The U-N-I football team will have two weeks to prepare for their Gateway Conference opener at top-ranked Southern Illinois. The Panthers have an open date on their schedule this week. U-N-I is 1-2 after a hard fought three-point loss to Stephen F. Austin this past week. With the two losses U-N-I coach Mark Farley was asked if he feels his team now has to win the Gateway Conference to make the playoffs. He says he doesn’t know if they have to win, but he says they have backed themselves into a corner by losing to Stephen F. Austin. Farley’s goal this week is to get the team in sync before their contest at Southern Illinois. He says they need to find consistency by focusing on the techniques and the finer points of what they’re trying to get done.
Iowa to face veteran line and rookie QB
A talented and veteran Michigan offense is being led by a freshman quarterback. Chad Henne has completed 57 percent of his passes to go along with five touchdowns and five interceptions heading into their Big Ten opener this weekend against the Iowa Hawkeyes. That’s Michigan coach Lloyd Carr says he’s played din three games that were all decided in the fourth quarters. Carr says Henne’s decision making has improved and he thinks Henne feels much more comfortable with the experience. He says he’s made some mistakes and some big plays and he says that’s what a young quarterback is going to do. Carr says Henne is in an offense that requires him to do some complicated things. Like the Hawkeyes, the Wolverines are 2-1.
Standoff in Nevada ends peacefully
Police in Nevada say a standoff at a home involving a man who had a weapon ended peacefully just before noon today (Wednesday). Nevada police chief Mike Tupper says they were called to the home just after one A.M. the report of a person who was upset. He says they were over there for several hours talking to the person trying to help him resolve the issue, and about 11:50 A.M. it was peacefully resolved. The man was identified as 54-year-old Dan Gammon of Nevada. Tupper says although Gammon had a weapon — no one was threatened.He says it’s being handled as a mental health issue, and no crimes have been reported or arrests made. Tupper says it was “just a person who was having a rough go of it and needed some help.” Gammon is the former coordinator of Veterans Affairs for Story County, and was listed as a republican candidate for County Supervisor on the Story County website. An Ames newspaper report says he had dropped out of the race.
Highway 20 group promises to push harder
The group that’s been pushing for decades to make Highway 20 a four-lane roadway through northern Iowa is plans to make a “more aggressive” pitch. Shirley Phillips, president of the U.S. 20 Corridor Association, says it’s been difficult to get a clear answer on whether the feds or the state have been the roadblock thus far Phillips says Iowa’s congressional delegation tells her association the money is going to the Iowa D-O-T for the project and spending decisions are being made by state officials. But she says state transportation officials tell the group the state needs more federal money to advance the project. “So we’re going to work both ends against the middle, I guess,” Phillips says. The U.S. 20 Corridor Association was formed in the early 1960s, and Phillips says northwest Iowa needs a safe and efficient way to transport goods and workers as the area grows. She says Highway 20 can help divert east-west traffic across the state from congested Interstate-80. Seven miles of U.S. 20 are under construction right now, just west of Fort Dodge. Roxanne Carisch, C-E-O of the Calhoun County R-E-C in Rockwell City, says extending Highway 20 will play a significant role in economic development efforts. Carisch says growth always occurs along transportation corridors, and that’s why the expansion of Highway 20 to a four-lane all across northern Iowa is crucial to development. Carisch says when new businesses move into the area, there’s greater demand for electricity and more workers move in area homes, spreading the cost of building and maintaining the infrastructure — like power lines — making rates more affordable. The U.S. 20 Corridor Association plans to make its renewed pitch to the Iowa D-O-T Commission on October 12 at the Commission’s meeting in LeMars.
Homeless Iguana given care in the Quad Cities
He’s big, he’s green and he wasn’t invited. The zoo in the Quad Cities has a new temporary visitor, but the creature isn’t on display. In fact, the hungry critter was abandoned outside the zoo several days ago. Tom Stalf is director of the Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, Illinois. Stalf says a visitor came up and said there was a cardboard box in the parking lot that cars were driving very close to with a note attached that read: “I need a home and I’m four foot long.” Inside, zoo staff found a four-foot long male iguana in need of medical attention. Stalf says the big green lizard had an abscess on its neck, and other problems. Someone put a harness on the animal and as it grew, the harness was left in place and cut into his body so there’s scarring. Stalf says iguanas can live 15 years and grow up to six feet in length. This one is estimated at eight years old and it’ll be in quarantine and treatment of the abscess for at least a month. Stalf says this is -not- how responsible people treat their pets and the zoo is not a “dumping ground” or pet adoption agency. He says people need to learn about an animal before they buy it, especially a creature like an iguana. Law enforcement authorities in Iowa and Illinois were contacted to help determine the owner of the iguana but they’ve been unsuccessful. It’s illegal to abandon an animal and the act carries a fine of up to 500-dollars. Stalf says the zoo will keep the lizard until it’s healthy and then they hope to find a private home for it.
Cool August not indicator of winter
Iowans counting up the savings on their air-conditioning bills are wondering if they’ll pay for it in heating when an extra-cool winter follows. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says though August was the third-coldest on record, September’s looking warmer than normal — and none of it tells us much about the winter to come. Typically there’s little correlation between our summers and what’ll happen in winter, and our cool summer foreshadow a warmer winter or a colder one, only a chance that September will be a little cooler than normal. On the other hand Hillaker says “it looks like El Nino’ is trying to make a return” and if that western-hemisphere phenomenon recurs, it could mean a slightly warmer December, January and February. Summertime seasons typically don’t vary much from one year to another, so it’s other seasons when we set records for temps that are really extreme. Hillaker says while it doesn’t always seem like a big variation “from cold to colder to coldest,” there’s actually more variability in our winters than in the warmer seasons of the year. The hottest summer ever was in 1936, the coolest ever in 1915, but the difference between their average temps was only about ten degrees, and he says overall there’s not a big range between our hottest and our coolest summers.
David Lynch to speak at ‘world peace conference’
A Hollywood director with a reputation for making violent, bizarre films is headlining what’s billed as a world peace conference in southeast Iowa this weekend. Known for movies like “Mulholland Drive,” “Blue Velvet” and the T-V series “Twin Peaks,” David Lynch is also on the board of directors at Maharishi University in Fairfield. He says perpetual world peace will result by assembling eight-thousand people to continuously practice transcendental meditation. Lynch says “It brings peace, real peace, and peace is not just the absence of war. This real peace, being enlivened, drives negativity away like light drives darkness away.”
Lynch says he’s practiced T-M for more than 30 years. He says “The greatest machines on earth are human beings, built to dive within and enliven that field of unity and project it out. On the individual level, this leads to higher states of consciousness and enlightenment which is the birthright of every human being. On the world level, it leads to peace, real peace, on earth.” The plan for perpetual peace is not Lynch’s. He credits Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who’s likely best known as the Hindu guru to the Beatles four decades ago. Lynch says the large group of T-M-practicing people will not be easy to assemble.
“Eight-thousand people together is a small city and it needs setting up and it needs to be set up so it runs perpetually. This is the goal.” The 58-year-old Montana native first won acclaim with the movie “Eraserhead” in 1980. Since then, his projects have ranged from “Dune” to “The Elephant Man” and “The Straight Story,” which is based on the real-life journey of an elderly northern Iowa man who drove a lawn mower hundreds of miles to visit a sick brother.
Some may wonder how Lynch he got involved with the small school in Fairfield, Iowa, being a big-time Hollywood director. “When I heard about the real possibility for this technology making peace on earth, I just couldn’t sit still. I wanted to get involved and try to help make this happen.” Other speakers at Sunday’s “Creating Peace” conference at the Fairfield campus include a former Assistant Secretary General of the U-N, a former presidential candidate from the Natural Law party, and a host of other scientists, politicians, artists and musicans.
