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Culver wants "new blood," appoints woman from labor movement as state gambling regulator

March 16, 2009 By

Governor Chet Culver has decided not to reappoint a northwest Iowa woman who has served on the State Racing and Gaming Commission for a decade. Culver has instead selected a Des Moines woman who is part of the labor movement to serve as a state gambling regulator.

Phil Roeder, Culver’s deputy chief of staff, says the governor has decided it’s time for a change. “Whether it’s Racing and Gaming or other commissions, he wants to see some fresh blood, some fresh ideas, some new members of these boards and commissions,” Roeder says.

Diane Hamilton of Storm Lake has been a member of the Racing and Gaming Commission for 10 years and her current term expires at the end of April. Hamilton had asked to be appointed to another three-year term. The governor’s spokesman says Culver took that “into account.”

“…But that’s not the deciding factor. It’s not the individual’s decision to make,” Roeder says. “It’s his and this was one commission, as others, that he just felt it was time for a new face, a new voice on that particular commission.”

Culver has appointed Angela Rivera-Harrison, a Des Moines woman who had been serving on the state Electrical Examiners Board, to start serving on the Racing and Gaming Commission on May 1st. ”She has been involved with labor and to us, that’s a perspective that ought to have a voice (in) state government,” Roeder says. “We just felt it was a good move for her to come over to Racing and Gaming and just provide a different perspective on that commission.”

The governor, however, is not injecting “fresh blood” on the board that governs Iowa, Iowa State and U.N.I. Culver has reappointed Board of Regents members Robert Downer of Iowa City, Greta Johnson of Le Mars and Ruth Harkin, the wife of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. “Ruth Harkin…is just finishing up her first term,” Roeder says. “Having somebody on for a couple of terms (the governor) feels is a good model, but once somebody gets past their second or third term, (Culver) wants to have a change and have his own mark as governor on all these different boards.”

Former Governor Tom Vilsack first appointed Downer to the Board of Regents in 2003. Johnson, a junior at Iowa State, was appointed to a one-year term in 2008 and Culver is reappointing her for another one-year term.

Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs says the governor told legislative leaders last Thursday he wanted stability on the Board of Regents and that’s why he reappointed the three. “In trying times, maybe it’s not time for new blood in that circumstance,” Gronstal says.

Culver has appointed 205 people to terms on various state boards and commissions and each must win the approval 34 of the 50 members of the Iowa Senate to be confirmed for the posts.  Read the entire list of nominees on The Blog .

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

Federal money in package for Highway 20 expansion

March 16, 2009 By

Federal money for Highway 20 in western Iowa is included in the spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law last week by President Obama.

According to news releases from Congressman Steve King, which were posted on the Highway 20 Association website, the congressman secured a total of $1.425 million to expand to four lanes a 20-mile segment of Highway 20 in Webster and Calhoun counties and another segment from the county line of Sac and Calhoun counties to Moville.

The funds will go to the Iowa Department of Transportation, which will oversee the project. According to the congressman, the funding brings total federal funding secured for Highway 20 construction in western Iowa to more than $26-million during his time in congress.

He says the four-lane project will increase traveler safety, economic development, and stem population loss in one of Iowa’s most productive regions. 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Two die in two Eastern Iowa accidents

March 16, 2009 By

Two eastern Iowa women were killed in separate weekend incidents. The Highway Patrol says one teenager was killed, two others were hurt, in a rollover crash near Iowa City early Saturday morning. The girl who died is identified as 17-year-old Lisa Adams, who was a senior at Clear Creek-Amana High School.

That same evening, a woman who was walking to work at a riverfront casino in Davenport was killed when she walked in front of a train and was hit downtown. The victim is identified as 65-year-old Shiela Anne Smith, a housekeeper as the casino.

Counselors are at the Rhythm City Casino today, helping employees cope with the woman’s death. Her name hasn’t yet been released. 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

More counties nearing deer herd goals

March 16, 2009 By

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources state deer biologist says while the number of deer taken last season was down, more counties are approaching their goal number for deer. Tom Litchfield says about 40-percent of the 99 counties are at or near their goal.

Litchfield says the northwestern and northcentral areas of the state are already at their objective, or even below their objectives, while it will likely take another two years before the other areas meet their goals.

Litchfield says some counties had good hunts that help them reach their goals. He believes this year’s harvest will help 10 counties in the east-central part of the state to reach their goals. Litchfield says they still have to do their spring surveys to determine if those counties are at their goals. Other counties won’t reach their goals for awhile.

Litchfield says many of the southern counties and the four most northeastern counties "still have a ways to go" and he expects it will take another two hunting seasons to see them reach their goals. He says people in central Iowa who think there are too many deer, will have to wait awhile for the deer population to come down.

Litchfield says the very central portion of the state, the Des Moines area and moving west, will likely be the very last to reach their objectives for deer numbers. "Since those units were the slowest to respond to this increase in harvest, it only makes sense that they will be the last to meet objectives too," Litchfield says.

The numbers show Clayton County in eastern Iowa had the most reported deer taken, at 6,738, followed by Allamakee with 4,001.  You can see a county-by-county breakdown of the deer numbers here .

 

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation Tagged With: ,

Legislators rebuff governor’s bid for more spending authority

March 16, 2009 By

Iowa legislators don’t want to share the "purse strings" of state government with the executive branch, even in an emergency. Under current law, the governor may propose but the legislature has to authorize withdrawals from the state’s economic emergency accounts. Governor Culver asked legislators for the authority to make withdrawals on his own.

Susan Judkins of the Rebuild Iowa Office says if the legislature’s not in session, the governor has few options. "We want to give the government some flexibility to quickly address needs that we’re seeing as very important,"Judkins says.

Judkins cites the case of last summer’s flooding and tornadoes — disasters which occurred after the legislature had adjourned for the year. "The Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission heard from so many communities that their needs were very strong, but having to wait for the federal dollars to come through just was not addressing them quickly enough," Judkins says.

Culver submitted a bill to legislators which would give the state’s Executive Council authority to spend up to a third of the money in the economic emergency fund if the president declares part of the state a major disaster area. The governor and the state’s five other statewide elected officials serve on the Executive Council.

Senator Bob Dvorsky, a Democrat from Coralville, says the bill’s dead for the year. "I think it raises a lot of concerns on separation of powers. The legislature is supposed to have the power to appropriate money and funds," Dvorsky says. "And I think that bill essentially would have taken away — well, clearly, would have taken away that power and given it to the executive branch not the legislative branch."

Dvorsky, who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, argues the governor was able to adequately respond to last year’s disaster without the extra spending authority. "I think that the executive branch actually did a good job and got some things cranked up in working with the local entities. The governor was all over the state working on flood relief, so I think that things did get done," Dvorsky says. "It is frustrating dealing FEMA and feds on some of those things, but I think most of that was due to the feds, not necessarily to the state government."

Dvorsky says Culver’s proposal would have violated the "separation of powers" in state government.  According to Dvorsky, legislators might be willing to accept a compromise which would give the Legislative Council rather than the Executive Council authority to tap the rainy day fund. The Legislative Council is made up of 24 senators and representatives. It meets regularly and makes decisions when the legislature is not in session.

 

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

Report says Iowa ranks 34th in health funding

March 16, 2009 By

A report finds Iowa gets fewer federal dollars for public health than the national average, ranking the state 34th in terms of funding. Rich Hamburg, spokesman for the non-profit, non-partisan group Trust for America’s Health, says the national per-capita average last year for federal health spending was $17.90, while Iowans averaged $16.37.

"Public health, in general, is chronically underfunded," Hamburg says. "We believe that we’re shortchanging how much we spend as a country on prevention and some states are clearly more shortchanged than others." He says the report, called "Shortchanging America’s Health," details how the funding disparities lead to serious gaps in the nation’s ability to protect citizens against health threats.

Hamburg says, "We’re talking about funding for programs like diabetes control, cancer, food and water safety, bioterrorism and emergency preparedness, so cutting those programs further will have a negative impact on the health of individuals." He says the Midwestern and Southern states got less federal support for public health programs than Northeastern and Western states in fiscal year 2008.

Hamburg says the programs are based on competitive grants and there’s just not enough money to fully fund them in every state."While Iowa has an arthritis, breast and cervical cancer program, it doesn’t have a heart disease and stroke program," Hamburg says. "While it has funding for tobacco control and youth risk factor behaviors, there’s not funding available in that particular state for school health programs or oral health."

To see the full report and breakdowns, go to the The Trust for America’s Health website.

 

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

UNI to face Purdue Thursday in NCAA tourney

March 16, 2009 By

The University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team will be the 12th seed in the West Region of the NCAA tournament and their opponent will be fifth seeded Purdue on Thursday at 1:30 P.M. The Panthers won the automatic berth one week ago by winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament,but U.N.I. coach Ben Jacobson says it didn’t diminish the experience.

Jacobson says it has been a great week, and even better since they knew they were in, and he says there was the same excitement as the two years they got at-large bids. "It’s really something to see you name come up on that screen, that’s what these guys work so hard for, even though you know you’re in, that’s a great, great feeling," Jacobson says. Jacobson talked about heading thousands of miles west for the tournament.

Jacobson says he would have preferred to be in Minneapolis or Kansas City, so more of the UNI fans could go to the game, but other than that, he had no preference. Jacobson says he knows a little about Purdue. Jacobson says he’s seen parts of their games, and has seen enough to know a little big about them. He also has an idea about what Purdue will do, as their coach coach Matt Painter’s experience at Southern Illinois. Jacobson says Purdue is talented and they’ll play hard.

Adam Koch watched the NCAA selection show along with his teammates in Cedar Falls. He says he was really excited, as he says they weren’t sure who they would play, but it was exciting to see their name on TV. Ali Farokhmanesh grew up in the state of Washington, moving to Iowa City after his sophomore year in high school, so he likes the idea of going to the west coast.

Farokmanesh says he’s probably the only Panther who’s excited about that, and he is "really excited" as he has lot of friends out west and has already heard form them. He says knowing where they will play was important, as they knew anyone they’d face would be tough. He says at this point all the teams are going to be good and be a tough matchup.

U.N.I. comes into the tournament at 23-10 overall and 14-4 Missouri Valley Conference. Purdue is 25-9 and finished 11-7 the Big Ten Conference. The winner will face the winner of the Washington-Mississippi State game on Saturday. This is the fifth NCAA tournament appearance for the Panthers, and fourth in the last six years. U.N.I. also qualified in 1990, 2004, 2005 and 2006.  

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,
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