The senior forward averaged 24 and a half points, nine rebounds and nearly four blocked shots in a pair of wins. Takes poured in 34 points, hauled down 15 rebounds, blocked five shots and had three steals in a victory over Monticello. Takes connected on seven of 14 from three point range.
Class 1A: Austin Halls, Murray
January 25, 2011 By
The sophomore guard averaged 22 points, eight assists, nearly seven rebounds and six steals in three victories. Halls scored 27 points, had nine steals and seven assists in a win over Melcher-Dallas. He also had 20 points and 10 assists in a victory against Lamoni.
Unemployment rate drops in December
January 25, 2011 By
Iowa Workforce Development says growth in small businesses led to a drop in unemployment for the state in December. Kerry Koonce tracks the numbers for the state. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.3% in December compared to 6.6% in November — the largest monthly decrease in the rate for the year.
The national unemployment rate droped from 9.8% in November to 9.4% in December. Koonce says the “non-farm” employment, which includes the largest employers, lost 6,500 jobs in December, but other areas saw increases. She says the unemployment rate looks at an overall picture, so it includes agriculture, small businesses and the self-employed workers, and Koonce says some of those areas are seeing increases that the non-farm area is not seeing yet.
Search called off for missing snowmobiler in Jackson County
January 25, 2011 By
Authorities have called off the search for a missing snowmobile rider in eastern Iowa. Jackson County Emergency Management Coordinator Lin Medinger says 23-year-old Shawn Berthel and a friend, Brett Stalker, were riding snowmobiles Saturday night near Preston when the ice cracked on the Maquoketa River.
“Two subjects had broken through the ice and one subject was out, one was still missing,” Medinger said. Stalker pulled himself from the freezing water and called for help. Sheriff’s deputies, a K9 unit and a dive team spent Saturday night, Sunday and Monday searching the river for Berthel.
The river is only three to six feet deep in the area, but the divers struggled in the rapid waters. “The current is tremendous right now. Our divers are having trouble staying parallel because the current is so strong,” Medinger said. Investigators found the two snowmobiles, but no sign of Berthel.
The Lambourne Diving Team from Mechanicsville, which volunteered to search the river, called off that search Monday night.
By Katie Wiedemann, KCRG-TV, Cedar Rapids
UNI Blue Man Group show washed out by sprinkler accident
January 25, 2011 By
An indoor performance at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls was flooded out this morning after an accident involving the sprinkler system. U.N.I. spokesman, James O’Connor, says the “Blue Man Group” was scheduled to perform, but the accident washed out the show.
O’Connor says they were loading in the equipment for the performance and something struck a sprinkler head about the stage, it burst, and water went everywhere.
O’Connor is not exactly sure how many gallons of water were released, but it was enough to force the cancellation of the show. He says it was an emergency fire suppression system made to send out a lot of water in a hurry, so there was a lot of water everywhere. O’Connor says they are still drying out and trying to determine the cost of the damage.
O’Connor says they started cleaning up immediately after they got the water turned off and they will know more later today about the exact amount of damage. O’Connor says they are hoping to get things ready for shows on Wednesday and Thursday.
O’Connor says all three nights of shows have been sold out for some time, and they don’t know yet what the total economic impact might be. He says Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center holds 1,600 people.
State of the Union speech turns into “date night”
January 25, 2011 By
For what’s apparently the first time ever, Republicans and Democrats will sit amongst each other during tonight’s State of the Union Address, ignoring the aisle that usually separates them by party. Some jokingly compare the effort to prom, without the corsages.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, says he was invited to sit beside his “date,” Oregon Senator and Democrat Ron Wyden. Grassley says it’s all part of a plan to reduce Congressional partisanship. “I suppose it’s groundbreaking, just the fact of where you sit because it’s always been so divided,” Grassley says.
“The words of the president are going to have more to do with the creation of an environment of bipartisanship than one Democratic senator or several Democratic senators partnering up with several Republican senators.”
Anyone who’s surrounded by laughing people in a theatre may find they’re more susceptible to laughter themselves. Grassley was asked if he might find himself caught up in the moment by those around him to start applauding President Obama.
“It won’t (affect) me, but it could have an impact like that,” Grassley says. “Here’s what I think you’re going to have. Instead of having most of the time either everybody standing up or everybody sitting down, most of the other time it’s the Democrats all rising and applauding and Republicans sitting down and sometimes when the Republicans applaud, then the Democrats don’t. So, I think you’re going to have a more mixed bag tonight.”
Iowa Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Mount Vernon, says he’s a member of the Center Aisle Caucus. In a recent statement, Loebsack said: “I strongly support the proposal that members of both parties sit together during the President’s State of the Union Address. This will symbolize that, although we will not always agree, Congress remains committed to civil discourse, honest debate and mutual respect. At a time when our nation is facing pressing challenges, we must transcend party lines and come together to craft common-sense solutions that will move our country forward.”
Iowa Congressman Tom Latham, a Republican from Ames, reportedly asked Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson to sit beside him tonight, but at last report, Peterson hadn’t responded. Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron, is quoted as saying this about whether he’d sit with a Democrat for tonight’s Congressional Prom: “If they come over and sit with me, I’m happy to do that, but I don’t think I can actually go over and actually pick a seat. It’s hard enough to just find a place to sit down in there. It’s just packed.”
Lawmaker, professor talk about cutting university sabbaticals
January 25, 2011 By
Republicans in the Iowa House are defending their vote to temporarily eliminate funding for sabbaticals at the state’s three public universities. The eighteen-month cut is included in the budgeting cutting bill Republicans approved and sent to the Senate.
The cost of hiring replacements is more than $400,000s yearly, and that does not include salaries paid to those who are on sabbatical. Representative Nick Wagner, a Republican from Marion, says some sabbaticals have merit but that might not always be the case.
“We’ve got to look at this and what we’ve seen in the past as far as those that have been approved, it’s very difficult to explain to the taxpayer how that one makes sense and how some of those make sense.” Wagner says. Wagner says the universities should consider using non-taxpayer dollars to fund sabbaticals.
University of Iowa biomedical engineering professor, Tom Casavant, says the university benefits financially through his sabbaticals.
“I think there’s a very broad spectrum of the kinds of payoffs and I think for some of them it’s very easy to draw a solid dark line from the sabbatical to some tangible thing in the budget, I think though the benefit of sabbaticals goes very far beyond that,” Casavant.
Casavant says some of the benefits include allowing professors to learn better teaching methods and develop new programs.
Cassavant and Wagner were guests Monday on the Iowa Public Radio program, “The Exchange.”
