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Iowa Wesleyan coach hopes extra experience helps record

August 4, 2009 By

Iowa Wesleyan football coach Jason Smelser hopes added experience will help the program take another step this season. After going winless in 2007 the Tigers were 3-8 a year ago and Smelser expects the improvement to continue. Running back Jaren Maybin returns for his senior campaign after rushing for 970 yards and eight touchdowns in 2008.

Paving the way will be an experienced offensive line, and all the receivers coming back from last season, except for the tight end. They’ve filled the tight end spot with a transfer from Utah.

Smelser likes the potential on defense as he says the secondary was sixth in the nation last year. He says the defense got better in spring ball and he expects that to continue with some of last year’s starters being challenged.

One emphasis during spring drills was turnover margin. The Tigers turned it over 10 more times than their opponents in 2008. Smelser says they did a great job of hanging onto the football this spring. Smelser feels the Tigers may be facing their toughest schedule in the program’s history. Besides a tough Mid-States Football Association race there is also a visit to One-double-A Tennessee-Martin.

They will open the season at home against Trinity International on August 29th.

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Dealer says "Cash for Clunker" problems hurt cash flow

August 4, 2009 By

While the talk continues in the U.S. Senate over whether to extend more funding to the "Cash for Clunkers" program, a car dealer in the state’s largest metro area says the administrative problems continue to plague the plan.

The program pays up to $4,500 when someone turns in a car to buy a new one that gets better gas mileage. Dan Boettcher, general manager of Stew Hansen’s Dodge in metro Des Moines, says it has been difficult to apply for reimbursement from the government after a deal is made for a new car.

Boetcher says, "We’ve found that working around the clock it’s very difficult to process the deals with the websites, because I think the websites have been overwhelmed by the response as well." He says they’ve kept people up until three or four in the morning entering deals. The company has three other dealerships in its group and Boettcher says they’ve sold 170 cars under the program.

Boettcher says many of the deals have been sent back by the government for "minor" details. "The execution of that is somewhat complicated," Boettcher says, "so that’s been a little frustrating with the execution of the program. So we are as dealers a little bit nervous."

He says of the 170 deals the dealerships have done, there are only three that have been declared eligible for payment by the government. Boettcher says the business is good, but the bureaucratic delays don’t help.

"Just as this one dealership we have 50 deals in process right now..somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000, which hurts our cash flow," Boettcher says. He says cash flow issues have been the problem for all businesses in this economic in the last 12 months, and remain a "huge concern."

Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, set up the visit to the dealership under the original assumption that the program would last into the fall. Boswell says he was surprised when the funding ran out in about one week.

Boswell says it caught everyone off guard, but it was a good feeling. Now Boswell says they have to address the concerns over delays in approving the deals. Boswell says he will place a call to the director of transportation to ask him to "do what he can to smooth it up and keep it going."

Boswell says he will also be talking with his colleagues in the U.S. Senate to encourage them to authorize more money for the program. 

Senator Grassley talks about the program in a related story found here.

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Grassley says no more money until kinks worked out of clunker program

August 4, 2009 By

The federal government’s Cash for Clunkers program is turning out to be something of a clunker itself, according to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. The program aimed to help consumers trade in gas guzzlers to buy new more fuel-efficient cars.

The program ran out of financial gas only days after being launched. Grassley says he’ll strongly oppose an effort to pump another two-billion dollars into the troubled program. Grassley says, "The program seems to be a mess and knew it was a mess a long time ago but nobody created it, so until these kinks are taken out of it, the answer’s no."

The program was intended to help the nation’s struggling auto makers and auto dealers, but Grassley says it’s now causing much unnecessary confusion and frustration for the dealers it supposed to be helping.

The Republican says the program is full of bugs that have to be fixed before he’d consider injecting more money. Grassley says, "The program’s going to have to be paid for out of other portions of the stimulus package, because if this is one that is working, if you want to call this program ‘working,’ you can at least say it does a little more for the economy than most of what’s in the stimulus package."

He says Cash for Clunkers is quickly becoming a "disservice to the auto dealers, their customers and the American taxpayer who is financing this program."

"While the program has been unquestionably popular with consumers, dealers are facing significant obstacles and frustrations in dealing with the online registration," Grassley says. "There’s system stability issues, vehicle eligibility issues, engine disabling procedure issues." The Senate today is discussing a possible program extension.

The Obama administration has released a report that finds new vehicles being bought under the program are 61% more fuel-efficient than those being traded in.  

A Des Moines metro car dealer talks about cocerns with the program in a related story found here .

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers launch awareness campaign

August 4, 2009 By

Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers ad on bus. The group Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers (IAF) has launched an advertising campaign on the sides of 20 transit buses in Des Moines.

The ad features an image of a blue sky with clouds and the words "Don’t Believe in God? You are not alone."

I-A-F spokesperson Lily Kryuchkov says the purpose of the ads is to simply raise awareness of the group’s existence.

"A lot of times nonreligious people feel isolated and with all the negative attitudes toward atheism, they don’t have anybody to talk to," Kryuchkov said. "So, we’re trying to provide a community for them." I-A-F formed one year ago in Des Moines and has grown to around 120 members. Kryuchkov says the nonprofit group’s primary focus is social networking and education.

"We’re not really forceful and not trying to convert anybody, but kind of in a friendly way, letting people know there’s an alternative view that exists here in town. But, we’re not real aggressive about it," Kryuchkov said.

I-A-F members marched in the Capital City Pride Parade this summer and the organization has a booth at the Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market. Kryuchkov says they chose August to run the ads because of the timing with the Iowa State Fair.

"We know there will be a lot of visitors to Des Moines from all around the state. So, we’re hoping that we’ll be able to reach many more people during this time as opposed to any other time of the year and let them know we are here," Kryuchkov said.

The ads were prepared by a national nonprofit organization called United Coalition of Reason.

Filed Under: Human Interest, Religion

Leach clears first hurdle for NEH post

August 4, 2009 By

Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach is one step closer to being confirmed as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Leach represented portions of eastern Iowa in congress for 30 years. Leach, a Republican, endorsed Barack Obama in August of 2008. Leach won’t say much about what other jobs he may have been offered in the Obama Administration, notably positions in the Treasury Department since Leach had been chairman of the House Banking Committee. But Leach has said Obama’s call for him to serve as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities was too "alluring" to refuse .

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has voted to confirm Leach for the post, a prelude to a confirmation vote in the full senate. Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, calls Leach a "public servant of this first order" and he issued a statement urging the senate to confirm Leach for the post "without delay."

 

Filed Under: Human Interest, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

First Iowa death from H1N1 confirmed

August 4, 2009 By

An Iowan has died of the H1N1 flu, the first death in the state connected to this new strain of the flu. Dr. Patricia Quinklisk, the state epidemiologist, says it is rare to have outbreaks of the flu in the summertime.

“This is a little bit unusual in that this virus has stayed around and has been occurring at a high enough level that we’re seeing it come up on our influenza surveillance system,” she says, “which is not typical of our seasonal flu but can happen.”

State officials have stopped asking that everyone who has flu-like symptoms be tested to find out if they have the H1N1 virus. Instead, the health department is calling for testing people who have been admitted to the hospital because their symptoms are so severe, as well as those who are at high risk of having complications from the flu.

“Right now we do believe that anyone at any place in Iowa would be at some, though probably very low risk of being exposed to H1N1,” Quinlisk says. “As our flu season starts….usually it’s November or December, but this year it might be a little earlier (as) people are predicting H1N1 might come back a little bit earlier, we do expect both seasonal flu to increase from the number of people who get sick from it as well as H1N1.”

Quinlisk says that means it will be important for people to get flu shots this fall and to stay home when they’re ill.

“There may actually be four different flu viruses spreading around this fall,” Quinlisk says.

State public health officials aren’t releasing the name of the person who recently died of H1N1, nor are they saying when or where the death occurred. Quinlisk says her department is prohibited, by law, from giving out information that would allow the public to easily identify the person who died.

“The last thing in the world we want is a person to be identified and the grieving family then to be asked questions or be identified or have people show up at the funeral,” she says, “which unfortunately has happened in the past when somebody who has died of a specific disease was identified.”

Quinlisk serves as both the state epidemiologist and the medical director for the Department of Public Health. She’s also been an editor of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal.

 

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Economist says the recession is over, but it’s a jobless recovery

August 4, 2009 By

A survey of Iowa business leaders finds the state’s top economic numbers dropped during July, after making a slight recovery in June. The Creighton University survey showed another slowdown for Iowa but economics professor Ernie Goss says the Midwest region as a whole had its best gain since August a year ago.

Goss says, “The overall index, which is a leading economic indicator for the nine-state region, rose above growth neutral indicating that this recession, at least in my judgment, is over.” However, Goss says this will likely be a jobless recovery both for Iowa and for the region. Goss says almost two out of every three the supply managers they surveyed expect more layoffs before the end of the year.

“We may not see any job gains until well into 2010 as the unemployment rate rises,” Goss says. “Our employment gauge was below growth neutral for the month of July, so that certainly wasn’t good and 60-percent of the supply managers indicated that they expect their company to layoff workers in the rest of 2009.”

The prices-paid index, which tracks inflation at the wholesale level, was up significantly in July and Goss says that indicates inflation is on the horizon. He says actions by the Federal Reserve Board over the past year and the federal stimulus package could lead to higher inflation in 2010.

“The Fed has increased the money supply, we’ve got a stimulus package out there, a federal stimulus package, that really hasn’t kicked in yet,” Goss says. “When those begin to simultaneously hit the U.S. market, we’re going to see some excessive inflationary pressures.” In order to combat those increased inflationary pressures, he expects the Fed to raise short-term interest rates at either its November or December meeting.

Companies in Iowa and across the Midwest have not begun to replenish their inventories as show on the survey’s inventory index, which remained below growth neutral. “And of course when that does begin, we’re going to see even more inflationary pressures and again an expansion of the economy,” Goss says. “I think we’re out of the recession certainly in this quarter, the third quarter and the fourth quarter and it’s going to mean more inflationary pressures than the Federal Reserve ever intended.”

New export orders remained below growth neutral for the month and the rebounding U.S. economy pushed imports higher, indicating continued weakness among the U.S. trading partners. “I expect the Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate to peak at 6.5 percent, its highest level since 1986, in the fourth quarter of this year,” Goss says.

“The state will continue to shed durable goods manufacturing jobs in the months ahead. However, the pace of these job losses will diminish significantly from the rate experienced earlier this year. Employment in Iowa’s nondurable goods sector, including food processing, has stabilized with no job losses expected for the rest of the year,” Goss says.

 

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