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Drake visits Missouri State

January 31, 2006 By

The Drake Bulldogs return to Missouri Valley Conference play on Wednesday night with a visit to Missouri State. The Bulldogs have lost four of their last five games but coach Tom Davis says his team has not become demoralized. Davis says it helps that a lot of guys are new to what they’re doing. He says if it was something where they were repeating the tough loses year after year, it would be tougher to take.

In the last couple of weeks Drake has lost by two points to U-N-I and dropped a one point decision to Southern Illinois. Davis says the players recognize the league is strong and they’re going to come up short sometimes.

Missouri State is 6-5 in the Valley after winning at Indiana State.
Bears coach Barry Hinson says their confidence is a little bit higher now than it has been. This is the teams second meeting but Hinson says it is always difficult to prepare for Drake’s press. He says there’s so much emphasis on the press, but he says they also change defenses at all times on the floor. The Bulldogs are 4-7 in the Valley and 11-11 overall.

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Donor pulls money from Republican over TouchPlay machines

January 31, 2006 By

A big Republican donor has withdrawn his support from one G-O-P candidate for governor, while two of the Democrats running for governor are quibbling over competing campaign donations. William Krause, a West Des Moines Republican who owns the Kum & Go chain of convenience stores, and his son, the chain’s C-E-O, have given Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Nussle thousands of dollars.

But Nussle won’t be getting any more from the Krauses because of Nussle’s call for pulling all Iowa Lottery “TouchPlay” machines. Kum & Go has about two-hundred of the machines in their stores today and the Krauses say Nussle’s anti-TouchPlay stand has “destroyed” their confidence in him as a candidate. The other G-O-P candidate in the race holds the same view on TouchPlay.

Among the Democrats running for governor, Michael Blouin says Chet Culver should return the 40-thousand dollars he received from a Texas man convicted of insider trading. Scott Ginsburg was fined a million dollars by the feds, too. Matt Paul, Blouin’s campaign manager, says Culver should return the “tainted” Ginsburg money. “Iowa has a history of clean and fair elections…this $40,000 that he accepted from Mr. Ginsburg should be returned,” Paul says.

But Culver campaign officials say Ginsburg, who is a native of Sioux City, is a long-time family friend of Culvers who admitted he made a mistake and has moved on. The Culver camp, meanwhile, is suggesting Blouin should not have accepted money from a New York man whose company was fined by the feds for contacts with the Chinese.

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Catholic Charities president says federal cuts will hurt

January 31, 2006 By

The president of Catholic Charities U-S-A is outlining the cuts in social services Iowans would see under a proposed budget bill in Congress. Father Larry Snyder says the legislation could compromise the health and well-being of some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Iowa and nationwide.

Snyder says “In Iowa alone, this bill would cut federal matching funds for nearly all of the state’s 186-thousand children enrolled in Medicaid. In addition, long-term care for nearly 42-thousand Iowa seniors would be effected and 78-million dollars in federal funding for Iowa’s child support enforcement efforts could be cut as well.”

He says the measure is certain to have long-term, harmful effects on countless families in Iowa and will only make the state’s budget crunch worse. Snyder says “There’s no question our government needs to spend tax dollars more responsibly, but ripping apart the social safety net is not the answer.” Catholic Charities U-S-A is one of the nation’s largest social service networks. Snyder calls the legislation “misguided” and says his group is making a last-minute plea to members of Congress to protect government programs for the poor from the budget knife.

Filed Under: Politics & Government, Religion

Republicans push plans for senior tax breaks

January 31, 2006 By

Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate are pushing plans that give tax breaks to Iowa seniors. The House will debate a bill later today (Tuesday) that would gradually erase state income taxes on pensions and Social Security for Iowans who’re retired. House Speaker Christopher Rants, a Republican from Sioux City, says it’s an attempt to keep retirees from leaving the state. “I got an e-mail from one of my constituents who is moving to South Dakota,” Rants says. “To use his words: ‘the state of Iowa is not going to take nine percent of my retirement income.’”

Rants says if Iowa doesn’t repeal the “retirement tax” the state will continue to see retired residents move to other states with lower taxes on pensions and Social Security income, or no taxes at all on that retirement income. House Democrats plan to offer an alternative plan that would see the state eliminate all state income taxes for single seniors who make less than 36-thousand dollars a year.

House Democrat Leader Pat Murphy of Dubuque says they’d also like elderly couples earning less than 48-thousand dollars to be excused from paying state income taxes. “We don’t think that, quite frankly, somebody making a six-figure income in retirement should be treated the same as someone who’s depending on six- or eight-thousand dollars a year and then renting off their farm,” Murphy says.

Representative Kurt Swaim, a Democrat from Fairfield, says retired executives will make a “killing” under the Republican tax plan, while the Democrats’ tax cut targets the neediest Iowans. “Our plan is a better plan because it covers more people. It covers the people (who need) it,” Swaim says. “And it doesn’t cover the people who don’t need it.”

House debate of the two competing tax packages for seniors is scheduled to begin at 4:30 this (Tuesday) afternoon. Meanwhile, Republicans in the Senate want to give a property tax break to elderly Iowans who’re poor. Under their plan, senior citizens with an annual income of 25-thousand dollars or less would get the property taxes on their homes frozen at current levels.

Senator Mark Zieman, a Republican from Postville, says high property taxes are pushing some poor seniors out of their homes and into government-subsidized housing. “This is not a unique plan,” Zieman says. “The states around us — Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota — all have something similar to this type of a plan in place to help the poorest of our seniors to stay in their homes.”

Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson, a Republican from Clarion, says state policy needs to encourage seniors to stay in their homes as long as possible, and their proposal targets the neediest. “We have half of the people over 65 years old in the state of Iowa with a gross income of $25,000 or less,” Iverson says. “It is a huge problem.” Senate Democrats, however, have not signed on to this proposal and that’s necessary before it can be debated in the Senate.

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High school kids call for keg registration

January 31, 2006 By

A hundred high schoolers are at the statehouse today (Tuesday), urging lawmakers to require registration tags on beer kegs and increase the penalties for adults who provide alcohol to minors.

Sixteen-year-old Tim Carr, a high school junior from Lamoni, helped start a group called “Iowans to Reduce Underage Drinking” that’s been pushing for three years for beer keg registration. “Twenty-seven states in the nation currently have a state law on the books, so I ask today on behalf of Iowa’s youth: why can’t Iowa become number 28?” Carr asks. The neighboring states of Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota and Nebraska all require registration tags on beer kegs.

Carr says kids from Garner, Mason City, Lamoni, Des Moines, Sioux City and Worth County are at the statehouse to show Iowa they care and that it’s time for change. “We’re here to lead the way,” Carr says. Carr says many adults who’ve bought kegs for kids are never held accountable when something goes wrong because cops can’t track who bought the keg because there’s no registration required at the point of purchase.

Carr says when you hold people accountable for their actions, you often change behavior and keg registration may make some adults think twice before buying a keg for kids. “We won’t shut up ’til our voices are heard and the common sense strategies we’re advocating become law,” Carr says. “The cost of ignoring our underage drinking epidemic is a price that this state should not be willing to pay.”

Emily Nelson, a junior at Sioux City West High School, is one of 30 Sioux City-area kids lobbying for beer keg registration. “Most of the youth here today are under the age of 18 and cannot yet vote, nor do we have money to contribute to candidates or influence legislators, however it must be remembered that we someday will,” Nelson says. “We have the moral high-ground and data that assures us that beer keg registration is the right thing to do to save lives that may include our own friends and peers.”

Nelson says grocery store managers in South Sioux City, Nebraska, where keg registration is required, say the law works. “They reported that the paperwork takes very little time to complete and is relatively simple,” Nelson says. Nick Cash, a senior at Des Moines Lincoln High School, says his friend, Nick Bisignano, got drunk at a party on December 26, 2004, and crashed his speeding car. “Although it was Nick’s fault to choose to drink and drive that night, an adult made the decision to abuse his privilege of buying alcohol by providing it to minors,” Cash says.

Cash backs keg registration as well as a bill that would toughen penalties for adults who buy beer or alcohol for minors. “All through high school kids have seemed to be able to obtain alcohol whenever they want it and almost all the time it’s purchased by an adult knowingly providing alcohol to minors,” Cash says. Iowa’s Public Safety Commissioner claims that 25 percent of the alcohol that’s consumed in Iowa is drunk by kids who’re younger than 21.

Nearly a year ago, Sherry Clark’s 15-year-old son, Billy, got drunk at a friend’s birthday party and died when he fell off a bridge over the Boone River and drowned. “I am thrilled to see all these young people here, to know that this is a concern to them because it is a concern,” Clark says. “We have lost many young people to tragic accidents, my son included.”

Christy Batton, a Substance Abuse Free Environment Coordinator for Mills County, says they’ve installed a “Party Stoppers” toll-free hotline. People can call in anonymously and report an underage drinking party. There’s a 50-dollar reward if the party is successfully busted. The hotline’s been running since January 18th, and she says they’ve yet to receive a call. A similar hotline is operating in Pottawattamie County.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Program has patients write about their illness

January 31, 2006 By

A new program at the University of Iowa will feature a very special kind of writing class, for patients who are seriously ill. Austin Bunn is a grad student in the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop who’ll run “The Patient Voice,” helping people with illness and chronic pain tell their stories. He says often they’re struggling to tell what he calls a “broken story.” He says it’s easy to understand if you’ve ever been ill or had a family member who was seriously sick — there’s a beginning, when a doctor makes the diagnosis or you have the first symptoms, and then “there’s this crazy ocean of middle,” he says, including treatment and the progress of the disease or some improvement…but he says there’s never an ending. The story goes on, and he says just as it’s hard to listen to someone talk about illness, trying to write the story is a struggle to give it some shape.Bunn knows it from personal experience, as his mother has Parkinson’s Disease. He’s seen her struggle trying to tell the stories of what she’s going through, because while there are new developments, there’s no sense of achieving an ending, closure or peacefulness about what’s happening to her. He had a couple reasons for creating this writing program for patients and seeking grants to fund it. Biologically, he says there’s some evidence that just writing about the experience of illness helps the immune system and can improve a patient’s T-cell level, and decrease their amount of a stress hormone called Cortisol. He hopes people in the program enjoy some of those physical benefits. The second part of the program he calls a “kind of feedback loop.”In addition to the writing progress which he hopes is a good experience with a “moment of reflectiveness,” the works of those taking part in “The Patient Voice” will be published. He hopes the anthology will give feedback to the people who give them care, and help their doctors and nurses understand what it’s like to be chronically ill. He says the program’s been created at a time when attitudes about healthcare are changing, and it may be valuable to that new vision.He says there’s a sense that doctors need to listen better, and the medical community should give patients a stronger role in their own care. The program’s come along at a good time, Bunn says, with medicine looking at treating not just the body or the illness, but treating the whole person. It’s part of the University of Iowa’s “Arts Share” program that offers music, performance and arts to schools and makes the resources of the University available to schools and communities.

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Helicopter lands at Storm Lake hospital amid concern

January 31, 2006 By

After much debate in recent months, the first helicopter landed last night (Monday) at the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center helipad in Storm Lake. The helipad is located on the northwest corner of the hospital property and opposition to having the helipad in that location created some controversy last year.

During meetings of the Storm Lake Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Adjustment, several people living in the area spoke out against the helipad location, primarily due to safety concerns and worries about noise and a large oxygen tank in the vicinity. A large oxygen tank located in the area also was of concern.

In September after considerable discussion, the Board of Adjustment approved allowing the helipad be located on hospital property. The landing occurred shortly before 6:30, while the medical center’s Board of Trustees were meeting. Trustee Kim Martin noted there was plenty of room in the helipad area for the helicopter from Mercy Air Care in Sioux City to land, and noted the oxygen tank had been moved to another area away from the helipad.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine
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