Law officers across the state won’t be taking a holiday this Labor Day weekend — they’ll instead be working in extra numbers in several safety programs. State Trooper Adam Buck of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau says one of the efforts will center on drunk drivers. He says Iowa saw eight fatal traffic accident during last year’s Labor Day holiday, and three of those were alcohol related. Buck says the Special Traffic Enforcement Program, or “STEP” will link law officers in looking for drunken drivers.He says they’re expecting a little over 200 law officers across the state to provide enforcement. Buck says this operation comes after the battle against drunk driving reach a milestone.He says all 50 states and the District of Columbia have now passed the point-oh-eight (.08) blood alcohol limit for drunk driving, and this will be the first enforcement effort since then. Buck thinks the nationwide limit will make a difference.He says he thinks it brings some unity and consistency in the minds of drivers across the nation when it comes to drinking and driving. He says hopeful it will eliminate any confusion. The Iowa State Patrol is also participating in the Combined Accident Reduction Effort, or “CARE” which will us federal funds to put an extra 71 state troopers on the roadways during the holiday.
Clay County Assessor fired
Following allegations of a sex scandal, Clay County leaders may soon begin searching for a new county assessor. The Clay County Conference Board met Thursday to discuss the status of county assessor Larry Rozeboom’s position. Board chairman Joel Sorenson says they voted to fire Rozeboom after his lawyer said Rozeboom would not resign.Rozeboom, of Spencer, is accused of using a county-owned laptop computer to solicit a 17-year-old boy for sex. The accuser is an anonymous man who claims he’s the boy’s father. No charges have been filed. Sorenson says the decision to fire Rozeboom was very difficult, but proper. Sorenson says “we all liked him” and there have been no complaints about Rozeboom’s performance, but the firing was based on the county’s personnel policy. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is looking into Rozeboom’s computer activity. The D-C-I seized computers and equipment from Rozeboom’s office in the county administration building. Rozeboom’s attorney, Ned Bjornstad of Spirit Lake, says he and his client were disappointed by the decision and he took immediate action.Bjornstead says his appeal of the board’s decision holds off Rozeboom’s firing until a hearing is held. No date is set for that hearing, as yet. For now, Bjornstead says Rozeboom is on suspension, with pay.Bjornstead says Rozeboom is still a county employee but has no duties and is out of the courthouse, pending the hearing. The state of Iowa has a list of certified candidates available as the county begins the search for a new assessor.
Values Fund leaders not happy with compromise
Leaders of the now-defunct Iowa Values Fund are bashing a compromise shaping up for next week’s special session, saying it’ll half economic development in Iowa. Lawmakers return to Des Moines Tuesday to set aside 100-Million dollars for projects promised Iowa Valued funding and a bit more for those in the pipeline. The compromise does not reinstate the board created to administer the fund, and that doesn’t sit well with the board’s former chairman, Farm Bureau president Craig Lang. Lang says they put time and effort into it and that work will “be bartered away” with the promise only to wait for the regular session to find funding for the program on a permanent basis. Initially when the values fund was approved, it was designed as a seven year, 503-million-dollar grant and loan program to attract new industries to Iowa. But the entire package was struck down by the court that ruled the governor’s veto of one part of that bill was illegal. That’s why lawmakers will come back for the special session to restore money already promised to businesses through the program. Lang says the momentum stops and outside businesses stop considering Iowa and go somewhere else. He says nobody likes having to “give away money” to encourage economic-development but everyone does it so we have to continue at the level we’ve been doing it. Lang says he’s happy the legislature is returning for a special session to cover the grants and loans already awarded by the Values Fund, but he says it’s a mistake to postpone action on restoring the whole program. Lang says “Iowans live up to their commitment” and says it’s important to stand behind the 56-million dollars promised to 36 companies in a couple dozen counties, some of them for as long as five years. Lang says he and other members of the now-defunct Values Fund board will try to meet with legislative leaders before Tuesday’s special session to make their case.
New Iowa Quarter to be unveiled today
After months of hype, coins commemorating Iowa’s statehood will be unveiled and put in circulation in a state capitol ceremony this morning. Most Iowans know by now, the quarters feature a one-room schoolhouse with a teacher and students planting a tree under the banner “Foundation in Education.” Iowa became the 29th state admitted into the Union in 1846. Iowa established its first high school in the 1850s, though high schools didn’t become widespread in the U.S. until after 1900. U.S. Mint director Henrietta Holsman Fore is in Des Moines for this morning’s unveiling. Fore says the Mint will be cranking out the Iowa quarters for a couple of weeks yet, after a ten-week run, for a total of up to 450-million coins. Fore estimates 130-million will be taken out of circulation by collectors so she says the Iowa coin will be “a very saught-after quarter.” She says they’ll be around for a long time, too. All U.S. coinage stays in circulation 30 to 35 years, but they can be kept for thousands of years, as coins from the Greek and Roman days are still around. With so many people collecting these state quarters, Fore says many millions of them will be snapped up right away to be preserved.The new Iowa quarter is the fourth quarter of 2004 and it’s the 29th in the 50 State Quarters program. Fore, Governor and Mrs. Vilsack and other dignitaries will be taking part in this morning’s ceremony, which will include free quarters for kids and an actor portraying Grant Wood, the Iowa artist who painted “Arbor Day,” the picture upon which the Iowa coin is based. For more information, surf to “www.usmint.gov”.
Report shows fourth straight increase in insurance rates
An annual survey by a Des Moines consulting firm shows the cost of insurance coverage for businesses has gone up by double digits for the fourth straight year. David Lind of Lind and Associates conducted the survey of businesses with over 20 employees, and found insurance costs went up nearly 16-percent in the last year.He says the 15-point-seven-percent increase in 2004 compares to 18-point-two percent in 2003 and 18-point-eight percent in 2002 and percent and 17-point-four percent in 2001. Lind says the good news is the increases appear to be slowing. He says the increases are not as high as they have been in the past few years, and he says they hope that trend will continue. Lind says employers have been reluctant to pass the increases directly to employees, and instead have tried to redesign their insurance plans in a variety of ways.Such as increasing the deductibles, increasing the office co-pay, and co-pays for prescription drugs. He says the deductibles are about double what they were in 2002. Lind says the predominate change right now is toward what’s known as consumer driven health care. He says that means the employer provides a higher deductible plan, and also includes some type of medical spending account to help alleviate the high deductible. He says the employee under the new concept will hopefully be more judicious about how they spend the money for health care costs. To see the complete results of the 2004 Iowa Employer Benefits Study, you can surf to:www.dplaconsulting.com.
Ohio’s Governor?
I decided to catch the Tom Vilsack roadshow yesterday. Vilsack was an emcee of sorts for the DNC’s daily roast of the republican convention.
I walked to W40th and 7th Avenue, where I met up with Iowa-based AP reporter Amy Lorenzen. We continued down 7th Avenue past Madison Square Garden to 26th. We entered an unassuming building, climbed aboard an elevator and once we exited at the 16th floor, we were entering the DNC spin zone.
Entry was easy. There was no check of our credentials (I could have been a REPUBLICAN, you know). The DNC folks made the assumption I was from CBS News because my briefcase has the words “CBS News” stitched on the side. (It’s a very swank freebee briefcase given to RTNDA members attending the group’s convention in Minneapolis, and it weighed 26 pounds with the laptop and all the other equipment inside. By Thursday, that equipment was spread out on my hotel room desk and the case was much lighter, in case you were worried about my back.)
Then, a DNC person approached and we told this person we wanted to talk to Iowa’s Governor. This person left, another came moments later and said “So you want to talk to the Ohio Governor?”
Uh, no. The Iowa Governor.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “You want to talk to the Iowa Governor?”
Yes, the guy standing up there behind the lectern.
She departed and yet another DNC staffer came by. “Who do you want to talk to?”
Iowa’s Governor.
“CBS wants to talk with Iowa’s Governor?”
No, I’m with Radio Iowa. That’s just the briefcase I carry. Yes, we want to talk to Iowa’s Governor. The person who came by before thought he was Ohio’s Governor.
“That wasn’t me. I didn’t make that mistake. Who are you?”
The rest of this scintillating conversation was overheard by Mark Daley, who I had called because Matt Paul’s cell phone number, according to the pre-recorded Verizon voice, is no longer assigned. (Mark works for the Iowa Dems. Matt is the IOWA Governor’s press sec.)
“She doesn’t know who you are?” Mark said, laughing.
Anyway, we finally did get to talk to Tom Vilsack. (Matt Paul says he dropped his phone upon arriving in NYC, and it’s not working. Aside from the news items, I asked Vilsack if he’d gone running in Central Park. He says he hasn’t had the time. Riding down in the elevator together, Vilsack revealed he did get to go to the Billy Joel musical and liked it.
It wasn’t Hello, Dolly, but Hello, Deli that Rod Boshart and I visited yesterday. It’s the deli run by Rupert, made infamous by the Letterman show. It is TINY. The statehouse press room is twice its size. And disorganized, partly because Rupert has to pose for pictures with tourists. After soaking up the atmosphere, Rod & I walked to new favorite deli around the corner and that’s where I ordered the turkey on rye. The woman who took my order shouted it down the line to the sandwich makers.
“A turkey and whiskey,” she said. And I can attest, the sandwich had just the right kick.
So, by now you know the Iowa delegate who had his chicken trophy shipped to NYC by the Letterman show for a possible appearance on Letterman’s “show and tell” segment didn’t get the call to be on the show. The producers decided at the last minute they wanted to do “Know your current events” instead. Oh, well. (You can read his story on the site.)
Now, about the Blackberry. It has allowed me to “talk” with people inside Madison Square Garden this week. Calling on the cell phone in such a loud environment isn’t the best (despite yelling on both ends of the conversation, it’s still almost like using cans and string). Via email from my laptop to their Blackberry, the party people inside have given me the sense of the crowd and passed along all sorts of tidbits.
Which reminds me of a conversation I had with a colleague on Monday. When I started doing this convention coverage in 1988, I used alligator clips (a not very high-tech way of sending audio from a tape recorder down a phone line). This year, I’ve been using a laptop to email mp3s back to DSM. It’s a new world, my friends.
NRA to take aim at Kerry
Retired Des Moines cop Kayne Robinson is coming to the end of his reign as president of the National Rifle Association. At the Republican Convention in 2000, Robinson was a v-p of the NRA and chairman of the Iowa Republican Party. At this year’s convention, Robinson’s an alternate delegate and I caught up with him yesterday. He says NRA campaign ads will go on the air soon, and Robinson previewed some of the rhetoric that’ll be directed at democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
“Kerry will be the most anti-gun presidential candidate in our history,” Robinson said. “His entire life in politics has been opposing private gun ownership. He adopted this business of going around and getting a hunting license in all the states and everything as a gimmick.”
Kerry hunted for pheasants right before the Iowa Caucuses in January. This past July, Kerry told Radio Iowa he supports the right to keep and bear arms, but with commonsense restrictions. Kerry says he doesn’t know any hunter who uses an AK-47 to shoot a deer. Robinson fires back.
“And although he has owned a couple of guns and he’s done a little skeet shooting and a couple of birds he’s hunted, Jane Fonda hunts, too, and owns guns. That doesn’t mean very much. He’s not a serious gun owner and he’s not a serious hunter.”Robinson says Kerry will have a hard time winning in the “pro-gun” states that Al Gore lost in 2000. So which states are “pro-gun”? All but four or five, according to Robinson.
“There are 80 million gun owners, and when you get in their face and tell ‘em you’re going to take away their guns, they get pretty angry, and when you become a serious threat, they get more angry than they get about, you know, any of the other 50 or 60 issues that are laying around out there.”
In a prepared statement, Kerry’s Iowa campaign spokesman Colin Van Ostren said “John Kerry has been a gun owner and a hunter since he was 12 years old and voters can recognize it when special interest groups care more about party labels than they do the rights of gun owners.” Robinson’s term as N-R-A president expires in April.
