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Waterloo school board dumps longtime East High coach

October 13, 2009 By

The career of one of Iowa’s most successful high school basketball coaches appears to be over following a controversial decision by the Waterloo Board of Education Monday night. Waterloo East coach Steve McGraw is out after 30 years as coach of the boys basketball team.

The Board of Education approved the recommendation of a committee that selected former Waterloo West all-stater Anthony Thomas over McGraw. McGraw retired from teaching and had to re-apply for the coaching job. The recommendation of Thomas sparked a campaign of support for McGraw, who guided the Trojans to two state championships and three second place finishes and 476 wins since moving from Tri-County Thorburg in 1979.

McGraw ranks seventh on the carreer coaching list with a 590-281 record.

Contributed by Elwin Huffman KOEL Oelwein

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

Iowa loses Chaney from receiver rotation

October 13, 2009 By

The Iowa Hawkeyes will be without the services of wide receiver and kick returner Paul Chaney for the remainder of the season due to a knee injury. The junior suffered a torn A-C-L in the Hawkeyes’ victory over Michigan. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says Bettendorf native Colin Sandeman will handle punt returns and freshman Keenan Davis will see more time at receiver.

Ferentz says Chaney has been in what was a six-man rotation, so they do have five guys who are still in the rotation. The 11th ranked Hawkeyes are 6-0 for the first time since 1985 and next up will visit a Wisconsin team that is 5-1 after a 31-13 loss at Ohio State. Ferentz says Wisconsin is having a very good year and is playing well in all categories.

The next two weeks will determine just how much of a contender the Hawks are in the Big Ten title chase. After playing the Badgers Iowa will visit Michigan State. Ferentz says the games are against two very good teams on the road. Ferentz says while happy with the 6-0 start last year’s 3-3 record in the opening half is proof of just how fortunes cane change in the second half.

He says last year at this time the sky was falling, but he says things seem to be better. Ferentz says they are not that much far ahead of where they were last year and everything is still “pretty fragile” with six games left in the season. Ferentz says the big difference from last season is the Hawkeyes are now winning the close games.

He says they are probably a little bit more confident now and it’s like anything else, you have to experience winning the close games to get it turned around. Ferentz says the biggest surprise during the first half has been the play of a number of redshirt and true freshmen.

Riley Rieff has seen considerable action on the offensive line and even started three games at left tackle when Bryan Bulaga was out of the lineup. Ferentz says Rieff got called in before they planned, and the two freshmen runningbacks also had to play more than what they expected early on.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

UNI prepares for Homecoming game

October 13, 2009 By

The UNI Panthers get set for their homecoming matchup this weekend when they host Southern Illinois in a battle of top five teams. The third ranked Panthers are 5-1 overall after a 42-27 win at North Dakota State. Coach Mark Farley says Saturday’s game showed the Panthers are not as good as many people think they are.

Farley says the team is sound and has more than one dimension. He says the special teams dimension played a big role in the last game with the blocked punt that gave them momentum. The defense did not play well but the offense and special teams excelled. Farley says they learned they need to play well in all three phases of the game to be successful.

The Salukis are fifth ranked nationally and stand 4-1 overall. Farley says it doesn’t take a lot to get ready emotionally for Southern Illinois, but they have to get ready mentally to be sure they play the game on the field.

Contributed by Elwin Huffman KOEL Oelwein

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Attorney General and Ag Secretary push for consumer protection agency

October 13, 2009 By
Ag Secretaryt Tom Vilsack, Attorney General Tom Miller (l-r)

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, Attorney General Tom Miller (l-r)

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack joined Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller today in pushing for a new federal agency that would oversee banks and mortgage lenders. Miller says the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency is something that would help states. Miller says the rules and regulations the agency would create would not pre-empt state laws, so state could still experiment and adjust the rules. He says the state would be able to enforce the federal rules and that would create a “wonderful cooperation’ between the state and federal government.

Miller says banks don’t want to see the agency created. “There’s a huge fight about it and the fight is being led by the national banks, the big banks, and they’ve convinced the smaller banks to fight with them. Even though the smaller banks, like the banks in Iowa, do not have a lot at stake,” Miller said. Vilsack, the former Iowa governor, says the agency would prevent the many problems that have happened in the lending and mortgage industries.

Vilsack says Americans are still paying the price for “weak regulation and financial instability, which is at the heart of this current crisis.” Vilsack says this agency will ensure that “future mistakes by a few will not do so much harm to so many.” Vilsack says the Ag Department is involved in 130,000 guaranteed home loans and that’s one of the reasons why he is speaking out.

Vilsack says so many rural Americans utilize “pay-day” loan agencies and other entities that he says would now be regulated by the agency — which he says would protect against some of the high interest rates that the people are charged. Vilsack says he agrees with Miller that consumer protection needs to be focused with one agency.

Vilsack says when consumer protection is involved in “the rubric of so many other departments, it is an important role, but it is not as significant as other roles and the attention and time and resources just (are) not dedicated in the way that American consumers need.” Miller says he has not yet gotten a clear signal on how Iowa’s congressional delegation might vote on the proposed agency.

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

Council Bluffs primary unchanged by recount

October 13, 2009 By

A recount of votes in the city council’s primary election in Council Bluffs changed nothing. The recount took most of the day yesterday and was sought by incumbent city councilman Darren Bates, who failed to earn enough votes to advance to next month’s general election.

After the recount, officials say not a single vote from the original tally was changed. Bates questioned the reliability of the electronic voting system. Earlier this year, he was acquitted on charges stemming from an undercover prostitution sting at a Council Bluffs motel.

By Karla James

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Vilsack briefly booed this morning

October 13, 2009 By
U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack was briefly booed this morning during an appearance at the “Community Food Security Coalition” conference in Des Moines. The audience was filled with organic farmers and rural activists and one of them asked Vilsack what he’s doing to stop consolidation in agriculture so small-scale farms can thrive.

“I have two sons and I love ‘em both and your question sort of, kind of asks, it’s kind of: ‘Which son do you love the most?’” Vilsack said.  “This is a difficult set of issues.” 

A few people in the audience booed when Vilsack refused to say genetically-modified crops are bad and should be banned.  Vilsack told the crowd the so-called “factory farms” they denounce are necessary to meet world food demand.

“The production agriculture side — at this point in time, 75 percent of the food and fiber of this country is produced by those folks in that category,” Vilsack said. “That’s not likely to change in the short term.” 

Vilsack did add that his agency may introduce livestock regulations which try to ensure small-scale pork and beef producers get a “fair shake” when it comes to the prices they’re paid for selling their livestock. 

Vilsack, who served eight years as Iowa’s governor, was the first U.S. Ag Secretary to speak to the Community Food Security Coalition, holding its 13th annual convention in Des Moines this week. Vilsack touted the U.S.D.A.’s promotion of farmers markets and efforts to encourage Americans to eat more locally-grown foods.

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

New owner of Postville plant promises “New Beginning”

October 13, 2009 By

Hershey FriedmanAs the trial for the former manager of the Postville meatpacking plant gets underway in South Dakota, the plant’s new owner is in Postville, trying to launch a new chapter in the plant’s history.  Hershey Friedman has changed the plant’s name to Agri Star.

“We’re new owners. We’re looking for a new beginning to make this a beautiful plant, treat our people properly, fairly: put in good working conditions, health and safety, proper salaries and proper benefits,” Friedman says, “and make it a premiere plant that the people of Iowa to be proud of.”

Friedman arrived in Postville on Monday and will be at the facility all week to meet with consultants who are there evaluating the plant.  ”We brought in consultants from overseas, the premiere specialists in chicken processing who will be spending the week here consulting (with) us (on) how to make improvements on safety, efficiencies and productivity and I also have a lot of people coming in, helping us on how to start up on the beef department — new equipment, more efficiencies, changes necessary to improve that facility,” Friedman says.  “And we’ll also have people here on how to do changes and efficiencies in our deli division.”

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Filed Under: Agriculture, Business Tagged With:
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