The senior was impressive on the mound and at the plate. Bickford was 4-0 and in 23 innings gave up no earned runs, 11 hits and struck out 31 batters. She also batted .654 with six doubles, 13 RBI and scored 10 runs. Bickford tossed a complete game two-hitter with 13 strikeouts and also drove in a pair of runs in a victory over Dyersville Beckman. She also had a couple of hits and fired a three-hitter with six strikeouts in a victory over Central DeWitt.
Class 4A: Sarah Sinopoli, Des Moines Lincoln
July 7, 2010 By
The junior third baseman batted .692 and in four games slammed three home runs, drove in eight runs and scored five times. Sinopoli homered, drove in a pair runs and scored two more in a victory over Ottumwa. She also had two home runs and drove in five in a win over Des Moines East.
Democrat challenger questions auditor’s action in Alcoholic Beverages Division case
July 7, 2010 By
The Democratic candidate for state auditor is criticizing the Republican who currently holds the job for failing to more quickly uncover information about questionable spending in the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division.
Republican State Auditor Dave Vaudt released an audit last week, showing the former administrator of the Alcoholic Beverages Division bought $23,000 worth of artwork from one of his wife’s friends, purchased an $1,100 industrial-strength dishwasher for the employee break-room and paid a contractor a million dollars long before any renovations of the division’s warehouse were done.
Jon Murphy, the Democrat challenging Vaudt in November, says the audit raises some “major” concerns. “Apparently it took over a year for the auditor’s office to get answers to questions to help complete this particular audit,” Murphy says.
”And I’m concerned that the auditor didn’t compel answers in a more timely fashion in order to complete the audit and make sure Iowans were getting the information about where their tax dollars were being spent.” Murphy says the questionable spending occurred in calendar year 2008.
“As state auditor, if I have an administrator or somebody that I’m auditing that has questionable expenses, they won’t be allowed to go two weeks, let alone over a year, to answer questions that are important to completing a state audit,” Murphy says. “…Here we are in the middle of 2010 and we’re finally getting answers. That’s completely unacceptable. It doesn’t show the characteristics of a tough taxpayers’ watchdog.” Murphy proposes posting the state budget on-line so “Iowans can actually see how their money is being spent.”
Vaudt issued a written statement early this afternoon. ”I find it interesting that my opponent weighs in on the audit of the Alcoholic Beverages Division – especially since my opponent lacks the qualifications, and is not licensed, under Iowa law to conduct audits,” Vaudt said. “His comments demonstrate the lack of even a basic understanding of the audit process and the responsibilities of the State Auditor.”
Vaudt also questioned Murphy’s assertion that taxpayers could help identify questionable spending online if the state budget were posted on the Internet. ”That’s ironic considering all the questionable expenditures were not only processed, but also available online for tracking, by my opponent’s employer, the Governor’s administration, which failed to identify the questionable expenditures,” Vaudt said. “Transparency is not accomplished by simply putting up a slick web site.”
Murphy has taken a leave of absence from his job as director of the Iowa Office for State-Federal Relations for Governor Culver to run for state auditor.
(This story was updated at 12:25 p.m.)
Audit finds questionable spending in Springville School District
July 7, 2010 By
A state investigation of the operations of a school cafeteria in a small district in Linn County has found over $55,000 worth of problems. The food service director at Springville Community Schools resigned on January 2nd of 2009.
The district asked the state auditor’s office to investigate and the review looked at records dating back to 2005. The report issued by the state auditor’s office identified undeposited cash payments from students and staff amounted to about 48-thousand dollars. In addition, auditors found the former food service director bought things like Hershey Kisses, M&Ms, cake pans and holiday plates. According to the state investigation, each of those purposes was for items “which appear personal in nature.”
The purchases amounted to more than $6,000 over the four year period and they were made in “small quantities” — which means the M&Ms weren’t purchased to serve as part of the meals for students. The report from the state auditor’s office has been forwarded to state and local law enforcement.
Northeast Iowa swamped with heavy rains
July 7, 2010 By
Large amounts of rain fell across various cities in northeast Iowa this morning, causing headache for residents and motorists. About two inches of rain fell in Oelwein in about an hour and Highway 150 on the south side had several inches of water on the road, which caused some vehicles to stall.
The highway was closed down until the rain subsided. Dry Run Creek which runs near the downtown area was rising and nearly out of its banks. Emergency workers were kept busy rescuing motorists who drove into the water-covered roads and stalled their cars.
A flash flood warning is still in effect for Northern Buchanan County, including Hazelton and Aurora until 1:45 P.M. Nearly four inches of rain fell in some spots of the county in less than two hours. Highway 150 south of Hazelton had been closed, but has since reopened. The highway was also closed at the Fayette-Buchanan County line.
Iowa pheasant hunters can now grow their own
July 7, 2010 By
Pheasant hunters who’ve had a hard time finding the birds now have a way to artificially improve their chances. Iowa Department of Natural Resources research biologist, Todd Bogenschutz, says the law changed July 1st to allow pheasants raised from chicks to be released.
Bogenschutz says Iowans have always had the ability to raise wild game, but until the change, it was illegal to release the pen raised birds into the wild. Severe winters and wet springs have hurt the pheasant populations in recent years — and the number of birds taken dropped to record lows in 2008 and 2009.
Bogenschutz doesn’t see a lot of landowners using the law to release birds so they can charge people to hunt on their land. He doesn’t anticipate many landowners releasing birds and charging hunters to go after them, as he says the registered shooting reserves fill that role already.
Bogenschutz says it’s more beneficial for landowners who want more birds for friends and relatives, and some believe they can augment the wild pheasant population. Legislators and others hope the change in law will help increase the population of pheasants in the state.
Bogenschutz is skeptical adding new birds will help overcome the weather problems and loss of habitat that caused the decrease in the native bird population. “You know to think that pen-raised birds with no survival instincts or resources to bear on are gonna do any better if our native birds are struggling, you know, I think is a bit of a stretch,” Bogenschutz says,”it’s their money and if that’s what they want to do, then that’s their choice.”
Bogenschutz says there shouldn’t be any concern about the pen-raised birds causing any disease in the native populations. He says the legislature tried to limit those concerns — as Iowa is a large poultry producing state — by requiring people to buy the birds from state approved hatcheries.
Hunters took 750,00 pheasants in 2006, that number dropped to a then record low of 383,000 in 2008 following two harsh winters and flooding. That was followed by another record low of 271,126 in 2009.
Salvation Army camps need help after flooding
July 7, 2010 By
An agency that provides flood relief is now in need of it. Two Salvation Army summer camps in eastern Nebraska have been forced to close, camps that serve hundreds of kids and adults from Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Salvation Army spokeswoman Susan Eustice says Camp Eppley, near Bellevue (Nebraska), sits along the Platte River, which is well out of its banks.
“Two-hundred children were affected by two of our camps that absolutely had to close down due to this flooding,” Eustice says. “The septic tanks didn’t work to our new cabins. They were immersed in water.”
A third camp was able to relocate. She says water covers the main road into the camp, the baseball field is underwater and the recreation hall basement has a foot of standing water. The closings mean no summer camp for a lot of kids, but it should just be a temporary setback.
“There are over a thousand adults and children that attend this camp throughout the summertime,” Eustice says. “We have a retreat for older adults, that’s one of the sessions. Service extension camps are for kids that come from the division based in Omaha which includes areas from Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa. We have a music camp that unfortunately had to be canceled and a sports camp that will be relocated.”
Eustice says the Salvation Army has been busy for weeks, helping people in the region to mop up and clean up after floods. With the latest round of floods, she says supplies are now running low.
“The Salvation Army is asking the public for monetary donations that we can use toward the purchase of cleaning supplies,” Eustice says. “The Salvation Army can really stretch that dollar and we hope to replenish our cleaning supply kits which are down now to only about ten or twelve.”
She says they started the season with 4,000 clean-up kits. Each kit costs $26.50. The Salvation Army is also hoping volunteers will step forward and help do physical work to clean up the camps. They hope to have it open for another session next week.
