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Tax credit for first-time homebuyers set to expire

September 18, 2009 By

A lot of Iowans bought their first home this year to take advantage of an $8,000 tax credit. Terry Lemons is a spokesperson for the Internal Revenue Service. He says around 16,000 Iowans have already claimed the credit. There’s still time for first-time home buyers to participate in the program, but time is running out.

“They need to close on their home before December 1,” Lemons said. “It takes 60 to 90 days to close on a home, so we’re really getting into the final window of opportunity for this.” Taxpayers who close on their home before the December 1 deadline can claim the credit on their 2008 returns or wait until filing their ’09 returns.

“We you file your tax return, there’s a special form for the first-time home buyers credit. It’s form 5405,” Lemons said. There are a number of restrictions on eligibility for the tax credit. Details are available online at www.irs.gov.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

DED director resigns, governor orders suspension of film program

September 18, 2009 By

Governor Culver has suspended the state’s film tax credit program and the head of the Department of Economic Development has abruptly resigned.  D.E.D. director Mike Tramontina wrote a memo on Wednesday, telling the board that governs the agency as well as the governor’s top aides that D.E.D. managers were “investigating several reported irregularities in the handling of the Film program.”

 Tramontina asked an outside C.P.A. to sift through program files after it was discovered a filmmaker got tax credits for the purchase of a Mercedes and a Land Rover that were not used in making their movie.

Tramontina’s memo indicates records for the program were “inadequate” and “a custom database that had been built within the past year specifically to keep track of film projects and their status was never used.”  Tramontina put Tom Wheeler, the program’s manager, on paid administrative leave for seven days and announced a new Film Office Director would be hired.  [Read more...]

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

Football Friday Night Scores September 18, 2009

September 18, 2009 By
Scott Pierce and Dar Danielson in the Football Friday Night studio.

Scott Pierce and Dar Danielson

It’s week four of the high school football season and Dar Danielson and Scott Pierce and the rest of the INS Football  Friday Night crew bring you all the scores and highlights. Listen online, or see the scores below. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Football Friday Night, Sports

Dubuque creates partnership with IBM to monitor utilities

September 18, 2009 By

The city of Dubuque has created a new partnership with I.B.M. to use technology to monitor a number of things including how people use electricity, water, and natural gas. I.B.M. currently uses computer systems to help other cities, including London and Amsterdam, become more environmentally friendly. Dubuque project manager David Lyons

Smarter Sustainable Dubuque is the project where a city and I.B.M. are partnering to increase the use of technology instrumentation and data to transform the community by creating new jobs, new industries, reducing the impact on the environment, preserving resources, lowering costs, and creating better environmental outcomes,” Lyons says. He says this is the first program to include multiple energy uses.

Lyons says Dubuque will be the model for the I.B.M. “sustainable cities” program worldwide and will create the opportunity for “living laboratory” in Dubuque. One example of how the program will work is with new water meters that allow customers to see how and when they’re using water and identify ways to cut back.

He says when the city makes changes in its water system they will know not only how much money can be saved in water usage, they will also know how much it impacts electric use and greenhouse gas emissions, and the community”s carbon footprint.

The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Secretaries of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development were in Dubuque Thursday for the announcement of the program.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Doodlebugs celebrated in Webster City

September 18, 2009 By

Plenty of mopeds and scooters are zipping around Iowa’s roadways this summer but only a few were actually built in the state. A convention gets underway today in central Iowa to unite enthusiasts of a particular kind of Iowa-made motorbike that dates back six decades. Vern Ratcliff, of Webster City, is organizing the gathering.

“The Doodlebug, of course, was built in Webster City in 1946, ’47 and ’48, right after World War II,” Ratcliff says. “They built 30,000 of them.” Only a few hundred are still chugging around. The Hamilton County Fairgrounds is hosting a Doodlebug Reunion this weekend to celebrate the gasoline-powered two-wheeled scooters from a bygone era.

“Most of the people here have seen ‘em but there’s still quite a few people we run into in different areas that’ve never even heard of or seen one,” Ratcliff says. “If we can get the word out enough, we can keep drawing a lot more people.” This marks the 23rd annual Doodlebug Reunion in Webster City. Ratcliff says it’s bringing in Doodlebug lovers from at least a dozen states, from as far away as New York and California.

Ratcliff says, “A few years ago, we decided since it was a Webster City product, it might be nice to get something going to bring it back into remembrance.” Beam Manufacturing, now known as Electrolux, made the Doodlebugs during the post-war years. For more information, call Ratcliff at (515) 832-5727.

Contributed Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Filed Under: Human Interest

Unemployment hits highest rate since 1986

September 18, 2009 By

Iowa’s unemployment rate hit 6.8% in August, up from 6.5% in July. Kerry Koonce is a spokesperson for Iowa Workforce Development, which released the new jobless report today.

“We haven’t been as high as we currently are since 1986,” Koonce said. Iowa’s pool of unemployed workers grew from just over 108,000 in July to 114,000 last month. That figure is still short of the record set 26 years ago.

“We were at 120,900 in 1983, so that was at the height of the farm crisis as well,” Koonce said. August marked the seventh consecutive month of job losses. “We lost 1,300 jobs in professional and business services, which focuses mainly on temporary help and professional consultants,” Koonce said. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Jewish groups object to Saturday date for Iowa Caucuses

September 18, 2009 By

A coalition of 18 Jewish groups is objecting to the date Iowa’s two major political parties have set for the 2010 Iowa Caucuses. In late July, leaders from the Iowa Democratic Party and the Republican Party of Iowa announced precinct caucuses would be held on Saturday afternoon, January 23.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs organized the group’s who’re complaining about that date, saying observant Jews will be disenfranchised as the Jewish Sabbath starts at sundown Friday and ends Saturday night. The 2010 Caucuses are scheduled to start a one o’clock in the afternoon. Matt Strawn, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, doesn’t seem ready to reschedule.

“We want to make sure those folks that have working concerns, that have family concerns have the ability to participate in the process,” Strawn says. “So we decided that in a non-presidential year, we would have a caucus on a Saturday.” The “off-year” precinct caucuses are not as well attended as caucuses held in election years.

Strawn and the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party have argued holding the 2010 caucuses on a Saturday will give shift workers and those who have school activities on weeknights a chance to participate. “The caucuses are one area in which the parties do work together,” Strawn says. “Republicans and Democrats alike have to ensure that Iowa protects its first-in-the-nation status and one thing we need to do is make sure that we’re involving as many people in the process as possible.”

Strawn made his comments this morning during taping of the I-P-T-V program, “Iowa Press.” The coalition of Jewish groups charges that holding the Iowa Caucuses on their Sabbath would “force members of the Iowa Jewish community to choose between their faith and civic duties.” The groups say observant Jews “would be unable to work on caucus day to support their candidates.”

Filed Under: Campaign Countdown, Politics & Government, Religion Tagged With: , ,
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