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UNI opens volleyball tourney in Lincoln

December 3, 2009 By

The U.N.I. Volleyball team opens the NCAA Tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska on Friday against Washington State. The Panthers are 30-2 on the season and it’s the programs first 30-win season.

U.N.I. coach Bobbi Peterson says it represents who the team is and she says she will remember the group and how hard they worked. Peterson says Washington State will be a tough first round opponent. The last time Washington was in the tournament in 2002, they knocked the Panthers out in the match to go to the Elite 8.

Nebraska takes on Coastal Carolina in the other first round contest.

Contributed by Elwin Huffman KOEL Oelwein

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Drake soccer team is on the road again in NCAA tourney

December 3, 2009 By

The Drake men’s soccer team will look to earn another road win in the NCAA Tournament when they visit fifth rated North Carolina in the Elite Eight. The 24th ranked Bulldogs have already won at Boston College and number-four Ohio State to reach this point and coach Sean Holmes is not surprised.

Holmes says some people think it is a fluke, but they made the tournament last year and had a great top 25 national RPI, and lost to St.Louis. Holmes says the Bulldogs are confident no matter who the opponent is. He says they don’t spend a lot of time worrying about who they play. He says North Carolina has won a national championship, but he says there is no one that is so unbeatable that they won’t have a chance.

The winner will advance to the College Cup which is soccer’s version of the final four.

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Iowa-ISU face off in wrestling Sunday

December 3, 2009 By

The top two teams in the country collide on Sunday night in Ames when Iowa State hosts Iowa in a college wrestling dual. This will be the first time Iowa State’s Kevin Jackson has taken part in this rivalry as a head coach. Jackson says they want to win every time they step on the mat, but their goal is to be national champions.

He says the road to a championship runs through Iowa City and the way to see where you are at is to wrestle Iowa, the two-time defending champions. Jackson says he has been looking forward to this matchup since he was named the Cyclones head coach. He says he circled it on the calendar and Iowa did too. He says it’s a big part of the sport and one of the reasons he is happy to be at I.S.U.

The top ranked Hawkeyes have won 45 straight dual meets and have claimed the last four in the series against I.S.U. Jackson says if you look at it on paper, Iowa is the team that should win the match as the defending champions who are favored in at least six of the matches. But he says he knows if his team goes and and competes the way they are capable of, he will be happy at the end of the day.

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Grassley says Democrats trying to protect staff from health insurance exchange

December 3, 2009 By

Senator Chuck Grassley says the Senate’s Democratic leaders are trying to protect their staff from having to use the government-run “insurance exchanges” that are created by the health care reform bill being debated in the senate. Grassley, a Republican, voted against the heath care reform plan that emerged this fall from the Senate Finance Committee.

But Grassley successfully added an amendment to the bill which would force all members of congress and their staff to use the so-called “public option” to get their health insurance. Grassley plans to offer a broader amendment this month during debate in the full senate. Grassley wants all senators, members of congress and their staff, as well as the president and all White House staff to be forced to use the “public option” if it’s included in the final package.

“I intend to move forward in a more aggressive way than I did in committee — and we were successful in committee and I think we’ll be more successful on the floor — to make sure that congressmen, and we’ll start including the executive branch political appointees, to see that they’re covered by the public option,” Grassley says, “if we’re going to have a public option.” No word, yet, on when debate of Grassley’s proposal may occur.

Grassley plans to vote against the entire bill, in its final form, if it includes the so-called “public option.” “When the government’s a competitor, a regulator and a funder, then it’s not a very fair competitor,” Grassley says. “It tends to be a predator.” Grassley says it was “inexcusable” for the senate’s Democratic leaders to edit out provisions in the health care reform bill that called for all congressional staff to get their health insurance through the “public exchanges” that’d be created by the bill.

Grassley’s amendment would require that all political appointees in the executive branch of government would have to get their insurance through the ‘public exchanges” as well. That means cabinet secretaries like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and their top staff would have to get their insurance through the public “exchanges.”

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Minnesota company plans biogas plant in Albert City

December 3, 2009 By

A company based in Gaylord, Minnesota has announced plans to build a biogas plant in northwest Iowa. Midwest Biogas President Nick Nelson says they chose Albert City for the plant’s location based on the byproducts needed to make the fuel. “Just the amount of biomass that’s in the area…all of northwest Iowa is an excellent location for plants like this,” Nelson said.

A ground breaking for the proposed Buena Vista Bio Energy plant is planned in the spring. The plant could be complete by 2012 and employ up to 40 workers. Nelson says the jobs will include technicians, material handlers, maintenance work and plant managers. The plant would take byproducts from a nearby ethanol plant and an egg producer. Nelson says it’s not clear yet how much electricity the plant will produce.

“It’s still a little bit up in the air, but we have done our material testing,” Nelson said. “It’s looking somewhere in the range of three-and-a-three-quarter billion cubic feet of gas every year and we’re looking at producing about 42 megawatts an hour of electricity.”

The plant would sell natural gas back to the ethanol plant and also create fertilizer. Nelson says up to 30 people could be hired in early 2011 when the first phase of the plant is done. The proposed plant’s permits are being examined by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Contributed by Ryan Long, KICD, Spencer

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Ag Secretary says two will be laid off

December 3, 2009 By

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey has released details on his plans for the 10%  budget cut ordered by the governor. Northey says the agreement reached with AFSME, the largest state employee union, for furloughs allowed him to minimize the number of layoffs.

Northey says there will be two layoffs and the other union employees will take five furlough days between now and the end of the year. He says if the union hadn’t agreed to the furloughs, they would have had an additional 36 layoffs. The two employees who are being laid off are members of the Iowa United Professionals union, which did not agree to the furloughs. Northey says they’ve tried to protect the “health and safety services” in working around the furloughs.

He says things like dairy inspection and meat inspection are being protected, but he says other areas such as licensing and soil conservation will see slow downs, so things like getting things like terraces and grass waterways designed for farmers will take longer. Northey says the department cut back several programs to help with the budget cut, but no programs have been eliminated.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Elgin man charged with harrassing a deer hunter

December 3, 2009 By

A rural Elgin man is facing charges for allegedly harassing a deer hunter. Forty-four-year-old Brian Gibson is being charged with several violations of the law stemming from allegations from a bow hunter. The hunter, who was not identified, was in a deer stand on November 6th on land not owned by Gibson.

The hunter claims Gibson shot a rifle in the direction of his stand and verbally abused him. A few days later on November 11th, the same hunter was on the land where he had permission to hunt deer and was approached by Gibson. Gibson again fired shots in his area, spat tobacco juice and urinated around his deer stand while the hunter was occupying it, and also turned his dog loose in the area.

The Fayette County Sheriff, D.N.R. game warden and the county attorney investigated the case and then charged Gibson with two counts of hunter harassment, reckless use of a firearm and two counts of assault with use or display of a dangerous weapon.

Contributed by Roger King, KOEL, Oelwein

Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With: ,
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