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Lawmaker unhappy over travel cuts in judicial branch budget

March 18, 2009 By

A legislator from a small town in eastern Iowa is up in arms over a budget-cutting move that’s saving about $150,000 in the judicial branch of state government. The Iowa Supreme Court’s chief justice has ordered judges around the state to stop traveling for civil trials.

Many businesses across the country are cutting travel budgets, too, but Representative Jeff Kaufmann – a Republican from Wilton — says it’s not fair to Iowa’s rural residents who now have to travel to an urban courthouse for their divorce cases and other civil trials. 

"So we’re going to ask our citizens for basic justice to drive, oh, an hour and a half to get that justice?" Kaufmann asks.

Kaufmann accuses Chief Justice Marcia Ternus of trying to create a "firestorm" in rural Iowa so legislators will forward more money to the court system. "This is about leveraging because she knows how fired up people are. You think I’m fired up? That’s just the tip of the iceberg compared to what’s I’m hearing at home," Kaufmann says. "…I believe what the judicial system is counting on is that anger is going to lead to pressure on the legislature to give the judicial branch what they’re asking for in terms of budgets."

Rebecca Colton, a spokeswoman for the chief justice, says travel has been cut in the rest of state government and it would look out of place if the head of the judicial branch didn’t impose travel restrictions on her employees, too. 

Colton uses the word "ridiculous" to rebutt Kaufmann’s charge that the courts are trying to create a "firestorm" in rural Iowa so legislators will forward more money to the courts. Colton says state spending is being deeply cut, and curtailing travel is one of many ways the justice system’s budget has been cut.

Judges, by the way, are still traveling to preside over criminal trials and cases that involve juveniles. It’s only civil trials that are affected by the "no travel expense" order.

"Our judges are traveling to hear cases that are constitutionally a priority," says Colton, who is counsel to the chief justice.

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

Bill would allow count of absentee ballots before Election Day

March 18, 2009 By

Polling place sign. County election officials would start counting so-called "early" votes a day before Election Day if a bill that passed the Iowa House Tuesday evening becomes law.

Several Iowa legislative races were undecided this past Election Night because many absentee ballots hadn’t been counted yet.

 Under current law, absentee ballots cannot be counted until Election Day.

Representative Mary Gaskill, a Democrat from Ottumwa, is a retired county auditor. Gaskill says the bill outlines several safeguards for the early counting of those early votes. "And those machines would be secured and no one is allowed to give out that information until the polls have closed and they give out the unofficial totals," Gaskill says.

Most Iowa election officials do prep work before Election Day, like opening absentee ballot envelopes and taking out the so-called "secrecy envelopes" that hold the ballot itself. But they are forbidden by current law to begin counting those votes. Gaskill says with more Iowans opting to cast an "early" vote rather than wait ’til Election Day, it makes sense to give county auditors authority to count those absentee ballots the day before Election Day.

"And they could actually put them into the machines on the day before so they can get a head start," Gaskill says. The bill passed the House on a 76 to 22 vote and now goes to the Iowa Senate for consideration. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

VeraSun choses buyer for ethanol plants

March 18, 2009 By

VeraSun Energy Corporation has selected a buyer for seven of its ethanol plants, including four in Iowa. The Sioux Falls-based VeraSun filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. Today, company officials announced they’ve selected Valero Renewable Fuels of San Antonio, Texas as the successful bidder for ethanol plants in Albert City, Charles City, Fort Dodge and Hartley.

The deal includes three more plants in Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota, plus a development site in Indiana. VeraSun is seeking approval of the $477-million bid at a court hearing in Delaware today.

The sale is expected to close in April. 

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business Tagged With:

Company in Shenandoah to make things from algae

March 18, 2009 By

A start-up high-tech facility in southwest Iowa is beginning to fill new jobs in a new type of industry, with its roots in ethanol production. Gregg Connell, executive vice president of the Shenandoah Chamber and Industry Association, says construction is expected to begin within the next month on a project where algae will be grown and harvested for multiple uses, utilizing byproducts from the making of ethanol.

Connell says the head scientist is a Harvard graduate and the CEO is a Wharton School of Business graduate and more engineers and scientists are being added to the team. Officials with BioProcess Algae, of Rhode Island, haven’t disclosed how many jobs will be created with the new Shenandoah facility, but they reportedly have between 25- and 60-million dollars to launch and develop the operation. Connell says the hirings will be "significant," but wouldn’t offer any numbers.

He says the company will bring many people to relocate to southwest Iowa. The process involves producing algae using carbon dioxide waste from an ethanol plant — which is a new concept. Connell says expectations are high since scientists in Rhode Island have continuously been producing algae in a bio-reactor system for about eight months.

"When you say ‘continuously,’ that’s extremely important," Connell says, "That’s one of the tough things about growing algae. How do you harvest it without having to kill it? The science behind this is just incredible and we’re in a great position to lead the field of algae research and development."

Once the facility is built, he says the team will move from a one-ton system to five-tons to a 50-ton system within a year. The algae can have all sorts of applications, from pharmaceuticals to cosmetics, in addition to animal feed and biodiesel fuel. Connell says there is much growth potential with the program.

"We’re excited about the huge possibilities with algae and we’re also excited about the stimulus package which contains about 15-billion dollars for renewable energy projects," Connell says. "We have just applied for a grant for another two-million dollars which will allow us to move forward even quicker, maybe with an even-larger team." The facility is expected to cover between 90 and 300 acres in Shenandoah.

He says with the bioreactor system, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will be captured instead of being dumped into the air, and it’ll be used with waste water from the cooling towers to grow "incredible masses" of algae, perhaps 200 tons per acre.

Connell says the algae idea is outstanding for biodiesel, as one acre of soybeans produces about 66 gallons of biodiesel, while an acre of algae is expected to produce up to 15,000 gallons of the fuel.

 

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Balltown restaurant to rise from the ashes again

March 18, 2009 By

Work has begun on rebuilding a northeast Iowa restaurant that has burned down twice in less than a year. Breitbach’s Country Dining in Balltown was destroyed in a Christmas Eve fire in 2007.

The owners rebuilt the restaurant last summer, but another fire totaled the business in October of last year. Investigators never determined the cause of either fire. Workers are now busy preparing the site for another rebuild. The Breitbachs are hoping to open the new restaurant sometime in June.

 

Filed Under: Business, Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Drake plays in new tourney tonight

March 18, 2009 By

The Drake men’s basketball team will play at the University of Idaho today at 9 p.m. in the opening round of the inaugural CollegeInsider.com tournament. The tournament features 16 teams including Missouri Valley Conference opponents Bradley and Evansville.

The first three rounds will be played at on-campus sites, which are determined by seeding.  Drake was the Cinderella story last year, winning the Missouri Valley and making the NCAA tournament. Mark Phelps replaced Keno Davis as coach this season, and says playing in this tournament will help the Bulldogs.

Phelps says it’s important to continue the momentum of postseason play as Drake hasn’t had back-to-back postseason bids since making the NCAA Tournament from 1969-71. Phelps talks about Idaho.

Phelps says they have a terrific scorer at the point guard and are very well coached. He says they’ve had a number of close loses so their 16-15 record doesn’t tell the story about the quality of the team. Drake finished the season with a 17-15 record, and a first round loss in the Missouri Valley tournament. Phelps says they have some things to work on to advance in this tournament.

Phelps says they need to take care of the ball on offense and limit their turnovers. He says they also need to play defense like they did in their last five games. The quarterfinal round games of the CollegeInsider.com Posteason Tournament will be played on March 23 with the semifinal round on March 25 and the championship on March 31. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Governor goes on tour to push his borrowing program

March 18, 2009 By

Governor Chet Culver kicked off a statewide tour to tout his 750-million dollar economic stimulus plan with stops in Nevada, Fort Dodge, Mason City, and Charles City Tuesday.

Culver says the "I-Jobs" program will create jobs, strengthen the economy and address unmet infrastructure needs across the state. Republicans and some Democrats have given Culver’s idea to borrow money to pay for the plan a lukewarm reception.

Culver says he’s hoping to rally support for the proposal across the state. "Hopefully, there will be enough support for this that the people expect that we will find a way to get it done," Culver said. If lawmakers don’t buy into his plan, the Governor says he’ll be open to a bi-partisan solution.

"I am willing to work together to try to figure out our differences," Culver said. "But, I really believe that we have to take control of our own destiny. We can’t just rely on the federal government.

We appreciate some of the help we’re getting in the recovery bill and we’re going to put that to good use, but I really think it’s up to us now." Culver says much of the $750-million bonding proposal would finance projects that were already planned. The Governor defended the bonding plan saying it’s a common practice on the local level.

"We bond all the time locally," Culver said. "So, I’m asking legislators, if it’s okay to bond for a hospital expansion, road project or mall project, why can’t we do the same thing at the state level?"

Culver says of the $750-million, 250-million would be used for transportation infrastructure, 150-million would be tabbed for flood recovery and disaster preparation projects, 100-million for water quality and water improvement projects and 75-million for local infrastructure, broadband and alternative energy infrastructure.

 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,
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