Nominations are now being taken for this year’s Iowa Character Awards. Amy Smit, spokeswoman for Character Counts in Iowa, says it’s important to recognize our community leaders as well as people behind the scenes who exhibit the six pillars of character “There’s tons of Iowans out there so take just a second to think about the people in our lives that show good character and make a very worthy nomination,” Smit says. There are certain guidelines Iowans should follow as they make nominations.

“We look for people who follow the six pillars of character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship,” Smit says. “We also look for people who do work in their community, who stand up for what they believe and do their best work.” This will be the eighth year for what’s now an annual, statewide awards tradition.

Individuals and organizations can be nominated on the group’s website: www.charactercountsiniowa.org, and follow the links to submit a nomination. The deadline for entries is May 14th. The winners will be recognized at the Iowa Character Awards Dinner this August in West Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa)

Republican Congressman Steve King plans to use a new leadership position to press for a reduction in food stamps or “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” benefits. “These benefits, call them that — nutrition benefits, are for people that need them, that are needy,” King says, “and they’re not for anyone else.” The monthly benefit for a single food stamp recipient is just under 134-dollars. King is the new chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees operations of the U-S-D-A, including the food stamp program. King won reelection in November by defeating Christie Vilsack, wife of U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack — the chief of the U-S-D-A.

King says he’s worked with Vilsack before when the two were serving in the Iowa Senate and when Vilsack was governor and will be able to do so again.  “Tom Vilsack has excellent credentials and he is always well prepared and he thinks things through well,” King says. “And I’d like to think that we have mutual respect for each other’s ability even though we carry different philosophies into the arena.” King is critical of Vilsack’s philosophy on food stamps. “The Department of Agriculture has been advocating to push more and more SNAP benefits out and, in doing so, the argument that came from the secretary was for every dollar’s worth of food stamps you hand out, you get $1.84 in economic activity,” King says. “I completely reject that economic philosophy.”

King says fraud in the food stamp program needs to be addressed. “One of the things we’ll be looking at is food stamps and the qualifications for food stamps,” King says, “and looking at how the (Electronic Benefits Transfer) card has been used for, oh, tattoos and bailing people out of jail and a number of inappropriate uses.” In 2004 the U.S.D.A. quit issuing paper “stamps” and Americans who qualify for food stamps now get a plastic card they can swipe at the store.

A Government Accountability Office audit found that from 1993 to 2010, fraud had been reduced by nearly 75 percent. About 90 percent of American households that receive food stamps live below the poverty line. For a two-person family, like a single mom with one child, the poverty line is 15-thousand dollars in annual income.

(Radio Iowa.)

A rollover accident south of Stanton Sunday morning was blamed on icy road conditions. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says a vehicle driven by 70-year-old Carolyn Houston, of Stanton, was south bound on O Ave, just south of 250th St. at around 10-a.m., when the vehicle hit a patch of ice and left the road before sliding into the west ditch. In the ditch, the vehicle came into contact with the embankment of a driveway, causing it to go airborne before landing and rolling over onto the driver’s side. Houston, who was trapped in her vehicle, was extricated by the Stanton Fire Department, using with the “Jaws of Life.” She was transported by Stanton Rescue to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital, for treatment of minor injuries.

No citations were issued.

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