Group wants everyone to stand up and be counted in census

A 22-member panel has gathered in Des Moines today to plot a strategy to ensure Iowans are counted in the next census. The group has representatives of businesses, organized labor, the elderly, cities and counties, as well as state government agencies. Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson is leading the “Iowa Census 2000” committee.Each year, Iowa will lose three-hundred dollars in federal funds for each person who is NOT counted.Pederson and the group are devising ways to make sure Iowa’s newest residents who do not speak and read English fill out the census form.Officials estimate about 12-thousand Iowans were missed in the 1990 Census.About one-third of Iowa cities have challenged their population tally this decade, with about half of those getting the Census Bureau to change their estimate.