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Iowa basketball team prepares for overseas trip

May 20, 2009 By

The Iowa men’s basketball team has been practicing this week for an upcoming trip overseas. The Hawkeyes leave Friday for Rome and will play four games in Italy and Greece. Their first game will be on Sunday.

Iowa coach Todd Lickliter says it is a good time for a trip like this. He says they postponed it the first few years he was here and says this is a good time for the trip, as it gives the players something to focus on.

Lickliter says the players have been working hard to get ready, working with the strength coach to get stronger. Incoming freshman cannot be part of the trip and Lickliter says for that reason the month of May was the best time to schedule the trip.

Lickliter says he didn’t want the new players to come in, and then they would split up, and then get back together for summer activities. This way he says they will take the trip and then work with the new players as they come in. Four players left the team at the end of this past season so only seven players will be available.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

ICAN says health insurance premiums continue going up

May 20, 2009 By

A new report from a group pushing for health care reform finds health insurance premiums for "working families" in Iowa increased 73% from 2000 to 2007. Betty Ahrens of the Iowa Citizens Action Network says just a few insurance companies hold a "near monopoly" in Iowa, allowing them to raise rates without fear competitors will steal their customers.

"The answer is more efficiency and lower costs," she says. "…The health insurance industry is not delivering those things and if we had senior citizens in the private market we’d see even fewer good health outcomes among senior citizens and the costs would be even higher than they are today."

Ahrens says in many areas Wellmark is the only private insurer from which Iowans can purchase a policy. According to the Iowa Citizens Action Network, Wellmark has 71 percent of the Iowa insurance market. Charlie Wishman, an Iowa Citizens Action Network organizer, says that’s why his group is among those pushing for a government-run "public" health plan.

"One important point is that a public health insurance plan is going to be able to allow people in who are either kept out or who have been kicked out of the private insurance market," Wishman says. According to data from the Iowa Citizens Action Network, the average Iowa employer saw the premiums they paid for their workers’ health insurance rise 68 percent from 2000 to 2007. 

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Callie Clow

May 20, 2009 By

INS-superiorstudent-header

Callie Clow is a high school student at Lineville-Clio. She was nominated by teacher Pat Marolf.

“Callie, a student of mine in middle school, was looking for a work study position for her senior year.  It was suggested she work in the elementary library which is across from my classroom.  As we have only a part-time librarian, it fell to me to supervise her on a daily basis.  She spends one period every day in the library doing all the basic library chores; she cards books, keeps the shelves in order, and reads to the younger students on occasion.  Callie does all of this with a smile on her face and a willingness to do whatever is asked of her.

Callie is a very good student but will probably not be one recognized for her superior scholastic ability, as her class has many with excellent academic records.

Callie is polite and courteous, dependable and reliable, and is just a very nice young lady.  I would love to see her receive recognition for her work in keeping our elementary library functioning as it should.”

Listen to interview

Filed Under: INS Superior Student

Attorney General files suit against fundraising company

May 20, 2009 By

Sheri McMichael Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller filed a lawsuit today against a professional fundraising company based in Des Moines.

Public Safety Communications, Incorporated contracts to raise charitable donations for organizations such as Handicapped Children’s Services of America and the State Police Officer’s Council.

Miller claims the company deceived Iowans they reached by phone, telling them that all of their dollars donated would go directly to the charity. "But in some instances that doesn’t happen, particularly with outside fundraisers," Miller said. "They typically keep 80 or 90% of the dollars the person gives."

It’s not illegal for a professional fundraising company to keep 90% of the donations made and send the remaining 10% to the charitable organization. Miller says the company is also not required to disclose that information to the people they call. "But, when people set up these shops and engage in deception, we invariably do find out about it," Miller said.

The lawsuit asks for civil penalties of up to $40,000 for each violation of the Consumer Fraud Act. Miller says his office is still calculating the number of violations. The lawsuit alleges calls placed by Public Safety Communications in a recent year collected about $1.5-million.

Sheri McMichael, Executive Director of Variety – The Children’s Charity of Iowa, says professional fundraising companies like the one named in the lawsuit give her organization a bad rap.

"I would say it makes me very angry," McMichael said. "We all know the dollars are limited and where those charitable dollars are going to go. So, when they’re fraudulent and they’re going to organizations that are misrepresenting themselves, that’s hurting Iowans. That’s hurting children right here in Iowa and it’s giving those good non-profit organizations a bad reputation."

Iowa is also one of many states to join a lawsuit against Community Support Incorporated, or CSI, a professional fundraising company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Iowa’s suit alleged that CSI called Iowans and misrepresented who was calling, where the charity was located, the charity’s connection to Iowa and how much of the donation was going to the charitable cause. A court settlement orders CSI to pay the group of states $200,000. 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Cedar Rapids adds more temporary flood protection

May 20, 2009 By

Cedar Rapids has a new temporary flood protection system that can replace dozens of sandbags. It’s called a HESCO box and is a square basket that is filled with sand. Public Works maintenance manager, Craig Hanson, says the box gives them added height to their flood protection system.

"What this does is raise that slightly above the 100-year flood plain and as we continue to do capital improvement projects through the future will start allowing us to put the Dutch finger in the dike on the bottom parts of it for where our storm pipes come through," Hanson says. Cedar Rapids councilman Chuck Wieneke says the boxes add some protection to, but he says it will not be a complete defense.

Weinke says the main advantage is they will be able to protect the area up to 24 feet, as prior to the 31 foot record flood last year, they’ve had problems in the 20 foot range. He says the boxes give the added protection until the new levee is built. Wieneke says the ability to withstand a flood such as last year’s could be ready in about fifteen years — when the Army Corps of Engineers completes permanent flood levees.

The city spent nearly $600,000 for the temporary system. That brings the total amount of money spent on temporary flood protection measures in Cedar Rapids to about one million dollars. They have also purchased "Tiger Dams," or tubes that can be filled with water. 

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

Mystery writer Block includes Iowa in book tour

May 20, 2009 By

Lawrence Block One of America’s most prolific mystery writers is visiting four cities nationwide on what may be his last book tour: New York, Los Angeles, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.

  Lawrence Block , who has published more than 60 books in his 70 years, says his latest book, "Step By Step," is his memoir, detailing his globe-trotting in pursuit of the sport of racewalking.

"When I set out to write the book, I figured it would be the chronicle of a year in the life of an aging and by no means talented racewalker," Block says.

"Once I started writing, I found myself bringing in a lot of other material. I realized I’d been, to one extent or another, involved in walking all my life."

If you’re not familiar with racewalking, it’s a long-distance foot race, and an Olympic event, but it’s different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Block has visited more than 100 countries and details his journeys around the planet with his wife, from viewing penguins in Antarctica to spending three months walking across Spain.

While he’s seen great success over the decades with his works of fiction, the native and current New Yorker says he’s never before made much of his private life public. Once he started though, he says the stories began to flow. Block says, "I felt a curious freedom in that I was by no means convinced anyone would want to publish it or read it so I put concerns of that right out of the way and I just wrote it entirely to please myself."

The novelist says the new book is filled with stories about his challenges and triumphs — all centered around the act of walking. He remembers holding his breath as he passed the graveyard while walking to school as a boy — and years later, hitting the 70-mile mark in a 24-hour ultra marathon.

"I don’t know what anybody learns from it," Block says. "It’s hard for me even to tell what I’ve learned from my exploits. Occasionally, on some trips, the ultimate lesson that I’ve learned is ‘Don’t go there.’" After 70 years, 60 books and numerous screenplays and short stories, Block says he may have reached a turning point with this memoir and it might be time to take a break, perhaps a permanent break, from writing.

"It’s hard to know," Block says. "It sometimes feels as though I may be done writing novels. I’m not sure. I’ve still been writing some short fiction this past year. Whether or not I’m going to do anything further in memoir, I don’t know."

He says his fans in Iowa have been very loyal and he’s eager to make another stop in the Hawkeye State on this very limited book tour. Block is to appear Thursday at 7 P.M. at the Theatre Cedar Rapids in Cedar Rapids, and Friday at 7 P.M. at Hoyt Sherman Place Theater in Des Moines.

AUDIO: Matt Kelley interveiw with Lawrence Block. 5:30 MP3

Filed Under: Human Interest

Audit finds improper spending by Griswold city clerk

May 20, 2009 By

An audit has concluded the city clerk in a western Iowa town of just over a thousand residents made hundreds of dollars in improper payments to herself. The mayor and city council in Griswold asked for the audit at the end of February after City Clerk Dawn Ridlen admitted she’d improperly written payroll checks to herself.

The review examined city records dating back to July 1st of 2005. The state auditor’s investigation identified over $2,500 in "improper disbursements." In late February and early March of this year, Ridlen wrote two checks to the City of Griswold and presented them to the mayor to repay the money.

She continued as city clerk for several more weeks, but she was no longer authorized to sign checks. Ridlen resigned in late April.  May 15 was her last day on the job.

The report from the state auditor suggests city officials in Griswold perform greater oversight of the city’s bookkeeping. It was not possible for auditors to determine whether all the utility payments Griswold residents submitted to the city had been deposited in the city’s bank accounts.

The audit report has been forwarded to the Cass County Attorney and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The audit can be found on-line here .

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government
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