The Daily Iowan WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2024
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COMMUNITY SINCE 1868
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Emily Nyberg | The Daily Iowan
Mary Kay Kusner, a death doula in Iowa City, meets with Mike Bosch in his and his wife Joni’s home in Iowa City on Oct. 24. Bosch was diagnosed with multiple system atrophy in 2023 and has seen a significant decline in his quality of life. In his work with Kusner, Bosch is talking through fears, writing letters to loved ones, and documenting his life experiences. Bosch said he has felt comfortable with the vulnerability Kusner has encouraged. “She’s really kind. You’re not embarrassed if you cry in front of her,” he said.
DEATH THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS Death doulas offer holistic end-of-life care in Iowa City, helping families through grief. Emily Nyberg Photojournalist
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Mary Kay Kusner sat on an ottoman across from Mike Bosch, who took up his usual spot on his living room armchair on Thursday, Oct. 4. Kusner leaned in toward Bosch as he spoke of his love for his oldest grandson, pointing to a photo of the two on the bookshelf. “The first is always special,” Kusner said. A tear rolled down Bosch’s cheek as Kusner wrote the story of the day he met his oldest grandson in a journal
INSIDE
Downtown features women-owned ventures Iowa City’s community of women business owners is expanding. Sweets and Treats and T’Spoons Coffee are demonstrating growth in downtown Iowa City, both economically and culturally.
detailing special moments of his life. In 2019, Bosch was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a typically slow-developing neurodegenerative disorder. However, when his symptoms progressed more rapidly than expected, he and his wife Joni sought a second opinion. In March 2023, a brain MRI showed Bosch did not just have Parkinson’s but also multiple system atrophy, or MSA, a rare disease impacting the nervous system and causing nerve cell loss. This diagnosis flipped the couple’s expectations for the future upside down. Both being retired nurses, they knew MSA would take Bosch’s quality of life rapidly, so Joni
reached out to a friend for guidance — Mary Kay Kusner. Joni met Kusner through her church, where Kusner worked as an ordained Roman Catholic Woman Priest. Outside her role in the church, Kusner served as a palliative care chaplain at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, now UI Health Care, for 30 years, retiring in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this role, she provided emotional and spiritual support and guidance for patients facing the ends of their lives and their loved ones’. In 2023, Kusner felt called back to end-of-life care and
Law impacts Iowa schools use state market for THC funding for security products in IC SECURING SCHOOLS
The governor’s office has allocated millions of dollars to schools across the state.
THC | 8A
SPORTS | 1B
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This is the third installment in a multipart series about school safety in Iowa. Following the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where a high school student killed 19 students and two teachers, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds decided it was time to ramp up funding for school safety measures in Iowa. On June 14, 2022, Reynolds announced the Governor’s School Safety Initiative, providing $100 million in school safety funding to Iowa’s schools. This initiative was financed using the American Rescue Plan Act and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, also known as ESSER, fund. The $100 million was divided up into several facets going toward school security. $75 million was designated to a school safety
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SCHOOL | 8A
Mia O’Connor-Walker Politics Reporter
Evan Watson News Reporter
improvement fund that would specifically target security improvements in schools. Another $7.5 million was designated for vulnerability assessments for 1,500 K-12 school buildings in the state, and $6 million was allocated for digital critical incidents mapping technology. Another $4.5 million was designated for radios in schools, and $1.5 million was designated for digital technologies for threat reporting and monitoring. The final $5.5 million was slated for the Governor’s School Safety Bureau operational funding, which lasts through 2026. The bureau is tasked with helping local schools identify and respond to security threats by providing emergency radios to schools and conducting training with school staff and law enforcement. Dave Wilson, the coordinator for Emergency Management of Johnson County, said that after the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shoot-
Money won’t buy loyalty
The new law signed in May limits the amount of THC concentration allowed in drinks and other products.
Corrective legislation passed in March places limits on certain THC and hemp products. The bill, officially signed into law in May, prohibits retailers in Iowa from selling THC products with more than four milligrams per serving or 10 per container. The law addresses a loophole in the 2018 federal farm bill that allowed THC-infused drinks to be sold with up to 1,000 milligrams per liter. Most manufacturers did not make drinks with that concentration. However, Iowa City retailers that made eight-milligram drinks were left with unusable products and thousands of dollars in wasted investment. ReUnion Brewery in Iowa City is one establishment that sells THC-infused drinks. At one point, it was making its own, but the business quickly found they could not be sold under the new law. Kris Mondanaro, chief operating officer at the Iowa City ReUnion Brewery, said the products in development would incur an $8,500 fine at each eligible location if they were sold without the proper dram shop insurance. Mondanaro said this effectively took ReUnion out of the THC seltzer business. They now only sell THC drinks made by other companies that meet the regulations. “Had we made the decision to pre-label our cans, we would’ve already invested in those products, but we found out just in time to pull the plug,” she said. She said ReUnion would have incurred $26,000 in total additional costs if they’d chosen to sell the seltzers. She said restaurant locations, all owned by Jim Mondanaro, that carry seltzers have seen a drop in sales, but more casual environments like Bread Garden, she said, have not faced a similar drop. This is a situation in which certain government interventions in a market limited
NEWS | 8A
Despite the temptation of NIL offers and the transfer portal, Iowa men’s wrestler Patrick Kennedy remains loyal to the Hawkeye program. Kennedy made his season debut during the annual Cy-Hawk series.
DOULAS | 2A