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Iowa comeback falls short in Big 10 Tournament

March 11, 2010 By

The Iowa Hawkeyes made a late comeback to get within four points — but ended up losing to Michigan 59-52 in the Big Ten Tournament. Coach Todd Lickliter credited his team with not giving up after being beaten handily in their last two regular season games.

Lickliter says the team has been able to come back all year and says they played hard even though they were spent emotionally. Lickliter says there are some good players that don’t give up. Lickliter says if the players can hang tough, then they are going to be able to compete in the future. He says nobody wants to go through the losing, but he says they fought better then they have in the previous two years.

The loss dropped Iowa to 10-22, the most losses in school history. The loses have generated a lot of speculation about Lickliter’s future. He was asked on the postgame show if he will sit down with Athletic Director Gary Barta and discuss the future of the program.

“I have no idea,” Lickliter responded, “I just take care of me. so, that’s not on me, that’s on Gary Barta.” Cully Payne led Iowa with a career high 25 points, including five of 10 from three-point range.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Rock Valley, Calamus-Wheatland advance in state tourney

March 11, 2010 By

Rock Valley is one of the highest scoring teams in the state but it was defense that earned them another shot at a title. After scoring only 12 points in the opening half the second rated Rockets held top ranked Cedar Falls NU High to just 10 points in the second half for a 39-31 victory in a rematch of last years 1A championship game.

Guard Nic Bakker finished with 12 points and it was his three pointer with about four and a half minutes remaining that provided the Rockets with their first lead of the game. Rock Valley trailed 21-12 at the half. NU High made only three of 23 shots after halftime as they fall to 25-2 on the season.

Senior forward Eddie Diemer who finshed with eight points says the Panthers were unable to generate enough offense in the second half to hold off Rock Valley. Tanner Cooke led NU High with 15 points.

Ryan Powers made Lynnville-Sully pay for an ill advised foul. The Calamus-Wheatland star was fouled at mi-court on an inbounds play with just under six seconds remaining and connected on both free throws in a 57-55 win over the fifth ranked Hawks in a 1A semifinal. Powers says he had a game earlier this year where he had a chance to win it with free throws, but he missed both of them, and says he wasn’t going to let that happen again.

Powers finished with a game-high 28 points.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

“Ed Thomas Bill” clears House

March 11, 2010 By

The Iowa House has made minor changes in a bill that would require hospitals to notify law enforcement when they release someone who’s been hospitalized for a mental evaluation if that person has criminal charges filed against them or a pending arrest warrant.

Last June, Aplington-Parkersburg coach Ed Thomas was shot to death by Mark Becker, a former student who taken to a Waterloo hospital’s psych ward after a crime spree the weekend before the shooting.  Becker was released from the hospital a day before the murder, but law enforcement wasn’t notified of his release.  Representative Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, has worked with the family in developing the legislation.

“When we set out on this process after the tragedy last summer, when I talked to the Thomas family, they just said, ‘We don’t want another family to have to go through what we’ve gone through,’” Grassley says. 

The change approved by the House was minor, according to Grassley.  It stipulates that a law enforcement official “shall retrieve” the suspect from the hospital.

“I just want to let the House Republicans know, the House Democrats know that you can feel comfortable in telling your constituents that we do now have ‘The Ed Thomas Bill’” Grassley says.  “We have everyone on board and, most importantly, the family.”

Last week, Aaron Thomas — the son of the slain coach — testified before a House subcommittee, urging legislators to “do the right thing” and pass the bill.  “I would like to thank the Thomas family for their tireless efforts,” Representative Dolores Mertz, a Democrat from Ottosen, said during House debate of the bill this afternoon. 

Law enforcement groups — and the former Parkersburg police chief — lobbied for the bill.  After raising some initial concerns, the Iowa Hospital Association has registered in support of the legislation.  The senate must now endorse the change the House made in the bill, then it will go to Governor Culver, who has said he’ll sign it into law.

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

Mason City prepares again for flooding

March 11, 2010 By

Mason City’s water treatment plant is being ringed with sandbags as the Winnebago River is expected to rise to at least ten-and-a-half feet by the weekend, three-and-a-half feet above flood stage. City Administrator Brent Trout says they decided several days ago to prepare to take action based on the flood forecast.

“We started last week looking at what our needs were going to be for protection of the water plant, specifically,” Trout says. “We started the work, making sandbags. We had a city crew starting to make sandbags, getting ready, palletizing, and now with that forecast in place, we’re taking the next step.”

If the river only rises as high as the forecast predicts, Trout says it won’t impact the plant, but they want to be ready in case the waters rises higher. “They’re projecting it should stay within its banks and we shouldn’t have any issues, but flash flooding is always a concern, and that’s something if you don’t have the base built for your protection, you won’t have time to react to be able to increase the size of whatever sandbagging you’re planning to do,” Trout says.

“You’ve gotta’ start now in order to be prepared for what might come in the future.” Trout says the city learned after the 2008 flood inundated the plant that it’s wise to be better prepared for flash flooding. “We don’t want any recurrence of that and we are a lot smarter about what happens, related to that,” Trout says. “We’re taking proactive steps now to make sure that we’re in a good position.”

Flood watches and warnings are scattered across much of the state due to the heavy rains and warmer temperatures combining with the fast-melting snow to raise river levels. Learn more at “www.weather.gov“.

By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Tax collections expected to be down this year, up slightly in next year

March 11, 2010 By
Revenue Estimating Conference members, from left to right, David Underwood, Richard Oshlo and Holly Lyons.

Revenue Estimating Conference members, from left to right, David Underwood, Richard Oshlo and Holly Lyons.

The three-member panel which sets the official estimate of state tax revenue has decided tax collections for the current year will be down about $900,000.

The three-member “Revenue Estimating Conference” projects the state will collect just over $5.4 billion in a variety of taxes for the fiscal year that began July 1st, 2009 and concludes on June 30th.

Legislative Services Agency director Holly Lyons says she hopes she and the other two panel members are wrong about state tax collections and, ultimately, the state of the Iowa economy, but they wanted to err on the conservative side.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Iowa Senate approves domestic violence gun bill

March 11, 2010 By

The Iowa Senate has sent the governor a bill that would take guns away from those convicted of domestic abuse and forbid those who’re the subject of a “no-contact” order from owning or selling guns and ammunition. Senator Keith Kreiman, a Democrat from Bloomfield, says the bill is intended to reduce fear. “It is intended to reduce the number of instances of domestic abuse,” Kreiman says.

The bill passed on a 36 to 12 vote. Critics like Senator David Hartsuch, a Republican from Bettendorf, say this may mean people who are wrongly accused of domestic violence — and who are the subject of a “no-contact” order but haven’t been convicted of a crime — will lose their gun rights.

“I think there is ample evidence to suggest that this bill does not meet any legitimate social objective that would warrant the removal of Second Amendment rights,” Hartsuch says. And Hartsuch points to a case in a neighboring state as evidence this new Iowa law might not stand up to a legal challenge.

“The district court in Wisconsin struck down a very similiar law in September ’09 because tehre was an individual…who had a misdemeanor offense of dometic violence who…hunted deer…and when his probation officer found out…went out, searched (the man’s home), found the gun and he was put in jail,” Hartsuch says. Kreiman, who is a lawyer, disagreed.

“As a supporter of the Second Amendment I understand that there is a fear that this bill will affect Second Amendment rights,” Kreiman says. “The short and direct answer is that this bill affects no person who has not been found by a judge or jury to have committed domestic abuse or assault.” Kreiman says domestic abuse is extremely dangerous not only to families, but to law enforcement and sometimes, to innocent bystanders.

“As much as we prize our constitutional rights, sometimes those rights are limited or forfeited due to criminal conduct or conduct that has been found by a court to be extremely dangers or harmful to others,” Kreiman says. The bill passed the House last night on a 73 to 25 vote. Governor Culver is expected to sign it into law.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With: , ,

Democrats plot changes in state tax credits

March 11, 2010 By

Democrats in the legislature plan to enact a series of changes in state tax credits and they’ll continue the suspension of the state tax credit for films for at least two more years.  Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, says lawmakers want to establish a permanent “Tax Expenditure Committee” as well to monitor state tax credits.

“It came to light in the legislature that in the area of the film credit that was made available to film producers in Iowa that we had some problems develop with that program and it’s drawn the attention of the legislature the need, really, for a comprehensive review of more than $500 million in annual tax credit spending,” Bolkcom says. 

The former manager of the Iowa Film Office has been charged with misconduct in office and two Minnesota-based filmmakers have been charged with first degree theft for filing false tax credit claims. Bolkcom says the state’s attorney general asked legislators to extend the suspension of the film tax credits as his office sorts through to determine who may be eligible for tax credits that were already promised.

“We need to figure out where our liability exists with this program rather than eliminate the program or fix the program at this point,” Bolkcom says. 

Democrats intend to set new, lower limits on the amount of state tax credits which are available for economic development projects. Representative Paul Shomshor, a Democrat from Council Bluffs, says legislators are hoping to the newly-created “Tax Expenditure Committee” will determine how many jobs are being created by companies that receive state tax credits. ”That’s the most important thing to us — job creation in this state,” Shomshor says. “And we want to make sure that we help small businesses.” 

Democrats do not intend to change the research activities tax credits that are claimed by large companies like Rockwell Collins, John Deere, Pioneer and others.  Democrats do propose changes in another research activities tax credit that is awarded by the Department of Economic Development.  Big companies could receive a credit of 3.5 percent for their investment in research and development, while small, start-up firms could get a tax credit worth up to 10 percent. Senator Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines, says it’s an attempt to do more to support entrepreneurs who’re just starting a new business.

“Shifting the focus away from what we consider the large, very-well-financed businesses and trying to shift those resources to the smaller, start-up firms so that they can do more in the way of job creation,” McCoy says. 

Democrats plan to give the Department of Economic Development $8 million to award as tax credits to research-oriented firms that promise to create new jobs.  In the current year, there has been $16 million available for that program.  Republican legislative leaders say they’re supportive of an examination of state tax credits to ensure they’re fulfilling job creation goals, but they’re skeptical of scaling back some of the tax credit programs which have been available to businesses.

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