University of Iowa political science professor, Cary Covington, says it’s important to have a smooth transition with the current economic situation Obama will face on taking office. He says Obama has taken a page out of Ronald Reagan’s playbook in trying to assure a smooth transition. Covington says Obama has “parachute teams”, or groups of people who are going in an watching the people who are now running the government to see what they are doing. He says these won’t be the people who hold the jobs, but the people who teach the appointees how to do their jobs when they come in — something he says Reagan did very effectively. Covington says it’s a far cry from the transition practices of the early 20th Century. Covington says in previous administrations when the people nominated to run the department showed up, they were on their own and had to learn about the job from the people who they are supposed to be supervising. “And that often led to ineffective leadership, at least from the president’s perspective,” Covington says. Covington says the outgoing administration is generally willing to help, but the new administration isn’t always ready to listen. “The people who are leaving the office have a strong desire to tell the incoming folks, here’s what we’ve learned, here’s what our experience has taught us, here’s what we think you need to know,” he says, “the problem tends to be the incoming administration.” Covington says the incoming administration is usually “full of hubris” at winning and are full of confidence and feel they don’t have to listen to the other party. The federal government now provides money for a transition office and staff for the incoming president. Covington made his comments today on the Iowa Public Radio program, “The Exchange.” 
President-elect Barrack Obama has been in the spotlight the last few days as he announces transition plans.
Today’s Presidential transition much different than past
New center will hold thousands of digital records
Ground was broken in the Des Moines area this week for a new data center that’ll house digitized information on hundreds of thousands of Iowans. It’ll be the computer storehouse for several clients, including the Iowa Health System, which encompasses 14 Iowa hospitals and more than 70 medical offices and health clinics.
Kate Miller, director of business development for Cedar Falls-based TEAM Companies, says more businesses are seeing the value of this sort of data center as a vital back-up plan, especially after this year’s severe bouts with tornadoes and flooding.
Miller says: "People use it as a disaster recovery site, a secondary site for their data. If something happened where their business flooded and they went down, they would be able to continue working for their patients or their customers because they will have their equipment in a safe, secondary site." The 45-million dollar data center is under construction in Waukee.
Miller says entering the facility will be like something out of a James Bond movie as multi-layered security is one of their primary concerns. "They need to provide their driver’s license, which is scanned in and recorded," Miller says. "They will either have to have their eye scanned to confirm identity, and if they can get through that, they’ll go into a ‘man trap’ so one door can’t open until the second door closes. They’ll be asked to do the same thing again, plus, use their card key to confirm their identity."
Safeguarding medical records is key, as the Iowa Health System serves one of every four patients in Iowa, with 1.8 million patient visits a year. The new TEAM facility will also be the digital warehouse for records on the 19,000 employees of the system, one of Iowa’s largest employers. Miller says all clients will be able to have complete confidence their data will be safeguarded.
Miller says: "All of our customers give us a list of vendors that are allowed access to the building, the hours of access, the level of access. If they come in and request anything other than what our customer has requested, they don’t get past until we have authorization for them to do so." The first phase of the Waukee facility is expected to open in the fall of 2009.
Extra law officers out for holiday
Holiday travelers can expect to see a few more law enforcement vehicles on Iowa roads. Around 230 agencies from across the state are participating in a special Traffic Enforcement Project (sTEP) through Sunday. Randy Hunefeld is the sTEP Coordinator with the Iowa Department of Public Safety. He says the effort is designed to make the holiday safer by reminding motorists to slow down, buckle up and drive sober.
Hunefeld says last year, over the Thanksgiving holiday, there were 16 traffic fatalities in Iowa. Three of those crashes were alcohol related. A similar enforcement project was conducted last year from the Monday before to the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Hunefeld says law officers statewide reported 310 drunk drivers, more than 1,600 seat belt violations and over 8,600 speed violations during the 2007 Thanksgiving enforcement project. So far this year, around 350 people have died in traffic crashes in Iowa. Hunefeld says while that is far too many, the number is slightly lower than the traffic fatalities reported in 2007.
House GOP leader says it’s time for state worker layoffs
(This story was updated at 7:40 p.m. with additional information.)
The new leader of Republicans in the Iowa House says the state should start shedding staff. House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha says the state has hired about 600 new workers in the past two years and most Iowans haven’t noticed the difference.
Paulsen singles out some new hires in the Department of Education. "Thirty-three new folks just got hired at the D.O.E. specifically to write curriculum and tell local schools districts and local school boards exactly what to teach," Paulsen says. "I’m not sure that that raises the bar with regard to what our graduates have."
Paulsen believes that group of state workers, along with others, may have to lose their jobs as policymakers struggle to balance the state budget. "You know, we’ve got two gardeners over at Terrace Hill," Paulsen says. "I don’t know anybody back in my house district that’s busy out hiring new gardeners right now."
According to Paulsen, the gardeners who cultivated the grounds surrounding Terrace Hill, the governor’s mansion, used to come from the state’s prisons — inmates who’d been cleared for supervised work outside prison walls. "For whatever reason, that’s not what the governor wanted and so we added two more (full-time employees) and hired somebody, at a cost that quite frankly — at least it appeared to me — that we could have contracted," Paulsen says. "If you don’t want the prisoners there, then let’s go out and let an independent contract. I mean, the State of Iowa’s not in the business of gardening but there are people out there who are in the business of gardening who could have done that better and at a lower cost."
A spokesman for the governor responded late Wednesday to Paulsen’s remarks. According to Phil Roeder, Governor Culver’s press secretary, the Department of Public Safety did not want prisoners working at Terrace Hill around the First Famly. "The sad truth is it’s unfortunate Rep. Paulsen didn’t raise any of these issues when he had a chance during a recent private meeting with the Governor," Roeder said in a statement emailed to Radio Iowa. "For years, the governors’ spouses and children have been considered politically ‘off limits.’ Both political parties have afforded the first families, including the first ladies and children, much-needed privacy, and have refrained from making them the subject of political shots, regardless of which party was represented in Terrace Hill."
Roeder suggested Paulsen’s comments were unnecessary and even offensive. "The new Republican House leader apparently believes it is okay to denigrate (Mrs. Culver and her children) in the press. His comments are particularly ungentlemanly given that he could have simply picked up the phone and called the governor directly," Roeder said. "It’s unfortunate he’s beginning his tenure with cheap personal shots rather than bipartisan cooperation on real issues."
Paulsen predicted today that Culver, a Democrat, will be forced to consider an across-the-board in state spending in December because state tax revenues continue to fall. "And I could be wrong. I mean, I’m not an economist. I’m an attorney," Paulsen said during an interview with reporters from Radio Iowa and The Des Moines Register. "…But that’s a decision he’s going to have to make before we even show up." Paulsen and other lawmakers are scheduled to "show up" in Des Moines on January 12 to convene the 2009 legislative session.
GOP leader: why was first lady, when caught smoking, being driven by state trooper?
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED AT 1:56 P.M.
The top Republican in the Iowa House says there’s an unanswered question about First Lady Mari Culver’s recent admission that she smoked in a state-leased vehicle as she was being driven around Des Moines by a state trooper.
House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha says he and his fellow Republicans want to know whether Mrs. Culver was on state business or whether she was being driven to her law office.
"When she’s on state business, when she’s doing those things that are first lady related, I don’t have any problem with that," Paulsen says. "…But are we also paying to take her to work, where she’s making money. That’s the more interesting question in my mind."
Phil Roeder, the governor’s spokesman, says the Department of Public Safety’s "executive protection unit" is assigned to the governor as well as the First Family and lieutenant governor, and troopers "provide security to them at all times." Paulsen says Republican legislators plan to ask the governor whether his wife should be driven to her job.
Paulsen, who admits to being a smoker at one point in his life, says the whole "smoking" episode, though, highlights the "silliness" of the state’s smoking ban. "Outside of that trooper…who was riding with her — and if he had an opinion, I’d be interested in that, but otherwise I don’t think Iowans care whether Mari Culver was having a smoke in that vehicle," Paulsen says. "That trooper might, but I don’t think Iowans do."
Paulsen was elected House G.O.P. leader earlier this month. Last week, First Lady Mari Culver paid a $50 fine for smoking in a restricted area. She was spotted smoking in a vehicle which is leased by the state and used to transport the governor and his family.
Mrs. Culver issued a short statement, expressing regret over the episode and promising she would not do it again.
Groups wants tougher standards for coal plants
Two groups representing doctors and nurses in the state are calling on the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to toughen the standards it uses when issuing draft air permits for the construction of coal-fired power plants.
The Iowa chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Iowa Nurses Association have sent a letter to the D.N.R. saying the agency is not doing enough to protect the public from fine particulate air pollution. The advocacy groups say the standards now used by the D.N.R. don’t comply with the federal Clean Air Act and fail to protect public health.
Retired nurse Patricia Fuller of Council Bluffs says she knows first-hand what breathing polluted air can do. "As a former oncology nurse, I’ve certainly seen some of the hardships of lung cancer and that type of thing, and asthma and respiratory disease," Fuller said. She says breathing in small particles of soot can be extremely harmful.
"I’ve been concerned about the effects on people who have existing cardio-vascular disease, lung disease, small children, people with emphysema. It’s been shown to exacerbate all of these conditions," Fuller said. The construction of two coal-fired power plants are under consideration in the state – an Iowa Power and Light plant in Marshalltown and an L-S Power plant in Waterloo.
Volunteers needed as flooded homes still not winter ready
Hundreds of eastern Iowa homes that were damaged in this spring’s floods are still not ready for the approaching winter. Pastor Melissa Bracht-Wagner, of First United Methodist Church in Marion, says they’ve been hosting and coordinating volunteer workers from all over the country for months, but more helpers are urgently needed.
"We need teams to come to Cedar Rapids and to Palo and our neighboring communities who have skills, ones that can hang drywall," Pastor Bracht-Wagner says. "We need licensed electricians and plumbers and individuals who can mud and to paint just to get us to the next spot so that we can get one home done and another and another."
Until recently, she says some people have been living in tents or sleeping in their vehicles because their homes still aren’t ready. The latest blast of wintery weather, including snow over the weekend, has been a big wake-up call in Cedar Rapids.
"Early in November, we had some really nice weather and then it turned cold like three days later into winter coats," Bracht-Wagner says. "I think the reality of ‘This is Iowa — it’s going to get cold’ finally hit individuals and they really weren’t prepared for what to do next."
She says the church’s flood recovery office has been inundated with pleas for help from residents who’ve been plugging along, doing the jobs themselves at night while going to work during the day, and who now find themselves facing the foul winter weather. Bracht-Wagner says the recovery process is really taking a toll.
"As the weather has turned cold, our community has gotten a little more depressed and recognized the need that either they’re going to rebuild this winter, or they’re not, they just can’t get the things that they need done," she says. "In those cases, we’ve been boarding up the homes and trying to do our best to keep the water lines from breaking." Volunteers from across Iowa and the U.S. are encouraged to visit the church’s website and click on "Flood" or call (319) 377-5344.
