The Drake Bulldogs return to Missouri Valley Conference action at home tonight against Bradley. The Bulldogs are 5-5 after Saturday’s upset win at Wichita State and hope to build on the momentum. Drake coach Tom Davis says they’ve just won one game and that’s all it means, but he says that’s hard to teach young guys. He says his team will need a similar effort against Bradley, as he says they have a good ballclub and will get better each game. Bradley’s Marcellus Sommerville began his career at Iowa. He is averaging over 16-points per game. Bradley coach Jim Les says there’ve been a lot of expectations on Sommerville as a local player who came back home. Les says that’s a little unfair as he hasn’t played that many games, but he says Sommerville is a versatile player. He says he can play inside and then step out and knock down shots too.Bradley is 8-5. U-N-I takes a five-game winning streak on the road to play Wichita State. The Shockers will be looking to bounce back from that loss to Drake. Panther coach Greg McDermott says his team cannot be concerned with how Wichita approaches the game, whether they’re on a winning or losing streak. McDermott says his team has to continue getting better themselves to keep winning. U-N-I is 7-3.
House Speaker downplays budget trouble
The legislature’s leading Republican is downplaying the state’s budget woes.House Speaker Christopher Rants, a Republican from Sioux City, says everybody is making a much bigger deal of the dilemma than they really ought to. Lawmakers are set to convene the 2004 Legislative session on Monday. Rants says there are difficult decisions ahead, but lawmakers will make them and balance the budget. He says lawmakers shouldn’t lose sight of the higher goal of finding ways to grow Iowa’s economy. In the past year, policymakers have had to cut the state budget significantly due to an unexpected downturn in state tax revenues, and the picture for the next state budgeting year isn’t much brighter. Corporate taxes, as an economic indicator, are still lagging far below expectations.
Group gives Iowa gun laws a "C"
A national group gives Iowa a “C” grade when it comes to the state’s gun laws. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has analyzed state gun laws for the past seven years. The director of the Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence, John Johnson, says he agrees with the national groups Iowa grade. He says under the national Brady law, dealers are required to conduct a criminal background check on all licensed sellers. He says unlicensed sellers are not required to run the criminal background check, and he says they’d like to see that requirement added. Johnson says his group is trying to build support for the legislation, but doesn’t expect to try and push it through until 2005. Johnson says other long-term changes would be helpful. He says he’d like to see the Attorney General issue handgun safety standards under the consumer protection authority of the A-G. He says this would be to require firearms to have basic safety devices, such as locks. The Brady Campaign, named for former President Ronald Reagan’s Press Secretary, gave 31 states grades of “D” or “F.”
Iowan returns in Broadway production
An Iowa native who played in “Les Miserables” on Broadway is back in his home state this week with the show’s touring production. 36-year-old Chip Leonard, who grew up on a farm near Waukee, says he’s enjoyed life on the road the past six months, though there are challenges. He says you’re a gypsy on the road, as you don’t have a lot of things you can take along. Leonard, who won the Bill Riley talent show at the Iowa State Fair in 1986, played in the Broadway version of Les Miz’ for a full year before it closed and went on this tour. He plays three separate roles in the cast, which he says can test all of an actor’s skills.Based on the Victor Hugo novel, the storyline follows three decades of turbulent 19th century France. While that’s a pretty heavy topic, Leonard says the long-running epic musical is still very popular with all audiences. He says it carries a powerful message, and says it’s a dying breed of huge shows with an incredible message. Les Miz is playing at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines through Sunday, the production’s only scheduled Iowa appearance.
Iowa wins another Big Ten opener
For the eighth straight season the Iowa Hawkeyes won their Big Ten opener. Pierre Pierce had 19 points including 13 of 16 from the foul line as the Hawks downed Purdue 71-61. Foul shooting plagued the Hawks in recent weeks but it was a key in last nights win as they converted 29 of 37 from the charity stripe.Iowa coach Steve Alford says he told them to keep grinding and the free throws would fall, and they finally did. Sophomore guard Jeff Horner played 39-minutes and finished with ten points and ten rebounds. He says Horner did it on a night when he didn’t make jumpshots, yet he still had a productive game. Alford says the same was true for Pierce and Brody Boyd.Alford says the Hawks showed improvement on offense, but he says the staple of the whole thing was still their good defense in holding Purdue to 37-percent shooting.Iowa is now 8-3 and hosts Northwestern this weekend.
Cylones keep Tigers caged in Hilton
Iowa State squandered a 12-point lead then rallied from a seven point deficit to edge Missouri 70-65 in Hilton Coliseum in their Big-12 opener.Coach Wayne Morgan said on his postgame show on the Cyclone Network that he told his players they were magnificent. Morgan says they really were with the way they hung in the ballgame throughtout. I-S-U bounced back after two road losses, and Morgan says they’d rather learn from victories than losses, but says they did learn alot from the two losses. He says they might not have beat Mizzou had they not lost those two games.Curtis Stinson’s basket with 38 seconds remaining gave the Cyclones the lead and seconds later fellow freshman Will Blalock made a key steal. He says he watched the film and saw enough to know how to time the pass for the steal. Blalock says the Cyclones first goal was to slow down Missouri’s inside game with their zone.It was Iowa State’s fifth straight win over Missouri in Ames.
Forest City soldier hurt in attack in Iraq
An Iowa soldier was hurt in an attack on a U.S. base outside Bagdad. A Wednesday-evening attack on base wounded 35 soldiers, including a Forest City man. 22-year-old Specialist Brian Chisholm, a member of the eleven-33rd Transportation Company, was hot by shrapnel during the attack, about 6-45 p.m. Bagdad time. Chisholm’s family was notified by military authorities, who told them the injuries weren’t life-threatening. Chisholm was briefly hospitalized but his mother Lisa says they learned just before midnight last night that Brian had been released from the hospital and returned to his unit.
