Authorities in eastern Iowa have identified the victim and the underage driver involved in a fatal Saturday crash. The Highway Patrol says 13-year-old Mitchell Slocum of West Branch was driving the S-U-V that went out of control on a gravel road near Iowa City and rolled into the ditch. A 16-year-old passenger, Madison Brigham of Iowa City, was killed. The driver, Slocum, was injured and taken to University Hospitals but his condition isn’t being released. Troopers say the S-U-V, a Chevy Tahoe, belonged to the dead boy’s mother but it’s unclear why the other boy, the 13-year-old, was driving it.
Man dies in car crash during police chase
September 13, 2004 By
A northwest Iowa man is dead after leading authorities on a chase and crashing a stolen car. The Iowa State Patrol says 21 year old Jameson Sierck was pronounced dead at the Palo Alto County Hospital in Emmetsburg. Patrol cars from Spencer and Clay County attempted to stop a car reported stolen out of Sanborn Saturday morning. Troopers say Sierck fled from law enforcement to avoid capture. The high speed chase led authorities from Clay County into Palo Alto County where the suspect lost control of the car on a gravel road. The car Sierck was driving went into the ditch and rolled several times before coming to rest in a cornfield. The chase and fatal accident occurred around Saturday morning 7 miles south of Ayrshire.
Iowa wins slugfest over ISU
September 13, 2004 By
After a hard fought battle on Saturday Iowa and Iowa State will now prepare for their final non-conference matchups this weekend. The Hawkeyes claimed a 17-10 victory on Saturday in Kinnick Stadium but had to hold off a second half rally by Iowa State. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says for awhile, it was eerily similar to two years ago. Ferentz says after scoring on the first drive of the game the Hawkeye offense was outplayed by the Cyclone defense. He says they had good spark in the first series and then that seemed to wear off.Next up is a visit to Arizona State to play a Sun Devil offense led by quarterback Andrew Walter. Ferentz says Walter is a fantastic player and it will be a big challenge on the road, although he expects to have a good contingent of Iowans.Iowa quarterback Drew Tate was 16 of 22 for 220 yards and a touchdown and says he is developing good chemistry with the receiving corps. He says they’re on the same page and know what he’s thinking and he says that’s a good thing in only the second game.The Cyclones will host Northern Illinois this weekend after narrowly missing a fourth straight win in Kinnick Stadium.ISU coach Dan McCarney says he was proud of his team, but says they didn’t make enough plays when they had to. He says there didn’t appear to be any physical mismatches on the field. McCarney says they came in believing they could win the game.
Heavy hitters to campaign in Iowa again
September 13, 2004 By
The First Lady and the Vice President campaign in Iowa today on President Bush’s behalf. Laura Bush is to speak at an afternoon rally in Des Moines; Vice President Dick Cheney is to appear in Ottumwa later this morning. A comedian turned radio talk show host campaigned on democratic challenge John Kerry’s behalf yesterday in Ottumwa and Des Moines. Al Franken, a former Saturday Night Live cast member, told a group of children the Vice President was coming to Iowa today “to scare you.” Franken said Cheney “will say that if Des Moines goes for Kerry, we’re going to be attacked by Al Qaeda.” One of the kids behind him replied “Oh, Please.” Franken told the crowd it was “a sarcastic ‘Oh, Please.” As you may recall, last week in Des Moines Cheney said a Kerry victory was dangerous — and “the danger is that we’ll get hit again…in a way that’ll be devastating…and then we’ll fall back into the pre-9-11 mindset…that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts and that we’re not really at war.” The Kerry camp accused Cheney of using “scare tactics that crossed the line.” Franken also told the kids assembled as backdrop for his speech in Des Moines that Cheney also “used a bad word” when Cheney told off a senator. “I don’t want to say it. I won’t say it, but the vice president likes to use it a lot and it makes him feel better because he’s getting cranky,” Franken said. The children interrupted. “Say it! Say it!” they said. “No. No. No,” Franken replied. Several of the kids then yelled “Yes.” Franken told the kids to “ask your mom and dad later. You may have heard it around the house, but probably not.” Franken said Cheney “needs a time out…because every day he’s having to explain something.” Vanessa Kerry, one of John Kerry’s daughter, is making stops in Des Moines, Ames, Fort Dodge and Mason City today and tomorrow.
LWV gives tips for voters
September 13, 2004 By
The November election is now just 50 days away and the League of Women Voters is ramping up its campaign to help voters get ready. Kay Ward, the president of the league, recently visited Iowa as part of that campaign.She says life has gotten more complicated at the polls and they’re trying to focus on a couple of key things that might be different. Ward says one of the key things they’re emphasizing, is don’t panic if pollworkers don’t have your name on their list. She says if you get to the polls and your name is not on the registration list, you’re entitled by law to get a provisional ballot. You can vote and that ballot will be checked to be sure you’re registered and then counted. Ward says provisional ballots are in place across America under the Help America Vote Act. Ward says you shouldn’t go to vote without some proof of who you are.She says they’re encouraging people to play it safe and bring an I.D. just incase it’s needed. Ward says polling places can change, so you should know where to go before election day. She says you still have time to check and register appropriately and find out where your polling place is. Ward says you shouldn’t be shy when you go to the polls if something seems uncertain. She says people, especially first-time voters, often don’t want to appear like they don’t know how things work and are hesitant to ask questions. She says they encourage you to ask questions, as that’s whey poll workers are there. Ward says they hope their message is heard by first-time voters. She says the league has been focusing on young people this year, because she says it doesn’t bode well for the future of the democracy in this country if young people don’t vote. For more information on voting, surf to:www.lwv.org.
School trains law officers to spot drugged drivers
September 13, 2004 By
A ten-day school starts today (Monday) in Ames that will train a select group of Iowa law officers how to spot motorists who aren’t necessarily driving drunk — but who are driving drugged. Former state trooper Denny Becker is running the Drug Recognition Expert training program for the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau.Becker says “Drug-impaired drivers are drivers that are abusing prescription, over-the-counter or illegal drugs and officers are not trained enough to recognize drug-impaired drivers.” This class of 16 law officers from across Iowa includes sheriff’s deputies, police officers, state troopers and D-O-T enforcement officers. There are only 117 officers in 50 Iowa counties who are trained as D-R-Es or drug recognition experts. Becker says the state needs many more D-R-Es as drugged drivers kill ten to 15 people in Iowa crashes every year.Many people might think they could spot someone who’s stoned — bloodshot eyes, droopy eyelids, slurring speech — but Becker says there’s a lot more involved for a law officer to be able to identify, apprehend and prosecute someone for drug-impaired driving. He says the signs and symptoms aren’t always that obvious. The D-R-E-trained officers learn the impairment indicators of seven key drug types, including marijuana, depressants, stimulants, inhalants and P-C-P. Becker says more than half of the drunk driving samples sent to the D-C-I lab contain one or more drugs -other- than alcohol.
Scientist defends ethanol
September 13, 2004 By
Critics of ethanol say there’s still a big argument against depending on corn-alcohol from crops to replace petroleum from the Middle East — that you burn more energy producing it than you get. Midwestern soil scientist Dan Walters says that might have been true once. Does it take more fossil-fuel energy — coal, gas, electricity — to produce the grain and make the ethanol than we get back, he asks? Walters says there’s no point in creating energy if we’re not offsetting the cost of the petroleum it should replace. Walters added up that cost, totaled every “energy input” used to make the fuel. He even factored in the energy consumed to make a combine, and a center-pivot irrigation system, if they were part of the process that led to ethanol. The amount of energy it took to crush the grain, distill the ethanol, drive it to a distributor, blend it with gas, haul it to the pump — with all that, we’re about thirty percent “ahead of the game.” Walters says we get 130-percent of the energy from ethanol that we used to create it from grain. But the energy balance isn’t the same as the total cost, and Walters says before you count taxes, corn-alcohol costs more than crude. It costs about 65 cents to produce a gallon of gasoline — anything you pay more than that is mainly taxes. The cost of producing a gallon of ethanol from corn is around 70- to 80-cents today. While it’s more expensive to produce a gallon of ethanol than a gallon of gasoline, Walters says the industry is still starting up whereas petroleum refiners have been at it for a century. Subsidies make ethanol competitive for now, and the University of Nebraska researcher says it’s hard to calculate how much money goes to subsidize the petroleum industry, though he says it’s a lot.
