The Drake Bulldogs will continue a three game homestand this week by hosting Wisconsin-Plateville. Drake is 1-1 after a 16-6 win over William Penn and with a Pioneer League opener with Morehead State coming up next week this could be a spot for a letdown. Coach Rob Ash does not expect one as he says his team is well aware of the fact that Wisconsin-Plateville beat them last year. He says that was a heartbreaking loss by one point, and he thinks that will help keep their attention.After two games Ash says he is happy where the team is at but says a lot of questions remain. He says the defense and kicking game are positives, but they have to find a way to score more on offense.Ash says the Bulldogs are much more physical this season and added experience is a major reason. He says they’re seniors and juniors and are stronger after being in the weight room for a couple of years.Drake has played several teams out of the Wisconsin Conference over the years and Ash says it is always a battle.
Cass County Attorney and Sheriff thrown out of office
Cass County’s two top law officers have been relieved of their duties after a judge’s ruling on a lawsuit brought against them. Judge Robert Hutchinson ruled that Cass County Sheriff Larry Jones and County Attorney James Barry were both guilty of “willful misconduct and maladministration in office” –and that both should be removed from office immediately. In his 24-page ruling Hutchinson says Barry’s practice of reducing speeding tickets to non-moving violations in exchange for higher fines not only abused the system, but invited and encouraged it. He says Jones acted in concert with Barry to divert money from plea bargains and other settlements into the county drug fund, and then made unauthorized purchases. The judge could not find evidence that Jones used any of the funds for his personal use. Not long after he was told of the ruling, Jones told the sheriff’s dispatchers he was “10-42″, ending his tour of duty permanently. Neither Barry nor Jones could be reached for comment.
Three injured in Dallas County accident
Three men were severely injured in an early morning accident in central Iowa. The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office says two cars were drag-racing when they hit a parked train in the middle of Dexter, about 1-30 this morning. The red flashing lights and crossing bells at the scene were working. 56-year old James Kalbach (Kal-baw) of Dexter was taken by helicopter to Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. Kalbach’s passenger, 34-year old Brett Lovely and the other driver, 41-year old David Allsup also of Dexter were both taken to Des Moines hospitals, and their condition isn’t known. Dallas County deputies are still investigating.
Iowa Congressmen vote for law against frivolous suits
Iowa’s four republican congressman have voted for a bill that would punish lawyers who file lawsuits a judge decides are frivolous, or without merit. Congressman Jim Nussle, a republican from Manchester, says it’s the right step. Nussle says frivolous lawsuits are clogging up the legal system and causing unnecessary legal expenses for businesses. Nussle says “we’ve all heard stories about outrageous court cases that usually are motivated by greed rather than merit.” Iowa Congressmen Steve King, Tom Latham and Jim Leach also backed the bill. Leonard Boswell, the only democrat from Iowa in Congress, voted against the bill.
Heavy rains force sewage releases
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says torrential rains in northwest Iowa overnight and this morning forced the wastewater treatment plants in several cities to released untreated sewage. Neal Cook in the D-N-R’s Spencer field office says the releasing the wastewater is safer than the alternative of having it back up into people’s homes. He says the sewage is usually extremely dilute, and while it still has all the organisms of regular sewage, it’s diluted as far as its waste strength. Cook says they’ve been working to improve some of the older sewer systems in the area to help alleviate the problem. But, he says this year there’ve been plenty of big rains that’ve caused trouble. He says it certainly seems like they’ve had their share of heavy precipitation events — but until now they seemed localized to one town or county. Cook says the latest one seemed to hit all of northwest Iowa. He says if you looked at the weather radar last night they “had a regular conga line of storms cells marching right up from Sioux City right up to the northeast through Spencer and the lakes area.” Cook says cities could build large storage areas to handle unusually heavy rains, but he says that would be very expensive. He says it’s not practical to build treatment systems large enough to handle those volumes of water. Cook says bypassing the sewage is the best way to get rid of the excess without creating big health problems with backed up sewage in people’s basements.
Man accused of beating and threatening his mother
A man jailed in southeast Iowa is accused of holding his own mother against her will, beating and threatening her for two days this week. Lee County Sheriff Dave Ireland says they learned about it after the woman got away and fled to a neighbor’s home. She told them her son, Brad Yeager, had held her as a hostage in her home the last couple of days and had been physically assaulting her as well as threatening her with a weapon. That was about ten Tuesday morning, and the woman told deputies she’d been able to escape when Yeager left the house to run errands. By then Fort Madison police had come to help, as well as deputies from neighboring Des Moines County, the Iowa State Patrol and the Fort Madison prison’s CIRT Team (Crisis Intervention Response Team). He says when the first officer was arrived, Yeager was spotted returning to the home, but they also learned he had a weapon and probably more than one. So they tried phoning him from a neighbor’s house and calling him over a loudspeaker. There was no response, so Sheriff Ireland says finally the officers threw a “flash bomb” to distract the man. After a two-hour standoff, the officers forced their way in through a garage door and into the home, then searched the home till they found Yeager in the basement hiding behind a water heater. He was arrested without incident. The man had been living in the home for a few days before the standoff. He’d been living with his mother for the last two weeks, officers were told, after recently returning from California. Yeager was charged with assault causing injury and false imprisonment. At an initial court appearance this (Wednesday) morning a charge of harassment was added, and Yeager’s bond was raised from ten to 30-thousand dollars.
Governor appoints new Regent
Governor Tom Vilsack today appointed a new member to the board that oversees the state universities in Ames, Cedar Falls and Iowa City. Former Iowa Department of Human Rights director Rose Vasquez, a diversity consultant for Principal Financial, will finish out the term of Dr. Deb Turner, who resigned recently. Turner was black, and Vilsack says he chose Vasquez because he wants a “minority women” on the Board of Regents. “As we continue to look for ways to expand the hiring of minority faculty and continue to look for ways to make sure that higher educational opportunities are available to students of all cultures and colors in this state, I think it’s important to have a voice of diversity on the Board of Regents,” Vilsack says. The Governor says Vasquez is just the person for the job. Vilsack says Vasquez understands the challenges minority and women students face. Vasquez was an assistant state Attorney General from 1985 to 1999. She got her undergrad degree from the University of Iowa and her law degree from Drake.
