Several international college students have gathered in Marshalltown this weekend for a conference on multicultural communities. Michelle Soria is the executive director of the Iowa Council for International Understanding which organized the event. She says it’s a retreat for 50 students representing 31 different countries, as well as students from Iowa universities, who’ll come together and “learn about strengthening multicultural communities.” Soria says they picked Marshalltown as the site of the conference as the city’s undergone a big cultural change. She says Marshalltown’s had a big influx of Latino immigrants and they want to hear from local leaders about how they’ve handled that change. Soria says the people who’ve been involved in the good and bad of the community’s simulation of the immigrants will speak, including presenters from the Hispanic ministry of a Catholic church, the police chief and an administrator from the local hospital. She says they also have the Director of Community Partnerships and Training from University of Northern Iowa’s Iowa Center for Immigrant Leadership and Integration. She says the center has worked statewide with many towns that have experienced and increase in the Latino population. Sorio says the goal of the conference is to equip the students to know how to work in multicultural communities. She says whatever their background is, staying here in Iowa or returning abroad, it will team them how to change in general and work with that change. The conference will be held at the Marshalltown Best Western Regency Inn today (Friday) and Saturday.
King goes down-under for low-down on animal IDs
Congressman Steve King is in Sydney, Australia, examining Australia’s livestock identification system. King says when a calf is born, an electronic tag is attached to its ear. Then, all through the process — from pasture to sale barn to packing plant — that tag is swiped and the information loaded into a computer. “A system like that, at least, is what we need to do in the United States,” King says. “Producers are looking like it as an insurance policy against disease.” King says with the advent of Mad Cow disease in North America, a livestock identification system could wind up being a blessing. King says tracking livestock from birth to the meat case is an opportunity the U-S should seize. “Tracking that livestock within 48 hours of any type of a disease outbreak will dramatically diminish the loss of livestock that would have to be slaughtered in order to eradicate a disease,” King says. “We could save an industry with it.” King says the system can also help track the rate of gain in livestock and provide valuable information to American farmers and ranchers. Australia exports about 70 percent of its livestock, and back in 1961 they came up with a less sophisticated animal I-D system because of an outbreak of brucellosis. The effort to establish an identification system for U-S livestock has been put on hold by the U-S-D-A.
Drive-by in Davenport wounds teen; cops looking for suspect
A teenager was hit in a drive-by shooting early today in eastern Iowa. Davenport cops are looking for the suspect they believe is responsible for a drive-by shooting that happened shortly after midnight. A 14-year-old boy in Davenport was hit by a gunshot fired from a passing car. Cops found the car abandoned in Rock Island. A woman out walking her dog found a gun that police believe was used in the shooting. The injured 14-year-old was hit in the right thigh, but his wound is not serious. He was sitting in the back seat of a car when the shooting happened at about 12:45 this morning.
Report: Iowa DHS takes higher percentage of kids from homes
Iowa’s Department of Human Services recently came under the microscope with a report that it removes more kids from troubled homes than some other states. D-H-S spokesman Roger Munns says there’s more to the story than that. We’re also “very fast to get ‘em back home,” he says. At any given time the number of Iowa children in foster homes, as a percent of all children in the state, is below average compared with the national rate and our neighbors here in the Midwest. Munns points out that when states are compared for how they deal with child abuse, evaluators don’t look at the state numbers the public may try and compare. Nobody’s looking at how many children per thousand are in foster care, or how fast they’re removed from their homes, instead, he says, they look at whether, once the agency responds to a report of child abuse, it’s kept the child safe. Whether there’s any “re-abuse” within a certain time, that kind of thing is more important. The latest federal review contains six database categories. Munns says not a single state passes them all, and Iowa needed to improve its performance in two categories. One’s the “bounce-back” rate, as he describes it — when a child removed from a home goes back there but must be removed again. In some other states the rate looks lower just because they categorize the child’s first six months back home as a visit, not a return, in case it doesn’t work out. And in another category, the state needs to improve the rate of “re-abuse” that happens when the decision’s made NOT to remove a child from a home where abuse has been found going on there. The federal standard is that 93-percent be free from abuse within six months of intervention, and Iowa currently stands at 87-percent in that category.
Governor Vilsack laments loss of nearly 1,000 Iowa jobs in one week
There’ve been three sobering job-loss announcements in the past week in Newton, Des Moines and Mount Pleasant. Governor Tom Vilsack, who is from Mount Pleasant, disputes the idea this latest round of economic bad news is a signal the Iowa economy is struggling.
“Obviously it is for the families who are affected by these decisions and it is a reflection on the global nature of our economy,” Vilsack says. The governor plans to use the layoff and closure announcements as ammunition in his fight to get legislators to re-establish the state “Iowa Values” economic development fund which has handed out large state grants to expanding businesses. The first Iowa Values Fund grant — worth 10 million — went to Wells Fargo. Vilsack says the grants encourage business growth and development.
The Celestica Company in Mount Pleasant is shutting down, putting more than 300 people out of work. One-hundred-55 Maytag production workers in Newton lost their jobs and about 500 Citibank employees based in Des Moines are losing their jobs. Vilsack says the people who criticized the state grant to Wells Fargo should “re-think” that since those laid-off employees may seek jobs with Wells Fargo. Vilsack will not give details, but he hints there’ll be a big business expansion in Iowa soon.
“I think you’re going to have better, more positive announcements here very quickly in terms of job growth in the state,” Vilsack says. “I anticipate an announcement here pretty soon on a major expansion and I think we have a lot of prospects. Having said that, we have not turned the corner. We continue to have to transform this economy. “
Fire marshal orders Denison school to close 3rd floor
The state fire marshal’s office has ordered -no- classes to be held on the third floor of Denison Middle School, due to safety concerns. Jeff Quigle, a spokesman for the fire marshal, explains the potentially-deadly circumstances. A student on the third floor would have to exit through four-foot-wide staircases and though a building that’s not separated by floor cutoffs. Quigle says if a fire were to start on a lower level, flames would sweep up through the building and compromise the exit. Denison Schools superintendent Mike Pardun says changes will be made to accommodate the middle school’s music program, which had been using classrooms on the third floor. Chorus classes will be held on the stage in the auditorium for now and the band will play there as well. The district is in the process of adding fire prevention measures and correcting problems.
Iowa soldier, a Waterloo native, killed clearing landmine in Iraq
Another Iowa soldier has been killed in Iraq, a Waterloo native who was trying to clear landmines. Staff Sergeant Eric Steffeny of Waterloo was trying to diffuse a roadside bomb on Wednesday north of Baghdad when it exploded. A nearby landmine was intentionally detonated, accidentally setting off the landmine Steffeny was in the process of checking. He was serving in the Army’s bomb squad unit which finds, disarms and detonates unexploded munitions. He enlisted in the Army after graduation from Waterloo West High in 1996. The 28-year-old was on his second tour in Iraq and was due to return stateside in April. Steffeny is the 22nd Iowan killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. He leaves a wife and three children in North Carolina.
