A southern Iowa woman has survived being shot in the head and authorities say her husband was the one who pulled the trigger. Clarke County officials are investigating a shooting in Woodburn in which a man allegedly shot his wife in the right eye. Authorities say the shooting happened Wednesday afternoon around 5, when the woman, who has not yet been identified, called for help. The woman was taken to Clarke County Hospital in Osceola and then transferred to Mercy in Des Moines. The woman is now at University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City where she is reportedly going to have extensive surgery to her right eye. The woman’s husband was taken into custody and was to undergo a mental health evaluation.
Harkin says U-S Capitol evacuation was not a problem
June 30, 2005 By
Iowa Senator Tom Harkin was in the U.S. Capitol when it was evacuated last night after a small plane strayed into restricted Washington, D.C. airspace. Harkin says he was on the floor of the Senate, “The police came and said everybody has to get out there’s a threat. Everybody got out in a very orderly fashion and we walked to our appointed place outside and waited until the ‘all clear’ was done and we came back in.” One Congressman complained that things were too confusing, but Harkin didn’t think so.”No, I didn’t see any confusion, I things were very orderly and very good,” he said. “We were just all happy it wasn’t raining.” Harkin says the confused Congressman needs to read his manual that tells him what to do in an evacuation.Fighter jets intercepted the plane and escorted it away within minutes. The White House also went on alert but the plane was gone before the evacuation had been completed.
Senator Harkin says he won’t support CAFTA
June 30, 2005 By
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the Central America Free Trade Agreement or CAFTA today and that will produce a split vote from Iowa’s two senators. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said earlier this week he supports the agreement, but Democrat Tom Harkin says he won’t support the deal.I’ve evaluated CAFTA with a genuinely open mind, having supported most major trade agreements during my three decades in Congress,”Harkin says. He says he’s concluded that the arguments against the agreement are stronger than the arguments for it. Harkin told reporters today he doesn’t think CAFTA does the U.S. any good.He says, “CAFTA fails to obtain a fair opportunity for U.S. farmers, workers and businesses to succeed in an ever more competitive global economy. They can compete with anyone on a truly level playing field. But it’s not fair competition if other countries allow their manufacturers or farms to disregard internationally recognized labor rights, and child labor protections or if those countries have lax or nonexistent environmental regulations and rules.” International child labor laws have been one of Harkin’s pet projects in the Senate and he says CAFTA would erode that work. He says reports from the U.S. State Department and the UN have documented child labor violations throughout the six countries in CAFTA. Harkin says CAFTA would take away the right of the U.S. to block goods from countries that use child labor. Harkin says he believes Republicans are bringing CAFTA up first in the Senate and not the House, because they have the votes to pass it in the Senate.
Northwest Iowa woman charged taking school money
June 30, 2005 By
A northwest Iowa woman is under arrest and faces charges that she lived a lavish lifestyle — partly at taxpayers’ expense. The State Auditor’s report found 419-thousand dollars in questionable spending in the “Before and After School” program for Spirit Lake and Okoboji school districts. The program provides child care, and part of the money in question came from the state of Iowa to pay the child care expenses of low income children. The rest came from the parents of other kids who were enrolled in the program. Margaret Waltz, known as Meg, is accused of using money that was supposed to be spent on the kids to buy vehicles, vacations, clothes, pet supplies and home decor. For example, the audit found she went on vacation to Cancun and took 15 members of her family along. The tab for that vacation was among the 419-thousand dollars in questionable expenses. She also bought a truck and paid her mother 30-thousand dollars. Waltz, who was the program’s executive director, told investigators her mother wrote grant applications to get more money for the child care program. The audit was prompted after an anonymous tip. The state money in the child care program came from the Department of Human Services and D-H-S spokesman Roger Munns says they’re ordering random audits of similar programs that get the grants. “We know that practically all the recipients, these businesses do walk the straight-and-narrow with public funds, but obviously we’ve been burned by one so we think if we could let people know that their records will get extra scrutiny, they’ll pay extra attention to detail,” Munns says. Munns says they’ll hire auditors or a C-P-A firm to randomly audit child care programs that get state D-H-s grants. In addition, state officials will try to get Waltz to repay some of the money she spent on herself. “This is a misuse of the public trust and the department will aggressively seek to recoup public dollars,” Munns says. The auditor hasn’t yet determined what portion of the 419-thousand dollars in questionable spending was public money because over half of the agency’s budget came from the fees paid by parents who had kids enrolled in the program.
Iowan says ultralights are largely safe
June 30, 2005 By
While an heir to the Wal-Mart fortune died this week in the crash of a small aircraft, there are thousands of those “ultra-lights” flying today over Iowa, and a professional in the field says they’re largely safe. Bob Ellefson sells them at Aircraft Supermarket in De Soto, and says he flies an ultralight himself. The beautiful part is, you can land and take off anywhere you want to. He explains unlike regular small planes they don’t fly at several thousand feet above the ground, but are very close to the ground — and going slow. “The worst thing that can happen is the engineer stop, and you just land the darn thing.” Ellefson says the ultralight craft can land almost anywhere once the operator’s had some training. In fact, its small size and one-man operation are unsettling to some pilots of traditional “small” planes. Getting used to flying that low, he explains, and in a craft so open it’s “a little bit like a flying lawn chair.” He quotes one private pilot who told him “I see way more than I want to see.” John Walton, son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, had been a certified pilot for at least three decades before he was killed when an ultralight he’d purchased in West Virginia went down this week near Walton’s home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Ellefson says they’ll surprise some, which he guesses may have happened in Walton’s case. He says, “You do need an hour or two of training even if you’re a longtime pilot.” For example, he says it’ll get off the ground so quickly even an experience pilot of other craft can be startled. Still, he says an ultralight doesn’t have any more accidents than any other motorized vehicle. Ellefson says we hear about every plane crash or mishap and may tend to think they’re more dangerous than the dozens of car crashes that happen every day. But ultralight aircraft are a fact of everyday life for thousands of Iowans. He’s sold a lot of them to farm families. “They will check their crops with it, locate cattle — we’ve been asked many times to locate livestock just flying out of here, for those that don’t have ultralights,” he notes. Ellefson estimates there are more than 4000 ultralights flying in Iowa today. In Bloomfield, he says there’s farmer who uses an ultralight rigged with equipment to spray his trees and crops, and can do about 110 acres an hour. Photographers also find ultralights valuable because they’re open all around and give a clear shot for the camera. The De Soto operation makes ultralights and has sold around six-thousand of the small aircraft in its two decades in business.
More vets signing up for John Deere Classic
June 30, 2005 By
More P.G.A. veterans are committing to play in next weeks John Deere Classic near the Quad Cities. David Toms, Nick Price and David Duval have a total of five major championships between them.Golfers have until Friday afternoon to enter the tournament and director Clair Peterson says one of the reason PGA veterans may decide to play at the last minnute is to improve their chances of representing the U.S. in international competition. He says the Ryder Cup and President’s Cup points are on a two year rotation because that’s when the events happen. Right now it’s the President’s Cup that players are worrying about. Every P.G.A tour event gives players a chance to earn points for what Peterson calls “the Olympics of golf.” The Deere Classic begins next Thursday at the TPC at Deere Run.
Name of victim released in Oelwein murder
June 30, 2005 By
Oelwein police have released the name of a murder victim. Autopsy results have confirmed that the remains found Tuesday night in a storage yard of the old Rath packing plant in Waterloo are that of 28-year-old Marie Farrell of Oelwein. 40-year-old Tonie Barrett of Waterloo has been charged with first-degree murder in Farrell’s death.
Farrell was reported missing June 1st; on Monday night, the Oelwein police department was called to her apartment to check the status of her welfare. Authorities found indications of criminal activity at her residence. Barrett, who had been Farrell’s boyfriend, reportedly confessed to the crime and led police to Farrell’s body. Barrett, a convicted sex offender with several run-in’s with the law, is being held in the Fayette County Jail in West Union, on $500,000 bond. Autopsy results which include the cause of death, are expected to be released today.
