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Iowa Board of Pharmacy bans K2

July 20, 2010 By

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy took action today to temporarily ban the sale of a synthetic marijuana that’s sold as incense. The substance is called “K2″ or “Spice.”

Gary Kendell, Director of the Iowa Office on Drug Control Policy, has been pressing for a ban after K2 first surfaced in the state a few months ago. He says the Board of Pharmacy passed an emergency measure to classify K2 as a Schedule I or illegal drug. The action requires state legislators to also approve a ban on K-2 within 60 days of convening next session to make the ban permanent. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Governor Culver defends DNR inaction on some laws

July 20, 2010 By

Governor Chet Culver is defending the head of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources after an audit found over a dozen state laws the agency is not enforcing. The list includes failing to require operating permits from infectious waste treatment facilities and failing to conduct random inspections of public works departments. The findings have at least two lawmakers calling for an overhaul of the agency.

But Culver says the attention to the audit is overblown and overstated. “I think what’s important to note is the hundreds if not thousands of enforcement actions the D.N.R. does move forward on every year,” Culver said, “I appreciate very much the leadership of (D.N.R. director) Rich Leopold, he’s doing an outstanding job.”

State Auditor David Vaudt says its common during an annual review to find that an agency is failing to completely enforce certain laws, but Vaudt says the D.N.R.’s non-compliance list was longer than most. Culver says after two years of budget cuts he’s not surprised the agency was forced to prioritize.

Meanwhile, the D.N.R. says Iowa has a moratorium on new infectious waste treatment facilities, so failing to require operating permits has not put the public at risk.

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

University of Iowa, Iowa State University report record external funding

July 20, 2010 By

The University Iowa is reporting another record year for what it calls “external funding,” things like grants for research. U-I interim vice president for research and economic development, Jordan Cohen, made the announcement today.

Cohen says the total awards were $466.5 million, up nearly 9% from last year’s $429.5 million. He says the distribution between federal and non federal sources of the money was 310-million federal 155-non federal. Cohen says the increase continued a trend that saw the external funding remain strong.

“It’s a remarkable story for research for the University of Iowa, really remarkable story,” Cohen says, “if you look carefully at that, really literally going back to the mid 80s, 25 years, 26 years ago, there’ve only been three years where we’ve even had a slight downturn in funding, otherwise it’s been a pretty impressive rise in our funding capability.” Federal funding represented 66-percent of the money.

Cohen says the largest segment of their external funding comes from the Department of Health and Human Services, and the larger component of that is from the National Institutes of Health for the health sciences and college of medicine for health related research. The increase in funding includes more than $40-million in federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Iowa State University officials also set a new record for external funding. I.S.U. says the school attracted a record $388.2 million — an increase of $83 million and a 27% increase over last year’s record. Just over $21 million was federal economic stimulus money.

Iowa State’s largest single source of external funding was the U.S. Department of Energy at just over $59-million. The second highest source was the U.S. Department of Agriculture at nearly $52-million.

The third highest was the National Science Foundation at $46.8 million.

  • U-I’s major funding agencies:
    Department of Health & Human Services (includes $219 million from NIH) $240.5 million (up 11.7 percent).
    National Science Foundation: $14 million (up 12 percent).
    NASA: $9.6 million (up 4.6 percent).
    Department of Education: $22.4 million (up 19.1 percent).
    Department of Defense: $8.2 million (down 8.9 percent).
    States: $61 million (up 27 percent).
    Industry: $30.8 million (down 19.7 percent).
    Private Organizations: $32.5 million (down 19.1 percent).

Iowa State’s external funding came from the following sources:
Federal
Energy, $59,267,985
Agriculture, $51,883,266
National Science Foundation, $46,797,648
Education, $28,662,828
Health and Human Services, $20,533,625
Defense, $10,945,023
Transportation, $7,986,419
Commerce, $3,122,887
NASA, $1,529,047
Interior, $388,796
Environmental Protection Agency, $245,462
Other, $5,631,671
Total Federal $236,994,657 

Non-Federal
ISU Foundation, $42,471,075
Businesses/Corporations/Commodities, $38,681,411
State, County and City Government, $35,139,824
Universities and Colleges, $17,757,528
External Foundations and Associations, $13,428,710
Individuals, $120,800
Other, $3,593,586
Total Non-Federal $151,192,934
Grand Total $388,187,591

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: ,

Three arrested in Cedar Rapids vandalism

July 20, 2010 By
Nicholas Daugherty, Andrew Ronnenberg, Lester Good

Nicholas Daugherty, Andrew Ronnenberg, Lester Good

Three suspects are now under arrest in Cedar Rapids, accused in a long, expensive string of vandalism, including spray-painted threats of violence. Over the past several weeks, Cedar Rapids Police Sergeant Cristy Hamblin say the suspects defaced parts of Kirkwood Community College, a teamster’s hall, several businesses, a church and the city’s Kingston Stadium.

“From the middle of June through the middle of July, we had numerous reports of criminal mischief,” Sergeant Hamblin says. “They were spray-painted or they were with a permanent marker onto various buildings all over Cedar Rapids.” The vandals were caught on videotape and tips led police to the same three suspects in virtually all of the cases.

Hamblin says, “I’m not an art connoisseur so I couldn’t tell you the difference but there are people within our department that study the graffiti and could tell it was the same taggers, the same artists.” Hamblin says the spray-painted threats of violence, including one to blow up the stadium, had police and some residents particularly concerned.

“There was some reference made to threatening to do some damage to Kingston at the first game and there were innuendos made against President Obama,” Hamblin says. “That’s one of those things you don’t ever want to do, make any threats against the president, because there’s bigger people than the Cedar Rapids police that take that a little more seriously.”

In this case though, after interviewing all three suspects, the decision was made not to contact the Secret Service, which could have pursued federal charges in the case.

All three suspects are charged with criminal mischief: 20-year-old Andrew Ronnenberg, 18-year-old Lester Good and 17-year-old Nicholas Daugherty. Damage, Hamblin says, is in the many thousands of dollars.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Smoky fire interrupts breakfast at Washington restaurant

July 20, 2010 By

A smoky fire interrupted breakfast today at a Washington restaurant. A waitress at Frontier Restaurant in Washington called the fire department around eight this morning because she smelled gas and saw smoke in the building’s basement.

Liz Goodwin says firefighters told everyone to leave the restaurant while they invested the cause of the report. Washington resident John Coakley was eating in the restaurant with his wife when he was told by firemen to leave. The couple decided to take a few items from the restaurant, and finished their breakfast in the parking lot while Washington’s volunteer fire department investigated.

There was little damage, but a lot of smoke from the fire. The smoked was cleared out of the building and no injuries were reported.

By Chance Dorland, KCII, Washington

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Unemployment rate stays at 6.8% for June

July 20, 2010 By

Iowa’s unemployment rate for June stood at 6.8%, unchanged from May. The state’s unemployment rate in June 2009 was 6%. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson Kerry Koonce says the state lost 4,500 jobs between May and June. It marks the first time this year that the state failed to add jobs.

Koonce says the loss of nearly 2,000 temporary Census workers was a major factor. The total number of Iowans working in June was 1,567,100. The state’s pool of unemployed workers stood at 113,600 in June. That compares to 99,500 in June 2009. The trade and transportation sector posted the largest loss, down 4,200 jobs between May and June.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Branstad outraises Culver in governor’s race following the primary

July 20, 2010 By

Former Governor Terry Branstad’s campaign outraised current Governor Chet Culver’s campaign in the last six weeks. Reports filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure board show Republican Terry Branstad raised nearly $2.15-million in the time following his win in the June Republican primary. That’s about three times more money than Democrat incumbent Chet Culver raised in the same period. Culver took in nearly $766,000.

Branstad’s contributions include one half million dollars from the Republican Governors Association Iowa Political Action Committee, while Culver took in $250,000 from the Democratic Governors Association. The campaign heated up after the primary with the race set, as both candidates spent more than one-million dollars on advertising in the last six weeks.

The spending leaves Branstad with $1.85 million in the campaign bank, while Culver still has $2.85 million left to spend. Branstad is trying to return to office after serving four terms and then leaving office in January of 1999. Culver is trying to win his second term.

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