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Teen arrested after chase in North-central Iowa

April 30, 2007 By

Several law enforcement agencies throughout north-central Iowa were involved in a chase that started near Dumont and ended up near Mason City Sunday night. At around 7:45 last night, a Butler County deputy attempted to stop a pick up on a traffic violation, with the driver refusing to pull over and then started to elude the officer.

The chase lasted over a half-hour with the driver striking two Iowa State Patrol cars and attempting to hit another before the vehicle was finally disabled in Cerro Gordo County when the driver attempted to cross a small creek. The driver then jumped out of the vehicle, finally being arrested at a rural Mason City home. Arrested was 18- year-old Christopher Michael Kreins of Mason City, who is being held in the Butler County Jail on multiple charges including assault, eluding, and driving while suspended.

An unidentified passenger in the vehicle was on a weekend furlough from the Eldora Boys Training School to his grandparent’s home, but had been listed as a missing person since he had not actually returned to his grandparent’s on Saturday night. He was turned over to juvenile authorities. None of the officers involved in the chase were injured.

 

Audio: Bob Fisher report. :43 MP3

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Davenport man shot while turkey hunting

April 30, 2007 By

A Davenport man is recovering after being accidentally shot by his grandfather while hunting in northeast Iowa. It happened shortly after six A.M. Saturday north of Waukon in Allamakee county where four men were turkey hunting.

Forty-one-year old Shane Emmert was returning to their vehicles when his grandfather, 80-year-old George Emmert of Mason City mistook him for a turkey and shot him in the chest. Emmert was initially taken to the Waukon Hospital and then airlifted to a LaCrosse, Wisconsin hospital in serious condition. Emmert suffered a collapsed lung and internal bleeding. 

Audio: Roger King report. :30 MP3

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Plan to share tax local option sales tax among schools failed

April 30, 2007 By

The idea of distributing school construction money based on how many students are enrolled in a school district failed to make it through the 2007 Iowa Legislative session.  Voters in each of Iowa’s 99 counties have approved a local option sales tax to finance local school construction and the idea was to funnel all that money to the state and have the state evenly distribute it so some schools , in wealthier areas with lots of retail businesses, didn’t get the lion’s share of school construction money.

Margaret Buckton of the Iowa Association of School Boards says it’s a matter of fairness for rural districts that have few retail businesses in their county. "As a taxpayer, you’re going to spend your money in the urban center and you’re paying the tax either way," Buckton says. "What this gets is some true equity so it doesn’t matter where you live or where you shop, every student will have the backing of enough money to have a quality facility."

But critics like Ed Failor, Senior, of Iowans for Tax Relief says the plan was flawed because those local option sales taxes are resubmitted to voters every 10 years — giving voters a chance to get rid of the tax. The statewide one-penny of sales tax would have become permanent.

"It’s a good thing for Iowans they didn’t do it," Failor says. "It would have taken money away from businesses in the state, people in the state, and would be hurting our economy." But the current method of financing school building repair and construction is under fire. Sioux City School officials have threatened to sue the state, charging the current system of distributing school funding is unfair.

House Republican Leader Christopher Rants of Sioux City says his district is "property poor" and that creates a problem because property taxes are the primary component of local school funding. "It’s not fair to the kids. We can’t provide the same opportunities in property poor districts like ours like others can," Rants says. "This legislature has turned a blind eye to that." Rants did control the House debate agenda for the past seven years.

The man who controlled Senate’s debate agenda this year, Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs, says property tax reform in general is on the "unfinished business" list for legislators. "I think we’re all a little disappointed we could find consensus on property taxes," Gronstal says. "…That is a vexing problem."

Audio: Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports. :57 MP3

Filed Under: Education Tagged With:

Democrat in Iowa House switching to GOP

April 30, 2007 By

Dawn Pettengill 2007

A Democrat in the Iowa House of Representatives today announced she’s joining the Republican Party. Democrats controlled the debate agenda for the past four months, and Representative Dawn Pettengill of Mount Auburn says she didn’t get elected to pursue some of the issues Democrats pushed, like gay rights and pro-labor bills. 

"This year’s been a tough year," Pettengill says."…I’ve been assured that in the Republican caucus I’ll be welcome and be able to represent the moderate to conservative district that I have."  Pettengill’s husband disconnected their home phone earlier this year because union activists were calling repeatedly to lobby on a union-backed bill.  "I’m totally over that and just want to move on," she told reporters at a statehouse news conference.

Pettengill says she became a Democrat because of President Nixon and the Watergate scandal. "My whole family’s Republicans, so I’ve always been a more conservative Democrats," Pettingill says.

Pettingill also sent an email to House Democrats in March complaining about the way she was being treated by her party and some interest groups.  "You know, I don’t want to poke anyone in the eye," Pettengill told reporters this morning. "I’d rather not comment."

Pettengill says she had "conversations" about her discomfort with the House Democrats’ agenda, but House Speaker Pat Murphy, a Democrat from Dubuque, says he is surprised by Pettengill’s defection. "It’s an individual decision that she has to make," Murphy says.

Murphy rejects the idea Democrats pursued an agenda over the past four months that’s driving moderates away from the party. "I don’t think we pursued anything that was extreme," Murphy says.

House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines suggests Pettengill’s departure has more to do with her "emotional journey" than with Pettengill’s philosophical differences with Democrats. "I wish Dawn well. I wish whatever issues that she has that she’s able to work through them and I certainly wish her success in life," McCarthy says. "…I know she’s been working through some very difficult emotional issues. We tried to help her through those…but in the end, this apparently was the decision that she reached on her own."

Pettengill expects to lose friends. "It’ll be hard," Pettengill says. "I care about a lot of those people, but I wasn’t sent down here for friends. I was sent down here to do a job and that’s why I made this decision."

Democrats estimate they spent as much as a quarter of a million dollars to help Pettengill win re-election to the House last November and both parties say they’ll send whatever it takes to win that seat in November, 2008.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

$20M building to go up on UI Oakdale Research Campus

April 30, 2007 By

University of Iowa officials broke ground Monday morning for a new building at the Oakdale Research Campus. Spokesman George McCrory says it’ll have two functions, as a research lab and business incubator. It’ll support "spin-out" companies from the University’s laboratories and serve as a place to attract startup companies that have an association with the University. In the other wing of the building will be the headquarters of the International Genecular Institute. McCrory says the UI’s strengths are credited with attracting the company. The building will be 90-thousand square feet in size and from design to construction is expected to cost 20-Million dollars.

Funding is coming from the National Genecular (juh-NECK’-yuh-lar) Institute as well as the state and the city of Coralville. On the life-sciences incubator side, tenants will pay rent that helps with the cost and there’s some economic-development funding from the state and the Grow Iowa Values fund. The corporate sponsor is a business that makes skin-care products and topical pharmaceuticals.

The incubator side of the building will help create and support companies that arise from the University’s research activities. McCrory says there will be space for them in the building as well as support programs to help them through their early years. Company officials and University of Iowa officials were on hand for this morning’s groundbreaking at the UI Oakdale Research campus in Coralville.

Filed Under: Education

Two shot to death in Guthrie County

April 30, 2007 By

Two people were shot to death Sunday in western Iowa’s Guthrie County. The calm of small town life was shattered last night in an apartment complex in Bayard. Neighbors in the community of about 500 reported hearing gunshots late Sunday evening.

When police arrived they discovered two bodies inside one of the apartments. The suspect surrendered to the Guthrie County Sheriff’s office at around 9:30 p.m. No other details were immediately available, but a statement is expected later this morning from Guthrie County Sheriff Roger Baird.

 

 

 


Audio Ric Hanson report. :26 MP3

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Two die in canoe accident on Iowa River

April 30, 2007 By

Two Hardin County men were killed in a weekend canoe accident on the Iowa River. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says three men in their 20s were walking the canoe near the dam at Alden when the vessel was pulled into the turbulent waters on Sunday night about six o’clock. Two of the men died.

A third person was able to swim to safety and was taken to an Iowa Falls hospital. Authorities say none of the three had been wearing life jackets.

Audio: Nicole Roesch report. :33 MP3

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters
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