February 9, 2012

You are here: Home / 2009 / February / Archives for 19th

Debate over labor-backed bill delayed in House

February 19, 2009 By

The plight of flood victims was part of Thursday’s squabbling over a bill which would require a region’s "prevailing wage" be paid to those who work on taxpayer-funded construction projects for the State of Iowa and school districts — as well as for some city and county projects. Republicans argued requiring a county’s "prevailing wage" be paid to those working on storm-related repairs will increase project costs by as much as 20 percent.

House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha was blunt. "I guess we’re going to shoot the wounded tonight and attack some of the disaster victims and punish property taxpayers," Paulsen said.

Democrats countered that the bill’s "prevailing wage" requirement would not apply to flood or tornado repair projects on an individual’s home or a business. It will only apply to city and county construction projects that cost more than $1.5 million, and in which at least 20 percent of the total project cost is being paid by the state. House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines says it’s about trying to keep "fly by night" contracts from invading the state and snapping up publicly-funded flood repair projects.

"When we looked at what happened in Louisiana as they started all that infrastructure work in (hurricane) recovery is there were a lot of storm chasers there and there was a lot of shoddy work done and their laws were pretty similar to what we have in Iowa, " McCarthy says. "We have a lot of great contractors in Iowa, but because we don’t have the type of regulatory scheme in Iowa that they do in other states it is, in some cases, a race to the bottom, and that’s something we want to address."

Staffers worked on details of the legislation throughout the day. In the afternoon and evening legislators were in and out of closed-door meetings to discuss the bill, but formal public debate on the legislation never started. At about seven o’clock Paulsen, the G.O.P. leader in the House, challenged Democrats over the timing. "Why do we have to start tonight?" Paulsen said. "…You think it’s a good idea to run this bill in the middle of the night."

Now, debate is scheduled to start in the middle of the day — at noon Friday — and last ’til five o’clock. McCarthy dismisses speculation that the delay is anything more than logistics. "Through no fault of our own, the legislative process jsut took a while to get things set, mechanically," McCarthy said at about 10:30 Thursday evening before the House recessed for the night.

Democratic leaders say some House Democrats who plan to vote for the bill were being targeted by telephone calls all day Thursday, urging them not to vote for the bill.  For example, a local newspaper story from the Washington Evening Journal featuring Representative Larry Marek of Riverside was circulated. Marek, a Democrat, was quoted telling a local crowd last weekend that he was "pretty conservative" on labor issues and that he didn’t want to see property taxes go up.

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

Bill would let judges order biological parents to pay for college

February 19, 2009 By

The Iowa Senate has passed a bill that would allows judges to order parents to pay for a child’s college education, even if he or she wasn’t married to the child’s other parent.

In many divorces, one spouse is required to pay for all or part of their child’s college expenses. The bill would let judges order any adult to pay for their child’s college education until they’re 22 years old, once tests verify that adult is the child’s parent.

"These children had nothing to do and have no control over the relationship of their parents," Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, says. "All we are asking…is to give these kids a ‘may’ — to go before a court and ask if parents can afford to help pay for a college education, that the court may order some kind of financial assistance for these young people."

Senator David Hartsuch, a Republican from Bettendorf, voted against the bill. "Currently, no child can compel their married parents to pay for their college education. This is a legal obligation that is only applied to parents who have either gone through a divorce or a paternity suit," Hartsuch says. "I do believe that creates a basic inequity."

The bill passed, though, on a 41-7 vote. Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, says the bill equalizes the treatment of parents who are divorced and parents who never married. "Under current law, the parents who have gotten married and tried to make a go of it are penalized, and the parents who never bothered to get married get away scot free," Quirmbach says. "I think this bill deals with that second inequity and that’s why I’m supporting it."

The bill now goes to the Iowa House for review.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Democrats prepare to pass union-backed bill

February 19, 2009 By

House Democrats are preparing to pass a bill backed by labor, as dozens of union members fill the statehouse to show their support. Debate on a bill which would require a "prevailing wage" on many taxpayer-funded construction projects for the state, counties, cities and school districts.

House Speaker Pat Murphy, a Democrat from Dubuque, is confident there are enough Democrats in the House who’ll vote for the bill. "We have 51 votes as of this morning," Murphy says. "And we worked on a compromise late into the night, actually early into the morning this morning."

The compromise would allow some city and county projects which cost less than $1.5 million to escape the "prevailing wage" requirement for construction workers on those projects. If the bill passes the House late tonight, as expected, Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs indicates the bill will be debated soon in the senate, although he’s not specifying how soon.

"It’s about making sure bidders don’t use the mechanism of pushing down wages or hiring independent contractors to avoid things like workers comp and unemployment comp and state withholding of taxes — that they don’t game the system, to win the bid, by bidding down the wages of middle-class, working families," Gronstal says.

Republicans oppose the bill, arguing it will increase the costs of public construction projects. House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha says Democrats are doing the bidding of unions. "It appears that today’s about some campaign paybacks and we’re going to make the taxpayer pay for it," Paulsen says.

The debate on the bill is expected to last at least eight hours, once it starts, but as of three o’clock it had not. Representative Lance Horbach, a Republican from Tama, argues the bill is bad for rural Iowa, as Horbach says only the "multi-million dollar contractors" can afford to pay the prevailing wage.  "They’re making non-competitive my ‘mom and pop’ rural contractors and it’s even worse than that because my contractors buy their materials for my local projects locally," Horbach says. "So not only are my contractors harmed, incidentally harmed will be my lumber stores, my hardware stores."

As dozens of union members lobbied in person at the statehouse today, Republicans urged business groups to telephone and email legislators to urge a "no" vote on the bill.

 

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

Class 2A wrestlers hit the mat

February 19, 2009 By

In the class 2A opening round at the state high school wrestling tournament Forest City junior Alex Spooner improved to 29-0 with a first period pin of J.C. Vercande from Williamsburg. Spooner says he was looking for a quick start, and the intensity that he’s had the whole season.

After a fifth place finish a year ago Spooner is looking for a place higher up on the victory stand. After winning the title at 135 pounds a year ago Seth Noble from Columbus Junction advanced at 140 pounds with an 8-1 victory over Jake Kopriva from Clear Lake. Noble improved to 40-0 with the win and said patience was the key.

Noble says Kopriva didn’t really go at him and that made it tough to score on him, but he says he kept good position and didn’t let him get anything. Noble says he loves the atmosphere of the tournament. He says all the people make it intense and he says it’s not hard to break a sweat.

At 160 pounds, Algona’s Nick Larson used a takedown in overtime to edge Jesse Johnson of Charles City 10-8. Johnson had rallied to tie the match with a takedown in the waning seconds of the third period. Larson says he got the ealry lead and kind of sat on it.

Larson says after giving up the lead he wanted to be the agessor in overtime. He says there was no way he was going to be taken down. Larson improves to 31-1 on the season.

For a good portion of the season it appeared as though Charles City junior Tanner Schmidt would not even get a chance to make a run at another state title. After winning the state crown at 103 pounds in 2008 Schmidt battled the flu and missed about a month of action late this season.

Schmidt says he came back and got sick right away again, but then started feeling a little better and knew he was ready. Schmidt returned to action in his conference meet and says it took a while for him to return to wrestling shape. He says he couldn’t practice much for the conference meet and says that hurt him.

Schmidt will compete in the 2A quarterfinal round on Friday morning after winning his 112 pound opener with a technical fall against PCM Monroe’s Brandon Teeple. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Legislature suspends bunkhouse investigation

February 19, 2009 By

A legislative committee is suspending its investigation into the Atalissa bunkhouse case for fear it would impede the ongoing investigation by law enforcement. Eleven separate state and federal agencies are investigating the case where 21 mentally retarded men lived in the bunkhouse in Atalissa until the fire marshal declared the house unsafe.

Senator Rich Olive, a Democrat from Story City, is co-chair of the committee and says they will hold off on the legislative hearings until they get the okay from the D.C.I. "Over the next couple of weeks were going to allow that investigation to continue but be assured that this committee will do its job and do the responsibilities we’ve been entrusted to do," Olive says.

The committee had hoped to hear testimony from officials with the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, which has come under scrutiny for how it handled past complaints about the bunkhouse. the other committee chair, Representative Vicki Lensing, a Democrat from Iowa City, says there needs to be a general number where people can all in complaints.

She says there is not one number to call. "And if you’re involved with DHS maybe you know who to contact but in terms of big picture we don’t have a system in place. So I think that’s certainly something the agencies need to look at and that we as a committee can follow up on," Lensing says. Lensing says the Atalissa case also shows the need for additional whistle blower protections.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With:

SBA issues scam alert

February 19, 2009 By

A scam alert is going out to small businesses across Iowa. Some merchants are getting legitimate-looking faxes from the U.S. Small Business Administration, saying they may be due a tax rebate under the federal stimulus package and the S.B.A. is assessing their eligibility. Joe Folsom, district director for the S-B-A in Iowa, says it’s bogus.

Folsom says, "If they’re asking for bank account information or information to be faxed back, particularly loan account numbers and Social Security numbers, they should ignore it and report it to our Office of Inspector General which is 1-800-767-0385." He says he was stunned by how authentic and timely the faxes appear and understands why this is raising a red flag.

Folsom says, "What the scam artist has done, the ones that we’ve seen, (the business) will get a fax which looks like it’s coming in on S.B.A. letterhead and they ask for the information to be faxed back to them." He says he’s not aware of any businesses in the state being duped by the faxes and he hopes it stays that way.

"Be on alert for these types of situations," Folsom says. "Lenders, government agencies aren’t going to be requesting this kind of information from you in this kind of a manner, either through e-mails or fax kinds of messages."

 He says this scheme is similar to e-mail scams known as "phishing" that seek personal data and financial account information, enabling con artists to access bank accounts or to engage in identity theft. In addition to the above 800-number, the S.B.A. Office of Inspector General can also be reached via e-mail at "OIGHotline@sba.gov".

Filed Under: Business, Crime & Courts

Former county attorney pleads guilty to OWI

February 19, 2009 By

A former western Iowa prosecutor who’s awaiting sentencing on a federal weapons charge has pleaded guilty in the interim to a charge of driving while intoxicated. Jeff Tekippe entered his plea Wednesday in Cass County District Court. The former Pottawattamie County prosecutor was arrested in March 2008 after crashing his car into a parked vehicle. He was sentenced to 48 hours in jail, but was given credit for time already served.

Tekippe also pled guilty in November to a weapons charge after he was found to be in possession of two stolen guns in February 2007. He’s currently awaiting sentencing on that charge and faces up to 10 years in prison. In September 2007, Tekippe was found guilty on nine counts of theft, possession of cocaine and two counts of misconduct in office – in connection with the theft of evidence from the Council Bluffs Police Department’s drug locker. He was fired from his job earlier that year and later sentenced to 10 years in prison. Tekippe is currently free on bond while his case is appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts
« Older Posts