May 23, 2012

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TPI leader in Newton says wind tax credit needed to keep jobs

May 22, 2012 By

President Barack Obama will visit wind blade producer TPI Composites in Newton on Thursday and talk about getting congress to pass tax credits for clean energy. The C.E.O. of TPI, Steve Lockard, says tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs will be lost if congress fails to extend the wind industry’s production tax credit that’s set to expire at the end of the year.

Lockard says orders for wind turbines have already started to decline because of the uncertainty surrounding the credit. “There’s real risk across the industry, not hollow risk, very real monthly job loss across the industry that (has) started to happen already, and will continue each month through this year if congress is unable to act on our behalf,” Lockard says.

A report released last month indicates Iowa has up to seven-thousand people working in the wind industry, which is more than any other state. TPI’s blade production plant in Newton employs about 700 people, while another 100 employees make wind turbine towers at Trinity Structural Towers.

By Randy Van, KCOB, Newton

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With:

Bodies found in Council Bluffs identified as Nebraska mother and son

May 22, 2012 By

Authorities now say the two bodies found at Lake Manawa State Park in Council Bluffs on Sunday night are those of a missing Nebraska mother and son. The FBI reports the bodies found in a wooded area near the lake are those of 41-year-old Charlotte Schilling of Plattsmouth and her ten-year-old son, Owen.

The two were last seen on May 10th when Schilling picked up her son from a school in Bellevue. Security video shows them visiting a convenience store near Lake Manawa that day as well as a Kohl’s department store in Council Bluffs. The following day, Schilling’s vehicle was found parked at Lake Manawa.

Her cell phone and wallet were located inside. Authorities have not released a cause of death but are not looking for suspects. The investigation continues.

By Karla James

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News

ISU coach, AD talk about football playoff proposal

May 22, 2012 By

All indications are pointing to a playoff system in college football. While that might be welcome news to a lot of fans, it doesn’t seem to be going over very well at Iowa State. Cyclone head coach Paul Rhoads says he’d like to see the current BCS system stay in place.

“I like what we’re doing right now, I’m not falling out of favor with that,” Rhoads says. “I think you’ve got a number of factors that go into it, if you would sit down and look at the teams that they’ve played with, you’d say they are pretty dang close to having the right matchup every year. The right thing is to not get away from the bowl system. And whether the ends up being two, four or whatever other teams to figure out the national championship, fine.”

I.S.U. Athletic Director Jamie Pollard echoes Rhoads’ opinion. “My ideal situation isn’t gonna happen, and that is we keep the current system,” Pollard says. He says with what’s on the table, the Big 12 is in favor of having four teams at neutral semifinal sites outside the bowl structure. Pollard says having any more than four teams would erode the bowl structure.

Rhoads says that no matter what happens, he hopes that the bowl system is left untouched for the most part. “What has to take place, is the strength of the bowl system has to remain. You’re talking about opportunities that student athletes, fans etcetera would never get to experience without these bowls being in place,” Rhoads says. “Postseason play and that bowl opportunity is what college football is about.”

Rhoads says it’s ridiculous to think a playoff system will satisfy everyone. He says it’s going to happen whether or not everyone is on board, and he says there will always be good things about the system, and there will always be things to complain about.

“They complained 20 years ago when it wasn’t the BCS, they’ve been complaining with the BCS, they’ll complain 3 years from now when we have a playoff going on,” Rhoads says.

By Jesse Gavin KCNZ Cedar Falls

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,

Greenfield man dies in accident

May 22, 2012 By

An accident Monday north of Lake Icaria in Adams County claimed the life of an Adair County man.  The Iowa State Patrol says 67-year-old Richard Norvel “Dick” Cooper, of Greenfield, was not wearing a seat belt when the 2006 Volvo straight truck he was driving for Schildberg Construction in Greenfield crossed the center line of Highway 148 southbound.

 The truck  entered the northbound shoulder and traveled into a ditch before hitting an embankment.

The truck came to rest three miles north of Highway 148 and 150th Street on the east side of Highway 148, at around 10:45 a.m. The accident remains under investigation.

By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, News

U.S.S. Iowa move delayed by weather concerns

May 21, 2012 By

The threat of bad weather on the Pacific coast has delayed the final voyage of the U.S.S. Iowa to its final docking site at the Port of Los Angeles. A group of veterans have been working on the ship’s restoration at its docking site in northern California. George Hillenbrand is proud to have served on the U.S.S. Iowa during World War II.

“If there was bad days aboard this ship, I was never involved in any,” he says. “…And here I am, all these years later and every weekend I’m aboard it, just having the time of my life.” John Wolfinbarger is another World War II veteran who served on the ship. He was part of a delegation who toured the retired warship with Navy officials three years ago when the lobbying began to save the Iowa from the scrap heap.

“When I came aboard I said, ‘Boy, it (doesn’t) look like it did when I left it in 1945,’” Wolfinbarger says. Michael McEnteggert served on the ship in the 1980s.

“I grew up on this ship in my early twenties and now I’m 46 years old and I’m back,” McEnteggert says. McEnteggert was on board the ship when one of its gun turrets exploded, killing 47 of his fellow sailors.

Just days after the Navy announced the Iowa would be saved rather than sold for salvage, McEnteggert left his home in New York, bound for the San Francisco Bay. “I put my stuff in storage. Kissed my girlfriend goodbye, said goodbye to my friends and family and drove across the country,” he says.

McEnteggert envisions a restored U.S.S. Iowa partly as a floating memorial to the soldiers who died on the battleship during that 1989 accident. The U.S.S. Iowa was to have been towed under San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday, but weather has delayed the start of her four-day journey to Los Angeles.

By Mark Carlson, KCRG, Cedar Rapids

Filed Under: Human Interest, Military, News, Weather

Women drinking alcohol and riding horses have accident with bicycles

May 18, 2012 By

We hear about car-deer collisions all the time but last night’s bicycle-horse mishap is a new twist. Sergeant Dwayne Riche, of the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Department, says the accident happened about seven miles south of Council Bluffs on the Wabash Trail about 9:30 P.M.

“Deputies observed two females on horses that were consuming alcohol in this heavily-populated cycling area,” Riche says. “The two females were acting in a careless manner by riding their horses in and around all of the other people that had the bicycles there.”

The women were repeatedly told to move the horses or ride in a less populated area and they left, but returned. Later, deputies were dispatched nearby. “A female had fallen from her horse and had a broken leg,” he says.

When deputies arrived, they found a woman lying on the south side of the trail with an injury to her leg. A medical student, a passerby on a bike, was attending to her. Two women said they’d been thrown from their horses after getting bumped by two men on bicycles. Riche says deputies talked with both men.

“They both had lights on their bikes, front and rear, saw the two girls on the horses and they were the on north side of the trail,” he says. “When they were passing the horses, one horse got spooked, it jumped into the path of the riders and this is when the collision occurred.”

The woman with the leg injury was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for treatment. One of the cyclists had minor injuries and refused treatment. No charges were filed.

By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, News Tagged With:

Winnebago suitor says the company could assemble cars and trucks

May 18, 2012 By

The managing partner for a Connecticut-based private equity and hedge fund company says their offer to buy Winnebago Industries would allow the company to diversify into assembling cars and trucks. North Street Capital LP has offered to purchase the Forest City-based recreational vehicle manufacturer for $11 a share in cash after Winnebago declined a previous offer made in April of $10.25 a share.

Winnebago earlier today released a statement saying they’ve reviewed the offer with its board of directors and determined that so far there’s not sufficient information to deem the offer as credible. North Street’s managing partner Alex Mascioli says they are less attracted by the Winnebago name than they are by the company itself internally and its integrity to manufacturing.

he says it’s not a secret to anybody that Winnebago has a very strong manufacturing infrastructure and unblemished name that it’s known for in the industry, and he feels that North Street can feed off of that and help it to grow. Mascioli says the RV industry as a whole has been hit hard with the economy and it’s currently stagnant.

He says their purchase of the company could help turn that around. “As a whole we think the company is great, but we also at the same time feel that it needs a little invigoration, it needs a little of somebody to step off the ledge and kind of adapt to the current climate and try to reinvigorate it,” according to Mascioli.

Mascioli says their relationships with overseas automakers could end up having kits sent to Forest City for the final assembly of light and medium trucks and passenger automobiles. He says doing the final assembly would be something that would not only help the company expand and grow revenue wise, it would create a hedging market in the current economic times which he feels has created a very stagnant market for the R-V industry across the board.

Mascioli feels Winnebago’s response to the latest leaves the door open and he hopes company officials are open to hearing further details of North Street’s proposal. “We’re willing to accommodate, you know we’re not looking to be hostile here in anyway, and all we want is just a seat at the table,” Mascioli says.

Mascioli says they an opportunity to explain their visioning and will respond sometime soon the Winnebago release. North Street last September acquired the Swedish luxury car maker Spyker. Mascioli says he’s been in talks with Winnebago for about two months. Winnebago shares on the New York Stock Exchanged spiked upwards at the open up from $8.51 per share at yesterday’s close to $10.02, but the stock since that time has settled back to around $9.00 a share.

By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City

Filed Under: Business, News
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