The U.S. House is set to vote today on a bill that would require more regulation over the nation’s food supply, but it could be awhile before the issue comes up in the U.S. Senate. Iowan Senator Tom Harkin is the chair of the Senate Ag Committee, and says it’s something that is needed. Harkin says we need to prioritize the prevention and control of food-bourne illness in the U.S., and improve inspections and oversight of food production. Harkin says they’ve had Senate hearings and found loopholes in the system that must be closed. Harkin says they have a lot of other work to do before addressing the food safety issue. He says the have to first deal with healthcare reform, appropriations bills, and also the school food program. Harkin says he sees the school food program as another part of healthcare reform, making sure there is better and more wholesome food in schools. He says they need to do something about all the junk food in vending machines in schools. Harkin says they may not be able to get to the food regulations yet this fall.
Food safety issue may not come up this fall in Senate
Dubuque seeks money for Mississippi River Plaza
The Dubuque County Historical Society is asking the Vision Iowa board for more than one-million dollars to help create a Mississippi River Plaza. The outdoor eco-park would connect the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium with the soon-to-open Great Rivers of the World Center.
Museum director Jerry Enzler says they want to create an eco-park on the football field-size piece of land that sits between the two museums. "There would be an area for historic boats," Enzler says. "There would be a dancing waters fountain for children, you know, the water leaps over their heads, and one of the most unique features is a living stream."
Enzler says kids could take Huck Finn-style raft rides down the stream full of fish. He also envisions an outdoor dining area and a quiet reflection garden, but before any of it can happen, the project needs money.
Enzler says, "We’ve applied to vision Iowa for one-point-three million dollars and the Vision Iowa board is now looking at the applications." If the historical society gets the grant, organizers would be required to raise that same amount of money to build the park. Dawn Vesley, a visitor to the National Mississippi River Museum, says the proposal looks great.
"I think it would be an awesome thing for kids to do," Vesley says. "They don’t get to experience a lot of things with nature and history that I think they should." Dubuque will have to compete with other communities for the Vision Iowa dollars. The Vision Iowa board says Waterloo and Guttenberg have also applied for grants.
State board says Oskaloosa chiropractor poses "danger" to female patients
State officials have issued an order, restricting an Oskaloosa chiropractor’s interaction with patients after complaints that he engaged in inappropriate contact with female clients.
On Monday, chiropractor Jason Ebelsheiser was charged with five counts of sexual abuse in the third degree and one count of tampering with records. Now, three days later, the Iowa Board of Chiropractic argues the evidence shows the chiropractor “poses an immediate danger” to female patients .
Five female patients have accused the chiropractor of an inappropriate kind of intimate contact. Four of the patients were in their twenties; the fifth was 17.
The state board has imposed “interim safeguards” that call for an adult female chaperone to be present whenever he is working with patients and he is to give all his patients a written copy advising them of these new restrictions. He may no longer provide certain “soft-tissue” treatments in areas of the body where the five young women accuse him of making inappropriate contact.
Benefits due to hundreds of Iowa Guard soldiers
The U.S. House is expected to vote on a bill this afternoon that will fix a "bureaucratic glitch" that denied some Iowa National Guard troops the leave benefits they earned.
Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, has been trying to prod the Defense Department to provide the additional two-hundred-dollars per day it had promised Guard soldiers for extended deployments.
"So today, we are going to be voting on the Defense Appropriations Act which includes a provision requiring the D.O.D. to provide these retroactive benefits to soldiers who’ve earned them," Braley says.
About 800 Iowa National Guard soldiers did not receive this so-called "respite leave" benefit because there was a delay in the time the military announced it would provide the benefit in 2007 and when each division of the military started making the payments. As many as 20-thousand Guard soldiers nationwide are owed these $200-per-day payments for extended tours of duty.
"One of the things I’ve been hammering on the Pentagon throughout this ordeal is that troops who have served their country with honor deserve the benefits they’ve earned and shouldn’t lose them just because of a bureaucratic delay by the Pentagon," Braley says.
Iowa’s two U.S. Senators — Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin — have been pushing this issue on the senate side, too, but Braley says there’s not yet been a vote in the senate on a bill that forces the Pentagon to provide the money for the benefits for the Guard soldiers. The House voted on a bill in June that "allowed" the Pentagon to provide the benefits, according to Braley, the bill the House will vote on this afternoon goes one step further.
"This provision in the appropriations bill requires the Pentagon to find the money to pay these benefits," Braley says. "They have no excuse to continue denying our men and women the benefits that they’ve earned and they cannot continue avoiding giving the benefits to our troops that they’re entitled to."
About 600 Iowa National Guard members were part of a unit that was deployed in September of 2005 and spent the next 22 months on active duty; 16 months of that was spent in Iraq. It is the longest stint in Iraq for any unit in the military, including full-time units. Braley says Iowa National Guard soldiers have served "some of the most grueling tours of duty of any in Iraq and Afghanistan" and they deserve the extra pay for extended tours.
Fort Dodge, Johnston, IC West advance in 4A baseball
Tanner Beck drove in two runs with a double down the left field line to cap off a three run seventh inning as fourth rated Fort Dodge rallied for a 4-2 victory over eighth rated Dowling Catholic in the Class 4A quarterfinals of the state baseball tournament. Beck says the Dodgers are a confident team even when they are behind late in the game.
Beck says they know they have the people to get the job done with timely hits and good defense. Dowling took a 2-1 lead into the top of the seventh and they end the season with a record of 26-12.
Maroon’s coach Tim O’Neill says they’ve done the same thing all season in getting behind and rallying back, but he says Fort Dodge had just a little more.
Ryan Torgerson tossed a four-hitter and struck out 16 as 9th-ranked and defending champion Johnston got by Davenport Central 5-1. Greg Larpenter drove in a pair of runs with a triple as the Dragons improved to 29-13 on the season.
Seventh-seeded Iowa City West upset second-seeded Cedar Rapids Washington 9-6 Wednesday night in a Class 4A game at Principal Park, finishing the first round for all classes in the state tournament. West (29-15) will meet Johnston in Friday night’s semifinals.
Solon could become the first high school to win state titles in football, boy’s basketball and baseball in the same school year. The seventh rated Spartans take on second ranked Fort Dodge St. Edmond in a class 2A semifinal round on Thursday night.
Senior Ben Bergman, who was the winning pitcher in Solon’s first round victory over Sumner-Fredricksburg, says it would be "pretty incredible" to win titles on all those sports in the same year.
July could be one of the coolest on record
July is almost over and the experts say it’ll easily end up as one of Iowa’s coolest-ever Julys, if not -the- coldest on record. State climatologist Harry Hillaker says he checked weather records dating back more than 130 years, and Iowa’s coldest previous July was in 1891 when the temperature averaged 68.3 degrees.
"If you average out all of the 2009 numbers, we’re right at that same value, 68.3, so we’re currently tied with July of 1891 as the coolest July on record," Hillaker says. "With the forecast what it is, it looks like we have a pretty good chance of actually breaking that record." While past Julys have seen plenty of 100-degree days, Hillaker says there’s only been one day so far the temps even reached into the 90s — that was last Friday, July 24th.
He says a big hunk of west-central Iowa reached 90 and in a few cases, a few degrees above that, which was the only day in the 90s this month. It’s very unusual, Hillaker says, especially for a month that’s usually very hot and humid. Many Iowa communities have barely gotten out of the 80s.
He says the highs for July are exceptionally low, as Dubuque’s hottest temperature all month is only 82 degrees, Cedar Rapids’ high is 83 and even Burlington, in far southeast Iowa, has only made it to 86. If tradition holds, the month ahead will likely be a cool one, too. Hillaker says the top seven coldest Julys in Iowa were followed by seven cooler-than-normal Augusts.
DNR arrests five boaters in alcohol enforcement project
Law enforcement officers who patrol Iowa’s waterways say too many boat operators are getting behind the wheel after drinking alcohol. Steve Griebel is a D.N.R . conservation officer in northwest Iowa. He led a boating safety enforcement project on the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers near Sioux City last weekend.
Griebel says officers had contact with nearly 70 boats Saturday night. "We ended up doing six sobriety tests on 11 different boat operators. Out of those, five were arrested for boating while intoxicated," Griebel said. "We also ended up with one O.W.I. in a motor vehicle."
Officers also handed out 13 citations for safety and equipment violations. Griebel says most people on Iowa’s rivers and lakes are obeying laws and staying safe.
"But, you know, anybody that’s drinking and driving…that’s too many," Griebel said. "I definitely believe, at least in my territory, there are too many people that are disobeying our safety rules. We want people to have fun when they’re (boating), but they need to be safe so they get to go home."
Griebel says two boat operators had blood alcohol readings above .08 but less than .10. The legal limit for boaters in Iowa is .10, while motorists can be charged with drunk driving if they’re blood alcohol level is above 08.
Last weekend’s enforcement project near Sioux City also involved law officers with the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department.
