A Des Moines man is ordered to pay some 15-thousand dollars in fines and restitution and serve prison time after a burglary spree at two banks in the western Iowa town of Schleswig. 37-year-old Phillip Knight was convicted last month in Crawford County District Court on burglary and theft charges. Monday, he was sentenced to five years in prison for that case, to run concurrently with a ten-year sentence from a Polk County case. On May 9th, the United Bank of Iowa branch office and the Bank Iowa A-T-M were ripped off.
Grassley says opening oil reserve wouldn’t impact gas prices much
September 28, 2004 By
Crude oil prices are bounding into record high territory, again, and gasoline prices are rising in Iowa and nationwide. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says there’s renewed talk of opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, which he says is usually an action that’s reserved for emergencies, not just when prices become unreasonably high.Grassley says some refineries have been shut down in the southern U.S. due to the recent hurricanes. He says when natural disasters strike, those reserves should be used up. However, Grassley says the move likely will -not- bring much price relief at the pump. He says the reserves were opened four years ago during the Clinton administration. The opening of the reserves only lowered gas prices a few pennies a gallon. Grassley says most people want gas prices in the neighborhood of a dollar-40 to a dollar-60 a gallon. The current average in Iowa is a dollar-86, compared to a dollar-51 a year ago. The national average is a dollar-90, versus a dollar-60 a year ago. Grassley says crude oil prices topped 49-dollars a barrel in the U.S. yesterday for the first time, while the price went over 50-dollars a barrel this morning on Asian markets. Grassley says traders are reacting to several things — primarily the hurricane damage in the U.S. and the unrest in the lands of key oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria.
Study says Iowans pay more, get less in health care
September 28, 2004 By
When it comes to health care coverage, a study by a national nonpartisan, nonprofit group finds Iowans are paying significantly more and getting much less coverage in return. Ron Pollack, executive director of Families U-S-A, says health care is much less affordable to Iowans now than it was just a few years ago. Pollack says “premiums paid by workers rose by almost 41-percent in the last four years,” while earnings have only increased ten to 11-percent, thus, health care premiums have risen almost four times faster than earnings. Nationally, premiums rose about three-times faster than earnings. Pollack says most Americans spend between five and ten-percent of their incomes on health care, but the study finds many Iowans are spending much more. In 2004, more than 150-thousand Iowans had health care expenses that were more than one-quarter of their total earnings. In 2000, that number was 114-thousand. Pollack says premiums, co-pays and deductibles continue to rise while benefits and services dwindle. He says many Iowans are choosing to go without health care, adding, “too many people are losing the health care coverage they used to take for granted.”During 2003 and ’04, more than 668-thousand Iowans went without health care coverage for at least part of those two years, a huge increase from the year 2000. The report was produced using with data from U.S. government sources, including the Census Bureau, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cool weather a concern for replanted crops
September 28, 2004 By
Many farmers in Iowa have yet to start their combines, as harvest activity has been delayed for a variety of reasons, including recent flooding in northwest and north central Iowa. Climatologist Harry Hillaker says replanted fields are of particular concern. Hillaker says about eight percent of the state’s corn crop and about eight percent of the soybeans had to be replanted because of heavy rains in late May, and he doesn’t expect that replanted ground to yield much because of this year’s very cool growing season. Hillaker says this was the third-coolest summer on record, and Iowa crops in general didn’t mature as quickly. Hillaker says each summer month was more unusual than the one before it — with June a couple of degrees cooler than the typical June, July about three or four degrees cooler than usual, and August about five degrees cooler than normal. The warmer-than-normal September has been terrific for Iowa crops. He says September’s average temperature may be warmer than the average temp in August. That hasn’t happened in Iowa for 107 years, and Hillaker says it helped to get some heat at the tail end of the growing season to help plants “catch-up a bit.”
Warren County road sees another deadly crash
September 28, 2004 By
Three people were rushed to the hospital after two cars hit head-on yesterday in Warren County, just south of Des Moines. The woman driving the car that veered across the center line was flown to the hospital by air ambulance and is reportedly in critical condition; the two people in the other car were taken by regular ambulance. Brian O’Keefe, a spokesman for the Des Moines Fire Department, says Des Moines fire crews were dispatched to the scene because they specialize in rescuing victims trapped in a vehicle. Crews from Norwalk and North Warren County had stabilized the victims in the cars, but O’Keefe says to minimize the pain and suffering, the Des Moines crew essentially peeled back the roofs of both cars, then used a hydraulic jack to spread the side of the cars open like an accordion to get the victims out. O’Keefe says “we’ve got pretty tough bones in us,” but after an impact like the collision yesterday, there’s severe trauma and rescue workers don’t want to cause additional injuries when getting victims out of a smashed car. O’Keefe says the site of yesterday’s accident is near where a person was killed in an accident just two months ago. O’Keefe says a cross stands about 50 feet from yesterday’s accident site, and local officials say they can’t explain why that area has been the site of a number of crashes over the years.
Treasury honors Iowa Homeless Youth Centers
September 28, 2004 By
The federal treasury department’s honoring a Des Moines agency for the financial training it’s providing to homeless teens. “Money Matters on the Street” is the program offered by Iowa Homeless Youth Centers. The kids are 16 to 21 years old and live in cars, shelters, and sometimes in apartments — and the program’s Trish Harlow says this program succeeds because it offers them incentives. The kids have no money so they figure they don’t have anything to learn about managing money — with their street mentality, you share it and give it away if you have it, and if you get 500-dollars you’re rich, all of which does not lead to good decisions about money. Harlow says they taught the “Money Matters” program while the teens also got gift cards or jobs at the centers that paid them a little money, which heightened their interest. She says the program teaches everything from the cost of renting an apartment to the importance of savings accounts to what makes up a “livable wage.” That 6-dollar-an-hour job doesn’t necessarily mean you can afford an apartment, with the cost of rent, deposit, and utilities — they learn all about what it takes. Harlow says the program helps young people with important purchases that will make a big difference in their lives. One example is a young man whose savings for a car were matched dollar-for-dollar by the Casey Foundation. He really needed it because he works at welding and can’t get to job sites without a car. She tells of a young woman who could get work if she could travel at times the buses didn’t run so she needed a car. The treasure department’s honored the “Money Matters on the Street” program with the John Serman award for excellence in financial education.
DNR to start discussion on boat dock rules
September 28, 2004 By
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources begins a series of public meetings Thursday to talk about overhauling of a set of rules that could become controversial. It’s been 20 years the rules covering private and commercial boat docks in the state were written. D-N-R Law Enforcement Bureau chief Lowell Joslin says it’s time to take a look at how the docks impact those who live on the water and those who use if for recreation. He says they’re having the meetings in the areas where there tend to be a lot of docks to help formulate what the rules might look like, or should look like before they go ahead with what’s called the “notice for intended action.” Joslin says that’s a change from the normal process in which the intended action is usually published, and then hearings are held. While Iowa’s a landlocked state, Joslin says the number of boat docks has changed a lot since he came aboard the D-N-R 25 years ago. He says 20 years ago a person may’ve had one straight out dock with an “L” or “T” on it and one runabout boat. He says now people have one or two pleasure boats, and they also have two or three personal watercraft and maybe a sailboat. He says he thinks there’s more money being spent on recreational equipment, especially boats. Joslin says development along the lakes has driven the increase in boat docks and the fight for space. He says Clear Lake for instance is fairly shallow and there are some docks that’re as long as 200 feet, and he says that can create some problems for people who’re boating. Joslin says there are also issues for fishermen who find the docks create some of the best habitat for their quarry. Joslin says the six public hearings are attempt to give everyone a chance for input — and he knows there’s the potential for problems among the competing interests. He says he doesn’t expect the meetings to be real easygoing. He says the potential is there for some real “hot button” issues. The first hearing is Thursday September 30th at the Gull Point State Park lodge in Milford. The rest of the hearings will follow each or the next five Thursdays at Clear Lake, Backbone State Park, Davenport, Sioux City and Johnston.
