The Drake and UNI men collide for the second time this season when they matchup Wednesday night in the UNI-Dome. The Panthers are 8-6 in Missouri Valley play but at 17-8 overall coacg Greg McDermott believes his team could still earn an at-larege bid into the NCAA Tournament if they need one. He says as long as there’s still hope,they’ll continue to think about it and use it as a carrot to continue to progress. He says they still feel they’re in control of their own destiny.UNI will be out to avenge an 81-72 loss to the Bulldogs back on January 29th. He says, “they kicked our tails in Des Moines.” He says for one of the few times this year they were rattled in the second half and didn’t know how to respond. McDermott says Drake had a lot to do with that, but the team didn’t respond the way he heped they’d respond. McDermott expects a better effort out of his team tonight. He says they need a better plan and have to execute the plan better. He says Drake’s record is deceiving when you look at the close loses they’ve suffered. Drake coach Tom Davis says the Panthers have established themselves as one of the Valley’s elite teams. He says they’ve done a terrific job going back to last year’s conference tournament. Davis says the league is so balanced that UNI has suffered a couple of losses. Lonnie Randolph had 30-points for Drake in the first matchup with UNI but Davis says the Bulldogs have lacked a consistent go-to plater as evidenced by their 4-10 Valley mark. He says some nights Randolph has been terrific and other nights others have been terrific, but he says they haven’t had one person show they can play that way nigh in and night out in the league. Drake is 8-14 overall.
Marengo water clear again
Residents of one east-central Iowa city are no longer seeing red after a fix to their water system. Marengo City Financial Manager Barb Barricksays the problems with the water began a couple of months ago. She says they were getting a lot of iron in the water and that was causing problems including rust stains on residents’ laundry. She says an upgrade to the water system has helped clear up the problem.The public works director reported that the “filter media” at the water treatment plant is back on-line and the water quality in Marengo is “exactly where it should be.” Barrick says the water was still safe, but the city did offer free samples of a rust-remover product to users who had problems with the water before the system was fixed.
Democrats want to expand Hawk-I plan
Democrats in the Iowa Senate want to spend two-hundred-15 million dollars next year to expand access to health care. Their plan includes 185 million dollars for the state’s Medicaid program that provides health care for poor and disabled Iowans. It also calls fora 25 million dollar increase in spending on the HAWK-I program which provides low- and reduced-cost insurnace for poor children. Another five million dollars would be spent on community health centers and free clinics which Senator Jack Hatch, a democrat from Des Moines, says are an integral part of the health care system. “They are ususally manned in small towns, rural counties by P.A.s — Physicians Assistants and nurse practitioners. In many cases they are the only clniics in small towns,” Hatch says. He believes that five MILLION dollars would let new community health centers open in Dubuque, Fort Dodge and Storm Lake. Such clinics often get federal funding in addition to state tax support. The spending plan must win the approval of republicans as well as democrats in the equallly-divided Senate, then must be endorsed by the republican-controlled House before it reaches the governor for his consideration.
Democrats want insurance coverage for mental health, substance abuse
Democrats in the Iowa Senate today called for legislation that would force insurance companies to cover treatment for mental health and substance abuse treatment. Senator Daryl Beall, a democrat from Fort Dodge, also wants the bill to require coverage of treatment for eating disorders. “Sometimes, the more comprehensive a bill is, you build up more enemies, but I see this as a way of building up allies as well because many of us have a daughter, a niece, a neighbor who has an eating disorder. It helps put a face on the issue,” Beall says. Beall says eating disorders are now the second-leading cause of death of young women in America, and it’s time to force the insurance industry to do more to save girls before it’s too late. In years past, the Iowa House has approved a bill that would force insurance companies to pay for mental health treatment, but the bill has always died in the Senate. The House has never voted to force insurance carriers to cover substance abuse counseling or treatment for eating disorders.
University leaders ask for more money
Campus leaders from the three state-supported universities today (Tuesday) asked lawmakers to provide more state tax money to the schools to ensure tuitiion rates don’t go up as much as they have in the past few years. University of Northern Iowa president Robert Koob told lawmakers U-N-I’s enrollment has declined as a result of skyrocketing tuition rates. Over the last four years, tuition rates at Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I have increased over 50 percent. University of Northern Iowa student body president Brendan Moe, a junior from Joice, Iowa, says it’s taking a toll.”Over the past six years, loan indebtedness for those students at the University of Northern Iowa who borrow has increased from 16-thousand-700 to 22-thousand dollars,” Moe says. Furthermore, he says 75 percent of U-N-I students had to borrow to pay their tuition and fees this year. That’s nine percent more than just last year. University of Iowa student body president Lindsay Schutte, a Keokuk native, says if legislators give the universities an extra 40 million dollars, the Board of Regents promises to keep tuition increases at four percent a year. “Predictable tuition for the families of Iowa is an absolute must and that’s what this plan does,” Shootee says. “It allows us and our families to be able to plan for the future.” University of Iowa president David Skorton.Skorton says “more moderate” tuition increases are essential. Iowa State University president Gregory Geoffrey says the universities are shifting money from lower to higher-priority areas. For instance, at Iowa State Geoffrey wants to hire more professors for the business school because that’s where students are demanding more classes. “It’s faculty who lead the education programs and who direct those world-class research efforts, so we will be really focused on strengthening the excellence of our faculty and faculty numbers in critical areas,” Geoffrey says. I-S-U student body president Sophia McGill, a senior from Charter Oak, supports the focus on .hiring more faculty. McGill says “wonderful and knowledgeable and talented faculty” are needed as the schools focus on the quality of instruction. The university presidents and student leaders testified before the panel of legislators that will write a spending plan for the universities. The college presidents, including Geoffrey, pledged to do what’s necessary to consolidate to cut expenses. “The three universities work together very effectively as partners. We typically don’t compete with each other except on the athletics field,” Geoffrey says. “I think it’s important just for everybody to understand that because that’s really the way we operate.”
U-of-I President denies pushing out Regents
The president of the University of Iowa testified at the statehouse today, and tossed aside suggestions he had a hand in forcing the resignation of three members of the board the governs Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I. University of Iowa president David Skorton lauded the cost-cutting efforts launched by Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Chairman and C-E-O John Forsyth when Forsyth was president of the board that governs the state universities. “I very genuinely and sincerely think that the innovations that he brought to the board in terms of business efficiencies and focus and accountability were critical,” Skorton says. “They wouldn’t have been adopted unanimously by the board if other people didn’t feel that way and I maintain committed to those principles and the actions that will follow them.” Skorton says he had nothing to do with Forsyth’s resignation from the Board of Regents following a dispute between the University Hospitals and Wellmark, the company Forsyth runs.
“I have continued to deny and will continue to deny that I had any role whatsoever in those issues,” Skorton says. Skorton says his actions “easily” demonstrate he is four-square behind the transformation process Forsyth started at the universities.
Skorton says newly-appointed members of the Board of Regents are “strong” people who he will be able to work with. Skorton says he’s been a University of Iowa administrator for 16 years, and has always had a “good working relationship” with members of the Board of Regents. Skorton says he hopes legisaltors see he is sincere in his support of the cost-cutting ideas Forsyth advanced.
Omaha man dies in fatal Council Bluffs explosion
There was a fatal explosion in western Iowa this morning at a railroad yard in Council Bluffs. John Bromley, a spokesman for the Union Pacific Railroad, says three men suffered injuries that apparently were not serious and one was killed as they worked in a railcar maintenance yard about 9:30 this morning. Union Pacific has its national headquarters in Omaha, and the men were working in a maintenance shop at the railroad yard in Council Bluffs when the explosion occurred.Council Bluffs Fire Marshal Jeff Hutcheson says his office was called soon after the incident at a railroad maintenance shop on the city’s north side. Initial reports from the firest fire companies on-scene were that there was no fire, and one fatality. They say it looks like the man who died was working on a brand-new fuel tank, getting it ready to install in a railcar that was there being serviced in the workshop. He may have been operating a portable grinder when its sparks ignited some unknown vapor, fron an un-identified source. The cause of death will be known once they do an autopsy Wednesday. Three people also injured in the explosion were identified as Union Pacific employees, and emergency workers say their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. They were taken to local hospitals but officials can’t confirm whether they were admitted or treated and released, or tell us where the men were from. The tank involved in the explosion was to be used as a fuel container, but the fire marshall says it had never been filled. All indications are it was a brand-new tank, from a manufacturer, and he says the workmen were preparing it to be installed in a railcar. The dead man’s been identified as 46-year-old Daniel J. Weinert of Omaha. About 22 people work at the Union Pacific Heritage Park site, which is part of a former Chicago and Northwestern railroad roundhouse that’s used today to maintain vintage passenger cars.
