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Consultant says Iowa casinos in better shape than some

March 5, 2009 By

A consultant working on a study of the potential for new gambling licenses in the state told the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission today that the economy will have a big impact on the commission’s decision. Lou Frillman is the president of the consulting firm G-V-A Marquette.

Frillman says he’s seen several business cycles and this downturn is the worst he’s ever seen and it cuts across all businesses. Frillman says Iowa’s casinos, so far, have been managing the downturn.

He says the gaming markets in Iowa are in much better shape than the rest of the country as some casinos in the U.S. have experienced first time drops that are having a big impact on their ability to operate. Frillman’s firm and another consulting firm are both preparing reports on the potential for new gambling licenses.

Each firm updated the Racing and Gaming Commission on their progress at today’s meeting in Osceola. Both say they are on schedule to produce their final reports at the commission’s meeting in June.  

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With:

Interstate Power & Light cancels Marshalltown power plant project

March 5, 2009 By

A controversial power plant project in central Iowa is being cancelled. "We are not going forward with the plant in Marshalltown," says Tom Aller, president of Interstate Power and Light. 

Plans to build the coal-fired electric generating station have been underway for two years. Aller says it was a tough call to end it, for multiple reasons. "No one in particular, it just became difficult and after consulting with our partners, the co-ops and the other municipalities that wanted to be owners, we just concluded this…we just couldn’t go forward," Aller says. He cites several issues, including the current economic and financial climate, as well as increasing environmental, legislative and regulatory uncertainty over emissions.

Aller says the process hit a slow-down in the past month. "We have spent almost two years now, certainly it will be (two years) by the time we would’ve gotten done with the permitting," Aller says. "Of course, there’s now been litigation brought against ourselves and the Iowa Utilities Board by those who are opposing the plant in district court and who knows where that will go or how much time that would’ve taken, and so for all these reasons, we just concluded we just couldn’t figure out how to get there from here."

He says I.P.L., which is a subsidiary of Alliant Energy, consulted with their project partners before reaching a decision. The project was approved by the Iowa Utilities Board, but Aller says some conditions made continuing the project too difficult. Aller says: "Issues with the order itself. There are issues about the uncertainty of environmental regulations that we hear are coming in the new administration. The capital markets over the last six months have really collapsed so the ability to borrow money and get the money from the markets is a different question than when we started."

The Iowa Department of Natural Resource last week lengthened the public comment period to May. Aller says that decision delayed the timeline of the Marshalltown project. "The actual elongation of the process, the DNR has just lengthened the process for comments on the last part of the process, which is the air permit, another couple of months," Aller says. "When you add all those things together, it’s just difficult for us to see how we can get certainty and a conclusion to this process, and all the time we’re spending more and more and more money without any real degree of understanding where the end of the line is."

I.P.L. officials will now take some time to discuss a Plan B, details of which are not being made public. He says Alliant may consider a gas-fired facility, along with wind generation.

 

 

Filed Under: Business, Environment & Conservation Tagged With: ,

State’s four Catholic bishops lobby legislators

March 5, 2009 By

The state’s four Catholic bishops are at the statehouse today, urging legislators to provide health care for more Iowa children — especially the children of immigrants who were caught up in the raid at the Postville meatpacking plant last May.  Dubuque Archbishop Jerome Hanus says things got “terribly messed up” in Postville and he worries our society has grown “callous to the suffering of vulnerable people.”

“…The state could do much more in all sorts of areas. Number one — enforcing our labor laws,” Hanus says. “Number two — enforcing our child labor laws, in particular.”

Davenport Bishop Martin Amos says he’s both “pro-life” and “pro-kids” — and those “undocumented” children in Postville need the state’s help. ”I realize money’s tight, but I wonder if — in the long term — we aren’t saving money and we’re talking about children. It’s not their fault. We’re talking about disease,” Amos says, “so I really hope that they’re able to do more for children and in health care issues.”

Hanus, the top Catholic official in Iowa, hopes the situation in Postville and the recent discovery of a “bunkhouse” in Atalissa for mentally handicapped men who worked at West Liberty Foods spark a debate about the future of the meatpacking industry.

Des Moines Bishop Richard Pates says those who are more likely to “fall through the cracks” need to special attention from state policymakers.  ”We are very conscious, I think, in times such as this that the common instinct is to pull together, to work for one another — especially for the poor, the recently arrived in our country, the children, all those who would otherwise be neglected and perhaps overlooked,” Pates says.

One bill pending in the Iowa House which would directly impact the bishops and the priests they oversee would require all Iowa clergy be “mandatory reporters” when they suspect children are being abused. Amos — from the Davenport Diocese — says he and the other bishops support the bill. “Our diocesan policy is probably stronger than the (proposed) law,” Amos says. “We just automatically turn those over to the policy. That’s just what you do, so I have no problem with that one.”

Sioux City Bishop R. Walker Nickless says he and the other bishops are following the example of Jesus Christ, who some say was one of history’s best political activists. ”You know, the church shouldn’t stay out of politics and we really have to be aware of the things that we can do to help people understand certain issues and do our best to do that, ” Nickless says, “so that’s why I’m here.”

According to The Iowa Catholic Conference, there are nearly half a million Catholics in Iowa. The four bishops will lead a mass at noon in a downtown Des Moines church. Iowa has four Catholic dioceses in Iowa, based in Dubuque, Davenport, Des Moines and Sioux City.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Education, Health & Medicine, Politics & Government, Religion Tagged With: , , ,

Parents urged to "take five" and talk with kids about drugs

March 5, 2009 By

Parents in Iowa are being encouraged to talk to their children for at least five minutes today about the dangers of using drugs. Governor Culver has proclaimed today as Iowa’s annual "Take Five Day."

Peter Komendowski, president of the Partnership for a Drug-Free Iowa , says surveys indicate that most parents feel they do a good job of addressing the risks of drug use – but a majority of kids don’t feel the same. "Seventy-five to 80% of parents said that they felt they constructively discussed the risks and hazards of drugs and alcohol with their children," Komendowski said. "But when you ask the children of those parents, only 30% responded in kind and said ‘yeah, my parents talked to me about this.’"

Studies also suggest that teens who learn a lot at home about the risks of drugs are 50% less likely to ever try illegal drugs. Komendowski says alcohol use is still a big concern, but the fastest growing problem among young people in Iowa is the abuse of pain killers and cough medicines. He says, in the past, kids were too scared to experiment with prescription drugs. "A lot of that is now unfairly or improperly dispelled by the Internet, where they talk about all these different mixes and concoctions and give children an idea that somehow they can safely try these things to get some kind of a high," Komendowski said. The medicines can prove to be just as dangerous as illegal drugs.

Komendowski recommends that anyone with children in their home put their prescription medications under lock and key. "A gun is scary…leaving your keys in the car and letting a (child) get in (the car) is scary. The same thing is true with drugs and alcohol, when you leave them accessible, you’re leaving a loaded gun out there for children to play with," Komendowski said.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free Iowa’s Take Five tips for parents are available statewide in flyers sent home with fifth grade students, and through free pocket guides at Casey’s General Stores.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Licensure proposed for Iowans who provide day care in their own home

March 5, 2009 By

A bill under consideration at the statehouse would require Iowans who run a day care service out of their own home to be licensed by the state. State officials estimate there are more than 12,000 in-home daycare operations in the state.

Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, says there are two main reasons to set up a state licensing system for Iowans who run a day care out of their home. ”Number one — to assure quality and to make sure that the individuals providing that care have the training and the qualifications to be able to do that,” Mascher says. “But it’s also to give dignity to the profession. Our childcare providers are some of the poorest paid people in this state and that needs to change, and one of the ways we can change that is through the licensure process.”

About half of the in-home child day care operations in Iowa have registered with the state. The bill Mascher’s pushing would require nearly all to apply for a state license by 2013. “Currently, only child care centers are required to be licensed in Iowa. Day care homes are under a voluntary registration system and of those that are registered, only 20 percent of those are inspected in a year — and only those that have complaints.”

If Mascher’s bill becomes law, once an in-home day care passes a state inspection, the results would be posted on-line so parents could review the report. Mascher is NOT proposing that nannies or Iowans who babysit for immediate family members be licensed, so grandparents would be able to regularly babysit their grandkids.

But Representative Linda Miller, a Republican from Bettendorf, worries the bill goes too far. ”Say you have a mom who says to her friend or neighbor, ‘You know, I’ll take your kids after school three days a week if you take my kids before school for a couple of hours.’ (Does) that mean that that instantly becomes an arrangement that we need to get our noses into as government?” Miller asks. “I don’t think so.”

Miller also objects to the costs associated with licensing in-home day cares. The bill allows state officials to charge up to a hundred dollars for a two-year license. “I mean, the money has to come from somewhere. These are not wealthy people,” Miller says. “These are small business women, for the most part, small business people in their homes and a hundred dollars, while doesn’t sound like a lot to us up here because we spend a lot of money every day, it’s a lot of money to these people.”

Sheila Hansen of the Iowa Child and Family Policy Center likes the bill. Hansen says the more professional the day care provider, the better off the kids will be. ”We have lots of research that shows what the impact of quality care can mean on their development and we save money later on in the long run in terms of our investments,” she says.

The House Human Resources Committee began debating the bill Wednesday afternoon and will resume their discussion on Monday.

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