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Man dies at Peosta shooting range

June 22, 2006 By

An investigation is underway into the death of an eastern Iowa man. Dubuque County authorities are investigating an incident in which a man was found dead at a shooting range in Peosta.

The Dubuque County Sheriff’s Department was called out to the Izaak Walton Club in Peosta about 11 A.M. Wednesday where they found a man dead from a gunshot wound. The name of the man has not been released.

Authorities do not suspect foul play. The man’s body was taken to the state medical examiner’s office to continue the investigation.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Lightning gets overlook as danger

June 22, 2006 By

The phrase “struck by lightning” refers to something that doesn’t happen too often. While most of the injuries and deaths attributed to lightning are preventable, Angela Oder at the National Weather Service says we tend to underrate the danger of becoming a victim.

In the average year in the U.S., about 67 people are killed, and she says far more survive but suffer injuries and long-lasting symptoms, around 300 a year. The number of people killed by lightning is second only to those killed by flooding.

She says we tend to brush aside the danger of lightning, since one thunderbolt doesn’t have the scale or impact of a big storm or other widespread natural event. Since lightning doesn’t leave behind the mass destruction a tornado or hurricane would, and only one or two people are killed at a time by lightning, people can tend to underestimate the danger.

The Centers for Disease Control also collects data on lightning, and reports that 92-percent of the fatalities occur during May-September, and 73-percent happen during the afternoon and early evening.

Fifty-two-percent of the people who died from lightning strikes were engaged in outdoor recreational activities at the time and 25-percent were working when it happened.

Related web sites:
C-D-C Lightning tips

Filed Under: Weather

Dubuque nurse says she was fired for speaking out

June 22, 2006 By

A nurse with 30 years experience says she was fired from Finley Hospital in Dubuque after speaking out against management in a commercial. Alice Wieck is the vice president of the Service Employees International Union Local 199, which serves the Finley Hospital.

Weick says she was called into the Vice President of Nursing Services office and the administrator played a radio spot and asked Weick if that was Weick’s voice. Weick said yes it is. Wieck says in the spot that Finley Hospital C-E-O John Knox doesn’t always put patients first. She then encourages listeners to call Knox and tell him to support the nurses.

The Finley administration issued a statement saying that employee discipline or termination is confidential and Weick’s case was fully investigated prior to her firing. The nurses union and administrators have been in contract negotiations and the union has issued a strike notice that a strike will take place July 6th.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Senator Harkin supports resolutions to pull troops out of Iraq

June 22, 2006 By

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says he’ll support both of the resolutions before the U.S. Senate today (Thursday) calling on President Bush to bring the troops home from Iraq. One plan would see the pullout within a year; the other calls for what’s called a “phased redeployment” but sets no specific date.

Harkin, a Democrat, says we need an exit strategy and both resolutions would offer that. Harkin says “The resolution I offered to get the troops out by the end of the year is more clear cut and more definitive but that’s not before us. I’ll be supporting both of them although I’m under no illusions, neither one will win because the Republicans will vote against them. Therefore, we will continue to pour more taxpayers’ money into Iraq and sadly, we’ll probably continue to lose more American lives and more American young men and women injured.”

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, says he will -not- support the resolutions, saying it makes no sense to give our military plans to our enemies. Harkin says — our plan for Iraq is already clear. Harkin says “By staying, that means the factions in the Iraqi government have no incentive to work together to solve their problems. The generals have said over there it’s not a military solution, it’s a political one. On the one hand, they know our plans now: stay forever. That’s a recruiting tool for the insurgents.”

Harkin says he’ll back both resolutions today because “anything is better than what we’ve got going now.” Harkin says “There’s two things we’ve gotta’ look at here: we can have a time certain to get out of there, force the Iraqi government to solve its differences, or we can just stay and pay, and stay and pay, and stay and pay. That’s the choices we have.”

Grassley, meanwhile, says “The best way to win a war is to keep your opposition off guard, not know what your plans are, and the instrument of surprise is the best way to win. It’s just the opposite when you say that you’re going to pull out.”

Grassley says if a date of December 31st of 2006 were set in stone for the U.S. to leave Iraq, the insurgents would only have to hold out until then before launching an offensive that would bring civil war.

Filed Under: Military, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Grandview Park Baptist off to another good start

June 22, 2006 By

For the second straight season the Grandview Park Baptist baseball team is off to a fast start but this time it is not a surprise. In 2005 the Defenders finished with a record of 17-3 and coach Geoff Lane says the program had only 14 players from grades eight through 12. This season they stand 16-2 and are ranked tenth in 1A in the latest Radio Iowa/Coaches poll.

Lane says they have 23 kids out this year with 14 dressing for varsity. He says they’ve carried over their success from last year and have worked hard to make themselves better than they were last year.

Lane says this is a more veteran squad and the defenders have done well against bigger schools. Their only losses to date have come against 4A Southeast Polk and class 3A tenth rated Saydel. He says they didn’t have any seniors last year and this year only have three, so they’re still very young.

Lane says they would love to make it to their first-ever state tournament but right now they are focused on more immediate things. Lane says they just want to show up and get better and then the results will be that they make it to the tournament. The Defenders return to action tonight against Collins-Maxwell-Baxter.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Details released on Wright County raid

June 22, 2006 By

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are finally releasing details of last week’s raid on a DeCoster Eggs facility in Wright County. U.S. assistant attorney Bob Teig confirms the I-C-E agents executed an enforcement operation on June 14th at several DeCoster plants and at least 36 people were being detained.

No charges have been filed, but one pregnant woman that was detained has been released. It’s the third immigration raid at DeCoster Farms in Wright County since 2001 that has resulted in employees being detained. Officials say a majority of the workers checked had H-2-B work visas, which are commonly used for seasonal workers.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Republicans continue effort to override property rights veto

June 22, 2006 By

Republican leaders in the Iowa House are pushing forward with plans to override the governor’s veto of property rights legislation. The top Republican leader in the House sent Secretary of State Chet Culver a letter Wednesday, asking Culver to return the official copy of the bill Governor Tom Vilsack vetoed.

The House must have that official copy in order to vote to override the veto but the Attorney General has suggested the legislature doesn’t have the authority to override the veto because of a technicality — the 2006 legislature adjourned — and lawmakers must reconvene and pass another bill to act upon.

House Republican Leader Chuck Gipp of Decorah says Secretary of State Culver, the Democratic nominee for governor, shouldn’t concern himself with the legalities and should just give legislators the copy of the bill”We’re trying to do this systematically, one step at a time,” Gipp says. “The first thing is to get the bill back from the Secretary of State.”

But Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs says it’s a moot point since there aren’t enough votes in the senate to override Democrat Tom Vilsack’s veto. Gronstal says this latest G-O-P gambit is just an attempt to draw Culver into a spat with the outgoing Democratic governor. “I don’t think returning the bill means anything. I think it’s one more political game by the Republicans (who) would rather play politics with this issue than get something done,” Gronstal says. “It doesn’t matter what (Culver) does and I would suggest he go ahead and turn (the bill) over to them.”

Gipp, the House Republican Leader, makes the same suggestion. “I would think that Secretary of State Culver would not want to get embroiled in this battle in the first place and would willingly send it back if requested to do so,” Gipp says. “Now it will be interesting to see if he does so or whether or not he inserts himself in this battle.”

Culver’s top deputy in the Secretary of State’s office says he’s not sure if the office can release the official copy of the bill and they’ll consult with the Attorney General for advice. The bill in question would have limited local governments’ authority to seize private property for economic development projects.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,
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