The search continues for a missing 54-year-old New Hampton man. The search for Ted Leichtman started this weekend after he’d walked away from his home southeast of New Hampton early Sunday. Leichtman had apparently suffered a head injury a few days ago after falling on ice. Over two hundred volunteers searched for Leichtman yesterday, before the search was suspended due to darkness.
Iowa company supplies lenses for Mars rover
January 27, 2004 By
Iowa’s Rockwell Collins has a connection to the “Rover” craft that are crawling around the surface of Mars. Spokesman Jeff Mowder says the high-quality viewing devices that serve the explorer’s “eyes” were made by a subsidiary of the avionics company. R-C’s Kaiser Electro-Optics division based in California is providing all the lenses in the lander as well as both rovers. The company provided NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs with some 40 lenses, and some were used for testing while there are a total of twenty in use in the cameras on the landers and their rovers. The Kaiser Electro-Optic division also produces high-tech equipment used to let pilots view two things at once. A lot of military aircraft have a “head-up” system that puts flight information on a screen in front of the pilot’s field of vision, so they don’t have to look down to see the indicators during critical times in flight. And similar systems will even let soldiers on the ground have a “Terminator”-like view of the battlefield.All the soldiers will have GPS devices linked by computer so their eyepieces will show “friendly” combatants, for example, as being green. Others will appear a different color to help the soldiers tell where forces are and which are hostile.
Grassley says tax cuts are reason for deficit
January 27, 2004 By
The federal government is expected to be 477-billion dollars in debt this fiscal year, the deepest the nation’s ever been in red ink. Vice President Cheney was quote recently as saying President Reagan proved deficits don’t matter, but Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, also a Republican, disagrees. Grassley says “Deficits do matter…Whenever a society lives off of future generations, there’s something immoral about it.” The Congressional Budget Office warns the cumulative deficit that will accrue between 2005 and 2014 will hit one-point-nine trillion dollars, a figure that does -not- include President Bush’s proposal to make his tax cuts permanent. Grassley says he -does- support making those tax cuts permanent, and he explains why. He says “If we don’t make the tax cuts permanent, we will have the biggest tax increase in the history of the country without even a vote of the Congress. We would also go back to the highest levels of taxation that we’ve had ever in the history of this country, except for World War Two. That’d be very detrimental to the economy.” The C-B-O report says the fiscal picture from 2004 through 2013 has worsened by 986-billion dollars since its last deficit projections in August. Grassley says he knows where to place the blame.He says “I don’t happen to believe we have budget deficits because people are undertaxed. We have budget deficits because Congress overspends.” Grassley says part of the deficit figures are related to the war in Iraq. President Bush is expected to request another 40-billion dollars later this year for the rebuilding of Iraq.
Mason City man goes on trial for Minnesota murder
January 27, 2004 By
The trial gets underway today for a Mason City man who’s accused of raping and murdering a southern Minnesota hotel clerk. 46-year-old Roger Morton faces charges of first-degree murder, first-degree premeditated murder, and criminal sexual conduct in the death of Blue Earth hotel clerk Mary Klatt. Klatt, who is a native of Britt in north-central Iowa, was raped and strangled at the AmericInn in Blue Earth on May 29th of last year. Morton was a guest at the hotel while working for a roofing company who was repairing the United Hospital in Blue Earth. Prosecutors say they’ve linked Morton to the killing through D-N-A and other evidence found at the crime scene, including evidence that he made a telephone call through his long-distance calling card at the front desk where Klatt was working at about 3 AM. He was arrested in Mason City on June 13th.
Alford wants taunting rule enforced
January 27, 2004 By
Iowa coach Steve Alford wants the Big Ten Conference to enforce its new sportsmanship rules when the Hawkeyes visit Michigan tomorrow night. Hawkeye guard Pierre Pierce has been the subject of taunts from opposing student sections after his legal problems of last year. Alford says you can’t single out a player after the rules were passed in the springs. Alford says chanting is one thing, but picking out a student athlete is another, and that’s what the rule is there to stop. Alford says he did not raise the issue in last week’s game at Illinois but told Big Ten Associate Commissioner Rich Falk that he wants the rule enforced.Iowa is 3-2 in the Big Ten
ISU coach hopes cold shooting heats up
January 27, 2004 By
Iowa State coach Wayne Morgan says it was more than cold shooting that doomed the Cyclones in Saturday’s loss at Baylor. The Cyclones finished just one of 14 from three point range but still had a chance to get the win. He says they had a bad offensive night, and he says there will be more ahead. Morgan says defense and rebounding become keys to winning on the road when you’re not shooting well. He says they had a chance to win at the end of the Baylor game, but he says they didn’t get a chance because of poor rebounding.The Cyclones return to action at home tomorrow against Texas A@M
Triple-A launches campaign for strengthening child safety law
January 27, 2004 By
Triple-A of Iowa has launched a radio campaign calling for the strengthening of Iowa’s child passenger safety laws. Triple-A’s Shannon Swanson says Iowa law only requires that kids be restrained through age three, which says sends the wrong message to parents that kids are safe in seat belts from age four on. She says they want to see kids restrained in child safety seats, boosters or seat belts, whichever is appropriate, through age eight. Swanson says the motor club urges Iowans to call their legislators to voice support for the tougher legislation. She says any improvement to the legislation is a step in the right direction.The spot says “More children die in motor vehicle crashes than from all childhood diseases combined and many of those deaths could be prevented if the proper child safety seats were used. Iowa has one of the weakest child passenger safety laws in the nation and we need to strengthen those laws this session.”
