UNI coach Mark Farley is confident in the the quarterback spot even though the Panthers lost four year starter Eric Sanders. Junior Pat Grace takes over the offense and Farley says his ability to run the ball will give the offense an added dimension. Farley says this will open up the playbook as Grace wants to run, while Sanders wanted to run, but they didn’t want Sanders to run. Farley says Grace has the size to be able to run and take the hits. Farley says Grace’s combination of running and passing will make him effective.He says the toughest thing to defend is a quarterback that wants to run, as even when the quarterback drops back to pass, the Q.B. race says knowing his coach has confidence in him will help him get ready for the season. Grace feels his ability to run the ball will add another threat, as he says he can get outside the pocket and throw, or have the option to run. UNI opens August 30th at BYU.
UNI enters Grace period at quarterback
Coe College football looks to Staker as new coach
A new head coach will try to continue a recent run of success for the Coe College football program. Steve Staker enters his first season at the helm after former coach Erik Raeburn left to become the new coach at Wabash College.
Being a head coach is nothing new for Staker who spent 35 years as the head coach at Fredricksburg High School. He spent the past four years as Coe’s defensive coordinator. Staker says being a college assistant has made the transition easier, as going from high school to college is a big difference, as there’s more detail to take care of in the college game.
Staker says being on the coaching staff has made the transition easier as he got to know the things that needed to be done in the last four years. The Kohawks have high hopes for the season as a number of experienced players are back from last year’s team that finished 7-3.
Staker says their goals are really high and they have around 15 returners on offense and defense who are excited to get back. He says they should have the personnel to meet their goals. Coe opens the season September sixth at Augustana of Illinois.
Two die in two accidents
Two separate crashes in southwest Iowa have claimed two lives. The Iowa State Patrol says a Taylor County man died Friday, when the truck he was driving left the road at around 1 P.M., just south of Bedford and entered a farm field before rolling one and a-half times.
Officials say 57-year-old Raymond Taber, of Bedford, was pronounced dead at the scene. The second accident happened Saturday evening, in Montgomery County. The Patrol says a car driven by 64-year-old Leroy C. King, of Omaha, was traveling west on Highway 34, when it crossed the center line. 36-year-old Todd Morgan, of Tabor, was traveling east on Highway 34 in a Ford F-250 pickup.
Morgan saw King’s Mercury Grand Marquis approaching in the eastbound lane and swerved onto the shoulder, but King’s car collided with a recreational trailer being pulled by the pickup, and veered back across the road before coming to rest in a ditch. King was taken to the Montgomery County hospital where he was pronounced dead. Morgan was not injured in the crash that occurred just after 5 P.M. Saturday, a few miles east of Red Oak.
Iowa bee industry growing
Honey bees are critical to agricultural pollination. "If we have no honey bees, our food essentially stops," Brahms said. "Every third bite we eat is attributed to a honey bee, so that’s a lot of food." CCD is characterized by the disappearance of adult honey bees in a hive. Last year, across the U.S., a survey showed beekeepers lost about 35 percent of their hives. "I think Colony Collapse Disorder is something we’re going to have to learn to live with," Brahms said. "I don’t think we can attribute it to any one cause. It’s a number of things. The habitat for bees is not as good as it used to be and there’s a lot of chemical spraying." Aside from the increasing number of beekeepers in Iowa, another sign that the industry is growing in the state came last February. That’s when Iowa hired State Apiarist Andy Joseph. Brahms says Joseph is compiling data, which the state essentially lost during a roughly six year period without a state apiarist. Brahms said of Joseph, "We’re really excited about having someone that can help us along and guide us through problems in the beekeeping industry." Joseph spends some of his time traveling the state and speaking to school children. Brahms says her organization is working to get more kids interested in becoming beekeepers. "We’re trying to grow our industry," Brahms explained. "We’re kind of an aging industry. The beekeepers are getting older. We need to encourage younger people, so we’re hoping even with the problems the honey bees are having that we’re expanding." The Iowa Honey Producers Association has a sales booth and display set up in the Agriculture Building at the Iowa State Fair, which runs through August 17 in Des Moines. 
While scientists continue to study the mysterious decline in honey bees worldwide, it appears the beekeeping industry in Iowa is growing. Donna Brahms of Cumberland is president of the Iowa Honey Producers Association, which now has nearly 400 members. She says Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome that first appeared in 2006, is not something to take lightly.
Developers seek commerical partners for new corn additive for plastic
The Iowa Corn Promotion Board has reached a joint agreement for licensing four pending patents on a corn product which could make plastic safer. The board’s director of research and development, Rodney Williamson, says it’s called isosorbide.
Williamson says it’s a product derived from corn that would be an additive to plastics that would "add performance" to plastics. Williamson says the corn product could provide an alternative to additives in plastic used for baby bottles, infant toys and other products for children.
He says there are several plastic materials that are under scrutiny for their health effects and this material could replace them. The Iowa organization developed the product along with help from the U.S. Ag Department and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Williamson says they’ve funded the research at the University of New Jersey and the Iowa Corn Promotions Board has executed a license agreement to the technology and patents. He says they now need to find commercial partners who want to incorporate the product into their plastics. Williamson says it could take another five years before the product is available on the shelf.
Williamson says it depends on the product they’re working to develop, as there may be some additional testing needed. The company may also have to go out and test the product with customers. So, he says it could be a lengthy process, or it could be a quick process. It took one-and-a-half million dollars in research funding to bring the project to this point.
U-I researchers study psychology of cigarette smokers
Researchers at the University of Iowa are studying the psychology of cigarette smokers to determine what types of messages might make them want to quit. Austin Baldwin, the U-of-I’s principal investigator on the study, says they want to learn more about why smokers continue to smoke, even when they know it’s a deadly habit.
"It’s not any sort of clinical intervention or anything like that," Baldwin says. "What we’re interested in is how people respond to different messages about smoking, messages that differ in their content, based on whether things are important to people or not, based on who’s the source of the message, those sorts of factors."
Cigarette packs, and even cigarette ads, are plastered with all sorts of health warnings, but Baldwin says they often have little impact. Baldwin says, "When faced with that sort of threatening information, people tend to respond in a defensive sort of way and so people have the ability to ignore those kinds of messages and that suggests we need to better understand ways in which people will be receptive to that kind of information."
The study is signing up volunteer smokers right now and will need about 120 total. Baldwin explains what they’re looking for in a volunteer. The volunteers need to be at least 18 years old, smoke at least one cigarette a day and must have smoked at least 100 cigarette in their lifetime — not just those who smoke the occasional or weekend cigarette.
Baldwin says volunteers will be compensated for their time, which is expected to be less than an hour in one in-person visit and a follow-up phone call a month later. To enroll, call (319) 335-3768.
Clinton backers foiled in attempt to ban caucuses
Backers of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton failed in their latest attempt to get rid of caucuses — like the Iowa Caucuses.
The latest skirmish came during this weekend’s meeting of the Democratic Party’s platform committee. Clinton’s supporters tried to insert a plank in the platform that would ban caucuses in future presidential nominating seasons. Clinton complained about Iowa’s Caucuses and caucuses in other states, saying the contests were unfair because shift workers and older voters often cannot get to a caucus meeting, whereas primaries allow voting all day and often allow early voting by mail-in ballots.
But supporters of Barack Obama beat back the effort to ban caucuses. The future of Iowa’s Caucuses — and caucuses in general — likely will come up again when the Democratic Party’s rules committee meets. As you may recall, Clinton finished third in Iowa’s Caucuses. Obama’s victory in Iowa established him as a serious contender.
