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Prairie Meadows board will seek internet gambling

November 13, 2009 By

A member of the board of directors of Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona says Prairie Meadows will ask state lawmakers in the upcoming session to approve internet gambling at the track. Tom Whitney briefed the Iowa Racing and Gaming commission on the issue at their meeting Thursday.

“It allows you to rather than being required to be at the track and make a bet, or being at the track for the purpose of making a parimutuel bet on a race on another track, you can go to your computer and make a direct bet into Prairie Meadows,” Whitney says.

Federal lawmakers are considering outlawing internet gambling nationwide, but Whitney is not concerned. “The question is where is congress going to be in terms of the future. And you can’t plan your program on the basis of what legislation might or might not be passed by the United State Congress. Obviously we would honor anything that congress did if it became law,” Whitney says. Whitney told the commission that other interest groups including horse breeders are on board with the proposal.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With:

Hawkeyes and Buckeyes meet with eye on Pasadena

November 13, 2009 By

With the Rose Bowl on the line the Iowa Hawkeyes get set to battle Ohio State and the winner will book a trip to Pasadena. The Hawkeyes are a substantial underdog and will be without starting quarterback Ricky Stanzi who suffered an injured ankle in a loss to Northwestern. Redshirt freshman James Vandenberg takes the helm and it will be up to the Iowa defense to take some of the pressure off.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says they will have to play well on special teams and the offense will need to make some plays and protect the football. Ferentz says Ohio State is always really good on defense and this team is not exception. After a slow start the Buckeyes are playing their best at the right time and Ferentz says the performance of sophomore quarterback Terrell Pryor is a major factor.

He says Pryor has always been a phenomenal athlete and now has become a better quarterback. Ferentz says the Buckeyes have a good plan that allows him to run and throw. Ferentz says Vandenberg knows it will be a difficult atmosphere in a place the Hawks have only two wins in the last 50 years.

Ferentz says Vandenberg watches TV and has figured that all out, and says he is a quality guy and will be fine. It is the second time these programs have met with the Rose Bowl on the line. The first was back in 1956 and the Hawks posted a 6-0 victory in Iowa City.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Braley defends “cash for clunkers”

November 13, 2009 By

Congressman Bruce Braley is defending the “cash for clunkers” program against critics who say many transactions involved pick-up owners trading in an old truck for a new truck.

An analysis by the Associated Press found the “single most common” trade-ins involved owners of “clunker” Ford F-150 pick-ups who bought a new F-150. The new trucks get about three more miles to the gallon compared to the old F-150s, but, overall, the new F-150s get less than 20 miles to the gallon.  Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, defends the program against those who say it has done little to improve the average gas consumption of vehicles on America’s roads.

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

AG announces settlement over drug prices

November 13, 2009 By

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced a settlement today with 8 of 78 drug companies accused of overcharging the state’s Medicaid program. Miller says the companies were giving out wrong information when reporting drug prices.

Miller says they should report the average price of the drug they sell to retailers, but he says the companies have inflated and exaggerated the price they report to the states. Miller says the inflated drug prices allowed them to sell more overall. He says it’s a “perverse form or competition” where the higher price they charge, the more money the doctors and pharmacies make, and those doctors and pharmacies are then more likely to use the company’s products.

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Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Son of Beatle McCartney to make U.S. debut in Iowa

November 13, 2009 By
James McCartney (center, seated) with his band Light

James McCartney (center, seated) with his band Light

The son of legendary musician and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney will make his American concert debut this weekend in southeast Iowa. Thirty-two-year-old James McCartney is performing with his band as part of a concert series in Fairfield.

One of the show’s organizers, Michael Sternfeld, heard the younger McCartney play at an impromptu house concert in Fairfield this summer. “I got a call saying, ‘Michael, c’mon over to the house, something special,’ this is by Bob Roth, vice president of the David Lynch Foundation, and there’s James McCartney, sitting on the couch with his guitar in hand, and for just four of us, he just played for two hours,” Sternfeld says. “Absolutely incredible, he’s so gifted. He’s a musical genius, I think.”

Officials from the Lynch Foundation, headed by the film director, became acquainted with James McCartney after his father played a benefit concert in New York in April. Sternfeld says the younger McCartney was curious about Fairfield and its links to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and transcendental meditation so he made the trip to Iowa — and put on the mini-concert.

So how’s he sound? “Very distinctive voice, he has his own voice, plays a lot of different styles and genres, from his own original material to beautiful covers,” Sternfeld says. “In the past, as I understand it, he has a band named Light and he’s been performing in London clubs under that band’s name. Not only is this his U-S debut, this is really his debut under his own name as James McCartney.”

McCartney is granting no interviews, but said through a press release that his music is “basically rock ‘n’ roll” that was inspired by The Beatles, Nirvana, The Cure, P-J Harvey, Radiohead “and all good music.” Sternfeld says it’s a real honor for Fairfield to be hosting this show, adding, the audience will not be disappointed. “I was deeply moved, I was touched, I was enchanted by his music,” Sternfeld says. “It is very distinctive, unique, powerful. He sings from a very deep place. I feel he has a huge future as a musician in his own right, even if he didn’t have McCartney as his last name.”

The concert comes a little more than 40 years after Paul McCartney traveled to India to study Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Fairfield is home to Maharishi University of Management, which was founded about the same time. Among the other performers at the Saturday concert is Donovan, the 60s Scottish singer/songwriter who was an influence for the Beatles.

For more information on the concert, visit: www.fairfieldacc.com for the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center.

Filed Under: Human Interest

Norway’s “Final Season” coach pens baseball book

November 13, 2009 By

The Iowa man who was the inspiration for the 2007 baseball movie “The Final Season” is doing a book-signing in northeast Iowa this weekend. In the early 1990s, Kent Stock took over as the head coach of the Norway High School baseball team, which hoped to continue a championship tradition. It was Norway’s final season before being merged with a nearby school.

Stock says watching two years of his life story unfold on the big screen was “really surreal” and “amazing.” Actor Sean Astin, who gained global fame as Sam in the “Lord of the Rings” movies, portrayed Stock in “The Final Season.”

Stock says becoming acquainted with Astin and the other top-flight actors and actresses in the movie was an inspiring experience. Stock says, “It was neat to get to know those people because a lot of times you think they’re something really special and you put them on a pedestal but they’re just normal people like you and me.”

He says he became motivated to write a book about his experience after the movie was made. Stock says he did a lot of speaking engagements and afterwards people would ask if there was a book so they could learn more. He teamed up with Ken Fuson from the Des Moines Register to get the words on paper.

The book is called “Heading for Home,” and Stock says it’s touched people in a way he didn’t expect. “When I did it, I targeted it towards people that love baseball, but it ended up being more than just baseball,” Stock says. “It’s my love affair with baseball and it’s more about faith and family and friends and people have said they’ve laughed, they’ve cried and felt inspired by reading the book.”

Stock holds a book-signing in Dyersville at the Community Savings Bank tomorrow from 9 to 11 AM. He’ll also be autographing his book at the Manchester Community Savings Bank on December 12th.

Contributed by Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester

Filed Under: Human Interest, Sports

Farmers see problems with crops due to wet weather

November 13, 2009 By

Some Iowa farmers are finding a few problems with their corn crop because of the unusually cold and wet weather in October. Don Elsberned farms north of Postville in Allamakee County. He says corn mold is popping up in areas of the state that received the heaviest rain, including some of his fields.

“There’s a lot of visable signs of mold, but it seems most of the mold that we’re seeing is superficial at this point…it rubs off,” Elsberned said. “I did file a claim with a crop insurance adjuster. He came out and looked at it and found no issues with it.”

The corn mold becomes a much bigger problem when it produces toxins. Elsberned doesn’t expect that to be an issue with his crop. Despite the recent dry spell, Elsberned says harvest work is running slow. “The corn is wet, so it takes time to get it dry and into storage. So, I’m sure we’ll be running well past Thanksgiving this year,” Elsberned said.

This week, a federal crop summary found 83-percent of Iowa’s soybean crop was harvested, while nearly two-thirds of the corn crop remains in the fields. Johnson County farmer Ed Ulch talked about his progress as he hauled his final load of soybeans to Solon. “We have 90-percent of our corn left in the field,” Ulch said. “If the weather permits, we’ll keep right at it, but I’m afraid that we’re going to be finishing up some time after Thanksgiving.” Kevin Ross farms near Underwood in southwest Iowa.

“October was probably the most miserable month for harvesting that I’ve ever had to deal with,” Ross said. The U.S.D.A. this week lowered its forecast for Iowa’s corn and soybean harvests. However, Iowa’s yields are still expected to exceed the 2008 crop.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Weather Tagged With:
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