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Film to feature Norway baseball tradition

April 29, 2006 By

Producers are setting up to shoot a film in the eastern Iowa town of Norway, just southwest of Cedar Rapids. The movie will be called “The Final Season” and will center on the Norway High School baseball team, which was cut by the Benton Community Schools in 1991. That same year, the team won the state championship. Norway Mayor Gary Butz says he’s glad the film will be shot there.

Butz says “It’s some recognition for the town, for a town that’s had a long career with baseball history.” The field where the team played its last home game will be the setting for the film. The diamond is still used by youth leagues. Not everyone is in favor of the movie being shot there, due to rumors about the storyline.

Resident Hannah Brecht isn’t sure it’ll all be good. Brecht says “It might give us a reason maybe to brag but I don’t think we’ll brag that much, I’m just saying.” Norway High School won 20 state championships in all but without a team, many residents say a part of the town died. Now, they hope the movie will help bring that part of Norway back to life.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Gingrich says GOP leaders in Congress don’t get it

April 28, 2006 By

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, says his fellow Republicans will have a tough election in November, and he’s worried the GOP leadership in Congress isn’t “getting it” yet.”The last two weeks have been very frustrating to me because they had every opportunity to come back from the Easter recess and say ‘We really do get it,’” Gingrich says. “I sense that they have not yet realized how out of step they really are with the country at large.” From high gas prices to the prospect of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons, Gingrich says America is in a period of enormous challenge. “I think the gap between what we need and where we are has widened not narrowed,” Gingrich says. “I think the challenges we face are larger, not smaller.” Gingrich is in Iowa this weekend to keynote a Republican Party of Iowa fundraiser Saturday night. During an appearance Friday on Iowa Public Television, Gingrich suggested he’ll return often to the state as he mulls the idea of running for president. “I want to come back again and again, and you’ll get tired of me but I’m going to come back to talk about ideas and talk about solutions and then, you know, maybe sometime in the fall of 2007 we’ll see where we’re at,” Gingrich said. “But I think it’s important not to focus on ambition and maneuvering for 2008. I think my party needs to get its act together for 2006.”

Filed Under: Politics & Government

New UNI president introduced on campus

April 28, 2006 By

The board that governs Iowa’s three state universities met Friday and voted to make Benjamin Allen the new president of the University of Northern Iowa. Allen’s been a transportation professor and academic vice president at Iowa State University. On Friday just after his confirmation, Allen spoke to a gathering on the Cedar Falls campus and talked about his previous visit to UNI. Allen says he and his wife were impressed during their visit to the community earlier this month. He says they wanted to come back, not just because the campus was beautiful and the academic programs outstanding, but because of the people they met. Allen says “Students First” is not just a slogan at UNI. He says people live it and there’s a passion for the school. Allen says he hopes to make it even better, a process he jokingly calls “purple passion.” Allen was among three finalists to replace Robert Koob who announced his retirement after 11 years as president of UNI. Allen, who is 59, has been at Iowa State since 1979. As the university’s provost and v-p for academic affairs, Allen was in charge of all academic programs and he was the immediate boss to all the college deans. He earned a degree in business economics from Indiana then his masters and doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois. His academic specialty, before he entered administration, was transportation logistics.

Filed Under: Education

Two interest groups win in Legislature’s budget deal

April 28, 2006 By

Two powerful Iowa interest groups that tend to back candidates of one party over the other are both winners in the state budget deal reached Thursday night at the capitol. Iowans for Tax Relief has been pushing for the past five years to get lawmakers to erase state taxes on Social Security benefits and pension income.

Jeff Boeyink, the group’s executive vice president, says they’re thrilled with the deal. It gradually gets rid of state taxes on Social Security over the next eight years and allows the elderly to get a greater share of pension income tax-free. “We went into the session with the elimination of pension and Social Security taxes as our number one priority as an organization,” Boeyink says. “We knew it had some bipartisan support but it faced a lot of uphill battle…We will consider it a victory.”

The organization’s home office is in Muscatine and that has colored their view on this issue. “We live right across the border from a state that doesn’t tax pensions and Social Security,” Boeyink says, referring to Illinois. “We thought it had real world impact in terms of people’s locational decisions and decided this was something we needed to work on.”

While Iowans for Tax Relief, an organization with a political action committee that tends to back Republican candidates over Democrats, is hailing the deal, so is the Iowa State Education Association, which has a PAC of its own that tends to support Democrats.

“We’re grateful that they did the work that Iowans were asking for, to raise teacher salaries,” says Linda Nelson, president of the state teacher’s union. The deal calls for 210-million dollars in additional state spending to raise teacher pay over the next three years.

Bills to be passed next week will set aside 35 million dollars for the coming academic year; another 70 million the next and 105 million in the third year.

Filed Under: Education, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Body found in Emmet County is identified

April 28, 2006 By

Officials in northern Iowa have solved the mystery of the identity of a partially decomposed body found in a farm field near Armstrong. Emmet County Sheriff Larry Lamack says they were the remains of 18-year-old Zachary Hunter from Franklin County. The Iowa D-C-I identified the body through dental records.

The Hampton Police Department reported Hunter missing on February 15th. Officials believe Hunter died from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. There was a 12 gauge shotgun found near the body, which was discovered by a farmer doing some field work along Highway 9 Monday afternoon.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Sergeant Bluff to lose 569 jobs

April 28, 2006 By

The western Iowa town of Sergeant Bluff is loosing several hundred jobs. Spokesman Bill Kula says Verizon is shutting down its M-C-I call center. Kula says they’re informing employees in Sergeant Bluff that they’re phasing out the consumer and customer support and outbound telemarketing, and he says it will “impact 569 employees.” Kula says they’re phasing out the operation due to a change in technology. He says they’re moving more toward putting more of their attention toward their broadband, wireless, corporate and federal government accounts. Kula says the employees will be offered severance packages based on their years of service.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Maytag lays off 70, Union official praises new owner

April 28, 2006 By

Union officials say some 70 workers are being laid off today at the Maytag plant in Newton. U-A-W Local 997 President Ted Johnson says the layoffs were scheduled before the sale of Maytag to Whirlpool.

Johnson credits Whirlpool with trying to avert the layoffs. Johnson says Whirlpool tried to do some things through their sales and marketing staff in the three weeks they have owned the company to try and curtail the layoffs. Johnson says he doesn’t know how much impact Whirlpool had.

Johnson says it was good the new company made an effort to save jobs. Johnson says, “I know that we were very appreciative of their attempt, It’s more than we’ve seen in the past. Unfortunately we’re in a downward momentum. Frankly, it didn’t get like this overnight, and it’s not going to change overnight.” Johnson says that the layoff number likely would have been higher if the operation was still owned by Maytag.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:
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