Major Ned Lewis, with the DOT, says 60 officers will be inspecting all vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds that are on Iowa’s roadways. “We will have motor vehicle enforcement officers located througout the state at our interstate scale sites at Avoca, Dallas County, Jasper County and Brandon,” Lewis said.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) Roadcheck runs today through Thursday. During last year’s event, officers conducted more than 65,000 inspections across the U.S. “The most important part of this is finding vehicles or drivers who are not in compliance with the rules and regulations,” Lewis said. “Those drivers and/or vehicles can be placed out of service for serious safety violations.”

Most vehicles or drivers are placed out of service because of issues with their brakes or discrepancies with the driver’s logbook. The 2010 Roadcheck found vehicle compliance rates of 80%, while drivers had a 95.6% pass rate. “Most of the vehicles and drivers do a great job. We do put a fair amount of vehicles out of service for severe safety violations,” Lewis said.

Busses are not required to stop at the scale locations in Iowa.

The ads were placed by Manhattan Mini-Storage, which uses the slogan “we help New Yorkers live big lives in little places.” The billboards are designed to extol the benefits of living in New York despite the lack of closet space.

Lauren Burt is the director of media and marketing at the Greater Des Moines Partnership. “I think they’re trying to promote that they’re greatest…but I have to say that I don’t think that Des Moines belongs on that sign,” Burt said.

Although it may be warranted, Burt says Iowa’s capital city is not planning any retaliatory billboards. “You know I think we could have a lot of fun with that,” Burt said with a laugh. “But, I’m a firm believer in positive marketing. There’s too much negativity out there anyway. So we have great things to promote.”

Calls placed to Manhattan Mini-Storage went unreturned. Burt says she’s stumped why they chose to dump on Des Moines. “We’re number one in so many different national rankings for business and careers…and that’s really the truth, not billboards for storage space,” Burt said.

Buettner says he recently tested some of his methods for adding “quantity and quality” to people’s lives in Albert Lea, Minnesota. “We raised (Albert Lea residents’) life expectancy by about three years, we lowered their health care costs by 40 percent and everybody lost weight,” Buettner said. “I’m going to talk a little bit about this vitality project in Albert Lea and I think the people in Iowa will see very clearly, ‘we can do that here.’”

Buettner says Iowa already has a high concentration of elderly residents, but that’s due in part to a population shift.”Part of it is the good, clean living of our grandparents. Our grandparents really have something to teach us about living longer,” Buettner said. “But, part of it is that younger people tend to leave rural cities and leave a higher concentration of the very old.”

Running marathons and taking vitamins aren’t necessarily the key to healthy living, according Buettner. He says studies have shown people who eat just two ounces of nuts four times a week live up to three years longer than those who don’t eat nuts. And people who claim to wake up in the morning with “a sense of purpose” tend to live seven years longer.

“So, a lot of the things we think make us live longer – like supplements or weight watcher programs – really don’t have any effect at all and there are a lot of small things that really add up to helping us a lot,” Buettner said.

Buetter, who appeared as a regular guest on the Oprah Winfrey show, is scheduled to speak in Cedar Rapids on Thursday, June 16 from 7 to 8 p.m. The event is free at the Cedar Rapids Marriott (1200 Collins Road NE).

Vander Linden says internet gambling will increase the number of people who gamble, but he says his hope is that there will be enough safe guards to keep underage people from gambling. And he says those safe guards will hopefully limit the harm that could be done to problem gamblers.

Vander Linden says he doesn’t have an opinion on the long-term impact if Iowa became the first state to legalize internet gambling. He says you generally see a spike in interest when a new gambling options is introduced, because it is new and interesting and people want to try it out, and then interest levels off.

Vander Linden says he doesn’t really have a position on the bill. Vander Linden says internet gambling is not a major source of problems in Iowa right now. Vander Linden says their tracking shows internet gambling was identified by only one-and-a-half percent of the people who came in to get treatment last year for problem gambling as their primary form of gambling. He says the most prominent form of legalized gambling in the state is the one that is credited with causing the most problems.

He says 61% of the people who came in for treatment identified slot machines as the reason for their problem. The internet gambling bill was passed this week by a senate committee. New Jersey’s governor vetoed a bill that would have made his state the first to allow internet gambling.

Iowa Department of Public Safety spokesperson Jessica Lown suggests placing a hold on mail and newspaper deliveries. “Or just ask somebody who’s going to be in town, someone you trust, and give them your key to stop by and bring your mail in or shovel your drive,” Lown said. “They can do those things that would indicate that someone is still at the house.”

Thieves can also be thwarted by the use of lamps plugged into automatic timers. “So, it looks like someone in your house is flipping the lights on and off a few times, even though you’re not home,” Lown said. It’s also a good idea to close curtains or drapes, so a burglar can’t see inside the home.

Another no-no is posting vacation plans to Facebook. “Not everything is kept within your circle of friends on these social media sites,” Lown said. “So, doing a status update that says, ‘woo-hoo, on my way to Hawaii for Christmas and no one will be checking my home for two weeks’…maybe not such a good idea.”

Lown says it’s also a bad idea to post your vacation location on Facebook. “Would-be thieves…they see somebody check into a location, and then they check into your home,” Lown said. Many police departments, particularly in small towns, allow residents to sign up for home checks. Officers will walk around the home to check for signs of a burglary or anything suspicious.

Joey Jordison, Tony Gray, Corey Taylor, Shawn Crahan, Sid Wilson

Members of the Des Moines based metal band Slipknot are remembering their bass player, Paul Gray, as a compassionate friend who served as the peacekeeper of the group.

Gray was found dead Monday morning in an Urbandale hotel room. He was 38. Slipknot singer Corey Taylor and other members of the band spoke at a press conference tonight at Wells Fargo Arena, where Slipknot played a concert last year. “We lost a brother,” Taylor said, “and the world seems a little smaller because of it.”

An autopsy performed Tuesday did not yield any clues about how Gray died, but investigators say it confirmed no foul play was involved. Toxicology tests are being performed. Those results are not expected for up to six weeks.

Taylor and the other members of Slipknot did not take questions or discuss the circumstances surrounding Gray’s untimely death. Instead, they spoke about how they hope their bandmate will be remembered. ”The only way I can sum up Paul Gray is love,” Taylor said. “Everything he did…he did for everyone around him whether he knew you or not. And that’s what he’s left behind for us – is absolute love.”

Percussionist Shawn Crahan co-founded Slipknot with Gray in 1995. ”Paul was there for the very, very beginning and none of us would be on the path that we’re on right now in life, or have the sorts of lives that we have, without him,” Crahan said. “He really was the essence of Slipknot and we would like to have him remembered that way.”

Slipknot is known not only for their loud, intense style of music – but also for their theatrical performances. Each of the nine members of the band wears a mask. Slipknot has sold millions of albums, played around the world and won a Grammy in 2006. Crahan said all of the band’s accomplishments wouldn’t have been possible without Gray.

“He was the person in the band who really wanted everybody in the band to always get along and just concentrate on the band,” Crahan said. “He was a really great friend and just a great person. He’s going to be sadly missed and the world is going to be a different place without him.”

Brenna Gray (Paul's wife), Joey Jordison (drums), Tony Gray (Paul's brother), Corey Taylor, Shawn Crahan, Sid Wilson (DJ), Mick Thomson (Guitar), James Root (Guitar), Chris Fehn, Craig Jones (samples)

Percussionist Chris Fehn said Gray was a friend first and a bandmate second. “The one thing I’m going to miss the most…man, he gave the greatest hugs out of anybody I’ve ever hugged,” Fehn said with a smile. “You hug a lot of people, but that dude, when he grabbed onto you…you could just feel him and the love he had for you at that moment in time.”

Gray’s wife, Brenna, also sat with the band. She’s pregnant and expecting a baby girl. ”Paul was my husband, an amazing person and I just want people to remember him for just that,” Brenna said as she fought back tears.

None of the band members discussed Slipknot’s future. You can listen to the full press conference by clicking on the following audio link:   Slipknot 8:28 MP3

Here is the order of tonight’s speakers: 1. Corey Taylor – vocalist 2. Shawn Crahan – percussionist 3. Sid Wilson – DJ 4. Chris Fehn – percussionist 5. Tony Gray – Paul’s brother 6. Joey Jordison – drummer 7. Brenna Gray – Paul’s wife.

Runkle says that cruelty included “workers violently throwing birds, birds being snapped by their fragile necks and being mutilated without painkillers, industrial equipment injuring and killing birds, chicks going through scolding wash cycles while they are still alive, and all of the male chicks being ground up while they are still alive.”

Runkle says they are calling on the 50 largest grocery chains in America to put labels on the eggs they sell. He says the labels would read “warning male chicks are ground up alive by the egg industry.” Runkle says,”This is the egg industry’s best kept dirty secret, that every year over 200 million male chicks who are useless to the egg industry because the are males and they don’t produce eggs and they are a breed that they don’t grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat, so these birds are considered a byproduct.”

Runkle says state laws don’t protect farm animals, and neither do the federal statutes. He says federal laws exempt all poultry and most farm animals from being protected, not only at hatcheries, but also at factory farms, during transport and during slaughter. Runkle says,”This is another issue that we’re hoping to bring awareness to, is the fact that farm animals do not receiver the same sort of protection under the law from horrific cruelty that dogs and cats do, but of course these animals suffer and feel pain in just the same way.”

Hy-Line released a statement saying the video “appears to show an inappropriate action and violation of our animal welfare policies. We have initiated an immediate investigation of the entire situation although it would have been more beneficial had we been aware of the potential violation immediately after it occurred.” It goes on to say that any employees involved will be disciplined per company policy, up to and including termination.

Hy-Line spokesperson Tom Jorgenson told Spencer radio station KICD that the company has decided not to do any TV or radio interviews at this time and will release further information once their investigation is complete.

Story by Ryan Long, KICD, Spencer

She says they pay 65% of the money to the wireless carriers and telephone companies that are part of the networks that provide the service, and then they pay 25% of the funds to the local entities based on the number of calls the local public safety answering point has handled each quarter.

Vos says cellphone usage in Iowa has jumped more than 20% in the past three years. Linn County is considering a surcharged to increase the E-9-1-1 fees on land-lines to make up for the loss. Hamilton County supervisor David Young is also chairman of the county E-9-1-1 board, and says the loss of land-line revenue has not become a problem yet.

He says they have been close to the same revenue for the last couple of years, but they know it will be declining as the land-line usage drops. Young says the E-9-1-1 boards will face an even bigger challenge as technology advances. Young says the next real threat is voice-over I-P equipment where someone can call in from their computer into 9-1-1 dispatch.

He says that brings a whole other requirement for expensive equipment to handle those type of calls and he says Hamilton County is not ready for that yet. Counties can set a surcharge from 25 cents to one dollar per land-line for E-9-1-1 service.

Association president Doni DeNucci says that exemption would create an unlevel playing field for the rest of her members. "That’s why it’s difficult for us," DeNucci explained, "because we wouldn’t want to oppose an exemption that would benefit one segment of the industry, but it could be to the detriment to another segment of the industry."

DeNucci says Iowa business owners should be allowed to decide for themselves if they want to cater to smokers. "At the end of the day, if everybody is exempted out except the small independent restaurant, that is maybe in rural Iowa…trying to accommodate his clientele, that may be smokers – that’s going to impact his business negatively," DeNucci said. She claims that 80% of her members are already smoke-free, so non-smokers have plenty of choices.

Cathy Calloway is president of the Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance. She says casinos’ claims that their air ventilation systems protect against second hand smoke are bogus. "We know that the ventilation systems that are out there do not work," Calloway said. "They may clear the smoking haze out of the room, but they are not capable of removing the carcinogens that are in the air.

The U.S. Surgeon General has stated that and The American Society for Heating and Air Conditioning Engineers know that doesn’t work…there’s not a system out there." DeNucci and Calloway were guests on the Iowa Public Radio program "The Exchange."

The bill must also pass the House and be signed by the governor before it becomes law. It was drafted in response to a case involving Michael Grantham of Clarksville, an Iowa National Guardsman. Grantham had primary physical custody of his two kids when he was called to active duty in 2002. He arranged to have his daughter, who was eight, and his son, who was 13, live with his mother while he was on active duty.

But while Grantham was away, his ex-wife asked a judge to grant her custody of the kids and won. When Grantham returned from active duty, the court’s ruling prevented him from stepping back into his previous role as the primary parent for his children and he lost an appeal of the case. Similar cases across the country have prompted a few states to amend their laws to stipulate that a soldier’s deployment cannot be used against them in a child custody dispute.