May 23, 2012

You are here: Home / Archives for Chet Culver

Grassley questions FCC over “Light Squared” plan

December 1, 2011 By

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is questioning a federal agency’s decision to give a company called “LightSquared” the go-ahead for a new 4-G network that critics say may interfere with G.P.S. systems used by the military, emergency responders and pilots.

Grassley says the Federal Communications Commission is refusing to provide him with information about their decision. “You know what they right back to us? That they don’t have to answer only to the chairman of the Commerce Committee or Senator Rockefeller because I don’t have any jurisdiction over them, “Grassley says.

“…What they’re saying is 99.6% of the people elected to the United States Senate, they don’t have to answer to.” Grassley has used his power as a United States Senate to block considering of two people President Obama has nominated to serve on the F.C.C.

By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City

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

Branstad considers new steps to protect elderly, kids from sexual predators (audio)

November 28, 2011 By

Governor Branstad.

Governor Branstad is considering new steps to protect nursing home residents from a fellow patient with a criminal history of being sexually aggressive.

About a year ago a judge ordered the transfer of an 83-year-old man being held in the state prison unit for sexual predators into a nursing home in Pomeroy. That man is now accused of assaulting a 95-year-old woman in the nursing home.    

“We think it’s important that these things not happen in the future,” Branstad says, “and want to determine what is the most appropriate changes we need to make in terms of our laws, rules and procedures to prevent these kind of things from occurring.”

Branstad is criticizing a top aide to former Governor Chet Culver for failing to ensure the nursing home had a written plan to deal with the convicted criminal who had been ordered into the private facility. Branstad says he may ask legislators to pass a bill to deal with the situation if the “working group” reviewing the case believes laws must be changed.

“At least I think there should be a notification of all the people that reside in those facilities and their families,” Branstad says. “But I think we also need to look at whether or not those are the appropriate placement locations in the first place.”

Branstad is also visiting with members of the board that governs Iowa, Iowa State and U.N.I. to ensure allegations of sex abuse within the schools’ athletic departments are handled appropriately. Branstad says the “tragic situation” at Penn State has made “everyone very sensitive” to the topic.

“We need to be extremely careful to make sure whether it’s in a nursing home or a university campus or whether it’s in a day care or grade school or wherever it is that we’re doing as much as we can to protect the well-being of our citizens,” Branstad says, “especially children and elderly who are particularly vulnerable to sexual predators.”

Reports indicate former Penn State coach Joe Paterno did not notify police, but told a superior at the university when one of his assistant coaches reported witnessing another coach assaulting a boy.

AUDIO of Branstad’s weekly news conference.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Featured Story, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Former Iowa Film Office director given probation

October 18, 2011 By

The former director of the Iowa Film Office was sentenced today in the film tax credit scandal. A Polk County District Court judge sentenced 42-two-year-old Tom Wheeler to two years probation for his conviction on the charge of misconduct in office in connection with the state program which awarded tax credits for movies and TV shows filmed in Iowa.

Wheeler was found not guilty on eight other counts including conspiracy. The charges came after it was found that some 26-million in film tax credits were improperly awarded. Wheeler was fired by then governor Chet Culver when the tax credit scandal came to light and the film office was shut down.

Wheeler’s defense argued that he had been hired to do marketing and customer relations and did not have the proper training to handle the film tax credits when the program was created. The judge granted Wheeler a deferred judgment, which means the conviction will be removed from his record if he successfully completes the two-year probation.

So far, just one person has been sentenced to prison time in connection with the scandal. A Minnesota film producer was given a 10-year prison sentence in the case after she pled guilty to a felony charge of fraudulent practice.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Featured Story, News, Politics & Government, Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With: ,

Iowa political leaders say Popular Vote “scheme” would make Iowa irrelevant (audio)

October 18, 2011 By

Governor Terry Branstad and Iowa G.O.P. chair Matt Strawn. (L-R)

Iowa’s Republican governor, the state’s GOP leadership and the chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party are denouncing an effort to have presidential elections decided by the popular vote.

Governor Terry Branstad says it would strip Iowa of its influence in the November presidential elections.

“The National Popular Vote will encourage candidates to look past smaller, less-populated states like Iowa and focus, instead, on cities with major media outlets,” Branstad says.

[Read more...]

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

Tea Party leader denounces Branstad comments on gas tax

October 12, 2011 By

An Iowa activist in the “Tea Party” movement says he’s establishing a new website to try to push the state’s politicians to table the idea of raising the state gas tax.

“We’re asking for just one year of people leaving this off the table while we’re in very tough economic times,” says Ryan Rhodes, founder and chairman of the Iowa “Tea Party” group. “I think that’s very reasonable.”

Rhodes already has established a Facebook page on the topic, but he’s creating a website anyone can access online, not just the folks who are on Facebook.

On Monday, Governor Branstad said it was “premature” for folks like Rhodes to take a stand on the issue before a commission Branstad has appointed to study the needs of the state’s transportation network finishes its work. Rhodes says that’s frustrating.

“It’s once again one of the real problems we have every time a commission gets formed,” Rhodes says. “It doesn’t really matter who is seems to be. Whether it’s Barack Obama, Chet Culver, Terry (Branstad) or any of these things, whoever appoints a commission — it doesn’t matter if it’s a Republican or a Democrat — the commissions always seem to want to come back and raise taxes as a solution and, right now, we’re at the point where we just can’t raise taxes.”

Rhodes says there should be ways to find other money in the state budget to dedicate to infrastructure projects. Branstad said Monday that Rhodes and others don’t “know all the facts” about the state budget and how transportation infrastructure projects are financed with gas taxes rather than general state revenue, like income taxes.

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

Audit examines backlog of elevator inspections

September 15, 2011 By

A state audit found a severe backlog of elevator inspections, but the man now in charge of the program says the backlog of inspections should be erased by the end of the year.

The audit concluded that in 2010, there were nearly 10,000 elevators and escalators in Iowa which are, by law, to be inspected every year. Auditors randomly chose 100 elevators and found 68 hadn’t been inspected in the past year.  One — at a grain elevator in Solon — hadn’t been inspected for almost nine-and-a-half years. Another elevator — at Sparboe Foods in Hampton — hadn’t been inspected for nearly nine years. An elevator in a Waterloo parking garage hadn’t been inspected for nearly three years, according to the audit.

[Read more...]

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

Branstad, Reynolds tout changes in state gov’t hiring (audio)

September 12, 2011 By

The trial in a class action lawsuit challenging the State of Iowa’s hiring practices began today and Republican Terry Branstad is touting changes he’s made since he took over in January for his fifth term as governor.

“We’ve hired new directors of the departments and agencies and indicated we want people to be treated in a fair and non-discriminatory way,” Branstad says.

The class action lawsuit alleges that since “at least 1995″ — when Branstad was beginning his fourth term as governor — the state of Iowa engaged in racial discrimination in hiring, firing and promotion policies.  The lawsuit was originally filed by just over a dozen blacks, but now alleges thousands of blacks were illegally passed over for promotions, unlawfully fired or weren’t even hired in the first place because of discriminatory practices.  Branstad lays some blame on Democrat Governor Chet Culver, his predecessor.

“We’re trying to get more uniformity and consistency and fairness in terms of the way things are managed in state government, including hiring and also accountability in terms of the employees that are working for the departments and agencies of state government,” Branstad says. “We want to end favoritism and make sure that people are treated in a fair and non-discriminatory way.”

Branstad praises his new Department of Civil Rights director for firing three employees who were using their work computers to send snarky emails about their coworkers.

“(She) found out there were some investigators that were handling a significant number of cases and others that were getting virtually nothing done,” Branstad says, “and so she put a matrix of expectations in place and six people quit because they didn’t want to work that hard.”

Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds suggests the previous Culver Administration also decentralized hiring,

“We’ve moved it back to a centralized process so we can have more consistency in the practices instead of each one of the agencies doing their own things,” Reynolds says.

According to Reynolds, all hiring decisions in state government now flow through the Department of Administrative Services and the Department of Management, which is headed by Branstad’s budget director. The state universities, however, are part of a separate system.

Branstad and Reynolds made their comments during their weekly news conference. AUDIO of Sept 12 news conference runs 25 min.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »