Things don’t get any easier for the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend. After a 44-7 loss at Arizona State the Hawks get set for their Big Ten opener at Michigan. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says there is no time to dwell on the loss. He says the bottom line is if you don’t get back on your feet you’re going to be feeling the same thing again. He says they now have to do some things to make sure they don’t feel bad again.Iowa’s offense has struggled this season and the running game has been disappointing. Ferentz says there is no magic formula and the numbers will only improve with hard work. Ferentz says the Hawkeyes should be motivated after getting embarrassed last week. He says he hopes everybody is frustrated. He says “when you get spanked like we did” if you feel okay with that than it’s time to get out. He says they need to put their energies toward a productive resolution. Ferentz says the Michigan receiving corps may be the best in college football and he is concerned about Iowa’s pass defense. He says they just played a team that picked them apart and now another that has that ability.
Riverside beaming about movie involving Captain Kirk
The southeastern Iowa town that claims to be the future birthplace of Star Trek’s Captain Kirk is welcoming the fictional hero home. William Shatner, the actor the world knows as Kirk, is in Riverside this week to act in, produce and direct a film he co-wrote with fellow Trek veteran Leonard Nimoy. Riverside resident and big Trekkie Darrin Thompson says Shatner met with residents on Tuesday to talk about the movie. Thompson says they were told “it has a sci-fi slant” and will be family-oriented. Based on the tentative title, “Invasion Iowa,” he’s thinking it’ll involve space aliens. Several Riverside-area residents have been cast in minor roles — a middle-aged couple, a few young thugs, a priest and some ordinary folks eating in a restaurant. Thompson says filming in Riverside may last up to ten days. The movie’s budget is reportedly four-million dollars.Thompson interprets Riverside being used as a backdrop for the movie as a sort of reward for the town’s 20 years of Trekfests and its open adoration for the character Shatner portrayed on the original 1960s T-V series and in later movies. Townspeople have set up a monument at the place where the fictional Kirk will be born in 2233.
Iowa Electric Coops look for some help from Washington
Members of the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives have an eye on Washington for a couple of key issues they say could make a big difference to customers. Association executive director Brian Kading says tax credits for renewable energy generation are one focus. He say those credits have expired and there’s a provision in the new energy bill that would bring them back for people owning renewable power projects. He says they’re lobbying hard to get the issue passed and have the credits retroactive to 2004. Kading says the credits are important in allowing co-ops to compete. He says the electric cooperatives are very interested in the tradable tax credits so that they can also participate in the renewable energy market. He says it’s difficult for cooperatives to compete because there’s no comparability between energy generators. Kading says another top issue for co-ops is getting a work hours exemption for utility crews. He says under current law crews can only drive their trucks for a certain number of hours before they have to shut them down. He says without a fix, it makes it hard for utilities to put a system back together after a big storm. Kading says Florida is a good example, and he says ice storms in Iowa are another example. Kading says if a big storm hits Iowa, they often call crews to drive in from other states to help out until the job is done.He says without the hours of service exemption, it makes it difficult to put the lines back up as quickly as possible. Kading says there’s a permanent fix for the problem in the transportation bill that faces a potential veto, and a temporary fix in the appropriations bill. Kading says about 10-percent or around 180-thousand Iowans get their electric service from co-ops.
Special team helps quiet riots
Last week during a tense standoff in Lee County one of the teams that joined the crisis intervention came from the prison at nearby Fort Madison. The CERT team’s trained to deal with tense situations, according to prison spokesman Ron Walter. The Correctional Emergency Response Team was started in 1981 by then-warden Crispus Nix, a specially-trained correctional unit that’s similar to a police SWAT team. The team was formed after a prison riot at the penitentiary in 1981. He says they’re the prison’s “first line of defense” if there’s an “Institutional Insurrection” or if case of an escape, officers needed for a forced cell move, or a special transportation issue. While the team does offer its services to other law-enforcement agencies in southeast Iowa, it’s just for backup in emergencies. The team also shares equipment with other agencies when they need flak jackets, tear gas or other specialized gear. Walter says the Lee County sheriff’s department has come to help the prison team when it was needed over the years, and in turn CERT offers assistance to local law enforcement. Members of the CIRT team are state employees. He says they’re officers and supervisors in the corrections system, but this is their fulltime job — and they have to not only meet certain qualifications for strength and agility, they continue with training on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Power outage cause sewage spill in Eastern Iowa
State officials are advising folks to stay away from a northeast Iowa stream. A power outage in Asbury caused about 135-thousand gallons of untreated wastewater to spill into a tributary of the Little Maquoketa River. Mike Wade, an environmental specialist for the Department of Natural Resources, says people should stay away from the tributary, called the Cloie Branch, and keep their children and pets away from it for the next 24 to 48 hours. Wade is investigating the incident, and has ordered Asbury city workers to test the wastewater for fecal coliform bacteria, organic matter and ammonia levels. However, Wade found no dead fish in the area. The city reported the incident to state officials yesterday afternoon.
Omaha starts roundup today
Today in Omaha the “River City Roundup” begins, a five-day event that’s billed as a celebration of agriculture and western heritage. Organizer Sherman Berg is president of the 55-year sponsor of the event, the “Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben.” He says it’s a review of our heritage, saying “every once in a while you have to stop and look back at your past.” In addition to professional cowboys counting up their final points of the season on the rodeo circuit, there’ll be special events. Lots of young people come out and part of the attraction is a barbecue competition and a Well Blue Bunny ice-cream-eating contest. The roundup begins today, rodeo competition is Thursday through Saturday, and big-name entertainment includes Brad Paisley and Reba McIntyre. Sunday the roundup honors Omaha’s 150th birthday with a performance by the “Heartland of America” Air Force Band from Offut Air Force Base.
FDA makes changes to reduce problems with eggs
The federal Food and Drug Administration has recommended changes aimed at making a big reduction in the number of salmonella infections caused by eggs. Iowa’s become the nation’s number-one egg producer, but Hilary Thesmar, director of the Egg Safety Center in Washington, says we’re really in no danger. She says in the late 1980s we learned that salmonella could be found inside eggs even if they hadn’t been opened or even cracked. It was only one in 20-thousand, but nationally that’s still a lot of eggs. The FDA’s proposing some controls on the farm, that could help prevent salmonella bacteria from getting into the egg in the first place. The proposed rule would make it mandatory for producers to monitor their production farms, and if salmonella’s found on the found the eggs will be tested and not sent to grocery stores. Thesmar says the FDA’s proposing the rule and will have a comment period to hear from producers and the public, then likely do as it has with other rules and phase in the procedures gradually once they’re going to be required. Thesman says the larger producers are probably doing most of the suggested procedures already. Iowa has more than 80 egg producers, whose 40-Million laying hens produce about 9 and-a-half-Billion eggs a year.
