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Morningside looks for better showing in playoff rematch

November 30, 2005 By

The Morningside football team is two victories away from a national championship. The third rated Mustangs can take another step on Saturday when they visit second ranked St. Francis of Indiana in the NAIA semifinals. Morningside moved to 12-0 on the season with a lopsided victory over Evangel of Missouri in last weekend’s quarterfinal round.

Morningside coach Steve Ryan says his team is feeling very good about the playoffs and the way the season has gone. He says they’re also exited about playing the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year to see where they are at right now.

The Mustangs lost at St. Francis 53-3 in last year’s opening round but Ryan likes their chances much better this time. He says they probably have a much better football team and the team has grown. Ryan says they felt like they limped into the playoffs last year, but this year feel good about the way they’re playing right now. Top ranked Carroll of Montana hosts fourth ranked Sioux Falls in the other semifinal.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Republican Senator blames Democrats for deaths of children

November 30, 2005 By

A Republican Senator is accusing Democrats in the Senate who oppose the death penalty of causing the deaths of children who’re the victims of a kidnapping or sexual abuse. Republican Senator Larry McKibben of Marshalltown made his comments this (Wednesday) morning during a statehouse news conference.

McKibben says there’s a “de facto death sentence for children” today in Iowa. “If you kidnap someone or rape someone, either one of those is life in prison without the possibility of parole. What is the next logical step move for the kidnapper and rapist to do? Simply murder the victim,” McKibben says. McKibben repeatedly tried, without success, to get a Senate debate on the death penalty last spring. The Democrat Leader in the Senate blocked that debate. “I think by the Senate Democrats not allowing us to have that debate and have that discussion, they’ve de facto given us a death penalty and it’s a death penalty for minor children in this state,” McKibben says. “I think it’s time that that ends.”

McKibben argues that the death penalty for child killers would be a deterrent and save lives. McKibben says it’s time to stop finding children “in rivers or in shallow graves or stuffed in cabinets.” The body of Evelyn Miller, the girl murdered this summer in Floyd County, was found in a river and the body of Jetseta Gage, the Cedar Rapids girl raped and murdered allegedly at the hands of a convicted sex offender, was found stuffed in a cabinet in a mobile home.

McKibben is urging Iowans to lobby their legislators to enact a death penalty for anyone who murders a child.
“I think we need to tell the people of Iowa it’s time to contact your local state senator and say ‘We want (you) to have this debate in the spring of 2006,” McKibben says.

Senator Keith Kreiman, a Democrat from Bloomfield, takes a shot back at McKibben. Kreiman says Republicans have refused to provide enough money to the state’s child protective services system, and those budget constraints have ended up being a death penalty for some kids, too. Kreiman and McKibben are both members of a legislative panel that’s meeting today (Wednesday) at the statehouse, reviewing Iowa’s sex offender laws.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Effort on to find people lost in foreign wars

November 30, 2005 By

Blood samples are being collected today (Wednesday) in Des Moines from people who may have lost loved ones in the war in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mary Ellen Barber, who works in the international services division in the Central Iowa Chapter of the American Red Cross, says dozens of people who moved to Iowa from that region over the past decade are coming forward.

Barber says it’s just a couple of drops of blood that will be used as material for D-N-A samples to match with D-N-A taken from bones of remains that are found mostly in mass graves in the former Yugoslavia. That war ran from 1991 to ’95 and there are some 20-thousand people who are still missing as a result.

Barber says the people who are offering blood samples in Iowa are expressing mixed feelings — of sadness and hope. Since the war has been over for ten years, she says many people are resigned that they may never find their loved ones alive and those hopes are dimming, but she says if the remains can be identified, that provides a sense of closure for those who remain. Barber says the blood samples were taken Tuesday and all day today (Wednesday), through 10 o’clock tonight.

Many central Iowans are from the former Yugoslavia, there’s also a community in Waterloo and several other enclaves scattered across the state who have come here to live since the mid-1990s. For those who can’t make it to Des Moines to provide a blood sample, Barber suggests they contact the International Commission on Missing Persons. Iowa is among twelve states where the I-C-M-P is taking the samples over a two-week period. The next stop is Chicago’s Purple Hotel on December 2nd and 3rd. For more information, surf to “www.ic-mp.org”.

Filed Under: Human Interest Tagged With:

Farm Bureau discusses education

November 30, 2005 By

The annual meeting of the Iowa Farm Bureau continues through tomorrow in Des Moines. Today (Wednesday), State Education Department Director Judy Jeffrey spoke about rural schools and education.

Eastern Iowa dairy farmer Craig Lang, who’s president of the Farm Bureau, says that included the prospect of closing small schools with dwindling student bodies. He says equity in education affects all Iowans, and he thinks it can be offered by schools everywhere though it’ll be done differently than in the past, and “You know how hard change is.”

Lang says a lot of rural residents resist the suggestion that their local school may have to close. He says the school may not have to close, but might have to be run differently, saying the colleges, universities and community colleges across Iowa may be able to help local schools ensure that every student educated at a school in
Iowa is prepared to go on to college, no matter where they live — whether that’s West Des Moines, Linn-Marr in Cedar Rapids, Keokuk, Rock Falls, or Rock Rapids.

The education head spoke this afternoon after the Farm Bureau awards banquet. Tomorrow district nominating caucuses, resolutions and a board of directors meeting will wrap up the annual meeting.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: ,

Waverly public utility wants to use more renewable energy

November 30, 2005 By

Waverly Light and Power, the first public power system in the midwest to own and operate a wind turbine, wants to make renewable energy the source for 20 percent of its overall needs by 2020.

General Manager Glenn Cannon says the trustees who voted unanimously at their annual retreat aren’t limiting the effort to a specific kind of renewable energy. There’s no specific requirement that the utility own and operate the source, or that it be located in Waverly.

The city-owned power company will look only at where the best opportunities are, and the best portfolio to meet that standard. Waverly Light and Power first installed a wind turbine on a local farm in 1993. Cannon says they recently tried to install another. They issued a Request for Proposals back in September, but got no bids. Cannon says manufacturers told them there were so many large scale wind projects underway nationwide they wouldn’t bid on one that small.

Cannon says that’s bad news at the local level but good news overall, since it means so many big projects are going up that there are no generators to be had for the next few years. The utility is currently generating just under 4 percent of its needs from renewable energy. Cannon says the community has been supportive of renewable energy and encouraged an increased commitment.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Denison woman charged with stealing from government

November 30, 2005 By

Denison police have arrested a woman and charged her with stealing from a government agency. Forty-two-year-old Beth Young of Denison, a former employee of the Region 12 Council of Governments is accused of using a credit card that was issued to the agency and then using the card to purchase more than one thousand dollars worth of gasoline over a three-month period. Young was fired September 1st. According to court documents, Young allegedly took the card without permission and used it on 33 separate occasions to purchase gas for her own personal use. Young ‘s being held on a 16-thousand-800 dollar bond.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Chamber of Commerce execs want Vision Iowa revived

November 30, 2005 By

Executives from the chambers of commerce in Iowa’s 17 largest cities are asking lawmakers to revive a state grant program that helped launch big-scale projects around the state.

The Iowa Chamber Alliance is asking the 2006 legislature to re-start the “Vision Iowa” program that gave state grants to projects like a Mississippi River museum in Dubuque and new arenas or “events centers” in Sioux City, Des Moines, Ottumwa and Council Bluffs.

Betsy Brandsgard, vice president of DavenportOne, says those large-scale projects have really helped change the images of those Iowa communities. “There’s really been no program that has been more effective, more successful or leveraged more resources than the Vision Iowa program,” Brandsgard says. Davenport got 24 million from the Vision Iowa board for renovation and construction along the Mississippi River.

Brandsgard says there’s been “tons” of private investment sparked by the development. “The spin-off benefits are tremendous,” she says. Brandsgard says 13 projects have received two-hundred-21 million dollars in state grants, leveraging about a billion dollars in total project costs. “It’s huge economic benefit” for the state, according to Brandsgard.

The Chambers of Commerce suggest that the state set aside 15 million dollars of gambling taxes, and use that money to leverage more funds so the Vision Iowa program can help bankroll more, large-scale projects. Iowa Chamber Alliance spokesman Dave Roederer says such “destination projects” spawn other development, like hotels and restaurants.

Here is a list of the cities which have received Vision Iowa grants: Cedar Rapids received five million; Council Bluffs received a 24 million dollar grant & seven million dollar loan; Davenport received 20 million; Dubuque received 40 million; Ottumwa received seven-and-a-half million; Des Moines/Polk County received a 55 million dollar grant and a 15 million dollar forgivable loan; Sioux City received 21 million; Cedar Falls/Waterloo received nine-and-a-half million; Clinton received three-point-three million; Shenandoah and Clarinda/Page County received 12 million; Des Moines received a second four million dollar grant (for the Des Moines river walk); Burlington/Des Moines County received five-and-a-quarter million; Storm Lake received eight million.)

Filed Under: Business, Recreation & Entertainment
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