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Trooper cleared of wrong-doing in chase involving governor

May 21, 2010 By

The trooper involved in the car chase that also involved the governor will not face workplace sanctions.  

Late this afternoon the Iowa Department of Public Safety issued a statement, saying the agency’s “professional standards bureau” had completed its investigation of the incident and had decided Trooper Michael Clyde had not violated any “departmental policies” in the episode.

It happened last Sunday as the trooper was driving the state-leased S.U.V. that carries the governor. Governor Culver and his son were in the vehicle when something happened on a busy city street in Des Moines. The driver of another vehicle says the trooper nearly hit his car. The trooper says the other man was driving erratically. The only part of the story that everyone agrees on is that the man’s wife flipped off the trooper.

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

Republicans far outpace Democrats in early Primary voting

May 21, 2010 By

Over three times as many Iowa Republicans as Democrats have already voted in the June 8th Primary election.

As of today, just over 7000 registered Republicans have returned absentee ballots for the June 8th election, while Democrats have returned about 2000 ballots. Terry Branstad, a Republican who is seeking the G.O.P.’s nomination for governor, says that’s in stark contrast to prior races.  

“You know what’s been happening in recent elections?  The Democrats have been killing us with absentee ballots,” Branstad says. “We see energized Republicans.” 

Branstad’s campaign has been encouraging supporters to vote early. ”We’re excited about the amount of people that are voting in the Republican primary via absentee ballot,” Branstad says. “That’s very encouraging. A big turn-out is very good for us.” 

The executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party brushes aside the notion this early voting trend is a warning sign for Democrats. Norm Sterzenbach says none of the Democrats involved in primaries have implemented an early-voting push.

“The Republicans have several hotly contested primaries both statewide and on the congressional level that (are) generating more interest among voters to participate in the election,” Sterzenbach says. “So this isn’t anything unusual.” 

Sterzenbach predicts the Iowa Democratic Party will collect more “early votes” than Republicans will in the general election. ”It’s a core piece of our program,” Sterzenbach says. “You know, typically 25 to 30 percent of the Democratic vote comes in early and that will be a key part of the program that we run in the fall.”

So far the Iowa Secretary of State’s office reports 20,000 absentee ballots for the June 8th primary have been mailed to Iowa voters, nearly 15,000 of those to Republicans.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Drake AD, coach, visit Haiti on relief mission

May 21, 2010 By

Drake athletic director Sandy Hatfield-Clubb and women’s basketball coach Amy Stevens were part of a group that recently traveled to Haiti, which is still trying to recover from a magnitude 7.0 earthquake more than four months ago. The trip was sponsored by Meals from Heartland and Hatfield-Clubb says they saw one hospital which serves one meal per day and one school which is serving one meal every other day.

She says the area is decimated and looks like a war zone. Hatfield-Club says the people are still afraid as they experienced a 4.5 earthquake while they were there. She says she didn’t know to be afraid as it felt like a train rumbling, but those who live there headed for the door in fear.

Hatfield-Clubb says there was no way to prepare for the devastation she saw first-hand. Everyone had told her to focus on one thing and not look at the mass of things happening, otherwise it is hopeless. She says Stevens found time to hold a basketball clinic while on the trip.

Hatfield-Clubb says some 40 sixth grade girls who have never played basketball took part and she says it was really a transformation for the girls. They brought along Bulldog shorts and shirts for the girls.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Harkin, Grassley vote for financial reform; Conlin says Grassley having it both ways

May 21, 2010 By

Both of Iowa’s U.S. Senators voted for the financial regulation reform bill that cleared the senate last night.

Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, says the bill is a step in the right direction. Senator Chuck Grassley was one of just four Republicans who voted with Democrats to pass the bill. Grassley says the bill has flaws, but it sends an important message to Wall Street that business-as-usual is unacceptable.

Roxanne Conlin, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate who hopes to challenge Grassley in the fall, says the bill is a “good first step” to ensure Wall Street doesn’t “drive us off a cliff” again.

“I’m certainly happy that Senator Grassley voted ‘yes’ on the bill rather than voting against the bill,” Conlin says, “particularly since he’s one of the people who voted to give $700 billion to the Wall Street bankers who drove us off the cliff, with no strings attached.”

Conlin is accusing Grassley of trying to have it both ways because earlier this week Grassley was part of a coalition that blocked a final vote on the bill. “He voted five times against moving forward on the bill and I was feeling very discouraged,” Conlin says. “I asked my supporters to get in touch with his office. I know that many of them did and I’m very glad that he did respond.”

Grassley issued a statement last night, praising components of the bill which he says provide new protections to “average Americans.” According to Grassley, “big banks and financial institutions took advantage” of Americans in the run-up to the stock market melt-down, and “the system let them get away with it.” Grassley says he’d like more regulation and transparency in federally-run financial institutions like The Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Senator Harkin also argues the bill doesn’t go far enough in policing the private sector, but Harkin says the bill helps restore “some balance” in the financial services industry.

Conlin is competing against Bob Krause and Tom Fiegen for the Democratic Party’s 2010 U.S. Senate nomination.

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

Formal charges filed in Price Lab tuition case

May 21, 2010 By

Iowa’s Attorney General today filed formal charges against a former state legislator and eight other people accused of sending their kids to the University of Northern Iowa’s Price Lab School without paying the required tuition. The complaints charge each person with one or more counts of tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor.

The nine parents are accused of listing false addresses on school records to show their children lived in a zone close to the school on the U.N.I. campus in Cedar Falls in order to pay much lower tuition fees than other students. State Representative Kerry Burt, a Democrat from Waterloo, is one of those charged.

Burt has since decided not to run for re-election, and said he believes he will be vindicated when all the information comes out. The Attorney General’s office says the largest amount that should have been paid is nearly $48,000. Records show Representative Burt should have paid over $37,000.

Black Hakw County District Court Judge James Coil set an arraignment date of June 4 for all nine. He also allowed all nine to continue to be free on their own recognizance.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Education Tagged With:

New warden hired for Iowa State Penitentiary

May 21, 2010 By

The Iowa Board of Corrections today approved the hiring of a new warden for the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. Nick Ludwick will take over at Iowa’s maximum security prison in mid-June. The 55-year-old Michigan native will replace current warden John Ault, who is retiring.

Ludwick, who’ll be paid $112,000 a year, started his career as a corrections officer in 1975 and has worked in six different facilities. He has 10 years of experience as a prison warden. The current facility in Fort Madison was built in 1839 and is the oldest operating prison west of the Mississippi River.

A new $140 million, 800-bed prison is under construction. The facility is expected to be ready in early 2013.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government

Lost dog gets relay return to Iowa

May 21, 2010 By

A lost dog is coming home to Iowa thanks to a host of animal-loving strangers and a social networking website. An animal control shelter in Battle Creek, Michigan, found a dog that was microchipped in Paton, Iowa, in 2007.

Linn Cipperley-Price is head volunteer with the Animal Protection and Education Charity, based in Paton. Her computer crashed and she’s now cross-checking eight-thousand paper cards, trying to find the right nine-digit microchip code to determine who adopted the female 80-pound dog. Meanwhile, a half-dozen volunteers are chauffeuring the floppy-eared German Shepherd-mix from Michigan to Iowa, passing it from driver to driver relay-style.

A volunteer in Battle Creek took the dog from the shelter to the vet for its proper shots, so it could be transported, and then drove it to Chicago. Another volunteer in Chicago kept the dog overnight and is driving it partway across Illinois today. Someone else will carry the animal to the Quad Cities area.

Another driver is taking it to Coralville, where a volunteer for the PAWS & More shelter in Washington, Iowa will pick up the pooch and bring it to Ames. Cipperley-Price will take it from there, taking the animal to a foster home in Paton until the owner can be located. She says the many hand-offs were coordinated over Facebook, though she was worried at first.

“Earlier in the week when we first started pleading on Facebook, it was like, ‘Hey, we need help, let’s get this dog out of harm’s way until we can figure this out,’ but (there were) no calls for 36 hours and all of the sudden, the calls and the emails just came flooding in.” Without the help of all the volunteer drivers, she says, the dog would’ve just been put to death in the crowded Michigan shelter. “If I would lose my dog, I would hope that volunteers would go out of their way to help me get it back, too, if it was my personal dog,” Cipperley-Price says.

“Hopefully when we do find the adopter of this dog, they’ll be just as grateful as well.” The Animal Protection and Education Charity in Paton is a “no-kill” shelter. Reach the shelter at: (515) 460-SPAY or online at “www.goape.info“.

Filed Under: Human Interest
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