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Group says Eagles getting poisoned from shotgun lead

February 28, 2009 By

Eagle in cage at SOAR. Iowa deer hunters could be indirectly harming Iowa’s population of American bald eagles, according to research from a western Iowa bird rehabilitation center.

Kay Newman is director of the Dedham-based group known as SOAR, or Save Our Avian Resources. She says they’re tracking lead poisoning cases in eagles.

"We take in sick and injured wild birds, try to fix whatever’s wrong with them and release them back into the wild," Newman says, "through that, (the lead poisoning) is kind of a monitoring tool as far as what is causing mortality for wild populations."

In recent years, the group has also helped monitor for West Nile virus and for avian flu. Newman says she’s been stunned by the amount of lead poisoning they’re finding in sick and dying bald eagles from across Iowa.

"Over half of the eagles that are coming to us for rehabilitation have abnormal lead levels," Newman says. "They’re ingesting lead. Through a lot of X-ray work, we have found shrapnel in their stomachs, little shards, little pieces of lead."

She says it’s clear how the eagles are becoming poisoned. They’ve X-rayed deer carcasses and have found shrapnel in deer that were evidently wounded by hunters and got away — but later died.

Newman says, "It’s free food for eagles but it’s also got lead shrapnel in it." Newman has been in touch with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to tell them lead is harming our national symbol.

Newman will present a program on the lead poisoning of eagles in Webster City on Sunday, March 8th, at the Hamilton County Conservation Office in Briggs Woods Park. The complete report can be found at the SOAR website .

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation Tagged With:

February the warmest month of the Winter thus far

February 28, 2009 By

February is the shortest month of the year and so far has been the warmest of the winter according to state climatologist Harry Hillaker. He says February was milder than normal, something we haven’t seen in awhile.

Hillaker says the month was about three degrees above normal and 10 degrees above the same month last year, which was unusually cold. He says it was the first winter month so far this year to be above normal in average temperature. Hillaker says precipitation for February was down.

Hillaker says we had about three quarters of an inch of precipitation, which was below the average of 95-hundredths of an inch. Hillaker says the big storm Thursday doubled the statewide average for rain, otherwise the month would have been well below normal. The thunderstorm was also something that’s a little unusual for February.

Hillaker says in central Iowa you have a thunderstorm about every other year, while they are less common in northern Iowa. He says the Thursday storm was widespread across the state with hail and sleet, which makes it a little unusual.

Hillaker says we had about three inches of snow in February, which was "well below normal" for the month. 

Filed Under: Weather

UNI hopes for big crowd for big game

February 28, 2009 By

University of Northern Iowa officials are hoping to fill the Mcleod Center for the Panthers regular season finale against Evansville tonight. With a victory, the Panthers would earn at least a share of their first Missouri Valley Conference regular season title.

It would also lock up the number-one seed at the conference post season tournament. Associate athletic director Leon Costello says there are tickets remaining on-line at UNIPanthers.com , or call 319-273-4-tix.

Costello says as of late Friday morning better than 5,000 tickets had been sold. He says the sales have been pretty good and they are looking for a big crowd.

The McLeod Center seats just over 7,000 fans.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Iowa Court system to shut down 7 more days to save money

February 28, 2009 By

State Supreme Court building. The Iowa Supreme Court has ordered the closure of all state court offices for an additional seven days in anticipation of a $3.8 million budget cut in the current fiscal year.

 Court communications officer Steve Davis says court employees will take unpaid leave on seven upcoming Fridays.

The court office closures are scheduled for March 20th, April 10th and 24th, May 8th and 22nd, and June 5th and 19th. The order does not affect judges and magistrates as their salaries are already set by the legislature. All other state court employees will face seven days without pay.

Davis says the unpaid leave for the roughly 1,600 employees saves the courts around $335,000 a day. Those employees already took a forced day off without pay on February 16. Davis says the additional seven days of closures will produce delays in cases.

"In particular, civil cases like landlord/tenant disputes, foreclosures, divorces, child support modification…and cases like those," Davis said. "Certain cases – like criminal, child abuse, neglect and mental health cases will take priority – but they will slow down too because everything will slow down."

The Iowa Supreme Court has also canceled oral arguments scheduled for late April to save on travel expenses and ordered clerk-of-court offices to close early to the public, at 2:30 P.M., on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Governor says "we’ll see" about ICN sale

February 28, 2009 By

Governor Chet Culver has no opinion on a potential money-raising proposal floated Friday by a top Democrat in the Iowa House. House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines says the capacity of the state-owned fiber optic network is attractive to the private sector, and it may be time to consider selling or leasing the Iowa Communications Network.

Governor Culver was the first state official to publicly float the idea of selling the Iowa Lottery — an idea which has now been abandoned. But Culver doesn’t have an opinion yet on the potential sale of the Iowa Communications Network. “I’ve had no discussions with the leader on that and maybe it’ll come up at our leadership meeting next week,” Culver says. “It’s the first I’ve heard about it.”

House Republicans on Thursday said the nearly 20-year-old Iowa Communications Network is a drain on state resources and the state might be able to sell the I.C.N. and buy telephone and Internet hook-ups from the private sector more cheaply. McCarthy on Friday morning said the miles and miles of fiber optic cable laid throughout the state has never been used to its capacity, and he’s met with private sector businesses which are interested in buying or leasing all or part of the system.

On Friday afternoon, the governor didn’t reject the idea of selling the I.C.N., but he didn’t endorse it either. ”I don’t have enough information about it,” Culver told reporters. “We’ll see.”

The Iowa Communications Network was touted by former Republican Governor Terry Branstad as a way to bring “distance learning” to students in rural schools and workers began laying the network’s fiber optic cables in 1990.

Current Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat, on Friday afternoon signed into law a bill which provides nearly 60-million more dollars in state aid to all K-through-12 public schools for the academic year that begins in the fall of 2010. ”Without President Obama’s help on this economic recovery plan, we would not have been in the position to do this two percent increase, so we’re going to do everything we can to find that extra money for teacher quality and for professional development and most importantly for the per student amount of money,” Culver said. “So it’s really good news, despite the budget challenges.”

Culver and legislators have not yet decided whether to fulfill the four-percent increase in general state aid to schools that they promised schools for this fall. By state law, state policymakers are to set the general level of state aid to schools far in advance to give administrators time to plan budgets. If the governor and legislators do not forward the extra four percent to schools for this fall, schools do have the option of dipping into their cash reserves, or raising local property taxes to make up the difference.

 

Filed Under: Politics & Government, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Elder Affairs director says few state rules protect dependent adults

February 27, 2009 By

A task force appointed by the governor continued its work today to develop recommendations for how Iowa should change its laws regarding the employment of people with mental retardation.

Representatives from six state agencies have been reviewing current regulations following the revelation that mentally retarded workers at an Atalissa turkey processing plant were paid as little as 44-cents an hour while living in substandard housing.

The head of the Iowa Department of Human Services, Gene Gessow, says his review of existing statutes shows the state has few rules in place to protect dependent adults from abuse. Gessow says, "Perhaps we spend less time on prevention and how to identify risk ahead of time, how to protect against risk ahead of time, and once we find a risky situation how do we deal with it on both an immediate basis and the how do we find a long-term, safe environment."

The task force will meet weekly over the next month and present its recommendations to Governor Culver by April First. Governor Culver issued this statement prior to today’s meeting and in the wake of new allegations of wrongdoing by the administrators of the bunkhouse:

"Under several different administrations, concerns were raised about the situation in Atalissa. And while it’s hard to second-guess what did or did not take place in the past, one thing is clear: every level of government bureaucracy has failed these men since 1974.

"My immediate focus is on getting to the bottom of how and why this situation happened, and to make sure it never happens again. I believe my Administration has acted swiftly.

Within 36 hours of my office being notified, the bunkhouse was shut down by the State Fire Marshall. We then quickly moved these 21 men to a proper residential care facility in Waterloo. In addition, I have spoken to family members and assured them these men will be treated fairly with dignity and respect, and that their rights under the law will be protected."

"Our Department of Criminal Investigation is conducting a full and complete investigation to make sure there is accountability for those responsible. I have directed the Department of Administrative Services to begin a process to help determine if there was misconduct by current or former state employees."

"And I’ve created a multi-agency task force, chaired by the Department of Elder Affairs director John McCalley, and have directed it to thoroughly review our laws and policies, and recommend necessary changes. "

"The fact that this was allowed to go on for decades is completely unacceptable. However, I will do all I can to make sure it will never happen in the future as long as I am Governor."

 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Grinnell men host conference tournament

February 27, 2009 By

Grinnell College will host the Midwest Conference Mens Basketball Championships this weekend in Grinnell. The Pioneers will open against St. Norbert of Wisconsin in the second semi-final Friday night.

 Head coach Dave Arsenault says he doesn’t know how they will beat a St Norbert team that defeated the Pioneers in their lone regular season match-up. The Pioneers have lost three times in conference play, the other two coming to Carroll College of Wisconsin.

John Grotberg leads the NCAA, regardless of level, in made three point goals for a career with 517. The first semi-final at 5:00 has Carroll facing Lawrence University, in what Arseanault calls a wide open tournament.

Grinnell has won eight in a row, 17-6 overall, 13-3, sharing the regular season title with Lawrence. The winners for Fridays games will play in Saturdays championship game at 3:00. The automatic birth to the NCAA Division III tournament is at stake. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:
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