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No fine, jail time for man accused of driving with no license

April 8, 2009 By

A Scott County man has lost his bid to get out of jail after being charged eight times for driving without a valid license.

Just over a year ago Tommy Moore was charged with driving while his license was under suspension. He pled guilty to the charge. At his sentencing hearing, Moore asked to be put on probation and he volunteered to pay a "larger" fine than would be normal.

After checking Moore’s history of paying fines, however, a judge sided with the prosecutor in the case and sentenced Moore to up to two years in prison. The judge called Moore "somebody who just isn’t going to pay attention to whatever punishment" he’s given, as Moore had been out of prison for just a few weeks when he was caught driving around without a license.

The Court of Appeals reviewed the transcript of Moore’s sentencing hearing and ruled his eighth conviction should stand.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Court sides with man doing time on sex abuse, burglary charges

April 8, 2009 By

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of a Des Moines man serving time on sexual abuse and burglary charges.

Eddy Cortez, who also goes by the name Ermando Casteleno, was accused of invading the home of a Des Moines woman on October 7th, 2007. Cortez eventually pled guilty to second degree burglary and third degree sexual abuse.

Cortez later appealed, though, saying the district court failed to tell him that guilty plea might affect his immigration status and that he might be on parole for life. The Iowa Court of Appeals agrees that Cortez should have been informed he might be on parole for life. The appeals court overturned his sentence and sent the case back to district court.

The ruling notes that by making that decision on the parole issue — and sending the case back to a lower court — it is not necessary to address the other complaint about the district court judge’s failure to tell Cortez his guilty plea might affect his immigration status.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Norwalk man killed in electrical fire

April 8, 2009 By

A central Iowa man was killed on the job Tuesday afternoon. An electrical fire brought emergency crews to a gravel mine near Des Moines owned by Hallett Materials.

The body of 35-year-old Tadd Bainum of Norwalk was found near a burning transformer, though the power had to be shut off by MidAmerican Energy before the body could be approached.

The Polk County Sheriff says it’s unclear if Bainum was electrocuted and an autopsy is planned.

The accident is under investigation by the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Deere to lay off 160 at Des Moines Works

April 8, 2009 By

One of Iowa’s largest manufacturing employers is making more job cuts. Officials with John Deere say 160 workers at the Des Moines Works will be put on indefinite layoff as of April 27th.

Deere blames reduced market demand for the factory’s products, which include: planting, spraying and cotton harvesting equipment.

The Quad Cities-based Deere announced last week 40 workers were being laid off at the Ottumwa plant, which makes hay and forage equipment. Last month, 325 Deere workers were laid off in the construction and forestry division, which includes plants in Davenport and Dubuque.

Filed Under: Agriculture Tagged With:

ISU tests sugar beets for making ethanol

April 8, 2009 By

Provided the snow stops, planting will get underway in a few weeks on two small crops of sugar beets at Iowa State University test farms in southeast Iowa. The beets are being grown as a possible alternative source for making biofuel.

Vince Lawson is superintendant of the Muscatine Island Research and Demonstration Farm near Fruitland. Lawson says, "The project came about because a group of investors wanted to start an ethanol plant, which isn’t all that unusual here in Iowa, but what is unusual is that they wanted to make it a sugar-based ethanol plant, in other words, they’d use a crop that makes sugar and not starch."

While most of the 40-some ethanol plants in Iowa use starch derived from corn, Lawson says for making sugar, the sugar beet can’t be, well, beat. "Sugar beets are very efficient at just producing sugar," Lawson says. "Our table sugar, some of that comes from sugar beets, of course. To date, sugar beets haven’t been grown down here in southeast Iowa."

The first crops on the half-acre plots near Fruitland and near Crawfordsville were planted a year ago and harvested last spring. This will be the second year for the sugar beets, testing to see where they might grow best. "These two locations are really two different growing environments," Lawson says. "Here at the Muscatine Island research farm, we have a sandy soil and we use irrigation. In Crawfordsville, it’s more of a typical black Iowa soil and it’s not irrigated."

At the Crawfordsville farm, last year’s crop showed about five-point-five tons of sugar could be extracted from about 35 tons of beets. That sugar would end up making nearly 900 gallons of ethanol. The Muscatine Island farm produced an average of four tons of sugar, which were extracted from nearly 25 tons of beets.

Heartland Renewable Energy is planning to build an ethanol plant in Muscatine in 2011. More information on I-S-U’s research can be found at this website .

 

Filed Under: Agriculture Tagged With: , ,

Insect that destroys ash trees inches closer to Iowa

April 8, 2009 By

A dangerous insect that could dramatically alter the state’s landscape is now very close to the Iowa boarder. A new infestation of Emerald Ash Borers (EAB) was found near Victory, Wisconsin – less than five miles from Allamakee County in northeast Iowa.

State Entomologist Robin Pruisner says if the pest finds its way across the river, the state’s 88-million ash trees could be in jeopardy. She notes that up to a half or more of all of the trees in some Iowa towns are ash trees. "So, if you start thinking about a city where suddenly that proportion of their trees are gone over the course of a couple of years because of an infestation, that city really starts to look differently," Pruisner said.

The Emerald Ash Borer burrows under the bark and eats the tree alive. Pruisner says the beetle is native to the Orient and was first introduced in the U.S. in the 1990′s in Detroit. "In states that have been suffering from infestations, we’re basically seeing the demise of ash trees," Pruisner said. "I had the opportunity to go to Michigan a couple of years ago where we actually saw ash trees that had died from Emerald Ash Borer damage re-sprouting and the sprouts were only as big around as my pinky finger and those sprouts were again infested by Emerald Ash Borer and dying."

Pruisner says there’s no cure for EAB right now, so containment of the pest is the state’s best hope. Agriculture officials are urging Iowans to avoid transporting firewood across state lines or plant any new ash trees.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation
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