One of the chores for Iowa State coach Dan McCarney is to find a replacement for record breaking quarterback Seneca Wallace. Chris Love, Austin Flynn and Wayne Terry are the top candidates McCarney says they’d ideally like to have a clear number one coming out of spring, but he says if that’s not the case, they’ll know in the fall.McCarney says the Cyclones want to get back to running the ball effectively and that should help whoever wins the job. McCarney says the good news is quarterback is one of the few positions that lack experience,as the offensive line, receivers and running backs all have experience.
Iowa offensive line is under scrutiny this spring
March 31, 2003 By
Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz says the offensive line will be one of the most closely watched areas this spring. All-American tackle Robert Gallery is the only returning starter from a unit that many considered the best in the country last season. He says there are seven to nine guys who could end up lining up next to Gallery, and that’ll be determined through practice. Ferentz says the new faces will get severely tested this spring by a veteran defensive front, the reverse of what they went through last year when the defense was young. Ferentz says while there are some holes to fill it is not like they are starting over on the line.He says there are some things that won’t be as sharp, but he says compared to three or four years ago, they have guys who have Big Ten bodies and attitude, but just lack Big Ten experience. Ferentz says the newcomers have been in the program a few years and have waited for their chance.
DNR begins stocking trout streams
March 31, 2003 By
Streams in northeast Iowa will soon be teaming with new life. The D-N-R will begin stocking 45 of Iowa’s 105 trout streams this week with some 350 to 400-thousand fish. Dave Marolf manages the trout hatchery in Manchester, one of three hatcheries in the state. He says the new fish are catchable size — around 10 to 12 inches long — weighing around a half pound. Marolf some the streams in the nine-county area are stocked from three times a week, to once a month, depending on the stream and the amount of fishing done there. He says a small percentage of the fish stay in the streams for years, while many of them get caught quickly, and that’s why they stock some streams many times per week. Marolf says it takes one year to get the fish ready to stock the streams.He says if you visit a hatchery today you’d see fingerling trout — varying from a couple inches to three to four inches — that’ll be stocked next year, and you’ll see catchable size fish that’re being stocked this year. There are some streams in Iowa where the trout reproduce naturally, but Marolf says most areas need a little help. He says trout need clear streams with gravel beds to reproduce, and many areas where they reproduce have been silted in by runoff. Marolf says there is enough habitat however for the fish to live in the streams after they grow to the proper size. To find the stocking schedule, surf to: iowadnr.com.
Legislator questions role of Iowa Finance Authority
March 31, 2003 By
A private corporation created with a 25-million dollar interest-free loan has come under fire from a Democrat state lawmaker who says it’s making too many risky investments. Representative Mark Kuhn, a farmer from Charles City, today will deliver documents to the Iowa Attorney General and the Iowa State Auditor calling for an investigation of the Iowa Agricultural Finance Corporation. He says he feels they haven’t kept up with the intent of the law.Kuhn cites the corporation’s six-million dollar investment in Prodi-Gene Incorporated, a Texas-based biotech firm that has been fined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for mishandling its pharmaceutical corn crops last year. He wants and investigation, as he says we need producer owned, value-added opportunities, and that’s where Prodi-Gene has failed.It’s not the first time that Iowa Ag Finance has come under fire. Lawmakers in late 1999 and early 2000 criticized the corporation for failing to fulfill its mission because it had not yet lent any money to farmers.
Daughter of former Iraqi Ambassador says U-S method not proper
March 31, 2003 By
A young woman who’s living in Des Moines is the daughter of a diplomat who has served in Baghdad. The daughter of Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Iraq is studying at Drake University in Des Moines, and watching the war closely. Amiyna (uh-MEEN’-uh) Farouque says it’s not “just” to try to get rid of one person like Saddam Hussein by bombing other people. Farouque says she’s not getting any heat from her campus colleagues for her anti-war views. Farouque says she’s very surprised, because she had the impression all Americans would be very pro-war. Farouque says she can understand why some people support the war. Farouque says Saddam needs to go, but the U.S. is using the wrong means, and is showing a double standard. Farouque says it’s been proven that North Korea has nuclear weapons, and she doesn’t know why the U.S. isn’t going to war with North Korea rather than Iraq. Farouque says she’s not saying she’s against America. She says Americans have been very good to her. Farouque says she just opposes U.S. foreign policy. Farouque’s father left Baghdad two days before the war started. He’s now staying in Jordan. Farouque is a freshman studying international relations and biochemistry at Drake.
Northwestern holds model Arab League
March 31, 2003 By
The war with Iraq is a hot topic, on the street, in the news, and on college campuses. Some Iowa college students are preparing to discuss the war and its implications — from the perspective of Arabs — during the upcoming annual Great Plains Model Arab League. Dr. Raymond Weiss is coordinator of the event, held every year at Northwestern College in Orange City. Weiss says like the Model United Nations, this event consists of teams who’ve chosen a country and will act as if they come from that part of the world and speak for that country in the event, whether they happen in real life to agree with its views or not. This year, he says “ought to be very interesting” because they must do their best to model the “real” Arab League, which is in strong disagreement. Weiss once lived in Iraq and he created the Iowa chapter of the Model Arab League a dozen years ago. Dr. Hubert Krygsman of Dordt College will open this year’s Model Arab League with a keynote address about what peace would look like in the Middle East region. Krygsman says there are many difficult questions that must be resolved, about what the Middle East will look like, whether it can create a civil society and do so on its own terms. The event opens Thursday and wraps up with a final plenary session Saturday.
State Patrol begins special program to find drunk drivers
March 31, 2003 By
A group of Iowa State troopers is going on the overnight shift for the next three months, starting Tuesday, not as punishment but as part of a special anti-drunk program. Patrol spokesman Lieutenant Robert Hansen says the 18 troopers will be working roughly 6 P.M. to 3 A.M. through June. Hansen says they will concentrate their patrols in areas that statistics show are deadly in terms of alcohol-related accidents and arrests. He says the goal will be to reduce fatalities and serious-injury accidents as a result of drunk driving. Hansen says it’s shocking to see the reports comparing how few young drivers are on the road, compared to how much trouble they cause. Drivers aged 16-to-24 make up only 16-percent of the registered drivers in Iowa but Hansen says they’re involved in more than 40-percent of the alcohol-related crashes. This is the third time Iowa troopers have focused on a special three-month enforcement action on drunk drivers. During the previous two efforts, alcohol-related deaths dropped by almost 50-percent and drunk or drugged arrests rose by more than 250-percent.
