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East Marshall softball coach wins number 1,000

June 26, 2006 By

East Marshall softball coach Mike Vint hit a milestone with his one-thousandth coaching victory with a 7-2 win Friday over Marshalltown in the Bobcat Softball Classic It was the team’s fourth try at getting the big victory for Vint, who says he tried to downplay the issue. Vint says he’s sure it put a lot of undue pressure on the team as they tried to get him the win.

Vint didn’t imagine that he would ever hit one-thousand. Vint says he thought when he hit 100 “that was pretty neat.” Vint says he remembers 100 and 500, but the rest are kind of blurry. Vint says a couple of hundred kids at least have gone through the program and there have been a lot of great memories.

Vint says getting this many victories is due in part to his longevity. He started in 1971 in Green Mountain and had fall and summer softball a few seasons. Vint went to L-D-F in 1983 as baseball coach, and then took over as softball coach after one season. Vint came to East Marshall in the mid 1990′s and says this is his 35th season.

Vint says the quality of softball had increased tremendously. Vint says when he started in 1971 you might see one good pitcher out of every four or five teams, and now it seems like every team has a good pitcher. He says he’s had some outstanding pitchers on his teams including five who had 100 victories, one who had 98 and a couple with 50, so they helped him total at least 700 of the wins.

Vint has a few special memories. He says his first state tournament team in 1988, and then Vint says in 1990 he had what he thought was probably the best team he’s coached finished second and then didn’t make it back to state. Vint says he made it to five state tournaments and each one was special.

Vint says looks for athletes who are well-rounded. Vint says he wants them to be class people, and if they get better in softball, that’s a bonus. He says he wants to go out and represent their school and community and have a good work ethic that can carry on after softball.

How many years and wins are left in the coach? Vint says as long as it’s still enjoyable and he’s healthy he’ll keep at it. Vint says he’s 57 and hopefully can coach into his 60′s. The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union says eight other coaches have hit the one-thousand win milestone. Those coaches are: Larry Niemeyer, Ed Coughenour, Frank Huston, Gary Page, Bill Hennessy, Dick Rasmussen, Jerry Newton and Dennis Johnson.

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TouchPlay lawsuit expands to 30 owners

June 26, 2006 By

The lawsuit against the state over the shut down of the TouchPlay machines was amended today (Monday) in Polk County District Court to add 25 owners — bringing the total to 30.

Joleen Hedley of Dubuque is one of the owners added on. Hedley says she’s suing on behalf of her family and her business. Hedley owns “Rich and Junnie’s Coin” in Dubuque. Hedley says, “This lawsuit is about a promise broken. Our goal, my goal, is to hold the State of Iowa accountable for their decisions. As a mother and a business owner, when I give my word, or make and agreement, I believe that we have a responsibility to one another.”

Hedley says the suit is not about whether you favor the lottery or casino gambling — it’s about “Iowa values.” Hedley says it’s about how Iowa leaders “betrayed our trust and in the end dismissed us with a total lack of respect. Hedley says they’re seeking compensation for “a contract that was breached and a contract that was broken.” She says the compensation would help their business, but the lawsuit should also be a wakeup call that in Iowa it is unacceptable to treat business owners or others “with such total disregard.”

Jeff Siggins owns J&B Amusement in Atlantic, and also talked about a breach of trust. Siggins says, “My family and I trusted the Iowa Lottery, the state legislature, and yet we stand here today with a promise broken and a contract breached. We have spent a lifetime building a business only to see the future of that business placed in jeopardy.”

Siggins says the TouchPlay owners didn’t jump right into purchasing the machines, and did so only after getting assurances from the state. Siggins says “all of us took great pains to look at the Iowa Lottery’s five-year business plan.” He says “our partner changed its mind and left us in the cold. It’s not only unethical, it’s against the law.”

Mark Jacobs of Ankeny also owns TouchPlay machines. He says the specific damage figure for the lawsuit has not been determined and they expect it to be determined in the pre-trial hearings. Jacobs says the testimony of Iowa Lottery Director Ed Stanek in an earlier lawsuit estimated the damages to the machine owners at over 900-million dollars. Machine owners lost another lawsuit seeking to stop the shut down of the machines.

Jacobs believes they have a case to win damages in this suit. Jacobs says the judge earlier ruled that lawmakers were within their constitutional right to shut the machines down. But Jacobs says the judge in his ruling said the machines owners were “encourage and enticed to invest millions of dollars”, so Jacobs says this suit is about the “broken promise” not about whether the Legislature had the right to shut the machines down.

Craig Cahoon, vice president of Moss Distributing of Des Moines, says they believe they have a solid contract that was broken. Cahoon says they have a five-year agreement that was spelled out by the Iowa Lottery, and he says the testimony of Stanek other lottery officials shows that they used that agreement to go to banks to get money to invest in the machines.

Jacobs says he had 85 machines that cost eight thousand dollars each to buy. He says the machines ran only five months before the shut down, so he did not recover his investment. Hedley says her business invested one-point-five million dollars in 203 machines and they did not operate long enough to recover the family’s investment.

Governor Tom Vilsack, an attorney by trade, offered this brief response when questioned by reporters about the lawsuit. “You know, it is what it is. Certainly there’s nothing prohibiting or preventing the owners from taking that step,” Vilsack said. “It’ll be handled in due course. There’s not much to say about that.” According to Vilsack, legislators made it clear they weren’t interested in compensating businesses for TouchPlay losses.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With: , ,

Survey says just 10 percent of junior high, high school kids smoke

June 26, 2006 By

The latest state survey of Iowa junior high and high school students finds just 10 percent are regular smokers. That’s eight percent lower than the smoking rate among Iowa teens and pre-teens back in 1999 and way below the national average of 23 percent for that age group.

Cassie Peterson of Leon, president of the “Just Eliminate Lies” statewide student group that discourages kids from smoking, smoked her first cigarette when she was eight. “Growing up, I kind of thought that the product was a common habit of society. I saw it so often in my own home that it just seemed natural…I pilfered my first cigarette from my mom’s ashtray while she was sleeping,” Peterson says. “I thought smoking a cigarette would make me a little bit more like my mom — my role model.”

She became a regular smoker rather quickly. “Four years after my first puff, the health impact on my body became obvious,” Peterson says. “While I was running an 800 in track by the time I reached the finish line my hands were clammy, my face was flushed and my entire chest was just on fire. I couldn’t breathe. I realized that I was suffering from the health effects of tobacco use rather than from the exhaustion of running.” She quit smoking then — at the age of 12 — and became an anti-smoking crusader.

“I’ve made it my goal to influence my peers, my cousins and just regular kids that I meet,” she says. “The tides are changing. Society wants to know more about this product, this product that kills over 400,000 Americans every year.”

Iowa Department of Public Health director Mary Mincer-Hansen credits the reduction in youth smoking in Iowa to community-level programs which discourage kids like Cassie from taking up the smoking habit. She cited the “Girl Power” program in Harlan and Onawa which builds self-esteem and character.

Mincer-Hansen also singled out “Project Alert” in Albion and Pekin, which involves parents in the prevention activities. “We’ve made great progress in Iowa, but we must remain committed,” Mincer-Hansen says. “Bringing a community together makes a difference.” Eighty-two percent of the Iowa kids surveyed had never smoked a cigarette.

Governor Tom Vilsack says the survey found the use of not only cigarettes but marijuana and other illegal drugs is on the decline among Iowa youth. “So this is a total community effort which is totally changing the landscape for our children,” Vilsack says. “This is certainly good news.” Over 98-thousand sixth, eighth and 11th graders in Iowa were surveyed in 2005. It found smoking rates among Iowa youth on decline, as well as a decrease in the amount of binge drinking.

However, about one-third of the Iowa high school juniors surveyed said that during the past month, they’d drunk at least five alcoholic beverages on at least one occasion. “The problem is not solved…but the progress is in the right direction,” Vilsack says. Ninety-four percent of the teens surveyed said they’d never smoked pot.

Marvin Van Haaften, director of the Governor’s Office on Drug Control Policy, gives parents credit. “One of the neat things the Partnership for a Drug-Free America says is that any parent — that can be a grandparent, that can be a mentor — (who) on a regular warns their children about the dangers of substance abuse, guess what?” Van Haaften says. “That child is 50 percent less likely to experiment with drugs.”

Van Haaften also praises Iowa police and sheriff’s departments for doing tobacco compliance checks to see if stores are selling cigarettes to minors. The wide-ranging student survey — with 120 questions — is conducted every three years. In 2005, over 98-thousand students from 350 Iowa high schools answered the questionnaire.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Iowa Medal of Honor winners to be recognized

June 26, 2006 By

With Independence Day just ahead, a new permanent multimedia exhibit honoring “the bravest of the brave” will be unveiled in the rotunda of the Iowa state capitol building this week. Jeff Morgan, spokesman for the State Historical Society of Iowa, says the kiosk will recognize Iowa soldiers who have won the nation’s highest military honor.

Morgan says it chronicles the stories and lives of 108 people with Iowa ties whose bravery and courage in action against hostile forces earned them the Medal of Honor from the Congress and the president. He says the kiosk uses state-of-the-art technology to show visitors a host of information about these heroes, a project that’s been several years in the making.

State Senator Dennis Black of Newton has helped in doing much of the research, collecting all of their stories and pictures that can be accessed via touchscreen in the exhibit, called “Iowa’s Medal of Honor Heroes.” Since it was authorized by President Lincoln, the medal has been awarded to only 35-hundred soldiers, more than half of them posthumously. 108 Iowans have won it, serving in ten major conflicts. Morgan says one of those heroes will be at the unveiling of the exhibit on Friday at 4 P.M. — a Sioux City native, retired Marine Colonel George “Bud” Day.

Morgan says Day was 17 years old when he enlisted and saw three years of active duty in the Pacific in World War Two, he came home and got a law degree, then was called to serve in Korea and trained as a fighter pilot, and went on to duty in Vietnam where he commanded a squadron and was shot down in 1967 and endured five years in a prison camp in North Vietnam. He returned to the U.S. and was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Ford in 1976.

As part of Friday’s ceremony, the society will also unveil the Ninth Iowa Infantry Civil War Battle Flag for display in the rotunda. It’s believed the flag carries the blood of Sergeant James Elson, of Shellsburg, who received the Medal of Honor for his acts of courage at the Battle of Vicksburg during the Civil War.

Filed Under: Military

Identification required for government programs beginning July 1

June 26, 2006 By

Starting July first, Iowans who get government assistance including Medicaid healthcare coverage must show some I.D. Ann Wiebers, an administrator with the Department of Human Services, says it’s a new requirement to get aid through programs for low-income families.

They’ve always had to be a U.S. citizen or legal alien, and if they declared alien status the agency went on to make sure they were qualified to receive aid. But they were allowed to “self-declare,” simply tell what their status was, and now they have to prove it. The new requirement, passed early this year in Congress, was part of a federal deficit-reduction act.

They can prove citizenship and identity “both in one fell swoop,” she says, by showing a passport, a certificate of naturalization or of citizenship. If you don’t have one of those, it’ll take two documents — one to show proof of citizenship, the second to prove your identity. That can include combinations like your birth certificate or hospital birth record, an affidavit of citizenship and a driver’s license or DOT I.D. card, a school photo I.D. or military identification.

Wiebers says about 300-thousand Iowans currently get state assistance through the Department of Human Services. People who are getting Medicaid already have their eligibility reviewed every year. So beginning the first of July, when that annual review comes up they’ll now be required to also show their proof of ID and citizenship. It’ll also be required of people just coming into the system.

Wiebers says she doesn’t think the new requirement will bump a lot of people out of the Medicaid system, but if they can’t prove the required status she says the agency will help them work to become eligible. Surf to the Department of Human Services and click the link labeled “New Proof of Citizenship Requirements.”

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Nationwide hunt for Minnesota runaway, 30-year-old man who ran over teen’s father at Dubuque gas station

June 26, 2006 By

Authorities are looking for a 30-year-old man and a 16-year-old runaway involved in a fracas at gas station near Dubuque.

Dubuque County Sheriff Ken Runde says 16-year-old Kaylynn Cerqua’s dad and grandfather were taking her home to central Minnesota after she’d been arrested in Savanna, Illinois — a town right across the border from Sabula, Iowa. The sheriff says Cerqua went to Savanna with 30-year-old Andrew Herbsleb. The young woman “got into a confrontation with Savanna police” according to the Dubuque County Sheriff, who says the cops in the town arrested her, then released Cerqua into the custody of her father and grandfather.

Her relatives put the runaway in their car and headed home. When the trio stopped for gas near Dubuque at a station along Highway 20, authorities say Kaylynn Cerqua ran to another vehicle that had been following them. “When they stopped for gas, the young lady acted as though she was sick so the grandfather got out of the car with her and she took off running and jumped in this guy’s car,” the sheriff says. “The grandfather went over and obviously tried to keep her from going and by that time the father, of course, had come out after paying for the gas and ran over, too, and they were trying to get her out of the car.”

The grandfather latched onto the car and was drug several feet. Runde says the father either jumped in front of the car or jumped on top of the hood and slid down. “The guy ran over his chest,” the sheriff says. “He had the most serious injuries.” The father was taken to a Dubuque hospital. The sheriff says the father had broken ribs and doctors are concerned that his lungs might collapse. The grandfather had cuts and abrasions, but refused treatment according to Runde.

The sheriff has issued a nationwide alert for a Herbsleb’s green 1996 Mercury Sable station wagon. It has Minnesota plates, with the license number KGR 471. “Both of them are considered dangerous,” the sheriff says. “She had a physical altercation with the police in Savannah and there are a number of construction tools and stuff in the vehicle that could be used as weapons.”

The 30-year-old Herbsleb is white, about 5’11″. Kaylynn Cerqua is white with black hair that’s long in the back and shaved along the sides. She wears a nose ring and is about 5 foot seven inches tall. Dubuque County authorities have filed felony charges of willful injury against Herbsleb. Cerqua is from Milaca, Minnesota.

(Ann Hughes from WDBQ in Dubuque contributed some of the information in this story.)

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Peta circus protest falls flat in Dubuque

June 26, 2006 By

A PETA protest aimed at a traveling circus that spent its weekend performing in Dubuque fell far short. PETA has a video that the group claims shows abuse of elephants in the Carson and Barnes Circus and the group sent city leaders a letter asking the Dubuque City Council to ban bull hooks, electric prods and other devices that inflict pain on elephants.

But Ben Trumble, a spokesman for the circus, says PETA’s animal cruelty charge is baseless. “Our circus has never been charged with a violation of the Animal Welfare Act for animal cruelty,” he says. Trumble says the video PETA’s peddling was shot in the mid-1990s, and the trainer in the video is shouting at other trainers, not elephants.

Spectators at the Carson and Barnes Circus in Dubuque weren’t swayed by PETA’s protest. One man said PETA is always “picking on about anybody and anything.” Another spectator called PETA’s animal abuse claims “propaganda.” The Carson and Barnes Circus gave performances Saturday and Sunday in Dubuque.

The circus is based in Oklahoma and has moved on to stops in Illinois and Wisconsin this week.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment
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