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Branstad meets with Urban Education Network

September 3, 2010 By

Terry Branstad, the Republican candidate for governor, says he told administrators from the state’s eight largest schools districts that he’s willing to consider a variety of options to provide subsidies so children from low-income households can attend preschool, but he’s not willing to see the state subsidize preschool for all students.

Branstad met Friday with the Urban Education Network of Iowa which has lobbied for state money for district-run preschool programs for all students. “We discussed how this could be done.  I don’t want to see it done at the expense of K-12 education,” Branstad says.  “I want to offer stability and predictability to the funding of K-12 education — and I also recognize that a lot of familes and can afford to and are very willing to.” 

Branstad says he wants to devise some kind of “sliding fee” system that would determine the prices parents would pay to enroll their kids in preschools set up by public school districts.

“We want to make sure that every child has the opportunity for preschool, so I think we’ve got to come up with a system,” Branstad says. “And different districts are doing this in different ways so I want to kind of work with people that have some experience in that way to try to come up with the best and most equitable way to provide preschool opportunity. But also not as a new entitlement, free program, but as a program that meets family needs and makes it possible for families that otherwise thought they couldn’t afford it to be able to provide preschool.”

The Urban Education Network represents the Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Iowa City, Sioux City and Waterloo school districts. The network’s eight school districts represents about 25 percent of the students who are enrolled in Iowa public schools.  The State of Iowa is providing money for preschool programs, but Governor Culver’s office did not have information about how many four-year-olds are enrolled in the eight school districts which are part of the Urban Education Network and the network’s executive director was unavailable.

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

Iowa Farm Bureau plows new ground on Farm Bill

September 3, 2010 By

Iowa Farm Bureau president Craig Lang (left) with U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack (file photo)

The Iowa Farm Bureau’s delegate assembly has endorsed the idea of replacing direct government payments to American farmers with a new system that would use government subsidies for a “revenue assurance” program that would provide insurance against crop and livestock losses.

Farm Bureau president Craig Lang says that kind of risk management could be the new “safety net” for American farmers. ”The discussion around the Farm Bill lasted nearly three-and-a-half hours and we heard everything from improving the safety net towards what if we took the Farm Bill away and food prices increased and we had amendment after amendment, but during all that discussion, the change on direct payments stayed in,” Lang says. “And I really think that was driven by our farmers’ concern about the growing federal deficit.” 

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

Radio Iowa Football Friday Night September 3, 2010

September 3, 2010 By

Here are the  Iowa Network Services Football Friday Night on Radio Iowa  scores from week two.  Listen to your local Radio Iowa station, or through the link on-line each Friday night.

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Filed Under: Football Friday Night, Sports

Hawkeyes set to kick off season of great expectations

September 3, 2010 By

Statue of Nile Kinnick outside Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

A much anticipated season for the Iowa Hawkeyes gets underway when they host Eastern Illinois in Kinnick Stadium. Following a win in the Orange Bowl the Hawks enter this season ninth ranked and are expected to challenge Ohio State for the Big Ten title.

In was just a year ago that the Hawkeyes wiggled off the hook in their opener against U.N.I.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says the moral of the story is there just aren’t a lot of easy games and if you go into a game thinking it’s not going to be competative, you are going to suffer.

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Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Update: driver that clipped bus in Montgomery County found

September 3, 2010 By

A tanker truck driver - wanted for questioning in connection with a hit and run accident involving a school bus this  morning in southwest Iowa - was located at a rest area about 30-miles south of Sioux City. Randy Bird, 55, of Wayne, Nebraska is now facing charges. Bird is accused of a driving a tanker truck that clipped a Villisca Community School District bus that was stopping on the highway. There were 15 students on board – no one was injured.

Previous story:

Authorities in southwest Iowa are searching for a tanker truck that clipped a school bus early this morning. It happened at 8 a.m. on Highway 71 in Montgomery County. Villisca/Corning Schools Superintendent Willy Stone says around 15 students were on the bus, but no one was hurt.

“Our bus driver was slowing down, had the lights on, and was getting ready to stop or turn. A tanker truck came up from behind and either didn’t see him turning, didn’t see the lights or just couldn’t get stopped,” Stone said. The tanker truck collided with the back end of the bus.

The driver of the truck left the scene without stopping. Stone says the bus driver, Gary Ford of Villisca, deserves a lot of credit for the lack of injuries. “He was able to keep the bus on the road and keep our students safe. We feel blessed no one was hurt,” Stone said. “You normally hear of a tanker truck hitting a bus and not very good things come from it.”

It’s not clear if the driver of the tanker truck knew he hit the bus, but Stone says evidence at the scene indicates he should have known. “I guess my feeling is he knows it happened,” Stone said. “Maybe he doesn’t, I hope he…didn’t flee the scene with the knowledge something happened.”

State law requires drivers in both directions to stop once red lights are activated on a school bus. Authorities say the semi tractor that clipped the bus was red and was pulling tanker with the word “Ruan” on the back. The damage to the bus is estimated at $500. Parents of the students who were on the bus were contacted and given the option to take their children home.

By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Education, Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Blood centers call for more donations

September 3, 2010 By

Two of Iowa’s largest blood centers report blood supplies are critically low heading into the holiday weekend. Blood banks typically like to have a five-day supply of blood on hand. Both the Siouxland Blood Bank in Sioux City and the Des Moines-based Blood Center of Iowa are down to less than a two-day supply.

Blood Center spokeswoman Christine Hayes says the plea for donors is urgent. “We are in critical need of donors who have type O-negative and type B-negative blood,” Hayes says. “We are certainly encouraging those donors to make an attempt to give blood, hopefully today or tomorrow.” She says having hospitals across the region fully supplied with all blood types is vital, especially as a surplus of travelers will be on the roadways over the Labor Day holiday.

“We really like to go into every week having a very stable blood supply,” Hayes says. “Unfortunately, during the summer months, we tend to see our blood supply dip. Our donors get busy with outdoor activities in the last bit of summer and forget to make a blood donation appointment.” She says donors across Iowa are encouraged to call their nearest blood bank and sign up for the easy process of giving blood.

“Now, as we’re going into a long holiday weekend, bolstering our blood supply is even more important than ever,” Hayes says. “Because we’re not collecting blood on Sunday or Monday for Labor Day, we need to collect more blood today and tomorrow to get us through this long weekend.”

To find the nearest place to donate, call 800-287-4903 or visit: “www.bloodcenterofiowa.org“.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

Governor asks D.O.T. to look at faster installation of wire barriers

September 3, 2010 By

Iowa’s governor has asked the D.O.T. to speed up installation of barriers made of thick metal cables in the medians of highways, especially in areas where head-on collisions have occured. Governor Culver wrote a letter to the Iowa D.O.T.’s director this week to formally make that request.

“She shares my concern and I really believe that (DOT) director Richardson deserves enormous credit because this has been her focus, along with Gene Meyer at (the Department of)Public Safety, to make improvements in terms of safety measures — more cable barriers,” Culver says. “So we’ve actually come a long way in just the past three-and-a-half years to make roads safer.”

Culver cites a number of recent crashes in which vehicles have crossed the interstate median and crashed directly into on-coming traffic. In the last half of August, eight people died and eight others were injured in three separate accidents along Interstate-80 in Jasper County. In each of the three wrecks, a driver crossed the median and crashed into traffic coming from the other direction. There is no cable barrier in that area.

The D.O.T.’s current construction plan calls for completing barrier placements, statewide, by 2013. “If we know there’s a ‘danger zone’ if you will — if we’re very concerned with a particular stretch of our interstate or state highway system — let’s not wait,” Culver says. “We can’t afford to lose another life. We can’t afford to have anyone injured.”

D.O.T. commissioners will consider moving up the timetable for installing the barriers in highway medians at the next commission meeting.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,
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