Iowa's Radio News Network
Authorities in northeast Iowa say a man found dead in his truck Tuesday suffered a medical problem. The S-10 pickup was found along Highway 9 in Allamakee County.
The Iowa State Patrol says 93-year-old Lester Vernon Fish of Waukon was behind the wheel when the vehicle crashed through a fence and came to rest in a field. Fish was pronounced dead at the scene, from an undisclosed medical problem, just after 4 p.m.
The UNI men’s basketball team is on the road this evening to take on Illinois-Chicago. The Panthers opened this past weekend with a victory over Denver and coach Ben Jacobsen says his team needs to get better defensively.
Jacobsen says Illinois Chicago beat them last year at home and they have most of those players back. He says they have a couple of great guards and a 7 footer that plays inside.
Jacobson says the Flames will offer a difficult test as they are experienced, big and physical.
Illinois-Chicago lost its opener at Bradley.
Thursday is the 33rd annual Great American Smokeout, and it comes with news that smoking rates have declined in Iowa and the U.S. Christopher Squier of the Iowa Commission on Tobacco Use Prevention, says smoking rates in Iowa dropped to 18%.
Squier says they’re "very pleased" and seeing the results of a lot of work and "important legislation." Squier says one of the biggest impacts is from the cigarette tax increase. Squier says the decrease from a 23% smoking rate four or five years ago to 18% this year is "without a doubt" a result of the tax increase one year ago. He says every sign shows the smoking rate heading down and the recent public smoking ban should add to that.
Squier is a professor at the University of Iowa and is also a member of the American Cancer Society. He says there are areas where the anti-smoking effort needs more work. He says smoking among young adults is still higher than among the general population, and he says smoking among young women is also higher.
Squier says there needs to be more focus on those groups. He says stopping smoking isn’t easy, and support systems are key. He says smokers need help to stop and he says the Quitline in Iowa helps as it gives smokers access to the nicotine patch and gum and helps them quit. Squier says those who struggle giving up cigarettes should take heart that persistence will pay off.
Squier says three-quarters of all smokers want to quit, and about half try to quit every year, with only about seven percent who quit, do so for good. "And that means if you do quit and you take up smoking again, you don’t have to be alarmed, it does happen," Squier says, "you’ve got to try again. And in fact, it’s shown that the more often you try to quit, the easier it does get."
Squier says smokers will enjoy better health. He says many smokers have respiratory diseases, that he says will decrease rapidly once you quit smoking. Squier says the risk of other diseases will also go down, and after about 10 years the risk will be about the same as if you hadn’t smoked. You can call the American Cancer Society Quitline at 800-227-2345 for help in quitting, or visit the American Cancer Society’s website .
The alert system, run by a nationwide nonprofit organization called "A Child Is Missing," is designed for circumstances when an Amber Alert is not warranted. Urbandale Police Sergeant Dave Disney says authorities are hesitant to overuse the Amber Alert system, because the public may begin to disregard those notices. "That’s true, you don’t want to cry wolf too often," Disney said. "With Amber Alerts, you need to have the criteria that the child is under 18 and is in imminent danger, plus enough information about the suspect or suspect vehicle. This goes beyond that, maybe more simple situations that don’t fit the (Amber Alert) criteria." The "A Child Is Missing" alert involves a computer mapping system and places phone calls to homes and businesses in the immediate area where someone has gone missing. "They just flood an area with one-thousand calls in 60 seconds," Disney said. "It just gets the information out to the public in that vicinity that we have situation where someone has wandered away, is potentially in jeopardy, and we need the public’s assistance to location the person as soon as possible." The alert supplements notifications sent to the media. It can be used to help locate missing children, college students on campus, missing persons who are mentally or physically challenged, or an elderly person that suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease. Iowans can register to have the system call their cell phone by logging on to www.achildismissing.org . According to the website, the alert system has been credited by law enforcement with nearly 430 safe assisted recoveries across the country since 1997. 
Dozens of law enforcement officers met in Urbandale Tuesday to learn about a new tool for locating missing persons.
AUDIO: Radio Iowa’s Pat Curtis report on alert system. :49 MP3
A Storm Lake man has died after being hurt in a construction accident near Le Mars last week. According to the Plymouth County Sheriff’s office, 21-year-old Jose Gustavo Sivrian was injured when a steel beam fell on him while he was working for S and L Construction of Storm Lake. Sivrian had been taken to Floyd Valley Hospital in Le Mars by private vehicle at about 7:30 a-m November 12th and died. The death is being investigated by Iowa OSHA, the sheriff’s office and Plymouth County Coroner’s office. Information about the accident was released Tuesday afternoon by the sheriff’s department. Authorities say the contractor was constructing a building for Center Fresh Egg Farm of Sioux Center. The rural Le Mars site is to be used for pullet production.
Western Iowa Congressman Steve King says the federal government should not extend loans to the auto industry. Executives from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, asking for federal help.
"This is a bailout of the auto manufacturers and the unions and (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi has said that she will make sure that management and the owners of the big three auto manufacturers do not get a negotiating advantage over the unions. Well, because they haven’t had that advantage is why they have the financial problem today with wages that are high and benefits that are high and they aren’t able to competitive, so at some point there’s got to be a line drawn," King says. "I will draw the line, ‘No,’ on this bailout."
King was among the Republicans who opposed the Wall Street relief package that cleared Congress in late September and he says pumping putting government dollars into Detroit isn’t wise either. "It really begs the question: Who would we say, ‘no,’ to and when would we ever stop," King says, "so I’ll be a ‘no’ on this bailout."
According to King, most Republicans in Congress will draw a "bright line" on this. "There’s a free market system and there has to be an opportunity to fail. There is Chapter 11 bankruptcy and I would like to see the auto manufacturers and the unions come to Congress with the kind of proposal that they might be making to a judge," King says. "Unless the threat of that exists, they are not going to come to the table to resolve their problems and make reform."
The C-E-O of General Motors told members of Congress Tuesday that the auto industry’s problems weren’t caused by mismanagement, but by the global financial crisis.
O.KayHenderson.com