Swimming is discouraged this holiday weekend at three of Iowa’s 38 state park beaches. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources started its summer long monitoring of the state beaches this week and will post the results on the agency’s website every Thursday or Friday. Coordinator Jason McCurdy says bacteria levels can change rapidly. “Each watershed has its own unique characteristics; some are more prone to heavy rainfall events than others which can often wash in a lot of that bacteria from surrounding watersheds,” McCurdy said. “We have some problem beaches that tend to run high throughout the season but those change over time as well.” [Read more...]
Des Moines PTA president wants answers about art teacher’s punishment
May 28, 2010 By
The P-T-A president at a Des Moines elementary school is asking school officials to publicly disclose what discipline an art teacher faces for showing a video to fourth grade students which some parents considered obscene. Shelly Jerrett is the president of the Parent-Teachers Association at Wright Elementary School in Des Moines.
“When we call the h.r. services at the school board, they said they are not allowed to comment on this event,” she says. “And this does not allow us closure for the parents whose children were involved in this incident.” An art teacher at the school showed children a video and one of the students told his mother that as the video was loading, the image of two men engaged in an act was frozen on the screen. The P-T-A president doesn’t have a child in the class of fourth graders who saw that image.
“But if I did have a child in this class I would completely be appalled like any other parent would be,” Jerrett says. According to Jerrett, parents entrust their children to the care of public school teachers and they deserve to be told how teachers are disciplined for inappropriate actions in the classroom.
“Like we teach our children — there are good choices and bad choices and a bad choice was made and consequences need to be dealt out,” Jerrett says. “And these consequences need to be known by the parents of the children who were victims in this situation.” The county attorney has reviewed the matter and said while it showed bad judgement, the incident didn’t warrant criminal charges. Jerrett disagrees.
According to Jerrett, the video exposed children to “sexually graphic imagery” and she says the county attorney’s refusal to press criminal charges shows he is “unwilling to represent the most innocent and defenseless members of our community.” Jerrett says this incident causes parents like her “to give serious consideration” to home schooling their children, or sending them to a private or parochial school rather than the Des Moines Public Schools.
School officials have said privacy laws prevent them from publicly disclosing details about how school district employees are sanctioned in such cases.
Omaha/Council Bluffs bridge grand opening is today
May 28, 2010 By
Officials from Iowa and Nebraska will gather on a new bridge spanning the Missouri River this morning to cut the ribbon for its grand opening, linking Omaha and Council Bluffs. Karl Burns, an engineer with the Nebraska Department of Roads, says this is a rare event to debut such an impressive structure and he knows motorists from both states will be pleased.
The new bridge has four lanes instead of the old two-lane bridge, Burns says, “so it will be a nice new structure for them.” The new 88-million dollar bridge replaces the original Veterans Memorial Bridge, which opened in 1936. It was torn down last summer. Burns says bicyclists and walkers were taken into account in this new bridge design.
Burns says, “We have a bike/walkway for pedestrians to cross the bridge, which will be nice.” The original bridge was demolished nine months ago and he notes, motorists have had to use a variety of different detours during that time.
Burns says, “If there was anybody who used it on a daily basis or a weekly basis, I’m sure those individuals look forward to having it open.” The bridge will tie into a new four-lane stretch of Highway 275 on the Iowa side. The ribbon cutting ceremony is at 9:30 AM.
DOT issues warning about construction zones
May 28, 2010 By
Iowa roadways will be more congested this holiday weekend and that’s prompting the Department of Transportation to issue a warning about road construction zones. Iowa D.O.T. spokesman Pete Hjelmstad says there might not be much activity in those areas, but motorists still need to slow down.
“Just because there aren’t workers there, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to follow the speed limits and lane restrictions around the work zones,” Hjelmstad said. Speeding in work zones can be both dangerous and expensive.
Hjelmstad says the fines for speeding in work zones are more than double the regular fine. Motorists traveling through Iowa can map their route and possibly avoid delays caused by construction zones by checking out the website www.511ia.org.
“That shows all the work zones on state highways in Iowa,” Hjelmstad said. “It’s very helpful and there are also links that take you to some of the surrounding states.” During the 2009 Memorial Day weekend, there were 12 fatalities on the state’s highways.
By Bob Fisher, KGLO, Mason City
Blairstown plant turns trash into ethanol
May 28, 2010 By
A converted ethanol plant near Cedar Rapids that used to process corn is now making a product its owners affectionately call “trash-a-nol.” Craig Stuart-Paul, the C.E.O. of Fiberight, says the plant in Blairstown is using waste fibers from International Paper’s nearby Cedar River mill to make cellulosic ethanol, but he says they have even bigger plans — to turn garbage into “green” gasoline.
“We plan to build another building onsite which will be able to handle residential waste from — starting off with Benton County,” Stuart-Paul says. “We are in discussions with Benton County on the appropriate ways to do that. Their landfill is only 1.7 miles away and that landfill is filling up. We’re able to offer a good solution to Benton County that hopefully saves them a significant amount of money moving forward.” Stuart-Paul calls the source for their new fuel “black bag M-S-W” or municipal solid waste.
“You fill your trash can, generally people use black bags, as opposed to construction waste, which is more difficult to convert,” Stuart-Paul says. “We’re really looking for residential waste.” In the final scene of the movie, “Back to the Future,” a time-traveling scientist up-ends a trash can and dumps household garbage into a processor atop the DeLorean’s engine to use as fuel, everything including coffee grounds and banana peels. Stuart-Paul says the real-life “trash-a-nol” conversion process isn’t quite that simple yet, but constant advances are being made.
Stuart-Paul says, “What we can do is take black bag waste, the stuff you throw out, run it through our process, separate the metals, the recyclables, the plastics, the shall we say ‘other’ material, the smellier stuff, and an awful lot of pulp, which is residual packaging waste, things as diverse as potato peelings and so on, which are high in cellulose and are convertable under our process into biofuel.” International Paper started shipping Fiberight its organic fiber waste at the beginning of May.
The company plans to introduce organic pulps, the stuff made from residential trash, to the fuel-making process within weeks. Fiberight, which is based in Maryland, plans to spend about 25-million dollars to fully convert the Blairstown plant. Stuart-Paul says is should be able to produce up to six-million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year when the plant reaches capacity in 2011.
Iowa congressmen split, 3-2, on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal
May 27, 2010 By
Iowa’s congressional delegation split 3-2, along party lines, in tonight’s vote on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The U.S. House voted to repeal the policy and allow homosexuals to serve in the military without fear disclosure of their sexual orientation will lead to their dismissal.
Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, is the only military veteran among the five Iowans who serve in the U.S. House. Boswell issued a statement, saying “the character and strength of a soldier is reliant on their courage, loyalty, honor and ability to do their job – not their sexuality.”
Boswell and the two other Democrats from Iowa – Congressmen Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack – voted to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
John Deere Classic prepares for 40th anniversary
May 27, 2010 By
The field is filling up for the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic next month. It will be the 40th anniversary of the tournament which is held near the Quad Cities.
Tournament director Clair Peterson says they’ve known defending champion Steve Stricker and former Masters Champion Zach Johnson were coming and they’ve continued to add more big names. Since 2008, the tournament has offered a charter flight directly to the British Open and Peterson says that is one of the reasons big names are committing earlier.
Peterson says they normally don’t have so many early commitments, but the jet has allowed them to get more golfers involved earlier.
Peterson expects more big names to declare their intentions over the next few weeks. He says they are the only event that promises to take players to the British Open and he says it has enhanced their player experiences. Last year they had 25 guys on the plane.
The John Deere Classic is July 8th through the 11th.
