The Iowa Hawkeyes don’t have time to dwell on a lopsided loss at Arizona State. The Hawkeyes get back to work as they get set for their Big Ten opener at Michigan. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says anytime you play Michigan, it’s a big game, and he says it also is the start of conference play. He says the Hawks need to make a lot of progress between now and Saturday’s game. He says they have no choices in the matter, as they didn’t want the results they got Saturday, but got them and have to deal with it. Ferentz says starting with Michigan is starting at the top of the conference. Michigan is 2-1 and Ferentz says the Wolverines have plenty of talent and will get better as the season progresses. He says they’re working through some things with their freshman quarterback, but says they have an outstanding supporting cast, so it makes it easier to work through.
Morningside and Briar Cliff off to good football starts
It has been a great start to the college football season in Sioux City where Morningside and Briar Cliff have posted some impressive victories. Morningside entered the N-A-I-A top 25 last week and improved to 3-0 with a 24-17 win over Dana of Nebraska. They host Midland Lutheran this weekend. Morningside coach Steve Ryan says they haven’t started out 4-0 since 1957, and so he says that’s created excitement. Ryan took over the program after the school left the North Central Conference. He says starting a program over with young players requires the young guys to put in a lot, and he says he’s happy with their success thus far. The Mustangs lost several close games last year in which they finished 3-7. So far this season they have made the plays necessary to win the close ones. He says the defense has made big plays down the stretch to seal a victory.Briar Cliff has been opening eyes as well. After claiming the programs first varsity win two weeks ago against Dana the Chargers made it two in a row with a 14-7 upset of 13th ranked Midland Lutheran on the road.Coach Dick Stritmatter says they got more confidence after the first win and he says that’s continue. Strittmatter started the program from scratch and still has few upper classmen on the squad. He says they have five or six juniors, but most are red shirt sophomores and freshmen.After going 0-10 in their first varsity season in 2003 Strittmatter says the wins have brought more excitement to the program.Briar Cliff is idle this week and returns to action October second against Morningside.
Program seeks to promote biodiesel, make bus emissions cleaner
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is joining with state education officials in hopes of schooling the rest of the country on the benefits of soydiesel fuel. D-N-R Air Quality specialist Brian Button says a federal grant will pay for four-thousand gallons of pure soy oil for use in the program. He says that’ll be blended down to a 10 or 20 percent mix with regular diesel fuel. He says that’ll give them about 34-thousand gallons of biodiesel — or enough to run and average size fleet of schoolbuses for an entire year. Button says this will let more schools try the fuel. He says there are a couple of districts using the mix already — but it’s not as common as the two and five percent soydiesel mixes. Button says this will showcase the fuel for other districts in the state, as well as nationwide. Button says biodiesel burns a lot cleaner than straight diesel. He says the blends will cut the harmful soot output by about 15-percent and also cut the hydrocarbons by 10-percent as well as cut the sulfur and carbon monoxide as well. The federal grant is for 250-thousand dollars and Button says part of it that money will be used to retrofit older buses with emission control devices. He says they buses they’ll focus on are the 1990 to 1994 model years and there are roughly 14-hundred in that category our of the five-thousand total buses in the state. Button says they’ll put what’re called diesel oxidation catalysts on the busses to help cut emissions. He says the devices will cut the black smoky soot from the buses by at least 20-percent and some models by 35-percent. He says it’ll also cut the hydrocarbons by 50 percent and a 40-percent cut in carbon monoxide. Button says one other part of the program will provide money for districts to completely replace the engines in some buses. The grant was provided to the Bus Emission Education Project or “BEEP” — which is a partnership of the School Administrators of Iowa, the Iowa Association of School Boards, the D-N-R, the Department of Education and the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association.
Make sure you call before digging to plant Fall trees
Before cold weather sets in, many Iowans have some chores they need to do that involves digging in their yards — planting trees or shrubs, digging fence post holes or maybe putting up a clothes line. Ben Booth, spokesman for Iowa One Call, says by calling the toll-free number, utility companies will mark where underground lines are located. Booth reminds, it’s not an option to call, it’s a necessity. It’s a mandate and a state law, so people who don’t use the One Call system are breaking the law, plus, if you damage an underground cable or pipeline of some sort, you’ll likely be financially liable for it. If you happen to hit some sort of gasoline pipeline or another type of hazardous liquid, Booth says the civil penalties alone can be extremely expensive. The fines can be as high as ten-thousand dollars per day, per violation, up to a half-million dollars. For other utilities, including natural gas, electric, water, communications or cable TV, fines can be up to one-thousand dollars a day, up to 20-thousand dollars. Booth says the financial obligations don’t stop with the civil penalties. Besides the civil fines, there’s also the liability for the damage. Booth adds, “Why would you want to gamble when the call into Iowa One Call is a free call and the service to locate the facilities is a free service?” Once you call the hotline, the paint marks indicating underground lines will be made on your land within 48 hours, not counting weekends and holidays. The hotline is 800 292-8989.
Fed Reserve raises interest rate
The Federal Reserve met in Washington today and ordered another quarter-point hike in short-term interest rates. Mike Sherzan heads an Iowa-based brokerage and financial-services firm. He says it’s basically the “overnight funds rate” for banks borrowing money in overnight transactions, a figure he says has been at a forty-year low. Today the board raised that rate to one and three-quarter percent. Most analysts predicted this rate increase, and the Sherzan says the “fed” has this power as a tool to keep the economy stable. He calls it a balancing act the fed and its chairman Alan Greenspan must perform, balancing growth and controlling the forces of inflation with the only things at his disposal, and he says that’s what they did today, controlling the economy with what the cost of money is. The fear is that inflation would get out of hand, though with energy prices high and productivity keeping pace, inflation hasn’t been a problem. With interest rates near historic lows, the financial advisor says the goal’s to smooth out volatility in the national recovery and avoid swings like the radical moves we saw in the 1980s. He says oil prices are a big factor in today’s economy. Oil prices are at unbelievable heights, he says, and that’s held economic growth to a slow pace since goods and services all depend on transportation, which is limited by the energy costs. The cost of commodities like milk also has been slow to move, and Sherzan says that lack of volatility is a good thing because its reverse would be the inflationary pressure the fed’s aiming to keep under control with small moves like the three quarter-point increases so far this year.
ISU coach pleased with 2-1 start
The Iowa State Cyclones will get some time to heal up and shore-up before the Big-12 race begins. The Cyclones are idle this weekend before traveling to Oklahoma State for the league opener. ISU closed out nonconference play 2-1 after a victory over Northern Illinois. Cyclone coach Dan McCarney says the week off will be a good time to work on bolstering their running game. He says they need the extra time to get ready for Oklahoma State. ISU will have another open date later, as they’ve move the Missouri game after Thanksgiving to get it on TV.Todd Blythe has developed into a go-to receiver and McCarney has been happy with the play of the defense overall despite some struggles last week. He says Northern Illinois got a lot of big plays and he says that is a concern. He says they need to force more turnovers too on defense. While he says Blythe has gotten off to a good start, he says they need to do a better job of running the football.
Digital device helps handicapped
A new digital device may offer more opportunity for the severely handicapped. Karen Younkin is an occupational therapist at the Center for Disabilities and Development at University Hospitals in Iowa City, who says computers let the handicapped communicate in many ways. She sees “kids of all ages, from zero to 90 years old,” and says computers are changing all the time with voice-recognition programs that write down what you say, and adaptive mice so you can operate the computer mouse by speaking. Now a Canadian inventor’s rolling out a mouse for users who can’t even move their arms or hands. The mouse is operated by blinking, and making tiny head movements picked up by a small camera aimed at the user’s nose. For that feature, it’s dubbed — the Nouse. She hasn’t seen the “Nouse” but says an existing tool called a “head mouse” does the same kind of thing. Younkin says there’s already a lot of computer programming and equipment helping disabled kids take classes in mainstream schools today. She says technology helps kids read and write, like programs that read textbooks aloud so students who can’t read can still study and do homework. Younkin says there’s technology available to help with any kind of disability. For more on the University of Iowa’s “Center for Disabilities and Development” as well as the Disability Resource Library, begin surfing at http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/cdd/index.asp
