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Regents to discuss 100 dollar surcharge for students

May 19, 2006 By

The board that governs the three state universities will consider a temporary energy and environment surcharge for students when it meets next month. The Board of Regents is looking for extra money after the governor and the 2006 legislature approved only 11-million dollars rather than the 40-million the universities asked for.

Officials in the board office and university administrators are proposing a temporary surcharge of 100-dollars per semester that each student would have to pay in both the fall and spring terms. Estimates indicate the surcharge would raise nearly 11-million dollars in the coming academic year.

University officials say that money would help cover energy cost increases so more of the new money set aside for the universities can be used for faculity and staff salaries. The Regents say students would be also be encouraged to help reduce energy consumption on the campuses.

In exchange for the surcharge and conservation efforts, the university administrators suggest they will not ask state officials to commit state taxdollars for any new buildings on the campuses for the next three years. The Board of Regents will discuss the surcharge and hear from students during their meeting in Ames on June 20th.

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North Tama twins win again at state track

May 19, 2006 By

Twin sisters Brooke and Blaire Dinsdale continue to win titles at the state high school track meet. Brooke Dinsdale anchored North Tama to a victory in the class 1A distance medley relay and moments later Blaire won the championship in the 400 hurdles.

Blaire says she likes having her own race and says it’s the hardest race and tough to be good at. The distance medley and 400 hurdles are the events they don’t both compete in. Blaire says she wanted to win a medal on her own in a race they both weren’t in.

Marshalltown anchor Corbin Miller got the baton in fourth but he finished in first as the Bobcats won the class 4A boys distance medley relay.
Ethan Crow ran the lead leg and says it’s what they’ve been working for for three years.

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Iowa Western ready for district tournament

May 19, 2006 By

The Iowa Western Community College baseball team is in Illinois for the Northern district tournament which begins Saturday morning. The Reivers are trying to get back to the national junior college world series where they finished fourth in 2005.

Iowa Western coach Marc Raridan says it’s a different team of individuals and leaders. Raridan says limiting mistakes is always a key whether it is a tournament or the regular season. He says giving an extra out kills you and he says you have to be able to handle the pressure. The third team in the district tournament is South Suburban Community College.

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Cancer Society looks for volunteer drivers

May 19, 2006 By

The American Cancer Society is looking for volunteer drivers in Iowa who can take cancer patients to and from their treatments when they have no other means. Theresa Allen, coordinator of the agency’s Road to Recovery program, says the driver must be at least 18, have a valid license, insurance, and access to a passenger vehicle.

Allen says they’re looking for people who have a spare time between 9 A.M. and 4 P.M. as that’s when radiation and chemo treatments are generally done at cancer centers statewide. They need to have a car and the want and ability to help somebody one day a week or even one day a month.

Allen says you can list your mileage as a charitable contribution, but she says it’s much more than a tax deduction. She says “Everybody, in some way, shape or form, has been touched by cancer in their family, so just the desire to really make the difference in getting somebody to their treatment, and honestly a program like this is very often the difference between somebody getting to treatment and having that hope for a cure and not getting there.”

Allen says the volunteer won’t have to take much time out of their day to make a big difference in a cancer patient’s life. She says a patient getting radiation is usually in and out in 15 minutes while a chemo patient may be several hours. It would be arranged for someone else to take the person home as Allen says the volunteer would never be expected to wait longer than an hour. Volunteer drivers are needed across Iowa. For more details, surf to the American Cancer Society website at “www.cancer.org” or call 800-ACS-2345.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Human Interest Tagged With:

Students help hack at I-S-U

May 19, 2006 By

Tonight (Friday) a group of computer-savvy high-schoolers will bravely go where only college kids have gone before, up all night defending computer networks against hackers, crackers, and other attackers. Leanne Jacobson is with the Technology Association of Iowa, a trade group for Iowa’s tech industry.

They’ll begin at six tonight to assemble and then defend their networks. Iowa State University students have already successfully held such marathon sessions, and proceeded to win national recognition for their skills. The older students make up the attacking forces.

They’re going to consist of graduate students at Iowa State as well as some “closet hackers,” she says. On the side of the high-school network defenders will be some advisors offering help. Jacobson says technology companies have sort of “adopted” schools across the state, and have mentored the kids on how to construct and defend networks, using modules created by I-S-U. She says, “The kids should be in fine shape to really give the hackers a run for their money.”

Jacobson says while you might assume high-schoolers are even more computer-oriented than the college kids, there’s a surprising change in the number heading into computer-science studies, a trend that has educators and employers concerned. She says there’s a dropoff of students going into technology-related careers at universities, either because they aren’t aware of the careers available or because they figure all the jobs will go offshore within a decade. That’s not the case, she insists, so this competition’s a part of the strategy to link industry with the workers of tomorrow.

Officially, it’s I-S-U’s first “High School Cyber Defense Competition,” and organizers hope by next year it’ll expand to include regional competitions. Observers are welcome to come watch students from a dozen high schools build a fictional dot-com startup company in “Metropolitan, Iowa” and defend it for fifteen hours straight, at Building 2 of the I-S-U Research Park.

Filed Under: Education, Technology Tagged With: ,

First District Republican candidates spar over Values Fund

May 19, 2006 By

One of the Republicans who’s running for Iowa’s first district congressional seat is attacking the votes an opponent has taken in the state legislature. Brian Kennedy, a longtime G-O-P operative, says state Representative Bill Dix of Shell Rock, one of his opponents in the race, voted to create the Iowa Values Fund — the huge state economic development grant program that Kennedy describes as a corporate give-away.

Dix counters Kennedy by saying he was a leading critic of the Values Fund. “Everyone knows I was opposed to it,” Dix says. “I took a ribbing from some of our Republican leaders because I resisted the whole idea.” But Kennedy says Dix voted for the Values Fund when it was included in a larger bill that covered other topics.
“See, I suspect sometimes Bill doesn’t know what he’s voting for,” Kennedy says. “He doesn’t read the legislation.”

“Bottom line was it was bad policy. It was given to us by a Republican legislature and a Democratic governor and the record that we’ve had in Des Moines is frankly what we’ve had in Washington, D.C. and if we want more of the same in Washington, send the same kind of good government we’ve had in Des Moines off to Washington. We don’t need that. We need fundamental change.”

Dix says he’s often spoken out against the Values Fund and has voted against it, but did vote for a bill that not only created the Values Fund but also cut taxes and reduced red tape for businesses. “When you don’t have a record to stand on, I guess what you do is you talk about others who do,” Dix says. “Brian can run his campaign the way he wants to. I’m excited about what we’re talking about in our campaign and that is standing on our record of reducing taxes.”

Dix cites votes he took in the state legislature for a 10-percent cut in state income taxes, elimination of the state inheritance tax for family member, the phase out of state taxes on utility bills and this year’s vote to gradually erase the state tax on Social Security income.

Mike Whalen, the other Republican in the first district race, offers this observation of the interplay between Dix and Kennedy. “Obviously I can’t help if the other two fellas in the race decide to get into a bloodsport,” Whalen says. Whalen, a restaurateur who started a hotel chain, too, says that kind of politics is a bit “alien” to him. “For 28 years I woke up every morning with the idea of what I was going to try to do to make something positive happen,” Whalen says. “We just didn’t have a lot of time building a small business to think negative thoughts or what we were going to do to undermine somebody else. It just didn’t create any value or get anything done.”

Whalen has been endorsed for former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. Dix has been endorsed by former Iowa Congressman Tom Tauke who represented eastern Iowa. The three Republican candidates made their comments following a joint appearance on an Iowa Public Television program that was taped this (Friday) morning and airs this evening.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Democrat Congressional candidate says cut funding to get troops out of Iraq

May 19, 2006 By

One of the Democrats who’s running for Iowa’s first district congressional seat says if he’s elected, he’d consider the option of withholding funding for the troops in Iraq to pressure President Bush to bring America soldiers home.

Bruce Braley , a lawyer from Waterloo, says it wouldn’t be a first option but might be a last resort to get Bush to pull the troops out of Iraq. “I can’t do anything to affect this until next January when I would be sitting in congress so I think that once you get consensus from members of the House and Senate that we have to do something to redeploy, then it’s a matter of negotiating with the White House to make it happen,” Braley says. “That’s where the power of the purse string that congress has under the Constitution is what’s necessary to make that happen.”

Braley says he would hope it wouldn’t be necesary to cut off funds to the military to get the troops out of Iraq, but if that’s what’s necessary to get the troops home he’s favor that over President Bush’s apparent plan. Braley cites Bush’s statements predicting American troops will still be in Iraq when Bush leaves office in January, 2009. “If (U.S. troops) are still there when I enter into congress I will use every means in my ability…to convince the administration it’s time to redeploy those troops,” Braley says. “If it doesn’t happen, then certainly one of the tools available to congress is to start reducing funding which is the only way we pay for the troops there right now.”

Bill Gluba, a real estate agent from Davenport who’s competing against Braley in the first district Democratic primary, says that’s the wrong position to take. “I think, unfortunately, Mr. Braley may have just cost himself the election,” Gluba says. “No American, no Democrat wants to see us not to fund our troops in Iraq. We all want to bring them home but you would never, never cut off money to fighting forces over there.”

Gluba, a former state legislator who has run twice before for this congressional seat, says Braley’s lack of experience is showing. “He’s never run for public office,” Gluba says. “He gets too much advice from hot-shot pollsters out of New York and he ought to be listening to people in the district.”

Rick Dickinson, a Democrat from Sabula who’s also in the first district race, says Braley inexperience makes him unelectable. Dickinson says when Braley introduced a campaign commercial dealing with Iraq, Braley “had three different positions before he had his second cup of coffee that same day.” Dickinson is a former mayor, county supervisor and state legislator who’s now a local economic development official. “I respect differences of opinion on Iraq, but we have to pick one,” Dickinson says. “Any candidate (who) tries to be all things to all people can be nothing to anyone.”

Dickinson says he wouldn’t have voted to go into Iraq, but he disagrees with other Democrats who are calling for a “timeline” to get troops out. A timeline is too dangerous, according to Dickinson, who says the Bush Administration needs to strike alliances that result in getting NATO and U.N. troops in Iraq to police the transition. Gluba’s calling on Bush to go back to the United Nations and get the U. N. to send troops from other Arab countries into Iraq so American troops can withdraw.

Gluba also advocates massive U.S. investment in the rebuilding of Iraq. “If the people are busy rebuilding their county, they’ll be bringing home paychecks and not carrying around weapons,” Gluba says. The three men made their comments after a joint appearance Friday morning on Iowa Public Television.

Filed Under: Military, Politics & Government Tagged With:
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