With the heavy rain overnight and this morning, many areas of the state may actually come out having a normal month for rainfall, according to state climatologist Harry Hillaker.April will likely end up with about three-and-one-quarter inches of rain for a statewide average, which is very close to normal. Hillaker says it’d be the first “normal” month Iowa’s had for precipitation since October. Some western parts of the state got too much of a good thing. Hillaker says the Little Sioux area of Harrison County got more than four inches of rain overnight. That’s a lot of rain and Hillaker says the concern is soil erosion as there’s no crop canopy to protect the ground now. Parts of central Iowa got hail overnight and this morning, with some stones measuring up to one-inch in diameter.
New law cuts red tape for Physician Assistants
A new state law eliminates some of the paperwork for Iowans who want to enter one medical specialty. Iowa’s rural areas, in particular, are growing more dependent on physician’s assistants for medical care. Governor Vilsack has signed into law a new licensing process for P-As. Under the old law, physician’s assistants had to get credentials from two state boards before they could practice. The new law allows them to simply apply to the newly-independent Physician’s Assistant Licensing Board. P-As generally take two years of medical training and they are able to issue prescriptions under certain conditions.
Leach says negoitiation is perferred over confrontation in North Korea
Iowa Congressman Jim Leach says the United States should adopt a policy of negotiation rather than confrontation with North Korea in attempting to find a solution to that country’s push to become a nuclear power. Leach says there’s no part of the world that understands the rest of the world less well than North Korea, and there’s no country in the world that the country understands less well than we do North Korea. Leach, a republican, says North Korea is one of the last Stalinist regimes and practices isolation. He says their leadership doesn’t watch CNN every day like the Iraqis did and he says they have no desire to give up their nuclear weapons for a stronger economy. While U.S. troops haven’t found many weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he says we’ll keep searching.He says there doesn’t seem to be as many weapons as suspected, but he says they have come across some. Leach says his bigger concern is the potential for biological weapons. He says biological weapons are substantially more dangerous than chemical weapons and possibly more dangerous than nuclear ones.
House passes prison reform bill
A sentencing reform bill cleared the Iowa House yesterday, and it’s on its way to the Governor. The main change would allow prisoners who’ve served at least 70 percent of their sentence to be released on probation. That alters the state’s “truth in sentencing” law which requires inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their prison term. Representative Kevin McCarthy, a Democrat from Des Moines and former prosecutor, didn’t like it. McCarthy says it was supposed to be a sentencing reform bill, but it helps the six-and-a-half percent of prison inmates who are “rapists, murderers and kidnappers.” But most House members, like Representative Kurt Swaim, a Democrat from Bloomfield, voted for the bill. Swaim says something’s better than nothing. The bill will likely increase the state’s prison population by raising the penalty for selling or possessing powder cocaine so it’s the same as the penalty for crack.
House passes trax compromise bill for racetracks
The House passed a bill that promises to gradually lower state taxes on the state’s race track casinos if the tracks dump their lawsuit against the state which could potentially cost Iowa taxpayers 150-million dollars. Republican Representative Scott Raecker of Urbandale says he can think of “one-hundred-50-million reasons” to vote for the deal. Raecker called it a “creative compromise.” Representative Steve Lukan, a Republican from New Vienna, says cutting the tracks’ state tax bill is a good move because he says the tracks’ profits are better spent locally than in Des Moines. Lukan says it’ll keep more money in the hands of local charitable organizations than in Des Moines in the hands of “evil committee chair people.” Representative Joseph Hutter, a Republican from Bettendorf, says it was important to end the gambling tax stand-off. Hutter says it puts the minds of casino workers at ease, and lets legislators leave town knowing the issue’s been taken care of. Only three members of the House opposed the measure. Representative Ed Fallon, a democrat from Des Moines, says the deal bugs him because the state stands a good chance of winning the case. Fallon says the gambling industry finally agreed to a compromise because it believes it’ll lose the case, and he calls the bill a mistake. Senate Republicans don’t like that House action on gambling taxes either, and say they’ll either kill the bill or alter it significantly. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller argued the state’s position before the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday.
Tempers flare in tax policy debate
Tempers flared yesterday as legislators wrangle over tax policy and economic development initiatives that could become casualties as lawmakers work toward adjourning the 2003 Legislative session this week. Republican leaders in the Senate have insisted since January that the Legislature must enact income tax reform, yet the Senate has failed to pass a bill. House Speaker Christopher Rants, the top Republican in the House, yesterday proposed an income tax plan of his own and it passed a House Committee late last night. Rants says it’s an attempt to meet the Senate part-way.Rants says it’s a “good faith effort” to try to get the issue resolved. But the move angered Senate Republican Leaders and they were harshly critical of the House income tax plan. Senate President Mary Kramer, a republican from Clive, used the word “testy” to describe lawmakers’ attitudes. Kramer says it’s difficult to see how the House income tax plan would be a “growth strategy” for the state since it wouldn’t go into effect immediately. Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows says a delay is unacceptable. He says you have to change the climate in Iowa if you want different results.Meanwhile, Governor Tom Vilsack spent much of his day meeting privately with legislators to try to build agreement on his number one priority: creation of a new state economic development fund. And Vilsack now says he’s willing to accept the idea of raising the cigarette tax to finance the project rather than having the state borrow the money. Vilsack says he’s not quitting until the job is done.
Former Cyclone All-American says Eustachy deserves second chance
Former Cyclone All-American Gary Thompson serves as a television analyst for Cyclone games and believes Eustachy should be given a second chance. He says if Eustachy has the problem, admits to the problem and agrees to get help, he should be given a second chance to give back to the program. Thompson feels Eustachy’s drinking problem did not affect his coaching. He says there’s never been a time he’s known that it impacted his coaching or work.
