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Cornell gets new basketball coach

August 26, 2009 By

Coming off a season in which it posted a school record for wins the Cornell College basketball program has a new head coach. Chad Murray spent the past eight seasons as an assistant coach, the last five at North Central College in Illinois. The cupboard is not bare.

Murray replaces Mike DeGeorge, who resigned after leading the Rams to a 21-7 mark and a spot in the NCAA division three tournament.

Murray says it’s similar to the situation he’s been in before where they had a good record, but lost their starting back court and he feels that experience will help him this time. Murray says the job is attractive because the college wants to be competitive in athletics.

Murray says that was important in the interview process, to ask a lot of questions and determine the school’s long-term goal for athletics. Cornell will return three starters from last year’s team. 

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Drake opens soccer season at Indiana tournament

August 26, 2009 By

Coming off its most successful season ever the Drake men’s soccer team opens on Thursday night with a game against seventh rated Indiana. It’s part of the National Soccer Festival in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and will include seven teams ranked in the national polls.

Drake opens the season ranked 21st after a 13-5-1 record in 2008 that included a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Drake coach Sean Holmes says the tournament has been built up over the last couple of years and it is a big step to be able to participate.

Holmes says with an experienced team this will be a good way to open the season. He says they’ve always played local teams from smaller schools to start the season slowly, but this will be a good test.

Holmes says that experience has been evident in pre-season workouts and he says getting things together going forward is the key. He says they return lots of letter winners and have been able to skip over some things as they move ahead.

This is just the first game of a tough early schedule for the Bulldogs that includes DePaul, Michigan and Marquette.

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Cedar Rapids school employee charged with theft

August 26, 2009 By

A Cedar Rapids school employee is charged with taking thousands of dollars in school funds. Cedar Rapids police say 42-year-old Jamie May was charged with first degree theft after an investigation into the possible embezzlement of 250-thousand dollars of school funds during the 2008-2009 school year.

The school district website says May works in business services and is responsible for cash receipts. A release from the district says they were made aware of the possible embezzlement by the police department on August 18th and began an internal investigation. The district says May has been place on administrative leave pending her termination.

The district has also contacted the State Auditor’s Office and asked them to conduct an independent audit. That audit could take several months. The district says the embezzlement is covered by insurance.  

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Education

Defense wants to test fairness of trial for Coralville woman

August 26, 2009 By

The attorney for an eastern Iowa woman who is accused slitting the throats of her two sons, killing one and injuring the other, wants her trial moved out of Buchanan County. Michelle Kehoe of Coralville faces one count of first degree murder and another count of attempted murder for the alleged knife attack last October.

Kehoe’s attorney, Andrea Dryer, is asking the court to call a mock jury to see if potential jurors in Buchanan County could offer a fair trial. Dryer says comments on websites lead her to believe the trial should be moved. “Name calling, directing profanities at Mrs. Kehoe, expressing their opinions about what should be done to her,” Dryer said.

Kehoe attended today’s motion hearing, but did not speak. Assistant Attorney General Andrew Prosser, who is helping prosecute the case, said media coverage has been statewide so he believes a fair trial is just as likely in Buchanan County as any other county in the state. Prosser also asked the judge to extend a no-contact order between Kehoe and her surviving son to also include her husband.

Prosser says the meetings between Michelle and Eugene Kehoe are doing “incalculable” psychological harm to their son Sean. “There is potential harm in the fact that this now 7 or 8-year-old child knows that his father is going to see the woman who sliced his throat and his brother’s throat,” Prosser said. “I can’t begin to comprehend the kind of long term damage that fact alone could have.”

Buchanan County Judge Bruce Zager listened to the arguments and will submit a written ruling on the mock jury and no-contact requests at a later date. Another hearing is set for September 18th, while Michelle Kehoe’s actual trial is scheduled for October 28th.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Game seeks to get students interested in public health

August 26, 2009 By

A D-V-D-based game developed by the University Hygienic Laboratory will soon be going out to thousands of schools in Iowa and nationwide. The game, "Did You See That," is designed to get students in middle and high school — and in college — interested in the public health field.

Beth Hochstedler, the lab’s training and outreach coordinator, says they shot video interviews with a variety of staff members to assemble the game. Hochstedler says, "It’s based somewhat off the game ‘Scene It,’ where you have video clips and then answer science trivia questions and there is a game board and you can move on the game board to get to the different career paths in public health."

The lab is making all of the clips available on the popular website YouTube, in addition to launching a page on the social networking website Facebook. Hochstedler says there are also plenty of free DVDs available for people like school counselors and science teachers.

She says they have 5,000 copies of the DVD that’ll go out, while the game is also available for free on-line via the University Hygienic Lab’s website at "www.uhl.uiowa.edu".

Hochstedler says the primary goal is to attract students to the field of laboratory science. "Public health is facing a national workforce shortage with an estimated 250,000 job vacancies by 2020," she says. The game was funded through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The University Hygienic Laboratory is Iowa’s environmental and public health laboratory, with facilities in Ankeny, Milford and at the University of Iowa’s Research Park in Coralville. 

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State requests its own mental evaluation of Mark Becker in shooting of AP coach

August 26, 2009 By

Mark Becker The state of Iowa is requesting it’s own mental evaluation of the Parkersburg man accused of killing Aplington-Parkersburg football coach Ed Thomas.

A spokesman for Iowa’s Attorney General said Tuesday he expected the state to request a second review of the mental status of Mark Becker after Becker’s attorney filed paperwork saying a doctor hired by the defense has found Becker not competent to stand trial.

His attorney said in the court documents that Becker suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and is unable to understand the charge against him or help prepare his own defense.The state now has formally asked the judge to approve the second mental evaluation, and say they have lined up a doctor to do so on August 28th if approved by the judge.

Court papers say prosecutors have no objection to delaying the proceedings until the second evaluation is completed. The state has also asked that once the second evaluation is completed that the judge hold a competency hearing on September 8th or 9th. Becker was charged with first-degree murder in the June 24th shooting death of Thomas.

Becker is being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail and his trial is scheduled for September 15.  

See the court filing in the link below.

Court filing in Mark Becker case. PDF

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John & Chet Culver, Tom Harkin express condolences to Kennedys

August 26, 2009 By

Prominent Iowa Democrats are formally expressing their sympathies to the Kennedy family on the death of Senator Edward Kennedy.

Former U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator John Culver — father of Governor Chet Culver — met Ted Kennedy in 1950, when the two were college freshman at Harvard and the two maintained a friendship over the next six decades. In a written statement, former Senator Culver said Ted Kennedy’s "love of life was matched only by a dedication to public service." The elder Culver also saluted Kennedy’s "capacity for friendship and devotion to family" and said "those who knew him will always treasure memories of his laughter, humor and the joy of his company."

Governor Chet Culver saluted Kennedy’s "unwavering faith" and his "wonderful sense of humor."

Senator Tom Harkin called Ted Kennedy a friend and "a role model" and Harkin said it was time to pass legislation "to provide robust, quality health insurance coverage for all Americans" in Kennedy’s honor.

Read their entire statements on The Blog.

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