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TouchPlay rep says potential lawsuits hold up payments to state

June 12, 2006 By

A representative of the TouchPlay machine owners today (Monday) told the Iowa Lottery Board the owners have good reasons for not paying millions of dollars due the Iowa Lottery.

Craig Cahoon, the vice president of Moss Distributing, says he doesn’t directly represent all TouchPlay owners. But Cahoon says he knows most of the owners well, and they have been trying to tie up loose ends since the TouchPlay ban went into effect in early May.

Cahoon says there are still two TouchPlay lawsuits pending, and there may be more. Cahoon says the operators had a five-year contract with the legislature, and the legislature ended the contract, so the operators want to explore the legal issues involving the contract.

Cahoon says TouchPlay owners were given a bad deal. He says, “I think there was a lot of people that were wronged here. I think the people of the State of Iowa were wronged here basically in the program. I think the lottery itself was wrong, I feel that the operators were definatley wronged. There was a five-year agreement with us and that was indeed how we returned our investment and made profit in this business, and we weren’t allowed to do that.”

Cahoon was asked if he thought the TouchPlay owners would eventually all pay up. Cahoon says he can’t speak to that because some of it will be decided by attorneys and the court. But Cahoon says he knows that, “Every member of our industry is a responsible bussinessperson and pays their bills.”

The Iowa Lottery Board met in a closed session after hearing from Cahoon. Lottery Director Ed Stanek would only say the board discussed litigation and has not made any decisions. Stanek says he’s not sure if the TouchPlay owners will pay up. Stanek says they don’t know and have sent out what they believe is their final accounting of money due and will give the TouchPlay owners until July to pay up.

Stanek says the money is overdue and they’ll have to determine what happens if the companies don’t meet the July deadline. Stanek says the money should’ve been collected prior to today, and he says if it isn’t paid by July, they’ll have to visit with the board and legal counsel to decide their next move.

Stanek sending overdue notices to the TouchPlay companies is an unusual step. Stanek says they normally don’t send notices, but instead electronically sweep the company’s bank account for the money. Stanek says in this case some of the companies didn’t have enough money in their accounts, or told their banks to not allow the Iowa Lottery to sweep their accounts.

There were 22 companies that owed some three-point-three million dollars at the start of the Iowa Lottery Board’s meeting today. Lottery officials say two of the companies paid their bills today, dropping the total owed the Iowa Lottery to two-point-nine million dollars.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With:

Edwards downplays top showing in Iowa presidential poll

June 12, 2006 By

Former North Carolina Senator and expected 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards is downplaying his first-place showing in a Des Moines Register Iowa Poll of likely Iowa Caucus-goers. Edwards simply calls it a nice present.

Edwards says Democrats are focused on the elections this November , not 2008. “There is no chance that we’re going to be anything other than aggressive and hardworking,” Edwards says. “George Bush has done such a horrible job as president…The list goes on and on and on. I think Americans know that we’re better than this, we can do better than this.”

Edwards campaigned this afternoon with Chet Culver, the Democratic candidate for governor. During a telephone interview with Radio Iowa, Edwards focused his fire on Culver’s opponent, Republican nominee Jim Nussle.

“Iowans are very concerned about the possibility that Congressman Nussle who presided as chairman of the Budget Committee going from the biggest budget surplus in American history to the biggest budget deficit,” Edwards says. “This does not sound like the kind of guy they want in charge of their budget here in the state of Iowa.”

Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack finished fourth in the Register’s Iowa Poll of likely 2008 Caucus-goers. Hillary Clinton was the second choice of those surveyed; John Kerry was third.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Etching process helps deter car thieves

June 12, 2006 By

Car owners concerned about a recent report on auto theft will get some help in preventing it. The vehicle Identification or “VIN” number can be hard to see, so Public Safety Department spokesman Jim Saunders says the Triple-A Auto Club will team with law-enforcement to help owners thwart car thieves with “VIN etching.”

Saunders explains it’s the process of etching your VIN number into the glass of your windshield and also all the car’s windows. While you may not even be able to see it very easily, it’ll make it a lot harder for someone who steals the vehicle to re-sell it, or to put a foreign or fake VIN plate on it.

The glass is costly to replace, Saunders says, especially if the thieves have to put in all new windows and a windshield, and that would cut into their profit margin. The auto-club and law-enforcement team effort’s based on the assumption that it’s likely the marking process will make potential thieves decide against stealing a vehicle marked this way.

This month’s report found the highest area for vehicle theft was Council Bluffs – Omaha, with Des Moines the second in Iowa. Still, nationally the Council Bluffs metro ranked 66th and Des Moines is 174th among cities for the incidence of auto theft.

While Hondas and some other high-end autos are the most often stolen according to national statistics, the Iowa figures are different. The number-one model stolen here is the Chevy Cavalier. It’s a common car to see on the road, and often thieves who steal the cars will “Part ‘em out,” Saunders says, taking them apart and selling the car parts to repair shops and dealers.

The number of cars on the road and demand for parts likely is what makes them number-one on the list. Cavalier was followed by the Oldsmobile Cutlass, Ford Taurus, Pontiac Grand Am, and Ford F-150 pickup.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Osceola man dies after being hit by train

June 12, 2006 By

A 25-year-old man from Osceola was killed this morning in a train-pedestrian accident in southwest Iowa. The accident happened at a rail crossing in downtown Osceola, about a half-block away from Main Street.

Osceola’s chief of police says Richard Holland the second was struck at about three this (Monday) morning by a train traveling on the Burlington-Northern tracks. Holland was pronounced dead at the scene. His body has been transported to the state Medical Examiner’s office where an autopsy will be performed later today.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Phone service back on in Eastern Iowa

June 12, 2006 By

Phone service has been restored in a couple of eastern Iowa communities where customers found this morning that they couldn’t “reach out” very far. Qwest spokeswoman Joanna Hjelmeland says the problem was traced to a contractor.

About 9 A.M., she says a fiber-optic line was cut at a site where construction was going on in DeWitt, and it affected service in Clinton and Maquoketa. She couldn’t say how many people in all were affected, but some customers probably didn’t notice the outage.

Local calls were going through, and only long-distance calls were affected. The phone company set to work to restore service and the outage lasted till about two P.M. The phone company’s going back now to look at just what happened.

By law, construction companies must contact “Iowa One-Call” to have utilities including phone lines marked so their digging or other work won’t disturb or damage those services. Hjelmeland says it’s too early to tell whether the phone company will ask the contractor to pay damages for cutting the phone line.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters Tagged With:

Miss Iowa contest sees history made

June 12, 2006 By

For the first time in pageant history, the sister of a former Miss Iowa has taken home the crown. Miss Cedar River Emily Nicholas of Clear Lake won the Miss Iowa crown at the competition over the weekend at North Scott High School in Eldridge.

Emily’s sister Carolyn won the title in 2004, and Miss Iowa officials say it’s the first pair of sisters to be named Miss Iowa since the competition started in 1927. As Miss Iowa, Emily Nicholas will receive $10-thousand in scholarships and awards, and represents Iowa in January at the Miss America pageant.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Davenport man charged after deadly argument

June 12, 2006 By

A Davenport man is charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of another man this weekend. Davenport police say two men were arguing on the landing of third floor of an apartment building and one man allegedly shoved the other off the landing.

Police have charged 42-year-old Raymond Bowles with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 45-year-old man who has not been identified. Police say the unidentified man died from severe head injuries. Police are not yet releasing other details about what led to the argument.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts
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