Free Republic

Can a lifestyle double as college credit, even a certificate? The University of Iowa is offering a certificate in sustainability this fall, and one person has signed up so far. But recent UI graduate Eric Holthaus has dedicated his job, apartment, and habits to being environmentally friendly. “The idea is being aware and learning a formalized way to show a lifestyle,” said Holthaus. He is an intern in the UI Office of Sustainability, created last December as an effort to bring green to a solidly black-and-gold campus. On July 10, Holthaus manned a table at the information fair at freshman...

Regulators close banks in Arizona, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. BY AMY HAIMERI NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Five small regional banks were closed by regulators on Friday evening, pushing 2009's tally so far to 88 institutions. Of the five failures, two were in Illinois, and there was one each in Arizona, Iowa and Missouri.

DES MOINES – Governor Chet Culver issued the following statement tonight, congratulating Democrat Curt Hanson on his victory in the House District 90 special election: “Lieutenant Governor Judge and I want to congratulate Curt Hanson on his win tonight, and we look forward to working with him in the legislature in 2010. We also want to recognize Stephen Burgmeier and his local supporters for running a strong campaign.

Democrat Curt Hanson has defeated Republican Stephen Burgmeier by 107 votes in Iowa House District 90, according to unofficial results released by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office Tuesday night. Hanson will replace former state Rep. John Whitaker (D-Hillsboro), who was appointed to a position with the USDA. The balance of power in Iowa’s lower legislative chamber remains unchanged, with Democrats holding on to a somewhat volatile 56-44 majority. Tuesday’s turnout was low compared to recent presidential elections but high for a special election, with 8,046 voters casting ballots in the district, which spans Jefferson County and parts of Wapello...

Iowa Health Dept. has drafted forms to force detention of people simply exposed to the flu - do not have to prove H1N1 has infected them even though the test is simple and cheap. No provision for mothers and fathers to visit children - or visit of pastors and priests, etc. - strict detention. No option for family doctor to visit - this is a crime if allowed to continue. Everyone needs to call the State house and Senators and House Members ASAP and demand that the rules be changed to require proof (and double proof to eliminate false positives)...

IC Teens Arrested in Pizza Delivery Man Robbery By Daren Sukhram IOWA CITY - Two teenagers are charged in the July 25th robbery of a pizza delivery man. Iowa City police say at 1:05am on July 25, they received a report of a robbery that had just occurred on Regal Lane. The victim, a 39-year-old Domino's Pizza delivery man, was making a delivery when he has rushed from behind by ten to fifteen people, assaulted, and his pizzas taken. The victim described the suspects as black males ranging in age from 10 to 25 years old. An investigation uncovered the...

CEDAR RAPIDS (AP) -- A large aquarium has likely saved a Cedar Rapids home that caught fire. The aquarium shattered at Ricky Kuda's home Friday morning after a transformer beneath the aquarium caught fire. The water from the aquarium extinguished the fire. Cedar Rapids Fire Department spokesman Greg Buelow says the damage would have been much more extensive if the aquarium hadn't shattered. Buelow says the aquarium was about 4 feet wide. No one was injured in the fire, but all of the fish in the tank died.

Some Roman Catholic Bishops Assail Health Plan By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK August 27, 2009 WASHINGTON — The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been lobbying for three decades for the federal government to provide universal health insurance, especially for the poor. Now, as President Obama tries to rally Roman Catholics and other religious voters around his proposals to do just that, a growing number of bishops are speaking out against it. As recently as July, the bishops’ conference had largely embraced the president’s goals, although with the caveat that any health care overhaul avoid new federal financing of abortions....

Back during the 2008 Iowa Cacuses, a rumor was circulated the night before that Fred Thompson was going to pull out of the race. During an interview the next day, Thompson said he knew who was behind it, but refused to discuss beyond saying it cost him "a couple of points". I understand during the election, nobody was going to admit who did it, certainly not until after November. OK, November came, went, and now the socialist-in-chief has everybody distracted, so, I ask: who did it?

Workers on the second shift at Cummins Filtration were gathered together Monday, told the news, and sent home with a letter directing them to be back in the morning. Tuesday morning, with a team of security guards surrounding company officials, workers at the company's two Lake Mills plants got the word and were then sent home for the day to be with their families. Starting in November, about 400 jobs will be moved to Cummins manufacturing plants in San Luis Polosi, Mexico. The job shift will take four months, completed by March, 2010. The cost-cutting move will help the company...

<p>DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Cummins Filtration has announced plans to move 400 jobs at its Lake Mills plant to a factory in Mexico.</p> <p>The division of diesel engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. announced Tuesday its oil and fuel filter assembly operations in Lake Mills will be moved to San Luis Potosi, Mexico, beginning in November.</p>

As a result of the consolidation, the Cummins workforce in Lake Mills will be reduced by approximately 400 workers between November 2009 and March 2010. Other operations, which employ approximately 110 people, will remain at the Lake Mills plant.

story at link (due to copyright limitations) http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090823/news01/908230361

PARKERSBURG, Iowa — The body of the football coach lies under a rectangular patch of dirt, slowly being covered by creeping clover and crab grass. [snip]The body of the former football player is in a county jail. But there is no doubt among people here that his is a soul lost. An insanity defense for 24-year-old Mark Becker is expected when his murder trial starts next month.For more than 30 years, the Thomas and Becker families were bonded by school, church and the communal raising of boys in this small town about 100 miles northeast of Des Moines. Then their...

Her main adversary in the hiring process was a professor who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun at the time Justice Blackmun wrote the now infamous Roe v. Wade decision, a professor who has since written in favor of abortion and has written laudatory tributes in Blackmun’s honor. As a consequence of being black-balled – despite impeccable credentials, including graduating “with distinction” from the Iowa College of Law and experience teaching writing at George Mason School of Law - she was passed over in favor of a candidate who not only had no prior law school teaching experience, but...

Health debate fails to ignite Obama’s Web President turns to his 13-million member grass-roots network for support Aug 15, 2009 MUSCATINE, Iowa - At her home on Tom Sawyer Road here the other night, Bonnie Adkins agreed to begin spreading the word that President Obama’s embattled health care plan needed help. Ms. Adkins, who for the past two years devoted hundreds of hours helping Mr. Obama get to the White House, hosted a potluck supper that was advertised to Democrats in this eastern Iowa town along the Mississippi River. People were invited to bring a favorite salad or dessert —...

It's a lot easier to campaign against the incompetent, big-spending, war-mongering Republicans than to convince the American people that they would be better off if the post office provided their health care. At least, that appears to be the lesson of the current health care battle. Reports the New York Times: At her home on Tom Sawyer Road here the other night, Bonnie Adkins agreed to begin spreading the word that President Obama's embattled health care plan needed help. Ms. Adkins, who for the past two years devoted hundreds of hours helping Mr. Obama get to the White House, hosted...

MUSCATINE, Iowa — At her home on Tom Sawyer Road here the other night, Bonnie Adkins agreed to begin spreading the word that President Obama’s embattled health care plan needed help. In Des Moines, Pat Walters made telephone calls to Democrats to rally support for the Obama health care plan. Ms. Adkins, who for the past two years devoted hundreds of hours helping Mr. Obama get to the White House, hosted a potluck supper that was advertised to Democrats in this eastern Iowa town along the Mississippi River. People were invited to bring a favorite salad or dessert — and...

Former Sen. Rick Santorum is making a trip to Iowa that screams “I’m running for President.” In the state with the crucial first presidential primary competition, Santorum will attend a smattering of events on October 1, with a stop at America’s Future Fund PAC and Iowa’s Right to life group. He’ll do a hit on a Des Moines radio show and cap it off with a speech about the future of the GOP in front of a live audience. John Brabender, a longtime advisor to the Senator, was moderate in his characterization of the Senator’s visit. “This is not necessarily...

Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-Des Moines, Iowa): "The president (said), 'I'm not going to kick the can down the road.' And he said that and I said, 'Well, that's something I'm kind of used to from southern Iowa, you know. I know about kicking the can down the road.' And he said, 'No, if it makes me a one-term president, I'm going to, we're going to take it on because the country is in need of us taking this on.' I respected that very much."

AMES, Iowa -- As a new mother herself, Brenda Lohman admits to being shocked by the results of a new study she co-authored. It found that among nearly 1,000 low-income families in three major cities, one in four children between the ages of 11 and 16 reported having sex, with their first sexual intercourse experience occurring at the average age of 12.77. "So if 12 years was the average age here, that meant that some kids were starting at 10 or younger," said Lohman, an Iowa State University associate professor of human development and family studies (HDFS). "A handful of...

PANORA, Iowa – Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican who is a key bargainer on health care reform, played to packed crowds across the state who left little doubt that they are not happy with what's on the table. The questions were tough but respectful, and there was little of the shouting that has dominated similar meetings in other parts of the country. "It seems to me that people are expressing, not just on health care, but people are just very scared about the direction the country is taking," said Grassley, who emphasized that he hasn't signed off on anything.

I don't know how long Fox has been streaming this, but click on homepage link to watch in case you're interested.

Add former Sen. Rick Santorum to the list of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates. POLITICO has learned Santorum will visit first-in-the-nation Iowa this fall for a series of appearances before the sort of conservative activists who dominate the state GOP’s key presidential caucuses. The Pennsylvanian, who lost his 2006 re-election bid, will visit Iowa on October 1st, appearing on a Des Moines radio talk show and speaking to a luncheon and workshop of Iowa’s Right to Life group before heading east to Dubuque, where he’ll headline a fundraiser for the conservative America’s Future Fund PAC and then speak about the...

On Monday, officials at Grinnell Regional Medical Center (GRMC) participated in a teleconference with representatives of other facilities around the state, including Grinnell College, and the Iowa Department of Health, to discuss one thing—the H1N1 (also called swine flu) virus. “The Iowa Department of Public Health covered an immense amount of information,” said Patty Hinrichs, GRMC regional public health coordinator. “I think [Poweshiek County is] prepared.” According to Hinrichs, the state wants to communicate to everyone that the seasonal flu vaccines will continue and that people are urged to get them as soon as they can. They will also dispense...

Boswell doing his best to "explain" his vote on cap and tax! I think he is saying his vote doesn't matter because the Senate promised to protect farmers! Is anyone buying this crap?

Harkin get hammered at Des Moines Town Hall!

YOU GOTTA SEE THIS. YOUTUBE VIDEO

Midlands lawmakers are back home listening to constituents this August, with health care expected to dominate the discussion. Here's a listing of scheduled events at which the public can tell hear from their elected representatives on the issue. NEBRASKA Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. Saturday, Aug. 15, 8:30-10 a.m., Coffee with Lee, Homestyle Café, 8807 Maple Street Advertising Tuesday, Aug. 25, 6 p.m., Town Hall Meeting, Millard North High School Auditorium 144th and Pacific Streets Saturday, Aug. 29, 8-9:30 a.m., Coffee with Lee, Vidlacks Café, 156th and Bob Boozer Drive Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb. Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2:15 p.m. MDT, Meet...

Health-care outbursts foreshadow a hot August (with links to info on LIAR Tom Harkin, see below) DES MOINES, Iowa -- Loud outbursts, hot tempers and pleas for civility at town hall meetings around the country Saturday foreshadowed a long, hot August as Democratic lawmakers returning home faced resistance to proposals to reform the nation's costly health care system. At a meeting in Des Moines, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, was interrupted several times by people in the audience shouting criticism and questions, even though he said he didn't expect Iowans to take part in what he called "scare tactics, misinformation...

A health care event sponsored U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin erupted into a shouting match Saturday afternoon, when opponents of health-care reform yelled pointed questions and criticisms to the Democratic senator. It echoed other health care events sponsored by members of Congress around the country in recent days that have been disrupted by protestors, although no one was arrested at Saturday’s event. Uniformed police officers were present as roughly 200 people turned out to see Harkin at an inner-city health care center to voice their opinions or ask questions about health care. “This is not health reform, this is control, control...

One of the senior senators schedule to meet with President Obama this morning said in a radio interview Wednesday that the president " really does not have an understanding of how Congress operates." Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) also slammed "Obama-care," as well as the health care bills already introduced in the House and the Senate, saying "none of those would get my votes." Grassley is one of six Republicans and Democrats hammering out a bipartisan compromise in secretive meetings led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). Baucus' "group of six" is meeting with the president today to discuss...

"I think that he is a good person, and good-intentioned," Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a radio interview. "But I believe he didn't serve in government long enough to understand really how things work." "Remember, he was in the Senate four years, but effectively only two years because he spent two years where he was hardly ever here at all — he was campaigning for president," Grassley said. "He really does not have an understanding of how Congress operates."

Thank you for taking the time to email me with your opposition to health care reform. As your Senator, it is important for me to hear from you. Please accept my apology for the delay in my response. While I understand your opposition to the current health care reform debate, there are certain elements of our system that need to be improved. With the Medicare system at risk of going insolvent and U.S. businesses and consumers struggling to keep up with skyrocketing health care costs, Congress should enact health care reform that lowers costs. This can be achieved by changing...

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, has assured his GOP colleagues that he will not sell them out and strike a private deal with Democrats on healthcare reform, according to Republican senators. Grassley (Iowa), who is known for having a close relationship with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and has been negotiating behind closed doors with Democrats for weeks, made the promise to the entire Senate Republican Conference at a meeting late on Wednesday, according to several senators who attended. Sen. Mike Enzi (Wyo.), the senior Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions...

It is a bit of an understatement to say that when it comes to dominating the media, President Barack Obama is perhaps unequalled by any politician ever. Michael Jackson was the King of Pop, Obama the King of Pols. The Publisher of NewsBusters.org, Brent Bozell, wrote his syndicated column about the media's full-court Obama press just this week. In which he accurately points out that while the journalistic class remains utterly infatuated with the man, it appears that the American people are begining to reach their saturation point. So let us now turn our attention to an item in yesterday's...

So let us now turn our attention to an item in yesterday's Daily Times Herald in Carroll, Iowa entitled "Carroll woman's answer to highly visible Obama: Selling her televisions." A 78-year-old Carroll woman says she's so tired of seeing President Barack Obama on the airwaves that she's selling her television sets - two of them. Deloris Nissen, a retired nurses' aide and former Kmart employee who was raised on a farm near Audubon, placed a classified advertisement with The Daily Times Herald for Friday's paper. In the $5.50 ad, Nissen tells readers she has two television sets for sale. The...

U.S. Sen. Grassley: $607,586 to the Iowa Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Agency 7/29/2009 $607,586 to the Iowa Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Agency WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today said that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has awarded two grants totaling $607,586 to the Iowa Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Agency in Des Moines through the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Program. “These funds will help provide the Iowa Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Agency keep kids out of the juvenile justice system,” Grassley said. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the...

Conspiracy theorists claiming President Barack Obama is not a United States citizen were granted an hour of drive-time radio Friday to lay out the “evidence” by Christian radio host Steve Deace. Deace discussed the issue with Drew Zahn, editor of the conspiracy theory Web site World Net Daily, who said that while his cohorts have been “ridiculed and mocked” for continuing to follow the story, it simply won’t go away. “We’re catching heat from almost every direction,” Zahn said. Zahn and Deace started off blasting the “mainstream media” for not fully investigating an issue that deals with whether “we’re going...

WASHINGTON — The No. 2 Republican on the Judiciary Committee says he'll vote against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says Sotomayor didn't convince him she'd be able to set aside personal biases and prejudices to decide cases impartially. He says he still feels burned by his support for Justice David Souter, who Sotomayor would replace if confirmed. Only one of the committee's Republicans, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, has said he'll support Sotomayor.

Amid negotiations with leading Democrats over health-care reform, Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, commented, "The federal government is in the process of nationalizing banks, nationalizing General Motors — I'm going to make sure we don't nationalize health insurance, and the 'public option' is the first step to doing that." Grassley is correct, and conservatives are right to oppose Pres. Barack Obama's proposal to create a "Fannie Med." But when it comes to nationalizing health insurance, there is more than one way to skin the consumer. Indeed, there is talk on Capitol Hill that Grassley...

Agriculture's role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions could take a backseat to debate about the higher costs farmers could face under the climate legislation as the Senate Agriculture Committee hears from farm groups and key officials in the Obama administration on Wednesday. Republican senators throughout the ranks of the Agriculture Committee have made it clear since last week that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson had better come armed with detailed data on what kind of costs farmers may face. Some senators want detailed information broken down by commodity and state. The climate bill passed...

WATERLOO - On Friday the Republican Party of Iowa called for Democratic Waterloo Representative Kerry Burt to resign. Just one day after the state released a study saying Burt lied about his address in order to pay less for his kids' private school tuition, opponents say he shouldn't be representing the people of Waterloo at the Capitol. Burt's home address is listed int he state's on-line directory, as 150 Hawthorne Ave, Waterloo. But his kids go to a prestigious school in Cedar Falls, and because he doesn't live in the district, he is supposed to pay a fee. However, the...

A party last weekend at the Polk County home of Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus led to the arrest of her husband and alleged underage drinkers. Deputy Jana Rooker, public information officer for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, said police were called to the home at 9004 N.W. 121st St. about 1:30 a.m. Sunday on a disturbance complaint. Rooker said he found Dennis Drake, 57, in his truck at the end of the driveway. The deputy and Drake went to the backyard, where the deputy saw a bonfire with seven people around it and several beer cans lying...

The recent deaths of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays and Ed McMahon have many Americans thinking about mortality. If you're a business owner of a certain age, as I am, it's something you think about daily. Unlike television personalities and performing artists, most business owners labor in relative obscurity. Our legacy, when we pass, is what we've built — and perhaps invented (in my case, agricultural equipment most Americans have never heard of) — and the hundreds and perhaps thousands of people who depend on us for jobs. We're unlike television personalities and recording artists in another important respect...

Forget Max Baucus, Henry Waxman and Rahm Emanuel. If there's one guy who may hold the whole health-care world in his hands, it's Sen. Chuck Grassley. That ought to have President Barack Obama worried... That determination gave Republicans heartburn. Conservatives saw Mr. Obama's sweeping health ambitions, and saw no good coming from the Grassley-Baucus powwow. Fresh in their minds was Mr. Grassley's past work to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which the left marked as its first big step toward greater government health care. Mr. Baucus knows that most major sustainable legislative achievements -- from the Reagan tax...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Thursday that he hopes to have a bipartisan deal on a health care reform bill by the end of the day. He made the remarks after huddling for about two hours with five Finance Committee members most closely involved in the negotiations. It was the first time Baucus acknowledged a time frame for reaching an agreement. “We are meeting very aggressively today,” Baucus said of the bipartisan group, which plans to meet again at 1:30 p.m. “We will keep meeting all day long. I hope we can reach some kind of agreement...

It's all in the name of research on finding a better way to tax motorists, and the pay is $895. Wanted: 250 Maine drivers willing to let a stranger put a black box under their dashboard. The reward: $895 and the opportunity to speak their minds about the highway tax experiment to a researcher. University of Iowa researchers are seeking 250 motorists in Cumberland, York and Sagadahoc counties willing to have a computer tracking system installed in their cars for 10 months. The system could someday be used to tax drivers according to the number of miles they drive, rather...

DES MOINES, Iowa (BP)--In the first statewide survey since the Iowa Supreme Court's landmark "gay marriage" ruling, a new poll shows that just over two-thirds of the state's voters support placing a constitutional marriage amendment on the ballot. The survey of 500 registered voters by Voter/Consumer Research was released Monday, more than three months after the court made the state the first in the heartland to recognize "marriages" between homosexuals. The proposed marriage amendment -- proposed immediately after the ruling by state legislative Republicans but blocked by Democratic leaders -- likely will be an issue in next year's gubernatorial and...

Sara was late for work. The alarm clock didn't alarm, the kids were unusually slow getting ready for school, and nothing went right. She finally got to her car -- a brand new 2020 Chevy Adventure. She touched the finger-print secured start button. Nothing. It wouldn't start. She touched it again. Nothing. Furious, she banged the steering wheel with her fist. Then she noticed the paper hanging from the receipt printer on the dash. "Your designated visa account rejected your Road Use Tax in the amount of $87.32 for the month of June, 2020. You must insert a valid account...