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Vander Plaats again calls on governor to issue order blocking gay marriage

April 23, 2009 By

A Republican who is likely to run for governor in 2010 says his "team" believes Democratic Governor Chet Culver has the authority to issue an executive order which would ban gay marriage in Iowa. Bob Vander Plaats held a midday news conference at the statehouse.

"In our opinion, it is constitutionally irresponsible for the governor not to issue this executive order. This is his role," Vander Plaats said, "You have a legislative branch and you have a judicial branch clearly in conflict with one another. The executive branch must weigh in."

Vander Plaats supports an amendment to the state constitution which would ban gay marriage in Iowa.

"So we believe right now, Governor Culver, people all over the state of Iowa are looking for leadership…put a stay on same-sex marriages immediately until the people have a right to vote," Vander Plaats said.

The governor’s staff and the attorney general both say the governor does not have the authority to issue an executive order. Phil Roeder, a spokesman for Governor Culver, says it is "sad" that Vander Plaats lacks a "basic understanding of how government works" and the limits of the office he intends to seek.

"The Governor of Iowa cannot stay or overturn a decision of the Supreme Court of Iowa by simply signing an Executive Order. Period. Separation of powers is a basic fact about how America’s democracy works that most people learned in their high school government class," Roeder said in a statement. "Governor Culver feels strongly about this, since it is a lesson he taught his students as a former high school government teacher."

Vander Plaats, like Culver, is a former teacher and coach.

The Iowa Supreme Court issued a ruling earlier this month that legalizes same-sex marriage in Iowa, effective April 27th.

 

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

State Senator challenges Attorney General on gay marriage issue

April 23, 2009 By

(This story was updated at 10:48 a.m.)

A state senator is accusing the state’s attorney general of hypocrisy.

If Attorney General Tom Miller acts to remove from office a county recorder who refuses to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, Senator Merlin Bartz says Miller should remove the Mitchell County Attorney from office, too. Bartz held a news conference this morning and handed reporters a published statement from Mitchell County Attorney Mark Walk — as Walk said he would not enforce the state smoking ban.

"I don’t believe that Attorney General Tom Miller has initiated proceedings to remove Mitchell County prosecutor Mark Walk (from) office for refusing to prosecute the smoking ban which was passed," Bartz said.

Bartz is circulating petitions which urge county recorders to refuse to issue same-sex couples a marriage license on Monday, the day the Iowa Supreme Court ruling which legalized gay marriage goes into effect. The attorney general has advised county recorders that the Supreme Court ruling has the force of law and they can be removed from office if they refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

"I want the attorney general to stop the hypocrisy," Bartz said, "and if he’s truly going to go after county recorders next Monday, then he should be going after other elected county officials that are ignoring provisions of their duties and laws, too."

Mitchell County Attorney Mark Walk issued a quick response.

"I have not refused to enforce the smoking ban," Walk wrote in an email, adding that he had assisted the Mitchell County Department of Health in enforcing the ban.  "…I have stated that in certain situations I felt that the law was not proper and would not enforce it in those situations; however, that situation has never occurred.  To the best of my knowledge, Mitchell County is 100 percent in compliance with the law. My stand was largely symbolic.  It was to bring attention to a law that was influenced by the tremendous power of the gambling industry."

A spokesman for Attorney General Tom Miller was not immediately available to comment.

 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Harkin says give low income Americans money for new cars

April 23, 2009 By

Reports say General Motors plans to temporarily close most of its American factories for up to nine weeks this summer as the automaker struggles to overcome slow sales and financial troubles. In a conference call with reporters this morning,

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin referred to the move as a "summer vacation" for G-M workers but quickly changed his tone. "I just think that this illustrates the dire straights our automobile manufacturing industry is in this country," Harkin says. "I still believe one of the best things we can do is to provide a demand pull. We’ve got all these cars sitting out there but no one’s buying them."

Harkin, a Democrat, says he’d support a program in which low-income Americans were given the money to buy new vehicles. He calls it Cash for Clunkers and suggests it would be a way to get gas-guzzling, air-polluting old vehicles off the roads.

"Low-income Americans mostly are the ones who are driving those cars," Harkin says. "They can’t afford to buy a new car. They can’t afford to get the credit. Even if they could come up with a small down payment, they can’t get the credit to buy a new car. And then you provide the demand pull. You get a couple million new cars off the inventory list. This might stimulate G-M to start and run its plants more this summer."

He says a similar program was successful in Germany.

 

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

Cedar Rapids preparing to begin buyouts of flooded homes

April 23, 2009 By

The city of Cedar Rapids will soon begin the buyout process for more than one thousand property owners affected by last year’s flooding. There are some obstacles to the plan as the city will send out letters Friday to property owners outlining the buyout program but city leaders don’t know how long the process will take.

Councilmember Chuck Wieneke says some of the buyouts are needed to construct new flood protection however residents can choose not to participate in the city’s plan."The city is forcing no one to sell their property and move, even if they’re in the greenway area. This is a voluntary process," Wieneke says.

Some residents could receive a buyout as soon as this summer, others might have to wait several years. That’s because the Army Corps of Engineers is not expected to finalize a plan for future flood protection until next year and the money has not yet arrived.

A city appointed citizens committee will help oversee the process but councilman Tom Podzimek says the group will be a sounding board of voluntary scapegoats. Podzimek says: "They’re gonna complain because we don’t have the money, there’s nothing they can do. They’re going to complain about that timing. They’re going to complain about the method, we’ve discussed this method. There’s just people to complain to, gee wiz."

If residents choose to remain in a home that’s in an area slated for levee construction, the federal government’s Army Corps of Engineers could force them from their property. The proposed buyouts are expected to cost $175-million.

 Wieneke says the city has not received any of the necessary funds but he says when money does arrive it will come from multiple sources including FEMA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Politics & Government

Harkin says Obama still backs ethanol

April 23, 2009 By

Iowa is the nation’s leading ethanol producer, but on President Obama’s Earth Day visit to the state on Wednesday, he never once uttered the word "ethanol," at least while in front of a microphone. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says he does not view the president’s omission of ethanol from his address as a snub or a disappointment.

"I can tell you unequivocally, Obama supports ethanol, he has a long history of support for this," Harkin says. "I believe he was touting the wind energy thing yesterday simply as a manufacturing type of a process, getting manufacturing jobs shifted from one type of manufacturing into another to provide more energy for this country."

Harkin, a Democrat, says ethanol supporters are working with the federal E-P-A on raising the blend level of the current 10% ethanol to 90% gasoline mixture to being a 15% ethanol blend. He says that would be a plus for all Iowans involved in the industry — from the farmers to the producers and the consumers.

"We want this based on science," Harkin says. "We know. We’ve had the data. We’ve had good research into this that 15% has no affect whatsoever on internal combustion gasoline engines. Probably the best thing is to let the science rule and not have opponents, oil companies and others, coming up and say they made that decision because of political pressure and stuff from Obama."

There are 41 ethanol plants either running or under construction in Iowa. Obama’s speech focused on wind energy and was delivered from a factory in Newton that builds towers for wind turbines. 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Electrolux cuts more jobs in Webster City

April 23, 2009 By

Hamilton County’s largest employer is announcing more layoffs. An estimated 44 people at Electrolux Home Products in Webster City learned this week that they are out of a job. Since November of last year, the washer and dryer manufacturer has laid off about 400 workers.

The layoffs at Electrolux are due to the current economic conditions that is facing the appliance industry. It was in February, 2007, that Electrolux announced it was moving a production line to Juarez, Mexico, taking away some 700 jobs from the Webster City facility.

The current workforce at Electrolux is just over 1,100. A few years ago, there were some 1,900 workers at the plant.

 

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Lawmaker will try to reprise movie theater help next session

April 23, 2009 By

An eastern Iowa lawmaker says he’ll try again next year to pass legislation to help Iowa’s struggling small town movie theatres. Jeff Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, wants to tap economic development loans to help theatres convert to new state-of-the-art digital projection systems which theatres nationwide will be adopting in the coming years.

Kaufmann says for some small towns, the local movie screen is important to the local economy. Kauffman says, "West Liberty is, I guess you would say, famous in the area because they this, just this wonderful film festival in the spring time. And a lot the small towns, I know in my district, in West Liberty and Tipton both, these theatres are economic development for them."

Four major studios recently announced a financing agreement to help the nation’s top movie-theatre chains convert to digital projection. Kaufmann says it’s hard for the small town theatres to afford the upgrade.

"The problem as they describe it to me is that these small town independently owned movie theatres are going to incur a tremendous expense at converting to a digital format," Kauffman says. Kaufmann says he also heard about the problem from a theatre in Tipton, and a drive-in movie theatre near Muscatine.

Kaufmann’s bill would have made the theatres eligible for state economic development loans. An opponent of the bill says that would take the loan money away from its intended use.  

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With: ,
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