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House debates gun rights, domestic abuse

March 10, 2010 By

A state legislator whose family runs a gun shop wants the state to give victims of domestic abuse a sales tax credit for buying a gun to defend themselves, but House members have rejected that plan.  

Representative Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, is a former Marine.  He is a trained gunsmith, too, and Windschitl works at the family business, the Double Barrell Shooters Supply in Missouri Valley.  Windschitl also wanted to create a new state fund that would help finance self-defense classes for domestic abuse victims.  He’d charge convicted domestic abusers a new, $500 fine to bankroll that training. 

“Address the actual problem here.  People are being abused, all right?  They do not have the necessary tools in every case to defend themselves,” Windshitl said during House debate earlier today.  “If we work off the premise that putting another law on the books is actually going to stop domestic violence, we’re wrong.”

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

Iowa House honors Hawkeye football team

March 10, 2010 By
Kirk Ferentz

Kirk Ferentz

The Iowa House and Senate today passed resolutions honoring the 2009 Iowa Hawkeye football team. Coach Kirk Ferentz  was on hand to thank legislators.

“I doubt many things pass through this quickly on a routine basis so I’m starting to think you probably just want me to get out of here as fast as you can,” Ferentz said. “…First of all, I just very much appreciate you having us down here today.”

The director of team operations accompanied Ferentz to the statehouse. “We’re just really honored to represent the football team, our staff, our support staff and the entire university,” Ferentz told legislators. Ferentz spoke for a few minutes in the Senate and then he spoke again in the House.

“One of the descriptions in the resolution was, ‘It was an exciting year.’ I think that’s a fair term now when we look retrospectively. You know, I don’t know. In the heat of the moment, exciting is sometimes a little bit differently described I guess,” Ferentz said, with a laugh. “But it was an exciting year for us. Our team gave us a lot of great, great moments and I can’t say enough, again, about just our older players, the job they did providing great leadership, helping us have a great culture with our football team not only on the field — the things that you got to see them do — but the things they were doing academically, the things they were doing in terms of citizenship.”

Ferentz closed by joking that he’d start worrying about next season “in a few days.” Here is all of what Ferentz had to say in the House.  

Listen to the Iowa coach here: Kirk Ferentz speaks to the Iowa House. 3:15 MP3

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Report says Alzheimer’s a “significant threat” to Iowa

March 10, 2010 By

A new report predicts how the number of Iowans with Alzheimer’s disease will grow in the coming years as will the costs to care for them. There’s no cure for the memory-robbing disease and the report calls Alzheimer’s a “significant threat” because of Iowa’s high percentage of residents over age 65.

Dennis Fraise, of Burlington, is spokesman for the Alzheimer’s Association, Greater Iowa Chapter. Fraise says the state must prepare to deal with this growing public health problem. The number of patients with Alzheimer’s continues climbing, Fraise says, with the numbers in Iowa rising from 65,000 to 69,000 in the past decade, while 77,000 will likely be afflicted by 2025.

That’s a projected rise of 18% over the next 15 years. Fraise says many Iowans are struggling to care for a family member who has Alzheimer’s. The report finds family members are providing care at home for about 70% of people nationwide with Alzheimer’s disease.

“In Iowa alone, there are well over 100,000 caregivers and they provide 121-million hours of unpaid care for loved ones,” Fraise says. “It comes out to a little over $1.3-billion in terms of the value of those caregivers. The impact on families is really dramatic and it’s something that’s going to continue to increase in the state and nation.”

He says the figures are staggering and they’ll only get worse. “Those of us who work closely with the disease certainly look at those numbers and realize how scary they are,” Fraise says. “It’s just the tip of the iceberg when you look at where we’re going to be headed.” The report says more than 40% of family and other unpaid Alzheimer’s caregivers rate the emotional stress of caregiving as high or very high, compared with 28% of caregivers of other older adults.

Fraise says early detection, diagnosis and intervention are vital because each can provide the best opportunities for treatment, support and planning for the future. See the full report at: “www.alz.org” or reach the Iowa chapter at: “www.alz.org/greateriowa“

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Government reorganization bill signed into law

March 10, 2010 By
Governor Culver signs reorganization bill as Democratic lawmakers surround him in the statehouse rotunda.

Governor Culver signs reorganization bill as Democratic lawmakers surround him in the statehouse rotunda.

Governor Culver has signed a state government reorganization bill into law. It eliminates 14 different state boards and commissions and consolidates state computer systems.

It also seeks to reduce the number of “middle managers” in state government. Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, started working on the reorganization project last summer and she spoke shortly before the governor signed the bill into law.

“The bill is the largest reorganization effort in the history of the state,” Mascher said. Senator Staci Appel, a Democrat from Ackworth, worked alongside Mascher for the past eight months to craft the legislation. “Some of these decisions were simple solutions,” Appel said, “and others were difficult and tedious to sort out.”

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

Unemployment rate rose slightly in January despite new job creation

March 10, 2010 By

Iowa’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 6.6% in January from the December rate of 6.5%. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson, Kerry Koonce, says the small increase is a positive sign. Koonce says when they look at trends in unemployment, they don’t see a tenth of a percent change over one month as being drastic, but instead say it is relatively stable.

Koonce says the total non-farm jobs increased by 4,600 in January, even though some industries saw a downturn. Koonce says the unemployment rate increased despite the new jobs as more people entered the job market.

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Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Eight-year-old Des Moines girl involved in stabbing

March 10, 2010 By

Des Moines police say an eight-year-old girl repeatedly stabbed her uncle in a tussle over a cigarette. Police say the girl and her mother were visiting the woman’s brother at his Des Moines apartment on Monday.

The man, identified as 21-year-old Noble Griffin, apparently took one of his sister’s cigarettes and smoked it — sparking a spat. The argument got heated and when Griffin tried to physically throw the woman out, she allegedly told the girl to grab a knife.

The girl did, police say, and stabbed Griffin at least three times in the back. Griffin’s injuries are said to be serious but not life-threatening. Police say the girl will not face charges, but the woman may.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Iowa part of settlement with LifeLock

March 10, 2010 By

Iowa is part of a settlement with an Arizona-based company that markets identity theft protection services. LifeLock’s TV ads featured a rolling billboard displaying the social security number of the company’s C.E.O. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller say he and attorneys general from 34 other states accused LifeLock of exaggerating what their services could do and misrepresenting how the company would protect consumers who suffered losses.

“For example, they were talking about a million dollar guarantee against people’s losses,” Miller said. “The money went not to people’s losses, but to the cost of lawyers, investigators and like professionals to deal with the situation of identity theft. That’s quite a difference.”

Under the agreement, LifeLock is prohibited from misrepresenting its services in the future. “What they need to do is sell their product on its merits,” Miller said. In addition, LifeLock has agreed to pay $11 million in restitution to consumers. The company is reported to have 1.5 million customers who have paid $10 a month or $110 per year for LifeLock’s services.

Miller says he’s not sure how many of those customers are from Iowa, but he believes it’s a “substantial number.” The Federal Trade Commission and the states are planning to send letters to eligible consumers, notifying them of the agreement and how they can opt-in to the settlement.

Filed Under: Business, Crime & Courts
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