February 9, 2012

You are here: Home / 2009 / February / Archives for 27th

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:

Company lays off workers in Sheldon, Spirit Lake

February 27, 2009 By

A manufacturing company is laying off employees at both of its facilities in northwest Iowa. Rosenboom Machine and Tool Human Resources Manager Jack Schreurs says the cuts include 12 permanent and 65 temporary layoffs in Sheldon and 19 permanent and 75 temporary layoffs in Spirit Lake.

"Right now, what we have asked for is voluntary layoffs for three months," Schreurs said. "That’s where the temporaries fall into…we’re hopeful we can pull that back (from three months)." Those temporarily laid off from Rosenboom will continue to receive benefits, but not a paycheck.

Schreurs says, "These layoffs became necessary as part of cost containment measures and those were necessitated by our continued weak economy. We have not lost customers, we have not lost product lines, but we are not receiving orders." Rosenboom laid off 64 employees in late January and now has just under 300 workers. 

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Autopsy complete, but few details released on Crawford County death

February 27, 2009 By

A few more details have been released about the discovery of a body in Crawford County Tuesday. The body was found in a ditch along a gravel road south of Dow City.

The Iowa State Medical Examiner’s office has completed an autopsy and a cause of death has been determined, but authorities are not releasing the information at this time.

Investigators will only say they’re treating the case as a homicide. The identity of the victim has been established, but authorities are attempting to contact next of kin before releasing a name. The individual is a 26-hear-old Hispanic male.

The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, along with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation continues to encourage anyone that may have information on the case to call 712-263-2146.  

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Cedar Rapids hospital to implode flood-damaged building

February 27, 2009 By

A building with a lot of history is slated to come down Saturday in Cedar Rapids — as another victim of the June flooding. Demolition crews plan to implode the Family Practice Center building at the Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids at 8 o’clock. Hospital spokesperson Karen Vander Sanden says they determined it wasn’t economically feasible to renovate the building after the flooding.

Traditional demolition started in January and was taking a long time, so she says they decided to step up the process with the implosion that will take only seconds. Vander Sanden says they’re getting a lot of interest from people about the event. She says it’s the first implosion of a building in Cedar Rapids, which has generated a lot of excitement.

Vander Sanden says many others are sad to the structure go. It was originally the nursing school dorm when built in 1946 — with some 2,000 calling it home while going to school over 25 years.

Vander Sanden says people have a lot of great memories, so it is sad to see the building come down. But they are trying to honor the memory. Vander Sanden says they’re selling bricks the will fund a nursing scholarship, and are also raffling off the chance to push the implosion button. So far they’ve sold 300 tickets for the raffle and that money will also go to the scholarship.

Vander Sanden says spectators can watch the implosion live at the site, and they will also show it live on the  Mercy website . Vander Sanden says the site of the building will become a parking lot for now and could eventually be an area for new expansion.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Health & Medicine

Top Democrat says it may be time for state to sell or lease Iowa Communications Network

February 27, 2009 By

A top Democrat in the legislature says it’s time to start exploring the idea of selling or leasing the vast, state-owned fiber optics network that’s linked to every public school and National Guard armory as well as all state government facilities. House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines says in tough budget times, the Iowa Communications Network may be one state asset that can be sold.

"It may not be a viable thing to do after some analysis, but think we should move forward and have some analysis on it to see what the potential is there," McCarthy says. "I know that there’s been some private industry who’s been in my office that would like to look at it."

Critics of selling the almost 20-year-old I.C.N. in the past have said the state would reap now more than a dime for every dollar the state’s spent on the network. McCarthy says the network’s value is in the trunk of fiber optic cable that’s been laid throughout the state. "The base infrastructure is tremendous and the capacity it could hold is huge, now depending on who would get access to it, you may have to build infrastructure to connect to it," McCarthy says. "Maybe it could be regional. Maybe there could be a pilot project, I don’t know, but it’s the base fiber optic infrastructure itself that’s valuable. The capacity is just tremendous."

Republicans in the House floated the idea of selling or leasing the Iowa Communications Network yesterday, but McCarthy and other Democrats in the House voted down the idea. McCarthy says that bill wasn’t the appropriate vehicle for such a momentous decision. According to McCarthy, this would be a complex deal that probably wouldn’t be finalized until next year, if at all.  "Clearly, there’s some infrastructure here that is largely laying dormant, that is largely not profitable for the state, that has the potential to be so without us losing control over it, so I think that’s worth exploring," McCarthy says.

McCarthy is the guest on tonight’s IPTV program, "Iowa Press," and during the show’s taping this morning he floated the idea of selling the Iowa Communications Network. "One of the things I find intriguing of the Republican proposals for revenue that they put out this week was the possibility of leasing or selling the I.C.N., " McCarthy said. "I think that may have some merit."

According to McCarthy, it makes more sense to sell that Iowa Communications Network than it did to sell the Iowa Lottery, an idea which has been set aside. "The Lottery is more of a function that has ongoing revenue — $57 million a year we get," McCarthy said. "Well, here we have with the I.C.N. arguably the best infrastructure in the entire country and it largely remains dormant and we have a robust private enterprise in telecommunications that has no access to it."

McCarthy concedes the state-owned fiber optic system has been good for rural schools which use the network for "distance learning" classes, but McCarthy said a leasing deal that gives private companies access to the fiber optic lines could yield "quite a bit" in annual cash payments to the state.

 

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

Harkin agrees with proposal to cut direct farm payments

February 27, 2009 By

The Obama administration proposes paying for a new child nutrition program by cutting federal farm subsidies to farms that make a half-million dollars or more a year in sales. Reports say that would hit about 9,500 Iowa farms and 81,000 farms nationwide.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, says he agrees that those payments to high-income farms should be abolished. "I have long said that these direct payments really make no sense, because they go out no matter how much money you make, how good the year may be, we just keep paying people based upon what they grew back in the 1980s," Harkin says. "I never thought it made much sense and I never supported it."

While Harkin says he’d support cutting off subsidies to those farms, he says government is by no means backing away from the farming industry. Harkin says: "I want to make sure that we continue our basic support in agriculture, our counter-cyclical programs and our commodity loan programs for farmers. Those will still be secure and I want to see that we put more emphasis on conservation and conservation payments to farmers and I believe that’s in this budget, too."

The child nutrition program that would be financed by the cuts to farm subsidies is one small portion of Obama’s proposed $3.6 trillion budget. Harkin says: "Overall, I have not scrubbed his budget proposal. We just got it late yesterday and I haven’t had the chance to really go through everything, but I’ve gotta’ say, most of the that things that I see in his budget, I think, move us in the right direction."

The cut in farm subsidies is expected to save the federal government some $9.8 billion over a decade, close to the amount that is proposed to be spent on the anti-obesity program for schools. 

Filed Under: Agriculture, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,
« Older Posts