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Iowa City will vote on raising age to 21 for bar patrons

May 11, 2007 By

A group seeking to make it illegal for anyone younger than 21 to be in Iowa City bars after ten P.M. has gathered enough signatures to force a city council vote on the measure. The age limit is now 19-years-old. Members of the Committee for Healthy Choices delivered more than 4,200 signatures to the city clerk’s office.

Committee member Mark Martin says communities across the country have adopted similar measures with successful results. Martin says all the research they looked at showed raising the age to 21 was the first step to reducing underage drinking and binge drinking.

Martin says it seems like a natural solution to underage drinking problems. "I find it hard to understand why it’s a difficult move to make, because it’s simply common sense," Martins says, "when you give underage folks access to alcohol, they’re going to drink. And the first way to stop that drinking, and all the problems it causes, is to keep them out of the bars."

Iowa City bar owners say if the measure passes, it will have a noticeable affect on downtown business. Doug Grewe of Quitons Bar and Grill says students will seek other options. He thinks a lot of kids would stay off campus and throw house parties to stay away from cops. Todd Barnes of the Sports Column Bar says if the measure passes, it would be catastrophic for the downtown Iowa City area.

Once the signatures on the petition are verified, the City council can adopt the measure or call for a special election. Mayor Ross Wilburn anticipates a vote on 21-and-older ordinance in November.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Huckabee: musical instruments can be "weapons of mass instruction"

May 11, 2007 By

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says musical instruments can be "weapons of mass instruction" and schools should not be allowed to cut music and art education classes.

Back in 1999, when Huckabee was governor of Arkansas, he backed a phased-in plan which ultimate has forced every public school in Arkansas to offer music and art education classes, taught by a trained instructor.

According to Huckabee, it is "stupid" and "pure nonsense" for schools to cut music and art classes because they stimulate a child’s creativity. "The child today who is getting an education based solely on the transfer of information from one brain to the next without stimulating the processor, the operating system, the creative part of that child’s brain, is a child who is getting left behind," Huckabee says.

Huckabee cites statistics which show students who’re involved in music do four-times better than average on college entrance exams and are four times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem. He argues that’s why music education is so important.

"Today in America — and many of you see it in your own schools — kids with their heads on their desks, taking a good long nap at the expense of the taxpayers. How many billions of dollars do we spend in America every year so kids can take a nap in class — not because they’re dumb, not because they’re incapable of learning, but because they’re bored to tears?" Huckabee asks. "As a result, every 60 seconds in this country two kids drop out of school."

Huckabee argues the need for music education should be part of the national debate, and he suggests that it Americans spent more time with their "hands wrapped around a music instrument" they’d spend less time with their hands "around something destructive."

"May I suggest that we do something in this country? And it would be that we take up a most important weapon. I would call these the weapons of mass instruction. I can think of nothing that maybe would eliminate poverty and disease and perhaps bring out the creative genius in a whole generation of kids so that they could do something what is unthinkable and unknowable today," Huckabee says. "…Give them the capacity to put something in their hands that will relate to their head and turn their heart around and give them those weapons of mass instruction so that this generation will come up with the answers that our generation has failed to come up with."

When Huckabee was 11 years old, his parents bought him an electric guitar for Christmas and he says it helped him learn about discipline because it required practice, and it helped him get over his shyness. "Don’t get me wrong. I love sports — football and basketball and baseball and track. All those things are wonderful, but a guy my age isn’t playing tackle football anymore. If he does, he only plays it once," Huckabee says. "…I’m having more fun playing music at age 51 than I ever did as a teenager."

Huckabee has his own band, called "Capitol Offense," which he says gets great gigs like opening for Willie Nelson because he’s a politician, not because of the band’s talent.

Huckabee discussed music education during a mid-day speech at the Iowa Bandmasters Association convention in Des Moines.

AUDIO: Huckabee at IA Bandmasters (mp3 runs 25 min)

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Sioux City police cleared in fatal shooting

May 11, 2007 By

State and local officials have completed their review and closed the case on a fatal shooting by police in Sioux City. Woodbury County Attorney P-J Jennings issued a 20-page report Thursday finding no fault on the part of the Sioux City Police Department in the deadly shooting of Ellis Parker Junior last fall at a local trailer court.

Today, Sioux City Police Chief Joe Frisbee concurred with the finding. Frisbee says the report could be summed up in two sentences, not 20 pages. "Had Parker not made his aggressive moves toward the officers, they would not have needed to use deadly force," Frisbee says, "The actions taken by officers were reasonable under the circumstances and justified under the laws of the state of Iowa."

Parker was shot and killed by police after jumping through the window of his burning mobile home last October and charging police twice with a butcher knife. Seven months later, Frisbee says officers are still dealing with the shooting.Frisbee says the shooting has been "terribly hard on them" and a lot of them are still undergoing counseling to deal with the shooting.

The county attorney’s report was based on information from the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, the State Medical Examiner’s Office, video taken from police patrol cars and individual interviews

 

 

Audio: Randy Renshaw report. :40 MP3

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Push on to raise funds to start work on Hope Lodge cancer facility

May 11, 2007 By

Hope Lodge artist rendition The push is on to raise the final funds needed to get work underway on a facility in Iowa City that’ll be used by cancer patients. Marcia Holley, of the American Cancer Society , says the Hope Lodge will fill a big need for cancer patients from across the state. (See artist sketch of proposed lodge at right) 

Holley says it will provide a home away from home for cancer patients and their caregivers. She says it’s designed for people who need to travel long distances for treatment. Holley says they are getting close to their fundraising goal.

Holley says they have raised five-point-six million dollars toward their overall right million dollar goal. She says they need six-million dollars to break ground, so they’re in a "full court press" to raise the final $400,000 to be able to break ground this fall. Holley says they’re asking everyone in Iowa to chip in.

Holley says "every nickel counts at this point in time." Cancer patients and their caregivers will be able to stay in the Hope Lodge for free while undergoing treatment. Holley says you can donate to the effort by calling a toll-free number. Call 1-888-266-2071, extension 7104. You can e-mail her at: Marcia.Holley@cancer.org, or visit the Hope Lodge website .

Holley says four million dollars of the eight million dollar goal will go toward building the facility, with four million used as an operating endowment. The facility will be built near the Ronald McDonald House at the University of Iowa. 

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With: ,

Supreme Court rules against Sioux City attorney getting full pay

May 11, 2007 By

A Sioux City attorney assigned by a judge to represent a child in the court system back in 2003 has lost her bid to have the state pay her entire bill for the legal work. Attorney Elizabeth Rosenbaum was appointed to represent the interests of a child who was declared "in need of assistance" by the state. It means the legal proceedings dealt with either placing the child in foster care or terminating the biological parents’ rights to be the caretaker for child.

Rosenbaum, an independent operator who was not at the time under contract with the state to handle these kind of cases, submitted her bill to the State Public Defender’s office. The agency paid only as much as was paid to attorneys under state contract to handle such cases.

The juvenile court ordered the Public Defender to pay Rosenbaum’s entire bill, but the Iowa Supreme Court now has ruled the state doesn’t have to because the Sioux City attorney should have filed papers — while she was working on the case — indicating her bill was poised to exceed the normal limits. Rosenbaum’s initial bill was nearly 22-hundred dollars. The State Public Defender’s Office paid her just about half that much. 

Audio: Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports. :54 MP3

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Be on the lookout for slow-moving ag vehicles

May 11, 2007 By

Recent storms have prevented some farmers from getting into their fields to plant. DOT driver-safety specialist Scott Falb says now the fields are drying out, motorists should watch for tractors on country roads. There are going to be a lot of farm vehicles, particularly on county roads, but even on the state highways.

Falb says people are going to have to "adjust their driving" to accommodate farm vehicles. He says part of that is adjusting your schedule, so you don’t have to be in a hurry and can share the road with the large, slow-moving tractors and other farm implements. He says you need to be alert for those vehicles pulling out onto the road as you’re driving past.

He says the entrances have access directly from farm fields onto county and gravel roads, but also onto some state highways. They’re supposed to carry warning signs to let you know the machines are going at a different pace than normal highway traffic. They’re required to have triangular red signs that indicate a slow vehicle, and some also have flashing yellow lights to alert drivers who are going at highway speed.

As soon as you see those signs, Falb says it’s time to start preparing to share the road with the slow-moving traffic. Your "closing speed" toward that other vehicle on the road will be very fast. Falb says the best thing is to immediately take your foot off the gas pedal and begin slowing while you appraise the situation. He says on the county roads where many planting vehicles are going to be on, there is shorter visibility distance, since those county roads tend to follow hills, rivers and curves in terrain.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Bone marrow drives seek 20,000 donors

May 11, 2007 By

A bone marrow drive is planned for next week in Iowa City, following a drive this week in Davenport, with the goal of recruiting 20,000 new bone marrow donors. Thousands of people have life-threatening blood diseases that require a bone marrow transplant, including Dr. Stephen Alldredge, a cardiologist in Bettendorf.

His wife, Roxanne Alldredge, says the need is urgent. She says, "Without having a new bone marrow implanted into them, they will not make it, they will die." Alldredge has a blood disease called M-D-S, also known as pre-leukemia.

Mrs. Alldredge says she’s coming to grips with the fact her husband’s days are numbered without a transplant. She says, "Most people wind up dying of a severe infection because they don’t have the immune response they need to fight off infection."

Eligible donors need to be in good health and between the ages of 18 and 60. The test is simple and painless. The next donor drive is set for Thursday, May 17th, at University Hospitals in Iowa City. 

Filed Under: Health & Medicine
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