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Hamilton County sheriff recovering from horse-riding injury

October 6, 2009 By

A north central Iowa law enforcement official is hospitalized after a horse riding accident last week.

Sixty-two-year old Dennis Hagenson of Webster City is the sheriff of Hamilton County. Last Wednesday, Hagenson was riding his horse just east of Webster City when the horse bucked him off.

He was first taken to Hamilton Hospital in Webster City and was later transferred to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines. Hagenson underwent surgery to repair a broken pelvis. It is not known when Hagenson will be released from the Des Moines medical facility.

Hagenson has been Hamilton County Sheriff for the past five years. He also served as a sheriff’s deputy and county conservation officer.

(Reporting by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Grassley seeks ban on cell phones in federal prisons

October 6, 2009 By

Hundreds of cellular phones are being seized every year from inside America’s federal prisons.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says while there are already rules against smuggling cell phones to inmates, those rules apparently aren’t being enforced, and convicts are continuing their lives of crime from the inside their prison cells — using cell phones. Grassley says cell phones should be banned from federal prisons.

“Oddly enough, there are some rules or regulations that would say that they aren’t, and regulations ought to have the force of law if they’re based upon the law,” Grassley says.  

Grassley is introducing legislation that would clearly spell out that cell phones and other wireless devices are contraband and they’re barred from being used or possessed within federal prisons.

“We need to put a big stamp of disapproval on cell phones being smuggled into prisons,” Grassley says, “because people that’re in prison direct additional crime from inside.”

Cell phones found in federal prisons are not specifically defined as contraband and as a result, Grassley says guards and inmates found with cell phones are rarely punished.  Grassley says there are indications the current rules aren’t being enforced so it needs to be made law so it’s clear to everyone in prison and to those on the outside who might be considering smuggling a phone to an inmate.

Under Grassley’s bill, anyone who provides, or attempts to provide, an inmate with a cell phone faces up to one year in prison. Last year, federal prison workers confiscated more than 1500 cell phones from federal prison camps and more than 250 cell phones from secure federal institutions. This year, authorities have discovered more than four-thousand cell phones among inmates in California prisons. In May, a report found California prison inmates pay $500 to $1,000 per cell phone. The report noted, one corrupt correctional officer received nearly $150,000 in one year to smuggle cell phones to inmates.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

State help for disaster victims nearly drained

October 6, 2009 By

A state program designed to help people recover from last year’s disasters is getting to the end of its resources.

Department of Human Services spokesman Roger Munns says it’s called the “Unmet Needs Disaster Grants Program,” and was approved by the legislature and the program is designed to help low or moderate-income people to cover damage or other needs caused by last year’s storms and floods. 

Munns says over 3000 households have been helped by the program, but the funds are starting to run out.

They started with $7.85 million and all but 1.5 million has been spent.  The deadline for applying for the remaining funds has been set at October 16.

Munns says the money can cover a variety of needs. For example, he says if you’ve already spent money on disaster-related expenses, then you can bring in your receipts and get reimbursed. The program also allows you to get an estimate and obtain a voucher for payment

Munns says with the deadline getting closer, you’re asked to have everything lined up when you apply for the assistance.   The first call to make is to the “Iowa Concern Hotline” at 1-800-447-1985 or go to the Rebuild Iowa Office Web site at: www.rio.iowa.gov. Click on “Disaster Recovery Case Management” tab to make an appointment with your local Long-Term Recovery Committee to see about your eligibility for the funds. 

Applications that qualify will be awarded funds on a first-come, first-serve basis until the money is no longer available.

Filed Under: Business, Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Politics & Government, Weather Tagged With:

Alliant defends rate request

October 6, 2009 By

Alliant Energy is defending its request for a big boost in electric rates.

Alliant initially proposed a 17% increase, but is now asking state regulators to approve 14.2% instead. That means customers in eastern and northern Iowa would pay a combined $146 million more for heat and electricity.

Alliant spokesperson Scott Drzycimski says the rate hike is necessary to cover the cost of recent upgrades to the state’s transmission lines. “That will set us up in the future for great opportunities in additional wind power and renewable generation across the state,” Drzycimski said.

The state’s Office of Consumer Advocate blames the proposed rate hike on poor management by Alliant’s parent company, Interstate Power and Light. Attorney Ron Polle says I.P.L.’s decision to sell its transmission lines in 2007 has come back to haunt consumers.

“The residential customers are beside themselves,” Polle said. “I attended all the consumer comment hearings and that’s one of the things that the customers said – ‘we have to be protected against these enormous rate increases when the economy is so bad and we don’t have the money to pay.’”

Drzycimski says Iowa’s transmission lines needed significant upgrades so selling them to another company made sense. 

“Obviously Iowa is a hotbed for wind power and hopefully other forms of renewable generation through our (agriculture) background here and what we saw in the sale to ITC Midwest was an opportunity to have the transmission expanded beyond what we were able to do in the realm as a investor owned, integrated utility,” Drzycimski said.

Polle says consumers were supposed to be held harmless for eight years but are now being asked to cover a 60% increase in transmission costs. 

“We’ve heard from hundreds of businesses who are concerned about these costs, about the enormous rate increase that Interstate has proposed, and the impact their businesses, and the impact on the economy, and impact on economic development, and those businesses are worried and we are too,” Polle said.

The Iowa Utilities Board is expected to approve or reject the rate increase in January.

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

Missing man died in wreck

October 6, 2009 By

A northwest Iowa man who had been reported missing died in a traffic accident. Family members hadn’t seen or heard from 29-year-old Michael David Ahlers of rural Remsen since early Saturday.  A search for Ahlers ended just after noon Monday when the pickup truck he had been driving was found partially submerged in the Little Sioux River on Iowa Highway 140, north of Kingsley.  He had died. Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo says foul play is not a factor in the accident which is still being investigated.

(Reporting by Joanne Glamm of KLEM in Le Mars.)

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Audit questions Culver’s spending in Sec of State office

October 6, 2009 By

A federal audit is raising questions about how Governor Chet Culver spent federal money while he was Iowa’s Secretary of State.

Congress passed the “Help America Vote Act” in 2002 and forwarded millions to Iowa and other states to improve the voting process. The audit questions Culver’s decision to spend over a million dollars on a “Celebrate Voting” initiative in 2005.  Culver planned concerts and other events to mark the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the 85th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. 

[Read more...]

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

Wisconsin warning about tax credits for film makers

October 6, 2009 By

Early this year Wisconsin’s governor proposed an end to his state’s tax credit program for movie makers. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle cited his state’s experience with the Johnny Depp movie “Public Enemies.”

“Can anybody seriously justify that we should be laying out $4 million for one movie that comes here, that doesn’t produce any long-term jobs in this state, where we end up paying portions of a director’s salary?” Doyle asked in February.

The Wisconsin governor, who is a Democrat, cited a study which found the State of Wisconsin barely broke even on tax benefits after the $4 million in tax credits were given to producers of “Public Enemies,” which was filmed at seven different locations in Wisconsin.

“This thing was just, quite clearly, beyond any reasonable scale,” Doyle said in February.

Wisconsin’s Department of Commerce issued an analysis this past March, warning that Louisiana “just got a bill for $266 million” in tax credits for movie makers, and “that could happen (in Wisconsin)” because their program was “an unlimited liability.”  Despite that “warning flag” raised in the state of Wisconsin this past spring, the problems with Iowa’s tax credits for the movie industry were not publicly disclosed until September 18.

The state of Wisconsin has replaced its film tax credit program with incentives to film productions that create “permanent” jobs in Wisconsin.  Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle said earlier this year that his state can still play “a role” in movie-making. ”But our standard is going to be for people who are producing good, long-term jobs in the state of Wisconsin,” Doyle said. 

Iowa’s Attorney General on Monday announced a criminal investigation is underway after an audit found a variety of “questionable” activities in the Iowa Film Office.  For example, former Iowa Film Office manager Tom Wheeler issued tax credit certificates to 22 projects, but auditors found invoices for only two of those 22 projects.

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