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Pataki says GOP in D.C. offering flawed immigration reform bills

May 25, 2006 By

New York Governor George Pataki says fellow Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate have failed to advance immigration reform bills that adequately deal with border security.

Pataki, who arrived in Iowa today (Thursday), says it’s a national security issue. “There’s no question in my mind that one of the most important things our country can do to protect ourselves and protect our freedom is to make sure that we know that everybody coming into the United States is coming here legally,” Pataki says.

Pataki presides over what he calls a “state of immigrants” and New York City which is home Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, but Pataki says the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island came here legally. “People sometimes don’t remember that four of the terrorists who attacked us on September 11th came here illegally across the Canadian border,” Pataki says. “While I’m aware that the vast majority of people coming here today are here to work hard and build a better life for their families, we’re still at risk when we don’t know whether they’re coming here to engage in proper work activities or to attack us again.”

Pataki says after 9/11 he dispatched three-hundred state troopers to patrol the Canadian border in his state. The New York governor says there weren’t then and there still aren’t enough federal border patrol agents along that border to do the job, and none of the proposals in Washington call for immediately beefing up the number of border agents. Pataki fears that won’t happen “for years.” Pataki says his state is bearing the cost of keeping those state troopers along the Canadian border.

Pataki, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, headlined an event in Cedar Rapids Thursday to honor veterans. Friday morning, he will have coffee with GOP leaders in the Anamosa area at nine o’clock. He’ll speak at a Memorial Weekend ceremony in Tipton at 11. At one o’clock, he’ll tour the Clinton County Bio Energy facility and he’ll help local Republican candidates raise campaign cash. On Saturday morning he’ll stroll through the Des Moines Farmers Market then give the commencement address at Des Moines University.

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Iowa soldiers deal with cramped conditions in Iraq

May 25, 2006 By

Besides the heat, the distance from home and the potentially-deadly daily hazards of the job, Iowa National Guard soldiers stationed in Iraq are also enduring another challenge — cramped conditions. Soldiers of the 133rd Infantry Detachment spend long days driving the roads of Iraq, keeping supply convoys safe. Staff Sergeant Dennis Boge of Dubuque says it’s a demanding schedule with only a few days off a month.

Boge says “It’s far from a 9-to-5 job. It starts when the mission needs to start and ends when it is completed, which can sometimes be days later.” When soldiers get off the road, many like to relax in their tents, keen to take some time away from the insurgent campaign outside the base.

Sergeant Andrew Connolly is also from Dubuque and says downtime is a must. Connolly says “Once you’re out there it’s ‘game on’ and you get tired and burned out from looking on both sides of the road for bombs, for IEDS, and you get in here and it’s time to relax.” The tents in which the Guard members are housed are huge and dozens of men live in each hundred-foot-long tent.

Specialist Daniel Tootell of Guttenberg says they’re packed in like sardines, but it’s something that just becomes part of life. Tootell says “We have 48 people in this tent, you get used to it. We’ve been living together for six months now, seven months now.” Each person’s total personal space is tight, somewhere around 50-square-feet or less.

Sergeant Jeseday LaFella of Wyoming (Iowa) says conditions are close. LaFella says “My space starts right here. I have the top bunk. It pretty much goes down in here, this area here. It’s pretty much four-by-five feet.” Soldiers like Specialist Michael Bebensee of Fulton, Illinois, say privacy is at a premium and although they all get along pretty well, sometimes it would be nice to get away. Bebensee says “Sometimes you’ve got a guy underneath you or a guy sleeping on top of you. It’s kinda’ like family with your big brother or big sister, living so close together, after a while you just want be away from each other.”

Specialist Ray Zirkelbach of Monticello is also a state representative. Zirkelbach says the forced comradeship is good in some ways. Zirkelbach says “You can never get over missing your family, though. I miss my family a lot, but it also helps that your fellow soldiers are also some of your best friends in the world.” The Iowa Guard unit will be gone for a total of 18 months, counting the time the spent training prior to shipping out for Iraq.

Filed Under: Military Tagged With:

Blouin, Culver seek to link each other to the meatpacking industry

May 25, 2006 By

The two leading Democratic gubernatorial candidates are engaged in a quest to paint the other as a friend of the meatpacking industry. Today’s installment saw Chet Culver’s campaign enlist the services of Dick Dearden, a state senator from Des Moines, to accuse rival Mike Blouin of trying to lure a meatpacking plant to the east side of Des Moines when Blouin was head of the local chamber of commerce.

“Despite any denials (Blouin) offers now, I remember asking him if he thought they were so great, why didn’t he push it to put it in Johnston or Urbandale?” Dearden said as he read from a written statement. Dearden told reporters during a telephone conference call that had no intention of getting involved in the race until he saw a campaign ad Blouin’s running which says Culver had been a paid lobbyist for I-B-P.

“I believe it’s hypocritical for Blouin to make these attacks when he was pushing anti-farmer and anti-worker Excel meatpacking to come to Des Moines to slaughter one million animals a year,” Dearden said. “Mike Blouin was standing up for big business then and he’s trying to dodge his record now.”

The Blouin campaign says Blouin “never advocated for the plant” and merely showed up at meetings with Excel because he was asked to do so by former Des Moines Mayor Arthur Davis, who passed away a few years ago. Dearden says that’s not true. “Mayor (Preston) Daniels was mayor at that time. It was just five years ago. It wasn’t Mayor Davis,” Dearden said. “They don’t have their facts straight on that.”

Two state legislators who are backing Blouin say they were in the meetings with Excel and dispute Dearden’s account. State Senator Matt McCoy of Des Moines and State Representative Jeri Huser of Altoona back Blouin’s account. They both endorsed Blouin earlier this year. Dearden said he had not endorsed Culver before today (Thursday) because he is “really upset” with the negative commercial Blouin has been running. “I don’t know that endorsements by legislators make any difference anyway, but…I just want to say right now that I am endorsing him,” Dearden said.

In other campaign news, Ed Fallon – another Democrat running for governor — was endorsed this (Thursday) afternoon by the Iowa Sierra Club. In a prepared statement, Fallon said he shares “the Sierra Club’s concerns for protecting Iowa’s unique natural environments, our soil and our water.”

Filed Under: Agriculture, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Drake does well despite losing track during renovation

May 25, 2006 By

Despite not having a track to practice on for about a year the Drake track and field team is sending five competitors to the NCAA Midwest Regional which begins Friday in Austin, Texas.

The renovation of Drake Stadium meant the Bulldogs had to find other places to train and coach Natasha Kaiser-Brown says a couple of Des Moines high schools were among the alternatives. She says you really need to be on the track in the spring and it was a very creative year to get them on tracks so they weren’t on hard surfaces all the time.

Kaiser-Brown says the team has improved since the stadium opened. She says it’s hard to break the news to them that they’re getting a new facility, but couldn’t be on the track until before the Drake Relays.

The team will spend much of next season at home. Besides the Drake Relays the stadium will host the Missouri Valley Conference Championships and the midwest regional. Kaiser-Brown says it will seem like they’re hosting meets almost every other weekend.

UNI is sending 13 competitors to the regional, Iowa State is sending eight. All will be looking to qualify for the NCAA Championships which begin June seventh in Sacramento.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Drake soccer coach says sport is becoming more popular

May 25, 2006 By

The United States will try to establish itself as a soccer power next month when the World Cup is held in Germany. After reaching the quarterfinal round in 2002 the Americans will head overseas as the fifth ranked team in the world.

Drake soccer coach Sean Holmes says it reflects the added following the sport had generated here. Holmes says soccer continues to grow and the challenge is to get the more older people interested in soccer.

Holmes says while soccer has been popular at the youth level for some time the U.S. is doing a better job of developing its top players. He says there wasn’t even a pro league a few years ago and now things have developed.

Holmes says soccer is attracting better athletes and the national team is beginning to reflect that. Holmes says in every other country in the world the best athletes are going to soccer, but in the U.S. there’s football and basketball and other sports. He says though some of the top athletes are moving into soccer.

The schedule makers were not kind to the U.S. team which is in a pool that includes three of the top 12 ranked teams in the world. They open the World Cup June 12th against the second ranked Czech Republic.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Harkin says bill to protect veterans could be approved quickly

May 25, 2006 By

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says he’s co-sponsored legislation to offer some protection to the millions of veterans who had their personal information stolen from a Veterans Administration employee. Harkin says the bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide one year of credit monitoring to each person. Harkin says that would immediately let the person know of changes in their credit.

Harkin says the bill has a hefty price tag with an authorization of one-point-two-five-billion dollars to cover the cost of the program. Harkin says, “No question, this is a lot of money. Given the gravity of the security breach revealed on Monday, this is not an optional course of action, we owe it to our veterans.”

Congress is scheduled to take a break after today and Harkin says there’s a move on to get the legislation passed quickly. Harkin says he’s been told they’re “hotlining” the bill to see if there are any Republican or Democratic objections, and if not Harkin says they could pass it before they leave tonight.

In the meantime, Harkin says veterans need to do some extra monitoring of their credit card activity. Harkin says, “Veterans should be very careful about their credit card purchases, and how they’re using their credit cards. Examine their bills, very, very carefully. And just make sure that there’s nothing on those bills that they don’t absolutely know about.”

Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell has co-sponsored similar legislation in the House. Boswell says his personal information was among the information of the millions of veterans that was stolen.

Filed Under: Military, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Iowa City animal control officer leads national group

May 25, 2006 By

The Iowa City dogcatcher is the new president of the National Animal Control Association. Misha Goodman says they haven’t actually used the term “dogcatcher” since before she started her 24 years in the career. Before coming to Iowa City, she had prior experience in animal-science, and attended an academy in Los Angeles, where she first became an animal-control officer.

And despite the lingering image of the job as one most city workers don’t want, Goodman says it suited her when she chose it. She says she wanted to work with people, but also loved animals and wanted to work with them — so this was a perfect fit. “You have to do both,” she says, as an animal-control officer.

As for the image of the job as a person causing trouble to pet owners, she says that’s not always the case. Often she shows up to help someone whose animal has gotten into danger or is in some kind of trouble, so they’re glad to see her. But there’s the enforcement side with the responsibility to keep both animals and people safe, so, she says, “sometimes people are not happy to see us.” She says she can’t come up with just one from her many stories of animal adventures.

Goodman says as president of the National Animal Control Association she’s out there to do is get information to owners so they can care for their animals better, and the National Animal Control Association gets information and training out to its members. Those include mostly animal-control officers, but also other professionals. She hopes to get more training out to members in parts of the country where they haven’t had it before. She wouldn’t mind improving the image of her profession, too.

It’s seen as a hurtful thing, she says, or someone who’s just out there to take a pet away. She wants to help people with their animals, and help them stay safe around animals that may be dangerous. She wants to tell everyone to be a responsible pet owner and get their animal vaccinated and neutered — and to help their neighbor.

Filed Under: Human Interest
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