Drake coach Tom Davis says his team will be at full strength for the second semester. The school’s two-point-oh rule has sidelined several players the past few years but Davis says all the players came through the first semester in good shape. He says he was impressed because it was an outstanding semester. Davis says he sees a common thread from the academics to the play on the field. Drake is 5-5 after an impressive win at Wichita State and Davis says the Bulldogs need to learn how to handle success. He says they’re young and still celebrating the win, and he says they need to learn they celebrating ends with the next game. Davis says you have to let the players celebrate a little or it can be a long season.
ISU looks to stop loses with home court advantage
January 6, 2004 By
After two straight road losses the Iowa State Cyclones will hope for some “Hilton Magic” tomorrow night when they open the Big-12 race against Missouri. Iowa State is 7-2 after road losses against Virginia and San Diego State but the Cyclones have dominated the Tigers in Ames. Iowa State has won seven of the last eight matchups in Hilton, including the last four.Missouri coach Quinn Snyder says his memories in Ames are nightmares. Snyder says Wayne Morgan has done a great job in his first season as head coach. He says they’re doing a lot of things to build on what they did last year, and has added in his own style.Missouri closed out an inconsistent pre-conference slate with a 20-point win over Iowa on Saturday but the Tigers have been ranked as high as third. That happened in mid-December.
Temperature drops, alcohol consumption goes up
January 6, 2004 By
While the experts always warn you not to drink alcohol if you’re going to be outdoors in cold weather — Iowans apparently think a drink is a good way to pass the time indoors during winter weather. Lynn Walding, the director of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, says the new gust of cold weather may extend the peak holiday liquor sales period. He says beer sales are generally driven by warm weather, and he says liquor sales are conversely driven by cold weather. Walding says January is usually a slow down period for liquor sales, but he says it’ll be interesting to see how the first real snowfall of the year spurs on liquor sales. He says traditionally when people are home, they tend to drink liquor. He says historically a snowstorm means more sales. Walding says there’s one event in January that sees a surge in beer drinking. He says the Superbowl is definitely a “beer event” as he says beer companies do a lot of advertising and a lot of beer is consumed during gatherings to watch the football game. Walding says flavored liquor drinks have helped keep beer sales “flat” in recent years. He says liquor companies have borrowed a page from beer brewers in pushing their products.He says you’re seeing a lot more advertising, while they can’t be on the major networks, Walding says they’re using the cable networks to advertise their flavored products. Walding says one of the biggest sellers is a chocolate flavored vodka. Walding says the 21 to 27 year-olds are the target audience for the flavored liquor drinks — those who otherwise would drink beer. Walding says if sales do stay up a little due to the snow, it would continue what has already been a seven-percent increase in sales so far this fiscal year.
Council Bluffs Library beefs up security
January 6, 2004 By
New security measures are in place, not at an airport or sensitive government office, but a public library in Iowa. Diane Herzog is interim director at the Council Bluffs library and says vandalism’s been a big problem. She says the library’s in a new building, a beautiful facility, and the vandalism’s been very destructive including carving, burning and writing on walls. New surveillance cameras are part of a 43-thousand-dollar security upgrade at the library. There’s a system of cameras already but they’re adding a dozen more to get better views of inside the library and outside in the parking lot and book drop. Herzog says libraries today use high-tech features that combine electronic checkout with updated security. There’s a marker in the book that’ll ring an alarm if it’s stolen, like a store’s shoplifting system, and the cameras show the parking lot as well as “nooks and crannies” inside. Librarians think the vandals are schoolkids, mostly junior-high students, who’ve found the library a popular hangout but damage furnishings and steal property from the library and its other patrons. She says the public likes it that there’s surveillance in and outside the library, for their safety and the security of their property. Herzog says the city prosecuted four suspects a couple months ago, 13- and 14-year-old kids who confessed to acts of vandalism in the library. Herzog says the best security is people — library patrons and neighbors who watch for misbehavior in the outside the public library. The cost of the new security measures won’t be borne by taxpayers — it’s all paid by the Council Bluffs Library Foundation.
Scientists predict dramatic climate change
January 6, 2004 By
A team of scientists said today in Des Moines that they foresee dramatic climate change in the next century. Susanne Moser works for the National Center on Atmospheric Research, and foresees heat waves and heavy rain, that’re not good for people OR crops. She predicts that by the year 2100, Iowa’s maximum daily temperature could rise by five to 14 degrees in winter, and as much as nine to 22 degrees hotter in summertime. Moser predicts climate change in Iowa could include heavier rain in winter and spring, but less in summer. That suggests to her that rivers would flood more frequently and waterlog the fields during planting time, but there wouldn’t be enough rain to grow the crop. To prevent such climate changes, the Union of Concerned Scientists is pushing for more investments in renewable energy. The group’s Steve Clemmer says Iowa is a great place to do that. While Iowa’s a leading producer of ethanol and windpower, he says it’s still barely tapped the amount of renewable energy it could produce, saying windpower could provide 22-times as much electricity as the state currently uses, but it now produces only 3-percent. Clemmer says investing in renewable energy would offer economic benefits for the state as it becomes energy independent and begins to export power to neighboring states. Clean-energy investments in Iowa could not only cut by more than half the emissions from coal-fired power plants, he says by the year 2020 it could create 12,500 new jobs and generate nearly a Billion dollars in new economic activity in the state. Clemmer says Iowa can’t prevent global climate change on its own, but can set a good example for other states.
Bradley endorses Dean
January 6, 2004 By
Former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley — a candidate for president in 2000 — says Howard Dean’s supporters are “breathing fresh air into the lungs of our democracy.” Bradley says Dean has tapped into the same kind of idealism that Bradley says he saw in the eyes of Americans in 2000. According to Bradley, Dean has nurtured that idealism into a “powerful force.” Bradley flew with Dean to Iowa today to offer his formal endorsement of Dean’s bid for the White House. Bradley was a U.S. Senator for 18 years after a career as a pro basketball player. Bradley called the other democrats who’re running “capable” but he called Dean’s campaign “one of the best things to happen to American democracy in decades.”Bradley says pundits contend Dean could never beat the entrenched power of a president who is leading the country in war. But Bradley says he believes Dean can win by “marshalling a positive patriotism focused on the good that we can do in the world and not just a negative patriotism obsessed with the fear of what others in the world would do to us.”Dean and five of the other democratic presidential candidates participated in a National Public Radio debate this afternoon, much of it focused on foreign policy. The rivals quibbled over tax cuts. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman criticized Dean for saying he’d repeal all of the Bush tax cuts. Kerry and Lieberman say they would keep the middle income tax cuts in place, and only repeal the tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans. Dean says candidates can’t promise everything and not pay for it. Dean says balancing the federal budget would be one of his priorities, as he says budget deficits are a drag on the economy.
Iowa ready to start Big Ten race
January 6, 2004 By
The Iowa Hawkeyes open the Big Ten race at home on Wednesday against Purdue in what coach Steve Alford feels could be the most balanced race in his five years at the helm. Part of that is because there does not appear to be a dominant team in the league. The fewest losses of any conference team right now is two and the highest rated team in the R-P-I is Wisconsin at number-11. He says it’s the toughest non-conference schedule that the league has played, and some of the teams are better now then people thought when they were scheduled. The Big Ten is ranked as the fourth best league, but Alford does not feel a lower rating will hurt post-season opportunities for conference teams. He says every year there’s always something said about the Big Ten, but he says they always get a minimum of five teams in the NCAA tourney and some years seven. Big Ten teams are just 4-14 against rated foes, and the record against team from the other major conferences is just 18-29. Purdue coach Gene Keady says that record may reflect just who Big Ten schools recruit. He says they’re trying to get everybody to be as academically tough as the Big Ten and that would make it a level playing field. Keady says they like it because academics are first. Keady feels from an academic standpoint the recruiting pool is smaller for the Big Ten. He says when you watch the football bowl games, there are a lot of leagues with good players that he says he’s not sure could get into the Big Ten. Keady says he’s not griping, he’s just saying it’s not necessarily a level playing field.
