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Iowa coach says it’s too early to hype the season

April 1, 2009 By

Pre-season expectations have returned for the Iowa football program after an impressive finish to the 2008 season. The Hawkeyes won six of their final seven games, including a 31-10 win over South Carolina in the Outback Bowl, to finish with a 9-4 record.

Several key performers return but coach Kirk Ferentz is trying to keep the expectations in check. Ferentz says he doesn’t want to get too carried away with the pre-season euphoria. He says they have a lot of question marks after losing some quality guys on both lines. Ferentz says replacing that type of production and quality is not easy.

Ferentz says several new starters will need to have an impact if the Hawks want to contend in the Big Ten Conference race. He says the guys that are coming back will have to elevate their play. Ferentz says the season ended out successfully, but started out with the seniors stepping it up in the spring practice.

Iowa closes out spring practice on April 18th. 

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Hurdler Felicien ready for Drake after year off from running

April 1, 2009 By

Canadian hurdler Perdita Felicien hopes the Drake Relays is the start of her comeback.The two-time world champion will compete at Drake for the first time since 2005 when she competes in the invitational 100 hurdles.

Felicien is coming back from a foot injury that kept her out of the Beijing Olympics. She has won five Drake Relays titles during her career and would love to add another in the 100th running.

Felicien says it would be great after a season where she didn’t run and says no matter how she ends up, it would be good to run at Drake.

Felicien says the foot is better and she is ready to go and she is 100% healthy, and that’s why she backed off training last year. She says should could have compromised two season instead of one if she had continued to run last year.

Felicien says by taking an extended amount of time off she is confident about returning to the track. She says a lot of the focus was on being able to train without interruption. Felicien says they had to slowly build back before they then started to focus on hurdling.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner will also return to Drake and compete in the invitational 400 meters. 

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ISU awarded EPA grants to improve three watersheds

April 1, 2009 By

Racoon River The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is giving Iowa State University three grants to target the Raccoon and Boone Rivers and Walnut Creek for the reduction of pollutants that flow downstream to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.

The E.P.A.’s Art Spratlin says each of the three watershed projects is getting a $200,000 grant to evaluate conservation practices. Spratlin says the three projects give Iowa State the chance to evaluate different approaches to agriculture that will first of all improve things locally.

Spratlin says the improvement will begin in Iowa, but pay dividends downriver and eventually improve the quality of the Gulf of Mexico. He says the water all flows downhill and once the cleaner water hits the Gulf of Mexico, it will help improve the so-called "dead zone" in the gulf.

Spratlin says the dead zone was created because fertilizer, sediment and other pollutants rob the zone of oxygen that flowed from the throughout water basin.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources director, Richard Leopold, says these grants are different from normal. Leopold says they take a look at practices versus performance, and really centers on performance.

"Where a lot of times we will subsidize practices and look at ways to do things better, which needs to be done, this really focuses on implementation and performance. How we get better performance in using the landowners and their ingenuity, their creativity to get us where we want to go," Leopold says.

Leopold says the plan will ask those at the source of the issue to help with the solution. He says it’s meant to spur the creativity of the landowner, how to do it best, as he says the landowner knows how to best prevent the pollution.

Leopold says they are looking for ways which they can model, where they will pay for performance. Iowa State researchers say they expect to get the three projects underway in July. The grants were announced in a ceremony along the Racoon River in Des Moines Wednesday.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Environment & Conservation Tagged With:

Ground broken for Story City turbine repair plant

April 1, 2009 By

Officials with a Florida based company broke ground on a new facility in Story City, Iowa this morning. Steve Spengel is spokesperson for NextEra Energy, which already runs a wind farm with 100 turbines in nearby Colo and has plans for another in Hardin County.

He says the Story City operation will be used for making repairs to wind turbine gear boxes. The repair shop, located along Interstate 35, could be in business by the end of this year. "We anticipate hiring 20 to 25 people for the facility," Spengel said. "It will be a 90,000 square-foot facility."

Workers at the plant will make repairs to NextEra’s turbines located around the Midwest. It will be the first turbine repair facility in the state. "There are a number of wind farms throughout (Iowa) and now we’re starting to see other associated businesses with wind turbines coming into the state as well," Spengel said. "That’s great news for Iowa."

Governor Chet Culver attended this morning’s ground breaking. Around 75 people will be working on the construction of the building.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

E-mail looks to create April Fool havoc

April 1, 2009 By

The worst prank played on Iowans on this April Fool’s Day may be the one that comes via e-mail. Over the past few years, April 1st has brought technology termoil to millions of computer users and this year is expected to bring more of the same.

Computer tech Mark Sommerfeld says your best defense is common sense. "If it seems too good to be true, it is," Sommerfeld says. "Don’t open e-mails from people you don’t know and don’t go to sites you’re unfamiliar with." April Fool’s Day is notorious for the sending of not-so-funny computer viruses and worms, so he says to think prevention.

"The best thing a consumer can do is make sure their system is up-to-date," he says. "Run Windows updates and have an up-to-date antivirus program." One worm making the rounds today is called "Conficker" and it blocks PCs from accessing the antivirus vendors’ and Microsoft’s websites. For more information about it, visit: www.confickerworkinggroup.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=ANY.RepairTools

 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Technology Tagged With: ,

Report says nearly 27% of Iowans were uninsured at some point

April 1, 2009 By

A report released today by Families U.S.A. says nearly 686,000 Iowans were without insurance at some time during 2007-2008. That equates to nearly 27% of Iowans without insurance which is above the 11% cited during a recent federal health care summit.

Families U.S.A. executive director, Ron Pollack, says their study looked more in depth at the issue. He says the number is higher because they didn’t just look at the people who were uninsured for one year, they looked at people who may’ve been insured for six months or nine months.

Pollock says the numbers cover a two year period, but they did not double count people. Pollock says they look at everyone in Iowa under the age of 65. Pollock says the most important thing to note is that the overwhelming majority of people who lost or lacked health insurance, 84.9%, were in full-time or part-time working families.

Pollock says they also looked at the numbers for people who were 200-percent below the federal poverty line. The annual income for a family of four at that level is $42,400. He says 51.3% of the people below that level were uninsured at some point in the last two years, while those above that line — 18.9% were uninsured at some point during the two years.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, is on one of the three Senate working groups developing a bill to revamp the healthcare system. Harkin joined Pollock in talking with the media — and says the numbers show the need to get something done this year.

Harkin says the senators have reached out and had a lot of hearings and will hopefully have the bill ready to go to the Senate floor in July and hopefully have something passed before the August recess. Harkin was asked about how they will address those workers who lose their job and their ability to keep their insurance.

Harkin says they are looking at a “blend” that keeps employer provided insurance, but it would be fully portable, so if you got laid off or lost your job, you could keep your healthcare plan no matter where you go. The Families U.S.A. report was based on data from the Census Bureau’s current population survey. You can see the whole report here .

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

House starts day after melee with cookies and flowers

April 1, 2009 By

After last night’s meltdown, there were cookies and flowers to start the morning in the Iowa House. State troopers were summoned late last night to remove an unruly crowd of hundreds who cheered and booed during a public hearing about a tax bill. They’d been asked, repeatedly, to quit.

This morning, the Pella Tulip Queen and her court arrived in the House at about 9:15, bearing baskets of Dutch letters to hand out to legislators. "Thank you for allowing us to be here today. We feel very honored to be with you," said Morgan Kuiper, the 2009 Pella Tulip Queen. "…We would like to invite you to the Tulip Time Festival this May 7, 8 and 9. When you arrive in our lovely town, you are sure to see welcoming smiles and tulips for miles. We hope to see you there."

Last night, crowd members were asked to abide by House rules which prevent public demonstrations in the House during public hearings and that includes a ban on applause. But this morning, Republican Representative Jim Van Engelenhoven of Pella led his colleagues and legislative staff in a round of applause for the visiting troupe of teenagers and adults from Pella who were dressed in traditional Dutch costumes and wearing wooden shoes.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the House, it’s a very nice spring day and the tulips came through the snow just fine," Van Engelenhoven said. "That being said, the Tulip Queen and her court have come. Would you please help me welcome them to the chamber?"

The Tulip Queen made a special presentation to House Speaker Pat Murphy, a Democrat from Dubuque. "First off, before I get started, I have a special box to present to the speaker of the house for only the cost of a kiss on the cheek," Kuiper told the crowd.

Murphy did as requested, the queen giggled and presented him with a box of Dutch treats. "Thank you," Murphy said, smiling as he posed for a picture snapped by someone in the Pella entourage.

The group of Pella Tulip Time ambassadors made the same kind of trip through the Iowa Senate, welcomed by Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley who led senate applause for the group. McKinley, who is from Chariton, represents Pella in the senate. The Tulip Queen asked Senate President Jack Kibbie for a kiss on the cheek, too, and snapshots were taken to capture the moment.

After their stops in the Senate and House, the Tulip Queen and her court walked through other areas of the statehouse, handing out Dutch letters to lobbyists and staff.

 

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