February 9, 2012

You are here: Home / 2007 / May / Archives for 14th

Iowa and UNI to meet in baseball

May 14, 2007 By

The Iowa baseball team locked up a spot in the Big Ten Conference tournament over the weekend and the Hawkeyes now will try to get on the board in the Corridor Classic on Tuesday night. The annual game between Iowa and UNI is played in Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids.

Iowa coach Jack Dahm says it’s a fun game that unfortunately his team hasn’t won in three years. Dahmn says the games draws a number of fans who don’t normally get a chance to see college baseball games. He says it raises a lot of money for the American Diabetes Association.

The Hawkeyes are 29-17 overall. The Panthers are 21-26.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Evironmental Law and Policy Center to open office in Des Moines

May 14, 2007 By

A national group is opening an office in Des Moines to continue its work on a wide range of cases dealing with environmental issues. Environmental Law and Policy Center executive director Howard Learner.

"We’ve been operating in Iowa and the Dakotas and Illinois and Wisconsin and Minnesota for about 14 years," Learner says. "We’ll be hiring new staff here in Iowa and it’ll be attorneys, agriculture economists, public policy specialists — all focused around the ways we (can) solve environmental problems."

Iowa seems to be the center for renewable fuel development, according to Learner, and he says that’s why the office is opening here. "We think here we can help make things happen in a more intensive way," Learner says. The Environmental Law and Policy Center’s clients are "diverse" according to Learner. He says they’ve worked with the Farmers Union and the Farm Bureau as well as environmental groups and businesses to develop renewable energy projects.

"We’re an environmental group that likes to say ‘yes.’..We’re looking to solve problems," Learner says. "Our coalition partners and clients and colleagues aren’t just the usual suspects. We have a longstanding history of working closely with farm groups. There are a number of issues where we agree. Let’s work together. On the issues where maybe we disagree, let’s find a way to disagree without being disagreeable."

Learner says you can get a lot more done with that kind of attitude. The center’s work is financed primarily by private foundations and individual donors.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation

Fire at Polk County shooting range flares up again

May 14, 2007 By

Firefighters went back to a central Iowa shooting range today to deal with the flare-up of fire that’s apparently been smoldering there since Friday. Iowa Department of Natural Resources spokesman Mick Klemsrud says somehow late Friday a berm made of rubber tires at the Charles "Butch" Olofson shooting range north of Polk City caught fire.

"We’re pretty sure it was sparked by one of the rounds that was fired there," Klemsrud says. "…What we’re just trying to do is identify when it happened, how it happened — just kind of fill in the blanks." The berm is made of baled tires and is a sort of bullet trap behind a target at the state-owned shooting range.

Once those tires caught fire, the flames and heat from the blaze were intense and three area fire departments were called in to try to knock down the tire fire. "(Tires) are very difficult to extinguish, as we’re finding out now. This happened on Friday, in the evening, and we had a flare up again today," Klemsrud says. "We had fire departments on the scene for another hour today and we’re hopeful it’s taken care of." The Charles "Butch" Olofson shooting range is adjacent to Big Creek State Park, in northern Polk County. The three adjacent shooting ranges remain open.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters Tagged With:

Body in Mississippi, Des Moines accident victim both identified

May 14, 2007 By

Davenport police say the body of a male found floating in the Mississippi River has been identified as 47-year-old Gregory Hines of Rock Island. Police says an autopsy has been requested to gain more information and try to help them find out how Hines ended up in the river.

Des Moines police have identified the victim of a weekend car bicycle crash who remains in critical condition with severe head injuries and several broken bones Police say the victim, 41-year-old Carlos Harnandez had a blood-alcohol level more than four-times the legal limit at the time of the accident. The driver of the car was not charged. 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Congressman King says immigration bill is wrong

May 14, 2007 By

Congressman Steve King says he would rather do nothing than the wrong thing when it comes to immigration reform. Later this week, the U.S. Senate is expected to take up a bill that outlines how illegal immigrants can earn U.S. citizenship — mostly by paying a significant fine, but King says offering that kind of "amnesty" is wrong.

"I’m not for pardoning and I’m not for rewarding people that entered the United States illegally," King says. "This is a far broader issue…and we need to look down the road a couple of generations…because we don’t get a chance to do this over and it’s not the kind of toothpaste that you can put back in the tube." King made his comments this morning on Iowa Public Radio.

According to King, the media is giving Americans misleading information about what’s happening in Iraq and that’s why public support for the war is declining. King warns pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq could lead to Iran controlling 40 percent of the world’s oil

"If the Iranians do that and move forward at the pace they are to develop their nuclear efforts and their missile system to deliver it, we could within five to ten years be watching an Iran that has the capability of easily striking Israel, which they have threatened to annihilate, but also the possibility of striking western Europe and then the United States," King said.

Last year, King said his wife was at greater risk of being killed on the streets of Washington, D.C. than the average civilian is at risk of being killed on the streets of Iraq. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Creston man "Pays Forward" after his wife dies of cancer

May 14, 2007 By

A movie a few years ago called "Pay It Forward" struck a chord with a southwest Iowa man. The concept of "paying forward" has to do with making good faith gestures in hopes the good karma comes back around.

Thirty-four-year-old Tony Gross, of Creston, lost his wife of 14 years, Vicky, to cancer earlier this year, leaving him with two young sons. Gross wants to make a gesture now to help those who helped him, according to his aunt, Lori McIntosh of Creston.

McIntosh says "Tony is continuing to pay it forward. He is donating his 1998 Honda Shadow motorcycle, 600 CC, to be raffled off, and all proceeds are going to Relay For Life." While Vicky was undergoing treatment for leukemia at a Des Moines hospital, strangers from Waukee donated money to the Gross family to help them pay their medical bills. Lisa Johns is another aunt of Tony Gross and Johns says the relays will be held June 8th and 9th at the Creston High School track.

Johns says anyone can buy luminaries to honor someone who is fighting cancer or in honor of someone who has lost their fight. They’re still taking applications for teams who want to run in the event, with teams up to 15 members for a 50-dollar registration fee. The drawing for the motorcycle will be held at the relay event. For more information, call (641) 344-5439.

 

Filed Under: Human Interest Tagged With:

Tancredo unsure if immigration measure can be blocked

May 14, 2007 By

Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo is unsure he and others who oppose what they call “amnesty” for illegal immigrants can stop an immigration reform bill President Bush is backing. Tancredo, a congressman from Colorado, says there is a slim chance America’s labor unions could become an ally in the fight because illegal immigrants are getting jobs in union-dominated fields.

“People don’t just stay…and work in the hotel and restaurant industry. All of a sudden they’re moving up into especially the construction trades and that begins to change the opinion of a lot of the unions,” Tancredo says. Later this week, the United States Senate is expected to begin debate on an immigration reform measure that would include some sort of “path to citizenship” for the illegal immigrants currently living here.

The Bush Administration and key Democratic and Republican leaders in congress are still negotiating over the details and Tancredo expects unions to back the expected compromise. “I would love to have the unions actually work for the interests of their own members and, more importantly in a broader context, (for) the benefit of the United States, but I don’t know that it’s going to happen,” Tancredo says.

Tancredo campaigned in Iowa this past weekend and is scheduled to speak to the Scott County Republican Women luncheon in Davenport today. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:
« Older Posts