Grace period on hands-free law is too long
Have you noticed that the public is treating the new Iowa hands-free law as a suggestion that can be ignored rather than a law that needs to be followed?
This law prohibits the use of any electronic device by the driver, unless it is a hands-free device. Although the law itself is good, there is no point in a six-month warning period.
If we hand out warnings instead of punishments, the public will either abide by the law for a day or two before going back to using their phone, or they will just ignore the warning altogether because the only thing they will listen to is fines.
While I agree that it is important to teach people about the new law and how to abide by it, giving them half a year to continue to disobey the law will only make it harder to stop. If the warning period had been only two or three months before the police start giving fines, the money could go to further educating the people about this new law.
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The money could be used to put up billboards, put signs up in stores, and/or pay influencers to talk about it on social media.
Reducing the warning period would give the bad habit of using a phone while driving less time to deepen its roots, or take root in new drivers, while giving the police the potential to properly educate the masses about this new law and how to follow it.
Ian Kerr, Urbandale
Register makes plain the problems with towing rules
I read your coverage on impounded vehicles and the resultant sales of those vehicles. I wanted to compliment how well this article was written and how much information it conveyed.
Secondarily, I wanted to state: 1) It appears the Legislature has some work to do in improving the current laws. 2) The city and county have some work to do in improving their staff’s understanding of the law. 3) More oversight and enforcement needs to be done to assure the necessary communication of their rights is provided to those vehicle owners.
Jim Greeley, Newton
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Women gained equality thanks to DEI
I am puzzled why Republicans are so against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion or DEI. I am old enough to remember the absence of women in political positions like governor, attorney general and even senators and representatives, corporate-level positions like CEOs, or countless other higher-level positions. But thanks to DEI-type initiatives over the years that has all changed. Women now occupy positions that were previously not available to them. Seems to me that that has been a very good thing and that our country is better off because of DEI.
So now our governor and attorney general as well as our Republican legislators are opposed to any mention of DEI. So, if it was a good thing that brought women into these positions and acceptance in our lives, why isn’t it a good thing to bring other minority groups into the same level of acceptance?
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It seems to me that the Republican political ideology called MAGA meaning Make America Great Again would be more appropriately defined as Making America God-Awful.
Duane Mortensen, Ankeny
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Women gained equality thanks to DEI | Letters