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High school football playoffs get underway tonight

October 27, 2010 By

In class 3A, ninth ranked Decorah takes on Boone in the UNI-Dome. Boone coach Mark Camenisch says the Toreadors will need to be balanced on offense to have a chance. He says they play the run very well and play man-to-man in pass coverage, which means they will have to run good routes. Camenisch says they will have to mix things up and really need success running the ball to win.

Decorah coach Bill Post says their defense is a work in progress. He says they are coming along slowly and it’s not the typical type of defense they have had over the years. Post is concerned about their pass defense, as he says it’s an are they need to continue to get better in, and it will be tough as Boone is a passing team.

In class A, 10th ranked Lisbon is at home against Belle Plaine. These teams met back in week three and Lisbon claimed a 34-6 victory.

Belle Plaine coach Todd Bohlen says they are a good team that is well balanced. He says they did not compete very well against them the first time and they hope the adjustments they made will allow them to do a better job.

Bohlen’s team fought through injuries to finish the regular season 5-4. He says sometimes people will look at you and think you are banged up and not know what to expect. He says if they can slow the game down and make Lisbon grind it out, then they can have a chance in the fourth quarter.

John Martenson KGRN Grinnell and Ryan Wendt KWBG Boone contributed to this report.

Hear the results from all the playoff games tonight on Radio Iowa’s scoreboard show beginning at 10 p.m.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

Welcome home set for last Iowa Guard soldiers in Iraq

October 27, 2010 By

An Iowa National Guard homecoming ceremony Thursday will mark the return of 17 soldiers from Iraq, and guard spokesman Colonel Greg Hapgood says it leaves that country without any Iowa Guard boots on the ground. Hapgood says this is the last Iowa unit in Iraq right now, although they do anticipate sending some soldiers to Iraq later this year. Iowa had a peak of some 3,300 soldiers in Iraq in 2004.

The unit that is returning home has been in Iraq for one year. Hapgood says the 135th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment is a unit that creates print and electronic media products, and provides media training for leaders, soldiers and others, as well as community events. He says the lack of Iowa Guard soldiers in Iraq is part of the administration’s strategy to refocus operations.

Hapgood says the U.S. forces have drawn down to about 55,000 in Iraq as most U.S. operations have dropped down quite a bit there in the last year. The homecoming ceremony is planned for 11 A.M. at the Joint Forces Headquarters at Camp Dodge in Johnston. The public is welcome to attend.

Filed Under: Military Tagged With:

Campaign Countdown: Ag Secretary candidates

October 27, 2010 By

The race to be Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture for the next four years features a southeast Iowa Democrat who runs a dairy and a Republican who raises crops in northwest Iowa. Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson has this campaign countdown report: Ag Secretary 2:41 MP3

Democrat Francis Thicke of Fairfield operates the organic “Radiance Dairy” near Fairfield. He introduced himself to Iowa State Fair-goers this summer at The Des Moines Register’s Soap Box.”I’ve been a full-time farmer for 27 years,” Thicke said. “I’m also a scientist by training. I have a Ph.D. in agronomy, with a soil fertility specialty and I’ve worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the past in Washington, D.C., where I served as national program leader for soil science.”

Republican Bill Northey, a corn and soybean farmer, introduced himself to Iowa Public Television viewers earlier this month. “I am a farmer from Spirit Lake. I’ve been actively farming up there since the early 1980s,” Northey said. “I’ve been secretary of ag now for four years, so finishing that first term. I think we did a lot of good things, including balancing a budget these last four years.” The nationwide egg recall centered at two Iowa egg operations has been an issue in this race.

Both candidates say the salmonella-tainted eggs from chicken farm owner Jack DeCoster’s operation have given the state a black eye. Thicke has proposed monthly state inspections for facilities with laying hens.”We’re the number one egg producing state and we have DeCoster here, so we need to be proactive,” Thicke says. “We need to be the leaders in this.” Northey says there should be one set of rules nationwide, with a federal agency determining the safety of food.

“We have a producer that had a problem and had a serious problem,” Northey says. “And I believe the new FDA rules will catch this kind of a problem in the future.” Thicke has called on Northey to send in state inspectors to gauge the safety of the feed that may be the source of the salmonella contamination. But Northey says as state ag secretary he lacks the authority to do so since DeCoster is grinding that feed for his own flock and state law only allows officials to inspect feed that’s ground and sold to another operation.

Turning to another key issue, Thicke has called for a moratorium on construction of ethanol plants that convert corn into the fuel. He says ethanol should eventually be made from perennial plants that can grow year-round. “We overbuilt the ethanol industry, frankly — the corn ethanol industry,” Thicke said this summer at the State Fair. “And it’s not the most resource-conserving kind of system because corn and soybeans, they’re annual crops. They’re planted every year. They take a fair bit of fertilizer and herbicides and pesticides.”

Northey says the ethanol plants in Iowa have helped farmers sell what could have been a glut of grain.”There wasn’t too long ago when we first hit out first 10 billion bushel corn crop. Now this year we’re looking at 13.5 billion bushels,” Northey said in August. “Thank goodness we have that extra demand that comes from renewable fuels.”

This month the U.S.D.A. reduced its estimate of the 2010 harvest to 12.7 billion bushels, which would be the third-largest crop in U.S. history.

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

Grassley, Conlin spar in radio debate

October 26, 2010 By

The two major party candidates for the U.S. Senate had an hour-long debate tonight that focused on jobs and the economy as well as the taxing and spending policies of the federal government. 

At the close of the event, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley pledged to focus on the government’s finances if he’s elected to another term. “Getting this debt under control, a climate for creating jobs — getting the unemployment (rate) down — and to keep taxes low because lower taxes is a better environment for entrepreneurship and creating jobs,” Grassley said.

[Read more...]

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

State files lawsuit in film office fiasco

October 26, 2010 By

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller filed a lawsuit today against several film makers who are accused of conspiring to defraud the state out of millions of dollars in tax credits. Miller filed the civil lawsuit in Polk County District Court against five individuals and four companies involved in producing or pursuing 15 movie projects in the state.

The suit seeks at least $5.5 million in damages. The action follows the release of a state audit showing nearly $26 million of tax credits awarded under the program were issued improperly.  (Audit story)

 The film tax credit program was shut down last year after questions were raised about its operations. Five state employees were fired or resigned.

The attorney general said he will continue to review the findings of the state audit and new criminal charges are likely. The Attorney General’s office previously filed criminal charges against four individuals – including former Iowa Film Office manager Tom Wheeler.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government

Iowa State Fairgrounds hosts “World Series” of draft horses (video)

October 26, 2010 By

One of the biggest annual competitive horse shows is taking place in Iowa this week.

The World Percheron Congress at the Iowa State Fairgrounds runs through Saturday and is expected to draw around 20,000 visitors to Des Moines. The event only takes place in the U.S. once every four years.

Greg Edwards is the president of the Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau. “This is the World Series of Percheron horses,” Edwards said at press conference Tuesday. “We, that sell and market the Des Moines area, like to brag about the great things that come to our community and believe me, this is now on our top ten list and remain on that list for many years to come.”

The events are taking place in the Jacobson Exhibition Center, a new state-of-the-art indoor livestock arena which opened earlier this year on the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Fairgrounds manager Gary Slater says officials with the World Percheron Congress selected the facility two years ago. “There are other horse shows…that rival this in terms of size, so we’ll be going after those events to bring them here to the Iowa State Fairgrounds in the future,” Slater said. “But, this is the first one. This kind of puts us on the map.”

Performances that will include six-horse hitches are scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Next year’s World Percheron Congress will be held in Normandy, France.

Filed Under: Human Interest, Recreation & Entertainment

Ferentz says the defense has to play better

October 26, 2010 By

The Iowa Hawkeyes need to bounce back from a heart breaking loss to Wisconsin in a hurry as they prepare to face an unbeaten Michigan State team that is in the drivers seat of the Big Ten race. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says Michigan State is a very talented and a very balanced team that is playing very well right now.

The Hawkeyes won a last second thriller in East Lansing a year ago but the roles are reversed heading into this game. He says the Hawkeyes were undefeated last year and now the Spartans are undefeated and kind of under the radar right now. Special teams is a concern this week.

The Hawkeyes were victimized by a fake punt late in the Wisconsin game and now play a Michigan State team that has used a number of “trick plays” in their unbeaten start. He says the Spartans do a good job with the “trick plays” and are playing to win and not just throwing things out there.

Ferentz says nobody has hit the panic button over the play of the Iowa defense. After giving up 28 points in a win at Michigan the Hawks yielded 31 to the Badgers. He says in every game you have areas where you don’t do well and you look to make corrections and move on. Ferentz says they won’t change their scheme, they will try to play it better.

Ferentz says the defense needs to do a better job and that starts with tackling better and playing blocks better. But Ferentz says Wisconsin is probably going to move the ball on everyone, and Michigan State is a team that will move the ball. “We’ve just got to play better football, we will,” Ferentz says.

Iowa is 5-2 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,
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