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Texting champ urging ban on texting while driving

January 20, 2010 By

The Iowa teenager who won a national “texting” competition is urging Iowa lawmakers to ban text messaging while driving.  Kate Moore, a 16-year-old from Des Moines, says even though she sometimes sends 400 text messages a day, she never texts while driving. 

“Us teenagers are in a position where we’re already vulnerable enough while we’re behind the wheel,” Moore says. “So knowing the hot gossip around school that your best friend just texted you, can wait.  Any text message can wait.”

Moore won the U.S. National Texting Championship in June.  Despite her skill at texting and her love of the process, she wants Iowa to join the 19 other states that have banned texting while driving.  Moore admits her texting-messaging peers probably disagree.

“You’re going to have a lot of teenagers who are going to say, ‘I’m at a red light.  I’ll only be five seconds,’” Moore says.  “But, I mean, red lights aren’t predictable and it can wait. It definitely can wait.” 

Moore testified today at the statehouse before a House subcommittee that’s considering a bill that would impose penalities on drivers caught texting in a moving vehicle.

“There’s no rational reason to text and take away your concentration from the road,” Moore told lawmakers.  “For the quick second that you take to read a text message could be the quick second that you swerve out of your lane or side-swipe another car or, even worse, hit somebody head-on.” 

When Moore won the LG National Texting Championship last summer, she sent an average of 14,000 text messages per month.  She won the competition despite a round in which she had to text while blindfolded and another round in which she had to text while being “badgered” by three other competitors.

Filed Under: Politics & Government, Recreation & Entertainment, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

Legislature advances new rules for lobbying groups

January 20, 2010 By

Ethics Committees in the Iowa House and Senate are advancing new rules for businesses and groups that lobby the legislature.   The changes have been in the works for months, a response to an incident involving a legislator who attended a lobbying group’s reception nearly a year ago. 

Representative Kerry Burt was charged with drunken driving last February. The Iowa Pharmacy Association was five months late in filing its financial disclosure report about the reception Burt had attended earlier in the evening.  Senate President Jack Kibbie, a Democrat from Emmetsburg who is chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, says the bill will make it easier for the public to track how much groups spend lobbying legislators.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Ag Secretary, Congressman comment on Morrell closing

January 20, 2010 By

Iowa’s top agricultural official says he’s very disappointed by the decision to close the John Morrell meatpacking plant in Sioux City. It will eliminate 1,400 jobs at the plant which is also processing some 10,000 head of hogs daily. Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey says the closing will bring damage in several areas — to the individuals and to the industry.

“We need the markets out there, we need that capacity as well,” Northey says. “We continue to produce a lot of pork in this state and we need all those markets around to be able to get that pork delivered. It’s a disappointment certainly for those who work in that plant but definitely for those that sell to that plant.” Northey was asked what the agriculture department or other state agency could do to help those who’re impacted by the closing.

“There’s not a lot we can do right now,” Northey says. “I know there’s been a lot of conversations of whether there was an alternative to this, whether there was some modernization or other things that could happen. The company made a decision in what they needed to do to go forward and the challenges that they had in that plant.” Northey remains optimistic that the slack can be taken up.

He says: “I think there will be some discussions around — is there some capacity that somebody else is willing to fill? Is there an opportunity for a newer, more modern plant out there?” Northey is hoping someone will come forward with a processing facility to replace the Sioux City plant. It’s scheduled to close April 20th.

Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron, represents the western Iowa area and issued a statement today on the Morrell closing:

“The John Morrell fresh pork plant has been one of the largest employers in Sioux city for decades. The announcement of is impending closing not only affects the 1,400 employees a the plant, but also other area businesses that serve this facility. Pork producers are also affected at a very tough time in their industry since they will lose a competitive market that is centrally located in the tri-state area.

Given the current economic crisis, it will take the efforts of all local, state, and federal agencies to assist workers losing their jobs. I and my staff stand ready to assist those affected. I am confident in the resilience of western Iowans. It will serve us well as we deal with the loss of a major employer in the Siouxland area.”

Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton contributed to this story.

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

Ice causes havoc for trees and power lines

January 20, 2010 By

More than 25,000 homes and businesses around the state were without power early this afternoon as freezing rain coated trees and power lines with ice. MidAmerican Energy spokesperson Ann Thelen says the majority of her company’s outages were located around Des Moines, Sioux City and Fort Dodge. At 1 p.m., just over 18,000 MidAmerican customers in the state were without electricity.

“We have a significant amount of customers in the Iowa City and Quad Cities areas, so as this storm moves to the east, there is the potential for that number to grow,” Thelen said. The freezing rain is only a part of the problem for the state’s utilities. “We have some wind causing some galloping of the lines, which means they are whipping up and down,” Thelen said. “Most of our outages are because of downed power lines.”

MidAmerican Energy officials prepared for today’s ice storm by putting utility workers in neighboring states on alert. “In addition to our regular MidAmerican crews, we do have crews that are here or are on their way from Kansas, Missouri and Illinois,” Thelen said.

Parts of western Iowa are reporting widespread tree and power line damage from the heavy ice along with the thousands of residents without electricity. Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon says the power was restored to portions of Atlantic this morning, but there are still many people without electricity and unfortunately, that situation may continue for a while.

Kennon says there will be pockets of people without power and it’s just not known how long it’ll take before crews can get all of the individual homes back on-line. Kennon says a “warming station” has been set-up at the Nishnabotna Family YMCA in Atlantic for those who are still in the dark.

He says it’s a warming station for now but if the crews can’t get the power restored to those people, the Y may be converted to a shelter. The Red Cross is providing cots for displaced residents to rest on until the power is restored.

Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic contributed to this story.

Check these links for the latest information on  power outages:

MidAmerican Energy

Alliant Energy

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Weather Tagged With:

Congressman Braley downplays impact of Massachussetts Senate race

January 20, 2010 By

Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo is trying to downplay the political impact of the Republican upset win in the Massachusetts senate race Tuesday. “Well I think you can’t take a single senate race and try to make strong judgments about what that means for the rest of the country, or you could look at the house race that we won in upstate New York that we won recently and try to turn that into a referendum on the Obama agenda,” Braley says.

Braley says it is clear that American voters want a response to the economic crisis that we are in. He says that’s why he recently said in an interview that his advice to the president was to get out and spend as much time as he could in connecting with average Americans who have lost their jobs and who are struggling to get health care for their families.

Braley says the more the issue is raised in congress, the more likely the president is to respond to that recommendation and to be more visible addressing the economic problems that people are facing in Iowa. Braley says that will be the focus of his agenda in this legislative session.

Braley says there are still several options for passing health care reform even though senate Democrats have lost their 60 vote advantage. Braley says one is the house and senate could continue their negotiations and pass a bill through both houses before the Massachusetts senator-elect takes office.

Braley says the other option is the bill could go to a joint committee of the house and senate and some elements of the current legislation, such as Medicare reimbursement, and the elimination of preexisting conditions could be brought back on a piece by piece basis. Braley says it would be difficult to do the piece-by-piece process as it would drag out the health care debate.

Another option is to bring the senate bill forward and pass it without working the differences in the house and senate bill into one bill. “I have very serious reservations about that,” Braley says. He says he is waiting to see what happens with the leadership of the house and senate and the White House, and he says once they decide on a choice, he will “very seriously weigh the benefits and the potential drawbacks of that legislation for my constituents and vote accordingly.”

Braley made his comments during his weekly conference call with reporters.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Ice making driving difficult

January 20, 2010 By

It’s another dangerous morning for drivers as roads more closely resemble ice rinks. Much of western, central and southern Iowa is under an Ice Storm Warning, while most of eastern Iowa is under a Freezing Rain Advisory. Rod Donovan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, says motorists will want to carefully check conditions in their area before attempting to go out.

Donovan says ice accumulations between one-tenth and one-quarter of an inch are possible with this storm, with diminishing ice this afternoon as the ice changes over to freezing drizzle, which may continue overnight and into Thursday. He says the foul weather should let up later on Thursday and into Friday — but later on Friday, another storm system is likely to move over Iowa.

He says the air should remain relatively warm on Friday night and into Saturday morning, so much of what’ll fall will just be rain, though he says colder air may arrive later on Saturday, bringing the greater chance for freezing rain and snow, which could extend into Sunday. For details, visit weather-dot-gov.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Filed Under: Weather

Class 4A: Jadyn Spencer, Waterloo West

January 20, 2010 By

The junior center averaged 27 points and 12 rebounds in three victories. Spencer scored 23 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in a victory over Cedar Rapids Prairie. Spencer also had a 29 point, 10 rebound effort in a victory over New Hampton.

Filed Under: INS Player of the Week, Sports
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