The state’s historic aviation museum in Greenfield hosts a dinner tonight and will add new names to its Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame. Creston native Walt Cunningham, Iowa’s first astronaut, will be among them. Cunningham will be signing copies of a book he’s written. New inductees also include Louis Schalk who test-piloted the S-R 71 Blackbird spyplane, and the Wright Brothers, who spent a few formative years when they were just boys growing up in Cedar Falls.
Backbone beach still closed due to bacteria
May 31, 2003 By
A couple of state beaches still have problems with high levels of bacteria. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says a swimming advisory remains in place at the Lake Geode beach in Henry County — while the beach at Backbone State Park in Delaware County is still closed. The Lake Geode beach had a high reading and the D-N-R says it will stay high for at least two weeks. The D-N-R will conduct additional testing in the Lake Geode watershed next week to see it potential bacteria sources can be identified. The beach at Backbone remains closed while the D-N-R continues to investigate the wastewater treatment plant at Strawberry Point for alleged violations of its discharge permit, and whether those discharges have impacted the water. Bacteria levels at Iowa’s 31 other state park beaches tested within acceptable levels.
Iowa City area features top fossil digging
May 31, 2003 By
If you “dig” fossil-hunting, thousands of beautiful examples can be found at the Devonian Fossil Gorge, north of Iowa City. The acre-and-a-half area was scoured during the floods of ’93, unveiling a rich collection of tiny creatures that lived in Iowa more than 300-million years ago. John Castle is general manager of Coralville Lake, which includes the Gorge. While the fossils in the gorge are common in Iowa, it’s -not- common to find so many of them in a large flat area, all from the same age. Castle says there are several types of creatures that can be found in the area. Trilobites resemble large pill bugs. Crinoids look like a plant with a stem and are kind of fern-like on top, but they’re animals. Also, brachiopods are shell creatures. There’s also lots of fossilized coral. Castle says, sorry, you won’t find any tyrannosaurus bones in Coralville. The Devonian period is about 365-million years ago, while the dinosaurs were around between 160 to 180-million years ago. The gorge is north of Iowa City on Dubuque Street, three miles from the Interstate 80 crossing. For details, go to “www.coralvillelake.org”. While it’s okay to unearth, pick up, look at and photograph the fossils, taking them away is punishable by a fine of up to 500-dollars.
May ends up a little wetter than normal
May 31, 2003 By
Early storms in May helped the state soak up the first above-average rainfall total for the first time in eight months. State climatologist Harry Hillaker says we didn’t go above normal by much. He says the first part of the month was extremely wet, but then it became extremely dry, ending up at four-point-six inches of rainfall, about a half-an-inch above normal. While swelled rivers and basements with water were common at the start of the month, Hillaker says everything’s had time to dry out. He says about all but a half inch of the total rain came in the first half of the month. The month was also colder than normal.He says temperatures average about two-and-a-half degrees below normal. Hillaker says the year thus far has been average in rainfall. He says the year started out unusually dry, but it evened out to be within an inch of normal. Hillaker says things so far have been warmer than normal. He says we had a mild January and the other months have been very near to normal.
Jobless rate moves up
May 31, 2003 By
Iowa’s jobless rate was up just a tick this month, a tenth of a percentage point. Ann Wagner is labor-market analyst at the state Workforce development office. Says that’s a tenth of a percent higher than the March rate of four-percent, same as it was one year ago. That 4.1% translates into 68,100 people jobless in the state, up from 65,800 the previous month and 66,000 a year ago. Wagner says the numbers we get aren’t raw data…most often the labor department distributes “seasonally adjusted” jobless figures. When they don’t, the numbers are affected by construction, winter layoffs, school closings, the Christmas retail surge, and those all make figures fluctuate in a recurring pattern. If you remove the seasonal swings, Wagner says you get a clearer idea of the economy is doing.
Union workers in Quad Cities protest at new store
May 31, 2003 By
Construction workers will rally in the Quad Cities today (Saturday) to protest plans by builders of a big new Wal-Mart store to hire non-union labor. Rory Washburn is executive director of the Tri-City Building Trades Council and says it’s just one of many big national chains that tend to bring along their own construction crews.It’s not about wanting exclusively union contractors or workers, but he says all the work should be done by local workers, union or not. Washburn says outside contractors not only don’t pay union wages, they don’t offer benefits like healthcare, and often bring in workers from other states who are paid even less than the local going rates for non-union labor. The unions had a “project agreement” while building a previous Wal-Mart, a verbal agreement that the union workers would get the jobs on that and the next store the chain built here, but he says now the company’s bringing in crews from Southern Illinois, Kentucky and Alabama, and he charges he thinks they even include illegal immigrant workers. There is no state law or city rule on the books requiring developers to hire local workers, or union labor, though Washburn says they’ve talked with local leaders about it. Washburn says there should be some “responsible contracting ordinance” in place that would require them to at least pay taxes and provide benefits to the workers. That lack of benefits like health coverage is one of the biggest concerns for construction workers, according to Washburn. He says a young man was hurt recently when he fell at that construction site, and the construction company he worked for gave no health benefits at all…a contractor from Kentucky. Members of the Tri City Building Trades Council, The Quad City Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO and other organizations in the Quad Cities will hold a rally at the new Wal-Mart store being built on West Kimberly Road in Davenport from nine till eleven this morning.
Governor decides to veto or sign bills
May 31, 2003 By
Governor Tom Vilsack had 30 days to sign or veto bills that passed the Iowa Legislature’s regular session, which ended April 30th. Vilsack signed the two budget bills that were left for his review, but used his item veto authority to nix some language in the bills — like the wording that set plans in motion to sell the state-owned Iowa Communications Network. Some legislators had worried Vilsack would veto entire budget bills as leverage to force lawmakers to complete work in their special session on that part of the budget as well as the so-called “Iowa Values” economic development fund. In other action yesterday, Vilsack vetoed the bill which would have made Iowa clergy “mandatory reporters” of child sex abuse — a move prompted by scandals in the Catholic Church. Vilsack objected to another part of the bill which lowered the age of consent, a move he said would make children who have sex with other children into criminals and discourage them from seeking counseling. Vilsack also vetoed the bill that would have made it easier for counties and cities to merge. Vilsack says the bill didn’t give voters enough of a voice in making decisions about how municipal elections would be run for newly-merged governments.
