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ICCI sees good signs for ethics oversight

October 28, 2009 By

A spokesman for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement sees hopeful signs in the group’s push to get better oversight of groups which lobby the Iowa Legislature. Adam Mason is state policy organizing director for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. “We were encouraged by the House Ethics Committee review today. They were very thorough in their review of our ethics complaint,” Mason says.

“They acknowledged that not only the Iowa Pharmacy Association had filed their function report late, but a number of other groups had also done that and that without our complaint they would not have had the authority to review these late filings.” The Ethics Committee in the Iowa House today decided to send a letter to the lobbying group, outlining its failure to disclose details of its legislative reception in February until news reports of the evening were linked to a lawmaker’s drunken driving arrest.

But the panel stopped short of issuing any sort of reprimand of the Iowa Pharmacy Association. Representative Kerry Burt, a Democrat from Waterloo, pleaded guilty in August to drunken driving charges filed against him in February. Burt attended an Iowa Pharmacy Association reception in Des Moines that evening and was arrested early the next morning in Ankeny.

Five months later, the Pharmacy Association filed its required financial report about its reception after news reports revealed more details of Burt’s evening. Financial reports are to be filed within five days of a reception at which legislators are invited guests. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement filed an ethics complaint about the lapse.

Mason says they hoped to draw attention to the legislature’s failure to properly oversee lobbying groups that sponsor receptions for legislators and they’re encouraged by changes legislators are considering. “At CCI we still believe the first thing that needs to happen is oversight and enforcement of these reports needs to be returned to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board,” Mason says.

Earlier this summer the Iowa Senate’s Ethics Committee voted to take no action on the complaint against the Pharmacy Association, saying by the time of their meeting the Pharmacy Association had filed its paperwork and had complied with the law. Representative Burt pleaded guilty to drunken driving in August, was given a deferred judgment and is on probation for a year. Burt, who lives in Waterloo, faces other legal troubles as a state audit found he was among the parents who fudged their home address on school paperwork in order to avoid paying tuition for his children to attend the University of Northern Iowa’s Price Laboratory School

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Nation’s top quilters show off work in Des Moines

October 28, 2009 By

Some of the nation’s top quilters are blanketing an auditorium in central Iowa with their best works this week. More than one-thousand quilts are featured at the American Quilter’s Society Expo in Des Moines. Society vice president Bonnie Browning says large cash prizes are being offered, including ten-thousand dollars for best-in-show. Browning says the judges consider an array of factors when determining the winners.

The judges will consider things like design, the use of color, the scale of the quilt and the sewing techniques used. The first expo of this sort was held in Des Moines last year and drew 24-thousand spectators and it’s hoped this year’s event will top that. Browning is a former Muscatine resident who now lives in Kentucky and she’s been quilting much of her life. She says the attendees have a lot in common.

She says 99% of the quilters being featured at the show are women, but they do have quite a few very good quilters who are men. Browning says most of the active quilters range in age from 45 to 65. She says quilting has a long tradition that’s been handed down from mothers to daughters to granddaughters.

“For our industry to survive, we have to involve young people and so there are different things that we do that involve school children to get them to sew,” Browning says. “Then the next age range is probably the young mother that’s making quilts and things like that for a new baby.”

There are more than 90 workshops, lectures and special events being offered during the four-day show, highlighting quiltmaking techniques, patterns, tools and entertainment. The expo runs through Saturday at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. For more information, visit: “www.AmericanQuilter.com“.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Deere recalling 452 to Ottumwa Works

October 28, 2009 By

Good news on the job front in the Ottumwa area.  Deere and Company announced today that the majority of the manufacturing employees who had been laid off at the Deere plant in Ottumwa are being recalled.

Deere is recalling 452 employees, beginning November 30, with all of those employees expected to be back on the job before the company’s annual holiday shutdown which begins December 23.  The workers will begin production of the new 2010 models. 

However, 78 workers will remain laid off until market conditions improve.

John Deere’s Ottumwa Works manufacturers farm equipment used by hay and livestock producers, things like balers, mowers and forage harvesters.

(Reporting by Mike Buchanan, KBIZ, Ottumwa)

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business

Medical district created in Cedar Rapids

October 28, 2009 By

Several health care providers are coming together to create a new regional medical district in downtown Cedar Rapids. The $40-million venture involves the Physicians Clinic of Iowa consolidating five offices into a new building which will run between two existing hospitals, Mercy Medical Center and St. Luke’s Hospital.

Mike Sundall is the C.E.O. of the Physicians Clinic of Iowa. “We are very excited and pleased to be a key participant in the formation of the medical district in downtown Cedar Rapids, but more importantly, part of the continuing redevelopment of downtown Cedar Rapids after the flood we experienced last year,” Sundall said. The new medical district, located along 10th Street Southeast in Cedar Rapids, will cover a 6 to 10 block section of downtown.

Sundall says the 180,000 square foot P-C-I facility will serve as a “medical mall,” featuring clinical, ancillary and other services. Supporters believe the plan will create jobs and allow increased taxation within the zone to fund infrastructure improvements. The medical district could also make Cedar Rapids a convenient destination for healthcare.

“At the end of the day, we felt this was best for not only our patients, but our physicians and staff, Cedar Rapids and the two hospitals which will be part of this medical destination that we’re going to develop together,” Sundall said. The Cedar Rapids City Council is expected to approve the district’s creation this week.

The city would be responsible for infrastructure improvements in the area. Sundall says he hopes the medical mall will be occupied by the end of 2012.

Filed Under: Business, Health & Medicine

Rake the leaves or your lawn could pay

October 28, 2009 By

It’s been a rainy, chilly October for most Iowans, with more rain in the immediate forecast. The unpleasant weather has prompted many Iowans to put off raking their leaves. Extension horticulturist Maryanna Anderson says leaving wet leaves on the ground can mean your once-green lawn remains brown in the spring.

“These leaves falling on the grass pile up and they can suffocate the grass if they are not removed fairly soon,” Anderson says. “They can probably go on for a little while but if people don’t ever bother to pick them up, they can suffocate the grass.” Anderson says those wet leaves can blanket your grass and kill it, in addition to creating a potential health hazard for the homeowner.

Anderson says, “Because they’re going to be wet, that’s a great place for mold to be developing and when you do finally start to rake the leaves, you get all this mold flying up in the air.” Even if Iowa sees more rain — or snow — in the next several days, Anderson says the odds dictate that the weather will improve eventually and drier conditions will return.

She says, “Hopefully, within the next couple of weeks, people should be able to get out there and get their leaves up and that should minimize the problems that we’re having.” The wet weather is causing another concern. The moisture is prompting grass to continue growing later in the season than usual, meaning, Iowans will likely have to break out the mower at least one more time. Anderson says to take note of the cutting height.

She says, “This time of year, we’re recommending mowing it to two-and-a-half to three inches because you want to do one of the last mowings for the season and you don’t want it so tall it flops over and suffocates itself.” Also, don’t crop the grass too short, as that could also result in an unhealthy, patchy lawn in the spring.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation

Budget cuts include mileage payments for legislators

October 28, 2009 By

Legislators who live outside the Des Moines metro get reimbursed for mileage when they travel to the statehouse for meetings. But recent budget-cutting means that mileage reimbursement is not in effect for legislative meetings this fall and five of the 14 members of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee did not attend Tuesday’s meeting in Des Moines. Committee members were given the option of joining the meeting by phone, although there were long distance charges to the lawmaker for the call.

Only one member of the committee — Representative Kurt Swaim of Bloomfield — opted to join by phone. One of the people scheduled to speak to the Oversight Committee was out of town and chose to speak to the panel by phone, too. But Senator Rich Olive, the co-chairman of the committee, struggled to adjust the sound system so people in the hearing room in Des Moines could hear Eric Tabor of the Attorney General’s Office over the horrible, high-pitched feedback.

The five legislators who were absent from yesterday’s meeting were Senators Ron Wieck of Sioux City and Steve Sodders of State Center and Representatives Deborah Berry of Waterloo; and Wesley Whitead of Sioux City. Representative Kent Sorenson of Indianola was late in arriving for the meeting.  Senator Sodders, a deputy sheriff, was conducting a D.A.R.E. event in a fifth grade classroom at the time of the statehouse meeting.

Legislators who live outside the Des Moines metro generally are reimbursed, 39 cents per mile, when they travel to Des Moines or elsewhere for legislative committee meetings.

(This story was updated at 11:30 pm)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Equipment manufacturers rally for transportation bill

October 28, 2009 By

Representatives of the construction equipment industry are rallying in Washington, D.C. today to call for action on federal funding for transportation projects. Dennis Slater, president of Association of Manufacturers, says they are worried lawmakers are overlooking the bill.

He says the goal is to raise awareness as the six-year highway bill has just expired and the extension of the bill is set to expire at the end of the week. Slater says funding for roads will come to a “screeching halt” and the economic depression in the industry will continue. Slater says Iowa has a big stake in the issue.

Slater says Iowa, because of it’s manufacturing base, ranks in the top 10 for economic base output loss in the industry, losing 3.17 billion dollars this year. He says the number of construction jobs lost in Iowa is dramatic.

He says Iowa isn’t in the top ten for job loses, but the state is fourth in the percentage of jobs lost in the construction industry. Slater says he’s talked to a market-leading paving equipment manufacturer in Iowa that has seen the market decline 50-percent in the last year. Iowa received millions in federal funds for flood recovery and the stimulus package — but Slater says that doesn’t help the long-term issue.

Slater says both the flood recovery and stimulus money have short term impact, while the highway bill is a six-year plan that lets states schedule improvements to their roads. Slater says the association would like to see another short term extension, and then see legislators approve a new bill this spring. Slater says the administration favors an 18-month extension, but he says that would only put off the problem and leave uncertainty in the industry.

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With:
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