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Legislature passes bill designed to help disaster areas

January 29, 2009 By

The Iowa House has sent the governor a bill that would let Cedar Rapids and other communities hit by last year’s natural disasters put a local option sales tax plan on the ballot in March.  Counties already have the authority to let voters approve a one-percent local option sales tax, but Linn County officials missed a deadline for presenting the issue to voters early in 2009, so the bill speeds up the process, allowing the tax to be collected as of April 1st, if voters approve.

Representative Charles Isenhart, a Democrat from Dubuque, says the cities and towns hurt by floods and tornadoes need this tool to turn around. "One of the things that often happens when you become a victim of flood or other things is a sense of powerlessness," Isenhart says.  "This will put power into the hands of local folks to help themselves."

Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill.  Democrats in the legislature supported it, but nearly every Republican voted against it.  House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha, which is in Linn County, voted no.  "We could have made this a better bill," Paulsen says,.  "…It was originalyl drafted with the idea…that it would be directly related to disaster relief."

Under existing law, the largest city in a county must agree to a local option sales tax election before any smaller cities in a county can.  The Cedar Rapids City Council  plans to call a special meeting to consider calling an election.  Pending Cedar Rapids approval, city councils in Hiawatha and Marion have both approved putting it on the ballot.  In Johnson County, Iowa City will consider scheduling a vote a little later, on May 5th.

 

 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

UNI wants streak to continue to a title

January 29, 2009 By

The UNI Panthers further solidified themselves as the team to beat in the Missouri Vallety Conference race last night with a 59-55 win over Illinois State in the McLeod Center.

It was the Panther’s ninth straight win and coach Ben Jacobsen credits their defensive effort against the Illinois State combination of Osiris Eldridge and Champ Oguchi. The duo was limited to a total of 15 points.

Jacobsen says their communication was very good against a team that sets a lot of ball screens. Jacobsen says the Panthers had to communicate on defense to be able to cover all the screens and he says down the stretch of the game it paid off.

The Panthers are 9-1 in the Valley and the nine game winning streak is their longest in 45 years. Senior guard Travis Brown says it means a lot as the group has come together and it has been a fun ride and they look forward to keeping it going. Brown says the Panthers need to remain focused on what needs to be accomplished.

Brown says the streak doesn’t mean anything if they don’t finish it and win the conference. Brown says he’ll be happy and satisfied once they get the title. The Panthers visit the last team that beat them when they play Indiana State on Saturday. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Harkin says he’s shocked House Republicans didn’t back stimulus bill

January 29, 2009 By

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, says he’s shocked the $800-billion economic stimulus bill passed the U.S. House without a single Republican vote. Harkin says it’s surprising with all the people being laid off and conservative economists saying the government needs to do more, not less.

"I ‘spose someone can always say ‘well I found something wrong with the bill’, but I think there’s a heck of a lot more good in it than bad," Harkin says. Harkin says he hopes the bill picks up more Republican support in the Senate. Republicans raised concerns that millions of dollars are in the bill that won’t do anything to help stimulate the economy.

Harkin says he’s looked at those complaints and thinks "they are off base." Harkin says the stimulus bill is not just about creating jobs right now, as he says a big part of the bill is "laying the groundwork for solid recovery and transforming our economy, and we have to keep that in mind." Harkin says the measures that change the economy are important.

"So that when we start coming out of this recession or depression, or whatever it is we are in, that we’re going to have a stronger basis, and that could mean a lot of things," Harkin says. He says it means healthier people, so we’re more productive, smarter kids using higher technology in the classroom, community colleges having better equipment to retrain people for the new jobs of the future. Harkin says the vote on the stimulus bill is a repeat of what happened before.

Harkin says it reminds him of 1993 when every Republican voted against President Clinton’s economic plan, saying the sky was going to fall and it would lead to massive unemployment. Harkin says the country was instead able to pay down the national debt and recover. Harkin says the Senate stimulus bill had bipartisan support when it passed out of the appropriations committee, and he hopes the final bill will see that support. 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

American Gothic painting returns to Iowa

January 29, 2009 By

American Gothic One of the most famous paintings in American history will be on display in central Iowa over the next two months. American Gothic by Cedar Rapids native Grant Wood will be unveiled tonight at the Des Moines Art Center .

Art Center director Jeff Flemming says the piece is on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, which purchased the piece shortly after its creation in the 1930s.

“Since that time, it has stirred the American imagination for a variety of reasons. For one, there’s a mystery surrounding the work,” Flemming said.

That mystery exists because Wood never clearly defined his intentions with American Gothic during his lifetime. Instead, Wood only offered hints as to why he decided to paint a sour faced woman and a man with his pitchfork standing in front of a farm house. Flemming believes the painting remains popular today because of its “nostalgic and somewhat satirical view of the heartland.”

American Gothic , which vaulted Wood to fame, will remain at the Des Moines Art Center through March 29th. It’s one of 70 pieces that are part of the Art Center’s exhibit titled “After Many Springs: Regionalism, Modernism & the Midwest.”

The exhibit examines the similarities of what was happening in art world in the 1930s. Flemming says many pieces of the time – whether produced by Grant Wood in Iowa or Jackson Pollack in New York – featured similar themes.

“Many of these artists were very adamant about the social ills that were plaguing the country at the time,” Flemming said. “There was the economic upheaval of the Great Depression and there were ecological disasters…the dust bowl was a perfect example of that. Racism was rampant in the United State at that time and several of the paintings in the show, by John Steuart Curry for example, certainly deal with the notion of racism.”

The backdrop used for American Gothic is still standing in southeast Iowa. The house is located in Eldon and attracts thousands of tourists a year. The models used in the painting were Wood’s sister and his dentist.

Filed Under: Human Interest

Leaders say this could be year drunken boating bill passes

January 29, 2009 By

Legislative leaders say this could be the year Iowa law is changed so the blood alcohol standard for judging drunken boating is identical to drunken driving. Current law charges a person piloting a boat with "operating while intoxicated" if their blood alcohol level is .10, while vehicle drivers are judged by the tougher .08 standard.

House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy says there’s no disagreement over changing the blood alcohol level, the hold-up has been defining what it means to "operate" a boat. "Under current law, for example, a house boat tethered to (an) island with its engine off would be considered boating while intoxicated," McCarthy says.

House Speaker Pat Murphy, a Democrat from Dubuque, sugggests there’s been another stumbling block to a drunken boating bill. "The big argument that’s been is the impact it has on operating a motor vehicle, how it affects your insurance and some of those issues because if there’s a person sitting out on a pond up in Lake Okoboji and he’s fishing and drinking beer and gets picked up, it’s much different than a guy who’s driving a high-powered speed boat across Lake Okoboji," Murphy says, "so I think that’s one of the concerns that our members have."

But Murphy says the drunken boating bill is a priority.  "We want to get a bill that everybody here can agree to and get passed and signed by the governor hopefully before the end of this year," Murphy says.

Click on the audio link below to listen to Democratic legislative leaders discuss the issue in a question-and-answer session with reporters.  The first voice is that of House Speaker Murphy.  Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs makes a brief comment, then House Democratic Leader McCarthy is the last voice on the audio file.

AUDIO: Q and A with legislators . 4:00 MP3

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Democrats see green rather than red on gas tax hike

January 29, 2009 By

A key Democrat in the legislature says he’s not giving up on a hike in the state gas tax. Senate President Jack Kibbie, a Democrat from Emmetsburg, jokes that he’s in a war against potholes. "Yes, I am," Kibbie told reporters, "with others."

But Governor Culver, a Democrat, said yesterday during a statehouse news conference that he was opposed to raising the gas tax.  "I don’t know how much more clear I could be. I do not think raising the gas tax during a recession is a prudent thing to do during a recession. Period," Culver said. "However, if 150 legislators want to keep talking about it, they have that right."

Kibbie isn’t deterred by that. "He hasn’t said, ‘No,’ in my presence," Kibbie says.

House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines suggests legislators have heard what Culver’s been saying, but they’ve never heard Culver give them an unequivocal "no" on a gas tax hike. "What I heard him say — I’m going to try to see if I can get it — ‘I don’t know how much clearer I could be that now is not the time to be looking at these sort of taxes, however if 150 legislators want to have that discussion, they can certainly have that discussion’ — that’s kind of what I think he said," McCarthy says, quoting the governor, "which means he’s expressed his opinion, but there seems to me there’s still a willingness to listen to the legislature on this issue."

House Speaker Pat Murphy, a Democrat from Dubuque, says it will be March or April rather than February when legislators tackle the issue in debate.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

Trials set for Newton couple charged in death of son

January 29, 2009 By

Separate trial dates are now set for a Newton couple, charged in the death of their young son. Twenty-seven-year-old Alan Meter and 25-year-old Jessica Lens are charged with neglect of a dependent person.

They’ve pleaded not guilty and are free on bond. They called for an ambulance the morning of January 20th last year after finding the boy unresponsive on his first birthday.

An autopsy found the boy, Dominic, died of dehydration. A police report says the parents had shut off all of the heat vents in the apartment except for the ones in the boy’s room and closed the door. They say they were trying to help him "sweat out" a cold.

Police say the room temperature was likely between 90 and 106-degrees. Lens is to go to trial May 13th. Meter is to go to trial June 3rd.  

Filed Under: Crime & Courts
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