May 21, 2012

You are here: Home / 2009 / November / Archives for 5th

Pharmacy Board holds last hearing on medical marijuana

November 5, 2009 By

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy held the last of four hearings Wednesday in Council Bluffs, allowing the public to testify about the prospect of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use in Iowa. Susan Frey, vice chair of the Board of Pharmacy, says the board won’t rush its decision.

“We have received copious amounts of information and each board member will receive all of that information and they will go through it,” she says. “We take this very, very seriously and it will be something that we spend a lot of time on and analyze thoroughly in order to make a good decision.” Iowa law currently classifies marijuana as a “controlled substance.”

Frey says she and the rest of the board hope to make a decision before the legislature reconvenes in January. Thirteen states have legalized marijuana for medicinal use. A citizens’ request prompted the public hearings in Iowa to explore the possibility of legalizing pot for medical reasons.

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

Tax credits available for green improvements to your home

November 5, 2009 By

The end of the tax year is getting closer and the Internal Revenue Service says you can earn a tax credit by improving the energy efficiency of your home. I.R.S. senior spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge says you need to make the improvements before the end of this year to take advantage on your 2009 tax return.

Eldridge says you can make simple improvements, such as purchasing insulation, or new windows and doors and claim up to $1,500 in a credit on your tax return. The credit is 30% of the cost of improvements up to a maximum of $1,500, so if you investment five-thousand dollars you could qualify for the maximum amount. Eldridge says there are a variety of energy-efficient products available for installation in your home.

She says the products have to be certified, and you can look on the product label, ask the retailer selling the product, or visit the manufacturers websites. Eldridge says the goal is to get people to invest some money now to save energy in the long run. Eldridge says for more information on products and the types of records you need to keep on your purchases, visit the I.R.S. website .

Eldridge says if you don’t have a need for energy efficiency improvements on your home, there is also a 30% credit for installing alternative energy equipment such as solar  water heaters, geothermal heat pumps and wind turbines. While there is a cap on the insulation, window and door costs, there is  not a cap on the alternative energy equipment credit.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation Tagged With:

Farmers given grants to improve energy efficiency

November 5, 2009 By

Three northeast Iowa farmers have each been awarded $5,000 grants to improve the energy efficiency of their operations. The grants come from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. The center’s director, Jerry DeWitt, is hoping the money will help the farmers develop techniques that can be used statewide. He says they’ve formed a partnership with the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Energy and Environmental Education.

“We’re actually investing in their center so that a working group can be formed statewide, which will bring together a cast of many different players – from agriculture, policy, universities, farm organizations, etcetera – to look at how can we conserve energy and be more profitable in our farms and communities around the state,” DeWitt said. The director of the UNI Center for Energy and Environmental Education is Kamyar Enshayan.

“We felt like there is an opportunity here to help farms meet a greater portion of their energy needs from the resources of their farm and a coherent statewide set of programs aren’t available,” Enshayan said. Those receiving the grants include a farmer near Melbourne who will use wind turbine energy and a fruit and vegetable farmer near Waterloo who will use more solar energy in a green house. A third farmer in Waverly will incorporate more underground storage for his potatoes.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Environment & Conservation Tagged With: ,

State unveils new design for sex offender website

November 5, 2009 By
D.C.I.’s Terry Cowman provides a “tour” of new sex offender website.

D.C.I.’s Terry Cowman provides a “tour” of the new sex offender website.

Iowans have a sophisticated new tool for tracking registered sex offenders in the state. Public safety officials Wednesday unveiled a newly redesigned website,  IowaSexOffender.com, that provides detailed information about the more than 5,000 people who have been convicted of sex crimes in Iowa.

Jim Saunders is the assistant director of the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation. He says the website provides information about each offender’s conviction, restrictions on the offender and locations where they may be attending school, working or living.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

I-JOBS grants lauded, criticized

November 5, 2009 By

Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge went to western Iowa Wednesday to tout state “I-JOBS” grants for three projects, while a Republican candidate for governor raised more questions about the program. The City of Council Bluffs is getting a $3.8 million I-JOBS grant to help finance construction of a new building that will house all of the city’s public works operations.

The lieutenant governor told a midday crowd in Council Bluffs that the state has a role in trying to stimulate the economy and the I-JOBS grants accomplish that goal. “Governor Culver and I know and believe strongly that you can’t just sit back and wait for things to fix themselves,” Judge said. “We really have to chart our own course, take charge of our own future and that’s why we created the I-JOBS initiative to do just that.”

The I-JOBS grant was matched by the City of Council Bluffs and Judge touted the construction jobs connected to the project. “Governor Culver and I know that while we’re working hard in Des Moines to try to turn things around every day, we can’t do that alone,” Judge said. “We know we don’t do things alone. We do things with partners and if we’re going to get shovels in the ground, if we’re going to get paychecks in the pockets of Iowans, we have to have those partners on a local level.”

Judge visited Glidden Wednesday afternoon to tout the $287,500 I-JOBS grant the small, Carroll County town is getting for a storm water project. Judge was in the Sioux City suburb of Sergeant Bluff Wednesday morning. Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Rants of Sioux City is critical of the quarter-of-a-million dollar I-JOBS grant Sergeant Bluff got.

“We were going to spend $500,000 to remodel the (Sergeant Bluff) City Hall…and along comes Lieutenant Governor Judge with a check for $250,000,” Rants says. “But the problem is two weeks ago, Governor Culver cut the funding for the school district in Sergeant Bluff by $655,000 — so Patty Judge may giveth, but Chet Culver taketh away.”

The governor ordered a 10%, across-the-board cut in the state budget in October. Rants has said often over the past 10 months that it makes no sense to add to the state’s precarious fiscal position by borrowing millions for these I-JOBS grants.

“It may look great for Governor Culver and Patty Judge to hand out

grants and, you know, get on television and do press releases, but the fact is the taxpayers are the ones who are getting hammered because of their actions,” Rants says.

Rants is a state representative whose district includes the city of Sergeant Bluffs.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,
Newer Posts »