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Culver signs "I-JOBS" package into law

May 14, 2009 By

Governor Culver answers questions from reporters. Governor Chet Culver will sign a bill into law today, setting in motion plans for the state to borrow millions to finance infrastructure projects.

"It was a major victory for the people of Iowa to get I-JOBS passed and we’re going to celebrate that today as I sign the bill," Culver told reporters this morning in Des Moines. "We’re going to create jobs. We’re going to help communities recover from the floods."

Culver is in Marshalltown over the noon-hour to hold a bill signing ceremony at the Iowa Veterans Home. The bill includes money to modernize the facility which serves as home to over 720 residents who are veterans or the spouse of a veteran.

Culver, who’s a Democrat, calls the entire "I-JOBS" package an investment in the state’s future, but Culver’s Republican critics say the price is too steep. Over $700 million in projects will be financed by "I-JOBS," but critics say when you add in the interest, the state will spend $1.7 billion in total.

"There’s always going to be disagreement," Culver told reporters. "…You rarely have a bill where there’s not some opposition. The thing I’m focusing on today is signing a very important piece of legislation that will help us work our way out of this recession, create jobs and modernize our state’s infrastructure."

Republicans dispute Culver’s job creation claims — saying a few thousand rather than tens of thousands of jobs will be created and Iowa G.O.P. leaders counter that now is not the time for the state to accumulate "massive" debt.

"What they don’t realize is that at the local level, we borrow for major projects all the time. Within their districts, the Republicans support local projects for public schools or hospitals that very often use bonds to pay for those projects," Culver said. "…We’ve not done that at the state level. This is the time to take control of our own destiny, to create jobs, to modernize our infrastructure."

Culver will appoint a new six-member board to decide which projects will get funding.

"We’re going to move things as quickly as we can. That’s the bottom line," Culver said. "There is urgency here given the economic situation, to move as quickly as we can on these shovel ready projects that will create jobs."

Culver plans to travel to New York in June to meet with potential buyers of the bonds the state will issue to raise the money.  Culver acknowledges his reelection in 2010 may be tied to the success or failure of the program.

"Iowans expect results from their elected officials. We’re going to make sure that we implement this program with transparency and accountability. We want input from Iowans so that we invest in the very best projects locally — whether it’s a sewer/water project, a bridge, a road, a community college (project) so there will be involvement from the general public," Culver said. "We’re going to need their help to make sure we get these projects done on time and on budget."

This afternoon at 2:30, Culver will sign another bill which allows the University of Iowa to borrow $100 million for flood recovery efforts on the Iowa City campus.  The bill signing will be staged at Hancher Auditorium, the performance hall that was heavily damaged, cannot be repaired and will be rebuilt elsewhere. 

Filed Under: Business, Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Politics & Government, Weather Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Sioux City fire marshal likes Nebraska safe cigarette law

May 14, 2009 By

Fire safe cigarette packs carry FSC on label (top pack) other cigarettes do not. Iowa retailers were forced to start selling so-called fire-safe cigarettes in January and now Nebraska is poised to follow suit with a similar law.

The cigarettes are thicker in two separate spots so they’ll go out if left unattended.

Iowa is among 37 states that require the fire-safe smokes and Sioux City Fire Marshal Chuck Hirsch hopes Nebraska follows Iowa’s lead.

"Here in Sioux City, we’ve had the issue of being a border city where people could still go to Nebraska or South Dakota and buy those non-fire-safe cigarettes," Hirsch says. "With Nebraska entertaining that law, that would be one opportunity where they can’t go get those and we’ll be on an equal playing field."

Hirsch says his team has tested the new cigarettes and they -do- help prevent fires. "The fire-safe cigarette went out in a matter of seconds where as the non-fire-safe cigarette sat there and smouldered for as long as we ran our experiment," Hirsch says. "They definitely will help reduce the number of fires and therefore, reduce the number of fire deaths."

Nebraska lawmakers have passed legislation similar to Iowa’s law but the bill still awaits Governor Dave Heineman’s signature.

"Eventually, all 50 states will have it," Hirsch says. "It just makes good sense." Last year, 48 people died in fires in Iowa, with ten of the deaths related to carelessly discarded smoking materials. Hirsch says some people are complaining about the taste of fire-safe cigarettes, but they’re made to save property — and lives. Two men were killed in Sioux City earlier this year due to a fire caused by smoldering cigars.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters Tagged With:

Harkin says President Obama got the wrong advice on release of detainee photos

May 14, 2009 By

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, disagrees with the President Obama’s decision to reverse his course and not release photos allegedly showing U.S. personnel abusing prisoners.

Obama had originally said he would release the photos, then changed his stance saying the photos would influence anti-American opinion and endanger troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Harkin says the photos should be released as the public has a right to know what was done by government officials and says "it’s especially true when it concerns official government policy that was in direct conflict with our most basic values and where laws were broken."

Military leaders lobbied Obama to change his stance on the photos. Harkin says the advice Obama got was wrong.Harkin says the pictures won’t be under wraps forever and will eventually come out one way or other. Obama has directed government lawyers to try and block the release of the photos.

On another issue, Senator Harkin says work is underway to draft the language of the healthcare reform bill, and it should be done by the end of this month. Harkin says they want to get the bill into committee in June, pass it by the August recess, and have it on the president’s desk by sometime this fall. The last big efforts at healthcare reform stalled — but Harkin believes things are different this time.

Harkin says in 1993 they didn’t have the health insurance industry, didn’t have the medical community, businesses and labor all together on the issue — but they do now. "Everyone’s saying this system cannot continue on, the status quo is unacceptable," Harkin says. Harkin says more and more people are making pleas to lawmakers and telling horror stories about the American medical system. Harkin says healthcare is also impacting and already tough economy for companies.

Harkin says businesses are being sapped by the cost of medical care, and he says "when our auto companies are putting more money into healthcare per car than steel, then something is wrong." Harkin says the reform also has leadership from the White House. He says the president has made healthcare one of his top priorities. 

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

State soon to track H1N1 virus as "normal" strain of flu

May 14, 2009 By

There are now 60 confirmed cases of H1N1 flu in Iowa. However, no one in Iowa has died from this new virus and public health agencies soon will start tracking this new virus as a normal strain of the flu.

State health officials like Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, the state epidemiologist, are standing behind their decision to issue a public health disaster declaration three weeks ago after the first case was identified in Iowa.

"People need to understand that when this virus started, we were looking at what was happening in places like Mexico. We were seeing relatively serious disease. We were seeing hospitalizations," Quinlisk says. "This was a brand new virus. We’d never seen it before. We did not know how it was going to act in Iowa, therefore we wanted to make sure we did everything we could to prepare for basically having a bad strain of flu come to Iowa."

State health officials soon will stop regularly announcing how many cases of H1N1 flu have been diagnosed and, instead, make public announcements if patients seem to be getting more severely sick — and whether there appear to be clusters of cases.

"Now we got lucky and it turned out that this strain of the flu is not that bad. But had it turned out to be bad, we wanted to make sure that we had done everything we needed to do to get ready," Quinlisk says. "Now that we find that out some of those things were not necessary, we’re pulling back. But I’d much rather at this point say, ‘We did things that we probably didn’t need to do,’ than be at this point saying, ‘Gee, there were things we should have done and we didn’t do and now people are getting sick because we didn’t do them."

Public health officials say because a disaster declaration was issued three weeks ago, they were able to immediately distribute anti-viral medications from the state’s stockpile to areas where cases were being diagnosed.

Of the 60 confirmed cases of H1N1 flu, 51 are Marshall County residents. Three live in neighboring Tama County. Two are in Polk County and two more are in Hardin County. One case has been identified in Story county and another case was diagnosed in southeast Iowa’s Des Moines County.

 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Health & Medicine, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Cattlemen launch campaign featuring beef landscapes

May 14, 2009 By

Beef advertisement Cattlemen’s Associations from seven Iowa counties around the state are hoping to get the city folks who live in Iowa’s largest metro area to buy more beef.

The group, which includes cattlemen from far southwest and northwest Iowa, has spent money on some "outdoor advertising" according to Terri Carstensen, a beef producer from Odebolt who is a member of the Iowa Beef Industry Council.

"This year we’ve put up eight billboards and we’re using the ‘Beefscapes’ or also the one that (says) ‘There’s No Such Thing As A Chicken Knife’ billboard this year, so there’ll be a kind of a variance of those," she says.

"We are targeting our consumer in the Des Moines metropolitan area." Cattlemen Associations from Adair, Dallas, Ida, Madison, Polk, Ringgold and Sac Counties and the Iowa Beef Check-off are sponsoring the billboard campaign. It’s timed for May because that’s the traditional start of the outdoor grilling season in Iowa.

"We’re going to probably reach about 80% of the area, and that’s going to be about maybe two million impressions," she says. "That’s going to be great advertising for us." Carstensen — who is a member of the Sac County Cattlemen’s Association, too — says the billboards went up May 4th.

In addition to the "There Is No Such Thing As A Chicken Knife" billboard, the "Beefscapes" billboards feature slabs of beef which, when cut, resemble parts of the natural landscape, like cliffs or a canyon. Iowa ranks fifth among the 50 states in cattle raising.

See all the beef advertisements here .

Filed Under: Agriculture Tagged With: ,

Teen shot while walking in Casey

May 14, 2009 By

Authorities in southwest Iowa are investigating the shooting of a teenager in the town of Casey. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s office received a 9-1-1 call at around 4 P.M. Wednesday of a 17-year old male having been shot in the back.

When officers with the Guthrie and Adair County Sheriff’s office along with the Iowa State Patrol responded to the scene, they learned the teen had been walking down the street when an unknown, older, dirty, dark-colored four-door car pulled up and fired a shot at the boy.

The teen was hit in the lower back with a small caliber projectile. He was taken to the Guthrie County Hospital for treatment before being transferred to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines, where he was reported to be in stable condition. The Sheriff’s Department says it’s not clear what type of weapon was used, and the identity of the shooter remains a mystery.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Deputy Jesse Swensen with the Guthrie County Sheriff’s office, at 641-747-2214.  

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Iowa dealer expects car industry to rebound

May 14, 2009 By

General Motors and Chrysler plan to announce the dealerships they’ll be closing by the end of this week. The announcement could affect some of Iowa’s more than 350 auto dealers.

There are more than 6,000 G.M. dealers nationwide and the federal government is ordering the auto giant to cut that nearly in half that by the end of next year.

John McEleney owns auto dealerships in Iowa City and Clinton and is chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association. He says plans to drastically cut dealerships are premature. McEleney says, "I think into July, August we’ll start to see some improvement and I think by this time next year, we won’t be back to normal by any means, but I think we’ll start to see some decent improvement."

McEleney says Iowa might fare better than other states because he says the majority of cuts will happen in metropolitan areas. But he adds Iowa is likely to lose some dealerships and he says that could have a major impact on Iowans having to travel long distances to buy new cars.

He says there are more dealers than the current market can support, but he says dealerships have been closing at a rapid rate by natural market forces. McEleney says after World War Two there were almost 50-thousand dealers, and today with more population, there’s about 19,000.

McEleney says closing too many dealerships can create more problems. "When dealerships close, customers have less competition, there’s less conveniences. Iowa’s a great example of this. There’s a lot of smaller communities that if they lost their dealer, or even not so small, they might have to travel 30, 40, 50 miles rather than five or 10 or more," McEleney says.

He says the National Automobile Dealers Association is ramping up its efforts to lessen the blow to dealerships throughout the country. McEleney says his group is meeting with the presidential task force managing the auto crisis on Thursday and is lobbying congress to keep dealerships open.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:
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