A special investigation by State Auditor Dave Vaudt (Vowdt) found several improper transactions by the former assistant director of the University of Northern Iowa’s “UNItix” ticket office. University officials contacted the auditor after someone called and said they had not received the athletic tickets they purchased. Vaudt says the audit by his office found that John Gogola was taking money that was meant for things like theater and football tickets. “He did it primarily by issuing refunds to his own personal credit card, almost 17-thousand dollars was issued to his personal credit card to take money from other accounts,” Vaudt explained. Gogola left the Cedar Falls School in August of 2010 before the problem was discovered. Vaudt says there could be more improper transactions, but it was hard to sort through all the information.

“He went through a very complicated scheme where actually we found almost 300 improper transactions that he posted, he kept switching from one account to another account,” Vaudt says. He says there were a few people who lost about 13-hundred dollars of their money from the transactions. The audit covered August 2008 through August 2010. Vaudt says Gogola did bring in a personal check for nearly one-thousand dollars after he had left U-N-I and other employees called him and questioned about one of the transactions. Vaudt made some suggestions to U-N-I to improve their system to avoid future problems.

Those suggestions included segregating the duties in the ticket office to ensure oversight, and he suggested the university look at its system to ensure that ticket pricing is entered correctly and that voided and returned tickets are handled appropriately. U-N-I issued a statement saying the school is contacting anyone who may’ve lost money and will mail them checks to cover the stolen funds. The university statement also said it will seek restitution from Gogola, and has already instituted most of the recommendations made by the auditor. The results of the audit have been turned over to the University’s Department of Public Safety, the Division of Criminal Investigation, the Black Hawk County Attorney’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office. 

(Radio Iowa)

w/ Jim Field

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The lack of snow in December could be big in turning around several years of declinging pheasant numbers. D-N-R wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says seeing brown fields instead of white snowdrifts is important the pheasant population “This current winter for pheasants is exactly the kind of winter that we’ve been needing…the last couple of winters we’ve had anywhere from 20 to 30 inches of snow by the end of December, and this year is shaping up to be zero. I’d say our pheasant survival to this point is over 90-percent, so that’s awesome,” Bogenschutz says. He says winter survival sets the stage for a good spring hatch. “Winter is pretty critical because it’s the first major crunch time they have to go through,” Bogenschutz says, “and so if we have bad winters and kill most of ’em, that’s pretty much the end of it. Certainly if they make it through the winter then what happens in the spring is also important.” He says the more hens that survive the winter the more chance there is for success if there is a bad spring. The D-N-R conducts an annual roadside survey in August, and that count found an average of seven birds last year for each 30 miles, down from 11 birds the year before. Bogenschutz says past records show the birds can rebuild the population quickly if the climate is right. He says there are several documented cases where we’ve had mild winters followed by a good spring, and that has led to the bird population doubling. “It’s definitely and awesome start, we’ve still got three months of winter to go yet, but it’s an awesome start for them, that’s for sure,” Bogenschutz said. The current pheasant season runs through January 10th.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)

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The Iowa State football team is in New York City to continue preparations for the December 30th Pinstripe Bowl against Rutgers. ISU coach Paul Rhoads says the final few practices before leaving Ames he concentrated on the game plan. Rhoads says with the regular season stretching into December there is less of a concern about rust than there was two years ago prior to an Insight Bowl matchup against Minnesota. Rutgers has used two quarterbacks this season, sophomore Chas(chase) Dodd and freshman Gary Nova.

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano says the Scarlet Knights need to try and find a way to effectively run the ball against a Cyclone defense that is played its best at the end of the regular season. Running the ball has been a struggle for Rutgers which averages 91 yards per game and ranks 115th nationally. Schiana says another reason the Cyclones made a late season run was the play of quarterback Jared Barnett. The Cyclones are 6-6 while Rutgers finished the regular season 8-4.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops says playing the Iowa Hawkeyes in Friday’s Insight Bowl gives this game a much different feeling. Stoops played on Hayden Fry’s first Big Ten championship team back in 1981 and later served on Fry’s staff. Stoops says having been a part of the Iowa program he knows the last thing his Sooners should do is take the Hawkeyes lightly. Oklahoma is a better than two touchdown favorite. Stoops expects a hard fought game. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says it was no surprise to him that Stoops led the Sooners to the national title in only his second year at the helm.

This is the second straight trip to the Insight Bowl for the Hawkeyes who beat Missouri in last year’s game. Injuries hurt the Oklahoma offense late in the season but Ferentz says Sooner quarterback Landry Jones has a bright future at the next level. Oklahoma arrived on Phoenix last night. You can hear the action from the Insight Bowl live on KJAN, Friday night.

(Radio Iowa/Ric Hanson)

An annual event that draws thousands of spectators and athletes to Des Moines every February is the subject of a new book. “Reach for the Stars: The Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament” includes 620 pages of stories, facts and photos from the event’s 90 year history. “Reach for the Stars,” by Dan McCool Author Dan McCool says he conducted over 160 interviews for the book and one of highlights involves the story of Jack Barron, who won a state title in 1980 as a member of the Iowa School for the Deaf.

"Reach for the Stars," by Dan McCool

“This is how smart Iowa wrestling fans are – here’s a guy, deaf, wrestling for a state championship and he wins it. Obviously, he’s not going to hear (the crowd) if they applaud, so they got the idea to stand up and stomp their feet,” McCool explained. “(Barron) could feel the vibration and he must have thought the place was coming down.” The early years of the state tournament were much different than today – primarily because of a lack of strict rules and participation limits. The first tournament in 1921 included a place winner at 95 pounds who was just 11 years old.

“I found an account of a situation where Esterville was going to wrestle Fonda. They found out a couple of the guys on the Fonda team were 20, 21 or 22 (years old),” McCool said. “They were staying in school long enough to wrestle and as soon as wrestling season was over, they dropped out.” The Iowa High School Athletic Association began sanctioning the tournament in 1926 and put stricter guidelines in place. McCool became a fan of wrestling as a youngster, growing up in Clarion, when a friend won a state championship. He later covered the sport for 30 years as a writer for the Des Moines Register. McCool said he enjoys the “individual aspect” of the sport.

“You can have a terrible shooting night and still win a basketball game because the four other guys might chip in for you. You might miss some really big blocks in football, but you have 10 other guys who might be able to patch in your hole,” McCool said. “If you have a bad night in wrestling, it’s on you and everybody sees it. You can have a great night and everybody sees you pin the guy. But, if you get pinned, everybody sees it. There’s no hiding.” The championship round of the 2012 State High School Wrestling Tournament is expected to be sold out for the 25th consecutive year. McCool plans to be at the tournament, scheduled for February 16-18, to sign and sell copies of his book. The book is also available online at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)

AP-SportsMinute

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Final     Green Bay     35     Chicago     21

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Final     New York     106     Boston     104
Final     Miami     105     Dallas     94
Final     Chicago     88     L-A Lakers     87
Final     Oklahoma City     97     Orlando     89
Final     L-A Clippers     105     Golden State     86

TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Final     (14) Xavier     87     S. Illinois     77