The Iowa Hawkeyes return to Big Ten action at home against Purdue. The Boilermakers are 13-4 overall, 5-1 in the Big Ten and Iowa coach Steve Alford says this team has the personality of coach Gene Keady, which means they’re very physical and play tough defense. With Jared Reiner sidelined with a knee injury the play of junior forward Glen Worley becomes even more important.Alford says Josh Kimm and Kurt Spurgeon will join the rotation, and he says they should be ready and will have to make the most of their opportunity.
Drake tries to weather a tough stretch
January 31, 2003 By
The Drake Bulldogs will bid for an upset when they host 16th ranked Creighton in Missouri Valley action. After opening the season with high hopes, the Bulldogs have struggled to a 2-6 Valley record and stand 7-12 overall.Drake coach Kurt Kanaskie says they’re disappointed, but looking back he says they’ve lost some games to teams that were better than them. Kanaskie says their problems have not been due to a lack of effort, as he says he believes this is the greatest bunch of guys in college basketball when it comes to working hard. Creighton is 18-2 overall and the Blue Jays are being compared to the Larry Bird Indiana State teams of the late 70′s and the Bradley teams of the mid-80′s. Creighton coach Dana Altman says they have a difficult schedule remaining and the next five or six weeks will tell how good the team is. The Blue Jays went through a spell where they did not play well but blasted Indiana State on Wednesday night. Altman says experience will help carry them through the rough spots, as this isn’t the first time the seniors and juniors have been through this.
Iowa Conference men’s race still wide open
January 31, 2003 By
The Iowa Conference men’s basketball race heads into the second half with half of the teams still in the title hunt. Buena Vista leads the way with a 7-2 record. Simpson, Loras, Cornell and Wartburg are all a game back in the loss column.Wartburg coach Dick Peth says with a strong finish any of the five teams could win it, and he says they felt there would be several teams in the race at the start of the season. He says teams will have to win at home and only have one or two losses on the road in the final games.Wartburg visits Simpson tonight. Buena Vista coach Brian Van Haaften expects a close race to the finish. He says it comes down to the team that ends up being the most consistent.B-V visits Central and Simpson this weekend.
Iowa man hangs himself in Missouri jail
January 31, 2003 By
An Iowa man has hanged himself while being held in a northeast Missouri jail. The inmate’s identified as 33-year-old Ronald Allen Miller of Sioux City, Iowa. Authorities say Miller was found dead in his cell Wednesday night. He’d been an inmate in the Skyler County jail since late November when he was taken into custody after an all-night manhunt north of Glenwood. Miller was wanted in Appanoose County and in Woodbury County on three felony charges.
Governor proposes budget with a one-point-eight-percent increase
January 31, 2003 By
Governor Tom Vilsack proposes a more than four-and-a-half billion dollar spending plan for state government that includes tiny increases for education and environmental programs. Vilsack’s budget sketch calls for a one-point-eight percent overall spending increase. Vilsack calls it the “Goldilocks Budget” as some will say it’s too much spending, other will say too little, while he calls it “just the right amount.” Vilsack says he decided to try to maintain the status quo as best he could, because if the state’s to progress, it can’t afford to take a step back. Vilsack proposes some tax changes, like starting to collect sales taxes on more Internet sales, but there are no proposed tax increases in the plan. He says the natural inclination is to tax people more, but Vilsack says 70 percent of the workforce can’t afford any more tax.Vilsack also suggests speeding up the process of putting unclaimed property to the state so it can be cashed in, and closing a loophole which lets businesses pay less in Iowa corporate taxes. The Governor says government is a pretty good bargain in Iowa. Vilsack says the overall cost of state government — the taxes and fees Iowans pay — is taking a lower percentage of Iowans’ income than at any point in the past 20 years.
Eagle Grove remembers terrible event 30 years ago
January 31, 2003 By
This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of a disastrous event that struck a small north-central Iowa town, making headlines around the world. It was Friday night, February 2nd of 1973, when an explosion leveled part of downtown Eagle Grove, killing 14 people. Eagle Grove Fire Chief Gary Lalor (law’-lur) remembers the incident well. Chief Lalor was a young firefighter in the Wright County town when a suspected gas build-up exploded at the Coast to Coast store. It flattened the Chatterbox Cafe next door and the Locke’s Jewelry store. He was home at the time the call came in.He says it took a very long time just to get the fires out and to recover the remains of the victims. He says they were on the scene for about three days and had to call in a crane to pull out the material from the buildings as it looked like a bomb went off in them. Lalor says a ceremony was held five years ago in Eagle Grove at the site of the explosion, at which a plaque was dedicated as a memorial that includes the date and the names of the people killed.No special ceremonies or memorials are planned for this weekend. The exact cause of the blast was never determined.
U-of-I President won’t comment on Pierce report
January 31, 2003 By
The incoming University of Iowa president won’t comment on a campus committee’s report on the school’s handling of a sexual assault case involving basketball player Pierre Pierce. Pierce was charged with sexual abuse for an incident involving a woman who’s also an athlete at the school. He pleaded guilty to a reduce charge of assault causing injury, will sit out from competition a year and is retaining his scholarship. Dr. David Skorton was asked this morning if he draws the same conclusions as those on the review panel did. Skorton says he won’t be able to comment until acting University of Iowa president Willard Boyd formally receives the report and makes recommendations to Skorton.The review panel concluded Pierce’s status as an athlete appears to have dominated the concern of individuals involved, to the detriment of the university. Skorton would only call the case “an unfortunate set of circumstances.”Skorton says the system, though, appears to be working and he’d like to let the process continue to its conclusion. As for the big picture, Skorton says he’s “a Hawkeye fan” and believes “athletics have an important place in the university.”Skorton, though, says he will emphasize that student athletes are students first.
