A series of community meetings begin tonight (Monday) for Iowans to offer input on a proposal to reorganize statewide victim services. Janelle Melohn is the director of the Crime Victim Assistance Division within the Iowa Attorney General’s office. She says federal and state funding cuts since 2007 have forced eight programs in Iowa to close. That’s resulted in larger service areas in pockets of the state – with inequitable divisions of both programming and funding. “The map of how services look right now across the state…is not equal at all,” Melohn said. “So, we may have programs in western Iowa that serve up to eight counties while we have a program in eastern Iowa that serves two counties.”

According to Melohn, federal funding for Iowa’s crime victim assistance programs has declined by 18 percent (18%), or nearly $1.5 million, over the past three fiscal years. State appropriations have declined by seven percent (7%), or nearly $214,000, over the same time period. In addition to programs shutting down, other programs are eliminating core services. “It really isn’t acceptable,” Melohn said. “There are some things that we have to have all over the state. There has to be a crisis response to victims who are sitting in a law enforcement office or in a hospital after a crime has been perpetrated against them. There are certain things that have to be met and we have to make sure we are doing that equally for domestic violence and sexual assault victims.”

The reorganization plan would divide the state into six multi-county service areas with the state awarding funding on a competitive basis to programs in each region. Melohn suggests more dollars should be directed toward services that help victims, rather than shelters that aren’t being used. Use of shelters has declined, but those buildings require around-the-clock staffing and expensive upkeep. “Of all the victims that our programs served last year, only 11-percent of those were victims who sought shelter. Yet, we’re allocating almost 40-percent of our resources to shelter services,” Melohn said. “When you look at the huge discrepancy there, it really begs the question – are we using our money in the most efficient manner? I would say no.”

Some domestic violence programs in the state have moved to a “transitional model” by closing a 24/7 shelter and instead housing victims in hotels until more permanent housing options are found. There are 13 public meetings scheduled around the state to discuss the proposed changes.

Locally, meetings will be held Monday 10/22:

1:30 p.m. in Atlantic at Iowa Western Community College (Room 141)
6:00 p.m. in Creston at Southwestern Community College (Instructional Center, Room 180)

(Radio Iowa)

Iowans who heat their homes with natural gas will likely see higher heating bills this winter, compared to last winter, based on a study from the American Gas Association. Bruce McDowell, the organization’s director of policy analysis, says their projections show natural gas consumption by residential customers will rise in the months ahead. “We can expect that they’ll use more because last year was the warmest year on record, so it’s bound to get a little colder than it did last year,” McDowell says. “Prices are lower though, that helps us set that, so we see a slight increase in the customer bills only because they’re going to be using more gas due to the weather, not because of any price increases.”

Iowans are helping to conserve natural gas, he says, which is stretching the supply and keeping the bills low. “In 1970, the house used 40% more than a house uses today,” McDowell says. “That’s what people are enjoying because of the conservation efforts they’ve made such as tighter homes, more efficient furnaces, checking the furnace to make sure it’s operating properly, and making sure that your home is adequately insulated.”

He says domestic natural gas supplies are at an all-time high.  “Everybody agrees there’s an abundance of natural gas out there,” McDowell says. “We have forecast there’s enough gas out there to last a century or more. When I started in this business, it was 60 years of supply, now it’s 100 years of supply, and that goes back 30 years.” The latest survey shows the U-S has the largest storage assets of any country in the world with more than 400 natural gas storage fields. Record underground storage levels were reached in November of 2011 for the third year in a row.

(Radio Iowa)

The two presidential campaigns continue their press to win Iowa and the state’s six votes in the Electoral College. Mitt Romney visited Iowa last week. This week, President Obama is due to visit Wednesday. Former President Bill Clinton led a Friday night rally in Sioux City for Christie Vilsack, a Democratic candidates for congress, but Clinton spent a good portion of his speech targeting issues like Medicare that are at the heart of the presidential race.

“I decided in this election I wasn’t going to give a lot of whoop-de-do speeches. I’m trying to explain things to people. I got offered the job of ‘secretary of explaining stuff’ — you may have seen that,” Clinton said, getting whoops from the crowd for that reference to the reaction to his speech at the Democratic National Convention. The presidential campaigns have been bringing in a host of people to try to turn out voters in Iowa.

On Tuesday night, Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin, will visit a Republican phone bank in Cedar Rapids. On Thursday, musician Bruce Springsteen will headline an early voting rally in Ames for the Obama campaign.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press