Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says his wealth should not prevent him from being an effective advocate for the poor.
Edwards, his party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee, has often repeated his rags-to-riches personal story — the son of a mill worker who became one of the country’s leading trial attorneys. "I come from nothing and now I have everything," Edwards said when questioned about the topic on an Iowa Public Radio program.
Critics complain Edwards is a poor candidate to carry the anti-poverty message because he’s just built a sprawling mansion in North Carolina and was in the news for paying a Hollywood hairdresser $400 to fly to meet him on the campaign trail and cut his hair. "The question I always want to ask people when they seem critical about this: ‘So would it be better if I had done well and now I didn’t care about people who are struggling?’" Edwards said. "I mean this just doesn’t make any sense to me. I have a little trouble following it."
Being criticized is just part of politics, according to Edwards, but he said this particular criticism is off the mark. "Feels a little silly to me, to be perfectly honest with you," Edwards said.
According to Edwards, some of the country’s leading champions of anti-poverty measures have been among America’s most wealthy citizens. "People like FDR and Bobby Kennedy, both of whom didn’t come from the kind of background I came from. They came from very priviledged backgrounds," Edwards said. "(Both) cared very deeply about those around them and you could see and feel the empathy they had for their fellow Americans."
After the 2004 election Edwards and his wife founded the Center for Poverty, Work and Opportunity the University of North Carolina. Edwards is the editor of a just-released book entitled "Ending Poverty in America." It’s a collection of essays. "This is an issue that I care deeply about and as long as I’m alive and breathing and Elizabeth’s alive and breathing, we’re going to stand up on it," Edwards said.
Courtesy of Iowa Public Radio, you can listen to Edwards’ full response to the question of his work on poverty — and his wealth — by clicking on the audio link below.
Edwards says it’s "silly" to question his anti-poverty crusade
U-I researchers find genetic link to autism
University of Iowa researchers have found a genetic mutation that contributes to a brain disorder that inhibits a person’s ability to communicate and develop social relationships. Dr. Thomas Wassink says the finding involving autism was part of a larger study of families which have children with the disorder.
Wassink says there was one family where they found "a piece of a chromosome missing in the middle of a really interesting gene, in two girls with autism from this family."
Wassink says they did further study to narrow down the gene mutation. Wassink says, "At some point in the embryonic development of the father, an abnormality occurred or a mutation arose in his primordial sperm cell." Wassink says the discovery of the mutation led to more research. He says the screened the gene, called "neurexin one," for mutations in about 400 other individuals with autism, but didn’t find any additional mutations of the gene in people with autism. Wassink says it appears the mutations in the gene in this particular family are not a very common cause of autism.
Wassink says the exciting thing is that this is one of a groups of genes where mutations have been found in the proteins in the synapse that send messages between nerve cells. Wassink says this tells researchers that other genes and proteins in this particular synapse are worth looking at to screen for other mutations that might be related to autism.
Wassink says having a clue about where to look for the problem is important. He says there are well over 10,000 genes in the brain, and finding the right ones to look at is not easy. Wassink says this finding helps them look at a more specific set of genes. Wassink says the finding could eventually help with treatments for autism.
Wassink says it may indicate different types of medications to try in treating autism. Wassink, who is an associate professor of psychiatry, says this study does not show any link to an earlier study that indicated that the chances for autism increased with the age of the father. Wassink says age is not a factor in this finding.
Edwards says Democrats shouldn’t negotiate with President on war pull out
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says Democrats in congress need to “hold their ground” and convince President Bush to start withdrawing troops from Iraq. “They should send him another funding bill with a timetable with withdrawal. If he vetoes that, they should send him another funding bill with a timetable for withdrawal and hold their ground because that course will force him to start withdrawing troops from Iraq,” Edwards says.
Rival Hillary Clinton said in Iowa on Sunday that the debate over war funding is a balancing act, and she might back a bill that would not include troop withdrawal guidelines if that is the deal Democratic negotiators strike with President Bush. Those negotiations started up this week after Bush’s veto last week of a bill that did include troop withdrawal demands.
Edwards says Democrats shouldn’t back down, and he questioned the decision by Democratic congressional leaders to open discussions with the White House. “I can’t tell you how strongly I feel about this,” Edwards says. “The last thing we should be doing is negotiating.” “…Elections have consequences. The American people put the Democrats in control in Congress because they wanted a different course in Iraq.” Edwards made his comments during an appearance on Iowa Public Radio.
Several farms in Union County damages by storms
Flooding from weekend storms in southwest Iowa has done more than close roads. Union County Emergency Management Coordinator Roger Nurnberg says several farms around Afton suffered damage. Eight or 9 farms in the east side of the county suffered wind damage, and a number of buildings were blown away, he says.
While the Weather Service tries to determine whether it was a tornado or straight-line winds, Nurnberg says, "That doesn’t matter to me — the buildings are still gone." He says the west side of Afton was heavily damaged by hail. They measured hail up to an inch and-a-half in diameter and Nurnberg says, "It’s really beat up the buildings and cars."
Teams are out surveying residents about how well early warnings worked to inform them of the coming storm. They’re asking if people had a radio, weather radio or other system, and if they got warnings from the National Weather Service as well as the local warnings that local officials sent out about the hail.
Nurnberg says there’s more information he needs to get from local residents that will help the recovery from the storms. As residents survey their losses and contact their insurance companies, he’d like a report of the amount of loss, and particularly how much damage isn’t covered by insurance. The number to make those reports to the Emergency Management Coordinator is: (641) 782-1622.
McCain touts work on immigration reform
Republican presidential candidate John McCain says he’s working to resolve the debate over U.S. immigration policy yet this year.
Last week in Iowa, Democratic presidential hopeful Christopher Dodd accused McCain of backing away from immigration reform, but McCain says that’s not the case.
McCain says the first task is to secure the borders. "Then you have to have a temporary worker program and the key to that is a tamper-proof biometric document. Any employer who hires someone without it would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," McCain says. "Then there’s various categories of people of the 12 million who are already here and it’s a little complicated."
McCain, a U.S. Senator from Arizona, says he hopes to hammer out the details of an immigration reform package in the next couple of weeks.
McCain spoke to about 200 people at a town hall meeting this morning in Davenport.
Karen Witherow of Davenport says she was there to hear about McCain’s plan for Iraq. "I’m not a proponent of pulling up stakes and leaving," Witherow says. "We started this mess. We have to do something."
McCain has been critical of the way the Bush Administration has prosecuted the war, but McCain backs the president’s latest attempt to turn things around with a surge of troops in Baghdad. "I know what’s going to happen if we leave Iraq. They’re going to follow us home and we need to have success there," McCain says. "Any political cost that may accure to me is something I don’t worry about, I don’t think about."
McCain is in the midst of a two-day campaign swing through Iowa, with stops earlier today in Davenport and Muscatine. He’ll be in North Liberty for a late-afternoon town hall meeting.
Tomorrow, his campaign has stops planned in Council Bluffs and Fort Dodge.
Atlantic farmer talks about storm damage
This weekend’s storms caused heavy damage in southwest Iowa, but there was extreme devastation to an area about 15-miles south of Atlantic in Cass County. The area was hit by an F-2 tornado packing winds up to 120-plus miles an hour. Kent Muller owns a livestock and feeding service just south of Lyman that was destroyed by the twister. Kent says he first realized something was wrong when his wife Jan woke him up around 2:45 Sunday morning.
Muller says his wife heard the noise first which she thought sounded like a freight train and she headed for the basement. Muller, just waking up, says he paused as debris started hitting the house. The window blew out and Muller dropped to his knees and crawled to safety in the bathroom. In 15 or 20 seconds, it was all over. He says after the storm passed, fear set in, as he and his wife — who were in separate areas of the house — searched for each other and surveyed the damage.
"I didn’t even know if all the house was there. We kinda’ panicked, of course, but then it was quiet right away and we could hear each other and we could look outside and we could see by lightning that everything was gone," Muller said. He says even before sunrise they knew they had a major mess on their hands, because the lightning lit up the debris around their home and business. A better picture unfolded as the morning went on.
Muller says :"We knew things were a disaster. Just looking out the house windows that weren’t there anymore, we could see in the lightning that pretty much everything was gone." Several huge storage buildings and the wash-and-service bay for the trucks were demolished or lifted away to parts unknown. His business and personal vehicles were pounded by the winds and debris. Four refrigerated trailers are totaled, three semis, both cars and three pickups are "almost non-driveable."
Fortunately, none of the couples’ livestock were killed. Muller says they had hauled two loads of sows out early Sunday morning and one load of cattle that were close to the damage. Two of the animals suffered severe cuts from the flying debris. He says when the word spread about the devastation, about 150 people, including friends and neighbors, arrived to help with the clean-up.
He says, "There were some people I didn’t even know. They just showed up and a lot of ‘em were here all day." Muller says they’ll begin to rebuild once the clean-up is finished. Debris from grain storage bins on the farm was scattered for several miles around. Crews were on hand this morning using a track hoe and skid-steer loaders to load the large scraps of metal into tractor trailers, while another crew worked to pump untold numbers of gallons of water out the couple’s basement.
Audio: Kent Muller of Atlantic talks about storm damage 1:28 MP3
Red Oak battles flood waters
The southwest Iowa city of Red Oak is in the center of a flood storm. Flood water is threatening to swamp the city’s sewage plant. Montgomery County emergency coordinator Adam Wainwright says it’s an "urgent" situation and they’re trying to erect a sandbag barrier to keep the water out.
"The water…is coming right up very close to the sewage plant," Wainwright says. "So that is the number one priority right now." Inmates from the state prison in Clarinda are at the National Guard Armory, filling sandbags. "We need to get those sandbags up around…the sewage plant..because if the water gets up there we are in trouble and we don’t have a whole lot of time to mess around," Wainwright says.
In the six hours between three o’clock and nine o’clock this morning, the Nishnabotna River that runs just west of Red Oak rose a foot. A creek inside the city limits of Red Oak has risen dramatically, and a huge pump was brought in from Council Bluffs to try to divert the water from nearby homes.
"Thank goodness it stopped raining, but any leftover rains we have, any water from just north of Red Oak — that’s what we have to watch with Red Oak Creek," Wainwright says. "Right now we’re in the process of trying to get that all pumped out and lower that level." Shelters were opened overnight and some Red Oak residents stayed until sunrise. Residents who live near Red Oak Creek or along the banks of the Nishnabotna are urged to leave their homes.
"Now that it’s light, we’re able to see a little bit better, see where the water level is," Wainwright says. "Until we know exactly when the Nishnabotna’s going to crest and start to decrease we will continue to…strongly encourage the evacuation." Red Oak’s fire chief and police chiefs have asked sightseers to quit driving through the area.
Governor Chet Culver issued a Governor’s Emergency Proclamation Sunday for Harrison, Pottawattamie and Montgomery counties. Today, Decatur and Fremont counties were added to the proclamation.
The proclamation enables state resources to be deployed at no cost to help local responders during emergencies.
