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Cases of HIV/AIDS continue to climb in Iowa

December 1, 2009 By

The number of people living with HIV or AIDS in Iowa continues to climb. Holly Hanson is with the Iowa Department of Public Health’s HIV/AIDS Program. “Diagnoses have really remained steady over the last several years. We get about 100 to 120 new (HIV or AIDs) cases every year and we’re on target to do that again for 2009,” Hanson said.

An estimated 1,667 people are currently living with HIV or AIDS in the state. In just over half of the cases, the transmission of the virus was caused by men having sex with other men. Around 18% of the cases involved heterosexual contact and 10% involved people who shared needles during intravenous drug use. A disproportionate number of Hispanics living in Iowa are testing positive.

Hispanics make up nearly 4% of the state’s overall population, but account for almost 9% of the HIV cases. Hanson say blacks, meanwhile, make up only 2% of the population but account for nearly 20% of the HIV and AIDS cases in Iowa. One reason for the continued rise in persons with HIV or AIDS is improved medication, allowing people to live longer lives.

Hanson says programs to help those individuals are not being funded enough to keep up with the demand. She manages a program which provides medication to low-income people living with HIV who have no other way to pay for the needed drugs. “We have run into a problem there with not enough funding,” Hanson said. Consequently, the program is closed to new enrollees. There is a waiting list of 25 people who are hoping to be added to the program. Today is recognized as World AIDS Day.

See the department’s report on AIDS here.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Iowa Christmas tree growers donate trees for soldiers

December 1, 2009 By
Christmas tree growers ready to load up trees for soldiers.

Christmas tree growers wait to load up trees for soldiers.

Iowa Christmas tree growers brought donations of their crop to the Iowa State Fairgrounds today  for the annual “Trees for Troops” operation.

Iowa Christmas Tree Growers Association executive director, Jan Pacovsky, says 27 growers donated over 125 trees that’ll be sent to soldiers.

Pacovsky says this is a volunteer effort and growers can donate as many trees as they want. One grower donated 23 trees this year. She says the FedEx company donates the shipping for the trees.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Agriculture, Human Interest, Military

Postville veterans upset with use of flag in support of Rubashkin

December 1, 2009 By

The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Postville is protesting the use of the American flag, featured as a backdrop on a poster asking for support for convicted felon Sholom Rubashkin. The former executive at Agriprocessors in Postville was convicted last month of 86 federal bank fraud charges.

Prosecutors decided to drop an upcoming trial on immigration charges against Rubashkin, in order to save the expense of another costly trial. As it stands, Rubashkin faces the possibility of over 1,000 years in prison on the fraud charges. He remains in jail until his sentencing as the judge sited Rubashkin is a possible flight risk.

Some supporters of Rubashkin have put up posters around the city of Postville. It features a picture of Rubashkin in front of an American flag background. Local veterans claim the poster is a desecration of the flag and is against the state code regarding defacing the flag. They contend the flag is being used to shield a convicted criminal. Members of the Jeffrey E. Bohr VFW post in Postville are demanding the signs be removed and destroyed, and that an apology be made to the city and veterans.

Contributed by Roger King, KOEL, Oelwein

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Military

New CFO for Pella Corp a long-time Ford exec

December 1, 2009 By

The new Chief Financial Officer for Pella Corporation has worked for a major U.S. auto maker. 

David Smart is the new Chief Financial Officer for the company that makes windows and doors which bear the brand name “Pella.”  According to a news release from the Pella Corporation, Smart spent the past two decades with the Ford Motor Company, most recently as the Chief Financial Officer of Ford’s operations in Australia.  He also once served as a key California-based manager for Ford’s Jaguar and Land Rover Group. 

The Rolscreen Company was founded in Pella in 1925 and in 1992 its name was changed to the Pella Corporation.  Pella wood windows and doors are manufactured at plants in Pella, Carroll, Shenandoah, Sioux Center and Macomb, Illinois.  The Pella Corporation has manufacturing plants in five other states that manufacture vinyl windows and doors.

The Pella plant in Story City was closed last spring.  It now is used for storage.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Fong suspends gubernatorial campaign

December 1, 2009 By

A Republican who announced in July that he was running for governor exited the race this morning. 

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christian Fong issued a written statement this morning announcing the suspension of his campaign.  Fong talked by phone with Radio Iowa shortly after 11 o’clock. “The message that the Republican Party is coalescing around — of fiscal responsibility, a return to limited government, trusting people in their communities to provide the solutions — that’s the future of Iowa and that’s what I’ve been speaking through my campaign,” Fong said.  “Now, the reason for my exit is purely financial. The vision remains unclouded.  The message remains clear and it’s one that other people within the Republican Party will continue to carry.” 

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Group offers $3,500 reward in Sioux County farm vandalism case

December 1, 2009 By

An ag group is offering a $3,500 dollar reward for information in the case of vandalism at a hog confinement facility in Sioux County. Aaron Putze, the executive director of the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers, says they hope the reward will generate information that helps solve the case.

Putze says the Coalition has been working with local law enforcement since the news first came out on November 13th about the loss of 4,000 pigs. “The farm community does not tolerate animal abuse, livestock abuse, in any form at any time, and we wanted to come forward an assist law enforcement there in Sioux County,”Putze says.

Putze says they don’t know if the vandalism was caused by an organized group or a lone person. Putze says: “Law enforcement at this point has been very reluctant to hypothesize on what is behind this. What we do know is that the ventilation systems in this particular barn were tampered with, that caused the death of nearly 3,800 hogs. That kind of abuse cannot be tolerated.”

He says this is not the only case of vandalism in the state, as they are trying to help solve another case in Calhoun and Sac counties. He says liquid propane tanks on farms in those counties have been shot by someone with a high-calibre rifle, and in southern Iowa he says there’s a case of livestock farmer who had cattle shot and fences cut along with other vandalism.

“So sadly there are pockets of this kind of activity and it cannot be tolerated and we want to do whatever we can to help bring this person or persons responsible to justice,” Putze says. Putze says they are asking anyone who has any kind of lead in the Sioux County case to call the sheriff. He says you can remain anonymous.

Putze says they are hoping that someone, somewhere might have heard or seen something. He says it doesn’t have to be much, but it may help in the case and they encourage you to contact the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office. You can call the sheriff at 712-737-3307. The 3,500 reward is for information that leads to an arrest in the case. The dead hogs in the Sioux County case were estimated to be work over $200,000.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Crime & Courts Tagged With:

Grassley: cut domestic spending if war in Afghanistan expands

December 1, 2009 By

Senator Chuck Grassley says President Obama should scale back domestic spending if he intends to prolong the war in Afghanistan. 

Obama is scheduled to publicly reveal his strategy for the Afghan war this evening and he’s expected to send more than 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Grassley, a Republican, says Obama has to maintain “credibility” with our foes and our friends around the world by following through on those plans.

“I have to take the president at his word. In the campaign, Iraq was kind of irrelevant and Afghanistan was a war worth fighting and then he announced his new strategy in March,” Grassley says.  “He fired the general, hired (General) McChrystal and McChrystal says he needs additional people and so all I do is expect the president to follow up on what he said was so important during the campaign and his own strategy.” 

Grassley, a Republican, says the Obama Administration is increasing domestic spending by 12.5 percent.

“We’ve got this big debt and the war…isn’t going to help the debt any,” Grassley says.  “But we need to shift some resources from that 12-and-a-half percent that’s not sustainable over to the war effort so that we don’t have the big national debt that we’re going to have.”

Grassley has supported most of the congressional resolutions which have extended war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan and the overall “War on Terror” which started during the Bush Administration. In March of 2007, Grassley voted against spending another $122 billion on the overall war effort because it included a timeline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq.  President Bush vetoed the measure and another bill was forwarded to provide war funding, without the call for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

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