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Travel not recommended in some counties due to flooding

June 23, 2010 By

Travel is not recommended in many parts of the state due to intense rain and flash flooding last night and this morning. Jim Lester, the emergency management director for Wright County, says he’s urging everyone in his county to stay home until the floodwaters recede.

The rain started last night around 10:30 and has continued, forcing the closure of several key highways that are all underwater. Lester says work crews are trying to seal off roads that are water-covered, but driving in many areas will be hazardous as the conditions quickly change.

County and state DOT workers are flagging and barricading roads as they’re finding them, but he’s asking people not to travel in Wright County until officials get a handle on the situation. Lester says he’s heard a report of as much as five-inches of rain falling on parts of the county since last night.

He says the power went out in Clarion about 10:30 last night and it was off for many homes until 4 o’clock this morning, and some homes are still in the dark. That translates to many flooded basements as the electric sump pumps couldn’t run.

Severe storms are becoming almost a nightly occurrence for many parts of Iowa. That’s because a large weather system is stalled over the state and it’s dumping large amounts of rain. Jacob Beitlich, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, says a change could be coming by tomorrow.

“We’re really hoping that the front will push to the south and to the east and when that happens, we should get some drier weather and get this hot, humid weather that’s been sitting over Iowa the last week or so outta’ here,” Beitlich says. “We’ll still have the warm weather but the chance for rain should diminish.”

At least two tornadoes are reported in the severe storms overnight. One touched down in Humboldt County, the other in Franklin County near Iowa Falls. Wind damage is reported in several counties, including Fayette, Black Hawk and Bremer, with gusts reported as high as 77 miles an hour.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Weather

Review looks at repeat abuse among kids in DHS system

June 23, 2010 By

The latest assessment of the Iowa Department of Human Services shows after the agency investigates allegations of abuse, about one out of every six children suffer more abuse. Department of Human Services administrator Wendy Rickman says the agency has conducted a self-review and found children suffered new abuse 18% of the time after social workers had confirmed the child had been abused in the past.

“You know social work has always been as much an art as a science,” Rickman says. “So to the extent that we now have data to look at, it gives you some good information to react to then.” Rickman says in the past five years the agency has increased monthly visits by social workers significantly, trying to help troubled families work things out before the kids are removed from the home and placed into foster care.

“So we would go out to the house and we would say, ‘We have to do a removal. We want to sit down with you this afternoon and you bring whoever you think is going to be helpful to keep this from being a traumatic experience for your child,” she says. “…That is a huge shift.”

Federal officials arrive next week to survey child welfare cases in Polk, Linn and Webster Counties. The feds review each state’s system of protecting children from abuse. No state, including Iowa, has ever met all the tough federal guidelines for child welfare cases.

The state agency’s review indicates the state has met or exceeded some standards. There are fewer cases of children re-entering foster care than there were in 2003 when the last federal review was conducted and the process of adoption for children who have been removed from abusive homes is much more speedy.

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Supporter says Rubashkin prosecuted to justify Agriprocessor immigration raid

June 23, 2010 By

More than a hundred orthodox Jews gathered outside the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids Tuesday as the former executive of a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville was sentenced to 27 years in prison. Sholom Rubashkin was convicted on multiple counts of financial fraud. Aaron Goldsmith, one of those who prayed outside the courthouse Tuesday, says Rubashkin was prosecuted because officials felt they had to “justify” the 2008 immigration raid at the plant.

“So there’s a lot of political aspects to this thing. Just think about before the raid how Chet Culver, (Bruce) Braley — so many politicians were standing and saying how we’re not going to tolerate this in our state,” Goldsmith says. “…They had already found them guilty before anybody had actually looked into it.”

Rubashkin’s defense attorney plans to appeal the sentence, as well as the $30-million fine the judge imposed. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Teig says the if the sentence is noteworthy, it’s only because of the magnitude of Rubashkin’s crimes.

“It’s hard to get up to a 27-year sentence for a white collar crime,” Teig said during a news conference. “It is very difficult and the only way he did that was by committing a $26 million fraud, having a sophisticated fraud scheme, committing money laundering that was sophisticated, by getting others involved in his crimes, and by obstructing justice by lying at his own trial.”

Rubashkin was convicted by a jury in November. More than 400 workers were arrested during the May, 2008 raid at the meatpacking plant Rubashkin ran in Postville. His convictions on 88 different charges were centered on financial issues, however, including failure to pay farmers in a timely manner for the livestock they delivered to the plant and bank fraud.

Filed Under: Business, Crime & Courts Tagged With:

Iowa National Guard training mixes experience with newcomers in preparation for Afghanistan

June 23, 2010 By
Iowa soldiers at Camp Ripley barracks.

Iowa soldiers at Camp Ripley barracks.

Iowa National Guard soldiers are training at Camp Ripley in Minnesota for deployment to Afghanistan in what will be the largest deployment by the guard since World War Two.

Radio Iowa’s Dar Danielson spent some time at Camp Ripley and talked with the soldiers about their training and feelings about the upcoming mission.
Danielson ING report 1:28 MP3 

Not only are the 28-hundred soldiers who’ll be on the ground in Afghanistan involved in this training, but support units of the guard are also in Minnesota for a full-scale summer exercise involving a total of 4,000 Iowa National Guard soldiers.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Military Tagged With:

Loebsack says McChrystal’s future is “president’s decision”

June 23, 2010 By

Congressman Dave Loebsack says it’s up to the president to decide the future of the general who was summoned to the Oval Office this morning after controversial statements from General Stanley McChrystal and his staff were published in a Rolling Stone article.

“Certainly I was disappointed in the comments, but this is something that is on-going at the moment and I look forward to hearing the outcome of the president’s meeting with General McChrystal and we’ll see what comes of that,” Loebsack says.  “…Constitutionally it is the president’s decision to make whatever the future of General McChrystal may be and so I’m not inclined to weigh in and also I just simply don’t want to make this any kind of a political football more for the troops’ sake more than anything else.” 

Loebsack, a Democrat from Mount Vernon, is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, a panel where McChrystal has testified about the operations in Afghanistan, where he is top commander.

“I have tremendous respect for General McChrystal,” Loebsack says. “I think he has done a wonderful job, obviously, in Afghanistan and before, so I think that he’s a professional through and through and he’s served our country very well.” 

Loebsack has just returned from a trip to Camp Ripley in Minnesota where Iowa National Guard troops are training for a deployment to Afghanistan.  Loebsack says the soldiers are focused on their mission, not on the controversy about who the top commander may or may not be.

“The folks on the ground are concerned about the mission,” Loebsack says, “getting prepared for the mission and up at Camp Ripley that’s what they were concerned about — not about the politics in Washington or any of that.”

Loebsack uses the word “optimistic” to describe the mood of the Iowa soldiers. “It was very impressive to see what they were doing up there.  I went and saw a number of exercises, watched what’s called the ‘After Action Review’ as well. They went through the process of evaluating how they did,” Loebsack says. “I’m really confident that when they’re finished with this and when they go to Mississippi and California for further training before they’re deployed that they’re going to be fully prepared to do what they need to do in Afghanistan.” 

Loebsack says he was “heartened” to see the professionalism of the soldiers from Iowa, as well as from the evaluators who are reviewing the training exercises.  Loebsack serves on two subcommittees of the House Armed Services panel, one on Readiness and the other on Military Personnel.

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

“7th Heaven” star, Iowa native, returns from L.A. to give commencement address

June 23, 2010 By

An Iowa native and Hollywood actor, best known for his role on the long-running T-V show “7th Heaven,” will be back in his home state this weekend to give a commencement address. Stephen Collins says he wants to speak to the graduates in southeast Iowa about what he calls counter-culturalism, specifically, how it’s considered not normal to eat healthy.

“It’s difficult, if you’re watching television, to find an advertisement for a food product that’s really good for you,” Collins says. “It’s not impossible, but it’s difficult. Various companies would take me to task on that but to me it’s counter-cultural to be really careful about what you eat.”

The 62-year-old Collins will speak at the graduation ceremony on Saturday in Fairfield at Maharishi University of Management. Collins practices transcendental meditation and says many people consider it counter-cultural to take care of their bodies and not to over-medicate themselves.

Collins starred as Reverend Eric Camden in all 241 episodes of “7th Heaven,” the longest-running TV series on the WB network. It ran from 1996 to 2007. “I loved doing 7th Heaven and I’m proud of it and I’m proud of our wonderful long run,” Collins says. “Whenever I kick off, it’ll probably be in the first sentence, if not the first paragraph of any obituary anybody writes about me, but that’s okay. I have done a lot of other things, but when you do something that runs 11 years, it changes people’s idea about who you are.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Human Interest

Lawmaker plans another bid to ban synthetic marijuana products

June 23, 2010 By

A state lawmaker says there’s growing support for a ban on a product recently blamed for the death of an Indianola teenager. The parents of the 18-year-old say he shot himself after smoking “K2″ or “Spice” — a synthetic version of marijuana often sold as incense.

State Representative Mark Smith, a Democrat from Marshalltown, has tried to outlaw a similar herb called salvia for the past three years. Smith’s fellow legislators have resisted, fearing an increase in the prison population, but Smith says the sudden attention to “K2″ may help his cause.

“We have two substances now, instead of one, and we have a tragedy that has occurred, unfortunately, now,” Smith says. “We’re seeing more wide-scale use of both substances, so I think the chances are better during this next legislative session.” 

Smith, who is a certified drug abuse counselor, began pressing for the ban after people reported hallucinations after using both Salvia and K2. “I don’t think that we need any more substances on the market for people to mess up their thinking with,” Smith says. 

At least 10 states have laws banning the sale of salvia. Some foreign countries, including Finland and Australia, have outlawed or placed restrictions on the substance. 

K2, the other product, is often sold in packets and the herb is coated with a chemical that some say helps the product mimic the effects of marijuana. Nearly a dozen states are considering banning K2.

Representative Smith made his comments Tuesday during an appearance on “The Exchange” on Iowa Public Radio.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:
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