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One person dead following shooting in Chariton

February 11, 2010 By

There was a shooting in the south central Iowa city of Chariton Wednesday. Authorities aren’t releasing names, ages or how the three people may be connected, but a double-shooting in Chariton Tuesday afternoon left one man dead, put a girl in the hospital and a boy is a suspect.

Police say the girl and boy are juveniles. A 9-1-1 call was made at about a quarter ’til six last night. Witnesses told police the boy left the scene of the shooting. He was found about a half-mile away from the home where the shooting took place. The girl is a Des Moines hospital.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Bill requiring ethanol only gas approved by senate committee

February 11, 2010 By

Iowa gas stations would only be allowed to sell ethanol-blended fuel if a bill approved by a Senate committee becomes law. The ethanol mandate would kick in next January with a few exceptions for boats, race cars, snowmobiles, and lawn mowers. Senate President Jack Kibbie, a Democrat from Emmetsburg, has been pushing the legislation for years.

“It’s worked in Minnesota now for seven or eight years,” Kibbie says. “There’s five other states that (have) some kind of requirement on ethanol, so to me it’s just a step forward.” Kibbie predicts Iowa drivers would use an additional 30 million gallons of the corn-based fuel if such a mandate is adopted. But Kibbie admits there’s resistance to a such a mandate.

“You know, everybody likes it, but ‘Damn you, government! Don’t tell me I got to use it,’” Kibbie says. “This is wonderful product. It’s a proven product and we all ought to be proud of it.” Senator Jerry Behn, a Republican from Boone, says he supports the industry, but doesn’t think the legislature should tell consumers what to buy.

“Why don’t we mandate Maytag products, so we could keep Maytag here? Or up at Webster City, they had that — what was it Electrolux? Are we going to mandate Iowans can only buy Electrolux products?” Behn asks. “I mean, I just don’t think this is a good thing for government to get involved in.” Behn was one of only two committee members to vote against the bill.

“I’m a farmer. I’ll probably gain financially as much or more than anybody in that room by a mandate on ethanol,” Behn says. “But I just don’t think that’s our position. We’ve got roughly 80% of the market right now.” Behn says the state should continue to provide retailers tax credits to lower the price of ethanol. The bill advancing in the senate would repeal the tax credits for fuel with a 10% blend of ethanol once the mandate is in place. The legislation now goes to the full Senate for further debate.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Sick leave bill set for debate today

February 11, 2010 By

A bill that would require Iowa businesses to provide paid sick leave for some part-time workers is scheduled for debate in a Senate committee today. If the legislation as currently written becomes law, businesses would have to provide sick leave to employees who work at least 20 hours a week. Senator Tom Courtney, a Democrat from Burlington, says it’s a public health issue.

“It’s bad enough that we’re fairly low pay in this state, but we can’t even get off that low pay job when we’re sick,” Courtney says. Business groups are adamantly opposed to the proposal. John Gilliland (GIHL-uh-lund), chief lobbyist for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, says when word spread about this bill, he was deluged with email from many of the group’s members.

“The consistent theme in every one of these communications is that nobody knows less about running a small business than state government,” he says. Senator Courtney, the bill’s sponsor, says he’s willing to compromise to make the bill more palatable, like not applying the sick leave requirement to small businesses with 10 or fewer employees. At a subcommittee meeting Wednesday, Courtney spoke directly to the business groups.

“None of you have given me any ideas,” Courtney said. “It’s easy for majority Democrats to sign off on this thing and take it to the floor and ram it through. I’d rather have some help from the folks here.” Senator Ron Wieck, a Republican from Sioux City, says the sick leave requirement could be the last straw for some small businesses.

“I don’t think we need more government right now. We got an economy that’s got problems,” Wieck says. “Pushing businesses around, I don’t think now’s the time to do it.” The Iowa Restaurant Association and Iowa Grocery Association oppose the bill, while labor groups support it. The measure is also backed by the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Their lobbyist says the bill would allow women to take a “sick day” from work so they could leave an abusive spouse.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: ,

Cincinnati company plans new facility in Iowa City

February 11, 2010 By

A Cincinnati, Ohio based company is planning to hire 75 employees for a new facility in Iowa City. Quality Associates will open a 245,000 square foot facility in Iowa City’s Scott Six Industrial Park. The company’s chief financial officer is Brian Oates.

He says the company is hiring now and plans to begin production in late March. Quality Associates provides packaging for retail consumer goods. Oates declined to provide information on what the new jobs in Iowa City might pay, but said the company is accepting applications for a variety of hourly and salaried positions.

“We have needs for team leaders, quality inspectors, fork lift drivers, warehouse leadership, logistics, human resources, finance, maintenance…you name it, we are probably looking for it,” Oates said. In addition to a facility in Cincinnati, Quality Associates has operations near Baltimore, Maryland and Greensboro, North Carolina.

Cover letters and resumes can be e-mailed to: jobs@quality-associates.com

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Former football player brings one-man show to Iowa stage

February 11, 2010 By

A former pro football player turned playwright and performer will bring his one-man show to Iowa for the first time this week.

 Bo Eason, a former defensive safety for the Houston Oilers, says his play, “Runt of the Litter,” is based loosely on his own life. Eason believes he’s the only N-F-L player who’s gone on to become an actor and playwright. He says he played all sports in high school, but also had a secret love for the theatre.

“I always kept one eye on the drama department and I never let on that I was doing that,” Eason says. “I really loved plays, I loved going to plays, I always dreamed about being in one but I never was because the athletes just didn’t mix with the drama world.”

After retiring from pro football in 1989, Eason says he began pursuing his other passions — writing and acting. This show explores the tale of two brothers in a family of over-achievers and a boy who plots out his vision for success.

“It’s really a story about a kid when he’s nine years old, draws up a 20-year plan with crayon and school paper,” Eason says. “When Runt of the Litter opens, you are in the last hour of that 20-year plan. It is about to come true. This kid has devoted his whole life to this dream, to this plan.”

In the play, the boy’s parents assure their oldest son he’s destined for football stardom and tell their youngest son — Eason — he’s too small to compete. Eason’s real-life brother, Tony, was also in the pros — as the quarterback who led the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl in 1986. Eason describes the play as semi-autobiographical.

“A lot of it is true, some of it is not, just for dramatic purposes, some things had to be shifted around,” Eason says. “It’s about 60-40 as far as what’s true and what’s fiction, but people respond to it. When people see it, they think everything’s true. ‘Wow, what happened here? What happened there?’ and I go, ‘It’s just a play, you know?’” Eason has acted both in film and on TV, appearing in the movie “Pride and Glory” opposite Edward Norton and Colin Farrell, as well as in “A Bright Shining Lie,” “ER” and “Boston Grace.” The show, “Runt of the Litter,” opened Wednesday (Feb 10th) and runs through February 21st at the Temple Theatre for the Performing Arts in Des Moines.

 For information, visit: “www.civiccenter.org“.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Bill would require sex education starting in kindergarten

February 11, 2010 By

A bill introduced in the Iowa House would expand what’s required to be taught in schools to include “age-appropriate”, comprehensive sex education beginning in kindergarten. The legislation is being pushed by Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, who is a longtime educator.

She says kids need more information than they get in schools where abstinence only is taught. “We need to give kids good information. We need to give kids the ability, the skill set to be able to make a good choice and good choices in their lives,” Mascher says. Mascher says parents would have the option to pull their children from the sexuality classes.

But the proposal still raises concerns among some private school administrators. The executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, Tom Chapman, says the idea violates the moral beliefs of many parents. “We think that the sexuality education is a job for parents, and we’d certainly would like to keep it that way. And this bill would require all Catholic schools to teach comprehensive sex education as defined by the state board of education, so we would have some concern about what they might approve as the curriculum,” Chapman said.

The Association of Christian Schools is also opposed to the bill, while Planned Parenthood is lobbying in favor of it. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland spokesman, Kyle Carlson, says the studies he’s read prove that the abstinence only lessons taught in some schools don’t work to keep young people from sexual activity.

“We know it’s more effective to provide more information in terms of healthy relationships, birth control options, getting tested for S-T-Is and treatment for that,” Carlson says.

But Chapman says parochial school parents don’t want their children presented with more information about sex. “A lot of our parents really want abstinence only education and that’s why they choose a Catholic school and so we’d like to keep that,” Chapman says. The bill will now be considered by the full education committee of the Iowa House.

Filed Under: Education, Health & Medicine, Religion Tagged With: ,

Republican candidate to run for Attorney General

February 11, 2010 By
Brenna Findley

Brenna Findley

A Republican candidate is seeking the job of state attorney general. Thirty-three-year-old Brenna Findley says it’s time for current office-holder, 65-year-old Democrat Tom Miller, to go.

“What I hear as I talk to Iowans is they want open, accountable and transparent state government,” Findley says. “The current attorney general was (first) elected in 1978 and they’re ready for some change, ready for a clean-sweep.”

As for transparency, Findley says as attorney general she’d post more information about the office on-line so more Iowans would “know what the attorney general is doing” and could submit their input.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government Tagged With:
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