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Monday Baseball Results

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June 7th, 2011 by admin

  • Atlantic 10, Clarinda 1 (Chris McVey throws complete game,  Garrett Eblen hits a homerun, AHS 4-3)
  • Glenwood 17, Red Oak 1 (4 inn)
  • Creston 5, Shenandoah 1
  • Kuemper Catholic 16, Harlan 7
  • Lewis Central 18, Denison-Schleswig 5
  • Treynor 6, Audubon 1
  • Griswold 10, Riverside 9
  • AHST 13, Underwood 9
  • Tri-Center 8, Missouri Valley 0  (Austin Eckrich: 16 K’s, 1 hitter)
  • Walnut 12, CAM 1
  • St. Albert 18, Bedford 1 (5 inn)
  • Woodbine 13, Boyer Valley 8
  • West Harrison 15, Ar-We-Va 11

Central Iowa county to weigh anti-nudity proposal

News

June 7th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

ADEL, Iowa (AP) – Tubing or sunbathing along central Iowa’s Raccoon River in the nude could soon be against county law.

The Dallas County Board of Supervisors is scheduled Tuesday (today) to consider a new ordinance that would ban nudity in county areas accessible to the public. Board chairman Kim Chapman told The Des Moines Register that county officials have gotten complaints about nudity on the river. Sheriff Chad Leonard asked for the item to be placed on the board agenda.

Harold Wells operates the Raccoon River Retreat Center near Van Meter. He says his guests occasionally sunbathe nude on a nearby sandbar. Wells says people who live along rivers have always stripped occasionally, adding, “I don’t know why there should be an ordinance now.”

Iowa DOT takes part in 72 hour “Roadcheck” event

News

June 7th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Enforcement officers with the Iowa Department of Transportation will be busy over the next three days checking out semis and other large vehicles. The department is taking part in a 72-hour continuous enforcement effort that’s happening across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. 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 throughout 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 (Tuesday) 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-percent, while drivers had a 95.6-percent 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.

(Radio Iowa)

REPAIRS TO COUNCIL BLUFFS SEWER LINE DELAYED BY FLOODING

News

June 7th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Despite “near-heroic” efforts by the Council Bluffs wastewater treatment staff, repairs to a valve on a sewer force main have been delayed due to high flood waters.

A passerby reported the leak to the Council Bluffs staff about noon Saturday, but the city had to pump water down behind a levee to reach the sewer main on the south side of the city near Interstate 80. Wearing life jackets, city staffers tried to shut an air relief valve and discovered the valve was broken.

A contractor tried to make repairs or temporarily plug the leak last weekend, but was unsuccessful. The city estimates 100 to 200 gallons of wastewater per minute are discharging to the Missouri River.

The city plans to make temporary repairs Monday, but will be unable to make permanent repairs until flood waters recede.

The DNR will continue to monitor the situation and provide technical assistance as needed.

(DNR Press Release)

If fixes fail, Iowa town could be left under water

News

June 7th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) – Flooding along the Missouri River is expected to break decades-old records this summer and test its system of levees, dams and flood walls like never before. The swollen river is already threatening the small southwest Iowa town of Hamburg.

Crews were scrambling Monday to pile massive sandbags on a faltering levee and build a secondary barrier. The fire chief says that if those efforts fail, parts of Hamburg could be under as much as 8 feet of water for a month or more.

The levee that guards an area of farmland and small towns between Omaha, Neb., and Kansas City has been partially breached in at least two places. New breaches are expected as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers releases record amounts of water from dams by mid-June.

Iowa’s secretary of state chides presidential candidate for “skip Iowa” strategy

News

June 7th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

A recently-elected Republican official in Iowa is taking a Republican presidential candidate to task for announcing he’ll skip Iowa’s Caucuses. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman said this past weekend he didn’t plan to compete here because he opposes subsidies for corn, soybeans and ethanol and understands “how the politics work” in Iowa. Matt Schultz, a Republican who was elected as Iowa’s Secretary of State last November, scoffs at Huntsman’s reasoning.

“That, to me, was like an excuse of ‘my dog ate my homework,'” Schultz says. “…This is a red-herring statement, just an excuse and that’s why I hope Jon Huntsman will change his mind. You know, the last two presidents won the Iowa Caucus.” Barack Obama won the Iowa Democratic Party’s Caucuses in 2008 enroute to winning the White House and George W. Bush was the victor of the Iowa Republican Party’s Caucuses and the presidency in 2000. As for ethanol support being a litmus test in Iowa politics, Schultz points out Iowa’s Republican Congressman Steve King represents the most-rural district in congress and King opposes ethanol subsidies, too.

“We’re not single-issue voters,” Schultz says. “We care about issues, but we want to hear what your vision is.” Schultz suggests there are other “real reasons” Huntsman is skipping Iowa, perhaps because Huntsman doesn’t want to face questions about his Mormon faith. Schultz, who is a Mormon, too, says that was “never an issue” in his race last year.

“Anybody who thinks that Iowans will discriminate against them for race, sex or religion, I think, are wrong,” Schultz says. Schultz made his comments during an interview with Radio Iowa.

(O.Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

House GOP scales back property tax relief package

News

June 7th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

House Republicans have significantly scaled-back their property tax relief package in an effort appease city and county officials and try to convince Democrats to embrace the bill. Nearly a month ago, Republicans in the Iowa House voted to cut commercial and industrial property taxes by 40 percent over five years.

House Republicans are now proposing a 25 percent reduction instead. Representative Tom Sands, a Republican from Wapello, is chairman of the House committee that crafts tax policy.   “It’s a step in the direction of trying to address some of the concerns that we had heard,” Sands says. But Democrats like Representative Dave Jacoby,  of Coralville aren’t convinced.

“It still kicks the middle class in the kneecaps and the home owners because it’s going to raise our taxes,” Jacoby says. The original bill, which reduced property taxes by an estimated 800 million dollars over eight years, included a significant increase in state support of public schools in an effort to replace property taxes that are collected for K-through-12 schools. The scaled-back version would reduce property taxes by 340-million over five years, but Jacoby argues cities and counties will replace the lost revenue they’ve been getting from commercial and industrial property owners by raising property taxes on home owners.

“I just don’t see any way that this is not going to raise the average Iowan’s taxes over the next year,” Jacoby says. Sands says he and his fellow Republicans believe cutting commercial and industrial property taxes will spur economic growth. “I think anytime that you let any business have more of the money that they’re paying in (taxes), I think it will definitely have an impact on local economies,” Sands says.

House leaders have set Wednesday as the day to debate this property tax proposal, combined with a bill that outlines state spending for the next two years. Today (Tuesday), a hearing is scheduled at the statehouse from four ’til six p.m. to give the public a chance to speak out about the taxing and spending proposals.

(Radio Iowa)

Atlantic Parks & Rec Board lowers Sunnyside Pool rates

News

June 7th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

You won’t be paying as much as you thought for use of the public swimming pool, in Atlantic. The City’s Park and Recreation Board voted Monday, to lower the previously announced rates, and return the checks of anyone who bought a seasonal pass for the Sunnyside Pool, at the higher rate.
The action came during a special meeting of the board, and was in response to rates set at their last regular meeting. Those rates were based on incorrect information they had about last year’s rates at the pool. Under the previously approved 2011 schedule, a family pass increased from $75 to $160, the single pass went from $50 to $90, and the daily pass went from two-to four-dollars.

But with the correct information in-hand at yesterday’s meeting, the board voted unanimously to reset this year’s seasonal rates to $105 for a family pass, $70 for an individual pass, and to set the daily use rate, at four-dollars.  And, as to further clarify how the seasonal passes can be used, the board said only immediate family members will be included on a family pass.

If you’ve already paid for your summer pass, and at the previously announced higher rate, you will receive your original check back, and be asked to write a new check, for the correct rate.

Another counter proposal in bid to ban late-term abortions

News

June 7th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

Thirteen Republicans and one Democrat on a House committee have voted to ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and only allow exceptions when the mother’s life is at risk. The House Ways and Means Committee jettisoned a Senate proposal which would have set up a state permit process for clinics, with rules written in such a way as to prevent a Nebraska doctor who performs late-term abortions from opening a clinic in Council Bluffs.

Representative Dawn Pettengill, a Republican from Mount Auburn, says the Senate bill didn’t go far enough. “We are addressing it again to keep Dr. Carhart out of our state,” Petengill says. “The bill that the senate passed only kept him out of Council Bluffs. It didn’t keep him out of the state.”

Representative Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, told her colleagues last night that there were more important matters for legislators to consider. “Democrats came back today focused on balancing the state budget to avoid a government shut-down,” Petersen said. “Instead, we’ve waited around all afternoon for your party to get enough of your members here to pass a divisive issue.”

Representative Anesa Kajtazovic, a Democrat from Waterloo, also opposed the bill. “This is not abortion on demand,” Kajtazovic said. “These are pregnancies that are wanted by families and by these women and for you to be politicizing such a private decision is just so sad to see.”

Representative Pettengill ridiculed the two Democrats for reading from notes during the committee meeting. “I don’t have a prepared statement, but I can assure you that this is not about politics,” Pettengill said. “It is about life and the ability of a fetus at 20 weeks and over to live outside of the womb on its own.”

Representative Petersen suggested the proposal would even classify an emergency ceasarian as an abortion. “It’s time to focus on balancing the state budget and putting Iowans back to work instead of attacking young mothers-to-be and doctors faced with unthinkable situations that none of us would ever want to face,” Petersen said.

Pettengill said in the early 1980s a fetus may have been considered “viable” at 24 weeks, but that standard has changed because of medical advancements. “A baby is able to be saved a lot sooner and live outside the womb with life support,” Pettengill said.
The lone Democrat to vote for the bill in committee was Representative Dan Muhlbauer, of Manilla. The reworked proposal is scheduled for House debate on Wednesday.

(O.Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

COUNCIL BLUFFS MAN SENTENCED ON FIREARMS CHARGE

News

June 6th, 2011 by Ric Hanson

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the southern district of Iowa says a Council Bluffs man was sentenced today (Monday), to almost six-years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.  Judge James E. Gritzner imposed the sentence on 37-year old Jack Gregory Milledge.

Gritzner ordered the sentence of imprisonment to run consecutively, or, in addition to, a sentence of 6-9 years imprisonment which Milldege is currently serving on a State of Nebraska burglary and theft charge. The judge also sentenced Milledge to three years of supervised release following his imprisonment, and imposed a $100.00 special assessment for the Crime Victim Fund.

In sentencing the man, Gritzner noted Milledge’s extensive criminal history, and the seriousness of someone with his criminal history, being in possession of a firearm. He remains detained in the custody of the United States Marshal pending designation of the Bureau of Prisons facility at which he will serve his term of imprisonment.

On March 3rd, Milledge pled guilty in Council Bluffs federal court to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The charge arises from a November 11th, 2009, search of Milledge ‘s residence in Council Bluffs. During the search, officers found a loaded .22 caliber handgun, which was later determined to be stolen.

Prior to November 11th, 2009, Milledge had been convicted of a number of felony and other offenses in Iowa and Nebraska, including, among others, burglaries, theft and stolen property offenses, and trespass offenses.

The case against him was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, and was investigated by the SouthWest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.