United Group Insurance

Natural gas prices are expected to rise 5% this fall & winter

News

October 3rd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

Forecasters say much colder weather will wash over Iowa late tomorrow (Friday) and air conditioners will be switched off as furnaces are turned on. Temperatures are expected to plummet from highs today (Thursday) in the 70s and 80s to lows Saturday night in the 30s. Bruce McDowell, spokesman for the American Gas Association, says Iowans who heat their homes with natural gas can expect to see a moderate price hike in the season ahead.

“Really not much of a change from last year,” McDowell says. “Slight increase in prices and colder temperatures. We’re guessing around a 5% or so increase in total bills.” That estimate is taking into account shutdowns due to hurricanes, snowstorms and other severe weather. McDowell says Iowans shouldn’t have to worry about any natural gas shortages.

“Supplies are abundant,” McDowell says. “Our storage is nearly full. We’ve got a lot of gas ready to come on the market. If prices go up a little bit more, that gas will be flowing in.” He says the predicted five-percent price hike for natural gas over the season ahead can essentially be attributed to two issues — the forecast for a harsher winter ahead and higher transportation costs.

“Half of the jump is because it’s going to be a little colder,” McDowell says. “The other half is because those are the costs that are incurred when you take gas from the production area to the utility and then from the utility to the customer, those all have costs.” The U-S Census Bureau estimates 67-percent of Iowans use natural gas to heat their homes, 15-percent use electricity, 14-percent use propane, and the rest use wood or fuel oil.

(Radio Iowa)

Move provides money for WIC benefits in October

News

October 3rd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

Three days into the government shutdown, the U-S-D-A has transferred unspent funding from last year to the Women Infants and Children or WIC supplemental food assistance program for the month of October. Jill Lange [LANG], the director of the WIC program for the state, says 66-thousand mothers and children in Iowa receive WIC benefits. “What that means is we are now able to print checks for WIC participants just for the month of October. At this point we are only issuing October because we don’t have any money to go any further out than that,” Lange says.

Checks average about 55-dollars a month, and are usually distributed three months at a time. Recipients will only get their October checks now, and will receive November and December in the mail if the federal shutdown ends before then. Doug Beardsley oversees the WIC program for four southeast Iowa counties and says it isn’t a permanent fix — but he’s staying optimistic the shutdown will end in time.

“Not going to get into the politics of it all, but hopefully members of Congress can sit down and get something worked out so we can get back to doing what we’ve been contracted to do,” Beardsley says. Beardsley says when news got out that the government shutdown had halted WIC, calls poured in from Iowans offering to donate food and infant formula.

(Radio Iowa)

Kelly named Game 3 starter for Cardinals

Sports

October 3rd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joe Kelly is going to start Game 3 of the NL division series for the St. Louis Cardinals. Manager Mike Matheny made the announcement Thursday prior to the opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Kelly appeared to be the likeliest choice given rookies Shelby Miller and Michael Wacha were set to be available out of the bullpen in Game 1.

Kelly was 10-5 with a 2.69 ERA and was perhaps the strongest link in the rotation for about a month-and-a-half.

McCluster finding niche with new Chiefs regime

Sports

October 3rd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Dexter McCluster figures he watched his shake-and-baking punt return about 500 times last weekend, a dynamic touchdown run that helped his Kansas City Chiefs beat the New York Giants. Don’t think for a second that he was exaggerating, either.

It was the kind of dynamic return that the Chiefs have been hoping to get out of McCluster, their former second-round draft pick who has struggled to find his niche in the NFL. McCluster believes that he’s starting to get on track under new coach Andy Reid, though, and besides: The Chiefs are off to a 4-0 start. As McCluster points out, that’s what really matters.

Hazardous Weather Outlook (update 4-p.m. 10/3/13)

Weather

October 3rd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

COUNTIES: AUDUBON-GUTHRIE-DALLAS-CASS-ADAIR-MADISON-ADAMS-UNION-TAYLOR-RINGGOLD

THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT: SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE DURING THE EVENING…BUT ARE MORE LIKELY TO REDEVELOP OVERNIGHT INTO EARLY FRIDAY MORNING. A FEW ISOLATED SEVERE STORMS COULD PRODUCE LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. LOCALLY HEAVY IS ALSO POSSIBLE.

FRIDAY: STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS. THE PRIMARY THREATS WILL BE HAIL UP TO GOLF BALL SIZE AND 65 MPH WINDS. THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR AN ISOLATED TORNADO OR TWO AS WELL.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT…

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED THIS EVENING AND AGAIN FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING.

Unusual strong storm front threatens Midwest

News, Weather

October 3rd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An unusual strong storm front is threatening the Midwest from the central Plains to the Mississippi Valley over the next several days. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., says the system could bring heavy thunder, wind, rain and possibly tornadoes on Friday.

Meteorologist Gregory Carbin says about one-third of Iowa and parts of southern Minnesota have a 45 percent chance of severe storms, More than 1 million people live in that risk area.

Parts of Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Wisconsin are also on the storm front’s path. Areas as far south as Oklahoma and Texas could be affected. Meteorologists say this is the first time since at least 2000 that a storm this size in the region has been forecast in October a day in advance.

Google shows off newest western Iowa data center

News

October 3rd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Google’s newest data center in western Iowa is ready to help the company deliver Internet search results, find directions and save information. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company held an open house Thursday afternoon to show off its second data center in Council Bluffs — just across the Missouri River from Omaha, Neb.

Google says it has invested more than $1.1 billion in its two Council Bluffs data centers and created more than 130 jobs so far. The first one opened in 2009. Google has said it chose Council Bluffs for the centers because it offered relatively cheap electricity and had land and skilled workers available. The company also applied for up to $300 million in tax incentives from Iowa.

ISU’s Ejim Earns Spot On Preseason All-Big 12 Team

Sports

October 3rd, 2013 by Jim Field

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State forward Melvin Ejim has been named to the 2013-14 Preseason All-Big 12 Team in a vote of the league’s coaches. Coaches are not permitted to vote for their own players.

Ejim, a Toronto, Ontario native, returns for his senior season after leading the Big 12 in rebounding (9.3) and double-doubles (15) last season. He also averaged 11.3 points and shot 50.4 percent from the field en route to earning All-Big 12 Third-Team honors. Ejim recorded a double-double against all nine Big 12 teams last season and is the league’s active career leader with 22 in his first three seasons.

Ejim and the Cyclones open with an exhibition game against Augustana (S.D.) on Nov. 3 at 5 p.m. The regular season opener for Iowa State is Nov. 10 against UNC-Wilmington at noon.

Preseason Player of the Year: Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State

Preseason Newcomer of the Year: Tarik Black, Kansas

Preseason Freshman of the Year: Andrew Wiggins, Kansas

2013-14 Preseason All-Big 12 Team:

  • Isaiah Austin, Baylor
  • Cory Jefferson, Baylor
  • Melvin Ejim, Iowa State
  • Andrew Wiggins, Kansas
  • Markel Brown, Oklahoma State
  • Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State**

Honorable Mention: Perry Ellis and Joel Embiid, Kansas; Shane Southwell, Kansas State; Michael Cobbins and Le’Bryan Nash, Oklahoma State; Eron Harris, West Virginia.

(A tie in the voting resulted in six players being named to the team.)

**Unanimous selection

King says talk of default if debt ceiling not raised “false demogoguery”

News

October 3rd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

Republican Congressman Steve King dismisses the idea the U.S. government will go into default if congress fails to raise the debt limit later this month. Obama Administration officials suggest a debt limit must be raised by October 17th and economists say failure to raise the limit could trigger a massive drop in stock markets around the globe and increase borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.

“I don’t think the credit of the United States is going to be collapsed. I think that all this talk about a default has been a lot of demogoguery, a lot of false demogoguery,” King said today on CNN. “We have plenty of money coming in to service the debt. When we stop servicing the debt, then we’d be in default. We’re a long, long ways from that.” During the previous partisan fight in the summer of 2011 over the nation’s debt limit there was a 17 percent drop in the value of blue-chip stocks calculated in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, plus Standard and Poor’s lowered its credit rating for the United States.

“I remember the last time we came up to the debt ceiling deadline and there was all of this talk that the Tea Party was going to collapse the economy,” King said on CNN. “Even though the people that were opposed to increasing the debt ceiling essentially gave in and the debt ceiling was increased, they were still blamed for the effect on the markets.” President Obama has said he will not negotiate on raising the debt limit and it should be a yes or no vote in congress, but Republicans have a growing list of items they want to tack onto a deal, including the go-ahead for the Keystone X-L Pipeline from Canada to Texas and as well as at least a year’s delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act.

“We need to get down to the clear part of this,” King said on CNN. “The American people have rejected ObamaCare. The president is willing to put all of that on the line to save his namesake piece of legislation which I think would go down in history as the largest political tantrum ever.” King made his comments this morning (Thursday) during an appearance on C-N-N’s “New Day” morning show. A group of C-E-Os from some of the nation’s largest financial institutions went to Washington D.C. yesterday (Wednesday) and told reporters failure to raise the debt ceiling would “extremely adverse” damage to the economy.

(Radio Iowa)

Shelby County racing legends featured in book about Daytona 500

News, Sports

October 3rd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

Three local racing legends from Shelby County are now the feature characters in a brand new NASCAR book. Former Council Bluffs resident and author John Havick has written The Ghost of NASCAR to tell the story of the first Daytona 500 in 1959. Havick says there are three men, who were an intricate part of the book. It’s about 3 racers in Harlan, Johnny Beauchamp, Dale Swanson and Tiny Lund. Beauchamp and Lund both won the Daytona 500 and Swanson was a great mechanic and built engines for drivers in several states.”

Havick built an infatuation with the sport when his grandfather sold his car to an aspiring racecar driver in the 50’s named Johnny Beauchamp and as a boy, Havick decided to see how the car performed. The book depicts the controversial ending to the 1959 Daytona 500 in which two drivers, Beauchamp and Lee Petty claimed victory. Havick said Beauchamp was in the lead for most of the race.

“He stayed up near the front for most of the race. Then suddenly around lap 149, Lee Petty appears out of no where and racing right by Beauchamp and the last 50 laps this is how it went along. They flashed near the finish line close together. No one said except the flag man and the owner of NASCAR Bill Frentz said Beauchamp won the race and then there was all this trouble afterwards.”

The lack of technology back in those days did not help the controversy as it took three days before NASCAR announced Petty the winner of the race. To this date, the debate rages on between fans and drivers about who actually won the 1959 Daytona 500. Havick said one of the details about the race is how drivers kept their lap count. “Some of the people in the pits believed when Petty pitted, his lap counter had failed and counted it as a lap and that brought him up.”

The author said he had stacks of old newspaper articles and programs from his childhood that helped him start his research for the book. The Ghosts of NASCAR is on sale in bookstores or directly from the University of Iowa Press online at www.uiowapress.org. Author John Havick will be making an appearance to discuss the book in Harlan this (Thursday) evening at the Harlan Library from 6:30pm until closing.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)