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Gingrich asks voters concerned about his three marriages to look at “totality of my life”

March 25, 2011 By

Sixty-seven-year-old Newt Gingrich says he wasn’t ready to run for president four years ago, but now he’s now armed with a “new generation of ideas” and is nearly ready to announce he’s a candidate for the White House.  

Gingrich rose through the ranks of the U.S. House to become its speaker in the 1990s. He says after trips to states like Iowa and New Hampshire, he finds voters are warming to the idea of a “Gingrich for President” campaign. Gingrich says his fellow Republicans need to nominate someone like him who can go toe-to-toe with President Obama in nationally televised debates in October of 2012.

“It strikes me that going up against Barack Obama is going to come down to what Margaret Thatcher used to say when she said, ‘First you win the argument, then you win the vote,’…Having somebody who philosophically and practically be on the same stage,” Gingrich says. 

There are other candidates who could do that, according to Gingrich, but he says a “Gingrich versus Obama” match-up would highlight the major differences between America’s two major political parties.

One hurdle Gingrich would face if he does run for president is reassuring social conservatives who’re concerned about his marital history. Gingrich has been married three times and he addressed the issue during an appearance on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program.

“I think you tell the truth and I think you share your life’s experiences and you admit that you’ve had weaknesses and that you’ve had failures and you’ve gone to God to seek forgiveness and to seek reconciliation and then people make a decision. And they look at the totality of my life,” Gingrich said on IPTV. “I’m 67. Callista and I have a great marriage. We have two wonderful daughters. We have two grandchildren who are terrific and people have to decide, on balance, am I a person that they would respect and trust in the White House.”

Gingrich will speak Saturday at Congressman Steve King’s Conservative Principles Conference in Des Moines. Four other Republicans who’ve said they may run for president will be there, too. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former Godfather’s Pizza C.E.O. Herman Cain and former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton are all scheduled to speak. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has a “family medical emergency” and has cancelled his weekend visit to Iowa.

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

Gingrich rejects flip-flop charge (audio)

March 25, 2011 By

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich rejects the idea he’s had an inconsistent position on how the U.S. should deal with Libya.  On March 7th, Gingrich said if he were president he would impose a no-fly zone over Libya, then after President Obama made that order, Gingrich said he would not have intervened.  Today, Gingrich rejected the idea he has flip-flopped.

“You can take different dates and piece them together and say, ‘Boy, Gingrich changed.’ Well, yeah, the facts changed,” Gingrich said this afternoon during an interview. “As somebody once said, when the facts change you sort of have an obligation to rethink it and I think at each stage I’ve tried to be very clear in that context with what I ideally would have done and what you do with the circumstance as it’s evolved.”

Gingrich, who is inching closer to a run for the Republican party’s 2012 presidential nomination, instead accused the Obama administration of being all over the map when it comes to Libya.

“I think if you look at the series of events from late February to now and you look at the president’s flip-flopping, you look at the confusion with the Arab League, you look at the confusion in the administration where at one point you had the Defense Department, the State Department and the White House saying three different things, that when people would ask me on a given day what was my response — as of that day — I would give them an answer that was conditioned on the facts of that day,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich made his comments this afternoon during an interview with Iowa reporters.

Listen: GingrichLibya (mp3 runs 3 minutes)

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Emergency Management drill canceled in Pottawattamie County after threats

March 25, 2011 By

Emergency Management officials in western Iowa’s Pottawattamie County are blaming real-life threats for a decision to cancel a planned school shooting drill Saturday morning. Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Specialist Doug Reed said a so-called “Active Shooter” exercise in Treynor was canceled because employees of the school district received numerous threats.

The four-hour exercise at Treynor High School would have included police, firefighters, hospitals, government officials and others. The drill’s scenario was based on a school shooting involving two teens, including one with ties to a white supremacist group who was angry with illegal immigration.

Critics of the drill, including the Iowa Minutemen — an anti-illegal immigration group — had said the drill portrays Americans who want the government to enforce immigration laws, as criminals. Details of the scenario were not supposed to be made public in advance of the exercise, so as not to influence participants, but the information spread Wednesday and Thursday through social media websites.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s office is investigating the threats, the nature of which have not been disclosed. Planning for the drill had been underway for several months. The event was being funded by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant.

By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Invitation to President leads to First Lady giving UNI commencement address

March 25, 2011 By

The University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls has learned that First Lady Michelle Obama will deliver commencement address later this spring. U.N.I. director of university relations, Jim O’Connor, says the president was originally invited to speak.

O’Connor says a mother of one of the college’s students sent a letter to the president last summer saying her son liked the school and if he ever did a commencement address, she would like him to speak at U.N.I. The president was apparently unable to fit the speech into his schedule, but the university received a letter a few days ago saying that the First Lady would be able to speak.

O’Connor says the theme of Mrs. Obama speech will center on service. He says the First Lady will speak about her story of being the first person in her family to get a college degree and the impact of higher education on her life, and her “passion for service,” and the importance of students being involved in service throughout their lives.

O’Connor says the school is busy preparing for the visit now that they know it is set. O’Connor says the school has a long history of bringing “very robust speakers” to campus, including Martin Luther King, and just last May, the Dahli Lama. O’Connor says they had planned to hold three separate graduation ceremonies, but they now will hold one combined ceremony in the UNI-Dome.

He says they will have general admission seating in the UNI-Dome, with tickets required, but the tickets will be free. O’Connor says graduates and faculty will be able to get their tickets first, and then it will be open to the public. You can find out more on the U.N.I. website at: www.UNI.edu.

The visit to Iowa by Michell Obama on May seventh will be her first since the 2008 election.

Filed Under: Education, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Unemployment rate unchanged in February at 6.1%

March 25, 2011 By

The latest report from Iowa Workforce Development shows Iowa’s unemployment rate in February was 6.1 percent, unchanged from January. But, I.W.D. spokesperson Kerry Koonce says the state is adding jobs and more people who are unemployed are now looking for work.

“We’re seeing a lot of people who’ve been unemployed and very disenfranchised and not even looking for work starting to get back into that process. They are seeing job opportunities out there and they’re beginning to look, which is very positive,” Koonce said. “So, although (unemployment) numbers are staying consistent, we are growing the labor force.”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Panel predicts state tax collections will pick up

March 25, 2011 By

A three-member panel of financial experts has concluded the state’s economy is on the rebound — and the group predicts the state will collect nearly $50 million more in taxes from now through the end of June than previously estimated. 

Legislative Services Agency director Holly Lyons is one of the three members of the State Revenue Estimating Conference. Lyons says the economy bottomed out about this time last year and things are on the upswing.

“We’re still climbing the hill,” she says. “We haven’t plateaued and we’re not on the downside of that hill.”

Iowa Department of Management director Dave Roederer — another panel member — also sees “encouraging” signs in the state’s economy.

“The good news in all of this is we’re not sitting here talking about how big a reduction we’re going to have in the economy,” Roederer says. 

However, Roederer worries rising gas prices may dampen economic growth.

“The other statistic that bothered me somewhat was that consumer confidence remains at pre-recession levels.  That has not bounced back yet,” Roederer says. “Consumers are still nervous.”

The third member of the revenue estimating group is David Underwood, a retired C.P.A. from Mason City.  Underwood sees the economy in recovery mode, but he considers it tenuous because while wages are starting to increase and workers are getting more overtime pay, there haven’t yet been huge gains in hiring.

“The farm economy continues to remain pretty strong and the estimates that I’ve seen for the current year, anyway, are continued strength in the farm economy which has really helped Iowa a lot during this recession because it’s the one part of the economy that did hold up rather well,” he says, “and supported our manufacturing of the farm-related items as well.” 

Underwood and the other two members of the Revenue Estimating Conference predict the state will collect $48.6 million more in taxes from now through June 30th.  Legislators won’t be able to spend that money, but Republicans are pressing to put the money that remains unspent at the end of the state budgeting year into a new “Taxpayers Relief Fund.”  Democrats dismiss it as a “slush fund” to provide tax breaks for big corporations. 

The Revenue Estimating Conference predicts state tax collections in the 12-month period that begins July 1, 2011 will be 5.7 percent higher. It means the group added about $38 million more in tax revenue to its estimate of tax revenue for state fiscal year 2012.

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

ISU President Geoffroy plans to step down

March 25, 2011 By

I.S.U. President Greg Geoffroy says he will step down.

Iowa State University president Gregory Geoffroy announced today he is leaving the school. Geoffroy said he informed the Board of Regents this week that he plans to leave the university no later than July 31st of 2012 and will remain at the school until a successor is name.

Geoffroy told Radio Iowa that he is looking cut back on his workload after nearly 10 years of leading the school Geoffroy says it’s “one of those important life decisions” he has been thinking about for some time.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: ,
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