At least 20 Iowa communities will host walk-runs over the next few weeks to benefit the American Cancer Society. The Relay for Life events are now in their 25th year. Cheryl Sherry, spokeswoman for the Fort Dodge chapter, says the first "relay" was held in 1985 in Tacoma, Washington, as an individual surgeon chose to run on a track for 24 hours straight to raise money for the organization. Sherry says Relay has grown every year since, becoming an international event and the cornerstone of the American Cancer Society’s fundraising efforts. In the first relay, the doctor took donations from his friends and raised 27-thousand dollars. The goals now are in the multi-millions. Sherry says participants in the events in Iowa make it a very personal effort. "The thing that people really think about when they come to Relay is, they’re fighting cancer and they’re honoring people who are survivors and we remember people that we’ve lost to cancer," Sherry says. "We want to fight back and this gives us a way." She says there are a couple of key elements in the Relay to remember friends and family each year. There’s a Survivor Lap, another to honor family members and friends who are caregivers, and she says there’s another lap to single out the medical staffs who so lovingly help cancer patients in their fight. Relays are being held all over Iowa over the coming weeks, including in: Des Moines, Chariton, Marshalltown, Webster City, Guthrie Center, Clarion, Fort Dodge, Grinnell, Oskaloosa, Hampton, Forest City, Carroll, Maquoketa, Letts, West Burlington, Dyersville, Atlantic, Keokuk, Waverly and Denison. For the one nearest you go to www.relayforlife.org .
Relay for Life events scheduled in several communities
Iowa Chops, Polk County in face-off over money
It’s a face-off over money.
The owner of the Des Moines-based Iowa Chops American Hockey League team wants to sell the team and is offering to pay the owners of Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines about $700,000, as the team will be moved to another city once the sale is complete. Wells Fargo Arena is owned by Polk County and the Polk County Board of Supervisors is demanding more.
Supervisor Tom Hockensmith says a 2004 agreement between the county and the hockey team calls for its owners to pay $12.5 million if the team leaves Des Moines.
"Frankly, this is an insult," Hockensmith says. "This proposal is an insult to the citizens of Polk County."
Hockensmith admits it’s unlikely there’ll be AAA hockey at Wells Fargo Arena next season, but he remains hopeful one will eventually be attracted.
"I’m really disappointed because I felt like there was really positive attendance towards the end of the season, things were starting to get turned around," Hockensmith says. "So it’s a setback, but I don’t think we’re back to square one. I think we’re going to be O.K."
Last season, the Iowa Chops franchise ranked 17th amoung the 29 American Hockey League clubs in attendance. The National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks dropped its affiliation with the Chops earlier this year.
The Polk County Board of Supervisors filed a lawsuit today, trying to prevent the team from leaving Des Moines.
Vilsacks, former lieutenant governor to be honored
Iowa Democrats are honoring former Governor Tom Vilsack this weekend.
The Iowa Democratic Party’s 10th “Hall of Fame” dinner will honor Tom Vilsack, his wife and former First Lady Christie Vilsack and Sally Pederson, Vilsack’s Lieutenant Governor.
Vilsack’s first won elected office in 1986, as mayor of southeast Iowa community of Mount Pleasant. Next, Vilsack served as the area’s state senator for five years. In 1998, Vilsack was elected governor.
Then, on November 30, 2006 — after two terms as governor — Vilsack launched his own bid for the White House. Vilsack ended his campaign on February 23, 2007. About a month later, Vilsack endorsed Hillary Clinton. When Clinton left the race, Vilsack became one of Barack Obama’s staunchest public defenders.
This past December, Obama picked Vilsack to serve as ag secretary. Vilsack spoke by phone with Radio Iowa earlier this month.
“This is a great job,” Vilsack said. “We refer to it as the ‘Every Day Every Way At the U.S.D.A.’ department because we virtually have the opportunity to touch every American’s life in so many different ways, not just the food that we consume two or three times every day, but there are trade issues. We are involved in housing. We’re involved in business and industry development, in energy policy and helping build community facilities like health care facilities, dentists’ offices, fire stations, city halls. And we’re invoved in wastewater treatment operations, providing emergency funding to folks who are in trouble in disasters. I mean, it is very similar in many, many respects to the job I had as governor.”
Vilsack was in Iowa earlier this month, visiting Cedar Rapids and Columbus Junction to mark the one-year anniversary of the Flood of 2008. He does a good bit of traveling as ag secretary and in the past two months held five forums in rural areas of the country, part of a rural “listening tour.”
“As I traveled around the country during the election last year, I was concerned about the mood of the country,” Vilsack said. “I think the mood has changed and people are anxious to get this country moving back on the right track.”
The Saturday night event honoring Vilsack, his wife and his lieutenant governor will be held on the Drake University campus where Vilsack served as a part-time law professor after he left the governorship.
Click on the audio link below to listen to a brief audio tour of Vilsack’s political career.
Waterloo death called "suspicious"
Waterloo police are investigating what they say is a “suspicious” death. Authorities haven’t identified the man. Late Thursday night, police were called to the Junkmen-Knoebel Center, a 25-bed housing unit specifically designed for people recovering from alcohol or drug addictions. When they arrived, officers discovered the body of a 30-year-old man. Police are calling the death suspicious, but aren’t saying how the man died. The State Medical Examiner is planning to perform an autospy to determine the cause of death.
Six beaches posted for high bacteria levels
Six state beaches exceeded healthy bacteria limits in the latest water testing and will be posted with a warning that people can swim at their own risk. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources beach monitoring coordinator, Jason McCurdy, says rainy weather has caused problems in state waters. He says there have been a lot of storms around the state this week and the water tests taken right after the rainfall shows elevated bacteria levels. McCurdy says conditions in the water can change quickly. McCurdy says a warm sunny day can penetrate the water and kill off the bacteria very quickly, but if the water is cloudy after a rainfall, the sunlight can’t penetrate the water and the bacteria can remain elevated for a long time. McCurdy says you should check out the water before going swimming. McCurdy says you should look to see if an advisory is posted at the beaches, or you can go to the D.N.R. website to find the latest sample results. The areas that exceeded the bacteria limits in the latest testing are: Beeds Lake, Black Hawk Beach, Geode Lake Beach, Lake of Three Fires Beach, Red Haw Beach and Union Grove Beach. See the report on the link below.
State beach testing report.
Winnebago trying out hybrid recreational vehicle
The nation’s top-selling motor home maker is testing out the first hybrid recreational vehicle to try and improve the fuel efficiency of RVs. Forest City-based Winnebago Industries is rolling out the Adventurer. Travelogue author Brad Herzog and his family are driving it around the country to test it out.
Winnebago CEO Bob Olson says they want to see if a hybrid can be a part of the RV industry’s future. He says they don’t know how well-received this model will be since there will be a cost premium, just like with any hybrid car. Olson says Herzog and his family, who are spokespersons for the R-V Industry Association, are traveling around in the Adventurer this summer as they promote the benefits of R-V travel.
He says Herzog will be able to provide useful feedback while demonstrating that the Iowa-based company is considering fuel-saving alternatives. Olson says the Adventurer’s engine is set up just like a typical hybrid car. He says it’s a diesel-hybrid combination, so when you are going down the road the diesel engine will kick in, while the battery side of it will operate at the slower speeds.
Olson says one of the main goals of the Adventurer’s trial run is to improve the number of miles that can be driven per gallon.
To learn more about the new hybrid RV, visit Winnebago’s website: www.winnebagoind.com .
Lawsuit against UNI’s "Camp Adventure" to proceed
The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled a woman can sue the State of Iowa over the death of her son — who was at a camp in Germany.
The University of Northern Iowa’s "Camp Adventure" program operates camps around the world for the children of parents who’re in the military and stationed overseas. In 2003, 10-year-old Blake Jermon was at a "Camp Adventure" camp in Germany when he nearly drowned in a swimming pool. He died three years later during surgery being done to correct problems related to his near-drowning.
The boy’s mother filed a lawsuit against the State of Iowa, claiming the University of Northern Iowa was negligent in the way it managed the Camp Adventure program, and had failed to properly train and supervise the college-aged students who ran the camp in Germany. Her lawsuit also charges counselors failed to properly supervise her son.
A district court judge dismissed the case saying it did not have jurisdiction because the even happened out the the U.S. But the Iowa Supreme Court today ruled the the case can proceed in Black Hawk County District Court.
