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Weather helps Coe to NCAA bid in baseball

May 15, 2006 By

Coe College is the only Iowa Conference team to gain a berth in the NCAA Division III baseball tournament field. Coe will play at a seven-team first-round site at Stevens Point, Wisconsin later this week.The Kohawks were declared the winners of the Iowa Conference Tournament in Cedar Rapids which could not be completed due to rain. At the time the tournament was halted Coe was the only remaining unbeaten team.

Coe coach Steve Cook who feels they deserve the automatic berth as they were the only team to win all there games. Cook says there’s always the possibility of weather interrupting the tournament, so he says you have to plan for that.

Coe is advancing to the division three tournament for the third time. Cook says it’s a group that had high expectations and feels good about fulfilling those expectations. None of the three teams that tied for the regular season championship earned an at-large bid. That includes a Wartburg team that made it to the final four of the national tournament in 2005.

Wartburg coach Joel Holst who says he was a little surprised that the league did not get another team in the field, but says Coe played the best in the tournament and should be in. Holst says he feels bad especially for Simpson, which lost to Coe in 11 innings as the top seed.

Holst is not against a conference tournament but he would like to see some changes made that would help avoid what happened over the weekend. He says there are a lot of positive things about it, but he says they need to look at it so this doesn’t happen again. Coe opens the regional tournament against St.Thomas of Minnesota.

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University of Dubuque football team to play in Germany

May 15, 2006 By

The University of Dubuque football team is off to Germany for a nine-day trip that will conclude with an appearance in the Bavarian Classic football game.

Spartans coach Vince Brautigam says the team will make several stops around Germany and the trip is more about history than football. He says they watch the movie about the Israeli terrorists as the Olympics and also watched “Schindler’s List” to get some historical perspective before the trip.

Brautigam says from a football standpoint the experience should benefit the team this fall. They were allowed a number of practices before leaving the country. He says they can’t hit or wear pads in the spring workouts, so he thinks this will be good work for the individuals and the team.

Brautigam says for many of the players this will be a once in a lifetime experience. He says some of them won’t ever travel to Europe again. Brautigam says they’ll play on the 21st of May and will have 10 practices before they leave.

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A-G files suit against discount club

May 15, 2006 By

Attorney General Tom Miller’s asking the courts to force a Connecticut company to refund money to “thousands” of Iowans who unknowingly were signed up as members in a discount club. Miller has filed a lawsuit alleging that the “MemberWorks” discount buying club was a “slippery” operator. “We got a lot of complaints about MemberWorks, about 120 over the last two years. That’s a large number,” Miller says. “Complaints, as you know I think, are the tip of the iceberg of problems. They’re the early warning signals, the tea leaves that we can read about much more significant problems.”

Miller says after the consumer conducted a transaction with a credit card company or were buying something they’d seen in a catalogue or info-mercial, the telemarketer offered a free trial of membership in “MemberWorks.” Miller says it happened when the customer’s trying to end the call, and they say “yes” to the free trial and don’t realize their credit card will eventually be billed over and over unless they cancel their membership. Some consumers were charged 10-dollars-a-month, while others were charged yearly fees of as much as two-hundred-40 dollars.

Miller’s staff surveyed a small number of Iowans who were enrolled in “MemberWorks.” Miller says he wanted to find out if people were satisfied with the MemberWorks services, because if they were then “it’s not something the government generally should be too concerned about.” Sixty-seven percent said they weren’t even aware that they were members of the discount club, and zero percent reported being “satisfied” with the service.

Miller and his staff are contemplating legal action against the businesses which had their telemarketers signing people up for MemberWorks after customers had conducted other business over the phone. “We really make an appeal to legitimate companies not to use their good name to abuse, really, their customers through these membership clubs,” Miller says. A few other states have taken action against the MemberWorks discount membership club, which is now know as Vertrue, Incorporated.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Oelwein remembers deadly tornado

May 15, 2006 By

Today marks the 38th anniversary of a deadly tornado that struck the northeast Iowa cities of Oelwein and Maynard. Oelwein Fire Chief Wally Rundle was at the firehouse on the late afternoon of May 15, 1968 when the tornado struck. But Rundle says there was no warning that a devastating storm was coming. He says it was actually two tornadoes that started south of Oelwein and then merged into one and headed into Oelwein.

Rundle says they started to see hail come down, “and the next thing I knew people were running past the station looking over their shoulders.” One woman died in the storm.

Rundle says they rescued the woman from an apartment in the downtown area, as she had fallen down between two floors when the chimney blew out. Rundle says the woman was taken to the Oelwein hospital where she later died from her injuries. Rundle says the storm caused massive damage to the downtown and eastern side of the city. He says they talked about damage in the millions at the time, and Rundle says it would be in the tens of millions in today’s dollars.

Rundle says the tornado went right down railroad tracks through town and by the fire station. He says all the downed trees kept firefighters from getting a lot of equipment in the residential areas, and they ended up walking to rescues and climbing through trees.

Rundle says the tornado is still talked about. He says you can’t get a much worse tornado, and Rundle says they always talk about the Oelwein tornado when he goes to weather training classes. Rundle says the warning systems and radar are much more sophisticated today, but at the time there wasn’t much time for anyone to be ready for the storm.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Iowa football players cleared of wrongdoing in cellphone case

May 15, 2006 By

The University of Iowa has completed its investigation into whether some Hawkeye football players got cellphone equipment in exchange for tickets to ballgames. U-of-I spokesman Steve Parrott. Parrott says the issue was whether the players got anything of value in return for the tickets, and he says the university’s general counsel found no evidence of that.

Parrott says the players did let the former cellphone company employee come to a game. Parrott says the cellphone employee was a friend and did come to a couple of ballgames, but he says the cellphone equipment the players received was no different from what other cellphone customers received. Parrott says the people who get passes to the ballgames are well documented. He says people don’t get paper tickets, but the player can leave the person’s name, and that person then has to show an I-D and sign to get into the games. Parrott says the cellphone employee was listed as a guest for a couple of the players.

Parrott says this will end the issue, except for a request by Iowa President David Skorton. He says President Skorton has asked the athletic department to reemphasize to athletes the policy on free tickets. Parrott says Hawkeye fans should also take a cautionary note from this whole situation.

Parrott says fans should know that the athletes have to live by the rules of the Big Ten and N-C-A-A and you may want to give something to the athletes, but your gift may be against the rules. Parrott says if there’s any doubt, you should ask before you take any action. He says fans should remember that the things they try to do might impact the eligibility of athletes, and Parrott says if you have any questions, call the athletic department and ask about the rules.

Related web sites:
U-of-I report on cellphone gifts

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

University of Iowa football players cleared of wrongdoing

May 15, 2006 By

The University of Iowa has completed its investigation into whether some Hawkeye football players got cellphone equipment in exchange for tickets to ballgames. U-of-I spokesman Steve Parrott. Parrott says the issue was whether the players got anything of value in return for the tickets, and he says the university’s general counsel found no evidence of that.

Parrott says the players did let the former cellphone company employee come to a game. Parrott says the cellphone employee was a friend and did come to a couple of ballgames, but he says the cellphone equipment the players received was no different from what other cellphone customers received. Parrott says the people who get passes to the ballgames are well documented. He says people don’t get paper tickets, but the player can leave the person’s name, and that person then has to show an I-D and sign to get into the games. Parrott says the cellphone employee was listed as a guest for a couple of the players.

Parrott says this will end the issue, except for a request by Iowa President David Skorton. He says President Skorton has asked the athletic department to reemphasize to athletes the policy on free tickets. Parrott says Hawkeye fans should also take a cautionary note from this whole situation.

Parrott says fans should know that the athletes have to live by the rules of the Big Ten and N-C-A-A and you may want to give something to the athletes, but your gift may be against the rules. Parrott says if there’s any doubt, you should ask before you take any action. He says fans should remember that the things they try to do might impact the eligibility of athletes, and Parrott says if you have any questions, call the athletic department and ask about the rules.

Related web sites:
U-of-I report on cellphone gifts

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: ,

Pharmacist cites seniors’ late rush to sign up for Rx benefit

May 15, 2006 By

A central Iowa pharmacist is urging seniors to get signed up for the Medicare prescription drug program today (Monday).

Elderly Americans who delay and sign up after tonight’s midnight deadline will have to pay an extra $2.31 cents per month for the benefit in the coming year, and that penalty is scheduled to go up in future years. John Forbes, a pharmacist in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale, says he can tell lots of seniors waited until the last minute. “We’re getting many calls this morning asking ‘Can I get signed up today?’ and we’re trying to accommodate as many people as possible,” Forbes says. “I’m sure pharmacists all around the state and all around the country are getting the same type of calls I’m getting from frantic patients wanting to get signed up.”

Forbes says the problem he’s seen is seniors were inundated with too much information, and couldn’t sort through it all to find which of the 40 prescription drug benefit plans available in Iowa were best for them. Forbes spoke this (Monday) morning at a news conference organized by the Iowa Democratic Party to call on the feds to waive the penalty for late sign-ups. “As a pharmacist, I hope that congress, the president and Senator Grassley will listen to pharmacists, senior citizens around here to extend that time frame and at least for this year not penalize seniors for the confusion that has been caused by this program,” he said, as Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Sally Pederson looked on.

Grassley has said it’s important to have a deadline for signing up. According to Grassley, it would be like telling people they have to pay their taxes by April 15th, but it there’s no penalty for late filing, many would choose to delay. Forbes says while Medicare’s new prescription drug benefit needs tweaking, it is saving people money and improving the health of his patients “I do have people who’ve signed up for the program who are very happy with the outcomes they’re getting right now,” Forbes says. Some patients who were rationing their medications are no longer doing so, according to Forbes, and that’s improved their health. But Forbes says it has been confusing.

He says many pharmacies have extra staff on hand today (Monday) to help seniors enroll in the program. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE or log onto www.medicare.gov.

Related web sites:
Medicare website

Filed Under: Politics & Government
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