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Drake hires woman athletic director

May 31, 2006 By

Sandy Hatfield Clubb says she found the right place to become a director of athletics. After spending 16 years on the staff at Arizona State, Hatfield Clubb was introduced today as the 16th AD at Drake University and says the goals of the school match her own.

Hatfield Clubb says intercollegiate athletics provides “an unbelievable platform for comprehensive excellence to allow students to push themselves and learn more about their human potential than they would otherwise have an opportunity to.”

Hatfield Clubb says some of the problem is that athletes are allowed to leave that push to learn on the court or field, and she says Drake University does not do that. Hatfield Clubb says Drake does a good job of melding athletics with academics, with a wonderful vision for athletics. Hatfield Clubb says there’s a clear message sent that the university is about raising world class leaders.

Hatfield Clubb becomes the first woman to run the athletic department at Drake but she does not feel her gender will be an issue. She says she’s never run into any difficulties with coaches, donors or the public in 16 years in athletics because of her gender. She will take over on August first.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Man dies in Southwest Iowa A-T-V accident

May 31, 2006 By

A man from southwest Iowa died this morning after the A-T-V he was riding rolled over and pinned him underneath. The accident happened in Cass County, a mile South of Atlantic on Highway 71 at about 8:25 AM. According to the Iowa State Patrol, 74-year old Wray McDermott, of Atlantic, was traveling south on the east shoulder of the highway and had tried to turn right in order to cross the highway, when the machine rolled on top of him near the middle of the road.

McDermott suffered severe head injuries, and was transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Iowa spy author tours country for latest book

May 31, 2006 By

A best-selling spy novelist and Council Bluffs native is touring the country to promote her newest book — and a collection of thrillers. Gayle Lynds says we’re living in the decade of the spy. She points to real-life shakeups in the C-I-A and F-B-I and the popularity of T-V shows like “Alias” and “24,” as well as movies ranging from “Syriana” to “Mission Impossible.”

In a phone interview with Radio Iowa from her California home, Lynds says “Espionage, intelligence, spying has become so permeated within our culture that we’re living it, breathing it, on both the non-fiction and fiction level all the time. It’s the decade of the spy.” Lynds’ latest book, “The Last Spymaster,” follows a top operative who’s put in prison for treason — and escapes. He’s being tracked by another top spy — who realizes, he’s tracking her. Lynds says “What develops between them is very interesting and a lot of fun. It’s also a lot of insight into the way the C-I-A does work and the cost to people who are operatives.”

Meanwhile, “Thriller — Stories to Keep You Up All Night” is an anthology of 32 short stories from Lynds and 31 other acclaimed writers. Lynds co-founded the International Thriller Writers organization and this tome is the result. She says “The funny thing about thriller writers is most of us don’t write short stories — we write big long books — so when I sent out the word, everybody was very excited about it and we all taught ourselves to write short stories. It’s gotten starred reviews and is being very well-received all over the country — the biggest press run they’ve ever seen for an anthology. We’re pretty proud of it.”

The University of Iowa journalism school graduate says aspiring authors who want to follow in her tracks need to apply themselves. “If this is really what you want, you must treat it with the seriousness that you would a regular job — or a love affair. Writing is not a hobby.” Lynds says wanna-be writers need to do just that — write — and she counts her former U-of-I lit teacher Kurt Vonnegut as one of her early inspirations to become a writer.

Lynds’ books have sold more than six-million copies. She’s considered the first contemporary woman to successfully write international spy thrillers and co-created the best-selling “Covert One” series with Robert Ludlum. She says “If you want to publish, it takes a commitment and a passion. If you don’t have those things, it’s much better to look at other things in life, but at the same time, gosh, the years are going to pass. It’s so important to do something that really means a great deal to you, that’s deep within your soul, and the people who have that kind of passion, that kind of commitment generally tend to succeed because they become very, very good at writing.”

Lynds’ husband, renowned detective novelist Dennis Lynds (pen name Michael Collins), died in August of 2005. Lynds says her writing was part of what helped her endure the hardship of that loss. “About a month after his death, I did sit down and I just really focused on it and it was therapy. I’m grateful for my work. I miss him a lot of course, because we not only lived together and loved one another deeply, but he was another writer and so we had that — we shared that. But I’m going on and I’ve started my next book.”

Related web sites:
Gayle Lynds website

Filed Under: Human Interest

Ottumwa, West Branch, West Union name "Main Street" communities

May 31, 2006 By

Three Iowa cities — Ottumwa, West Branch and West Union — have been designated as “Main Street” communities. The state will pay consultants 100-thousand dollars to provide technical assistance to residents in each community.

Iowa Department of Economic Development director Mary Lawyer says that assistance is very targeted. “Architectural redesign assistance, assistance on how to bring business into the downtown area, renovate the…housing capabilities in the area and restore the area to its historic nature,” Lawyer says.

Residents in each of the three communities are ready to act, according to Lawyer. “There’s a lot of community support behind it. It’s not just, you know, one entity driving it or one person driving it. It’s a cross-section of the community driving this change that they want in their downtown,” Lawyer says. “What we’re finding is that it’s a lot of volunteer hours are needed in our to do this renovation.”

Iowa’s “Main Street” program is 20 years old and has helped 34 cities redevelop downtown areas. Since 1986, state officials estimate there’s been about five-hundred-58 million dollars of private investment to revitalize the Main Streets in those 34 communities.

Lawyer says there have been an impressive amount of volunteer hours “invested” in those downtown areas, too. One-point-two million hours of volunteer work have been logged in the 34 “Main Street” communities, according to Lawyer. “It’s really about the readiness of the town. Are they prepared from a manpower/volunteer standpoint? Do they have some historic significance that can be unveiled in the community?” Lawyer asks.

“A lot of our downtowns have put different facades over historic buildings and is there something there that can be uncovered and unearthed?” She says there’s a lot of hard work ahead for Ottumwa, West Branch and West Union.

Lawyer says each of the new “Main Street” towns have made a “long journey” already in identifying properties for renovation and lining up the volunteer base, but she says “now the real work begins” in completing the renovations and bringing in business and housing. When the automobile became more common, shoppers became mobile and shopping malls and so-called strip malls began popping up along the edges of communities and in city suburbs to draw business away from traditional Main Street areas.

Lawyer suggests this program is helping to reverse that trend. “I think more and more people are looking at getting back to their roots, getting back to the history of their towns,” Lawyer says. “You know, we aren’t that old a country when you compare (the United States) to other countries, and we’re finally getting to the point where we can look back and have some history, and people are getting nostalgic about that and wanting to come back and see what that building was, what was its historic significance and see its real beauty from its original state.”

With the addition of Ottumwa, West Branch and West Union, there are now 37 “Main Street” communities in Iowa. The other 34 are Adel, Bedford, Bloomfield, Bonaparte, Burlington, Cedar Falls, Central City, Charles City, Conrad, Corning, Dubuque, Dunlap, Elkader, Greenfield, Hamilton County, Hampton, Iowa Falls, Keokuk, Le Mars, Marcus, Marshalltown, Mount Pleasant, New Hampton, Mason City, Osceola, Oskaloosa, Ogden, Sigourney, Spencer, Sac City, Waterloo, Waverly, State Center and West Des Moines/Valley Junction.

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Rockwell-Collins buys laser company

May 31, 2006 By

Iowa avionics maker Rockwell-Collins has bought part of another company that offers services like laser projectors and planetarium displays. Rockwell spokeswoman Nancy Welch says it’s part of an expansion of the Cedar Rapids company’s training programs.

A year ago Rockwell Collins bought a business that develops simulators for military and commercial piloting skills and she says this new acquisition “rounds out” that part of the business. “Simulators are used to train pilots, to train maintenance workers, to train crewmembers on the various systems onboard the aircraft,” she says.

Welch says the simulator is a “very important training element” to help pilots or a crew member to master the systems that make the plane fly but it’s all done “in a safe, simulated environment” rather than in the air. She says the training is more thorough because it’s a more accurate simulation of what their flight experience will really feel and look like.

The latest acquisition could expand Rockwell’s business offerings in a new direction. She says Rockwell Collins been given “exclusive rights” to offer laser projectors for such flight simulation and may find opportunities to do that for many of the company’s customers. In addition to guidance, control, and entertainment systems for airliners and military planes, Rockwell Collins already offers training services including some simulation programs.

Filed Under: Business

Three die in fall from IPTV tower in western Iowa

May 31, 2006 By

Three men working on a television tower in far western Iowa died today after falling off the tower. The accident in eastern Pottawattamie claimed the lives of a 57-year-old, a 27-year-old and a 19-year-old.

The tower broadcasts Iowa Public Television’s signal and Bill Hayes, IPTV’s chief engineer, says the men were working on the tower’s strobe lights which alert passing planes to the tower’s position. The men were replacing the flash tubes, which are essentially the bulbs. “It was not really structural work,” Hayes says. “It just was routine maintenance-type work.”

The men were not employees of Iowa Public Television but were employees of Deter’s Tower Service, a West Des Moines company that IPTV routinely hires to maintain the 17 towers it has around the state. Hayes says Iowa Public Television has been doing business with the company for 20 years.

“From our standpoint, the people (who) died in this terrible accident — these are friends and colleagues,” Hayes says. “Our hearts and prayers go out to their families because it’s a terrible, tremendous loss.”

The tower the men were working on broadcasts Iowa Public Television’s signal to the southwestern corner of Iowa and a bit of southeastern Nebraska, according to Hayes. The tower is located just east of Oakland in Pottawattamie County.

(KJAN news director Ric Hanson was at the scene of the accident and contributed to this report.)

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Waterloo Bucks look to get back into championship contention

May 31, 2006 By

The Waterloo Bucks will try to move back into contention in the Northwoods League this season when they open at home Thursday night against Mankato. The Bucks suffered through a 2005 campaign in which they finished with a record of 22-and-46.

Dan Corbin enters his first season as general manager. He says he came on board in 2002 and they won the championship, and Corbin says he thought it must be that way every year.

But the team didn’t fare as well the next couple of years and now Corbin says it’s good to be back in contention. Corbin says they have put together a team that he feels can be successful. He says they have some quality individuals with speed and power and he thinks they have some good pitching.

Fans can get a preview tonight when the Bucks host an intrasquad game in Riverfront Stadium. Corbin says the scrimmage might morph into a home-run derby.

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