gulf Of Mexico? There is a conference about this issue taking place in the next few days, so this is a preview to that. We'll revisit the topic later in the season in-studio when we can devote time to it.

Thanks for taking the time. Glad to have you reading this far.
Have you seen the monkey?

See you Thursday at 8p on IPTV. BTW, no new Grey's Anatomy this week.
UPDATE: The Office is new. But they do reruns. We don't.
You can also watch our replay Friday night at 630p.

New Season of The Iowa Journal

Its time to get those DVRs ready to record a brand new season of The Iowa Journal, your favorite Iowa Public Television program. Except for Clifford, Sid, Martha and a whole bunch of other great shows on the network.

We are back Thursday at 8p on statewide IPTV in full high definition. We begin season 3 with a look at education in Iowa. The official line from our website is:

"The Iowa Journal examines the need to refocus the work of school principals, and how that could help increase student achievement."

In a previous Tweet on Wednesday morning, you were given homework. Here's the note again..

"Your homework before Thursday's return of The Iowa Journal at 8p on IPTV. http://tr.im/yfTU"

Our program will include a look at The Principal Story, a documentary airing on IPTV September 15th.

Here's part of the official news release.

Troyce Fisher of the School Administrators of Iowa; long-time Des Moines North High School principal, Vincent Lewis; and Ben Johnson, a newer assistant high school principal from Fort Dodge. The program will also feature reports from Clear Creek Amana Middle School, and an interview with Iowa Department of Education Director Judy Jeffrey.

See you Thursday at 8 or Friday at 6:30p on IPTV.

The Iowa Journal returns September 10th

The new season of The Iowa Journal is getting closer.

We have put the Iowa State Fair in the rearview mirror and now its time to set sail for season 3 of The Iowa Journal.

We begin September 10th with a look at "The Principal Story." Its a documentary featuring a new and veteran school principal. Both women are followed in their ups and downs of the world of education. We will be doing a local look at the program to see the Iowa angle to this POV documentary. You can watch a video clip right here.

September 17th will bring a look at the 50th anniversary of Khrushchev's visit to Iowa and the Garst family in Coon Rapids. It was ground breaking then and would still be major news today if it was to be repeated. We've found some old TV footage with Jim Zabel and Jack Shelley doing commentary on the visit by the Soviet Union leader.

We are visiting with Creighton University economics professor Ernie Goss next week as he releases his latest economic survey. What goes into that survey will be seen on Market to Market next week, but we will have an extended interview with Goss on the Iowa economy.

We've also got producers looking at the healthcare debate, the preparedness for H1N1, Iowa's contribution to the Dead Zone and look at our natural heritage.

These topics will be discussed in full on some programs, while others will be a snapshot of what's happening now and compiled for a larger discussion down the road.

The Iowa Journal may look a little different to you at home this fall, but we hope its still the same show that you've come to expect from Iowa Public Television.

For now, you can see some of our past work at www.iptv.org/iowajournal

See you September 10th at 8p.

Radio is the theater of the mind, what's that make internet radio?

Radio has always been fun to me. Its been a start to many things in my career.

Officially, I did start my media career as a picture printer at the Jesup Citizen Herald, but one of my first jobs at Wartburg College was working at KWAR radio. I did several radio shows on several topics and had fun at every turn of the record.

That was over the air, you could get the signal for 5 miles around campus and that was about it. There was no internet streaming to supplement your signal. KWAR was truly 10 watts of pure power.

What if you only had the internet signal? It wouldn't really be a signal, but rather a stream.

That's what is fun about the internet, everything is new and you can experiment and see what works.

Just like radio was when it started. It was new, people experimented and tried new things.

A Des Moines area business owner, J. Michael McCoy has done just about everything in media in this town. He's been on country, rock, talk and even christian radio stations. Now he's started up a web-only radio station. Its called Mac's World Live, a play on his old talk radio show.

The line up covers all sorts of topics and age groups. It really is community radio the way it once was. Even my friend Dave Price has a show.

The station is run out of his bar, Miss Kitty's in Clive. The studio is carved out of an old service area of the bar. The signal is only online but its also a webcast as well. There's 3 cams and the host of the radio show also is the director, switching shots as people talk on the radio in a room no bigger than my closet at home.

But that's what is so fun about radio and broadcasting. You hear it, you think big, grand thoughts. You think expansive studios with stuff happening all around it.

Radio has always been theater of the mind. Its a challenge to make it happen and be good. That's what is fun about it.

You can tell, I was excited to get a chance to do radio again.

Michael Libbie was one of our guests on our social media Iowa Journal. Libbie owns an ad agency called Insight Advertising, Marketing and Communications. Michael is also an old radio guy who loves the theater of it as well. He hosts Insight on Business Monday - Friday from 1230 to 2p. He talks business, but wanted to talk more about IPTV and The Iowa Journal.

We did talk about social media, Sandi Lincoln, Twitter, Pat Dix, WHO-TV, gay marriage, Iowa, Wartburg, and eventually we did get to IPTV and the Iowa Journal.

Give us a listen if you like, the archived version is here.

Thanks again to Michael for the opportunity. Who knows, this may be the future of broadcasting.

What to do on The Iowa Journal

Earlier this week the group of producers for The Iowa Journal got together to talk about The Iowa Journal. 

It doesn't sound newsworthy, but it is if you watch the show. 

We spent the majority of the two hours talking about ideas for the show. We are in a bit of a transition. Sid Sprecher has been at the reigns of the show since the beginning in October of 2007. He's retiring at the end of the month and we are now in hiatus after Thursday's flood show. We are done as a cost saving measure until the fall, maybe September, maybe October. 

So, we've got a little time to do some tweaking if we want. This may happen. 

What do you want to see? 

Here's some of the ideas being tossed around. 

We need to make sure the I in IPTV stands for Iowa. Its a lot to ask someone to travel from Decorah to Johnston for an interview that may last 14 minutes. Its another to travel there and do the interview by satellite. The cost is too great for one interview.

Have you used Skype? Oprah uses Skype for her show. Why can't we? We talked about how we could use it for guests in our news analysis section or a guest if we like. 

Its not HD quality, but from what I've seen Oprah do, the audio sounds good, but the pic is a little pixelated.  

What do you think of our interviews? Do they add to the information we provide on our topics. How about one guest or 4 guests each week? Do we do a show with just guests one week on a topic. We talked about spending a show with one topic in a taped piece. Then the next week we would look at the topic in a discussion. It seems like a lot of work, but would it be worth it?

Just thought I would clue you in what we're up to and talking about here on The Iowa Journal.

Do ya, you know, Twitter?

Do you Twitter?

Do you Facebook?

Do you care to?

Do you want the madness to stop? 

The Iowa Journal looks at social media tonight in a Friday only showing of this program at 630p on IPTV.

Social Media sounds like a party and that’s kind of what it is. The social networking site Facebook boasts 200 million users world wide. The fastest growing demographic on the site is 35 years and over. 

Now the even quicker, more ADD site is Twitter, a site that allows users to send out short bursts of information. Twitter is growing leaps and bounds---  Nielson Rating Service says the site has grown 13-hundred percent from year to year since Feb of 08.

 We begin with a look at a face to face meeting of users and then we’ll show you how others are getting into business to help others navigate these tools for their business. We head to Lava Row in Des Moines to see how this company teaches social media to businesses.

 We also went to a Des Moines area TweetUp to see what that is about. Several of you are in the piece that went that night, but not everyone will make the cut. So, please don't be mad. I didn't think Abbie Shipton wanted to see her full profile about a month from delivery. 

 Our panel discussion includes Michael Libbie, principal and owner of Insight Advertising, Marketing & Communications a Des Moines based Advertising Agency that specializes in traditional media messages from print to television to Social Media.  Michael also hosts a number of radio shows in the Des Moines market dealing with a issues revolving around advertising and the rural lifestyle. 

Michael blogged about his appearance and put in some very nice words about IPTV and our operation. Thanks to that. Also a great picture off set. He called it magic. TV still is to me as well, Michael. 

 Mike Templeton is the director of social media and web strategy for the Iowa Hospital Association. He uses social media on a daily basis through his job and personal life. The discussion was taped last Thursday.

 The show will only air tonight, May 29^th, 2009 at 630p on IPTV. There is no news analysis. The discussion was posted online last Friday.

 The feature is online already.

 So, if you want to watch the show before it airs, you can do so here on our site.

Paul's Add: There is a tiny, inside joke off the top of the discussion. I said, its a Paul and 2 Mike's again. That was in reference to a great radio show I did in college on KWAR in Waverly with two of my best friends named Mike and Mike. We were on before those ESPN guys came along, for the record.

The show was called Bitter Coffee with a Paul and 2 Mike's. Great radio for our time. We even got the president of Wartburg to stop by on our final show of the year. 

What I did on my summer-- from the Iowa Journal

We are looking ahead to the future of the Iowa Journal and stories we are working on for you.

This week we'll look at the flood of 2008 and what's been done to try and prevent a disaster like that doesn't happen again. That program is a little different format as well with no studio discussion, just a look at stories in Waverly, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, and Louisa County to just name a few. 

Then, we are done for a few months. I wish we weren't, but now we can devote time to traveling the state to find the next best stories for The Iowa Journal. If you miss us, please write IPTV a little note to say, we like the show, we don’t like the show, we think the host is a dink, how does his hair never move? 

You can contact us here.

I've got a few ideas that I'll try to flush out this summer. I'm hoping to get to Clinton, Davenport and Burlington to look at minor league baseball. Also we may look at the wine industry, Iowa's cold criminal cases, new teachers and some other topics that come our way. Thank you so much for reading all of this note. If you have ideas you think we should do, let me know. 

I love to hear ideas from across the state that impact all Iowans. 

Post a comment here. If you want to keep it on downlow, send me a note to paul.yeager@iptv.org

As always, check out our past stories to see some fan favorites at www.iptv.org/iowajournal

See it online BEFORE on TV

How cool can we be sometimes?

In a show about social media, its only fitting that we launch the discussion of our upcoming show about social media, here on line on the Iowa Public Television website.

Thanks to fellow producer Nancy we've posted the video of the discussion recorded on Thursday afternoon about social media for next Friday's Iowa Journal. Actually, it was Nancy's idea, I just said, that would be fitting, so here you go. Thank Nancy. 

We usually will post our Thursday programs on Friday's online at www.iptv.org/iowajournal around noon. So, you can soon see our economic roundtable about underemployed and unemployed here as well. 

The social media show will also feature Lava Row and the Des Moines area TweetUp. That will be ready for Friday's airing at 630p on IPTV. 

Here's the link to the Iowa Journal's discussion on Social Media with Mike Templeton and Michael Libbie. 

Yes, the economy is still bad for people

Are there any signs things are improving for Iowans?

What hope can we give to people about the economy?

Who or what industries are looking like they will be hiring?

What can be done in the meantime while we wait for the economy to turn?

This week we bring the phone operators and volunteers to take your questions about the economy. Its a topic that is continually on the brain of many, if not all of us.

Yes, there's been some good indicators this week, but for some, they are still without a job.

The Iowa Journal is committed to answering your questions about the economy. We've assembled an impressive panel.

Elisabeth Buck is the director of the Iowa Workforce Development. Rob Denson is president of Des Moines Area Community College. Adam Carroll is a personal financial consultant and Jim Adams coordinates the Hope@Work program at one of, if not the, biggest churches in the state, Lutheran Church of Hope.

Jim will be making his Iowa Journal debut and the rest are veterans on the program.  Glad to have Jim on the show.

You can call with your questions or email them ahead of time. Call 866.282.2846 or send an email to iowajournal@iptv.org

We're on live Thursday night from 8-9. 

There will be no cutdown version of the program this week that airs on Friday. So, if you want to catch up if you miss our on-air signal, hop onto www.iptv.org/iowajournal

If you want to see our program on Autism, that's last week's show. Also see fan favorites like auto racing in Iowa, water quality and the Out and About in Red Oak. All available on our website, any time of the day.

We will also be taping a discussion tomorrow about social media. We're talking about Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. How do we go beyond email. That will air only on Friday, May 29 at 630p. Another DTV or digital TV call in will air at 8p next week. 

Thanks for the time. 

The monkey is now blogging. Hard to believe. Check it out for longer versions of my Iowa Journal ramblings. 

Thanks for reading this last line. If you send a question to iowajournal@iptv.org and you're on this list, I'll send you an IPTV prize. 

Autism

The Iowa Journal looked at Autism on Thursday, May 14. 

Sally Pederson and Ethel Faust were the guests.

We had a lot of ground to cover and did in our 17 minutes. The show is online at www.iptv.org/iowajournal