The junior forward averaged over 20 points and 14 rebounds in two games. Sweeting scored 30 points, on 13-of-16 shooting, grabbed 13 rebounds, had three steals and blocked three shots in a victory over Winfield-Mount Union.
U.S. Supreme Court denies Honken death sentence appeal
December 16, 2009 By
The United States Supreme Court has denied a Britt man’s petition to review his convictions and death sentences for the drug-related murders of five north-central Iowans in 1993. Forty-six-year-old Dustin Honken was convicted by a federal grand jury in 2004 on 17 different counts, including murdering federal witnesses and murder in the furtherance of a drug conspiracy.
The jury determined that Honken should die on four of the counts involving the premeditated murder of two young girls, 10-year-old Kandi Duncan and six-year-old Amber Duncan.
Honken appealed his convictions and sentences raising multiple issues. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his convictions and death sentences. Honken then filed a petition for review to the U.S. Supreme Court, which this week denied his motion in a one-line statement.
Four years ago, Honken’s girlfriend Angela Johnson was convicted of aiding and abetting Honken in the murders and was also sentenced to death. The Supreme Court also denied Johnson’s petition for review one year ago. Honken will have one year to file a petition for post-conviction relief. The U.S. Department of Justice will not schedule an execution date until Honken exhausts any such challenge.
By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City
Culver “not likely” to recommend closing Mt Pleasant MHI
December 16, 2009 By
Governor Chet Culver says when he presents a budget plan to legislators late next month, he probably will not recommend closing the state Mental Health Institute in Mount Pleasant.
“I would say it’s not likely because this is going to require some additional legislative discussion, I think,” Culver says. “And it’s important to note that this process started because the legislature asked the department to study it.”
Last spring, legislators asked the director of the Iowa Department of Human Services to single out one of the four Mental Health Institutes for closure and, earlier this week, the D.H.S. director chose the one in Mount Pleasant. The governor says legislators need to “explore” their options when it comes to closing the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute, as it may not wind up saving the state much money.
“That was one of the concerns raised yesterday,” Culver says. “Is there really cost savings or not?”
Late this morning Culver attended a statehouse forum hosted by the Associated Press and after the meeting, he told a small group of statehouse reporters that legislators may choose to keep the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute open.
“It’s too early to know if there will be the consensus (in the legislature) on that question or not,” Culver said.
The state has four Mental Health Institutes — in Mount Pleasant, Clarinda, Cherokee and Independence. The Mental Health Institute in Mount Pleasant has an eight-point-eight million dollar operating budget and just over a hundred people on the payroll. Many would be offered jobs at the Independence facility if the one in Mount Pleasant were to close. Patient care would be transferred to Independence and the Department of Human Services director estimates the total savings of shutting downt he Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute would be about $1.7 million.
Also today, Culver signed an executive order which implements some of the budget-cutting ideas outlined in a report from a consulting firm Culver hired. That report, which was released last week, outlined about $128 million in savings the consultants say the governor can implement himself, by executive order.
Farmland values drop 2.2% in ISU survey
December 16, 2009 By
Average farmland values dropped 2.2% in the latest ISU survey.
The average value of an acre of farmland in Iowa dropped by 2.2% from 2008 to 2009. The annual survey conducted by Iowa State University Extension found the statewide average on November 1st of this year was $4,371 an acre, down $97 from the 2008 figure of $4,468.
ISU Extension farm economist Mike Duffy says it’s the first time Iowa’s had a decline in overall farmland since 1999. “A negative number obviously is never good news, but this is a decrease that is less than what I anticipated,” Duffy said. “My guess originally had been that we would be down about five-percent.”
AG calls for more info on used cars
December 16, 2009 By
Attorneys general from 40 states — including Iowa — are asking the Federal Trade Commission to strengthen protection for used car buyers. Bill Brauch of the Iowa Attorney General’s office heads the Automobile Working Group for the National Association of Attorneys General. The group wants auto dealers to be more forthcoming about a used car’s history.
Brauch says dealers already post a so-called “Buyer’s Guide” on each car indicating whether there’s a warranty. “We want them to keep that, but we want them to feature more prominently whether the dealer’s aware the vehicle has had prior damage — a salvage title, for example, (or) had water damage, flood damager or been a Lemon Law buy-back,” Brauch says. Under the state’s Lemon Law, a dealer must buy back a defective vehicle that has a major defect or problem that just can’t be fixed in the first 24-thousand miles or 24 months of use. Iowa law already requires dealers to tell buyers about past problems with a car, but consumer advocates want the information posted clearly — right on the vehicle.
“Anyone who’s shopped for a used car has seen these and there’s a box for the dealer to check as to whether the vehicle is being sold “as is” or with a warranty,” Brauch says. “And we’ve asked the Federal Trade Commission to strengthen that rule.” The so-called “Buyer’s Guides” that are posted in vehicle windows have not been significantly changed since 1985, when the “Buyer’s Guide” was introduced.
The National Automobile Dealers Association opposes the changes, arguing that adding new information to the “Buyer’s Guide” about a vehicle’s history would “impose significant, costly and, in some cases, impossible burdens on used car dealers.”
EPC approves clean water rules
December 16, 2009 By
The state’s Environmental Protection Commission is okaying rules designed to keep Iowa’s waters clean and to bring the state closer to being in line with federal anti-degradation policies. Those rules aim to keep industry and sewage plants from polluting lakes, rivers and streams designated as containing high-quality water.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources director Rich Leopold says both environmentalists and business interests should be pleased. “It gives us an ability as a society to give thoughtful consideration to what’s going into our water bodies,” Leopold says. “It doesn’t limit industry, it doesn’t limit agriculture, but what it does is assume the water is everybody’s and we have the right and responsibility to decide what goes into it.”
Leopold says the new rules were designed to keep pollutants out of lakes and streams which the state has already determined to be clean. “What anti-degradation does is before an additional discharge goes into a public water, we give pause and thought as to what’s going in and how it will affect existing uses, how it’s going to affect recreation, aquatic life and things like that.”
Representatives from groups like the Iowa Rural Water Association and the Iowa League of Cities hoped to table the measure until the cost of installing pollution-control devices for some utilities could be determined. The E-P-C voted 5-2 to approve the rules, that vote follows two years of discussion that included 13 public hearings and comments from more than 900 people.
Film tax credit gets some discussion at hearing
December 16, 2009 By
A second public hearing on state tax credits is set for this afternoon in Urbandale. The film industry credit that led to the state review of all credits was part of the discussion at the first public hearing Tuesday in Cedar Rapids. The film tax credit was suspended in September after allegations of mismanagement and abuse.
Supporters of the credit like Kathy Buxton, the C-E-O of animation studio in Mount Pleasant, urged state leaders to improve the credit rather than get rid of it. Buxton says the opportunity to create jobs and pump thousands of dollars into local economies is too good to pass up.
Buxton says,” The challenge is do you just throw your hands up and turn the board over and say I don’t want to play or do you say, well let’s look at this again.”
Buxton and other supporters suggested multiple changes to the incentive. One idea is to slowly develop Iowa’s film industry with a five-year plan that would gradually give incentives to bigger budget productions. Opponents say the tax break is a bad idea because there’s a budget shortfall. A panel of state department heads will make recommendations to the Governor about what to do with all of the the state’s 30 plus tax credits.
