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More charges filed in film tax credit scandal

June 10, 2010 By

The Iowa Attorney General’s office has filed more criminal charges in connection with the Iowa Film Office tax credit scandal. The first set of charges in the case were filed in February of this year and alleged film producers falsely represented the costs of equipment and other items used for film production to be able to collect the film tax credits.

The charges said the rental cost of items such as ladders were greatly inflated and the film producers could have purchased several of the ladders for the amount they claimed to have paid to rent them. The new charges are similar and were filed against Minnesota resident and film maker Zachary LeBeau — and two people who were charged in February, Wendy Runge and Matthias Saunders.

The new charges allege one count of ongoing criminal conduct and 11 felony counts of first-degree fraudulent practices by the three in connection with some $90-million in production costs for several different movie projects. LeBeau turned himself in to Polk County authorities and was released on bond.

Runge and Saunders are already free on bond from the previous charges. The former Film Officer director, Tom Wheeler, was fired after the problems surfaced and was later charged with misconduct in office. The film tax credits have been suspended.

See the complete list of the  charges here: Film Office charges PDF

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government

Credit unions, banks against Senate interchange fee amendment

June 10, 2010 By

Representatives of the Iowa banks and credit unions have been in Washington lobbying against a Senate amendment in the financial reform bill they say would lead to bigger fees for credit union members. Iowa Credit Union League vice president of government affairs, Justin Hupfer, says the amendment would allow the federal reserve to set the rate for what’s called an interchange fee on debit cards. Hupfer says that fee is charged to businesses when someone uses a credit or debit card.

Hupfer says the fee goes back to the institution that issued the card and helps pay for the cost of the payment network, the fraud risk associated with the cards as well as other things such as call centers and card reissuance. Hupfer says right now the fee is roughly 1.6% of the transaction.

He says the senate amendment would make the rate based on actual costs and it would come down and wouldn’t include the cost of protecting against fraud, which he says is a significant cost for debit card programs. Hupfer says big businesses are in favor of lowering the interchange fee, but he says doing so would lead to more fees for consumers.

“The impact of that reduction in revenue is going to have to be made up by credit union members in the form of things like annual fees to use your debit card, and things like free checking will likely go away,” Hupfer says.

Hupfer says merchants benefit from the debt cards because they are paid immediately, payment is guaranteed, they don’t have to deal with cash or wait for a check to clear. While he says financial institutions bear the expense of providing that benefit to merchants. Hupfer says it’s unlikely merchants would reduce the price of their goods if the interchange fee was lowered.

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government

DCI unveils website to combat on-line predators

June 10, 2010 By
D.C.I director John Quinn, Attorney General Tom-Miller (L-R)

D.C.I director John Quinn, Attorney General Tom Miller (L-R)

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation today unveiled a new website designed to protect children from on-line predators.

Mike Ferjak, with the D.C.I.’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, says the site will help parents, teachers and others talk to kids about the dangers communicating with strangers on-line.

“We now have a page where they can go and get some ideas,” Ferjak said at a press conference in Ankeny. “They have the resources on the website to flesh out those ideas. Maybe they can make it a part of their family routine, go on the Internet together and establish household rules for the Internet.”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With:

GOP candidates for statewide office rally (AUDIO)

June 10, 2010 By

A handful of the Republicans who’re running for statewide office have embarked on a tour of the state, with a kick-off event at Terry Branstad’s campaign headquaters late this morning. 

Matt Strawn, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, touted the Republican voter turnout in Tuesday’s Primary Election.  Over 226,000 Republican ballots were cast, which is a 16-year high.  According to Strawn, that’s a sign the Republicans’ “limited government” message is selling with voters.

“More and more people across this state are seeing the Republican Party and our candidates as the key ingredient to restoring conservative, principled government that the people of Iowa not only need, but the people of Iowa deserve,” Strawn said. 

Dave Jamison, the G.O.P. candidate for state treasurer, is challenging State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, a Democrat who has held the post for over three decades. ”Iowa needs new leadership.  We certainly need new leadership int he state treasurer’s office,” Jamison told the crowd at Branstad campaign headquarters.  “And I am anxious to get this campaign started.” 

Brenna Findley is the Republican candidate challenging Democrat Tom Miller, the state’s attorney general. ”I knew it was the right year to run this year because I’m 34 years old and when I looked back in the history books it turns out that our current attorney general in 1978 was my age when he ran for attorney general in 1978 and beat the incument,” Findley said.  “And that’s just what we’re going to do this year.”

Former Governor Terry Branstad, the Republican Party’s 2010 nominee for governor, told the Thursday morning crowd at his campaign headquarters that one of his goals is to make politics “fun again.”

“You know, I never imagined I’d be doing this again, but I never imagined we’d have a Governor Chet Culver either,” Branstad said, as the crowd laughed.

Branstad suggested the low voter turnout for Democrats in Tuesday’s Primary is a harbinger of things to come.  “I think what happened on Tuesday was a good indication of what can happen in November and we saw it last year in Virginia, in New Jersey — even in the special election in Massachusetts of all places,” Branstad said.  “People are not happy with business as usual.”

Branstad and the rest of the G.O.P. candidates were in Ottumwa at 2 p.m. today and they’re scheduled to be in Marion at five o’clock.  A rally in Bettendorf is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.  Matt Schultz, the G.O.P. nominee for secretary of state, was the only Republican candidate for statewide office who did not participate in the tour.  The party’s chairman says Schultz is away on a long-anticipated family vacation. 

Listen to today’s rally at Branstad campaign headquarters in Urbandale here: FallKickoff 18:54 MP3

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Dubuque County Sheriff nominated to be U.S. Marshal

June 10, 2010 By

A northeast Iowa sheriff has been nominated to serve as a U.S. Marshal. President Obama has nominated Dubuque County Sheriff Kenneth Runde to be U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Iowa.

Runde’s nomination must be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and then by the full Senate. Senator Tom Harkin suggested Runde for the post, calling Runde a “true difference marker” who has developed “key relationships with judges, U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Marshals and other law enforcement officials.”

Runde is a former Marine who began working for the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office 33 years ago as a radio dispatcher. He worked his way up through the ranks to the elected position of County Sheriff.

Harkin says Runde has strong management skills which will serve him well as U.S. Marshals not only track down fugitives, but they protect judges, jurors and witnesses during trials and oversee prisoners before they are sentenced.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Iowa senators differ on how to act in conference realignment

June 10, 2010 By

Rumors abound that the University of Nebraska may soon join the Big Ten Conference which could spell the beginning of the end for the Big 12. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s looking at ways to prevent or delay conference realignment, but fellow Iowa Senator Tom Harkin isn’t sure this issue is something federal lawmakers should referee.

Harkin says, “While I am opposed to the kind of mischief that seems to be going on right now with the Big Ten and the Pacific Conference, I just don’t know if this is a proper place for Congress to get involved, unless there’s something dealing with anti-trust or something like that that we might be thrown into or interstate commerce.”

If the PAC-Ten expands along with the Big Ten and brings the collapse of the Big 12, Iowa State University could be left without a conference. Harkin, a 1962 I-S-U graduate, says it’s interesting that some people claim the federal government is too big and too intrusive, but now some of those same people want Congress to get involved in sports. He thinks fans still have a voice.

“The most important thing is public pressure and for the public to be involved in this,” Harkin says. “I think the citizens of Iowa and the citizens of Kansas and Nebraska, Oklahoma, the Big 12 states, all ought to get together and say, no, we have a good Big 12 Conference and we want to keep it that way.” Harkin, a Democrat, says academics should be the focus for universities, not all of this posturing over athletic conference realignments.

“Count me down as one who is opposed to this mischief that’s going on,” Harkin says. “I call it just that, mischief. It’s mischief with dollar signs in front of it, okay?” The Nebraska Board of Regents is expected to meet tomorrow (Friday) to discuss, and possibly vote on, conference alignment.

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

Iowa hospital participates in initiative to improve care for premature babies

June 10, 2010 By

An Iowa hospital is one of several throughout the country that are working on an initiative to improve the care given to babies who’re born prematurely. Doctor Dan Ellsbury of Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines says it’s called the “100,000 babies campaign.”

Ellsbury says the purpose is to take a systematic and comprehensive look at what takes place in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and to redesign the care so that everything gets done that needs to be done and care is improved. He says they hope to reengineer the care for 100,000 babies over a two to three year period. Ellsbury says the NICU’s tend to focus on one particular area that the do well.

Ellsbury says they’ve found there’s a very big interaction with all the areas, you may improve nutrition, but get more infections because of the way you did it. Ellsbury says they want to take a comprehensive look at all the different areas, with the hope that improving all the areas will improve overall care, instead of making one thing better and having the others get worse. He says each hospital has different techniques they’ve used to achieve success in various areas.

Ellsbury says that’s because of the type of patients, the number of doctors and nurses and a variety of factors that make some things harder to do in one place than it is in another. The goal is to use the information from the various hospitals and share what works. Ellsbury says the long-term goal is to improve the care early and prevent problems for the babies later.

“So what we’re hoping to do is if we can implement all these things that we want to implement, we can reduce complications, because we’ve seen as one complication occurs, others will often follow and then ultimately the baby’s outcome is worse,” Ellsbury says.

The hospitals involved are storing their information in an electronic database that will be studied to assess the treatments used. Some 700 premature babies are born at Mercy each year. In 2006 1-in-9 babies were born prematurely in Iowa.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine
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