May 21, 2012

You are here: Home / 2009 / March / Archives for 20th

DNR connects fish kill to southwest Iowa truck wash facility

March 20, 2009 By

Every few months, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is notified of a fish kill caused by livestock manure that’s washed into a waterway. Often times, the source of the problem is traced back to a commercial truck wash facility. Dan Stipe, supervisor for the DNR field office in Atlantic, says anyone constructing such a facility should probably be connected to a wastewater treatment plant. "There are a number of variables they have to take into consideration, but simply letting (wastewater) go untreated into a waterway generally results in something negative happening," Stipe said.

A fish kill in Cass and Montgomery Counties this week is blamed on a discharge of wastewater into Rose Creek from a truck wash owned by Muller Livestock in Griswold. Stipe says workers were spraying out trailers full of livestock manure, which carry high level of ammonia. "Ammonias in the lower five, six or seven parts per million range can kill fish and my staff was finding ammonia levels in the 250 range coming from the basin," Stipe said. "Ammonia from manure is usually the pollutant of concern from these facilities." Stipe says the DNR continues to investigate the fish kill in Rose Creek and will consider possible enforcement action against Muller Livestock.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Environment & Conservation

Outsourcing plan could help rural communities

March 20, 2009 By

A plan to outsource business and jobs — within the state — may help Iowa’s rural areas. The Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs is spearheading an effort to link businesses in small towns with those in cities.

Stephanie Fritz, the center’s rural community development specialist, is coordinating meetings to help small businesses make connections. Fritz says, “We’re trying to help them network with some urban businesses just to see if the urban company could outsource some jobs to smaller communities instead of having a part made out-of-state or even out of the country.”

She says the move could help save the urban business money while helping the small town enhance its business climate or even launch new businesses. Fritz explains how the plan could work. For example, an eyeglass company could outsource to rural communities — having one business make the screws, another could do the frames and yet another would do the lenses while they were assembled somewhere else and sent on to the city-based large eyeglass company, but all of the piece work was done in the rural areas.

Fritz says now is a good time to set up the network so those involved will be ready when the economy rebounds. The project is funded by a 50-thousand dollar grant from the Economic Development Agency.

 

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business

Spring is here, finally!

March 20, 2009 By

Spring arrived at 6:44 this morning, ending a long Iowa winter that’s been colder and wetter than normal. State climatologist Harry Hillaker says it may not have seemed like such a bad winter because it’s been so mild in recent weeks, with very little snowfall.

"February, in particular, was a major difference from what we had a year ago," Hillaker says. "Temperatures were much above normal during February and also much drier than normal, but December and January, to start off the winter, were both quite a bit on the colder side of normal and December, in particular, was much wetter than usual as well."

He says many Iowans will be glad to put this winter behind them, especially when they recall just how cold it was during the past few months. Hillaker says there was some extremely cold air that hit Iowa during mid-January that knocked low temperatures down around 40-degrees below zero with some cities recording new all-time record lows, not just lows for the date but the lowest temperatures ever recorded. Some areas of Iowa recorded wind chill factors that were lower than 50-below.

As for the Spring ahead, Hillaker says we’re now in what’s known as a La Nina weather pattern. "What it’s typically brought to Iowa in years past has been, for the month of April, is very often been wetter than normal when La Nina’s been around and temperatures close to normal, maybe a little below-normal on average," he says. "May is kind of a toss-up, it could go either way."

He says one thing that’s almost certain is, there’ll be plenty of temperature extremes in the next few weeks — with highs in the 70s and 80s one day and then back down in the 20s and 30s the next.

 

Filed Under: Weather

Report says raids at Swift plants help increase wages

March 20, 2009 By

A report by the Center for Immigration Studies shows wages increased, as did the number of legal workers, at six Swift meatpacking plants following immigration raids in 2006. One of the raids happened at the Swift plant in Marshalltown.

Report author Jerry Kammer says Swift had to increase the wages and pay bonuses to new workers to get back to full production after the raids. Kammer says it was a supply and demand issue as they needed to find workers quickly and had to make the job more attractive.

He says all the plants returned to full production within five months — an indication that the plants could operate at full capacity without the presence of illegal workers.

Kammer says the report goes against the myth that illegal immigrants are needed as Americans don’t want to do these types of jobs. "I think that’s one of the major points here, that Americans will do these jobs if the jobs are made decent. If they pay decent and the working conditions are improved, more Americans will do these jobs," Kammer says.

Kammer says Swift has taken the strategy of spending money on replacing workers instead of increasing the wages of the workers they have.

Kammer Iowans well now that these jobs used to pay a middle class wage and there was a blue collar middle class that the country is rapidly losing. He says the average wage in today’s dollars was $21.75 in inflation adjusted dollars, while in 2007 the average wage was $12.03, so there has been a huge drop in the standard of living.

Kammer says the turnover at Swift plants continues to be 40 to 70-percent. He says that’s a very high turnover that means a lot of "turmoil and churn" in the communities, making it very difficult for the schools, churches, hospitals and neighborhoods to incorporate the people into the community.

"You often hear the phrase in these meatpacking plant towns, ‘the plants don’t kill animals, they kill people’ because they make life so difficult, the working is so grueling, the conditions are so difficult," Kammer says. Kammer says another myth the report addresses is that upping the money paid to workers in meatpacking plants would dramatically increase the cost of the product.

Kammer says a California researcher found this not to be true in studying myth that lettuce would cost $5 a head if workers were paid more.

Kammer says the researcher found six percent of the cost for lettuce goes to the workers, while his report found in the meat industry, it was seven to nine percent, depending on whether it was beef or pork. So he says the wages could be increased "significantly" without a correspondingly large rise in the cost to the consumer.

Kammer says his view of the report goes back to what former congresswoman Barbara Jordon said about immigration. Kammer says Jordan believe an immigration policy that is coherent and healthy for the country needs clear rules, and those that don’t meet the rules will have to stay out of the country. And those who break the rules should be sent out of the country.

Kammer says it’s difficult to have such a policy and enforce it, because "every immigrant is a human being, and every immigrant has a story." Kammer was a Pulitzer prize winning reporter before joining the Center for Immigration Studies. You can view his entire report on-line here .    

Filed Under: Business, Crime & Courts Tagged With:

Hawks, Cyclones tied for first at NCAA Wrestling Tournament

March 20, 2009 By

Iowa and Iowa State are tied for first place heading into day two of the NCAA Wrestling Tournament in St. Louis. The Hawkeyes and Cyclones each have 33 points following the first two rounds of wrestling. Ohio State is third in the team standings, three points behind Iowa and Iowa State.

Iowa advanced six wrestlers into this morning’s quarterfinals, led by 149-pounder Brent Metcalf, who pinned his first two opponents. Iowa’s other quarterfinalists include Dan Dennis (133), Ryan Morningstar (165), Jay Borschel (174), Phil Keddy (184) and Dan Erekson (HWT). The Hawks also have three wrestlers in the consolation bracket.

Iowa State has five wrestlers in the quarterfinals and five in the consolations. The Cyclones won nine of their 10 first round matches. Heavyweight Dave Zabriskie, the top-seed, needed a late takedown to score a 9-8 win in the second round. He’s joined in the quarterfinals by Nick Gallick (141), Cyler Sanderson (157), Jon Reader (165) and Jake Varner (197).

Northern Iowa has one wrestler in the quarterfinals, 165-pounder Moza Fay. Five Panthers remain alive in the consolation bracket, although 141-pounder Trent Washington had to default his second round match because of an injury.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Democrats endorse bid to provide more Iowa kids health insurance

March 20, 2009 By

The Iowa Senate has approved a bill that supporters say will provide health care coverage to 30,000 more Iowa children. Experts estimate about 9,000 kids would still be left without health insurance.

Senator Jack Hatch, a Democrat from Des Moines, said the $8 million package which cleared the senate still makes progress. "We have children that don’t get healthcare because their parents can’t afford it — and they get sicker," Hatch said during debate. "No child in this state should be with the fear that they don’t have healthcare and no parent in this state should believe they can’t afford health care and not give health care to their children."

Democrats supported the bill while Republicans ridiculed it as a step toward "socialized" medicine. Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton said health care controlled by bureaucrats won’t work any better than it did to give federal bureaucrats control over the mortgage industry. "We’ve seen other big-government creations like (Fannie) Mae and (Freddie) Mac who were ultimately the basis for the worst financial free-fall this country has seen," McKinley said.

The bill passed with 30 "yes" voted from Senate Democrats and the "no" votes of all 18 Republicans. The proposal now goes to the House where significant changes are possible.

 

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

Bill would make it easier to cart half-bottle of wine home from restaurant

March 20, 2009 By

The Iowa Senate has endorsed a bill which would make it easier for restaurant patrons to leave with a partially-consumed bottle of wine and drive home without fear of being charged with driving around with an "open container" of alcohol.

Senator Rich Olive, a Democrat from Story City, said the bill would let a waiter or waitress put a bottle that’s been opened but still has a glass or two of wine in a sealed "doggy bag."

"They cost somewhere between 30 and 40 cents per bag," Olive said. "They then reseal it and if you are stopped, the police officer would be able to tell whether your open container is sealed in this doggy bag."

Under current law restaurants can re-cork a bottle of wine for a customer, but Olive said few do because police can’t tell who put the cork in the bottle. "You can never tell if they’ve popped open the cork when they left and started to drink back out of the bottle of wine," Olive said.

Olive argued this proposal may reduce drunken driving as restaurant-goers may be less inclined to drain a bottle of wine if they can safely tote home a half- or quarter-bottle. "If we can keep people from drinking too much alcohol and then driving — I think that’s a very fine thing for us to do," Olive said.

Olive got the idea from his statehouse secretary. "I don’t want anybody to think he spends all of his time drinking wine, but it was a concern of his," Olive joked. Several secretaries, senators and other legislative staffers laughed.

In addition, Senator Olive joked about the drinking habits of his peers during Thursday evening’s debate of the bill. "No one here in the senate has ever run into the problem of leaving a partial bottle of wine at the table," Olive said with a smile.

The bill now goes to the House for consideration.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,
Newer Posts »