The Iowa Hawkeyes marked a number of firsts on the first day of the New Year with a 37-17 win over Florida in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida. The win moved the Hawkeyes to 10-3 for this season — the first time they’ve posted back-to-back 10-win seasons in the history of the school. It was also their first January bowl game win since the Rose Bowl Victory in 1959. The Hawkeyes gave up an early touchdown in the first half, but then held the Gators to a field and didn’t give up another touchdown until the game was decided. Senior defensive lineman Jared Claus talked about their game plan, saying they kept five guys in the box and stayed in their gaps and gave them nowhere to run.Claus says the entire defense shut down Gator freshman quarterback. He says it looked like Chris Leak dropped back and got frustrated when he couldn’t hit his first read. He credits the linebackers and secondary with great coverage. For the senior, it was a great way to end the season after last year’s disappointment in the Orange Bowl. He says “to win it big like this,there’s no better feeling in the world.”Runningback Fred Russell had 150 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Nate Chandler threw for one touchdown and ran for another. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz re-tooled the preparation process after losing in the Orange Bowl last year and says that paid off with great preparation. He says the players and the staff did a great job of getting ready and they finished the way they wanted to.
Grinnell takes unusual trip to Maine
A lot of college basketball teams head south for warmer weather to play in tournaments this time of year but the Grinnell college men and women traveled the other direction. The Pioneers travel to Maine to open the Colby College invitational Friday night. There is a reason for the trip. Grinnell men’s coach Dave Arsenault graduated from Colby in 1976. He says the same coach is still there and he had promised him he would come and play them. Arsenault says they could’ve gone somewhere else, but this teaches his team a little about loyalty. Arsenault says the pairings have been pre-set to assure a Grinnell-Colby matchup.Grinnell is unbeaten to this point and averages about 133-points per game.
Mennonites cooking up turkey for needy
The first full week in January will be a giant cook-off in Iowa, but the products of the work will be sent away. John Yoder chairs the Iowa phase of the annual Mennonite Central Committee meat-canning project, to put up food for the needy. They will cook and can 22-thousand pounds of turkey in three days, and the MCC will distribute it around the world where food is needed. MCC, a religious organization with a big charitable mission, sends a portable canning kitchen around the country every year, driven by volunteers with the Mennonite Central Committee. An implement business donates facilities, MCC brings in the canner with qualified operators, and the local organizers provide turkey, buying it through a local Hy-Vee grocery store from West Liberty Turkey Processing Co-op. The canner will be in town and the volunteers will be cooking up a storm from January 8th through the tenth. Volunteers will grind the meat and put it in cans, and after its steam-cooked and washed, it’ll be labeled and put in boxes. Yoder says during the three-day process, the site will be a federally-certified USDA meat-canning facility, with inspectors on site. The food will be taken by volunteers and donated trucks to MCC warehouses around the country, and then sent to needy communities around the world, like Iraq. He says last year some went to Iraq, Bosnia, Haiti, Liberia, Moldova, Russia and Serbia, and in previous years a lot was sent to North Korea, too. While the traveling canner is often used by congregations in other states to can beef, Yoder says they’ve always used turkey in Iowa, because it’s low in cost and because many of the participants are turkey farmers working with the West Liberty Turkey Co-op. Yoder says local churches buy and can food for the needy, and community volunteers like the opportunity to work on the project every year. He says another reason they choose to can turkey is because it’s “culturally acceptable” all over, whereas some societies or religions ban members from eating beef or pork. The local workers buy deboned turkey thighs so they have literally no waste when it’s been cooked and canned. Yoder says more than 30 congregations of Mennonites involved, and nine Amish districts, most in eastern Iowa. For more on the annual project surf to www.mcc.org
Labor organizations seek to make impact with Democrat candidates
Twenty-five Iowa labor and farm organizations are using the 10th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement — NAFTA — to call for fairer trade pacts. Bill Holland, a spokesman for the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign, says they hope to catch the attention of the democratic presidential candidates who are criss-crossing the state. Holland says Iowa has lost 30-thousand jobs due to NAFTA and in Mexico, manufacturing wages have declined in a “race to the bottom” that means Mexican consumers are less likely to buy expensive American-made goods. Holland says the Bush Administration wants to expand NAFTA into what’s called the Free Trade Area of the Americas. He says any trade agreement should raise environmental and labor standards rather than lower them. Holland says members of the Iowa Free Trade Campaign are button-holing the presidential candidates on the issue.All five of the candidates who are actively campaigning in Iowa say they would impose new labor and environmental standards in future trade agreements. Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt points out he is the only candidate who voted against NAFTA ten years ago and he promises to negotiate an international minimum wage. Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich promises to repeal NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. And former Vermont Governor Howard Dean says he supported NAFTA 10 years ago, but has since changed his mind after visiting with Iowans who worry about their job security and have lost their faith in American institutions, like their employer and their government. North Carolina Senator John Edwards says his hometown has been badly hurt by NAFTA as a mill was shut down and the jobs moved out of the country. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is the son of a U.S. diplomat and Kerry says he’d negotiate better trade agreements that raise environmental standards around the globe.
Researchers make progress in studying baby development
University of Iowa researchers say they’re making great strides in learning about the brains of infants. Dr. Lisa Oakes, a U-of-I psychology professor, says her team’s study finds an infant’s visual short-term memory — a key element of brain development — expands significantly in the second half of the first year of life, reaching adult capacity by 12 months.Dr. Oakes says visual short-term memory is crucial for infants trying to learn about the world around them. Before they can start comparing objects to learn what makes them similar and different, infants must be able to remember an object they have seen before but are not currently seeing. Dr. Oakes says four and six-month-olds have some short-term memory, but there are much greater changes between six months and one year. She explains why these findings are relevant.While it’s something of a challenge, Oakes says they devised a way to test the short-term visual memory of infants by using a series of colored squares projected on two computer screens in front of the child. Oakes says the squares would blink on and off and they would watch how long the babies watched the squares. The study is being published in the journal “Child Development.” It’s apparently the first to demonstrate conclusively infants have visual short-term memory and that its capacity is similar to that of an adult by the time babies reach their first birthdays.
