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Congressman says bill will keep student loan interest rates steady

September 17, 2009 By
Congressman Bruce Braley says the U.S. House has passed major legislation that will ensure interest rates on many student loans do not balloon in a few years. “It keeps interest rates low on need-based or subsidized federal student loans,” Braley says. “…They’re currently set to jump from 3.4% to 6.8% in 2012 and so this change will keep interest rates low. We know that in 2008 there were 225,000 students in Iowa who used subsidized student loans.”
 
The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act passed the House this afternoon. It would put 40-billion more dollars in the Pell Grant program to increase the maximum Pell Grant. “And starting in 2011 the scholarship will be linked to match rising costs of living by indexing it to the Consumer Price Index plus one percent,” Braley says.
 
According to Braley, over 17,000 Iowa students will be eligible for a Pell Grant in the next academic year. The bill would boost the amount of money available for Perkins grants which are generally awarded to those who are seeking technical or vocational degrees. Braley, though, says the bill’s most significant move is curbing the looming interest rate boost for general student loans.
“I have three kids in college right now. I know how important this is,” Braley says. “It helped me get a college education.” Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, earned an undergraduate degree from Iowa State University and a law degree from the University of Iowa and Braley relied on student loans to get those degrees.
 

 

 

 

 

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

Prices at the gas pump continue to drop

September 17, 2009 By

The latest state survey finds gasoline prices have fallen for five consecutive weeks. Jessica Zopf of the Iowa Office of Energy Independence says prices are going down because the supply of gasoline and diesel fuels are going up.

“Drivers in Iowa can pretty much expect to see lower prices over maybe the next couple of days,” Zopf says. “However, as we’ve seen in the past few weeks the prices have gone up and down, but we’ve seen overall decreases in the past month.” On September 15th, the average price in Iowa for a gallon of unleaded gasoline with a 10-percent ethanol blend was $2.34.

That’s 35% lower than gasoline prices a year ago, as gasoline was selling for $3.62 a gallon at this time last year. “The other thing to consider with fuel prices, with gas prices, is that the supply of gasoline has been increasing because we have…just not seen the huge demand that we typically see in the summer months,” Zopf says.

Diesel fuel was selling for $2.62 a gallon this past Tuesday. A year ago, diesel hit four-bucks a gallon, so the drop is significant. Gasoline prices vary widely, with the most expensive prices today found in the Iowa City area and the cheapest found in Des Moines.

See the gas prices statewide here.

The prices for the fuels Iowans use to heat their homes and dry the state’s corn and soybean harvest are down significantly. According to the Iowa Office of Energy Independence, the average retail price for propane has fallen nearly 66% in the past year. Heating oil prices are down 65% from a year ago. Natural gas prices are down, significantly, as well, falling about 9.5% just in the last month.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Presidents at ISU, Iowa and UNI will not get a raise

September 17, 2009 By

The Board that oversees the three state-supported universities announced the results of their annual reviews of the three presidents of the schools today. Regents president David Miles says they will hold the lines on salaries. Miles says the board will make no changes in salaries and he says as they announced in April, all those who were eligible for salary incentives, have forgone those incentives.

Miles says the leaders of Iowa State, the University of Iowa, and University of Northern Iowa all recieved very favorable reviews.

Miles praised them for “their leadership in what is a difficult financial circumstance in forgoing any kind of increase in compensation in the coming year.” He says it sets an important tone and example and their sacrifice needs to be acknowledged. Miles says the lack of salary increase in no way reflects on the job they are doing.

The presidents could still be eligible for performance bonuses in the next year, even though they did not get a raise.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , ,

Pot seized, two arrested in I-80 stop near Council Bluffs

September 17, 2009 By

A southwest Iowa sheriff’s deputy made a sizable drug seizure and two arrests Wednesday afternoon. Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says Deputy Brian Miller and his canine partner “Francisco” stopped a pickup truck for speeding on Interstate 80 near Council Bluffs.

Sheriff Danker says after talking with the driver, the deputy became suspicious and requested permission to search the vehicle. When the driver said no, the deputy and his dog did a perimeter search of the pickup and the dog indicated the presence of drugs. At that point, the vehicle was searched and 116-pounds of marijuana were seized, along with $7,000 in cash.

The driver of the pickup, 41-year old Geoff Brandon, and his wife, 33-year old Maria Brandon, both of Eureka, California, were taken into custody. Each faces charges of possession with the intent to deliver/marijuana, a tax stamp violation, and prohibited acts. The couple was booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail and were scheduled to have appeared in court today.

Submitted by Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic

Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With:

Iowa Appeals Court overturns OWI case based on phone call

September 17, 2009 By

The Iowa Court of Appeals has reversed the O.W.I. conviction of a Linn County woman over a phone call. Brandee Rae Pettengill was sitting in her car in the parking lot of a Marion convenience store around 2:30 A.M. on March fourth of 2008.

A police officer in the store noticed a man get out of another car nearby, pull down his pants and moon Pettengill. The officer went to the parking lot to check to see if the 21-year-old Pettengill and the driver of the other car had been drinking. Pettengill failed the field sobriety test, as did the female driver of the other car.

Both were taken to jail. Pettengill asked to call her father before agreeing to give officers a breath test. Pettengill’s father was groggy after answering the phone. Pettengill explained her situation and asked for help getting a lawyer. The also talked about other things, and after 15-minutes, the officer told her to end the call.

Pettengill testified that she was not told she could place any further phone calls, although the arresting officer testified he asked if she wanted to call anyone else. Pettengill’s breath test showed a blood alcohol content of .139, well over the legal limit. Pettengill sought to have the breath test results suppressed, saying her rights to make the calls needed to get ahold of a lawyer were violated.

The district court found that Pettengill was provided a reasonable amount of time to discuss her options with a family member and allowed the test. She was convicted of second offense O.W.I. The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that the officer cut off Pettengill’s phone call when he did not need to, and left her with the impression she could not make other calls. The court says the breath test should not be allowed and Pettengill should be given a new trial.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Hawarden woman dies in accident

September 17, 2009 By

A northwest Iowa woman was killed in a two-vehicle collision near Ireton on Wednesday afternoon. A Sioux County Sheriff’s office report identified the victim as 58-year-old Janene Breugem of Hawarden.

Authorities say a car driven by Bruegem and a pickup driven by 62-year old Franklin Noteboom of Orange City collided head-on. The accident occurred on Highway 10 shortly after 3 P.M.

Noteboom received incapacitating injuries and was taken by ambulance to the Sioux Center hospital and later lifeflighted to Mercy Medical Center. The accident remains under investigation.

Contributed by Larry Schmitz, KLEM, Le Mars

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Knoxville cancels homecoming after vandalism

September 17, 2009 By

Officials at a south-central Iowa high school have canceled most homecoming activities after vandals coated the schools windows and doors with a combination of eggs, syrup, cooking oil, ketchup and mustard. Knoxville High School Principal Kevin Crawford says he would have allowed the homecoming festivities to go on as scheduled if someone would have accepted responsibility for the damage.

“We did give them an opportunity to say, ‘this is what we did…we screwed up.’ Step up and do the right thing…but that didn’t happen,” Crawford said. Tomorrow night’s football game against Norwalk will still take place, but the pregame tailgate party and the post-game homecoming dance were canceled. Crawford says he worried about a repeat of the vandalism because of the decision, but says parents have volunteered their time to guard the building.

“Unknown to me, we had a group of parents that stepped up last night and said ‘we’re going to hang out at the school tonight and do our best to put an end to this,’” Crawford said. The parents stayed at the school past midnight. Crawford says most of the 650 students at Knoxville High School are well behaved and he’s feels bad they’re being punished because of a few trouble makers.

“This is just an unfortunate thing. It kind of gives us a black eye,” Crawford said. “I don’t want people to think this is who we are, because it’s not.”

Filed Under: Education
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