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Simpson looks to lock up softball title

April 30, 2010 By

Simpson will try to lock up the Iowa Conference regular season softball title at home on Saturday with a double header against Wartburg. The Storm are 12-2 in the league race and own a half game lead over second place Luther. Simpson has won 21 of its last 23 games and coach Henry Christowski says a big factor has been the improved health of pitcher Whitney Oviatt who battled an illness at the start of the season.

Christowkis says they were moving things around trying to find a combination that would work and Oviatt started getting better. He says it made the rest of the team go out and focus to be competitive. Christowski says his team like all of the top teams in the Iowa Conference always play a demanding non-conference schedule to boost their chances at an NCAA regional bid.

He says that is the idea, play as many of the best teams in your region before conference competition to build the experience and gain some points toward post-season play. Christowski says a very balanced batting order has helped produce more runs. He says you can say the one through nine hitters, there is only one spot that hasn’t performed they way they would like. Christowski says that player is playing good defense, but her hitting hasn’t come around yet.

Christowski says winning the regular season is still a great accomplishment, even though it does not provide an automatic spot in the regionals. He says a regular season title is really just a title right now, because the winner of the tournament gets the automatic bid, but he says winning the regular season helps build points and could help you get an at-large bid.

Simpson is 12-2 while Luther is 11-2 and will play Loras in a double header.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

House Ag Committee holds 2012 farm bill hearing in Des Moines

April 30, 2010 By

The U.S. House Agriculture committee held a hearing today on the 2012 farm bill at the Iowa State Fair. Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, is on the ag committee and says it’s important to begin work on the issue early as there are a lot of issues involved.

Boswell says the cost of putting in a crop and processing the crop now is “so big” and he says things are going to streamlined with the deficits the federal government faces. Congressman Tom Latham, a Republican from Ames, is not on the ag committee, but did speak at the hearing.

Latham says it’s important to get working on the bill early because there are “tremendous challenges” ahead. He says it really should be called a food or feeding bill instead of a farm bill as a majority of the money goes to food programs. Latham is on the appropriations committee that will deal with the funding for the bill.

“The 900 pound gorilla certainly is going to be the budget deficit, and what funds are going to be available for us to write the next farm bill,” Latham says. Several farmers submitted written comments and some spoke at the hearing, including Varel Bailey of Anita.

Bailey said, “We have a loss of agricultural land, we have a need for technology for land reclamation and improvement.” He says there are over 30-million acres in the conservation reserve and other government programs, and he is not sure if they are fully utilizing the land they way we should be. Bailey also told the committee there needs to be more localized research done.

Bailey says globalization has put every farm in competition with other farms and he says the research that’s done in other parts of the world doesn’t always do any good for him on his farm. Richard Bayliss is a corn and soybean producer from Ottumwa in southern Iowa. He farms with his wife and two sons and says he’s worried about getting younger people into farming.

“While United States farmers continue to feed the world, we see man young and beginning farmers who want to enter this challenging and very rewarding profession,” Baylis says, “investing in farmland and machinery, maintenance costs on both of these and insurance to protect against losses, presents a major obstacle to established farmers, for those just beginning those things can be more than daunting.”

Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron, is on the House Ag Committee andwas also at the hearing.

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

Congressman King “glad and relieved” about Arizona immigration law

April 30, 2010 By
Congressman Steve King (file photo)

Congressman Steve King (file photo)

Congressman Steve King says he’s “glad and relieved” the governor of Arizona signed the law which establishes strict new rules for immigrants in Arizona. King, a Republican from Kiron, argues the situation in Arizona “exposes” the Obama administration and Democrats in congress.

“The Arizona law…sends a pretty sound statement to the federal government which is that the federal government is not upholding and enforcing current immigration law,” King says. “They are delaying because they want to provide amnesty.”

[Read more...]

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

Exhibit at Science Center of Iowa explores racial issues

April 30, 2010 By

An exhibit that explores the science, history and everyday experience of race and racial issues is opening this weekend at the Science Center of Iowa. Paul Jennings, the facility’s president, says the exhibit, “Race: Are We So Different?” should prove engaging for the community and spark conversations about the issue. Jennings calls it thoughtful and thought-provoking.

“It doesn’t, as an exhibit, take account of color, ethnicity, diversity,” Jennings says. “One of the things that’s very obvious with this exhibit is that we’re all different and that’s something we should celebrate.” In one section, the exhibit displays how human beings are more alike than any other living species, and how no one gene or set of genes can support the idea of race. Jennings says the exhibit includes a variety of interactive components, historical artifacts, iconic objects, compelling photographs and multimedia presentations.

“We want to engage people with this learning agenda,” Jennings says. “We want to send people away with more questions than they arrive (with) and this is certainly an exhibit that will do that. This is a venue that is eager to promote learning in its many shapes and forms and we think this is a great opportunity for us to do that.” He says race will be viewed based on things like economic interests, popular culture, science, politics and the struggle for power throughout history.

The traveling exhibit has only been in much larger markets prior to coming to Des Moines, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, St. Louis and the Twin Cities. Jennings says one particular area of the exhibit teaches visitors a lesson about skin color at a very personal level.

“Visitors will come in, they’ll take a photograph of their skin under a camera,” Jennings says. “Their skin color will then get put up against a map of lots of other photos of other visitors’ skin colors and what you see immediately is actually that everybody’s skin color is different.” He says it’s a clever way of demonstrating that we’re all unique.

The exhibit opens Saturday and will be at the Science Center of Iowa through early September. For information, visit: “www.sciowa.org“.

Filed Under: Education, Human Interest

Fairbank man hurt in demolition accident

April 30, 2010 By

A Fairbank man was badly hurt in a silo collapse on Thursday afternoon in northeast Iowa near the town of West Union. When Fayette County deputies arrived on the scene, they found 34-year-old Shane Rechkemmer near an excavator he had been operating.

Rechkemmer had been demolishing a free-standing silo when it collapsed and fell back onto the excavator. A co-worker helped Rechkemmer get out of the wreckage. He was transported to a local hospital and then airlifted to Gunderson Hospital in LaCrosse. No condition report is being released.

By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester

Photo courtesty of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

More information released on soldier’s death

April 30, 2010 By
Command Sergeant Major John Keith Laborde

Command Sergeant Major John Keith Laborde

The family of a northeast Iowa soldier who died in Afghanistan on April 22nd has released more information about his death, revealing he died of a heart attack.

The Department of Defense released a statement last week, saying Command Sergeant Major John Keith Laborde of Reinbeck died in a “non-combat related incident” at the Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan.

According to a statement released this morning, Laborde collapsed after “conducting physical training with his unit.”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Military

Husband and wife help patients heal with music and conversation

April 30, 2010 By
Robert and Rebecca Bluestone

Robert and Rebecca Bluestone

A husband and wife are touring Iowa health care facilities in hopes of helping cancer patients heal through artwork, music and conversation. Robert and Rebecca Bluestone are both internationally recognized for their art. Rebecca weaves large, colorful tapestries, while Robert is a classical guitarist.

He says they’re interacting with health care providers, including doctors, nurses, hospice caregivers and administrators, while offering patients relief from their worries through multimedia concerts — meeting one-on-one with some them. “Rebecca is a cancer survivor so her having conversations with people, having gone through it herself and me as a caretaker, it’s very meaningful for folks,” Bluestone says.

“We’ve done this all across the country.” As a two-person team, he says, they are passionate about unlocking the powerful connection between creativity and the health care environment. “We have found it to be extremely effective,” Bluestone says. “We’re not saying we’re curing people but we can give them a kind of succor. We can give them a kind of relief. In the moment, they can maybe put aside their concerns for just a little bit and that is conducive, we think, to healing.”

While Rebecca is an ovarian cancer survivor, she was a caregiver to her mother, who died of breast cancer. Robert was Rebecca’s caretaker during her treatment and recovery. They are sharing their artistry with patients and their families in settings Robert says are committed to health and well-being.

“It’s a reason to be positive because we’re seeing a ground-level change in what health care is about,” Bluestone says. “We’re seeing a much more holistic approach to treating the whole patient, dealing with the problem on a family level. This tour is primarily about cancer and cancer affects the whole family.” He says their talks include one workshop that’s specifically for caregivers, reminding them to care for themselves, too.

The University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center and College of Public Health have collaborated to create the Bluestones’ tour, called “Iowa Arts and Health Care Project — A Journey through Iowa.” The Bluestones are from New Mexico. The project was nearly a year in the making.

The Iowa tour started April 19th and is taking them to facilities in Spencer, Algona, Des Moines, Grinnell and Davenport, with a final concert in Iowa City on May 8th as part of the annual Blue Rose Gala. Learn more about the Bluestones at www.wovenharmony.com.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Human Interest
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