A Dubuque couple is facing several charges after an altercation with a southwest Wisconsin police officer. Potosi, Wisconsin police officer David Necollins stopped a vehicle early Sunday for driving left of the center line. Necollins says when he tried to arrest the driver of the car, 38-year-old Desire Gremmell of Dubuque, for O-W-I, she resisted and tried to hit him. The officer says when he tried to handcuff Desire, her husband, 44-year-old Joseph Gremmell got out of the car and also tried to hit him. The officer used pepper spray on both of them. The officer tried to keep Joseph away from his car and was punched in the head. A Grant County Sheriff’s deputy eventually showed up with a dog, and the two agreed to comply. The couple had a nine-year-old and six-year-old in the car at the time. Desire is being charged with O-W-I with a passenger under 16, prohibited alcohol concentration, and resisting arrest. Her husband is charged with battery to a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.
Grassley’s phone campaign draws call from Governor
Iowa’s most popular republican has launched an effort to try to boost “early voting” for himself and other republican candidates. You may hear it soon on your telephone. The message begins like this: “I don’t like to see our taxdollars wasted, so I’m calling to ask a favor of you. This is Chuck Grassley.” Grassley says Secretary of State Chet Culver “Is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars” to send an absentee ballot request form to every Iowan. Grassley says that money will be wasted unless Iowans take advantage and ask to vote-by-mail. Grassley, who is seeking reelection and faces democrat challenger Art Small, concluded the call by asking folks to vote for republicans, as a favor to him. The state’s top democrat — Governor Tom Vilsack — has called Grassley to complain about the barb — the one about wasting taxdollars on absentee balloting. Vilsack says he has no problem with Grassley calling people and telling ‘em to vote republican, but Vilsack is upset by Grassley’s comments about democrats wasting money, and he asked Grassley to think about “pulling the call.” Vilsack indicates the Grassley call may be a backhanded compliment to democrats. Vilsack says the call signifies “an understanding” that democrats do a better job with their absentee ballot program. He says the numbers are pretty significant at this point in time. Democrats have tens of thousands more absentee ballot requests in to county auditors than do republicans. G-O-P officials counter that they get better turnout among republican voters on election day, so that’s where much of their attention is focused.
Scott County sees outbreak of Whooping Cough
Another county health department reports an outbreak of an illness that can kill infants. Last week, Black Hawk County officials reported more than 20 cases of whooping cough in the Waterloo area. Now, at least 21 cases of that disease are reported in Davenport. Scott County Health Department spokeswoman Roma Taylor gives two possible explanations for the whooping cough outbreak, also called pertussis. Taylor says the whooping cough vaccine begins to wane when children reach adolescence. Also, doctors in the community are being made more aware of pertussis so they’re testing patients for it more frequently. Taylor says it’s vital that doctors -do- take that action and check patients for whooping cough. Pertussis can be very contagious and it’s spread through the air. When someone who has it is coughing, they could be spreading it to anyone else who’s nearby, in the same house, office or classroom. Taylor says if you’re hacking a lot over several days, don’t wait until it gets worse — get into the doctor’s office now. Symptoms include a severe cough, low-grade fever, sneezing and sometimes a runny nose. While whooping cough can be fatal in infants, it can also be severe for people of any age, particularly the elderly.
Governor takes annual walk across state
Iowa’s Governor visited Grinnell yesterday afternoon as he kickoff his fifth annual walk across the state. In a park in Grinnell on Sunday afternoon, Vilsack delivered a speech he’s been giving at all sorts of venues, pushing for spending more money on education, especially on preschool. He says we’re at a critical crossroads in the state where we have to have support for education in the state.Vilsack will likely deliver the same speech at stops along the way the next few days. On Sunday, Vilsack walked around downtown Grinnell, planted a tree in a park, then jumped in his S-U-V to visit Marengo and Ladora, too. Today, he’ll start spending more time shoe-time on the road. Vilsack says he’ll walk between 10- and 15-miles-per day over the next three days. In the past, Vilsack has spent much more time on the road, visiting many more towns over a five day period. Vilsack says he just can’t find that much time this year. Vilsack says as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, he is traveling to other states campaigning with democratic gubernatorial candidates and there’s just not enough time on his schedule. His schedule in Iowa will take him to Durant and Stockton this morning and Walcott and Marshalltown this afternoon. On Tuesday, Vilsack will visit Albion, Liscomb and Union. On Wednesday, the Governor is scheduled to walk through Estherville, Storm Lake, and Alta.
Tripple A warns of increase in deer dodging with hunting season
With the start of deer hunting season — and deer mating season — many Iowa motorists may soon be having close encounters with the scampering creatures. Triple-A-Iowa spokeswoman Dawn Duffy has some advice for drivers, though it might be a challenge to ignore your instincts to brake and swerve. Duffy says “don’t veer for deer” as you might lose control by jerking the steering wheel, or you might hit another car, a utility pole or something else. Generally, she says, it’s better to hit the deer. One way to avoid a collision is to stay vigilant. Duffy says that means staying alert and avoiding distractions while driving. Duffy says to give yourself plenty of distance between your car and the cars around you, travel at a safe speed and a speed within the limits, and keep watch for potential obstacles in and around the road ahead, including deer. She says don’t be fooling with items in the car, eating, grooming or messing with the cell phone — keep your eyes on the road.Duffy says it’s expected that as October and November approach, deer-vehicle collisions increase dramatically. In the year 2000, there were 78-hundred deer-vehicle crashes in Iowa, resulting in 600 injuries and three deaths.
C-D contains lots of Iowa info
An Iowa State University office that keeps track of key census data on the state has released a c-d that contains the info separated into several categories. Cindy Anderson of the Office of Social and Economic Trend Analysis , helped create the c-d. She says “Iowa by the Numbers 2004″ was assembled so people could go to a topic and easily pull out one or two, or even thousands of pieces of information. Anderson says it helps make a mountain of information easier to use. She gives this example. Under the Agriculture category you can look up the number of farms in Iowa’s counties over the last two decades, the market value of the products sold in the counties over the last decade. She says the information would be useful for someone working with state agencies, people writing grants.Anderson says people often want to find out about the business climate and things like housing in their communities. She says another thing people might be interested in are the trends in Iowa. She says a lot of time we hear national reports about the poverty rate or uninsured people in the nation, and she says this is a way to see how Iowa stacks up when compared to those trends. Anderson says there may some information that could surprise you. She says things like birth and death rates by county and state, home ownership rates, building permits are just some of the information people might find surprising. Anderson says anyone can order the c-d. You can call 515-294-9903 and order a c-d or you can go on-line at:www.seta.iastate.edu. The cost of the c-d is 20-dollars or 30-dollars, depending on the file format.
MidAmerican announces two sites for wind facility
MidAmerican Energy has announced the site for a planned new wind-generating facility — and it’s two locations. Project manager Tom Budler says the 323-million-dollar project will be located at two sites, near Blairsburg and at Schaller just southwest of Storm Lake. He says having two different sites gives a diversity of a wind resource — when it’s calm at one spot it may be blowing at another — but also “generation dispatch diversity,” good access to electrical transmission systems. The company expects to create about 250 construction jobs, and 20 or so operating jobs at the windfarm sites, in addition to ongoing lease payments that’ll go to landowners. Iowa’s number-four in the nation today, and Budler says with all the windfarms now in place people are aware of their value so the new project has been well received. MidAmerican spokesman Allen Urlis adds that the creation of the newest windfarm is part of an agreement that holds customer energy rates steady for fifteen years. Urliss says as part of the agreement with state regulators there’s an understanding that rates will remain the same for Iowa custonmers through the year 2010. Construction has already started on the northwest Iowa site, and should begin this week at the north-central Blairsburg location.
