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Autopsy: Slipknot bass player died of overdose

June 21, 2010 By

Police have just released details of an autopsy, concluding the bass player in the award-winning metal band “Slipknot” died of a drug overdose.

On May 24, a hotel employee discovered 38-year-old Paul Gray dead in a suburban Des Moines hotel room.  The Urbandale Police Department issued a statement this afternoon, saying toxicology and autopsy results were complete and that “Dr. Gregory Schmunk concluded that Paul Dedrick Gray died of an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl (a synthetic morphine substitute).”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Eleven bicyclists cross Iowa in 21 hours

June 21, 2010 By

Eleven bicyclists are recovering after peddling across the state of Iowa, nearly nonstop, in a 21 hour span. Dave Foster of Norwalk and Sean Arndt of West Des Moines hatched the idea several months ago, though Foster can’t remember exactly why.

“I don’t think there is a single reason,” Foster said about the motivation behind the venture. “I think there are 11 riders and there are 11 reasons to do it.”

i-24-blog

Arndt says the group was inspired by the documentary “Bicycle Dreams” about Bob Breedlove, a Des Moines physician who was killed during the Race Across America in 2005. The decision to ride across Iowa in 24 hours, which led to the team name “I-24,” was launched over a few beers at a Des Moines bar. Although the initial idea may have developed on somewhat of a whim, Foster says the team left no stone unturned when it came to planning the trip.

“We knew where every hospital was along the way, we knew where every bike shop was…we actually had an E.R. doctor friend come in and ride support for us,” Foster said.

The support team included eight people and four vehicles. The “I-24″ team left western Iowa, near Larchwood, at 4:30 Saturday morning and arrived in Harpers Ferry in eastern Iowa at 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The bicyclists stuck together the entire trip and stopped for 10 minute breaks every 38 miles. Arndt says the 304 mile trek was basically problem-free.

“The drivers on the Iowa roads were awesome to us,” Arndt said. “We had nothing but positive comments and everything worked out wonderfully.”

There was a 40-mile stretch where the cyclists barely saw a vehicle. Arndt says they traveled a county road between Osage and Decorah where they only encountered two or three cars. “It was pretty much like that road was made for us,” Arndt said.

The 11 bicyclists, 10 men and one woman, range between 26 and 62 years of age. Nine of the 11 are from Iowa. The other two live in Chicago and Denver. Arndt and Foster say they’d like to bike across Iowa in 24 hours again – but next time, they’ll map a different route and possibly invite more bicyclists.

Listen to the full Radio Iowa interview with Arndt and Foster by clicking on the following link:  pcbikers.

Filed Under: Human Interest, Recreation & Entertainment

ISU researcher says state “dodged a bullet” this weekend

June 21, 2010 By

An Iowa State University researcher working to develop better flood forecasting says this weekend’s storm systems illustrate the difficulty in making such predictions.  

“We kind of dodged a bullet the last couple of days,” says Chris Anderson, assistant director of Iowa State University’s Climate Science Initiative. “The forecasts coming out of the Weather Service had a very high likelihood of a lot of rain. They just missed. They went south of us near Kansas City and in southeastern Nebraska and so my area of research that’s related to that is to understand how the local storms get organized so that maybe we can improve our ability to say an event will occur in Iowa as opposed to Kansas City.”

Anderson is among those speaking later this afternoon at a seminar in Cedar Rapids to discuss the floods of 2008 and how to best prepare for future flooding. Anderson will deliver a briefing on recent changes in precipitation patterns in Iowa and the Midwest. “I will also talk about how that relates to climate change, if it does at all,” Anderson says. “And it does just a tiny bit, as far as we can tell, and then what the prospects are for continuing into the future the changes that we’ve seen in the last 15 to 20 years.” 

Anderson says his goal as a researcher is to help develop a system for issuing long-term flood forecasts, giving people an idea of the likelihood there will be flooding in a particular area in the next three or four months.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Weather Tagged With:

Iowan publishes book on 1979 canoe trip across Canada

June 21, 2010 By

An Iowa native is touring the state to promote his new book about his long canoe trip across Canada more than 30 years ago with three other “greenhorns” from the Iowa cornfields.

Dennis Weidemann penned “This Water Goes North” about his unusual experiences on the 14-hundred mile, three-month journey. They started in northern Minnesota, paddling for three weeks along the Red River into Canada.

The four eventually reached the 300-mile long “tempermental beast” of Lake Winnipeg, which is pretty much the end of civilization, he says. The tale, Weidemann says, is one of near-disasters, spendid sunsets and the indomitable spirit of youth. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Human Interest

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association Poll 6/21/10

June 21, 2010 By

Class 4A
1. Sioux City North (15-2), LW #3
2. Davenport Central (13-1), LW #5
3. Iowa City West (14-2), LW #4
4. Dowling Catholic (10-3), LW #1
5. Mason City (15-4), LW #2
6. Ankeny (14-2), LW #10
7. Bettendorf (12-3), LW #7
8. Dubuque Hempstead (12-3), LW #8
9. S.E. Polk (12-4), LW #9
10.Cedar Rapids Kennedy (11-5), LW #6

 

Class 3A
1. Davenport Assumption (14-1), LW #1
2. ADM (Adel) (13-2), LW #5
3. Glenwood (8-1), LW #2
4. Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley (14-1), LW #7
5. Norwalk (12-3), LW #3
6. Sergeant Bluff-Luton (15-1), LW #8
7. Dallas Center-Grimes (9-2), LW #9
8. Knoxville (11-4), LW #10
9. Carlisle (10-4), LW #4
10.Hampton-Dumont (9-1), LW (X)

 

Class 2A
1. Solon (19-2), LW #1
2. Gilbert (11-1), LW #3
3. Wilton (11-3), LW #2
4. Pella Christian (12-3), LW #6
5. Davis County (14-0), LW #9
6. Logan-Magnolia (11-0), LW #10
7. Dyersville Beckman (12-4), LW #4
8. Fort Dodge St Edmond (12-5), LW #5
9. Pekin (11-4), LW #7
10.North Fayette (14-4), LW #8

 

Class 1A
1. Martensdale-St. Marys (17-0), LW #3
2. Mason City Newman, (15-1), LW #1
3. Don Bosco (15-1), LW #2
4. Council Bluffs St. Albert (12-2), LW #4
5. EHK-Exira (14-0), LW #8
6. North Sentral Kossuth (14-3), LW #5
7. Lansing Kee (16-4), LW #6
8. N-U High (Cedar Falls) (9-2), LW #7
9. Calamus-Wheatland (11-3), LW #9
10.North Tama (11-3), LW #10

Filed Under: Radio Iowa Poll, Sports

Culver has “absolute” confidence in new Guard leaders for Aghanistan

June 21, 2010 By

Governor Chet Culver is on his way back from a trip to Camp Ripley in Minnesota. Over 3000 Iowa National Guard soldiers are there, training for their upcoming mission to Afghanistan.

“We are really impressed with the level of training that they’re getting here. It’s really second-to-none in the entire country,” Culver said during a brief telephone interview with Radio Iowa. “I’m really proud of our troops in the Iowa National Guard.  We’re going to have an historic deployment of 3100 troops — the largest deployment since World War II — and so I wanted to be here to show my support for them.”

Earlier this month the colonel in charge of the soldiers headed to combat duty in Afghanistan was fired, along with his second in command. The Guard has not revealed why each was fired abruptly for violating military regulations. Culver is expressing “absolute” confidence in the Guard’s leadership, including the man at the top who made the decision to fire the two men.

“General Tim Orr, the adjutant general of the Iowa National Guard, has been in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has seen combat in both countries,” Culver told Radio Iowa. “And that has been the case with our leadership team and to have that real life, practical experience as a commander, as the adjutant general, is just invaluable.”

Colonel Ben Corell, commander of the Iowa Guard troops who served 16 months in Iraq and returned home in July of 2007, has been assigned to lead the Guard soldiers in Afghanistan.

This past February Culver flew to Iraq to visit Iowa troops there and one gubernatorial candidate called it a “glorified photo opportunity.” Culver is defending his trip to Camp Ripley, near Little Falls, Minnesota.  ”As commander in chief of the Iowa National Guard, it’s my duty and responsibility to do all I can to be supportive of our troops and that’s exactly what I’m doing up here at Camp Ripley, meeting with General Tim Orr, General Vogel and the entire leadership team so that we can make sure that these troops are trained and ready before going into theater in Afghanistan,” Culver said during an interview with Radio Iowa, “and that’s going to be the case after what I’ve seen up here.” 

Culver plans to take a trip to Afghanistan to visit the Iowa Guard soldiers there, when the U.S. Defense Department gives the go-ahead.

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

Pace of job creation in Iowa rivals 1994 levels

June 21, 2010 By

An eastern Iowa economist says the latest data shows job growth in Iowa is better than it’s been in 16 years. 

Economist David Osterberg, executive director of the Iowa Policy Project, says from January through the end of May, there’s been a gain of about 3500 non-farm jobs per month. “We tend to look at the longer term,” Osterberg says.  “We don’t look at unemployment rate as much as we do at job growth, but now looking at five months of this, we’re cautiously optimistic.” 

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With:
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