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Congressman King says he’s not running for governor

August 27, 2009 By

Iowa Congressman Steve King announced today he will not jump into the Republican race for governor. King told Radio Iowa today that he looked at the issues facing the state and those facing the nation, and things like the nationalization of banks and auto companies have him worried.

King says in the process of that 700-billion has been put into the TARP funding and 787-billion has gone into the stimulus package and no one can point to it and say "this is what worked." He says there’s also the cap and trade issue, health care reform and "comprehensive amnesty" for illegal aliens.

King says he came to the conclusion that "we have to get America right" as he says the cap and trade, health care and immigration issues are irrevocable once they get passed. King says he can be of better service as a member of congress than as a candidate for governor.

"If we get America right, we can get Iowa right. Even if we get Iowa right and don’t get America right, in the long run, it won’t make that much difference. So, the bottom line is, I’m compelled to move forward and to do my best to ask Iowans to be able to serve them in congress again," King says. King says he will work with the Republican candidates to help win the governor’s seat.

King says he believes the Republican primary will lead to "a very legitimate conservative who will advocate for a constitutional amendment to preserve marriage, and bring this state’s budget back in balance, and turn us into a state that is business friendly again, so that we have jobs for our people." King’s statement announcing his decision did not close the door completely as it says "barring unforeseeable and dramatic events," he will not run for governor in 2010.

King says he put that in the statement because "sometimes things happen that you just can’t anticipate" so he put that in there just in case. But King says he can’t see anything now that would change his mind. King is from Kiron, and won a fourth term representing the 5th district last fall.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

One dead in Cedar Rapids accident

August 27, 2009 By

One person died in a fiery semi crash early this morning in Cedar Rapids. The Cedar Rapids police department received several calls about an accident in the northbound lanes of Interstate 380 at 1:25 this morning.

They arrived to find the cab of the semi had broken through the guardrail of the interstate and the cab and trailer were on fire. The trailer was full of appliances and some fell to the ground below the highway. Fire crews on and below the interstate battled the fire.

One person was found in the burning cab of the truck, but police are not yet releasing the name of the victim. Police are still unsure what caused the accident. 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Rain causes flooding in some areas

August 27, 2009 By

Parts of Iowa have gotten more than a half-foot of rain since Tuesday, bringing high water, road closures and wet basements — and it’s still raining. Andy Ervin, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in the Quad Cities, says the rain has hardly let up in some areas for the better part of two days and there’s more rain in the forecast.

"Across all of eastern Iowa, we do have a threat for flash flooding that continues today and for extreme eastern Iowa, through this evening," Ervin says. "We’ve got a very slow-moving disturbance that’s riding along a stationary front and if you’re in Iowa very long and you’ve heard that weather forecast, you know it means heavy rain." He says there are no evacuations reported, but many parts of the region have been forced to put up barricades to seal off flooded streets.

"We’ve had parts of the area that’ve had anywhere from three to upwards of seven inches of rain over the past two days and there’s a pretty good threat that much of eastern Iowa today, especially north of Highway 34, could see an additional one-to-two inches of rain," Ervin says. "That’s going to cause some flash flooding concerns and some river flooding concerns."

He says there’s already flooding in parts of eastern Iowa. A Flash Flood Warning is in effect at 9 AM for Linn, Iowa, Benton and Johnson counties, with reports of basement flooding and road closures in the Cedar Rapids metro area.

For the latest on the forecast visit the National Weather Service’s website here.  

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Weather

Start of school puts more strain on Crawfordsville water situation

August 27, 2009 By

For two months now, the southeast Iowa town of Crawfordsville has been without water. The town’s water well broke in late June. Since then, the town’s had to truck in water from neighboring communities. Now that school has started, the demand for water is even greater.

Town leaders are wrestling with how to provide a sufficient water supply when they’re running out of money. They’ve asked everyone to cut back on using water, including the school. Vicki Reynolds, the school principal, says they’re doing their best.

"We monitor (students) at the drinking fountains, monitor what we have in our kitchen…full loads of dishes," Reynolds said. City Councilman Don Brookhart says the town’s brought in an extra truck load of water each day since school started on Monday. "It hurts us because we have to figure out how to pay for the water and the trucking," Brookhart said.

Each truck full of water costs the city about $165. That adds up to about $500 a day being drained from the city’s coffers. To help pay for the growing cost of busing in water, Mayor Tom Conrad says the city is considering doubling their utility rates.

"What the rates will be I’m not sure," Conrad said. "We’re going to try and keep them as reasonable as possible." Crawfordsville resident Larry Black says no one can survive without water even if they’re upset about paying more for it.

"There will probably be a few people disgruntled about it, but the whole thing is…water is something we have to have," Black said. Mayor Conrad says he’s hoping the state will release about  $300,000 in grant money to help the town build a new water pipeline. He hopes that new water system will be in place by November.

 

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

Effort underway to cut back on the use of plastic grocery bags

August 27, 2009 By

Plastic bags An effort is underway by the Iowa Grocery Industry Association and environmental organizations to cut back on the number of plastic grocery bags that are used in stores across the state.

Association president Jerry Fleagle says the "Build with Bags" program has a couple of goals.

He say they want to double the number of plastic bags that’re recycle over the next 24 months, reduce the consumption of plastic bags and increase the use of reusable bags.

Fleagle says they will also develop and institute a program to help parks and schools buy products made out of recycled plastic bags. Fleagle says there’s a lot of work to do to achieve their goals.

Fleagle says there were over 550-million plastic bags used just in the grocery industry alone in Iowa last year. He says they are still compiling the numbers of how many bags are recycled, and the goal is to double that number. Many stores now sell the reusable cloth bags, but Fleagle says they need to get people to remember to take the bags with them.

He says getting people to use the reusable bags is one of the biggest challenges, and they will come up with some "best practices models" to give to stores to encourage the use of the reusable bags. Fleagle says those things include stickers, signs and window clings to remind people to bring the reusable bags with them. Fleagle says there are things like benches that are made out of recycled plastic bags and they want to encourage the use of such products.

Fleagle says they will set up a program that will make it affordable for schools and parks to use those products instead of wood products. Fleagle says there are environmental benefits to cutting back on plastic bags, and there are other benefits as well. He says less plastic bag usage helps stores and consumers by keeping the costs low.

Fleagle says consumers already benefit at many stores by getting credit when they bring in their reusable bags. The grocers are working with Keep Iowa Beautiful, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Metro Waste Authority to get the program going.

Filed Under: Business, Environment & Conservation

Rants touts ideas to cut health care costs

August 27, 2009 By

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Rants is touting four ideas he says could raise the quality and lower the cost of health care in Iowa. “Some of these proposals are common sense, practical solutions (like) electronic health records,” Rants says. “Making a commitment that the state should enable that is something that I think both parties should be able to agree upon.”

In addition to calling for all medical records in Iowa to be digitized within four years, Rants proposes adjusting the system of reimbursing hospitals for the care provided to Medicare and Medicaid patients. Rants says high-quality care should be rewarded with the highest payments.

“We have a real problem in this state with hospitals that in danger of going under in some cases because of low reimbursement rates,” Rants says. “…There are things that we can do here in Iowa and state policymakers and candidates running for governor really ought to talk about what role the state has and what the state can do to try to improve things for Iowans.”

Rants, a legislator from Sioux City, says the state should create a website where Iowans could find out more about what hospitals and doctors charge for certain services and find out more about insurance plans that are available in Iowa. “As patients, we really don’t have a lot of information. People walk into the doctor’s office, they walk into the emergency room and they don’t know what anything costs until they get the bill afterwards. They don’t know, you know, who has a good success rating and who doesn’t,” Rants says.

“If we want to have patients become better consumers, we’ve got to give them more information.” Rants is also pressing for a changes in the legal system that he says would reduce the medical malpractice insurance premiums Iowa doctors and hospitals are paying.

“I recognize that doing medical malpractice liability reform will be somewhat controversial, but there are some of those parts to my plan that I think even some Democrats could support,” Rants says. For example, Rants suggests all medical malpractice cases go to mediation first, before a trial begins, and Rants would require a “certificate of merit” endorsed by another lawyer and an independent doctor before a medical malpractice suit could be filed.

Rants hints he’ll have more to say on the subject of health care reform between now and election day in 2010. “This is not the end-all, be-all list. These are four, practical, first-steps that need to be taken,” Rants says. “There’s another 14 months to go in this campaign.” The Republican Primary is scheduled for Tuesday, June 8th — about nine months away. The General Election is Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Vander Plaats calls on governor to convene business panel

August 27, 2009 By

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats says Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat, should convene Iowa’s top business minds and ask them to develop a plan to fix Iowa’s economy and stop mounting job losses. Vander Plaats, a business consultant from Sioux City, says there’s a need for urgency.

Vander Plaats points to this week’s announcement that 400 workers in Lake Mills will be laid off — their jobs are being moved to a plant in Mexico. “As a business leader I know we need leadership to open up Iowa for business so our young people have a chance to stay and to develop and grow their families in Iowa,” Vander Plaats said at a recent campaign event in Dallas County.

According to Vander Plaats, “this isn’t something that can wait until the next governor takes office.”  Vander Plaats is calling on Culver to focus on “private sector job creation” rather than adding more employees to the government payroll.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party blasted Vander Plaats for saying, “President Obama has been really, really good for two industries — guns and ammunition.” Democratic Party chairman Michael Kiernan calls those sentiments “outrageous” and “inflammatory.”

Filed Under: Health & Medicine
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