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Some communities begin paying local sales tax today

January 1, 2010 By

The residents of some areas of the state will pay an extra penny of sales tax with the start of the new year today. Iowa Department of Revenue spokesperson, Renee Mulvey, says many areas will now add the 1% sales tax on top of the 6% state sales tax.

She says Calhoun County and the city of Lytton and the unincorporated areas are going to add a 1% sales tax today. In Ida County and the town of Holstein and the unincorporated areas, they will add the 1% tax and another 1% will be charged in Osceola county in the towns of Ashton, Harris, Melvin, and Ocheyedan.

Mulvey says there are still some areas where you won’t have to pay the extra local sales tax. “With the new jurisdictions coming on we have 69 of our 99 counties have the 1% local option tax countywide. So everywhere that you make sales or purchases in those counties you will pay that 1% in addition to the six,” Mulvey says.

Also today, the extra penny of tax continues in Lansing in northeast Iowa. The tax was scheduled to end until voters approved a measure to extend it.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Bluffs plastic surgeon launches iPhone app

January 1, 2010 By

Does your list of new year’s resolutions include changing your appearance? A facial plastic surgeon in Omaha/Council Bluffs claims he’s one of the first in the country to develop an i-Phone application, or app, for his industry.

Dr. Steven Denenberg says his app is very user-friendly. “That not only allows someone to see a plastic surgeon’s before-and-after pictures, and lots of them, but also much more conveniently than browsing around a website.”

As i-Phones are growing in popularity, Dr. Denenberg says so is self-improvement surgery. The app allows people to send in their photo via the i-Phone and attach any questions about a potential procedure.

Denenberg says, “Someone browses around the before-and-after pictures and says, ‘I want to get an opinion from this doctor,’ so they just turn the phone around, snap some pictures of themselves, press a button or two, and then the photos get sent off to me, if it’s my app.”

He says one of the most popular requests he’s getting for surgery have to do with the nose. “Rhinoplasty, changing what the nose looks like,” Denenberg says. “Also revision rhinoplasty, which is a large part of my practice, which is where you re-operate on a nose after a previous unsuccessful rhinoplasty.”

Denenberg says the i-Phone is bringing him business and he’s also developing apps for the medical field, including cosmetic dentists and other plastic surgeons. “People who use the i-Phone and use it a lot, they’re looking for interesting apps,” he says. “They’re looking for something fun to do and this app provides yet another new way of using the i-Phone.”

He says several thousand people have already downloaded his new app.

Filed Under: Technology

Cyclones hold on, win Insight Bowl 14-13

January 1, 2010 By

The Iowa State Cyclones held off a second half rally by Minnesota to post a 14-13 victory in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona. Iowa State recovered a fumble by Gopher backup quarterback MarQueis Gray inside the 20-yard-line with just over four minutes remaining and were unable to run out the clock to finish 7-6 on the season.

Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads says they set out to accomplish two things, enjoy themselves, and prepare and work to win the game. He says the preparation they had was exactly what they need to win the game.

Rhoads led the program to its third bowl victory in his first season at the helm. Jake Williams was on the receiving end of a scoring pass from Austen Arnaud just before halftime to give the Cyclones a 14-3 lead at the break. Williams says he couldn’t see the ball thrown, but says the play was a huge momentum shift going into halftime.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

UNI looks for 10th straight win

January 1, 2010 By

The UNI basketball team bids for a tenth straight victory tonight when the Panthers host Evansville in Missouri Valley Conference play. The Panthers are 10-1 and opened the Valley race this week with a victory at Creighton. Evansville is 6-5 and opened conference play with a loss at home to Missouri State.

UNI coach Ben Jacobsen says Evansville has a young team, but says they play extremly hard and fight for everything. Ali Farokhmanesh led UNI with 15 points in the victory at Creighton. He says it’s good to come home with a victory.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Iowa women hold on for win

January 1, 2010 By

The Iowa Hawkeye women saw a 21 point second half lead trimmed to eight but they held on for a 61-51 victory over Wisconsin in Iowa City.

Iowa coach Lisa Bluder says they have to correct problems like too many turnovers and missed free throws. Bluder says after an 0-2 start in conference play it was a much-needed victory for her team. She says they now have to go on the road for two games at Minnesota and Michigan, so a victory was important at home.

Iowa is now 8-6 on the season.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Y-2-K fear was unfounded, but expert says it help state prepare

January 1, 2010 By

This decade started with fear over what would happen to computers as we entered a new century. The concerns revolved around whether the programming in computers would handle the switch from the year ending in 99 to the 00 of the new century.

It was feared computers in all sorts of devices would shut down or not work. Thousands of dollars were spent on the problem and the state had its emergency management headquarters staffed and waiting on New Year’s Eve for any problems.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Vilsack touts “income opportunity” in energy bill

January 1, 2010 By

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says changes under consideration by those crafting an energy bill would help American farmers.

Petroleum-based fertilizers are used on much of U.S. cropland and farmers worry an energy bill that imposes financial penalties for businesses that use petroleum-based products would cause farming costs to spike.  

“I know that there’s a lot of concern on the part of many producers on how this will impact costs,” Vilsack says.  “I think that the bills currently being worked on recognize that and are making adjustments, for example in the fertilizer area helping the fertilizer industry transition, so there shouldn’t be additional costs for a considerable period of time associated with fertilizer.” 

Vilsack argues the energy bill’s provisions could be a boon to rural America.

“There is a tremendous opportunity to increase the bottom line for farmers and ranchers through an appropriately-crafted offset program,” Vilsack says. 

Under the energy bill that passed the U.S. House in June, regulated industries with too many carbon emissions would have to buy offsets and Vilsack argues farmers, then, could profit from doing things like no-till farming.

“There have been a number of studies that have been done both inside and outside the government. The one thing that is consistent about those studies is that it is a net winner for agriculture. In some cases, it’s a couple billion dollars. In other cases, other studies, it’s as much as $10-, $15-, $20 billion annually of additional revenue coming in to farmers and ranchers,” Vilsack says.  “…We don’t want to miss this income opportunity.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation opposes the bill, saying it would reduce competitiveness abroad and increase production costs for farmers at home.  The National Farmers Union supports the legislation, if the provisions which would let farmers profit from conservation practices like no-till farming remain intact.

Vilsack, who served as Iowa’s governor from January, 1999 through January, 2007, made his comments this past week during a news conference in Des Moines.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business, Environment & Conservation, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,
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