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Iowa and ISU look ahead to bowl preparation

December 8, 2009 By

With their destinations set the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones can now prepare for their bowl opponents. The Iowa Hawkeyes will play Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl on January fifth. Iowa closed out the regular season with a 10-2 record while Georgia Tech finished 11-2 and won the ACC championship.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says Georgia Tech has had and exceptional year and is one of a handful of teams to win 11 games this year and he says it will be a great challenge. It will be a new challenge for the Hawkeyes defense that will try to slow down a Georgia Tech option attack that has averaged 307 yards of rushing per game.

Ferentz says he can’t remember facing a pure option team, so it will be very, very different for them. He says you have to cover all the bases as they post a lot of threats.

Iowa State will play Minnesota in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona on December 31st. It is the first bowl game since 2005 for the Cyclones who finished the regular season with a record of 6-6.

Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads says they will hold several practices before giving the players some time off. Rhoads says there are a number of benefits to playing in a bowl game, including the additional practice time. He says you get national recognition that helps in recruiting and benefit the goals of moving the program forward. Rhoads says it gives credibility to the players that what you’ve been coaching is working.

Minnesota also is 6-6.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: , ,

Congressman King supports Afghan plan, questions time table

December 8, 2009 By

Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron, says he saw some good signs in visit to Afghanistan this past weekend. King says it was the first time he’d been to the country in 14 months. He says on balance it seemed safer in cities like Kabul than he’s seen it in the past.

King says there seems to be a stability in some of the urban areas of the country, but there are other areas where the U.S. does not have much presence. King says moving forward in the country, the current administration’s plan sounds familiar. King says in listening to the briefings on the plan and strategy and reinforcing the troops there with 30-thousand more soldiers, it “sounds almost exactly like the Bush doctrine.”

He says the goals for the troops of clear, and build, hold and transfer to the Afghan people are the same goals of the Bush administration, and King says in talking with the Afghan prime minister, he agrees with that goal. King says he supports the administration’s plan, but has doubts about being able to accomplish it in the 18-month time frame set as a goal.

“I think the strategy is a minimalist strategy, it’s only 75-percent of the minimum number of troops asked for by General McChrystal. And I think the strategy can work,” King says. He says if anything goes wrong he doesn’t know what contingency plans we have or what redundancies there are in the plan and he would like to see a plan that has both the contingencies and redundancies that would ensure a greater level of success. King says there needs to be more said about the focus of the plan.

King says he will support the plan and strategy, and will encourage more resources, but he was we all have to define “who is our enemy.” King says we went to Afghanistan to go after Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and that was the message of President Obama and candidate Obama. But he says no one in Afghanistan today talks about al-Qaida. King says the enemy we need to seek is the taliban.

He says more also needs to be done to cut the poppy production that is used to make heroin. He says there is some effort going on to reduce the poppy trade but he says unless more is done, the poppy trade will continue to provide funding for our enemy and make it difficult to achieve something we can define as a victory. Some 3,500 Iowa soldiers are scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan.

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

Congressman Loebsack questions Afghan commander about agriculture

December 8, 2009 By

Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Mount Vernon, asked the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan about opportunities to improve the country’s agriculture during a hearing today on the war effort. “I believe that re-defining and growing the Afghan economy will be key to stabilizing the country and eventually allowing our troops to come home,” Loebsack says.

In July, Loebsack was in Afghanistan where he met with an Agriculture Development Team. General Stanley McChrystal agreed the country’s agriculture development is crucial to improving security. “Once you increase agriculture in most cases but also any kind of employment what you do is you take fighters off the battlefield or you take potential fighters off, because unemployment is biggest recruiter for the Taliban right now,” McChrystal says.

The comments came during a hearing by the House Armed Services Committee.

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

Schools will receive millions from Microsoft settlement

December 8, 2009 By

More than 1,000 schools in the state are learning today that they’re eligible to receive a portion of the $60 million made available by a class-action lawsuit settlement with Microsoft. Iowa Department of Education Director Judy Jeffrey says about 75% of Iowa’s schools will receive vouchers worth anywhere between $1,000 to $450,000.

“At a time when we have tremendous economic challenges, to see this amount of money coming to a lot of our schools is just unbelievable,” Jeffrey said. The money is part of a nearly $180 million settlement in a class action suit alleging that Microsoft overcharged Iowa consumers and businesses for certain products.

Individuals, businesses and governments received about 57-million dollars from the settlement. Jeffrey says she formed a “think tank” to help decide which schools should receive the money, how much they should receive and how the money could be spent. “The schools were selected by the percentage of children who are on free and reduced hot lunch,” Jeffrey said. “(Members of the think tank) were very interested in reducing the digital divide between our families who are not as economically well off as other families and those families tend to be concentrated in many of our schools.”

The vouchers can be used on computer hardware and software available from numerous companies, not just Microsoft. Jeffrey says school administrators can only purchase items that are part of a pre-approved list of products that qualify for reimbursement. Jeffrey made today’s announcement at Des Moines’ Capitol View Elementary School, which is eligible to receive $100,000 from the settlement.

Capitol View Principal Marcia Johnson says her teachers will be getting new computers. “The need is very desperate for new computers,” Johnson said. “Our old computers are probably five or six years old, I believe, and are very slow.” School districts with eligible schools must complete an application to participate in the program. Once approved, the districts then submit invoices for their purchases and are reimbursed. The schools have until August 16, 2013 to redeem the vouchers.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Education, Technology Tagged With:

Casey’s reports jump in profits

December 8, 2009 By

A convenience store chain based in Ankeny is reporting a big boost in profits. Casey’s General Stores Incorporated reported Monday that it earned $33.6 million during its fiscal second-quarter.

That’s an increase of 22% over the first quarter and is up from the $27.3 million earned over the same quarter last year. The company is giving credit to stronger profit margins on gasoline, food and other items in its stores.

Casey’s operates nearly 1,500 convenience stores in Iowa and eight other Midwestern states.

Filed Under: Business

Snow continues, blizzard warning in effect for tonight

December 8, 2009 By
Insterstate in Des Moines.

Interstate in Des Moines.

Snow totals continue to build across the state leading to dozens of accidents as motorists seek to make it through the storm. Most school districts in the state have already sent students home for the day and most evening activities at schools have been canceled.

The Iowa Department of Transportation is reminding travelers that conditions in town can be dramatically different than those in unsheltered rural areas.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Weather

Governor unveils 90 budget-cutting ideas

December 8, 2009 By
Governor Culver

Governor Culver

Governor Chet Culver today unveiled a list of 90 ideas he says will save the state nearly $1.7 billion over the next five years.

The ideas come from a consulting firm Culver hired to review the state budget. Culver will issue executive orders later this week to enact an estimated $128 million dollars in savings for the next budgeting year.

“I look forward to quickly signing these orders and implementing these reforms so that we can start saving taxpayer money,” Culver said this morning. 

The rest of the proposals for the next state fiscal year require legislative action. 

“I believe we can do all of these things if we have the political will to do ‘em,” Culver said. 

Consolidating the state’s 223 different data centers is one idea. Another calls for changing state purchasing methods to buy commonly used goods in bulk, including the medical devices used by Iowans who get state-paid insurance through Medicaid. 

Culver, a Democrat who plans to seek reelection in 2010, unveiled the plans during a midday speech at the Iowa Taxpayers Association’s annual meeting. 

“These changes will not be easy.  You can only imagine the buzz that this report has already created, but it will take the efforts of community and statewide leaders, like the people here in this room,” Culver said.  “I believe that we should all be partners in reforming our state govenrment, especially during these challenging economic times, and I’m counting on your support and your help and I believe the taxpayers of Iowa deserve it.”

The governor spoke with reporters early this afternoon, providing more details, such as an effort to encourage local officials to collect fines that are owed to the state.  Culver suggests the state may even hire private firms to go after delinquent taxpayers and those who have past-due fines.

“And there have been examples that we can show where states or government localities have done that, so that’s an opportunity,” Culver said. 

House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha welcomed the budget-cutting ideas.

“From what I understand, a lot of the ideas were stuff we proposed last year,” Paulsen told reporters, shortly before he was to speak to the Iowa Taxpayers Association.  “…I think we could have done ‘em last year, but I’m pleased that (Culver) is ready to start working on ‘em now.” 

A Democratic senator who is co-chair of a government reorganization task force said Culver’s list of budget-cutting ideas shows there’s “growing momentum for changing the way state government does business.”

A copy of the report is posted on the governor’s official website.

Click here to listen to Culver’s 22-minute speech to the Iowa Taxpayers Association.  capCulverITA

Click here to listen to Culver speak with reporters. capCulverAfterITA

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