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Legislators end session

June 30, 2011 By

Legislators were finally able to end the session on the last day of the fiscal year.

With a little over eight hours to spare, the Iowa legislature took final action on the last piece of a nearly $6 billion state budget plan Thursday afternoon. The new state budgeting year starts just after midnight on Friday.

House Republican Leader Linda Upmeyer of Garner made this declaration seconds after the House adjourned for the year:  ”I have to say it’s so much better to adjourn at 3:30 in the afternoon than at 3:30 in the morning.”

The Senate concluded two minutes later. The final drama of the final day came when a deal was struck on abortion policy.

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

John Deere Classic to feature strong field

June 30, 2011 By

A strong field will tee off next week near the Quad Cities for the P.G.A. Tour’s John Deere Classic. The latest P.G.A. veteran to announce he will take part is former P.G.A. champion Davis Love III. The field will include reigning British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen and 2009 British Open champ Stewart Cink.

Tournament director Clair Peterson says they have had a great run and with the shuttle to the British Open they have eliminated one of the hurdles to having the best players take part.

The John Deere Classic has always been known as a tournament that features younger members of the P.G.A. Tour, Tiger Woods played it early in his career, but Peterson says it is also a plus to have the big names take part. He says they also love having the developing players come on board and many have started here and gone on to big things.

Peterson says there is a large crop of good young golfers on the tour and he says that might be part of Woods’ legacy as some of the great athletes decided golf was cool. Steve Stricker will be out to win his third straight JDC title. The first round is next Thursday.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

Bettendorf closing in on perfect regular season

June 30, 2011 By

The Bettendorf softball team is closing in on an unbeaten regular season but coach Mark Lewis says his team is not even talking about it. The Bulldogs are 35-0 heading into tonight’s doubleheader at Davenport West but Lewis says his team is not feeling any pressure.

Two years ago the Bulldogs made it to the state tournament with several sophomores in the lineup but Lewis says they came up short in 2010. He says they put tremendous pressure on themselves and that was not healthy. He says they didn’t play their best because of that.

Lewis says the biggest thing this year is the ability to play without pressure and at 35-0 they don’t worry about a loss, they just want to have quality at bats. Lewis says an unbeaten regular season would not mean much if the season does not end at the state tournament. For any team to beat Bettendorf it will take outstanding pitching and defense.

The Bulldogs average nearly nine runs per game and as a team are hitting better than .420. He says offense is the key and he hasn’t seen an offense that has the confidence that they do right now. Lewis says you can have a great offense, but then hit the ball at people and lose and he hopes that doesn’t happen to this group.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

Eddyville-Blakesburg finishing baseball season strong

June 30, 2011 By

The Eddyville-Blakesburg baseball team is putting together a strong run to close out the regular season. The Rockets Have won ten of their last 11 games and currently stand 20-5. They are ranked 8th in the latest class 2A poll despite having a young squad. They have just two seniors, with a big junior class.

Eddyville-Blakesburg coach Rod Ashman who says the Rockets are starting to generate more runs though the strength of the team is their pitching. Ashman says the Rockets have played a demanding schedule as he says the South Central conference is very tough.

Ashman says his team has lofty goals for the post season as they would like to get back to Principal Park. The team played a regular season game there last year, but want to be playing there this time in the state tournament.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

Stockton city clerk accused of misspending thousands

June 30, 2011 By

A state audit shows a former city clerk in the small eastern Iowa town of Stockton misspent thousands of dollars of city money. State Auditor David Vaudt says Larry McCoy was responsible for roughly $65,000 in missing funds. That included $25,000 in personal purchases with the city’s credit card and over $4,000 of improper payroll payments.

McCoy was apparently using the city’s credit card for personal purchases for several year. The audit covered a period between July 2004 and October 2010.

“Some of his personal purchases related to Mediacom, his eye surgeon and whiskey purchased at Wal-Mart, so he was using the city’s finances for a lot of activities,” Vaudt said. The audit found more than $15,000 in undeposited collections and $7,500 of “unsupported disbursements” to two former Stockton mayors.

McCoy could face criminal charges. The report has been turned over to the Muscatine County Attorney’s office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government

Mt. Pleasant man dies after police chase in Illinois

June 30, 2011 By

A Mount Pleasant man, who could be connected to a missing woman case in the southeast Iowa city, is now dead after a high speed chase in Illinois. Authorities say 24-year-old Benjamin Biggs was found dead from a gunshot wound in a house near Kingston, Illinois Wednesday night, though authorities in Quincy say the investigation has not determined if that wound was self-inflicted or the result of an exchange of gunfire.

According to several published reports, Biggs is also believed to be the last person seen with 24-year-old Jackie Douthart, whose been missing since May 22.The standoff on Wednesday began when Biggs stole an S-U-V.

When police attempted to stop the vehicle, gun shots were fired, and one of the officers was struck in the gun belt. He was not injured. Biggs then led police to to a farm service lot near Kingston, where he fled on foot and hid in a nearby building. He then shot another officer in the chest, but he too was not seriously injured due to a protective vest.

After another standoff that last nearly six hours, Biggs was found dead. An autopsy is scheduled for Friday.

By Michael Cation, KBUR, Burlington

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Paramount Theater ready for rebuild

June 30, 2011 By

An historic theater in downtown Cedar Rapids that was demolished by the floods of 2008 will be rebuilt and revived. Restoration work got underway this week on the Paramount Theater, which was built in the 1920s. Restoration committee chairman Jim Hoffman says this effort was hard to imagine during the city’s record flooding three years ago.

“We had eight feet of water above this floor, so there was literally water all the way to the first balcony in the theater,” Hoffman says. “It was literally one of the largest swimming pools in the Midwest for several days. It just was heartbreaking but we got it all cleaned out, we got all the mold out of it, we got it all remediated and now it’s ready to go and we’re going to start construction in the next few weeks.”

The Paramount’s restoration is expected to cost around $35-million. Hoffman says countless decisions involved in the restoration have to go through FEMA, the national park service, and the state historic preservation office, all while staying on budget. Hoffman says all of the work will be well worth it.

“We are completely restoring the Paramount from its grandeur of 1928,” Hoffman says. “The entire building is going to be historically accurate, but with all brand new paint, all brand new lighting, all brand new seats. What people will say is, ‘Hmm, it doesn’t look that different.’ So that’s been the trick and I’m as excited to see it as anybody.”

Both FEMA and I-JOBs funds are helping to pay for the restoration. The Paramount’s grand re-opening is set for October of 2012.

Photo courtesy of the City of Cedar Rapids.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Recreation & Entertainment
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