Iowa’s pork industry suffered a major blow Tuesday as the United States Department of Agriculture says China has banned pork imports from Iowa. U.S.D.A. officials say China gave no reason for the ban — but it’s most likely linked to the H1N1 virus, otherwise know as the swine flu. Ron Birkenholz of the Iowa Pork Producers Association says China’s move is a heavy blow. “It hurts an already struggling industry. This whole virus situation has really caused a lot of undo stress and strain on the industry. It’s dropped the prices and it’s unfortunate because it’s not fair. There’s no virus in the pigs. The pork is safe to eat,” Birkenholz says. Iowa joins 35 others states that are banned from selling pork to China, which Birkenholz says is a major blow to the state’s pork industry. Birkenholz says, ” China has become one of our top export markets for U.S. and Iowa pork and China is evidently joining several other countries who’ve opted to ban the import of U.S. pork now and it’s unfortunate because still there’s been no virus found in any U.S. pigs.” Birkenholz says it’s too early to know the extent of the economic blow. Russia, the Philippines and Thailand have also banned Iowa pork.
China banning Iowa pork imports
State says there are now 29 probable cases of H1N1
State health officials says there are now 29 probable cases of the H1N1 flu virus in Iowa. Twenty-seven of those cases are located in the Marshalltown area.
La Rae Schilling is the Chief Nursing Officer at Marshalltown Medical and Surgical Center. She says they’ve sent in swabs from 128 patients with H1N1 symptoms to the state lab for testing. Across the state, just over 70% of the samples sent to the state lab have come back as probable cases.
Those samples are then sent to a federal lab for confirmation. The state’s only confirmed case of H1N1 is in Des Moines County. No patients in Marshalltown have required hospitalization, but Schilling says the hospital has received hundreds of calls to a special flu hotline.
"We are sending probably two-thirds of those patients that are calling to the special emergency flu clinic," Schilling said.
"The others are going to the E-R or their physicians because it’s not the flu that they are calling about." Nearly 150 patients have attended a flu clinic at the hospital as of this morning.
Schilling says the clinic is "like running two E-Rs." She expects the numbers to double in the coming days as local residents learn about the 27 probable cases. Marshall County Public Health Director Tina Coleman says the individuals identified as probable H1N1 cases are interviewed to determine if there are other people that should be tested or treated.
"They tell us (about) every person they’ve been in contact with from that 24-hour period prior to symptoms through (the following) seven days," Coleman said. Classes at Marshalltown schools have been cancelled this week. Students are likely to return on Monday. In addition to the 27 cases in Marshall County, single probable cases of the new virus have also been identified in Polk and Story Counties.
Find out more information on H1N1 on the Iowa Department of Public Health website.
ISU heads into Big 12 softball tourney with confidence
A strong finish to the regular season has the Iowa State softball team confident heading into this week’s Big 12 tournament. The Cyclones take on Kansas in Friday’s opening round after finishing the regular season 25-28 and 7-11 in league play. The seven conference wins are the most an Iowa State team has recorded in the Big-12.
ISU coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler says they started out kind of slowly with a 1-8 record, but finished the last half of the season 6-3. She says things changed after she shook up the lineup in a mid-April home game against Nebraska. Gemeinhardt-Cesler says they felt the players that had been playing weren’t doing their job, and after the change they played a lot better.
Gemeinhardt-Cesler says the Cyclones have been playing better as the weather has improved. She says they had a lot or errors early on and they ended up being one of the best fielding teams. She says that was probably due to getting used to playing outside and improving on defense.
Coe softball team set to open regional play
The Coe softball team opens division three regional play on Thursday against defending national champion Wisconsin-Eau Claire in Bloomington, Illinois. The Kohawks earned the automatic bid after winning the Iowa Conference tournament title over the weekend.
Coe coach Bob Timmons says it was the first time since he’s been coaching that they knew for sure they were in. Four Iowa Conference teams qualified for regional play but the Kohawks are the only one at the Bloomington regional.
Timmons says playing in the Iowa Conference tournament has his team ready for the regional, as he says the tournament atmosphere and the level of play needed really helps the team prepare for the postseason.
Des Moines company agrees to $500,000 fine over asbestos
A Des Moines company has agreed to pay a record 500-thousand dollar fine to settle a lawsuit by the state over alleged violations of rules for the handling of asbestos. A spokesman for Iowa’s Attorney General, Bob Brammer, says the lawsuit involved the renovation of the historic Equitable Building between 2005 and 2008.
Brammer says they allege the company "completely ignored" stringent requirements for handling asbestos containing materials for many months, which he says is a "very serious violation." Brammer says the top 13 floors of the building were being renovated and the bottom six floors were still occupied at the time. He says mishandling asbestos can have some serious consequences.
He says when the asbestos material gets crushed or pulverized, it can get in the air and the fibers can cause lung problems or cancer. Brammer says the Equitable Limited Partnership agreed to the fine to settle the lawsuit. Brammer says the $500,000 civil penalty is the largest for any asbestos violation in the state with the next largest he can recall was $10,000.
The Equitable Building was completed in 1924, and for 49 years it was the tallest building in Iowa.
Three suspects identified in Shenandoah arson
Warrants have been issued for three suspects in a Shenandoah arson investigation. Shenandoah Police and the State Fire Marshal’s Office say 23-year-old Joshua Jordan and 21-year-old Scott Head, both of Shenandoah, were arrested over the weekend on second degree arson charges.
Authorities, meanwhile, are still searching for a third suspect, 27-year-old Christopher Bowers, also of Shenandoah. State Fire Investigator John Ticer says the warrants were issued Friday.
"The fire occured on January 30th of ’09 to a two-car, detached garage owned by Heather Koshell," Ticer says. "…Three subjects have been determined to be responsible for that fire."
Jordan and Head are being held in the Page County Jail. Anyone with information on Bowers’ whereabouts should contact their local law enforcement agency.
Ticer says they’ve determined the motive. "This was a retaliation for something that they considered they’d been wronged on or friends of theirs had been wronged on, and so they used arson as their form of retaliation against Miss Koshell," Ticer says.
Investigators say the suspects threw a plastic container filled with a flammable fluid against the garage and that fueled the blaze.
Governor in "windy city" touting wind energy
Governor Chet Culver is calling for a more "coordinated" approach among the states and the federal government to promote the wind energy industry.
"We have great opportunities, but we need a coordinated game plan to really tap this country’s potential. It starts with the (power) grid," Culver says. "We need to build out the grid. We need a smart grid. We need to improve the grid if we really want to transmit the power."
Culver appeared on a panel late this morning with the governor’s of Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin as well as the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to discuss the future of wind energy.
"One thing that we have to do is make sure that this (federal economic) stimulus works, to make sure that the banks free up credit," Culver said. "I have heard from too many manufacturers that they are having a difficult time accessing credit."
According to Culver, there’s "urgency" because wind turbine manufacturers are having "some issues" in the current economic climate. Culver lamented the delay in extending a federal wind energy production tax credit.
"The delay in exending that credit slowed things down unnecessarily. It’s unfortunate that that happened," Culver said. "We finally got a three-year extention there. That should lend some confidence to the industry."
Culver is among 17,000 people who are attending the WINDPOWER 2009 conference in the "windy city" of Chicago. According to the governor, 2300 Iowans are working in nine manufacturing plants which are building the parts for wind turbines.
Click on the audio link below to listen to today’s panel discussion featuring the four Midwestern governors.
