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Marshalltown air attack faces Council Bluffs Lincoln ground game

October 26, 2011 By

In 4A, Marshalltown is at home with a 7-2 record to host Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln. Marshalltown Coach Dave Holdiman says the Lynx are ground oriented behind the running of Cleo Harris. He says Harris is very good at changing direction and getting people to miss, and they have a good offensive line.

Holdiman says it will be the ground game of the Lynx against the aerial attack of the Bobcats. He says if they can run the ball, it could be a long night. But, he says if they can pass the ball, it may be tough for them to stop the Bobcat offense.

By Lance Renaud, KFJB,,Marshalltown

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

Mediapolis looks to continue perfect season

October 26, 2011 By

The Mediapolis football team takes a perfect 9-0 record into tonight’s playoff opener against 4-5 Louisa-Muscatine. Mediapolis is making its third consecutive trip to the playoffs, falling to the eventual state champions each of the past two seasons.

Mediapolis coach Brian Borrison says they have done a good job of not looking ahead and realizing what it takes to win.

Louisa-Muscatine is making its first trip to the playoffs since 1984. After dropping its first four games, they won 4 out of their last five to get in.

While Mediapolis is led by quarterback Jesse Ertz, with more than 2,600 total yards and 31 touchdowns, Louisa-Muscatine is led by running back Andy Sierra. The senior has nearly 1,400 yards and 19 touchdowns this season. Borrison says the defense has to play well and get penetration as Sierra has great moves and they can’t let him get to the outside.

By Michael Cation, KBUR, Burlington

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A-P and Eagle Grove meet again in the playoffs

October 26, 2011 By

Sixth-rated Aplington-Parkersburg will meet a very familiar opponent tonight in its first-round playoff game, when Eagle Grove makes the trip to Ed Thomas Field. A-P won last year’s meeting 48-27 on a night when wind gusts topped 40 miles per hour, and temperatures dropped into the 30s.

 Aplington-Parkersburg coach Alex Pollock says the weather conditions were “ridiculous” and they had to make the best of it. He says both teams are ground oriented, so the cold will impact them both the same. He says the team’s loss to West Marshall early in the season turned out to be one of the team’s most important games along with the St. Ansgar game, where they had to come back. He says they made some changes that have worked well.

 Eagle Grove finished the regular season at 5-4, thanks to a Week 9 victory over South Hamilton that knocked the Hawks out of the playoffs and pushed the Eagles in. Head coach Kelly Williamson says the ground game has been strong, but the aerial attack has sputtered at times. He says they continue to work on that and trying to find their way offensively.

 Williamson is an A-P alumnus and played for Ed Thomas during his time with the Falcons, but says he and his players have not forgotten that tonight’s road trip carries a purpose. He says going back is a special thing, but he says it is a business trip and they are going there to try and win a football game.

By Austin Draude, KLMJ, Hampton

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Congressman Braley wants to charge fee on stock trades

October 26, 2011 By

Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, says he plans to introduce a bill that would put a fee on stock market trades. Braley says the bill is aimed at those who use automated trading.

Braley says the majority of stock trades are not being made by humans any more, they are made by robot computers that he says can sell thousands of different securities in the blink of an eye. He says the “Wall Street Speculation Fee Bill” would raise billions of dollars to help the economy.

“We know that this type of high-speed speculation has led to some of the important factors that brought us to this recession, and now while Iowa and the rest of the United states are suffering, they’re using these high-speed computers to bag huge profits and million-dollar bonuses,” Braley says.

He says these types of trades have gotten us into this financial mess and they should help to get us out. The fee would be charged on every stock trade, but Braley says it would be so small that one study shows an average family would only pay one dollar extra each year for its stock trades.

Braley says Iowa Democrat Senator Tom Harkin is sponsoring similar bill in the Senate.

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

Cedar Rapids hospital uses new technology to treat cancer

October 26, 2011 By

Mobetron

An eastern Iowa hospital will become the first in the state to offer a new type of technology to cancer patients. It’s called intra-operative radiation therapy. Ted Townsend, president and C.E.O. of St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, says the one-point-three-million-dollar machine will be ready for use in a few months.

“We do expect it to be a draw for patients outside the Cedar Rapids area,” Townsend says. He says a similar machine is now in use at a hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and people are driving five and six hours to take advantage of the technology. He says the familiar machine used in radiation therapy has been miniaturized and is on wheels.

Townsend says, “What this does is allow us to take a piece of equipment that can create radiation into the operating room so patients who are having cancer tumors removed can receive either all or a significant portion of their radiation while they are in the operating room.” He says it offers cancer patients in Iowa a new treatment alternative.

“What this does is make it so that a person who’s having cancer surgery can have the largest does of their radiation right in the operating room,” Townsend says. “It also means it’s incredibly accurate because we put the machine onto the site of the surgery where the tumor is removed, where roughly 90% of the tumors recur in later life.” He says the machine can provide a very concentrated dose of radiation, without exposing healthy organs.

“We can give a week’s worth of external beam radiation in one minute in the operating room,” Townsend says. “We think that’s going to be a significant convenience and a reduction in pain and suffering for patients and we know it’s going to save them significant dollars.”

He says this technique may decrease, and in some cases, eliminate the need for further radiation therapy, significantly improving the patient experience and reducing the cost of care. The equipment is scheduled to be operational in April of 2012.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, News Tagged With:

U-I study finds 1970′s limits would’ve cut bankruptcies

October 26, 2011 By

A University of Iowa professor’s study concludes up to one-quarter of the Americans who filed for personal bankruptcy in 2007 wouldn’t have been in that predicament if the credit limits of three decades ago were still in place. Sociology professor Kevin Leicht, says he was surprised by how much additional debt Americans have been able to acquire since the credit regulations of the 1970s were lifted.

“If you looked at these people that were near bankruptcy and attempted to figure out how many of them probably wouldn’t have been able to borrow that much money to end up in bankruptcy in the ’70s, the number is pretty stark,” Leicht says. In the 1970s, a person couldn’t get a mortgage that was greater than 30% of his or her income — or get a car loan that required monthly payments of more than 10 percent of their income.

Leicht says what happened over the past two decades is that many of the banks making home and car loans immediately sell that loan on the open market, so the original lender isn’t on the hook and, therefore, disconnected from the borrowers’ ability to pay off the loan. “We need to return to some system where people should be loaned money on the basis of their ability to pay it back,” Leicht says.

Leicht’s advice is to set some of your own, personal borrowing rules and stick to those limits. “People were used to a system where a bank would tell you when you couldn’t afford a loan and it wasn’t in your best interest to take it,” Leicht says, “and we eventually moved to a system where a bank wasn’t about to tell you that, so you have to figure it out yourself.”

Leicht says if the credit regulations of the 1970s were still in effect, many of the Americans who’ve filed for bankruptcy wouldn’t have accumulated as much debt, because it would have been illegal for banks and credit card companies to loan that much money to an individual.

Leicht’s study is part of a new book titled, “Broke: How Debt Bankrupts the Middle Class.”

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With:

Wisconsin’s governor in Iowa for private speech

October 26, 2011 By

The embattled governor of a neighboring state will be in Iowa later today for a private event that’s going to draw protesters.  

The governor of the State of Wisconsin is due in Des Moines this evening to deliver a private speech at a banquet. Tickets range from $65 for members of the conservative “Heritage Foundation” to as much as $250 for students who aren’t Heritage Foundation members. The media is barred from the event.

Earlier this year Democrats and unions staged huge protests in Wisconsin’s capitol over Governor Scott Walker’s vow to scale back collective bargaining rights for all governments workers. Iowa labor unions and “Occupy Des Moines” protesters plan to picket outside the hotel where Walker is set to speak tonight.

Walker’s office issued a written statement through the Wisconsin Republican Party, saying Walker would talk tonight about the “successes seen in Wisconsin as a result of the recently enacted budget reforms.” Democrats in Wisconsin are gearing up to start collecting petition signatures in mid-November, with the goal of trying to force Walker into a recall election next year.  The chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin issued a statement Monday, saying Wisconsin voters won’t be distracted by the effort.

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