An outbreak of syphilis is reported in eastern Iowa’s Scott County. Doctor Louis Katz, medical director of the county health department in Davenport, says four men have been diagnosed with the potentially-fatal sexually transmitted disease in the past ten weeks. All four men admitted having sex with other men and Katz said they had something else in common. All had solicited partners for sex on the Internet. Katz says people shouldn’t engage in that sort of risky behavior and if they insist on doing it, they should use protection like a condom. Syphilis often starts with painless sores and leads to a rash with fever and can be deadly, though it can be treated with antibiotics.
Bill would make secret drug compartments in cars illegal
February 28, 2005 By
A bill making its way through the legislature sets a new penalty for drug runners who use secret compartments in vehicles to smuggle drugs. Representative David Tjepkes, a republican from Gowrie, says the crime would be a felony. The bill would make it a crime to “knowingly” possess, use, or control a false compartment in a vehicle with the intent to store, conceal, smuggle or transport “contraband.” The bill also makes it a crime to build one of these hiding places for drug running. Tjepkes says the bill’s important because most meth in Iowa is “imported.” He says illegal meth labs in Iowa manufacture no more than 20 percent of the meth consumed in Iowa. Over 30 percent of the drug seizures state troopers made last year involved secret compartments in a vehicle a trooper had pulled over. Tjepkes, a retired state trooper, says in one seizure, a trooper found half a million dollars in cash stashed in a false compartment. Tjepkes says the bill does not make it illegal to have a secret compartment in your vehicle, but makes it against the law to use it as a hiding place for drugs or drug money. “There are many legitimate uses for those types of compartments,” Tjepkes says. For example, he says people stash “valuables” like purses in a secret compartment in their vehicle. Representative Don Shoultz, a democrat from Waterloo, questions whether the new law would be effective. “In order to actually charge anyone with this particular offense and punish them, they would already have to be guilty of so many other things that I don’t know why you would bother,” Shoultz says. Representative Bruce Hunter, a democrat from Des Moines, says there’s no need for the new law as the existing “conspiracy to traffic drugs” law covers the construction or use of secret compartments. Hunter says the bill is just a “feel good” measure. The bill has already won approval in the Iowa House. It must get the backing of the Iowa Senate and Governor Vilsack before it becomes law. A few other states have such a law on the books.
U-of-I aquires collection of "Fanzines"
February 28, 2005 By
The University of Iowa has acquired one of the world’s largest collections of science fiction fanzines. More than a quarter-million of the small-circulation publications are in dozens of boxes in Iowa City now and they’re being carefully catalogued. Sid Huttner, head of Special Collections at the U-of-I Libraries, says the sci-fi fanzines are -not- comic books. Huttner says they are something like magazines, but are more informal, containing articles, columns, letters, artwork and photographs. Some are just run off on a copy machine while others are professionally printed. Some of the ‘zines date back to the late 1930s, but most are from the ’60s and ’70s. Huttner says the collection contains titles from the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia. He says it’s well-organized and includes some very rare ‘zines. Since most people throw their magazines away, it’s highly unusual to find an entire series of fanzines from several decades ago. Huttner says when it’s fully available to scholars, the collection will provide an invaluable resource for research into the history of modern science fiction and the formation of fan communities. Huttner says the collection of more than 250-thousand sci-fi fanzines was donated to the U-of-I by an Oregon man who had originally hoped to sell them on the Internet auction site e-Bay. The collection was being stored in a warehouse which had changed ownership. The new owner offered the building to the local fire department to burn down as practice. The ‘zine collector had to find a taker for the collection within days or they would have been burned with the building. The fanzines include Bob Tucker’s “Le Zombie” and Robert Silverberg’s “Starship,” which Huttner says are considered significant names in science fiction history. U-of-I officials say they now have the largest collection of science fiction fanzines in the Midwest and one of the largest anywhere on the planet. For more information, surf to “www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll”.
Dubuque Diocese officials says there are parallels between adoption and priest abuse
February 28, 2005 By
The head of a group for people once abused by clergy finds a parallel in the way society once handled the issue of adoption. Joyce Connors heads the “Office for Protection of Children” in Dubuque Catholic ArchDiocese. “When I look back 25, 35 and forty years ago at how adoptions were handled and how birthparents were treated back then, in the light of today, it was not handled real well,” Connors says. Connors has worked for over fourteen years as a counselor, and served as the archdiocese adoption coordinator. She says today adoption is handled totally differently than it was forty years ago because we’ve learned over the years there are better ways of doing it. Without making excuses for the church, she says society handled many things differently in the past than it does today. If you look at the legal system, people caught abusing minors forty years ago who went through the legal weren’t well handled, if you analyzed that in the light of what we know today. Connors says there’s no doubt many people suffered abuse and were treated shamefully when they tried to report it, and she says the church is doing what it can to hear their stories and determine what it should do.
Gross says he won’t run for Governor in 2006
February 28, 2005 By
One of the candidates who had been making moves to run for governor has decided not to run. Doug Gross, a lawyer from Des Moines, is the republican who ran against Governor Tom Vilsack in 2002. Gross had formed a new campaign fundraising organization called a five-27, using the money to run radio advertisements touting his vision for reviving Iowa’s economy, but he sent a letter to supporters today (Monday) telling them he won’t run again in 2006. In the letter, Gross said it was “flattering” to know so many had faith in his ability to lead, but Gross said his family comes first and he came to the conclusion he did not have the “singular committment required” to run for governor again.
Democrat legislators resume call for insurance coverage of mental illness
February 28, 2005 By
As state legislators return to work today, democrats will resume their push for a bill that would force insurance companies to cover treatment for mental illnesses and substance abuse. A House committee recently approved a bill that would force insurers to cover “biologically-based” mental illnesses, but House Democrat Leader Pat Murphy of Dubuque says that doesn’t go far enough. “In politics we talk about getting a half a loaf versus a full loaf,” Murphy says. “I think this is maybe one or two slices of bread out of the whole loaf.” Representative Mark Smith, a democrat from Marshalltown, agrees that the bill is too limited. Smith says 30 percent of psychotic disorders are not considered “biologically-based.” Senate Co-Leader Michael Gronstal, a democrat from Council Bluffs, says “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” isn’t a “biologically-based” mental illness, either. “People coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan, there’s a pretty good example of folks (who) can be treated and be reintegrated back in their communities and lead long and productive lives,” Gronstal says. “Or we walk walk away from them and let them become the homeless.” Eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia that strike many young girls wouldn’t be covered by the legislation, and Smith, who is a social worker, says that would be a shame since 25 percent of the young girls who’re diagnosed with an eating disorder end up dying of it. “We are believers that if we can help children achieve a greater state of wellness in childhood, we have a greater chance that they’re going to be healthy adults,” Smith says. But backers of the limited bill say loading up the bill with all those requirements will drive up health care premiums even more. Representative Danny Carroll, a republican from Grinnell who is the bill’s floor manager, says “you can go too far and end up doing more harm than good.”
Falcon takes up residence at the Statehouse
February 28, 2005 By
There’s a new guard at the statehouse in Des Moines — a falcon. A peregrine falcon has established a nest on the northeast corner of the building. Lowell Washburn is a master falconer. “They’ll fly as far south as Argentina sometimes…but once they have a territory like the pair here on the capitol, they don’t like to leave the house unlocked and they’ll stay around as long as they can because they don’t know who’s going to show up when they’re gone and take over their territory,” Washburn says. Washburn says peregrine falcons released in Iowa have shown up all over the continent. One female raised in Iowa is now nesting on the capitol building in Winnipeg, Canada. Pat Schlarbaum, a wildlife expert for the Department of Natural Resources, placed a two- by three-foot wooden box containing a layer of pea gravel on the northeast ledge of the capitol to help the falcon mate.Schlarbaum says what’s unusual is that the female peregrine at the state capitol is attracting the same male that produced 27 offspring with a female that nests atop a downtown insurance building. The Des Moines River serves as an important boundary. “Peregrines are so territorial, they will not tolerate any other peregrines but any other raptors,” Schlarbaum says. “There’s incidents of the peregrines driving bald eagles away.” The male in the pair of falcons guarding the statehouse is the same male was released in Cedar Rapids in 1990 and he’s reaching his “golden era” according to Schlarbaum. The dense population of peregrine falcons in Iowa was wiped out by the chemical D-D-T in the 1960s but state efforts to re-introduce the bird to the state are succeeding.
