The UNI women’s basketball team begins the second half of their Missouri Valley Conference schedule tomorrow as they host Bradley at the West Gym. Northern Iowa has gotten off to a good start in the Valley. The Panthers are in third place with a 6-3 record. Coach Tony DiCecco feels the Panthers should have confidence going into the final part of the season after being competitive in the first half. He says they’ve been able to play with the premiere teams in the league and he says if they feel good about how they play, that’s important to their success in the second half of the season.Northern Iowa will look to take advantage of their schedule as they play their next three games at home. DiCecco feels tomorrow’s game begins an important stretch for the Panthers if they want to staty in the upper half of the league. UNI beat Bradley 74-66 in Peoria, Illinois earlier in the season.
Iowa set to play without Pierce
The Iowa Hawkeyes play their first game without leading scorer Pierre Pierce on Saturday when they host Michigan State. At 3-4 in the Big Ten the Hawks will try to re-group against a Spartan team that has won 12 of the last 15-games in the series. Iowa coach Steve Alford says Mike Henderson will be in the starting lineup and says it will be a tall order for Henderson. Alford says the coaches will have to coach better and the players will have to coach better. Alford expects his team to respond to the challenge. He says the team has practiced well all week and they’re healthy going into the game. He says they face the 10th ranked team so it will be a tall order with or without Pierce. Alford says if the players step it up, then they’ll have a special year, if they don’t then they’ll have a bad year. Pierce’s asbsence puts more pressure on junior co-captains Jeff Horner and Greg Brunner. Alford says they’ll fight and show up and give everything they’ve got. Iowa is 15-5 overall.
Johnson County Treasurer complains about new registration system
The Johnson County board of supervisors heard complaints this week about long lines blamed on the state’s new motor-vehicle registration computers. The new system went online the first of this year but Johnson County Treasurer Tom Kriz says it wasn’t trouble-free. It’s not a total change, he explains, it’s just a re-write of the software that was supposed to enhance the programs, make them quicker and provide better service for customers. In actuality, Kriz says, the clerks working with the new system quickly found out it had drawbacks.He says you expect some slowdowns and problems when there are new computer systems — but he says after the state spent ten-million dollars, he expects far better results early on they they’ve had the first month. He says they continue to find motor-vehicles files that were “lost” in the changeover from the old system to the new computers. Kriz says “a vast amount of data” didn’t automatically convert to the new system and that means folks who come in and find their records are gone have to wait 20, thirty minutes or more in line while clerks search for information and re-create the records. Shirley Andre, director of the Motor Vehicle Division, says she’s had no reports of problems converting the records. She is familiar with Kriz, and has heard he’s no fan of the new system. She says it’s “curious” he is so outspoken, as the last time she checked, last week, the people processing the work in Johnson County seemed to be doing quite well, were caught up and had figured out new ways of doing tasks she says led to “even more efficiencies than we had envisioned.” Andre says when it became apparent the 1984 computers could no longer handle new data her agency requested a new system and asked the county treasurers who use it contribute to the plan. She says they asked the treasurers for two things — they needed money, and they asked the treasurers to give the agency their very best people to help design it, and she says they did. Some of the counties didn’t have powerful enough P-Cs to run the new system, and some clerks had never worked with a mouse doing the motor-vehicle registrations, so it took time to bring everyone up to speed. Andre admits there were problems translating some titles into the new system. She says some records didn’t convert — vehicles in Dealer Inventory, waiting to be sold, and some small trailers she says “are the bane of our collective existence anyway, us and the treasurers,” because many don’t have titles. Andre says she figures the number of vehicles that didn’t make it into the new system is small, and many counties now have their backlog completely eliminated.
Car manufactured in Grinnell will return home
A car that was part of a once thriving Iowa business in the early part of the 20th Century will return to the state soon. John Swanson is the executive director of the Iowa Transportation Museum in Grinnell which has located and aquired the Spaulding touring car. He says it’s one of about 14-hundred-and-81 that were built at the Spauling manufacturing site. He says it was built in 1913 and about 60-percent of the car is there. He says it’s believed to be the only model remaining. The museum is housed in the Grinnell buildings were the cars were made. Swanson says the Spaulding was like many cars of its day that were built using various parts from many suppliers. He says Henry Spaulding built the cars for about six years after transitioning from a successful buggy building business. He says the car was very luxurious, but he says the company never achieved mass production or developed a dealer network, and the company didn’t sell enough to stay profitable. Swanson says Henry Ford once tried to buy the company, but Ford and Spaulding couldn’t come to a deal. He says they have to rebuild the body of the car — and it won’t be easy.He says there’s no blueprints for the car and they’ll have to use pictures and try to figure out the measurements and build from scratch. He says they’re interested in anyone who might have photos of the interior of the car. Swanson says it’ll take some time before the car is ready to run again. He says it will probably take 18 months to two years and between 75 and 100-thousand dollars to restore the car. He says it will be driveable and on display once they get it done. The Iowa Transportation Museum is under development and located just west of the Grinnell downtown district. Three buildings are all that remain of the manufacturing site that once was the largest employer in Poweshiek County, and they are on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Ads will take the focus of many during the Superbowl
While the nation’s top pro football teams square off Sunday, the best minds in advertising will also pitch products from potato chips to computer chips. Joel Geske, a professor of advertising at Iowa State University, says our free market economy is based on our gleaning information on products and services through ads — on T-V and radio, billboards and in print.If you didn’t have any information about various products, Geske says you wouldn’t prefer one brand over another and would just buy the generic yellow box with black type on it. Reports say a 30-second ad in Sunday’s Superbowl will cost a record two-point-four million dollars. Geske says the cost may be ridiculous, but a lot of effort goes into those commercials. Some of the best creative work and almost mini-movies are found in the Superbowl ads and Geske says they’re very entertaining and make people want to watch. It’s ironic, as some V-C-Rs have a feature that allows you to skip commercials, yet some people watch the Superbowl just to see the ads, not caring so much about the game. Geske says there’s a lot of psychology involved as advertising execs try to figure out ways to make us watch the ads. Geske says commercials are more effective when they can appeal to us on an emotional level. Humor works well too, he says, as “people like to laugh, feel good and get a little reward for watching. If the product message is embedded in this, the ad will work.” Although that can backfire, he says, as sometimes, the message gets lost and only the entertainment is remembered.
Congressman Leach says President should resist idea of war with Iran
Congressman Jim Leach says the Bush Administration should resist the idea of going to war in Iran. President Bush, in his State of the Union speech on Wednesday, expressed support for Iranians who want democracy. “I can’t think of anything that would be a greater mistake today,” Leach says. If the U.S. sends forces in Iran, Leach says it would be the third time the U.S. has sent military forces into a muslim state. As for neighbor Iraq, Leach says there should be a “symbolic” removal of some U.S. troops from Iraq after last week’s successful Iraqi elections. “Now that we’ve held democratic elections, my advice is to symbolically withdraw a few (soldiers) today and then as the elections based upon the new constitution that’s going to be written by October or November and the election that will follow after that, we ought to be prepared to make significant withdrawals,” Leach says. “The longer we’re there, the more we become a magnet for instability rather than a force for stability.” Leach says it is “frail logic” to think the U.S. military should extend its stay to establish a military base of operations in the Middle East. If the U.S. military stays in Iraq for the long-term, Leach says it will bolster the idea the U.S. is engaged in a “holy war” pitting Christians against Muslims.”If we think we can use Iraq as a staging ground for military activity on a long-term basis, I think we’ll be bringing upon ourselves great grief within the country and far greater grief around the world,” Leach says. “That, as much as anything, could help precipitate this Judeo Christian versus Muslim clash of civilizations that I think we should be attempting to avoid at all costs.” Leach, who is a republican from Iowa City, made his comments during taping of the Iowa Public Television program “Iowa Press” which airs tonight.
B-V women riding 16-game win streak
The Buena Vista women’s basketball team has put together a 16-game winning streak, including a 10-0 start in the Iowa Conference race heading into Saturday’s matchup at home against Central. Coach Janet Berry’s team has been strong in every phase of the game. She says she’s really pleased with how they’ve been playing as she says they have a solid lineup that can go nine deep.BV is 9-0 on the road this season after a Wednesday night victory at Coe College. She says they try to defend their home floor and be ready to compete out on the floor when they’re on the road.
