The junior scored 22 points, dished out 10 assists and recorded six steals in a victory over Sibley-Ocheyedan. Ackerman leads class 1A in assists by averaging nearly eight per game.
Romney says Iowa, New Hampshire “ought to remain first”
December 28, 2011 By
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigned in Muscatine early this morning (Wednesday), and a woman in the crowd pressed Romney to explain which “bad parts” of President Obama’s health care reform law Romney would eliminate.
“What are the bad parts?” the woman asked.
Romney responded: “Well, ObamaCare.”
The woman pressed for “specifics” and Romney said: “I’m going to repeal all of ObamaCare, all of it, every single piece of it and then I’ll put back in place the things I think need to be there and the things I think need to be there are allowing individuals buy insurance on their own rather than buying it through their company. I think people should have the same tax break that companies get when they get insurance.”
Romney also spoke with an elderly man in Muscatine who worried the Social Security trust fund has been robbed.
“The obligations to your Social Security will be fully met. For anyone who’s retired or those that are near retirement, there’ll be no change in Social Security or Medicare,” Romney said. “For young people, why those are 20 and 25, the program will be changed to make sure it can be sustained forever and we don’t have to worry about it running out of money.”
About 300 people crowded into a Muscatine coffee shop before sunrise to hear Romney this morning. A local reporter asked Romney if Iowa’s Caucuses deserve to be first, as critics say the state’s Republican Party is out of sinc with the rest of the country.
“Iowa and New Hampshire are first in the nation,” Romney told the reporter. “They ought to remain first in the nation.”
Romney is due to speak in Clinton over the noon hour and he’ll be in North Liberty early this evening for a town hall meeting.
(Reporting in Muscatine by Phil Roberts)
Mild winter could help pheasant numbers rebound
December 28, 2011 By
The lack of snow in December could be big in turning around several years of declinging pheasant numbers. D.N.R. wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says seeing brown fields instead of white snowdrifts is important for the pheasant population
“This current winter for pheasants is exactly the kind of winter that we’ve been needing…the last couple of winters we’ve had anywhere from 20 to 30 inches of snow by the end of December, and this year is shaping up to be zero. I’d say our pheasant survival to this point is over 90%, so that’s awesome,” Bogenschutz says.
He says winter survival sets the stage for a good spring hatch. “Winter is pretty critical because it’s the first major crunch time they have to go through,” Bogenschutz says,”and so if we have bad winters and kill most of ‘em, that’s pretty much the end of it. Certainly if they make it through the winter then what happens in the spring is also important.”
He says the more hens that survive the winter the more chance there is for success if there is a bad spring. The D.N.R. conducts an annual roadside survey in August, and that count found an average of seven birds last year for each 30 miles, down from 11 birds the year before.
Thought he population has been down, past history indicates the birds can bounce back quickly. “When we tend to have these kind of mild winters, followed by a good spring, we’ve see the population double and we’ve documented it several times over the last half century,” he said. “It’s definitely and awesome start, we’ve still got three months of winter to go yet, but it’s an awesome start for them, that’s for sure.”
The current pheasant season runs through January 10th.
Kalona will try again to sell naming rights to creek
December 28, 2011 By
The naming rights for a creek in southeast Iowa will be back up for auction on eBay later this week. Dan Ehl proposed the idea of selling the naming rights of the West Drainage Ditch in Kalona as a way to raise money for a sidewalk improvement project in the town.
“People who live around here just call it ‘the creek,’” Ehl said. “So, when we were thinking of naming it, I thought we should put it on eBay and get some money for a town project.” The naming rights were placed on eBay earlier this month and the winning bid came from a man who claimed to be from Virginia.
“He said he was bidding for a friend of his in Japan whose great grandfather had visited (Kalona) once and always spoke about how peaceful it was,” Ehl said. The winning bidder wanted to name the Kalona waterway Baniku Kinshi Creek. Ehl, who works as editor of The Kalona News, said city leaders quickly learned “Baniku Kinshi” is Japanese for “horse meat prohibited.”
Ehl said the man who tried to purchase the naming rights was an activist with PETA or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “The name had a ring to it, but most people here probably wouldn’t like ‘Horse Meat (Prohibited)’ for a name to a creek,” Ehl said.
Kalona city leaders rejected the name, so now the naming rights for the creek will be placed on eBay again this Thursday. The winning bid last time was $681, after more than 10 people placed bids. The final name will be subject to approval by the city council and the U.S. Board of Geographic Names.
By Mark Carlson, KCRG-TV, Cedar Rapids
Gingrich gets a mandate question in Decorah (audio)
December 28, 2011 By
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich faced a “tougher question” in Decorah late last night about his past support of a health care mandate. The question came from a man in the crowd.
“It’s not going to be mean, but it’s going to make you justify an answer,” the man told Gingrich. “Throughout the GOP debates you were strongly against RomneyCare and tonight you also said you were against ObamaCare, but back in 2006 I believe it is when the Massachusetts health care bill was passed, a newsletter under your name called Newt’s Notes came out and said that you fully supported that Massachusetts health care and then went further to say that the goal should be 100 percent coverage for all citizens. How can you reconcile that apparent contradiction?”
Gingrich responded by saying the goal is laudable, it’s just figuring out how to get 100 percent coverage for all citizens “in a constitutional way.”
“I would like to see all citizens have access to health care and I think everybody here wants to see that. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to have a mandate,” Gingrich said. “But I think everybody here recognizes we’re not going to let people die in the streets.”
AUDIO of the question and Gingrich’s answer.
Gingrich said he first talked about health care mandates “with the Heritage Foundation” in 1993 when he was trying to defeat “HillaryCare” — a reference to then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s failed health care reform effort.
“The Heritage Foundation was positive about RomneyCare also in 2006. First of all, neither the Heritage (Foundation) nor I realized that Romney Care pays, uses taxpayer money to pay for abortions and neither of us realized that they had accepted Planned Parenthood by law as one of the members of their health board or I think we would have both said, ‘You ought to veto the whole bill if that’s what’s going to happen.’”
Gingrich told the crowd in Decorah the health care mandate is “too expensive” and “too bureaucratic.”
“The difference between Romney and me is we both used to have the wrong idea. I’m willing to say it was the wrong idea. He’s not and I think it’s funny that they want to attack me for admitting that I was wrong, but they won’t admit that he’s when now wrong to think that he’s still right when he’s wrong,” Gingrich said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
Gingrich fielded questions about farm policy, military deployments and a child in the crowd asked Gingrich what his favorite color was – it’s red.
(Additional reporting by Darin Svenson, KDEC, Decorah)
Campaign Countdown: 12.28.11
December 28, 2011 By
AUDIO
The intensity of campaigning accelerated in Iowa Tuesday. Three Republican presidential hopefuls went after rival Ron
Paul, a candidate who is shown to be leading or near the top of recent polls here. During a CNN interview Tuesday, Newt Gingrich said Paul’s total record shows a “systemic avoidance of reality.”
“There’ll come a morning where people won’t take him as a serious person,” Gingrich told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Another candidate, Rick Santorum, criticized the Texas congressman during a campaign stop in Mason City. Santorum called Ron Paul’s views on foreign policy “scary”.
“Think about having a guy running for president who’s going to be to the left of Barack Obama on national security,” Santorum said.
Rick Perry, during a campaign stop in western Iowa, suggested Paul “would allow Iran to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.” Michele Bachmann also campaigned in western Iowa. During a stop last night in Atlantic, Bachmann said she “took it to” Ron Paul during the last TV debate, over the issue of a nuclear Iran.
Late yesterday Mitt Romney arrived in Iowa and told a crowd in Davenport that Barack Obama is a “pessimistic president” who has failed to deliver on his campaign promises. Later last night, during a radio forum organized by PersonhoodUSA, Rick Perry revealed he no longer favors abortion-ban exceptions for cases of rape and incest.
“All I can tell you is God was working on my heart,” Perry said.
Perry said he talked with a woman who was conceived in a rape after he saw the documentary “The Gift of Life” in mid-December. That conversation, Perry said, sparked his transformation on the issue. The four candidates who were in Iowa yesterday plan to campaign here today, too, with Ron Paul arriving for a noon event in Newton.
Additional reporting by Bob Fisher of KGLO in Mason City & Ric Hanson of KJAN in Atlantic
Photo credit: Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic
Gingrich, Santorum, Perry say Paul’s views are outside the mainstream
December 27, 2011 By
The intensity of campaigning has accelerated in Iowa, with three Republican presidential hopefuls going after rival Ron Paul, a candidate who is shown as leading or near the top of recent polls here. Newt Gingrich took direct aim at Paul in a CNN interview earlier today, saying Paul’s views are outside the mainstream of “virtually every decent American.”
“There will come a morning when people won’t take him as a serious person,” Gingrich said during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Gingrich cited Paul’s comments about Iran, Israel and 9/11 and said Paul’s “total record” shows a “systemic avoidance of reality.” Another candidate, Rick Santorum, criticized the Texas congressman during a campaign stop in Mason City. Santorum called Ron Paul’s views on foreign policy “scary”.
“Think about having a guy running for president who’s going to be to the left of Barack Obama on national security,” Santorum said.
Paul has vowed to close five federal agencies and cut a trillion dollars out of the federal budget. Santorum suggested Paul is “least likely” among the candidates to get those kind of cuts enacted.
“He’s been in congress 20 years and never passed a bill,” Santorum told the crowd in Mason City. “So what would lead you to believe that he could get something that huge done in a town where he’s shown no track record of getting anything done?”
Rick Perry also suggested Paul “would allow Iran to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth” if he becomes president. Perry is using one of his campaign ads to take aim at Paul and Santorum, who’s a former Pennsylvania congressman and senator, as well as Minnesota Congressman Michele Bachmann and Gingrich, the former speaker of the House.
“If Washington’s the problem, why trust a congressman to fix it?” the ad’s narrator asks. “Among them, they’ve spent 63 years in congress, leaving us with debts, earmarks and bail-outs.”
Perry, the current governor of Texas, emphasized his “outsider” status during a string of campaign events in western Iowa. Michele Bachmann also campaigned in western Iowa and during a stop tonight in Atlantic, Bachmann said she “took it to” Ron Paul during the last TV debate, over the issue of a nuclear Iran. She promised to do the same against President Obama.
“I think it’s time that America has a Margaret Thatcher and America has an Iron Lady, a woman who’s not afraid of all the men in Washington, D.C. and who’s not afraid to take on all the liberals in Washington, D.C.,” Bachmann said, as the crowd started to applaud. “I’m not and I will.”
On the other side of the state in Dubuque earlier today, Gingrich told reporters he has “a lot of time” left to convince Caucus-goers they can invest their vote in him despite the questions raised in campaign ads.
“I trust in the people of Iowa to look at something that’s clearly baloney and know that it’s baloney,” Gingrich said.
During his speech to the Rotarians, Gingrich suggested Republican rival Mitt Romney and his allies had stepped over some sort of line.
“To have somebody who was a Massachusetts moderate, who said he did not want to go back to the Reagan/Bush years…who as recently as when he was running for governor said, ‘I’m really kind of a moderate, pragmatic guy,’ — to have him run a commercial that questions my conservatism?” Gingrich asked rhetorically in Dubuque.
Romney arrived in Iowa late this afternoon. Romney told a crowd in Davenport that Barack Obama is a “pessimistic president” who has failed to deliver on his campaign promises and is asking America to “settle for less.”
Four of the candidates — Bachmann, Gingrich, Perry and Santorum – participated in a radio forum organized by PersonhoodUSA, a group pushing congress to pass a bill declaring that life begins at conception. Rick Perry, who has opposed nearly all abortions, revealed he no longer favors exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
All five candidates who were in Iowa today will remain on the Caucus campaign trail tomorrow. They’ll be joined by Paul, who will hold his first event in Newton at noon tomorrow.
(Additional reporting by Bob Fisher of KGLO in Mason City and Ric Hanson of KJAN in Atlantic)
