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Iowa Lottery CEO plans to retire

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Terry Rich

The leader of the Iowa Lottery says he will retire at the end of this year or early in 2019.

Terry Rich took over as only the second ever Iowa Lottery CEO in 2009 following the retirement of Ed Stanek.

Rich is 65 and while he isn’t required to retire, he says he is ready. “I decided it was time to look out and do those transitions to head for retirement. It’s something that everybody looks forward to, and I really want to spend some more time with my family and friends,” Rich says. Rich has three kids and four grandchildren who all live in the central Iowa area.

He says it has been a great job. “I think that the most fun part of the position is that I have reported to three different governors. So I’ve had the chance to see behind the scenes of the capitol and the whole government structure, Rich says. Rich notes that all three governors had one thing in common — their main concern about the Iowa Lottery was that it is run with integrity, and Rich says he is proud to know that has happened under his watch.

He says the Hot Lotto ticket scandal was probably the biggest challenge he faced as CEO and is proud the organization took the steps that led to the truth. “It was really fun leading a group of professionals that was dedicated to doing whatever it takes to solve that mystery, “Rich says, “and it was really a unique mystery.”  A man who worked for a company that supplied the numbers drawn for the game was eventually convicted of rigging the Iowa Hot Lotto game and others after the Iowa Lottery refused to pay out the jackpot.

Rich says advancements in technology have been a big issue in his time at the Iowa Lottery. “The technology has really improved on both the security side and also the convenience for the players,” according to Rich. “I see as we look into the future that we’ll be able to play the lottery on our cellphones in the future. Or the various things that people do to check the numbers on their cellphones and decide to get in on a special promotion.”

Before coming to the Iowa Lottery, Rich was CEO of the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, owned his own production company, and was Vice President of Marketing for Heritage Communications in Des Moines.

 

AAA offering program to keep teens from drinking and driving during prom

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Many thousands of Iowa teens are getting ready to celebrate two of the biggest events of high school — prom and graduation — but the occasions can have deadly consequences.

Gail Weinholzer, spokeswoman for AAA-Iowa, says the motor club is sponsoring the “PROMise” program that runs from now until school lets out for the summer.

“Teens are going to a lot of parties during that time frame,” Weinholzer says. “We’re encouraging them to drive or ride with people who are not impaired by others’ drinking or any type of drug use.” A AAA survey conducted in January showed 39% of teens between 16 and 19 admit they or their friends would likely be under the influence of drugs or alcohol sometime during the prom or graduation season. While one teen may be staying away from temptation, perhaps the friend who’s behind the wheel didn’t, which puts both lives — and others — at risk unless the sober one speaks up.

“What we really want to emphasize with the program is to encourage a conversation between parents and teens,” Weinholzer says. “Oftentimes, teens are afraid to call home for a safe ride for fear of getting into trouble.”

As part of PROMise, should the teen be in danger of driving impaired or riding with someone who may be impaired, parents can pick their teen up and AAA will tow the family car home for free, member or not.  Free PROMise toolkits are available to high schools interested in helping protect their students from the dangerous consequences of impaired driving.

(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)

 

Get your nomination ready for the best tenderloin in the state

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Last year’s winner of the best tenderloin.

The Iowa Pork Producers begin their 16th annual search for Iowa’s Best Tenderloin Wednesday.

Pork Producers spokesman, Ron Birkenholz says the tenderloin is an item many restaurants across the state have on the menu. “We’re hoping for another good turnout — we had over 3,000 nominations last year with 271 different establishments named in the contest,” Birkenholz says. “We know there’s a lot of good tenderloins out there and we hope people will nominate them,” Birkenholz says.

Nominations for the best tenderloin can be submitted at www.iowapork.org. Birkenholz said the deadline for all entries is June 5th. He says the contest generates good publicity for the eateries.

“It’s good for the business, all of the past winners have told us that their business has increased exponentially after wining the contest. Even the runners up — we name a top five — and even those restaurants see a major increase in their business,” according to Birkenholz. The winning tenderloin is announced during “Pork Month” in October. It’s something he says the creators of the tenderloins anxiously await.

“It puts them on the tenderloin map if you will,” Birkenholz says, “we have people all over the midwest that follow this contest and love tenderloins and want to go to the winner’s restaurant and try it. So, it’s a great deal for the entire industry.” Last year’s winning restaurant was the “Grid Iron Grill” in Webster City.

(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)

 

Hard Rock Casino in Sioux City pays penalty for underage gambling violation

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Slot machines at the Hard Rock Casino.

The Hard Rock Casino in Sioux City agreed to a penalty today from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission for allowing minor to gamble.

Racing and Gaming administrator, Brian Ohorilko, says it happened in November. “She was on the floor for 56 minutes and had gambled at two different slot machines. The facility did notice her after she had been on the floor — approached her requested identification — and she refused and exited the casino quickly. It was determined later that she was indeed underage,” Ohorilko says. He says the situation met all the three criteria to be considered a violation of underage gambling.

He says the past precedent is for an administrative penalty of $20,000s and the Hard Rock agreed to pay that penalty. He says the penalty was based on the past history of the casino.

Ohroilko the casino has not had such an incident in the last 365 days, so it is considered a first offense. Ohorilko says state agents will determine if the minor is charged.

“There is a state law which would allow for a minor to be cited criminally,” Ohorilko says. “And so in a situation like this what typically happens — and what happened in this case — is it would be turned over to the Division of Criminal Investigation.” The IRGC took the action at their meeting in Council Bluffs.

First Cyclone Carnival date set, it’s not a replacement for VEISHEA

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Student organizations on the Iowa State University campus have joined forces to create what they’re calling the Cyclone Carnival.

The inaugural event will be held on Saturday, April 14. George Micalone, director of student activities at ISU, says the Cyclone Carnival was not created as a replacement for VIESHEA.

“Not at all,” Micalone said. “It is an expansion of the Cyclone Market program that Student Government created a few years ago.” VEISHEA was an annual springtime tradition on the Ames campus for 92 years, but it was shut down in 2014 after the event was again marred by violence.

 The Cyclone Carnival will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a lot north of Jack Trice Stadium on the day of the Iowa State spring football game. The event will feature “family-friendly” activities and an atmosphere that, according to Micalone, should attract students, faculty, and alumni.

“Carnival rides, food vendors and food trucks, performances by student organizations, and then other activities to target families – airbrush tattoos, balloon animals, an insect zoo, things like that,” Micalone said. Money raised from the Cyclone Carnival will benefit the ISU student organizations.

 

 

Central Iowa skatepark named after man who gives big donation

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Proposed Des Moines skatepark.

A Des Moines businessman has donated $1 million to an effort to build a large skatepark in Iowa’s capital city.

At a news conference this morning, Nix Lauridsen said he was frustrated to see the project was struggling to take shape, more than a decade after it was proposed. “All I had to do was sign my name to a check, but it was a big check,” Lauridsen said. The $3.5 million skatepark, to be built along the Des Moines River near Wells Fargo Arena, will be called Lauridsen Skatepark.

Brad Anderson, the project’s campaign co-chair, says donations from the Lauridsen Family Foundation and others mean the dream of placing a world-class skatepark in downtown Des Moines will become a reality.

“We have raised $2.5 million of a $3.5 million project,” Anderson said. The 65,000 square-foot skatepark would be one of the largest in the country, according to Anderson. He’s now hoping to attract at least 1,000 more individual donors.

“That can be anywhere from five dollars to one million dollars…however much you’re willing to contribute to this important project,” Anderson said. Construction of the skatepark could begin in the fall. The City of Des Moines donated two acres of land for the project.

Nix Lauridsen founded The Lauridsen Group in 1994. The company develops various health and nutrition products for animals and humans. Headquartered in Ankeny, The Lauridsen Group has more than 50 manufacturing and sales locations in 20 countries.

 

 

Forget the Vegas glitz. Iowa native makes you ‘believe in magic’ (audio)

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Nate Staniforth (Photo by Anna Jones)

A world-touring magician brings his down-to-earth show to his home state of Iowa this week.

Ames native Nate Staniforth says his brand of magic doesn’t involve capes, top hats or rabbits — just a sense of wonder.

Staniforth says the magic industry is shifting away from how it was in decades past, where there was just one “it” magician who all the others worked to copy.

“When I was growing up, everyone tried to be David Copperfield, and then it was David Blaine and then it was Criss Angel,” Staniforth says. “The thing that’s happening with magic now is that it’s splintered, just like music did. There are so many different genres of magic and so many different styles of magic that everyone’s doing their own thing. That’s great. It’s what magic has needed for a long time.”

There are no smoke machines or lasers in Staniforth’s performance and he won’t try to make the golden dome of the state capitol disappear. Magic, he says, should be about instilling astonishment in the audience.

“I’m not interested in comedy. I’m not interested in showmanship or dancing or stage pyrotechnics or any of the Las Vegas trapping normally associated with magic,” Staniforth says. “I have one goal in my show and that’s to give people that sense of awe. It took me a long time to come to that but you have to wear the suit that fits.”

Staniforth lives in Iowa City but tours the planet six months out of the year. At one stage in his career, the 35-year-old says he became disillusioned with the world of professional magic — and the world itself — and discovered he had to return to his roots.

“I am not a great entertainer, I’m not a great comedian, but in my show, I can make you believe in magic,” Staniforth says. “That, to me, is more entertaining than any of the other sort of wrapping paper that is usually associated with magic.”

At age nine, Staniforth decided he would be pursuing a career in magic and he never looked to anything else. He was the only magician in Ames, which was both an advantage and a challenge.

“The closest magic shop was in Des Moines and for a nine-year-old, that’s essentially like having it be on Mars,” Staniforth says. “So, I had to do it all myself. I had to invent my own magic. I could read magic from the library books but that only gets you so far. I had to invent material and perform. If the Boy Scouts in Ames wanted a magic show, I was their only option.”

By age 11, he was performing at birthday parties, banquets and farmers markets, honing his craft. Earlier this decade, he won acclaim hosting the hit TV series, “Breaking Magic,” on the Discover Channel. His memoir, “Here is Real Magic,” was released in January by the Harry Potter-famed Bloomsbury Publishing.

Staniforth is performing this Friday and Saturday night at the Temple Theater in Des Moines.

Hear Matt Kelley’s full interview with Staniforth. Runs 6:38:

 

 

 

Dutch master’s painting from year 1600 found in dusty corner of Iowa venue

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“Apollo and Venus” by Otto Van Veen, courtesy Hoyt Sherman Place

A 400-year-old painting that was forgotten in a dark corner of a Des Moines venue for more than a century has been rediscovered.

Entitled “Apollo and Venus,” the work by Dutch master Otto Van Veen was painted in the year 1600.

Robert Warren, executive director of Hoyt Sherman Place, was searching for Civil War flags in a little-used storeroom when he noticed the painting wedged between a table and the plaster wall.

“So the assumption was it was tucked away there either because it needed some repair work,” he says, “or the content, because it is a full backside nude of Venus de Milo and another cherub sans clothing.”

A tag indicated the discolored piece had been donated to the Des Moines Women’s Club at Hoyt Sherman in 1923 and it was evidently forgotten in the storage area under the balcony of the auditorium. Warren says it’s impossible to know the value of the painting because it has never been sold.

“I’m sure it’s severely undervalued,” Warren says, “as it was listed for $1,500 when it first came into possession of the women’s club.”

Now that the painting has been restored, Warren is having appraisers determine its value.

The artist Van Veen is best known for being a teacher of Peter Paul Rubens.

Thanks to Rob Dillard, Iowa Public Radio

 

 

Mason City to host professional pyrotechnics convention again in August

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Among the biggest and best fireworks shows in America will be ka-booming over Mason City this summer.

The Pyrotechnics Guild International plans to hold its annual convention in the northern Iowa community in August. Lindsey James, executive director of Visit Mason City, says this will be the fourth time they’ve hosted the convention at the North Iowa Events Center.

“We’re really conveniently located for their membership being right here in the heart of the Midwest, we’re easy to get to,” James says. “It’s one of their best attended conventions when they host it here in Mason City, so they are excited to be back and we’re excited to have them.” James says most of the convention, called “Thunder and Fire,” is closed to the public with members attending several different types of seminars and classes.

“They’ll be learning about pyrotechnics and safety when handling fireworks,” she says. “They’ll also be building their shells and different things that will be used on show nights as well as on their competition night.” James says the public is invited to attend fireworks displays on three different nights during the convention. The first two will be Sunday, August 5th, and Tuesday, August 7th.

“Those shows are general admission seating,” James says. “Friday night is the big show, on August 10th. That’s the night that people can reserve their seats and get their favorite spot.” The convention is expected to bring more than 3,000 PGI members with an economic impact of nearly $2 millions.

Mason City has also hosted the convention in 2005, 2009 and 2014. It’s scheduled for this August 4th through the 10th.

(By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City)

 

Controversial Grant Wood painting to be shown in Iowa for first time (audio)

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The “Sultry Night” painting after Wood sawed it in half.

An exhibit spotlighting Iowa’s most famous artist opens next week at the Des Moines Art Center featuring two versions of what’s arguably Grant Wood’s most controversial work called “Sultry Night.”

The original painting of the work was sawed in half and burned by Wood himself. The content led to questions about Wood’s sexuality, according to Jared Ledesma, the exhibit’s curator. “The lithograph features a nude farm hand bathing at a trough by moonlight,” Ledesma says. “It’s full frontal nudity and it’s very authentic and realistic looking.”

It was seen as a major departure from other artistic representations of male bathers. The U.S. Postal Service deemed the print pornographic and refused to handle it while an international art exhibition refused to display it.

“Grant Wood executed a painting of the same scene while he was working on the lithograph but because of its rejection from an art fair and by his friends, he sawed off the portion of the canvas that included the nude male,” Ledesma says.

Wood torched the disputed half and all that remained of the painting was the trough and a couple of cows. Still, it was sold to a family in Madison, Wisconsin. The painting hasn’t been back in Iowa since Wood cut it in half in the 1930s. It’s always been in private hands and has never been publicly shown in Iowa — until now.

The “Sultry Night” lithograph.

Wood, an Anamosa native who’s best known for the iconic painting “American Gothic,” never “came out” and there’s no factual evidence he was gay, but Ledesma says there were indications that pointed to the possibility.

“He lived with his male secretary for seven years. He was in a very, very tumultuous marriage that ended really quickly. He lived with his mother practically his whole life and his sister for most of it,” Ledesma says. “Also, his images of men have been talked about as being much better looking than his images of women.”

The exhibition that includes “Sultry Night” also contains several early Impressionist paintings of the Iowa landscape Wood produced in the early 1920s. Many decades have passed and mindsets have changed, so Ledesma doesn’t anticipate there will be any controversy over the exhibit or “Sultry Night.”

“I think it will be popular,” Ledesma says, laughing, “because it’s Grant Wood. To be honest, I think people are aware that he’s talked about as being gay, I just don’t think it’s something that’s mentioned publicly often.”

The exhibit opens Friday, March 30th. An art history professor from Kansas City will give a lecture in May on the controversy surrounding the works. Admission to the Des Moines Art Center is free.

Audio: Matt Kelley interview with Jared Ledesma 7:55.