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Four from Council Bluffs plead guilty to sex trafficking

October 26, 2010 By

Four people from Council Bluffs have pled guilty to sex trafficking. Thirty-two-year-old Merrideth Crane-Horton, 35-year-old Edwin Horton, 23-year-old Katherine Heredia and 21-year-old Ramon Heredia pled guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

Court documents say the four enticed a 15-year-old girl into the conspiracy and coerced her into performing sex acts both in Nebraska and Iowa. They also admitted that various young adult women were also enticed into the conspiracy to perform sex acts along with the 15-year-old.

The case began with a prostitution sting by the Council Bluffs police and the F.B.I. in January of this year. Sentencing has been set for the four on February 7th, and they each face the potential of a life prison sentence.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Four “third party” candidates running for governor

October 26, 2010 By

In this year’s race for governor, there are four so-called “third-party” candidates listed along with Democrat Chet Culver and Republican Terry Branstad on this fall’s ballot. Jonathan Narcisse, a newspaper publisher and former Des Moines School Board member, is running as an “Iowa Party” candidate. Narcisse has proposed that Iowans who are paid by the hour should only pay state income taxes on their first 40 hours of work in a week.

“We also fix property taxes,” he says. “We link it to the purchase price not the random assessed values which allows folks, particularly working class folks, to acquire property and to improve it without getting crushed.” David Rosenfeld, a Des Moines tire factory worker, is the Socialist Worker’s Party candidate for governor. He says Iowa should have a much more progressive income tax that completely exempts the working class, while requiring upper income Iowans to pay more.

“I’m not concerned with creating class warfare,” Rosenfeld says. “We live in a society that is subject to the class struggle. Whether you want to hide from it, pretend that it doesn’t exist, or whether it gets buried beneath everything and you can’t see it as well — the class struggle exists.”

Eric Cooper, an Iowa State University psychology professor, is the Libertarian Party’s nominee for governor. Cooper says it’s time for dramatic changes in the way the state doles out money for educating kids. “Attach any subsidy money to the individual child. Let the parents decide where that kid goes to school,” Cooper says.”That could be private school, parochial school, home schooling or even the current public schools — if they want to.”

Gregory James Hughes, an employee at the Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids, is running as an independent candidate for governor. Hughes, a divorced man who is a “father’s rights” advocate, says too many judges are mishandling divorces and child custody proceedings.

“I would like to set up a panel so that if somebody thinks that, really, these decisions are egregious, they could have a place for them to be looked at and re-evaluated, from a common sense level,” he says. “They really do a very, very, very poor job at policing themselves.” The four “third-party” candidates for governor made their comments Monday during a joint appearance on Iowa Public Radio.

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Grassley talks passenger rail, Clarence Thomas

October 26, 2010 By

Federal officials are promising to invest  $230-million  to build a high-speed passenger rail system that would run from Iowa City to Chicago with a stop in the Quad Cities. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says people in Iowa and Illinois would get on board the 80-mile-an-hour trains, especially once the line runs on to Des Moines and Omaha.

Grassley says, “You’re finding a situation where, connected with the problems of Homeland Security, the problems of terrorists on airplanes, the fact that airlines are having trouble providing the service they used to provide, alternative service like rail service is something that, at least on a regional basis, is going to pay off.”

The plan is to have the Chicago-Iowa City service running as soon as 2013 with two round-trips daily. One study says that 220-mile route would attract nearly 247,000 people by 2015.

On another topic, Grassley says he’s not concerned the reputation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas may be compromised after Thomas’ wife appeared in the news in recent days. Ginni Thomas reportedly made a phone call to Anita Hill, the woman who accused Thomas of sexual harassment two decades ago.

In the voicemail, Mrs. Thomas urged Hill to recant her story which became national news in 1991. Grassley says Justice Thomas “has a mind of his own” and admits the actions by Mrs. Thomas are mysterious.

“I don’t have any explanation for phone calls she makes or anything,” Grassley says. “The main thing is that I’m convinced, knowing him the little bit I do but more than most other people, he’s the sort of person that’s going to make his decisions based on what the Constitution says and what the law says.”

Grassley adds, “I don’t think Clarence Thomas is going to be compromised by anything his wife does or says.” Hill is sticking by her story and tells media outlets she found it offensive Ginni Thomas would ask her to apologize.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Campaign Countdown Attorney General race

October 26, 2010 By

Radio Iowa’s “Campaign Countdown” series continues with a look at another statewide race. Iowa’s long-time attorney general faces a well-financed challenger this fall. Listen to Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson report: Attorney General  2:39 MP3

Brenna Findley

Republican Brenna Findley has raised over half-a-million dollars to try to defeat Democrat Tom Miller, who is seeking an eighth term as Iowa’s attorney general. The Republican Party of Iowa helped Findley’s bottom line by donating over half a million in the past three months.

According to the latest campaign disclosure reports, Miller has raised about  $400,000 for his reelection bid. That means Findley has a more than two-to-one advantage in campaign cash.

 Findley grew up in Dexter, got her law degree from the University of Chicago and left her job as Congressman Steve King’s chief of staff early this year to run for state attorney general.

 ”I knew it was the right year to run this year because I’m 34 years old and when I looked back in the history books it turns out that our current attorney general was my age when he ran for attorney general and beat the incumbent,” Findley said at a GOP rally in June.

Attorney General Tom Miller

Miller, a native of Dubuque who turned 66 in August, got his law degree from Harvard in 1969 and set up a law firm in McGregor in 1973. He won his first term as the state’s attorney general in 1978. Miller was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1990, then he became a partner in a Des Moines law firm.

Miller was reelected as attorney general in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. “I love this job and I appreciate the opportunity to be attorney general for a few times, now, and I love it ’cause I have a passion for using the law to serve the interests of ordinary Iowans,” Miller said last week during a debate at the University of Iowa Law School. “That’s our pole star.”

Findley has criticized Miller for failing to join a lawsuit that charges the federal health care reform plan is unconstitutional. Miller has said the other state attorneys general who’re suing have no legal footing for their case. Findley’s newest campaign ad criticizes Miller for failing to meet a deadline on a case involving two sex offenders.

 ”Not missing deadlines — that’s job one for the attorney general’s office,” Findley said during the debate at the U-of-I. “And I’ll approach that very carefully and to make sure we have several systems in place to make sure no deadlines are missed.” There’s more to the story, Miller says, and it involves court schedules, appeals and Supreme Court decisions. “You know, we’re not perfect, but we do a great job,” Miller said during a recent appearance on Iowa Public Television. “We prosecute criminals. We do the sex predators. Our record is a strong one. We have among the best prosecutors, the best lawyers in the state.”

 The two have had one debate. It was held last week at the University of Iowa Law School. They also made a joint appearance on Iowa Public Television this month.

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

Judge dismisses attempt to block state prison contract

October 26, 2010 By

A district court judge Monday rejected an injunction filed by Master Builders of Iowa that sought to block an Illinois firm from building a new maximum security prison in Fort Madison. Walsh Construction of Chicago was awarded a contract to build the prison after submitting a low bid of $116.9 million.

The Master Builders group argued the contract should have been awarded to an Iowa firm because of a state law which calls for giving preference to Iowa businesses when awarding state contracts. Governor Culver has defended the contract with Walsh saying a Project Labor Agreement will ensure the majority of the up to 500 construction jobs will go to Iowans.

The new 800-bed prison is slated to open in July 2013. The existing facility was built in 1839.

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

Council Bluffs River’s Edge Park moving ahead

October 26, 2010 By

Council Bluffs officials say excellent progress is being made on what’s to be called River’s Edge Park. The 90-acre development is at the foot of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, which joins Council Bluffs and Omaha. Larry Foster, Council Bluffs’ parks director, says the new park will provide access to the city’s trail system and preserve the wetlands area, while offering all sorts of entertainment options.

Foster says, “In the middle of the park, there’ll be what we call the Great Lawn which is about a five-acre piece of property that will be used for festivals, major events, concerts.” He says one of the goals is to bring family fun back to the area. Foster says, “Right on the edge of the river, there’ll be plazas and a couple of beach areas, some sand areas that people will think of a little bit of a beach environment.”

He says Council Bluffs officials are already looking at events that could be held in conjunction with the College World Series at T-D Ameritrade Park across the river. Part of the excitement of the baseball tournament is fireworks and Foster says they may designate part of the park for that purpose.

“We actually would develop a place where fireworks can be set off so I think there will be a lot of chances to incorporate the College World Series and other things that happen on the Omaha side,” he says.” The River’s Edge Park recently received a national award for its design and construction.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Wet weather has an impact on state grape crop

October 26, 2010 By

The grape industry has been rapidly expanding in Iowa in the last decade, and while it still lags well behind the two major crops of soybeans and corn, it faced some of the same problems this year as the major cash crops. Iowa State University extension viticulturist,

Mike White, says weather conditions had a big impact on the grape crop.

White says the wet weather created disease problems in the southern half of Iowa and he guesses growers got about one-third of a crop in the southern third of Iowa and about two-thirds of a crop in the northern half. “Wet weather and grapes don’t go well together,” White says.

White says grape growers have had to battle the conditions all growing season. White says in corn and soybean production farmers spray two or three times for weeds, while grape growers have to spray on a fungicide multiple times to keep the diseases away from the grapes. He says the effectiveness of the fungicide applications often depends on the experience of the grower.

He says it’s a pretty steep learning curve on when to spray to make it effective, and he says not all growers have caught on, but “we’re coming along pretty good.” Iowa has 413 vineyards with more than 1,200 acres of grapes in production this year.

As with the corn and soybeans, the need for crop treatments adds to the cost. White says a typical vineyard spray program will have six to eight applications and that can ad up to $250 an acre in expenses. The industry has grown from 13 wineries one decade ago to 85 state-licensed vineyards this year.

A recent study commissioned by the Iowa Wine & Beer Promotion Board estimated the total economic impact of the wine industry on the state at just over $234-million.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Weather
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