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Sick dogs found abandoned in Mills County

May 7, 2010 By

More than two-dozen dogs are recovering from starvation, dehydration and illnesses after being discovered on abandoned farm in southwest Iowa’s Mills County. Authorities say 27 pit bulls found in a rural area near Pacific Junction had been chained to buried car axles on a tiny piece of land.

Two of the dogs reportedly had to be euthanized, but the remaining 25 dogs were being cared for at the Loess Hills Humane Society’s shelter. When they were discovered, the animals had no shelter or food and some were missing teeth. Many of the dogs had open, oozing sores, others are weak and unable to support their own weight, much less their heads, even after a week in the shelter.

Some of the dogs were missing teeth or had teeth that were filed down. Shelter Manager Kelly Nutter says that could have happened two ways. Either the dogs wore their teeth down trying to free themselves from the heavy chains or their teeth were filed down on purpose to make it harder for dogs to injure each other while mating.

No charges have been filed, but Mills County Attorney Marci McClellan said her office is still investigating the matter, and charges against the properties’ owner are possible later today. Meanwhile, housing the dogs and treating their ailments has been taxing for the new Loess Hills shelter.

The facility still needs blankets and stainless steel pails to serve as water buckets. Interested donors can contact the shelter at 712-527-0753.

By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Trilogy melds fiction, real life in challenges of Dubuque

May 7, 2010 By

An author spent two years living in Dubuque doing research for a trilogy of books and worked in a host of jobs, learning from everyone from the mayor to meatpackers. Tom Jones’ novels, called “The Loss of Certainty,” look at how issues like the economy, racism and flooding impact the residents of a Midwestern city.

Jones says he focused much of his intensive study on city workers, including police officers, firefighters, garbage men and other the behind-the-scenes people who keep our communities running. “I was able to work out an agreement with the city council that allowed me to spend time in city departments,” Jones says.

“Sometimes I actually got involved in the work. I picked up trash for a period of time. My first department was the wastewater treatment plant and the first thing I did there was clean out the intakes for the plant. They knew I was coming and so they had an interesting job set aside for me.”

Dubuque is known as Jackson in the work of fiction, but Jones says people in the northeast Iowa community would certainly recognize many elements as he put painstaking efforts into making details true-to-life. “The characters are fictional,” Jones says. “The narrative is fictional except that the second volume, ‘The Gamble,’ is based partly on actual events from Dubuque in 1990-91, but the work as I describe it is an accurate description of exactly the sort of things that people do.” That second book in the trilogy was just released.

The 68-year-old Jones attended the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop in the mid-1960s, studying under legendary novelist Kurt Vonnegut, who was writing “Slaughterhouse Five” at the time. Jones says when he lived in Dubuque in the mid-1980s, he spent time on the kill floor of that city’s major slaughterhouse, which was struggling under the shifting economic times.

“The first volume was the attempt to save a meatpacking plant,” Jones says. “I spent a lot of time at FDL which is the plant that existed then in Dubuque. I also went over to Waterloo and talked to ex-Rath officials. So I wrote a novel, the first volume is just called ‘Jackson,’ about this attempt to, as the industry is changing, save this old-line meatpacker.”

Jones, a former math teacher, now lives in California. To learn more about the books, visit: “www.thelossofcertainty.com“.

Filed Under: Human Interest

Man travels the state performing Poe

May 7, 2010 By

A California actor is traveling across Iowa this month to perform his interpretation of famed poet and author Edgar Allan Poe. Duffy Hudson portrays Poe in period costume and recites several of his classic works, which are steeped in mystery and the macabre.

“It’s a one-man show where Edgar Allan Poe comes out, tells his life story, does ‘The Raven,’ ‘The Telltale Heart,’” Hudson says. “It’s very emotional, very high-pitched, an awful lot of fun. If you have any interest in Edgar Allan Poe or even if you don’t know that much about Edgar Allan Poe, you would enjoy this show an awful lot.” Hudson says he was introduced to Poe when he was just a boy.

“My father walked into my room around Halloween time and he had a copy of Edgar Allan Poe in his hand and he was reading “The Raven” aloud to me,” Hudson says. “I remember at nine-years-old, what the heck this bird was doing in this guy’s room and who’s Lenore? I thought I was supposed to be afraid but it wasn’t as much scary as it was sad and strange.” Hudson’s father helped him memorize the poem and the obesession began.

He’s performing in several Iowa communities, including: Webster City, Independence, Winterset and Humboldt. To learn more, visit: www.duffyhudson.com.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Report says state energy efficiency program should be altered

May 7, 2010 By

A new report from the Iowa Policy Project concludes the state’s energy efficiency programs should be altered to help more low-income residents. I.P.P. research associate Teresa Galluzo says low-income Iowans spend about 13% of their income on home energy costs compared to 3% for other households. In addition, her report claims one-fifth of Iowans with low-incomes account for one-third of the state’s residential greenhouse gas emissions.

“So, while low-income Iowans don’t consume as much energy per household as upper-income Iowans who tend to live in bigger homes, they consume more energy per square foot because of the inefficiency of their homes and appliances,” Galluzo said. The report targets three policy initiatives for expansion. Galluzo says Iowa’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) is effective, but only reaches 2,000 homes per year.

As of 2009, more than 165,000 Iowa homes were eligible for weatherization services. “So, we have a lot more families that could benefit from that program,” Galluzo said. The report also recommends requiring all utilities to offer state-regulated energy efficiency programs that serve low-income Iowans.

Currently, consumer-owned utilities do not have to target low-income customers with those programs. Federal tax credits under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act offer a 30% credit for many energy efficiency improvements, but Galluzo say the credits are non-refundable – meaning they only benefit families that earn enough to pay federal income taxes. She suggests structuring the energy efficiency tax credits so low-income households can benefit.

“So, there are some obvious holes in Iowa’s energy efficiency strategies,” Galluzo said. “We could really take advantage of targeting our low-income population and making a difference in terms of addressing climate change and making a big difference in the budgets of low-income Iowans for years to come.” The Iowa Policy Project is based in Iowa City.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Politics & Government

Rock Island teen sentenced to 30 years in prison

May 7, 2010 By

A Rock Island, Illinois, teen will be serving prison time in Iowa. Sixteen-year-old Jayvonte Bland-Robertson has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was tried as an adult and convicted by a Scott County jury April 1st of first-degree robbery, eluding, two counts of serious injury by motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an injury accident.

Scott County attorney Mike Walton says the robbery charge alone carries a mandatory minimum of 17 and a half years behind bars. Bland-Robertson stole a car last September 7th and led cops on a high-speed chase. That ended when the car he was driving collided with another at a north Davenport intersection, seriously injuring the other driver.

By Phil Roberts, Davenport

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Corps says there will likely not be a planned rise on the Missouri

May 7, 2010 By

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says there likely will not be a planned spring rise on the Missouri River this month, what was part of an effort to aid endangered species of birds and fish, particularly the piping plover and palid sturgeon. Corps spokesman Paul Johnston, in Omaha, says conditions are not good for the so-called pulse.

Johnston says, “It’s a combination of high flows downstream, high flows on the James River, early nesting by the plovers and low water temperatures below Gavens Point, so it’s kind of a conspiracy of all factors.” The surge of water was planned to mimic the spring rise that used to occur on the river. Biologists hoped the rise would benefit the palid sturgeon by improving their chances at natural reproduction. Johnston says dropping the pulse won’t have any other effects on river operations or bird habitats on downstream sandbars.

Johnston says, “The pulse is a special operation but we were already doing some fluctuation of releases to encourage the plovers to nest on the higher habitat so they don’t get washed out with the nests too low.” He says the Missouri River and the reservoir system are still seeing heavy water coming in.

“We’re still experiencing some high flows because of the end of the snow melting in the mountains,” Johnston says. “What we would expect is a little drier conditions later on in the year.” He says water storage in the upstream reservoirs is now at 107% of historic normal levels. The Corps had planned for its spring pulse from Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, South Dakota, to run May 1st through the 19th. The planned March pulse was also canceled due to similar river conditions.

By Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation

Cold weather poses threat to corn crop

May 7, 2010 By

This spring has been a positive one thus far for farmers with corn planting moving along at a record pace, but cold weather could slow that momentum. Frost is a possibility for some areas of northern Iowa this weekend, and Iowa State University agronomist Roger Elmore that would set back the corn growth.

He says the upper leaves on the corn that is above the ground could be lost to the frost, but he says the good thing is that the growing point is still below ground and it would not be a huge concern in most cases. Elmore says the bigger worry is for the seed that hasn’t been in the ground very long.

“If the corn has just been planted, it could be subject to some issues,” Elmore explains,”what happens is the soil cools down, the water in the soil cools down, the kernel in the soil are just like a sponge and absorb that.” He says that could cause the plants to become disoriented and not grow properly and some plants could be lost.

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Filed Under: Agriculture, Weather Tagged With: ,
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