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Miller & Mauro say federal, not state, solution needed on immigration

July 1, 2010 By

While the two Republicans who’re running for attorney general and secretary of state say the state of Iowa should take steps to crackdown on illegal immigration, the two Democrats who currently hold those offices say it’s a federal issue and a federal solution is needed. 

Attorney General Tom Miller says when laws need to be enforced, his office will pursue the cases. “We brought the case on child labor against the AgriProcessors operation up in Postville which was related to immigration. Whenever there’s a law, we’re going to do our best to enforce it,” Miller says.  “But this is a federal problem and a national law is necessary. It really cries out for that.”

Brenna Findley, Miller’s Republican opponent, says she supports “what’s behind” a new Arizona law on immigration, but thinks an Iowa law on the subject should be tailored to fit here, since Iowa’s not a border state.  Miller says immigration should be addressed on the national, not the state level. 

“That is the way out, the only way out of this enormous mess,” Miller says. “You know, people are frustrated about immigration and justifiably so. People are hurt by certain aspects of it and we’re concerned about that. Congress really needs to act here.” 

Matt Schultz, the Republican running for secretary of state, says he’d beef up the Iowa secretary of state’s website to help businesses figure out how to check with the federal government to see if a potential employee has a valid Social Security number and is in the country legally.  Michael Mauro, the Democrat who is currently serving as Iowa’s secretary of state, says the “E-verify” system Schultz touts is problematic.

“We checked with the Department of Homeland Security.  They did their own study…They’re missing one out of two undocumented workers. That’s the program my opponent wants to put in place?” Mauro asks.  “I say if they put a program together that does work, that will help, we’ll be happy to put it in place, but the facts are this: the E-verify system’s not working; one of two are falling through the cracks and no other states that I’m aware of — secretary of states’ offices — are even employing it.” 

Mauro’s Republican opponent supports Arizona’s immigration crack down and would like to see the Arizona law implemented in Iowa.  Mauro says immigration is an issue. ”And I think the federal government needs to do a better job of addressing it,” Mauro says. 

Mauro and Miller made their comments this morning during taping of the Iowa Public Television program, “Iowa Press” which airs Friday at 7:30 p.m.

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

Labor Department awards multi-million dollar grant to help Sioux City John Morrell workers

July 1, 2010 By

The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded Iowa over $6.2 million in a grant to help around 800 workers who lost their jobs with the closing of the John Morrell meatpacking plant in Sioux City. Jane Oates is the assistant secretary for employment and training at the Labor Department.

Oates says the workers that are interested can come and take part in assisted job search, where they sit down and get one-to-one attention to match the skills they had a John Morrell with a new job.

Oates says the workers can also go back to school and get training for a different career. She says Iowa Workforce Development has told federal officials there are possible future jobs in wind energy or food processing with other employers.

[Read more...]

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

Senator Harkin “extremely disappointed” at failure to extend unemployment benefits

July 1, 2010 By

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says he’s “extremely disappointed” at last (Wednesday) night’s failure of a bill that would have extended unemployment benefits to more than a million people who’re jobless. It marks the third time in three weeks Senate Republicans successfully filibustered the bill. Harkin, a Democrat, says it’s a shame.

“Right now, we’re facing about 1.2-million people whose insurance benefits will be cut off at the end of this week,” Harkin says. “By the end of next week, it’ll be up to 1.7-million, and by July 10th, before we ever get back here, about 2.4-million people in America will have lost their benefits.”

The Senate is now in recess for the Independence Day holiday until July 12th, so Harkin says there’s no chance any of those people will get unemployment checks this weekend. “That means they’ll have no income whatsoever,” Harkin says. “These are families that are just at the end of the line. They’ve been out of work for a long time. They have no other place to turn. Many are facing the loss of their homes because they can’t keep up their payments. Many of them have illnesses and some have family members that don’t have health insurance.”

The legislation would have extended benefits for people who’ve been out of work for more than six months. Harkin says, “All they’re asking is to just help get them through these next few months and hopefully when the recovery starts.”

All but two Republicans voted against extending the unemployment benefits, along with one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Two Republicans, both from Maine, voted for the extension.

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

Governor Culver says he’ll stick with plan to fill some jobs of retired workers

July 1, 2010 By

Governor Chet Culver says he disagrees with the Senate Republicans who’ve suggested the state shouldn’t replace any of the 2,100 state workers who’ve retired early.

“I don’t think they understand the important functions of state government if they are suggesting we don’t hire back essential employees,” Culver says. “We need correctional officers. We need folks at the Department of Health and Human Services. We need to hire important critical public safety positions at the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Transportation, so I couldn’t disagree with them more.”

Culver said last week he’d authorize the hiring of 1,100 workers to fill some of the posts left empty after those 2,100 executive branch employees accepted an early retirement incentive package. Republican Senator Randy Feenstra of Hull says Culver shouldn’t hire hundreds of new state workers given the current economic conditions.

Culver’s not backing down from his hiring plan. “We have to ensure that essential services are delivered efficiently and effectively. We have saved $89 million with our early retirement program and that includes hiring back these essential jobs, so overall we’ve saved $275 million in terms of government reorg and efficiency, including early retirement,” Culver says, “so we’re managing government effectively and responsibly.”

June 30th was the last day of the 2010 state budgeting year and Culver says his decision to cut the budget by 10%, across-the-board, last October, puts the state in a good position. “It looks like we’re going to have as much as a $100 million above projections at the end of the fiscal year in terms of revenue,” Culver says. “We’re going to have $500 million in our cash reserves and emergency funds and our ending balance, so we’re better positioned than any state in America today.”

Culver’s campaign manager on Tuesday afternoon released a packet of photo copies to reporters, charging that Culver’s Republican foe, Terry Branstad, abused his power when he was governor for 16 years. The packet included copies of Branstad campaign fundraising letters that had been printed on stationery from the governor’s office. Culver campaign manager Donn Stanley says Branstad used the governor’s office in a “self-serving” way.

Earlier on Tuesday, Culver told a group of reporters he was going on the offensive. “What I’m going to do is I’m going to set the record straight. There’s been a lot of misleading information put out there by the Branstad camp. For example, Terry Branstad goes across this state saying we don’t have any budget surplus. That’s just flat-out wrong,” Culver said. “In fact, after the end of this fiscal year we’ll have in excess of $500 million in our surplus.”

Culver also hit Branstad on another issue. “He took eight pay raises. At a time when, you know, people are hurting they need to know that this governor took eight pay raises. I vetoed a pay raise and I cut my own pay 10%,” Culver said. “People need to know what our values are, what we stand for and what our records are.”

Branstad’s campaign manager called the attacks from Culver’s campaign “sad and pathetic.”  In regards to the documents from Branstad’s 16-year tenure in the governor’s office, the Branstad campaign counters that Culver has failed to release a series of e-mail correspondence to the public seeking more information about the governor’s response to the scandal in the Iowa film office.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Braley says he’s frustrated with Senate over financial reform bill

July 1, 2010 By

Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley says he’s frustrated with the U.S. Senate’s failure to pass the final version of the financial reform bill. The U.S. House approved the sweeping package on Wednesday. It creates a new federal agency to oversee the financial industry, but three key Republicans in the U.S. Senate have said they’re not sure they’ll support it.

The bill won’t pass without their support, as Democrats need 60 senators to unite in order to avoid a filibuster on the bill. Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, says it’s been frustrating to watch. “At some point in time Senators on both parties are going to have to decide whether they can go back to their home states, look their voters in the eye if they fail to get the job done and complete the hard work of restoring fiscal sanity and how we regulate the market,” Braley says.

Braley calls the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 the “strongest set of reforms” congress has passed since the Great Depression. Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the legislation “will deter bank executives from excessive risk-taking and hold them accountable for their actions.”

 Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Mount Vernon, the bill sends this “clear message” to Wall Street: “clean up your act.”

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

Workforce Development releases survey on unemployed

July 1, 2010 By

A survey of unemployed Iowans by the state agency in charge of helping them find new jobs finds many have been out of a job for longer then average. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson, Kerry Koonce, says they sent surveys to 2,000 unemployed across the state and got responses back from about 30%.

“Seventy-six-percent of the people (who) responded had been unemployed for over half a year,” Koonce says, “And Iowa typically is one of the states that gets people off of unemployment quickly. We have an average — not in a recession time, in a good time — of about 10 weeks, which is very low compared to a lot of states.” Koonce says the long time without a job is really impacting people and taking its tool in “stress and financially and things like that.”

Koonce says the federal extensions of unemployment payments have allowed some to collect for 73 weeks, which she says has helped. But Koonce says the unemployment hasn’t filled all the need. Koonce says 72% of the people in their survey had to use savings or retirement funds to make ends meet.

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Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With:

June sets record for rainfall

July 1, 2010 By
June 2010 is entering the record books as one of the wettest months in Iowa history. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says preliminary data shows Iowa received a statewide average of 10.45 inches of rain in June. That’s a record for the month.The previous record of 10.33 inches was set in June 1947. The statewide average rainfall record for all months is 10.5 inches, set in July 1993.

Hillaker says Iowa has avoided widespread flooding because temperatures this spring and early summer have been much warmer than normal. “That’s been a big difference this year between what was the case in the big flood years of 2008 and 1993, when it was persistently cool throughout the spring and summer,” Hillaker said. “The higher evaporation rates have helped tremendously as far as keeping the flooding less than what you might expect with such huge amounts of rainfall.”

On average, temperatures over the last four months have been six-and-a-half degrees warmer than what Iowa experienced in 1993 and 2008. Hillaker says that’s led to 20% more evaporation.

The town of Rowen in Wright County may’ve received the most rainfall in June. An automated gauge recorded just under 21 inches of rain in Rowen, including seven inches during the overnight hours on June 22. An official National Weather Service spotter recorded 16.86 inches of rain in Indianola during the month of June.

By Pat Powers (KQWC, Webster City) and Pat Curtis (Radio Iowa)

 

Filed Under: Weather
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