The senior point guard averaged 20 points and nearly nine assists in three wins for the Cadets. Murphy poured in 25 points, on 10-of-17 shooting, added eight assists and three steals in a victory over Oelwein.
Class 2A: Matt Waters, Council Bluffs St. Albert
February 17, 2009 By
The senior guard scored 21 points and hauled down 21 rebounds in a victory over I-K-M/Manning. Ten of his rebounds were on the offensive end and Waters finished nine-of-11 from the free throw line. He also added three assists, two steals and on the season leads the Falcons in scoring, rebounding and assists.
Class 1A: Zack Leeper, Adair-Casey
February 17, 2009 By
The senior guard scored 33 points and added seven steals in a victory over Paton-Churdan. Leeper is one of the top scorers in 1A and averages just over 22 points per game and shoots 48 percent from three point range.
Senators mulling gas tax increase, despite governor’s objection
February 17, 2009 By
Despite opposition from Governor Culver, a bill to raise the state gas tax by eight cents a gallon is under consideration in the Iowa Senate.
Senator Tom Rielly, a Democrat from Oskaloosa, says the state needs a gas tax hike to help pay for billions of dollars in road construction over the next 20 years. "This is the very start of this process We’d like the process to work through," Reilly says. "But I also think we need to keep in mind the entire scope of what our problem is."
An eight-cent increase in the gas tax would bring in an estimated $160 million a year. "We also have to keep in mind the total problem we’re facing here. The total problem is $29 billion. That’s what we should be putting into our roads and bridges over the next 20 years," Reilly says. "We’re just scratching the surface here of what we’re trying to do."
The state’s construction industry and labor groups have lined up behind the proposed increase. Iowans for Tax Relief opposes it.
Pet shop owner catches purloined pooch
February 17, 2009 By
The owner of a southwest Iowa pet store is again dealing with thieves who tried to pilfer a petite pooch. Rex Maresch, of the Bird Cage in Council Bluffs, says he saw a man leave the store on Sunday while trying to hide an expensive puppy under his coat.
Maresch says, "I chased after him and he came back into the store to get his two friends and they tried to intimidate me and pin me up against my counter." Maresch says he knows martial arts and told them so.
"I kept telling them, ‘I want my dog, I want my dog,’ and that’s when they threw the pet at me and bolted for the door." Maresch caught the small dog, which doesn’t appear to have been injured.
The dog is a Bichon-poodle mix, a Bichon-poo, what’s considered a "designer pet" and it retails for more than 600-dollars. Maresch got the license plate number of the suspects’ vehicle and police caught them a short time later. One of the suspects was wanted for an immigration violation.
There have been other incidents at the Bird Cage. Last May, a man stuffed an iguana down his pants at the store and tried to flee. Also, another expensive puppy was taken from the store and police say the dog was sold for 25-dollars, money that was used for drugs. Maresch installed additional security cameras last year in an effort to identify would-be shoplifters.
Grassley says stimulus bill cost is "mind-boggling"
February 17, 2009 By
President Obama today will sign the $787-billion economic stimulus bill into law, which Governor Culver says could mean $1.9-billion for Iowa over three years for roads and bridges, education and health care. Critics say it’ll place an unnecessary burden on future generations.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he doesn’t recall when he’s gotten such a large, nearly-unanimous reaction from his constituents. Grassley says his office got five-thousand phone calls in ten days from folks who overwhelmingly oppose the spending plan.
"People have questions about whether it will do what it’s supposed to do to stimulate the economy," Grassley says. "The size of it just is mind-boggling to my constituents and in a sense to me because of the amount of money that’s going to be added to the federal debt."
One of Grassley’s largest complaints is that the stimulus package won’t offer a sufficient amount of immediate, short-term help, as many elements focus only on the long-term. Grassley says, "So much of the $800-billion bill is not going to be spent during ’09 and ’10, it’s going to be spent beyond ten, so the extent to which is going to be spent beyond ’10 is obviously not stimulating the economy."
Grassley says the stimulus plan includes eight-billion dollars in funding for a railroad to be built between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He says the railroad project likely won’t even be started until after 2010.
"The best example I can give you is for computerizing medical records," Grassley says. "A very good program, but only two-and-six-tenths percent of that $12-billion is going to be spent during the two years of the stimulus."
He says less than half of one-percent of the bill is for tax relief for small businesses, which create 70-percent of new jobs. In addition, Grassley says the Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill spends as much as $270,000 for every temporary job it creates.
Facebook group fights back at small school consolidation
February 17, 2009 By
Supporters of small Iowa schools are uniting — on Facebook. Last week Senator Matt McCoy of Des Moines touted the idea of closing school districts with fewer than 750 students, forcing consolidations. Ryan Frederick, a 2004 graduate of Orient-Macksburg High School, started a Facebook group to protest the idea moments after he heard about it.
"Pretty much as soon as the 10:00 news was over, I got on my Facebook and set up this group, ‘Senator Matt McCoy wants to close rural Iowa’s schools. Let’s say no’ and the reponse has been just nuts," Frederick says. "We’ve had people get on there and talk about ways that we can help try to defeat Senator McCoy next fall. He’s up for election in 2010."
Frederick was part of a graduating class of 21 students and Frederick disputes McCoy’s assertion that students in small schools are getting a subpar education. "This idea flies in the face of what Iowa Department of Education’s statistics tell us is true. The larger schools do not outperform the smaller schools. Combining school districts does not help performance. It saves money, sure, but at what price?" Frederick asks. "The ten largest high schools in the state have an average graduation rate of 84.4 percent. The ten smallest high schools, on the other hand, have a graduation rate of 96.7 percent. That just blows the other number out of the water."
Frederick says social platforms like Facebook allow for a much more widespread response for his group as new developments occur. For example, a Des Moines representative recently introduced a bill calling for the creation of a task force to examine school consolidation. "When Representative Ford’s bill was introduced, I immediately could get on there and send out a Facebook message to, I think we had 600 members at the time, saying ‘Look, here’s this bill, here’s what it is, here’s who put it there, here are the people who sit on the Education Committee and how to get ahold of all these people. Let’s get after this thing,’" Frederick says.
Frederick says he’s excited to meet so many young people from across the state who are passionate about the issue. The group, sometimes growing at the rate of five new members per minute, offers several ways to get engaged. "I have a number of discussions started on a number of subjects from the pros and cons of school consolidation to some statements from Iowa Farm Bureau and the National Rural Educators’ Association. Also, we have a running discussion on our Facebook wall from all over the state," says Frederick. "We’re also collecting pictures on that group of schools that are on the chopping block under this arrangement."
Frederick says he and some other members of the group are working through the worldwide web to ultimately put together a packet to mail to legislators. Some state legislators — but not McCoy — have even joined Frederick’s Facebook group. To view it, go to facebook.com and search for the group using the keywords "Senator Matt McCoy".
Frederick graduated from Iowa State University in 2008 with a business degree. He’s living in his hometown of Orient as he conducts a job search.
