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DCI says Drake student shot himself

May 3, 2010 By
Michael Motsinger

Michael Motsinger

Officials say their investigation indicates a Drake University student who died last week shot himself in the head. Nineteen-year-old Benjamin Backstrom was found on a bridge south of Des Moines, along Highway 65/69 near Indianola, early last Tuesday morning.

Officials said it was a “suspicious death” and they began a homicide investigation. However, officials say late last week their investigation began to shift away from homicide “to the possibility that Backstrom’s injury may have been self-inflicted.”

State officials held a news conference Monday afternoon in Indianola. Michael Motsinger, a special agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said a handgun is missing from Backstrom’s parent’s home. However, a search of the Middle River below the bridge and of Backstrom’s car have failed to produce the weapon. Motsinger says surveillance video shows Backstrom was alone in his vehicle when he parked it at Summerset State Park at 12:40 a.m. last Tuesday.

“We also know three witnesses called in and said they saw Mr. Backstrom walking on Highway 65/69 by himself and walking onto the bridge by himself,” Motsinger said. “There’s also the handgun that’s missing from the family’s residence that Ben himself had stated that he took with him. We’re still looking for that handgun.”

Backstrom revealed he had taken the handgun in one of several letters he left behind. He claim the gun was for personal protection. Backstrom’s parents issued a press release saying their son had either witnessed a crime or was made to believe that he had and was threatened not to contact police. Ben wrote that he was instructed to take his own life on the bridge to ensure his family’s safety.

Motsinger says the D.C.I. will continue to investigate, but there’s no “credible information” that Ben was ever threatened. He says it’s unclear if Ben may have “staged” the threats.

“We’re looking into that,” Motsinger said. “That’s why we’re following up…whether or not to classify it as staged…we’re just following up on all our leads to make sure everything is covered.” Motsinger revealed that Backstrom was found with zip ties around his wrists with his hands in front of him. In-store video shows Backstrom purchasing the zip ties just a few hours before his death.

Motsinger says the case is not entirely closed.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With:

UNI football coach pleased with spring progress

May 3, 2010 By

U.N.I. football coach Mark Farley says he was pleased with spring workouts. The Panthers closed out drills last Friday night with an intrasquad game and Farley lengthened spring by spreading the practices out. Farley says they previously had gone four weeks and four practices, but this time they went five weeks and three practices and it gave the players more study time.

There are a number of starters gone from last year’s team that finished 7-4, including quarterback Pat Grace. Farley says the quality at quarterback was probably the thing they found out the most about. Farley says Zach Davis and junior college transfer Terrell Rennie give the Panther’s quality depth at the quarterback spot.

He says you have to have a quarterback to win at every level of football, and he says in their style of offense, they need two. Farley says there’s a good chance one quarterback could get injured.

Farley says spring practice is when leadership begins to emerge. He says each team is unique and takes it’s own direction and all that begins in the spring as the players gain confidence in themselves, and then that spreads to the individual units of offense and defense.

U.N.I. gets as late start to the season and will open with a Missouri Valley Conference game at home against North Dakota State.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Grinnell tennis team waiting for NCAA regional destination

May 3, 2010 By

The Grinnell College men’s tennis team must wait to find out where it will be headed for the NCAA division three regionals. The Pioneers won a seventh straight Midwest Conference championship over the weekend. Grinnell coach Andy Hamilton says they could be headed back to St. Louis.

Hamilton feels the Pioneers are playing their best at the right time. Juan Carlos Perez won his third straight singles title and Pioneers claimed five of the six singles crowns and all three doubles titles.

The regional pairings will be released next Sunday.

By John Martenson KGRN Grinnell

Filed Under: Sports

Creighton economist says the recession is over for Iowa

May 3, 2010 By

A Creighton University economist says the recession’s over for Iowa and for the Midwest and things are clearly picking up. After studying the results of the latest monthly survey of business leaders in Iowa and eight other states, Ernie Goss says it’s the seventh time in the past nine months of surveys that Iowa’s seen solid economic growth.

“Almost every factor was looking very good for the month of April,” Goss says. “I think we can say pretty definitively that this regional economy is out of the recession and moving forward. Most everything looks good. There were a few negatives underneath the surface, but all in all, it was a very good report.” Goss says one of those negative factors was the “prices paid” index, which he says is rising far too rapidly.

“Supply managers are telling us that the prices paid for raw materials and supplies and other factors are just heading higher, much higher,” Goss says. “When we asked them to look ahead, 33-percent of the supply managers are expecting prices to grow by more than five-percent in the next six months.”

Goss says the Federal Reserve Board is “sitting on its hands” and not acting to curb rising inflation rates with an increase in interest rates to compensate. Goss says the April survey contained promising news about employment, both for Iowa and the Midwest region.

“For quarter one, we saw job growth in almost every one of the nine states,” Goss says. “I expect second quarter to be even better for job growth. Of course, this is contrary to what most economists are expecting and it’s actually contrary to what I expected three or four months ago.”

In the first quarter, Goss says Iowa’s unemployment rate rose slightly even as the state added more than 15-thousand jobs. For the second quarter, based on surveys over the past several months, he expects the state’s unemployment rate to stay about the same, with job gains exceeding 20,000.

Filed Under: Business

Airport officials don’t expect any change with United-Continental merger

May 3, 2010 By

Officials at the state’s largest airports say the proposed merger of United and Continental Airlines could expand the number of potential destinations for those flying out of Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. United has the second-largest number of customers at the Des Moines International Airport, while Continental provides only two flights out of Des Moines per day.

Don Smithey, the aviation director at the Des Moines airport, doubts the merger will prompt the two carriers to consolidate many flights out of Des Moines. “Looking at the markets the do serve — United both Chicago and Denver (and) Continental serves neither of those markets; they currently serve Houston,” Smithey says. “So therefore I would expect that the merger would probably continue to serve those same markets and possibly in the future look at other opportunities out of Des Moines to serve other markets.”

The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids lost service to Cincinnati when Delta merged with Northwest two years ago. But Pam Hinman, the Eastern Iowa Airport’s communications director, says a United/Continental pairing shouldn’t cause the same kind of disruption. “We only have two cities with United (service out of her airport). They both do very well. Our Denver service is our only true western connection; Chicago O’Hare obviously a huge connector market for us,” Hinman says.

“So I don’t want to jinx it but I just don’t see that we would have a detriment with this.” Officials at the Quad Cities International Airport also say the merger could result in expanded service for customers flying out of Moline. United or United Express flies out of airports in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Burlington and the Quad Cities. Continental flies out of Des Moines.

Filed Under: Business, Recreation & Entertainment

Another Honor Flight announced for central and western Iowa

May 3, 2010 By
World War Two veterans gather for the announcement of another Honor Flight.

World War Two veterans gather for the announcement of another Honor Flight.

The organizer of the central and western Iowa Honor Flights that take World War Two veterans to Washington, D.C. says they plan another trip this fall.

Central Iowa Honor Flights chairman, Jeff Ballenger, made the announcement today at the World War Two memorial plaza in front of the state capitol.

Ballenger says the plan is to get a 747 and take over 300 veterans from central and western Iowa on a one day trip to Washington on August 17th. The Iowa-based Hy-Vee supermarket chain, and the Casey’s convenience store chain are paying for this flight.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Human Interest, Military

Branstad backs veterans-related proposals enacted in 2010

May 3, 2010 By

Republican candidate Terry Branstad says if he’s elected to a fifth term as governor, he’ll do all he can to ensure the state supports members of the military.  “We’re at a very critical time in our state and nation’s history,” Branstad says. “Our veterans have been called upon again and again to defend this country and to help preserve our freedom and in recent years we’ve had more deployments than every before.  It’s really stretched not only the active duty but the National Guard and the Reserve.”

Branstad says he supports the veterans-related proposals which the current governor, Democrat Chet Culver, signed into law this year.  Republicans in the legislature, however, raised concerns about extending unemployment benefits to the spouses of soldiers who quit their jobs and move because their spouse has a new military assignment. Branstad says he, too, objects to using the unemployment taxes businesses pay to finance new jobless benefits for military spouses.

“It’s not really the way it should be done,” Branstad says. “…That unemployment fund is being depleted and the taxes are being dramatically increased on employers and that’s something that hurts our state and hurts our businesses.” 

Branstad wouldn’t rescind those benefits if he’s reelected governor, but Branstad says he’d look for a “more appropriate funding source” than the state’s unemployment trust fund which is bankrolled by taxes from Iowa businesses. ”Doing it on the backs of employers, especially at this time when the state is facing some severe layoff problems, I don’t think was a wise decision,” Branstad says.

Another 2010 bill signed into law by Governor Culver would force employers to allow veterans to have Veterans Day off from work.  Branstad says that “makes sense” to him. ”I was governor when we restored Veterans Day as a state holiday, by the way. It used to be they moved that date to a date that wasn’t as meaningful,” Branstad says.  “…It was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month that the armistice was signed that ended World War I.  That’s the significance of having November 11th as Veterans Day.”

However, some Republicans in the legislature complained Iowa business owners should be allowed to decide whether their workers may take a day off on Veterans Day.

Branstad is a Vietnam-era veteran. Branstad was drafted after he graduated from college and served as a Military Police Officer in North Carolina at Fort Bragg. Branstad hosted a barbeque over the noon-hour today for some of the 160 veterans who have signed onto his “Veterans for Branstad Coalition.” 

Click on the following link to listen to an mp3 of Branstad’s eight-minute, midday news conference before the BBQ:  TBvets

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