First Lady Michelle Obama in Des Moines.

Around 10,000 school kids packed Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines this morning for an event featuring First Lady Michelle Obama.

Her stop in Iowa started a four-state swing to celebrate the second anniversary of the launch of her “Let’s Move” initiative.

Mrs. Obama asked for the kids’ help to make Iowa and all of the states the “healthiest they can be.”
Audio First Lady :20

The nearly two-hour long event closed with the First Lady and everyone in the arena performing the Interlude Dance. The Interlude has become a dance craze at the University of Northern Iowa – with fans and students performing the dance during basketball games.

“I probably can’t begin without saying if we build it they will come,” Bowman said. He went on to explain that the tax break would boost the rural economy by helping investors preserve the movie site and add a youth sport complex for traveling teams.

He says it’s estimated the expanded site would generate $272-million in revenues over 10 years with 95% of that money coming from out of state. Bowman said the project would get a sales tax rebate on sales that would never have happened without the expansion, so the state has no skin in the game.

But Senator Jack Whitver, a Republican from Ankeny, did not sign on. “It’s just I don’t want to be in the middle of deciding who wins and who loses in government,” Whitver said. In other words giving a tax break to the Field of Dreams project, but not for some other youth sports complex.

“At this time I’m just not comfortable saying we like you we’re going to let you succeed and not you in Ankeny or Sioux City or Council Bluffs,” Whitver said.

“Go the Distance Baseball” is seeking investors to underwrite the $38-million facility. Spokesman David Adelman says the tax break is important to the project.

“It significantly affects our ability to go towards investors, saying that the state is not interested in participating,” Adelman said. Under the bill, the project dubbed “Allstar Ballpark Heaven” would get a sales tax rebate for 10 years or up to 16-million-dollars once they’re up and running.

A similar tax break helped create the Iowa Speedway in Newton. The bill advances to the Senate Economic Growth Committee.

Jay Brainard, T.S.A. Federal Security Director for Iowa, says the Advanced Imaging Technology units are designed to protect passengers’ privacy while improving security and speeding up the checkpoint process. “This technology safely screens passengers for both metallic and nonmetallic threats, including weapons and explosives, without physical contact,” Brainard said at a news conference today at the Des Moines Airport.

Two of the machines were activated today in Des Moines. Brainard said the scanners enhance privacy by eliminating “passenger-specific” images. Instead, the software develops a computer generated outline of a person which is identical for all passengers.

“This new generation software detects potential threats and indicates their location, eliminating the need for passenger-specific images and streamlining the checkpoint screening process,” Brainard said. The glass framed machines utilize radio waves and take about three seconds to scan each passenger.

“This machine uses millimeter wave technology, which bounces harmless, electromagnetic waves off the human body to create a black and white image,” Brainard said. “It is safe and the energy emitted is 1,000 times less than international limits and guidelines.”

Outside the machine, a monitor displays a human form. The monitor turns green and reads “OK” if the passenger isn’t carrying any prohibited or dangerous items. If an item is detected, a yellow mark appears on the outline of the body showing exactly where the item can be found. Passengers who aren’t convinced of the claims about the machine’s privacy or safety do have an alternative.

“Passengers who do not wish to go through the unit will receive an equivalent screening, which will include a pat down,” Brainard said. There are currently more than 570 Advanced Imaging Technology units installed in 130 airports around the country, according to the TSA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbLS6jfg6kE

Sara Mouw, a U-of-I graduate student in marketing, says many of the ads were on-line before they were on TV during the big game. “Social media is starting to play a big role in it,” Mouw says. “The brands kind of want to promote their brands prior to it.” Advertisers are releasing commercials before game day on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

The technique may be risky as it could keep more than half of the Super Bowl’s viewers from tuning in to just watch the ads, since they’ve already seen them. “The ads will be a little less shocking, because people have seen part of them,” said Mouw. “They won’t be so surprised or maybe the humor is gone a little bit, too.”

Some students say putting an ad out early isn’t a total game-changer. Ben Van Someren, who’s also in the U-of-I’s graduate program, says the spot will still hit its mark with the audience, as long as the commercial gets to the point and leaves a lasting impression.

“There’s three key things that an advertiser should do,” Van Someren says. “That’s brand recognition, memorability, and then, did you get the message?” Each year, the students rank the commercials based on several criteria putting the ads in categories, including: funny, boring, memorable, and “What was that brand again?”

One ad demonstrated how a car’s headlights were so bright, they could vaporize vampires as if it were daylight. U-of-I graduate assistant Pat Downes says that commercial had humor, it was fast-paced and still focused on the Audi’s L-E-D headlights.

“That’s brand recognition for them,” Downes said, “so they really hit right on that. I thought it was really interesting and entertaining. Lots of people in here were laughing during that.”

The group ranked their overall favorites as: The M&M’s “Naked” ad, the Honda CRV ad with Matthew Broderick and the Chevy “Graduation Gift” ad.

By Jillian Petrus, KCRG, Cedar Rapids

The band’s name, Solas, come from an Irish word for light.

Clark Williams, president of the Des Moines-based Celtic Music Association, talks about the sound of the five-member group, with roots in Philadelphia, Boston, New York — and Ireland.

“I’d describe them as an American Celtic music band,” Williams says. “Not really classified as an Irish band, but a Celtic band.” He thinks the style will appeal to a wide spectrum of Iowans of all ages.

“The Irish type of jigs and reels and all that actually metamorphosed into a bluegrass sound, into Appalachia and now country-western music,” Williams says. “I look at the Celtic music and Solas music as being a very pure version of that type of music.”

VIDEO: Solas, performing “The Seven Curses”

Solas will take the stage at Hoyt Sherman Auditorium in Des Moines on February 18th.

Williams says, “We want to make sure our audience, which has been so nice to us in coming to all of these concerts all of these years, keep returning but we also want to have our young people get to know and understand some of this music.”

Learn more about the band at: www.solasmusic.com and the concert at: www.thecma.org

Two key parts had emblems that confirmed its authenticity. “Because of the graphics on the transmission and the engine…. where it says “Spaulding, Grinnell Iowa,” eventually a car enthusiast identified it and said, ‘well that’s a rare car.’ Indeed, this is the only surviving chassis in the world,” Brooks explains.

A Missouri collector found the remnants of the car. The engine was being used as a power source at Colorado sawmill. Brooks and a team of volunteers worked two-and-a-half years cleaning it up, polishing the brass and aluminum, and tracking down missing parts. Some components, like the wood-spoke wheels, couldn’t be saved and were rebuilt.

It cost $7,000 to recreate the radiator. “We had only one original hubcap but weren’t we lucky to have a sample and so a wonderful machine shop took time to make these hubcaps and they are absolutely like diamonds, they’re beautiful,” Brooks says. The transmission, with the Spaulding insignia, has three forward speeds and reverse.

The four-cylinder, 40 horse power, Buda engine was rebuilt and it is started with a crank. The Iowa car will be going home to Grinnell in April, where the old Spaulding carriage and automobile factory is being transformed into the Iowa Transportation Museum.

Chuck Brook is the museum director. “I have lived in Grinnell all my life basically people are always looking for a Spaulding car,” Brook says. “Everybody says ‘well if you look in some old bar you’ll find it someday’. Well I know people that’s been lookin’ for over 50 years and I guess we haven’t found that old barn yet.”

The four-million-dollar renovation of the old factory is the first activity on the Spaulding campus in years. In the early 1900s it specialized in buggies, and switched to automobiles from 1910 to 1916. Spaulding’s were used in wild publicity stunts. It raced a non-stop mail train across the state, and won.

For now, there are no plans to replicate the car’s body and interior, which were never recovered. The star of the exhibit is the near-complete chassis, from the rear-end to the headlights, showing the original components that muscled Spaulding’s through Iowa’s muddy roads a century ago.

The Winter Dance Party opens tonight in Clear Lake with a new distinction. The legendary Surf Ballroom was added last year to the National Register of Historic Places.

 The Surf, which opened in 1948, is best known for hosting the final performances of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson.

They died in a plane crash shortly after the original Winter Dance Party in 1959. Jeff Nicholas is president of the Surf Ballroom and owns the cornfield where the three singers died in a plane crash.

“We have long felt that the Surf Ballroom truly is a national treasure. Our real impact and influence is on rock and roll. We’re very excited to welcome the world to Clear Lake every February to celebrate,” Nicholas said. The ballroom is part of rock and roll history and is lined with photos of legendary performers who have taken the Surf’s stage, including Buddy Holly, hours before his death.

“There are only seven pictures taken of the guys here at the Surf that have surfaced anywhere in the world. So we’re very proud and excited about having people, just during the day and during the week, exploring the early roots of rock and roll,” Nicholas said.

The big event for this year’s Winter Dance Party is sold out. It’s a Saturday concert with Pat Boone the Bobbettes and singer Tommy Allsup, who played lead guitar for Buddy Holly’s last performance back in 1959.

Photo courtesy of Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City

“And with this warm weather, it’s melted quite quickly,” Dodd said. “We really aren’t recommending folks get out on the ice. We’ve already had one incident in Madison County. We know it’s tempting to get out there, but we recommend people stay off at this point.”

Authorities say 64-year-old Linda Jones and her friend, 80-year-old George Pierce, drowned Monday while ice fishing on a farm pond in Madison County. Dodd said many ponds and lakes had good ice as recently as Saturday, but Monday’s temperatures in the mid 60′s forced the D.N.R. to cancel some trout stocking and ice fishing events scheduled for this coming weekend in central Iowa.

“The ice was just not thick enough for doing that this year,” Dodd said. Ice fishing conditions are slightly better north of Highway 20, but Dodd said anglers are encouraged to use caution even in northern Iowa.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Former NFL receiver Eddie Kennison exercises with Des Moines elementary kids.

A former pro football great joined Governor Terry Branstad at a Des Moines elementary school today to talk to kids about the importance of eating healthy foods and exercising.

Branstad told the children at Capitol View Elementary that the NFL’s “Fuel Up to Play 60” program will help his administration’s goals for the state.

“We aim to be the healthiest state in the nation within the next five years,” Branstad told the school kids. He and other state officials signed a pledge to show their support for the program, now in place in more than 1,100 schools across Iowa.

“We are working together to make our state healthier every day and the effects are being felt by Iowans of all ages,” Branstad said.

 ”It’s really exciting to see the commitment you’ve made, right here, at Capitol View Elementary.” The Fuel Up Play 60 program encourages kids to consume “nutrient-rich” foods and be physically active for at least 60 minutes every day.

Eddie Kennison

The program is backed by the National Football League and the National Dairy Council. Former NFL wide receiver Eddie Kennison shared some of his nutrition secrets.

“The thing that I found out to work best for my body after a workout is chocolate milk,” Kennison said. “Once you go through a tough workout, I encourage you guys to drink chocolate milk because it has more of the antioxidants and natural fuel you need to put in your body…better than a lot of the other drinks that are out there.”

Kennison was a first round draft pick by the St. Louis Rams in 1996. He played 13 seasons in the NFL and had his best years with the Kansas City Chiefs. Kennison is pulling for the New England Patriots to beat the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.

A former teammate of Kennison’s in Kansas City, Brian Waters, now plays for the Patriots. Waters, an offensive guard, was let go by the Chiefs earlier this season. Kennison said he’s “kind of torn” about which team to root for because he also was a teammate of Lawrence Tynes in Kansas City.

Tynes is now the kicker for the Giants, but Kennison said he’s pulling for Waters and the Patriots because Tynes already won a Super Bowl with the Giants in 2008.

Kent Harfst is the parks and recreation director in Webster City, one of the midweek host cities. “The last couple of years, we’ve been working real hard on lobbying to get RAGBRAI back to Webster City,” Harfst says.

“It costs a little bit of money but it’s going to be a great thing. It’s been a tough time economically around here and that’s going to give a boost to everybody in the community.” Host cities will start working with ride officials right away to determine the best ways to handle some 20,000 bicyclists, support crews and spectators.

“They have a 55-page handbook that they give to the communities to help them through the process,” Harfst says. “The number-one concern is traffic safety for everybody, for the bicyclists as well as the groups that are coming into town in vehicles. We’ll look at different types of entertainment and there will be one or two major campgrounds and we’ll have to figure out a location for that, too.”

This will be the 40th year for the statewide ride which brings pedalers from around the world for the weeklong trek across Iowa. This year’s version will run 471 miles from the Missouri River to the Mississippi. Learn more at www.ragbrai.com.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City