The junior guard averaged over 18 points in two victories for the Tigers. Wirth scored 23 points, including four-of-10 from three point range, in a victory over Linn-Mar. He finished the week with eight three pointers and shot 44 percent from behind the arc.
Class 3A: Wes Nordquist, Adel-DeSoto-Minburn
February 24, 2009 By
The senior center averaged over 22 points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots in a pair of wins. Nordquist scored 24 points, on 9-of-12 shooting, hauled down 15 rebounds and blocked three shots in a victory over Norwalk. He made 19-of-25 shots on the week.
Class 2A: Austin Katje, Unity Christian (Orange City)
February 24, 2009 By
The junior guard averaged more than 27 points and connected on 11-of-22 from three point range in two victories. He scored 24 points, including 7-of-14 from behind the arc, and added three steals in a victory over South O’Brien.
Class 1A: Danny Hershberger, Iowa Mennonite (Kalona)
February 24, 2009 By
The senior center scored 32 points and added seven rebounds in a victory over Lisbon and did not miss a shot in the process. Hershberger finished 14-of-14 from the field and made all four of his free throws and for the season is connecting on better than 68 percent from the field.
Culver open to getting rid of one tax provision; critic calls it "silliness"
February 24, 2009 By
Governor Chet Culver says it’s time to "seriously look at" a major change in Iowa tax law. Last week, Democrats in the Iowa Senate said it’s time to consider removing a provision which allows Iowans to deduct their federal tax payment from their income before calculating their state income taxes.
"I think we should have a conversation on that this session," Culver said this afternoon during a telephone news conference. "There are a lot of advantages to doing that."
Just two states — Iowa and Louisiana — have this tax provision on the books and critics say it makes Iowa’s income tax rates look higher than they are when compared to the other 48 states.
"It’s kind of complicated," Culver said, with a laugh, "and anything we can do to kind of simplify and streamline the tax code I’m for it. It’s somewhat outdated in terms of the way that it’s applied and, you know, I think that it might be time to just kind of look and see if we can’t streamline it, simplify it, make it more straightforward and clear."
The group Iowans for Tax Relief has long fought to maintain this tax provision. Iowans for Tax Relief president Ed Failor, Junior spoke with Radio Iowa by phone this afternoon. "I’m not surprised that it’s confusing and complex for this governor to understand," Failor said. "He’s trying to take away the largest deduction that middle income Iowans, particular renters have. These are the folks who are treying to get ahead and he’s going to take away their largest deduction? It’s silliness. It’d be a $600 milion tax increase on Iowans in a recession….a bad, bad idea."
Iowa Ag Secretary says new EPA rule could hurt ethanol industry
February 24, 2009 By
Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey says he’s concerned about the potential impact of a rule that would expand the way carbon is measured in fuels like corn-based ethanol. Northey has been in Washington, D.C. meeting with other state ag leaders and says they discussed the E.P.A.’s consideration of an "indirect land use" rule that would examine a number of factors in setting carbon numbers for fuels.
Northey says the rule would look at the actual process of corn production, and the processing of the ethanol, from the use of fertilizer, to what it costs to haul the grain around and dry the grain, to the use of the equipment in the fields and in some cases the actual cost of producing the equipment to produce the corn.
Northey says the impact on the ethanol industry could be dramatic. He says he got the impression that using indirect land use would be a nuetral impact at best, and could be negative to ethanol because of the indirect land use numbers adding so much of an additional charge that it "would take away all the gain that ethanol had."
Northey says all the E.P.A. officials he has talked with in Washington indicate they are leaning toward the indirect land use formula. Northey says the impact would come as states like California look at reducing their carbon emmissions. Northey says the state would get a carbon number for gasoline and one for ethanol based on a formula and as they blend the gas , they need to decrease the number. "Right now, if ethanol with indirect land use has a higher number than gasoline, they get a better (carbon) number just using straight gasoline," Northey says.
Northey says while the impact on the ethanol industry would be major, the issue could also impact other corn users. He says other users could get tagged with using the indirect land use carbon numbers in meat production, dairy production and egg production, if there are real efforts to control the amount of carbon in agriculture.
Northey says right now the whole idea adds more uncertainty to an already uncertain future for the ethanol industry. He says things could change as more people weigh in on the carbon idea. Northey says they heard from one of the economists on the house ag committee that "there were real doubts in some circles that blaming ag producers or biofuels production here in the United States for land use changes in other places was sound science at all."
Northey says he expects Congress to weigh in on the issue to as the idea moves forward.
State Senator proposes one superintendent per county
February 24, 2009 By
A state senator who started talking about school district consolidation and sparked outrage from small school advocates is floating a new idea.
Senator Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines, suggests reducing the number of full-time superintendents in Iowa from 322 down to 99.
"The legislature did the exact same thing in the 1930s during the Great Depression, They reduced the number of superintendents to one per county," McCoy says. "They realized that to protect students and the work that went on in Iowa’s educational system they had to lighten the burden of administrative costs."
McCoy admits the idea of forcing schools to consolidate is going nowhere in the legislature, and that’s why he now says Iowa doesn’t have too many schools, it has too many superintendents. "I believe that this proposal more accurately reflects the mood of this legislature and that’s to save money but to still maintain their local schools," McCoy says.
McCoy is introducing a bill to accomplish the goal of one superintendent per county, but he predicts legislators will decide to conduct a study. "Iowans have to change and change is hard," McCoy says. "We all like change as long as it’s not happening to us and most of appreciate our local school districts and most of us believe that there’s too much government in this state, but we’ll die to defend it to the bitter end."
McCoy cites statistics indicating while the number of students in Iowa schools has declined 15,000 since 2001, yet the combined salaries of Iowa school administrators has grown by eight million. "This is not an urban issue," McCoy says. "This is not an us-against-them." For example, McCoy envisions the nine school districts in Polk County, where he lives, would be led by one superintendent.
According to McCoy, Iowa has a "surplus" of superintendents and the superintendent’s salary in one of the five smallest school districts in Iowa amounts to nearly $1000 per student in the district. McCoy estimates his proposal would save at least $22 million statewide.
You can listen to all of what McCoy had to say at a statehouse news conference by clicking on the audio link below.
