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Postal workers pick up food for food banks

May 13, 2006 By

Postal workers across Iowa are helping restock the state’s food banks today (Saturday). Letter carriers in many communities will be picking up non-perishable food items when they deliver the mail as part of “Stamp Out Hunger Day,” the nation’s largest single-day food drive. Barb Prather is executive director of the Waterloo-based Northeast Iowa Food Bank, one of the many organizations that will receive donated items.

Prather says “Go to your cupboard, see what you have, or go to the store and see what you can get, and place it outside your door by your post office box before 9:30″ in the morning, as volunteers will be coming by to get the food. Prather encourages Iowans to make the effort — as it won’t take much to make a big difference.

She says all you have to do is put the bag of food outside your door — it’s very easy to participate. You don’t have to go anywhere, you can stay in the comfort of your own home and you can donate in two or three minutes. Last year, more than 71-million pounds of food was collected in the drive nationwide.

Filed Under: Human Interest

Comedian uses bipolar experience to help others

May 13, 2006 By

A comedian, songwriter and author who speaks on his efforts to overcome bi-polar disorder was a guest at a conference in Webster City this week. Paul Jones has this advice for people with the disease, which is characterized by severe mood swings.

Jones says his main message is to try and get people to get help for the disease, but he says people have to want to get help. Jones says he tries to give people an uplifting message of hope.

Jones says to someone who is sick, the message is to “stay the course and be true to your treatment”, and he says for professionals, he says they should keep doing what they’re doing and helping people. Jones says he’s an example of how you can live and deal with bi-polar disorder.

Jones says so many people who’re diagnosed think the world has come crashing down, but Jones says you should look at the people who have been diagnosed and see how they’ve done. He cites himself as an example. Jones says other famous people, such as Winston Churchill, suffered from bi-polar disorder, but still led productive lives.

Filed Under: Human Interest

Retired General calls for more services for soldiers

May 13, 2006 By

Retired General Wesley Clark was in Iowa Friday urging Congress and the Bush administration to boost funding for mental-health services for soldiers. Clark joined Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell at a statehouse news conference in Des Moines.

Clark says something’s wrong when the government is giving big tax cuts to wealthy people but cutting back on funding for “men and women who are risking their lives for this country and this flag that we love and cherish.” He called on the administration and Congress to get their priorities right and “start taking care of our troops.”

Clark said he’s seen a lot of people in Washington wearing American-flag pins on their lapels…”but if you want to take credit for the American flag, that’s a flag that belongs to all of us,” he says, and he wants them to take care of the people serving in the military and take care of them when they come home.

Clark said it’s not just soldiers, it’s truck drivers and others on active duty who find themselves getting shot at while they do their jobs. He says post-traumatic stress can affect the rest of their lives. “Most people who have it, they don’t know they have it,” Clark says. When you’re in close combat, he says, it changes you — and what looks from the outside like courage is accompanied inside by a lot of anger and guilt. He says he suffered some of that himself after being shot at in Vietnam, and says people need help to deal with it.

Clark ran for president in 2004 and is eyeing the Democratic nomination again in 2008.

Filed Under: Military, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Candidate for Governor calls for deeper job training investigation

May 13, 2006 By

A state representative who’s running for governor says there should be a deeper investigation of the scandal involving a central Iowa job training program where top managers were pulling in six-figure incomes. Ed Fallon says the legislative panel that’s investigating the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium or CIETC should look more closely at operations of Iowa Workforce Development, the state agency that oversees CIETC.

“I’d like to see the Legislative Oversight Committee broaden that investigation to go all the way back to the 1980s,” Fallon says. “I think they will find a lot more waste, a lot more duplication.” Fallon says his first run-in with the Iowa Workforce Development agency came over a decade ago when he discovered a bit of chicanery by the woman who was recently fired as C-E-O of CIETC.

“I was on to Ramona Cunningham back in 1994 when I caught her wasting $330,000 a year by duplicating a service in that program,” Fallon says. “We were able to get that fixed. We were able to stop that waste.” Fallon says Iowa Workforce Development employees were being paid to do exactly the same thing workers in Cunningham’s agency were doing — take applications from central Iowans who wanted job training assistance.

Fallon says if he’s elected governor, he’ll try to end that kind of waste. “I’d appoint heads of every agency who are committed to weeding out any corruption or mismanagement or duplication in their agency,” Fallon says. Fallon says this scandal makes state government “look sloppy.” Fallon made his comments on Iowa Public Television.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Democrat says he’s a one-man campaign for Governor

May 13, 2006 By

Sal Mohamad, one of four Democrats running for governor, says he’s raised six-thousand dollars and is running a one-man campaign. Mohamad says he works four days a week, from six in the morning to four in the afternoon, then stands on street corners in the Sioux City area waving signs. “I campaign in the street in front of the people, with the people and this is the difference between my campaign and the other campaigns,” Mohamad says.

Mohamad lives in Sioux City and on Friday and the weekends he travels around the state, campaigning in the streets. “I’m not tied to any organization or someone to control me and this is the good thing about my campaign,” Mohamad says. “I have the freedom to do what I want to do, no one to dictate to me.”

Mohamad is an engineer by training who was born in Egypt and became a naturalized U.S. citizen over two decades ago. His main campaign theme is a call for a more scientific management style in state government, a move he contends will make government more efficient so that every Iowan’s income will grow by two-thousand dollars a year because of a lighter tax burden and a better business climate.

“Everyone is going to benefit from this,” Mohamad says. “Once we put the system together (it will be) like the one when we put the man on the moon.” Mohamad has never held elected office before. He did run for congress in 2004 and lost in the Democratic primary, garnering only 16 percent of the vote. Mohamad made his comments on Iowa Public Television.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Firefighters stress arson awareness

May 13, 2006 By

Firefighters across Iowa and the country have been educating kids and others this week about preventing arson during “Arson Awareness Week.” Jim Saunders, a spokesman for the State Fire Marshal’s office, says business owners and the public can help prevent arson. He says you should report suspicious activity near homes and businesses, secure flammable liquids and combustibles away from buildings to prevent “arsons of opportunity.”

Saunders says you should educate your kids and take steps to prevent them from setting fires. Saunders says always keep matches and lighters out of the reach of young children as he says there are several arson fires set by kids playing with matches or lighters. Saunders says you should also report it anytime you think a fire may’ve been intentionally set. He says you can call the arson hotline at 800-532-1459.

Saunders says arson can be one of the toughest crimes to solve. He says the crime lab technology and investigative works allows them to recover a lot of evidence, but he says it’s very tedious work, especially when a building sustains substantial damage. Saunders says arson fires take lives and cause lots of damage.

Saunders says some 10 to 15-percent of all fires in Iowa are arson fires and that results in some 15-million dollars in property damage. Saunders says damage from arson fires ends up costing us all in increased insurance rates.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Asian Heritage celebrated in Des Moines

May 13, 2006 By

Iowans who want to learn more about the many cultures of the Far East should trek to the Asian Heritage Festival today (Saturday) in Des Moines. Kim Poam Logan, of the Iowa Asian Alliance, says the expected 30-thousand visitors to the free fest will see everything from dragon boat races to Samurai demonstrations.

Poam Logan says they will feature 12 Asian villages with food, cultural exhibits, hands-on activities, historical exhibits and gifts. The villages will focus on: Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Laos, Nepalese, Taidam, Vietnamese, and Thai. She says there will dancing, music and singing on a variety of stages and a fashion show featuring traditional wedding garb from each of the 12 villages.

She says there’s day-long entertainment with dance troops from the Philippines and Polynesia as the headliners. She says about 43-thousand Asian-Americans live in Iowa, while the 17-hundred Iowa businesses owned by Asian-Americans contribute nearly 273-million dollars to the economy and make up 32-percent of Iowa’s minority-owned businesses.

Poam Logan says new features at this year’s festival include a Job Fair Village with several top local employers and a Health and Wellness Village that will feature a host of free check-ups and health education.

There’s a juried art competition and exhibit that features artworks from Asian-Americans or that have Asian-inspired themes. Poam Logan says the festival has two main goals: to celebrate Asian-American contributions to Iowa’s culture and economy, and to provide Iowans an opportunity to experience and better understand Asian cultures. The festival is underway today (Saturday) only from 10 A.M. to 7 P.M. at Des Moines’ Water Works Park. Admission is free.

Filed Under: Human Interest