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Drake readies for track regional

May 23, 2007 By

A busy month at Drake Stadium concludes this weekend with the NCAA track and field Midwest Regional. It will be another test for meet officials as the stadium will host the 2008 NCAA track and field championships.

Drake Associate Athletic Director Mark Kostek says they have a great cast of individuals who’re very knowledgeable in track and field along with 250 volunteers. Kosteck says hosting an event like the Drake Relays is much different than a championship meet.

He says the Drake Relays are very fan friendly in allowing athletes to get on an off the field. Kostek says there are more stringent rules about getting onto the infield and in the various areas during the NCAA meet.

The crowds this weekend won’t approach those of the Drake Relays but Kostek says they have been happy with the response. He says they’re in a position to say they’re sold more tickets than any other region at any other time. Kostek says this is the sixth year for the region and they’re excited and hope to set a standard that will make people take notice for years to come.

The meet is Friday and Saturday and competitors are hoping to qualify for the NCAA championships June sixth through the ninth in Sacramento, California.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Clinton says she won’t bypass Iowa

May 23, 2007 By

One of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary’s Clinton’s top advisors says it would be wise for Clinton to bypass competing in Iowa’s Caucuses, but the senator tells Radio Iowa she’s not skipping the Caucuses.

The aide’s memo suggests Clinton cannot win in Iowa and she’d be better off spending her time and money campaigning in other states. During a telephone interview with Radio Iowa, Clinton said she’s not backing out of Iowa. "I’m unequivocally committed to competing in Iowa," Clinton said. "I’ll be there this coming weekend. I’ll be back many times. We’re putting together a large staff. In fact, we’ve more than doubled our field staff in the last month alone and we’ve got 10 offices across the state."

Clinton said she hasn’t seen the memo. "I was first informed of it when apparently the press got a copy of something which reflects the thoughts of one member of our staff who was thinking out loud, apparently," Clinton told Radio Iowa. "It’s not the opinion of the campaign. It’s not my opinion."

A Des Moines Register Iowa Poll released Sunday showed Clinton the third-place choice of the 400 Iowa Democrats the newspaper surveyed, behind former North Carolina Senator John Edwards and Illinois Senator Barack Obama. "I’ve been in first place and second place and third place," Clinton said, laughing. "For me, it isn’t about polling. It’s about competing in the Iowa Caucuses and being part of this extraordinary campaign that I feel is going to make history."

Clinton said she wants to have a "good debate" inside her campaign, and suggested this memo was part of that debate. "At the end of the day, I’m going to call the shots in my campaign," Clinton said. "From the very beginning I said I was going to compete in Iowa and I am and I intend to do so."

As for what she’s going to say to the man who wrote the now-infamous memo, Clinton laughed when Radio Iowa asked about that. "I’ll keep that between me and him," she said.

Clinton’s husband and most other Democratic presidential candidates skipped competing in Iowa’s 1992 Caucuses because home-state Senator Tom Harkin was running for president that year. The presidential nominating calendar in 2008 is tight, with Florida planning to hold its primary on January 29th and 22 other states planning to hold primaries on February 5th.

Read more about Clinton’s conversation with Radio Iowa over at The Blog.

 

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Iowa City man charged with stealing from Little League

May 23, 2007 By

An Iowa City man has been charged with stealing funds form an area Little League baseball program. The Johnson County Sheriff’s Department launched an investigation into the alleged theft of funds from the Hills Ball Association, which is responsible for the running and upkeep of the Little League baseball program in the City of Hills.

Investigators determined the president of the association, 30-year-old Jason Vannevel of Iowa City, should be charged with misappropriating funds from 2005 through 2006. Vannevel turned himself in to the Johnson County jail this morning. Vannevel is charged with second-degree theft. It was not indicated how much money was involved.

Audio: Roger King report. :31 MP3

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

IRS advocate can help you with tax questions

May 23, 2007 By

Many Iowans don’t give much thought to the Internal Revenue Service outside the month of April, but there’s a branch of the tax collection agency designed to focus directly on lending troubled taxpayers a hand. Mary Hickey is spokeswoman for the Taxpayer Advocate office, a division of the agency she says is relatively unknown.

Hickey says they’ve been called "the best kept secret in the IRS" but she wants to get word out that help exists for people who are having trouble with the agency. The service is for individual taxpayers and businesses. Hickey says the local Taxpayer Advocates are not the first point of contact, but rather professionals appointed to taxpayers’ individual cases when other avenues have failed. She explains the sorts of troubles they tackle.

Hickey says they typically deal with taxpayers who are experiencing an economic burden or hardship as the result of something the IRS is doing or planning to do, and they’ll work with taxpayers who have gotten no response from the agency. She says her office also responds to people who encounter problems in the IRS system that impacts them as individuals but may also effect a larger group of taxpayers in similar situations.

Hickey says the attention for taxpayer advocates is personalized, as the IRS is a complex system that can often be hard to navigate. She says, "We’ll actually assign one person that they can deal with and that’s something we often hear from people is a very valuable thing." To contact the local Taxpayer Advocate office, call 877-777-4778 or surf to " www.irs.gov " and click on "Taxpayer Advocate."

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Waterloo sees teen pregnancy rate drop

May 23, 2007 By

The Waterloo area used to lead the state in the number of pregnancies among its teenage girls. Now, Black Hawk County has one of the lowest teen pregnancy rates in Iowa.

In 1995, 17 percent of the babies born in Black Hawk County were the child of a teenaged mother. That was the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state. A decade later, in 2005, 10 percent of the babies born in Black Hawk County had a teenaged mother.

Joni Spencer, coordinator of Black Hawk County’s " Together for Youth " program, says her county’s teen pregnancy rate is dropping twice as fast as the state’s, and she credits her program. "When we look at ‘Together for Youth" it is a community project…we really are working hard as a community," Spencer says. "That’s youth and parents and caretakers and everyone involved."

The program gets funding from traditional sources like the United Way as well as from a number of private foundations, including the Wal-Mart Foundation. "We’re working really hard to make sure that the kids are getting what they need for sex ed and also building on the skills that either the teacher or youth-services facilitator has already provided or what we are planning to provide," Spencer says.

The month of May is teen pregnancy prevention month. Spencer made her comments during an appearance today on Iowa Public Radio.

 

 

Filed Under: Human Interest

Lenox fire fanned by high winds

May 23, 2007 By

Heavy winds are causing problems for firefighters trying to contain a fire in southwest Iowa. Several fire crews are on the scene in Lenox as the old elevator has caught fire. Heavy winds are making fighting the fire difficult. It’s reported embers are blowing onto homes in the area. Attempts to reach fire Chief Kirk O’Riley have been unsuccessful. Firefighters from five are departments have been dispatch to fight the fire.

 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

More details released on Tipton soldier’s death

May 23, 2007 By

Specialist David Behrle The Department of Defense has provided a few more details about the death of an army soldier from Iowa in Iraq. Twenty-year old Specialist David Buehrle (photo right)  was killed on Saturday when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

"The blast was very significant, it killed six soldiers that were in that vehicle", says Lieutenant Colonel Greg Hapgood with the Iowa National Guard. Hapgood says the soldiers were in a dangerous area near Baghdad.

"From the information we have it appears they were on some type of combat patrol, which is a very common mission," Hapgood adds, "everyday soldiers are going out facing some very grave dangers, and this happened to be a day Specialist Buehrle was on a combat mission".

Buehrle is a 2005 graduate of Tipton High School. Funeral arrangements are pending at Fry Funeral Home in Tipton. 

Filed Under: Military
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