Index to University Clippings
Iowa State University
December 26, 2005 through January 6, 2006
University News
Dubuque Telegraph Herald - 1/1 - Agriculture Briefs – General
Farm Journal - 12/28 - Temperatures Rising - Gene Takle - Faculty/Research
RIA Novosti - 12/27 - Digest Of The Russian Press, December 27 - Stephen
Schmidt - Faculty/Research
Associated Press State & Local Wire - 12/26 - Growing Numbers Of Elderly
Farmers - Faculty/Research
Grand Forks Herald - 12/26 - Bin-Buster Year Prompts Concerns Of Low Prices
- Robert Wisner - Faculty/Research
Kansas City Star - 12/26 - Tips: Time To Untrim The Tree? – General
Dubuque Telegraph Herald - 12/26 - Former Dubuquer Rises To Prominence
As Architect - Kate Schwennsen - Faculty/Research
Begin In-house Media Review, 01-06-06
Agri News, MN - 1/3 – Iowa news and notes - Extension
Asbury Park Press, NJ – 1/2 – Build a Pet First-Aid Kit – Beth Streeter –
Faculty/research
Associated Press – 12/29 - Judge orders Iowa Board of Regents to pay open
records case costs – Mark Gannon – Former – Faculty/research - Also ran in:
WHO-TV, IA; WQAD, IL; WOI-TV, IA; Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA; Iowa City
Press Citizen;
Associated Press – 12/29 - Iowa State University to study crosswalks after fatal
accidents – Cathy Brown – Faculty/research - Also ran in: WOI-TV, IA; WQAD,
IL; WHO-TV, IA; Sioux City Journal, IA; KCRG-TV, IA;
Associated Press – 12/30 - Foundation pays fees in lawsuit – General – Also ran
in Iowa City Press Citizen, IA; Des Moines Register; Cedar Rapids Gazette;
KCRG, IA; WHO-TV; WQAD, IL; WHO-TV, IA; WOI-TV, IA
Associated Press – 12/31 - Mistaken eyewitness IDs at heart of recent
exoneration cases – Gary Wells – Faculty/research – Also ran in: Picayune
Item, MS; Daily Press, VA
Associated Press – 12/31 - Lawmakers want to expand Laramie lab – James
Roth – Administration - Also ran in: The Casper Star Tribune, WY; Jackson
Hose Star Tribune, WY; Billings Gazette
Des Moines Business Record – 12/25 - Questionable highlights from the year
gone by - General
Des Moines Register – 12/29 - ISU to study walkers' safety after 2 deaths –
Cathy Brown – Faculty/research
Des Moines Register – 12/29 – Dateline Iowa — $40,000 ordered paid in openrecords case - General
Des Moines Register – 12/29 - An athlete's journey: Sheepish to sheepskin – Nik
Moser – Dan McCarney - Athletics
Des Moines Register – 12/29 - Looking back: Notable Iowans from 2005 – Josh
Sievers - Students - Barbara Mack - Guillermo Gonzalez – Faculty/research
Des Moines Register – 12/30 – Sun sets on Allen’s bowl games – Terry Allen –
Football – Athletics
Des Moines Register – 12/30 – Cyclones’ hospital visit lifts spirits of patients –
Cyclone Football – Bowl - Athletics
Des Moines Register – 12/31 – Letters to the Editor – Norm Riggs Faculty/research
Des Moines Register – 12/31 – Hopes for 2006 – Kan Wang – Faculty/research
Des Moines Register – 1/1 – Grassroots – Crop risk is workshop topic – Steven
Johnson - Extension
Des Moines Register – 1/1 – New outreach at ISU – Stanley Johnson – Jack
Payne - Extension
Des Moines Register – 1/1 - ISU fans gather at home to cheer for football team General
Muscatine Journal, IA – 1/3 - Louisa retail sales growth tops state again General
Radio Iowa – 1/2 - I-S-U lab helps find leaks in space - General
Sioux City Journal, IA – 12/29 - Extension office to host beef Webcast – John
Lawrence – Administration – Dermot Hayes – Faculty/research
The American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia – 01/06 – Better
Bridges – Brent Phares - Administration
The Guthrian, IA – 12/28 – Annual Farmland Study Completed – Mike Duffy –
Extension - Also ran in: Missouri Valley Times News, IA
Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier – 1/2 - Waterloo schools turn into fitness facilitites
after dark – Jill Weber - Extension
Dubuque Telegraph
Herald
Go to top
January 1, 2006 Sunday
Agriculture; Pg. b4
Agriculture Briefs
Telegraph Herald Staff
ELKADER, Iowa
Iowa Beef Center
planning
Webcast
The Iowa Beef Center at
Iowa State University is
planning
a
statewide
Webcast that will focus
on
qualifying
for
Japanese beef exports,
the cattle market outlook,
risk management and
new cattle insurance
products.
The event will include
speakers, market and price
implications
of
the
resumption of exports, the
current market situation
and
its
long-term
implications on long-run
cattle prices.
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The event is scheduled for
7 p.m. Jan. 9 and will be
Webcast
to
several
extension
locations,
including
the
Clayton
County Extension office in
Elkader.
Those
interested
in
attending the program in
Elkader should contact the
Clayton County Extension
office at 563/245-1451 to
register. A small fee will be
payable at the door.
Workshop can
help commercial
applicators
MANCHESTER, Iowa Iowa State University
Extension and the Iowa
Department of Natural
Resources will conduct a
Commercial
Manure
Applicator
Satellite
Program from 9 a.m. to
www.clipresearch.com
12:30 p.m. on Friday at
county extension offices.
This workshop is intended
to help commercial manure
applicators receive the
three hours of annual
continuing
instruction
required to maintain their
manure
applicator
certification.
There is no fee for the
workshop, but applicators
must register in advance
with the ISU Extension
county office where they
plan to attend.
All
currently
certified
commercial
manure
applicator licenses will
expire on March 1.
Those wanting to renew
must complete training
requirements and submit
forms and fees prior to
March 1.
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Farm Journal
Go to top
December 28, 2005
Temperatures Rising
Jeanne Bernick
HIGHLIGHT:
Its now agreed that the
climate is warming. Why
should you care and what
can you do?
Gene Takle is not easily
awakened from sleep in
the
middle
of
the
nightexcept when it storms.
The cracks of thunder and
flashes of lightening dont
frighten him; they give him
peace. It means that Iowas
weather
patterns
are
holding.
As global temperatures
continue to rise, those
midnight storms unique to
the Midwest will only be
memories in 35 years, says
Takle, an Iowa State
University climatologist
with the Regional Climate
Modeling Laboratory. His
research predicts global
warming will diminish
nighttime
summer
showers that drench
corn and soybean fields.
Two
weeks
between
rains instead of one will
be significant for crops.
Global warming is bringing
a whole new climate to the
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
farm, Takle says. The
climate change he refers to
may not necessarily be
warmer, as the term global
warming suggests. Your
farm may actually incur
colder, wetter weather,
depending on where you
live.
But heres why you should
care: Climate changes
affect every aspect of how
you farm and what you
produce. Certain practices
on your farm could even
help slow the warming
trend.
Hows the weather?
There was, in the 1990s,
considerable
debate
among
scientists
and
policymakers
about
whether global warming
was real and exactly how
human activity contributed
to it. Not anymore. Most
scientists agree that its
real, and its human activity
that discharges carbon
dioxide (CO2) and other
greenhouse gases into the
airor at least theyre partly
to blame. A strong minority
of scientists believe climate
warming is due to natures
own cycle, not human
activity. Both sides of the
debate agree there is no
crisisyet.
Farmers
naturally
shy
away from anything related
to global warmingits scary,
it screams extremism and it
ignores the human ability
to adapt. After all, who
invented the umbrella?
www.clipresearch.com
Scientists postulate a wide
range of possible impacts
on agriculture from global
warming, including benefits
like increases in soybean
yields
due
to
the
phenomena called CO2
fertilization.
Heres what they agree on:
Global annual average
temperatures
rose
an
average of 1°F during the
last century. This may
seem insignificant, but with
atmospheric CO2 expected
to double by the year 2100,
the National Research
Council
predicts
temperatures in most areas
will jump another 4° to
7°the same amount that
has occurred in the Arctic
during the past 50 years.
While scientists are in
agreement on this front,
they are anything but
agreeable over exactly
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what impact this change
will have on major crop
producing regions.
In
the
least,
a
5°
temperature rise during the
next 30 to 50 years lays
the
groundwork
for
increased weather volatility
for all farmers, says
Michelle
Wander,
University of Illinois soil
fertility specialist. Wander
drafted the agricultural
portion of the recent Union
of Concerned Scientists
2005 publication on climate
change in the Great Lakes
Region.
By 2030, Illinois summers
may resemble those of
Oklahoma or Arkansas in
terms
of
average
temperature and rainfall,
Wander says. This means
more intense spring and
fall rains and more frequent
occurrences
of
heat
extremes.
By the end of the century,
however,
the
Illinois
summer
climate
will
generally resemble that of
current east Texas, she
adds. Temperatures will
limit the productivity of our
major grains.
But Takle has a different
take
on
higher
temperatures. His climate
modeling indicates a 21%
increase in rainfall in the
Upper Mississippi region
by 2040, an 18% increase
in snowfall and a 51%
increase in surface water
runoff. Precipitation will
come in heavy rainfall
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
events marked with longer
dry periods between rains.
Increased rainfall could
favor crop growth in
western Iowa, Nebraska
and northern Canada.
Changes in climate already
produce longer growing
seasons
and
heavier
rainfall in the Midwest.
Iowa now averages about
eight more days between
the last frost of spring and
the first fall frost than 50
years ago, he says. The
wide
disparity
makes
projecting specific impacts
on agriculture difficult for
scientists. For example,
while Corn Belt farmers
can expect more weather
volatility in the future,
Takles climate modeling
suggests summertime daily
maximum temperatures will
not climb as high in a
Midwestern
region
centered
on
eastern
Kansas as elsewhere in
the U.S.
More pests and disease.
This
warming
hole
stretches for hundreds of
miles
and
includes
Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska
and Oklahoma, according
to
research
by
the
Regional
Climate
Modeling Laboratory. The
findings underscore the
need to further research
the impact of global
warming on a region-byregion basis, Takle says.
Climate change is already
behind increased largescale epidemics of new
www.clipresearch.com
and old crop diseases,
scientists
say.
Plant
pathology
literature
connects pandemics of
pests with extreme weather
events, says X. B. Yang,
Iowa State University
plant pathologist. He
nods to the pandemics of
wheat stripe rust in the
Great Plains in 2001 and
2003. In 2002, U.S.
soybean
farmers
experienced epidemics of
soybean sudden death
syndrome
and
viral
diseases.
Mass outbreaks of Asian
soybean aphids occurred
in 2003 in Iowa, Illinois
and Minnesota after cool
July weather suddenly
turned into a record dry
August. Before the mid80s, no more than four
major diseases affected
soybean production, Yang
says. Now the number has
more than doubled, with
annual
losses
totaling
almost $2 billion. Warmer
winters
in
northern
production regions allow
pestsand insect-borne viral
diseases associated with
themto
survive.
For
example, the European
corn borer, the No. 1 pest
affecting
corn
yields,
increased the number of
generations in the Corn
Belt each season from one
to two.
Policymakers
and
scientists continue to point
fingers at agriculture for
greenhouse gas emissions.
Agricultural activities are
responsible for as much as
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7% of total U.S. heattrapping
emissions,
according
to
the
Environmental Protection
Agency.
management, such as notill, reduced tillage and
cover crops enhances
short-term
soil
carbon
storage.
Farmers often ask what
they should be doing about
global warming, but there
are no easy answers, says
William
Easterling,
agronomist and director of
the
Institutes
of
the
Environment at Penn State
University.
Effectively managed soils
could abate an estimated
10%
of
heat-trapping
emissions produced in the
U. S. over the next 30 to 50
years,
Wander
says.v
Carbon
sequestration
(removal of CO2 from the
atmosphere and storing
carbon in the soil) is
gaining momentum as the
most crucial action farmers
can take to help curb
carbon emissions.
No-regrets approach.
Given the uncertainties of
how climate may change in
each region, Easterling
suggests
a
no-regrets
approachdo things that will
help reduce the impact of
climate change and also
make sense whether there
is a climate change or not.
One
of
his
win-win
suggestions is to plant
shelterbelts
wherever
possible. Studies show that
shelterbelts increase crop
yields and help offset the
losses that drought and
other weather cause to
crop
productivity.
Economic analysis shows
the costs of installing
shelterbelts are returned
within a few years by
additional revenues from
increased crop productivity.
According
to
Wander,
simply using biodiesel and
ethanol in place of fossil
energy on the farm helps
overall
reduction
of
emissions. Certain best
practices
in
soil
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Harness the market.
In fact, the potential for
U.S. agricultural soils to
sequester
CO2
using
existing technologies is
about 15% of carbon
emissions in the U.S.,
reports the Consortium for
Agricultural Soil Mitigation
of
Greenhouse Gases
(CASMGS).
The potential market for
carbon credit trading, in
which a company that
produces
an
extreme
amount of carbon pays a
farmer to sequester carbon
in the soil, is $1 billion to
$5 billion during the next
30 to 40 years, CASMGS
reports. Many economists
believe the most efficient
way to achieve the goal of
reducing
greenhouse
gases is with a free-market
carbon trading program,
says
Chuck
Rice,
CASMGS director and
www.clipresearch.com
professor of agronomy at
Kansas State University.
About
75
producers
representing nearly 75,000
acres in Kansas have
enrolled in a pilot program
from the Chicago Climate
Exchange (CCX) to keep
land in no-till or new grass
plantings for four years.
Producers pool carbon
credits from their land and
offer those credits for bid
on CCX.
When
credits
are
purchased, a record of the
carbon financial transaction
resides in the CCX registry.
Credits
purchased
by
businesses can be used
that year or banked. Bid
prices indicate producers
will
eventually
receive
about $1 per acre for the
four-year period of the pilot
project (2003 to 2006).
In Iowa, more than 83,000
acres are enrolled in Iowa
Farm Bureaus program,
which aggregates carbon
credits for sale on CCX.
Each acre of land that is
not tilled pulls a half-ton of
CO2 from the air per year,
reports
Dave
Miller,
manager of the Iowa Farm
Bureaus carbon program.
Iowa
farmers
could
potentially remove millions
of tons of CO2 from the air
annually by increasing
conservation tillage. In
April 2005, the University
of Iowa purchased 2,000
tons of carbon credits to
offset
power
plant
operations.
The
sale
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represents
CO2
sequestration from 4,000
acres of Iowa farmland.
Monetarily, Rice says the
incentive is not high
enough yet for farmers to
change
production
practices just for the
carbon
markets.
The
European carbon trading
market, which is under the
Kyoto Protocol, is 10 to 15
times higher than the U.S.
market. This shows the
potential for farmers to
claim $10 to $15 per acre
for carbon credits in the
future, Rice says.
Strong believers in global
warming say there should
be a mandatory cap on
carbon
and
other
greenhouse gases, forcing
free market carbon trading
to kick in. Several senators
have
called
for
a
mandatory cap. The Bush
administration
supports
research and voluntary
initiatives but no mandatory
caps or multination pact.
To cap or not to cap?
Agricultural industry groups
oppose
cap-and-trade
schemes that require a
mandatory cap on carbon,
even if it means paying
farmers to store it in soil.
The energy alternative to
meet a cap on carbon is
natural gas, so farmers
would pay more for natural
gas-related items that go
into the crop production,
such as nitrogen-based
fertilizer and irrigation, says
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
Paul Schlegel, director of
public policy, American
Farm Bureau. Right now,
when you have $500/ton
fertilizer, that far outweighs
the hope of having a
market
where
farmers
might be able to make $5
to $10 per ton by
sequestering carbon.
FACE the Future
If
United
Nations
predictions hold true, our
future atmosphere is on
track to contain 50% more
carbon dioxide (CO2) than
in 1900. That could be
good
for
crops
like
soybeans, which respond
to CO2 as a natural
fertilizer. But studies show
the pollutant ozone is also
on the rise. Ozone causes
lower yields.
Learning
how
crops
respond to elevated CO2
and ozone levels is the aim
of SoyFACE, a project led
by University of Illinois
plant biologist Stephen
Long.
SoyFACE
uses
technology called Free Air
Concentration Enrichment
(FACE), which consists of
rings of pipes about 70' in
diameter that release CO2
or ozone into the wind as it
flows across the crop.
While rising temperature
and altered rainfall are
expected to depress crop
yields in the second half of
the century, some theories
suggest rising CO2 could
compensate. Results of the
FACE experiments show
that will not be the case.
www.clipresearch.com
When we and others do an
elevated carbon dioxide
treatment on corn, rice,
wheat and soybeans in the
open
air,
the
yield
improvement is only 50%
of that found in greenhouse
studies, Long says.
If the effect of ozone is also
added, significant yield
depression
should
be
expected,
he
adds.
Research
exposing
soybeans to higher ozone
levels shows yields will
drop 20% by the year
2050, simply based on the
current rate of rising
surface ozone levels1% to
2% a year.
Germplasm screening of
22 varieties shows some
soybean varieties are more
sensitive to ozone than
others. The most sensitive
yielded more than 30%
less under elevated ozone
concentration. The average
yield reduction was 19%.
However, a few varieties
were quite tolerant of the
elevated ozone, with yield
reductions
of
approximately 5%. Surface
ozone levels are only
increasing in industrial
countries in the Northern
Hemisphere, which means
rising ozone levels on
soybeans has relevance
long
term
for
U.S.
competitiveness
with
Brazil,
Long
explains.
SoyFACE researchers are
now using the facility to
screen for ozone-resistant
soybeans and to test
chemicals that may provide
protection.
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Beetle mania.
SoyFACE research shows
another downside to rising
CO2
levelsJapanese
beetles love the gas.
Japanese
beetles
do
considerably more damage
to the plant under higher
CO2 levels, Long says. We
know it is the change in the
plant because if we take
two soybean leaves, one
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grown in our current CO2
and one grown in the future
CO2, the beetles always
go for the leaf grown in
elevated
CO2.
Visit
www.soyface.uiuc.edu for
more information.
Global Warming on the
Web
Intergovernmental
Panel
on
Climate
Change:
www.ipcc.ch_NASAs
www.clipresearch.com
Goddard
Institute
for
Space
Studies:
www.giss.nasa.gov/researc
h/modeling_Consortium for
Agricultural Soil Mitigation
of Greenhouse Gases:
www.casmgs.colostate.edu
_Chicago
Climate
Exchange:
www.chicagoclimatex.com
_Purdue Climate Change
Research
Center:
www.purdue.edu/climate
Electronic Clipping
RIA Novosti
Go to top
December 27, 2005
Digest of the Russian press, December 27
* RUSSIA * PRESS *
DIGEST * _(RIA Novosti
does
not
bear
any
responsibility
for
the
articles published in the
Russian
papers)
_Vedomosti_www.vedomo
sti.ru_- Strategy: Socialism
with a Market Face - Which
economic
system
is
forming in Russia? Is a
market
economy
with
predominating
state
ownership
possible?
Sergei Guriyev, rector of
the Russian Economics
School, Director of the
Center for Economic and
Financial
Research,
provides his comments.
- A dissolution party Politicians volunteer to
withdraw from the election
campaign. After 11 years in
politics, the Russian Party
of Self-governing Workers
has decided to dissolve,
becoming Russia's eighth
party to do so in 2005, the
newspaper says. Party
leader
Levon
Chakhmakhchyan,
a
member of the upper
house
of
parliament,
suggested party members
join the Russian Party of
Life. Party mergers will be
gaining
in
popularity,
experts said.
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
- Rosneft to pay for Yukos Rosneft will pay Western
banks under guarantees of
Yuganskneftegaz,
confiscated
from
oil
company Yukos for tax
debts, for its former owner.
The state-run company is
ready to pay $470 million
for good relations with
Western bankers on the
eve of an initial public
offering, experts think.
Foreign investors could
develop Russian mineral
resources, but they will not
be
given
access
to
strategic
deposits.
Ledovskikh elaborates on
how deposits are sold, how
many of them are opened
in Russia and how long
Russian oil and coal will
last.
Izvestia_www.izvestia.ru_US
political
analyst
Stephen
Schmidt:
"Condoleezza Rice and
Hilary Clinton may be
running for president" The outgoing year has
been George Bush's worst.
The US president's rating
is at a record low. What is
ahead for Mr. Bush, his
administration and the
ruling Republicans? Who
could be president in
2008? Stephen Schmidt
who leads a course in
politics at Iowa State
University answers these
questions.
Kommersant_www.komme
rsant.ru_Silver
declassified - Russia's
Central Bank has decided
to make a contribution to
the liberalization of the
market of precious metals.
The
newspaper
has
learned that the Central
Bank will soon address
departments involved in a
proposal
to
declassify
information
about
the
production
and
consumption of silver in
Russia. Surprisingly, the
Finance Ministry sent a
similar appeal to the
Interdepartmental
Commission
for
the
Protection of State Secrets
two months ago.
Anatoly
Ledovskikh,
Director of the Federal
Subsoil
Management
Agency: "We've got 16,000
unrecorded oil
bores."
- TV companies plugging
into national network Competition for becoming
"the national channel of
Russian regions", to be
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held in Moscow January
25, 2006, will be tough.
According
to
the
newspaper, several large
media market players STS Media, Ren-TV and
the National TV Syndicate will be competing for the
ownership of a vast
regional network. TV and
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
radio
broadcaster
Peterburg is expected to
win, some sources say.
- Aeroflot bids for Boeing Major Russian air carrier
Aeroflot, which had bid for
the delivery of long haul
aircraft, is now opting for
Boeing
aircraft,
the
www.clipresearch.com
newspaper
says.
The
parties
have
yet
to
comment
on
the
information. A spokesman
for Aeroflot said Monday
that a contract for the
tender would be signed in
March.
Electronic Clipping
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
December 26, 2005, Monday, BC cycle
Go to top
Growing numbers of elderly farmers
By HANNAH FLETCHER, Iowa Farmer Today
CLARENCE, Iowa
It would be quite a challenge to get Wilbert Stolte to stop farming. He is a classic bornand-raised farmer who cannot imagine doing anything else.
"I enjoy doing fieldwork and being in the fresh air. This is what I'll be doing until I have to
make a change," he said.
Stolte grows corn and soybeans on 140 acres in Cedar County.
At 84, he represents a growing percentage of landowners in Iowa who continue owning
their land in the over-65 and over-75 age ranges, according to an Iowa State University
study.
"It's different than it used to be," he said.
"When I came here at the age of 26, I was the youngest one in the neighborhood. Now, I
look around and they have all gone one place or another."
According to ISU's "Farmland Ownership and Tenure in Iowa 1982-2002: A Twenty-Year
Perspective," 24 percent of Iowa's farmland is owned by people over 75 years old, and
48 percent of farmland is owned by those over 65 years old.
Since 1982, the percentages have increased by 12 percent and 19 percent, respectively.
Also, more farmers such as Stolte own their land debt free, another trend in Iowa land
ownership, according to the study.
Farmers such as Stolte enjoy living on the land they have worked hard to own.
"I suppose I could move to town and play cards with the guys, but I guess I would rather
be planting corn," he said, smiling.
Owning his farm and working on it was a lifelong goal for Stolte.
"Being that I grew up on a farm and worked on a farm my whole life, that was my goal to
own a farm and work on a farm," he said.
After high school, Stolte helped on neighboring farms.
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
www.clipresearch.com
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Stolte and his late wife, Allison, began renting her aunt's and uncle's land after they
retired from farming and moved to town. In the late 1960s, the Stoltes took out a loan
and bought the land.
Corn and soybeans have always dotted the property. Also, a variety of livestock have
been raised there.
"Prices change for livestock and commodities, but we were always able to keep our
commitment to the farm payments," he said.
Stolte once rented 80 acres nearby. He figures that helped put his three sons through
college.
Overall, the Stolte family was lucky and made their operation profitable. Stolte believes
his land has been debt free since the late 1980s.
"I'm pretty pleased and satisfied with what we've done," he said.
For now, Stolte is right where he wants to be and doesn't foresee any changes soon. He
plans to be out planting come spring.
When his farm does pass along to his three grown sons, Stolte knows it will be in good
hands.
"It was their home. I'm sure the boys will want to hold on to it."
--On the Net:
ISU Farm Economics: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/feci/
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Grand Forks Herald
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December 26, 2005 Monday
North Dakota: FRM
Bin-buster year prompts concerns of low prices
Lower exports, higher grain supplies may push prices lower
after bumper harvest
Associated Press
The nation's farmers have
harvested the secondlargest corn and soybean
crops on record this year,
but many are concerned
that low prices for livestock
and grain and other factors
will challenge profitability.
Some analysts says the
added volume from a large
crop
will
help
offset
depressed
prices,
but
sagging U.S. crop exports
and
ballooning
grain
supplies threaten to push
prices even lower.
Looking to next year,
farmers have concerns
including
languishing
prices, high energy costs
and a mushrooming federal
deficit that could pressure
Congress
to
consider
reducing farm program
payments.
Good for the economy
Revenue from this year's
U.S. crops, including cash
receipts and government
payments, is expected to
total $138.6 billion, a
record, according to USDA.
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Farmers in Iowa, the
nation's leading corn- and
soybean-producing state,
could capture more than $9
billion of that amount, says
Robert
Wisner,
an
extension economist at
Iowa State University in
Ames.
That bodes well for Iowa's
economy.
"Farmers are pretty good at
recycling their money,"
says Del Wedemeyer,
senior vice president and
an agricultural loan officer
at Guthrie Center (Iowa)
State Bank.
Retailers in Guthrie Center,
about an hour west of Des
Moines, Iowa, are counting
on farmers to buy new
appliances and vehicles.
Wedemeyer is encouraged
by what he sees on yearend
farm
financial
statements.
Two
successive years of abovenormal yields, coupled with
strong cattle prices and
government
payments,
have enabled his farmerclients to turn a profit.
There is a downside,
however. For two years,
cash market prices have
plummeted. Those who
use farm commodities,
such as livestock feeders
and grain processors, have
benefited from low-priced
corn and soybeans. So
have food processors and
manufacturers - a major
agricultural sector in Iowa.
"Farmers don't like to hear
that," Imerman says, but
low
commodity
prices
generate jobs.
Farmers complain about
Depression-era prices for
corn and escalating prices
for fuel and fertilizer.
"At $1.30 (per bushel of)
corn, there's not much
money in it," says Jerry
Clark, a Guthrie County,
Iowa, crop farmer. Even
with yields of 200 bushels
of corn per acre, today's
cash market prices would
generate barely enough to
cover production costs.
Market analysts caution
that higher prices are
unlikely anytime soon.
Farm income
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A significant portion of this
year's farm income will
come from government
payments.
"People are concerned
because a lot of this year's
cash income is coming
from the government, a lot
more than people would
like - $22.7 billion," says
Keith
Collins,
chief
economist at USDA in
Washington. "That's a ton
of money."
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Wisner says that cash
prices for Iowa corn in
the year ahead will
average $1.65 per bushel.
The price for the marketing
year just ended averaged
$1.96 per bushel.
He and others believe it
could take another two to
three years for prices to
rebound to higher than $2
per bushel.
"It's just going to be really
hard to get a decent price
out of selling this corn,"
says Leslie Miller of the
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Iowa State Savings Bank
in Knoxville. "The large
crop sitting out there, we've
got to dispose of it, and
until we dispose of it, it's
going to put downward
pressure on next year's
crop."
Lenders
and
farm
management
specialists
are urging farmers to begin
locking in prices now for
some of their 2006 crops,
even if those prices are
less than what they could
have secured ahead of
time on this year's crops.
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The Kansas City Star
Go to top
December 26, 2005 Monday
Missouri
Tips: Time to untrim the tree?
Got a large lot? Need to dispose of your
holiday tree? Experts at Iowa State
University extension offer some ideas...
You might want to place the tree in the
yard or garden for use by birds and other
wildlife. The branches provide shelter from
strong winds and cold. Food can be
supplied by hanging fruit slices, seed
cakes, suet bags, or strings of cranberries
or raisins on the tree's branches. You can
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also smear peanut butter and seeds in
pine cones and hang them in the tree.
You can prune off the branches and place
the boughs over perennials as a winter
mulch.
Chip the tree and use as a mulch around
trees, shrubs, or in perennial flower beds.
Many communities have tree recyling
drop-off points.
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Dubuque Telegraph
Herald
Go to top
December 26, 2005 Monday
Tristate; Pg. a3
Former Dubuquer rises to prominence as architect
Senior High graduate takes office as president of American Institute of
Architects
SANDYE VOIGHT
Growing up in a historic
Dubuque
home
and
attending services in a
church with a modern
sanctuary were an early
influence for the new
president
of
the
American Institute of
Architects.
Kate Schwennsen, 48, a
graduate
of
Dubuque
Senior High School who
now lives in Des Moines,
was elected in June 2004
and took office Dec. 9.
"It's an amazing privilege,"
she said.
Schwennson already has
done extensive traveling on
behalf of the office as
president-elect.
"In those 18 months
(before taking office), you
sort of ramp up."
The actual presidency will
be for a year.
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Schwennsen's immediate
family
moved
from
Dubuque to Colorado in
1980.
She has bachelor's and
master's
degrees
in
architecture from Iowa
State University, where
she is the associate dean
of the College of Design.
She practiced architecture
for 10 years in Des Moines,
where
she
designed
senior-living facilities.
Her role as the unpaid
president
of
the
association, she said, is to
be
the
national
and
international face and voice
of the organization.
"AIA has 300-plus chapters
all over the country," she
said.
"I
will
make
presentations and give
lectures."
The
international
component will include
signing mutual recognition
agreements. She recently
visited Luxembourg, where
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she signed an agreement
with the European Union.
"It's almost a full-time job,"
she said.
Although it is not a paid
position,
her
travel
expenses will be covered.
Her husband, Barry Jones,
also is an architect, and
their two daughters, one a
high school senior and the
other a sophomore in
college, are interested in
the field.
Schwennsen grew up in
an 1840s-era home on
Simpson Street across
from Wartburg Theological
Seminary. The great old
houses of Dubuque piqued
an
early
interest
in
architecture as did the
contemporary design of her
home church, Westminster
Presbyterian.
"My family canoed and
camped a lot," she said.
Canoe trips down the
Wisconsin River included
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visits to architect Frank
Lloyd Wright's Taliesin,
near Spring Green, Wis.
"I don't remember anybody
through grade school or
high school discouraging
me
from
being
an
architect," she said. "I knew
at the age of 10 that that's
what I wanted to do."
Her lectures often include
mention of the great
education she received in
Dubuque.
"It was a terrific math
education where you could
go at your own speed, and
an art (education) where
you
had
people
encouraging you to go after
your dreams," she said.
GRAPHIC: Mug
Schwennsen
-
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Agri News, MN
01/03/06
Iowa news and notes
Crop Advantage Workshop is Jan. 11
MASON CITY, Iowa -- The annual Iowa State University Crop Advantage
Workshop will be held Jan. 11 in Beem Forum on the campus of North Iowa
Community College. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m..
Concurrent sessions will be held in the Muse Norris Conference Center in the
afternoon. Topics that will be discussed include nitrogen management, the
Conservation Security Program, controlling higher energy costs, farm policy
issues, conservation tillage, corn rootworms, soybean insect management and a
soybean disease update.
Registration at the door costs $40 and pre-registration $30. For more
information, call George Cummins at (641) 228-1453.
Swine Conference planned near Oelwein
OELWEIN, Iowa -- The Iowa Swine Conference will be held Jan. 17 in the
Sportsmen Restaurant located on Highway 150 south of Oelwein. The program
will start at 9:30 a.m. and will run until 3:20 p.m.
The conference will discuss pig health, management and building design advice,
DNR rules, swine behavior and welfare research, Scandinavian pork production,
reducing fuel bills, preventing flash fires, and ISU data from a local odor trial.
Pre-registration is $20 and required by Jan. 13. Call the Fayette County
Extension office at (563) 425-3331 for more information or to register.
Confinement site training planned
NEW HAMPTON, Iowa -- The annual Workshop for Confinement Site Manure
applicators will be held Jan. 18 in the Extension office in New Hampton.
The workshop will begin at 1:30 p.m.
"Iowa law requires confinement site manure applicators to attend two hours of
continuing education each year of their three-year certification period or take and
pass an exam once every three years,'' said Angela Rieck-Hinz, Iowa State
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University Extension program specialist.
The workshop will teach about manure application rules, new recordkeeping
requirements , manure sampling for nutrient analysis, and best management
practices to address manure and air quality issues.
ISU student Schultz will work in China
AMES, Iowa -- Lorilee Schultz, a senior at Iowa State University majoring in
agriculture business and economics from Ogden, is getting ready to travel to
China on an International Agricultural Internship Program offered by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
Schultz was studying for final exams when she was notified that she had been
chosen for a four-month internship in China.
"I was up at 2 a.m. writing a journalism paper on Dec. 8, when I got the e-mail
saying they wanted to talk to me about the job,'' Schultz said. "My first reaction
was wow, China. I don't know Chinese. But this will be really interesting.''
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Asbury Park Press, NJ
01/02/06
BUILD A PET FIRST-AID KIT
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
Before an emergency occurs, pet owners should assemble a pet medical first-aid kit. Dr.
Beth Streeter, head of the emergency unit at Iowa State University's Veterinary
Teaching Hospital, suggests that the kit include:
The numbers of regular- and after-hours vet providers.
A copy of the animal's vet history, including any medications it might be on.
Gauze.
Muzzle (a roll of gauze might work in a pinch).
Latex gloves.
Leather gloves or a heavy towel or blanket (to protect against bites and scratches).
Hydrogen peroxide (can be diluted to induce vomiting if suggested by a vet).
Syringes (to administer hydrogen peroxide).
Dog and cat owners should also have a way to safely transport an injured and possibly
aggressive animal to the vet. In most cases, a normal cat or dog carrier will do.
Dr. Warren E. Briggs of Ocean County Veterinary Hospital in Lakewood also suggests
including Benedryl or a similar medication in your kit — in the event your pet has an
allergic reaction to a bee sting, for example — and triple antibiotic ointment, to treat
minor cuts and abrasions.
Briggs, a member of the Ocean County Office of Emergency Management's veterinary
response committee, does not recommend self-diagnosing your pet's ailment unless the
problem is obvious.
While Briggs often prescribes Pepto-Bismol for animals suffering from an upset stomach,
for example, he said there are some instances when Pepto-Bismol can be dangerous to
an ill pet.
That's why when an emergency arises, Briggs said.
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Associated Press
12/29/05
Judge orders Iowa Board of Regents to pay
open records case costs
AMES The Iowa Board of Regents must pay court costs left over from an open
records lawsuit filed against the Iowa State University Foundation.
An order filed by District Court Judge Timothy Finn directs the regents to pay the
remaining 40-thousand dollars in legal fees for Mark Gannon, a former
employee of the university's college of agriculture, and Arlen Nichols, a
retired Des Moines businessman.
Gannon and Nichols sued the foundation in 2002, claiming it refused to release
documents about donations to the foundation. They claimed it was a violation of
the state's open records law.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in February that the foundation is a government
entity and must open its records. A judge ruled in June that the regents were
responsible for the 65-thousand dollars in legal fees.
The board has paid 25-thousand so far.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Also ran in: WHO-TV, IA;
WQAD, IL; WOI-TV, IA; Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA; Iowa City Press-Citizen;
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Associated Press
12/29/05
Iowa State University to study crosswalks
after fatal accidents
AMES Iowa State University officials say they will study the safety of seven
campus crosswalks in the coming weeks.
Two fatal pedestrian accidents on or near the campus prompted the review.
I-S-U campus planner Cathy Brown says staffers from the university may hire
a traffic engineer to assist in the study.
Twenty-one-year-old Robert Stupka died November 30th after he was hit by a
bus. Three days later, 20-year-old Kelly Laughery, was struck by a vehicle while
she was walking in southwest Ames.
Brown says the university has heard about concerns after the two deaths and
officials decided to see if improvements could be made to lighting, pavement
markings, signs or the crosswalk alignment.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Also ran in: WOI-TV, IA;
WQAD, IL; WHO-TV, IA; Sioux City Journal, IA; KCRG-TV;
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Associated Press
12/30/05
Foundation pays fees in lawsuit
By The Associated Press
AMES, Iowa -- The Iowa State University Foundation paid opponents' legal
fees of $65,000 in a lawsuit that sought to force it to open its records to the
public.
In February, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the foundation performs a
government function and must open its records.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in 2002 by Mark Gannon, a former university
employee, and Arlen Nichols, a retired businessman from Des Moines.
In June, a judge in Story County ruled that the Iowa Board of Regents were
responsible for fees accrued by Gannon and Nichols.
The regents paid the bill, but the foundation reimbursed the regents for the entire
$65,000, said Gary Steinke, deputy executive director for the Board of Regents.
Ann Wilson, foundation spokeswoman, said the foundation still is considered a
nonprofit organization. In fiscal 2005, it raised $83.2 million. – Also ran in: Iowa
City Press Citizen, IA; Des Moines Register; Cedar Rapids Gazette; KCRG,
IA; WHO-TV; WQAD, IL; WHO-TV, IA; WOI-TV, IA
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Associated Press
12/31/05
Mistaken eyewitness IDs at heart of recent
exoneration cases
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Ann Meng was at work when she saw a man who made
her blood run cold.
It was him. The man who had broken into her home and raped her. There was no
question in her mind.
She called the police and later picked him out of several lineups. Julius Ruffin
was convicted of the attack in Norfolk in 1982 and sentenced to five life terms in
prison.
“When I looked at Julius Ruffin, I was sure - 100 percent sure,” said Meng, now
56. “I had flashbacks when I looked at him.”
Meng was wrong; Ruffin was innocent. And so were four other Virginians
convicted of separate rapes based on faulty victim identification and cleared in
recent years thanks to DNA testing.
The pattern of incorrect identifications in the five recent exonerations is not
unique. Experts say mistaken eyewitness identification has been a factor in about
three-quarters of the 170 wrongful convictions overturned thanks to postconviction DNA testing.
“Traditional eyewitness identification procedures are prone to witnesses ...
misidentifying the actual suspect,” said Stephen Saloom, policy director of the
legal-aid group the Innocence Project. “Because of the compelling nature of an
eyewitness identification, it can have a tremendous impact on the direction of a
police investigation.”
Ruffin, Marvin Anderson and Arthur Lee Whitfield, all convicted of rapes in the
1980s, were cleared after evidence saved by the late forensic scientist Mary
Jane Burton was found and DNA testing revealed they were not the perpetrators.
They served a combined 59 years behind bars.
Even before DNA testing had been invented, Burton, who worked in the Virginia
state crime lab from 1974 to 1988, saved bits of the evidence she tested and
inserted them into case files. They were discovered in a storage facility in 2001.
On Dec. 14, Gov. Mark R. Warner announced that two additional men were
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exonerated thanks to the samples. Warner has now ordered a review of all
Burton's samples.
Willie Davidson, released in 1992 after 12 years in prison, was convicted largely
because of faulty identification by the victim, a 66-year-old woman who had
served as a grandmotherly figure to him, said his attorney James Broccoletti.
Davidson, now 49, lives with his mother, and works in a low-income job, his
attorney said.
“He was in hell for 12 years and purgatory for 13,” Broccoletti said. “He's been
denied opportunities in life ... jobs, housing opportunities, friends have shunned
him, neighbors have looked at him. ... He's spent more than half his life tainted in
this shroud of guilt.”
Phillip Thurman, 50, was convicted in 1985 of raping, abducting and assaulting
an Alexandria woman. The victim and a witness both incorrectly identified
Thurman as the perpetrator. He was sentenced to 31 years in prison and paroled
in February.
The reliance by juries on eyewitness identification is dangerous because it is so
often flawed, said eyewitness identification expert Gary Wells, an Iowa State
University psychology professor.
“When people visually process their environment, the fact is that they're actually
taking in much less information than we ever thought,” Wells said. “We have this
type of evidence here that is at once easily prone to error, and simultaneously
highly persuasive to juries.”
The detail in recollections of crime witnesses can be affected by poor viewing
conditions, limited time with the perpetrator and fear, Wells said. In stressful
situations, the brain goes into “fight or flight” mode and devotes most of its efforts
to survival, lessening its ability to form clear memories.
Conventional police lineup procedures, in which witnesses are shown groups of
people or photographs at one time, can add to the problem. Many researchers
believe this can lead witnesses to compare one person's image to another and
identify someone who looks “most like” the offender instead of “exactly like.”
Lineups administered by officers who know who the suspect is can also be
dangerous, as officers can inadvertently give cues as to who they want the
witness to pick, Wells said.
Wells developed a lineup technique called the “double-blind sequential” method,
in which witnesses are shown individual mug shots or people one at a time by an
officer who does not know who the suspect is. The technique is being adopted by
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a growing number of police departments nationwide.
Advocates of the technique say it can help reduce the tendency to compare and
settle and eliminates the possibility of an officer unintentionally influencing a
witness' choice in a lineup.
In 2001, New Jersey became the first state to adopt the technique. A handful of
jurisdictions - including Boston, Minneapolis and Santa Clara County in California
- also have adopted them. Virginia Beach has used the technique for several
years.
Virginia's General Assembly this year passed legislation requiring law
enforcement agencies to have written policies for conducting lineups and the
Virginia State Crime Commission asked law enforcement agencies to adopt the
double-blind sequential procedure.
Workers at Virginia's Department of Forensic Science have already begun sifting
through thousands of files for Burton's samples. The testing will be conducted by
an independent lab and may take up to two years to complete, said director Paul
Ferrara, who expects more exonerations.
“It's hard to imagine that there won't be more - probably many more,” he said.
That's all the more reason the justice system needs to address the issues
surrounding its reliance on eyewitness testimony, said Meng, who has become
an advocate for the wrongly convicted.
Prosecutors said DNA tests on the samples in Meng's case revealed a convicted
rapist, Aaron Doxie III, was likely responsible for her attack. Doxie is already
serving three life sentences for a separate sexual assault. Prosecutors did not
pursue charges against him because Burton and other key witnesses are dead.
While The Associated Press does not typically identify victims of sexual assault,
Meng has spoken publicly about her ordeal and requested that her name be
used.
“I still think about it a lot, but I'm the kind of person that tries to take a lesson and
tries to be part of the solution,” Meng said. “We need to build into our justice
system some more controls so this won't happen.”
Also ran in: Daily Press, VA; Picayune Item, MS
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Associated Press
12/31/05
Lawmakers want to expand Laramie lab
By BEN NEARY
Associated Press
CHEYENNE -- Faced with the threat of bioterrorism, Wyoming needs to convince
the federal government to expand an animal disease laboratory in Laramie, some
state lawmakers say.
Lawmakers have drafted a bill for this winter's legislative session that would
create a state task force to study bio-security laboratory issues.
The bill would put up $100,000 for the task force to handle its work and hire
experts to address how the state could convince the federal government that
expanding the Laramie lab would fit into the federal government's overall
homeland security requirements.
John Etchepare, director of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, said this
week that the state hopes to convince the federal government to base any new
animal disease lab at Laramie, which is already the site of the federal ArthropodBorne Animal Diseases Research Laboratory, run by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.
Researchers in Laramie specialize in diseases spread by arthropods -- insects
and spiders. While such pests are little, the danger they can pose is huge.
Experts say the threat of bioterrorism places the nation's agricultural industry in
real peril. They say more needs to be done to prepare for any disease outbreak,
and at the heart of that preparation lies the need for more secure laboratories.
Testifying before the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
in July, James Roth, director of the Center for Food Security and Public
Health at Iowa State University, said the country urgently needs more secure
labs for animal health research.
The most secure laboratories, rated at "Biosafety Level 4," are designed to
provide complete separation between disease-causing bacteria or viruses and
laboratory personnel. Roth told the committee there are now no BL4 facilities for
livestock disease research in the United States.
The Laramie lab, meanwhile, is so old and decrepit that it recently lost its lower
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BL3 containment classification after a pipe burst in one of its containment areas.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has talked about building a new lab at
Laramie for years, but federal dollars for such a project are tight.
Will Blackburn, area director for the ARS in Fort Collins, Colo., said Friday that
his agency would like to see the federal government put up the money to expand
and improve the existing Laramie lab.
"Our facilities there in Laramie are old, and with all the new regulations and stuff
since 9/11, it's been almost impossible to keep them in containment," Blackburn
said. "Our facilities are in bad repair."
Congress recently authorized a feasibility study that concluded Laramie would be
a good place to build a new animal research lab. But so far it hasn't put up any
money for design or construction, Blackburn said. He said a basic lab to continue
his agency's work in Laramie would cost $50 million, while a bigger lab that
would allow the lab to serve the university and state agencies would cost more.
About 30 people work at the Laramie lab now, Blackburn said. He said all the
lab's work is related to infectious diseases, and how they relate to homeland
security.
"Some of those can be transferred to humans, and some to livestock," Blackburn
said of the diseases studied at the lab. "These are potential bioweapons."
Etchepare, director of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, said that as a
result of the Laramie lab losing its certification, the state was forced recently to
send samples to labs out of state to determine whether some Wyoming elk had
brucellosis, a contagious bacterial disease.
Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, a sponsor of the task-force legislation, said that if
the federal government is going to build a new animal disease laboratory
anywhere, it should be in Wyoming.
"We think Laramie is an ideal place for the feds to locate that," Brown said. "If we
could ever get the darn thing, it would be a huge federal construction project."
Rep. James Hageman, R- Fort Laramie, another sponsor of the bill, likewise said
Laramie would be an ideal site.
"It's a totally isolated lab, where they can do any kind of studies on any kind of
diseases that come in from anywhere in the world," Hageman said. "It would be
quite a thing for the state of Wyoming to get it." – Also ran in: The Casper Star
Tribune, WY; Jackson Hose Star Tribune, WY; Billings Gazette
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Des Moines Business Record
12/25/05
Questionable highlights from the year gone
by
By Jim Pollock
jimpollock@bpcdm.com
The year 2005 has been a year of transition in Central Iowa, mainly because it
served as a convenient way to get from 2004 to 2006. Other than that, it was a
lot like most years. Here’s a sketchy and inaccurate look back:
City Manager Eric Anderson lands a new job, creating substantial government
savings when he stops using the office copy machine to update his resume.
Later in the year, events czarina Mo Dana departs; panic sets in, and it’s decided
to retool the annual Arts Festival as either a workshop on picture framing or “a
really nice garage sale.”
More downtown housing projects get under way. Developers say they’re
confident they’ll find plenty of tenants.
The newspaper scene shifts as Cityview and Pointblank combine and The Des
Moines Register launches Juice. A Cityview official tells a reporter that Juice is
“insulting to the intelligent reader.” Later in the year, Cityview Editor Jon Gaskell
appears on the cover of his paper dressed as Dorothy from the “Wizard of Oz.”
(This is true.)
The $60 million Science Center of Iowa opens, and several of the displays
actually work. The facility’s long-awaited IMAX theater draws modest interest for
its first offerings, then scores a huge success with a Tom Hanks feature film. SCI
Director Mary Sellers begins scouring video stores for the first season of “Bosom
Buddies.”
Michael Gartner, once involved in an “exploding pickup truck” scandal at NBC
News, is named president of the State Board of Regents. Later, two dormitories
at Iowa State are leveled with carefully placed explosive charges. When
questioned about it, Gartner breaks into a Tom Brokaw imitation and dashes out
of the room.
Fritz Junker bravely carries on with efforts to liven up the local music scene
despite the tragic loss of his original first name. He receives crucial help from City
Council member Leo Mikekiernan.
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Half a dozen more downtown buildings are slated for rehab as residences.
The Iowa Events Center opens for its first concert in an atmosphere of frenzied
excitement, only to find that the entry doors are the actual size shown on the
blueprints, or approximately 1 inch tall. Global Spectrum can’t find the piece of
paper with the contractor’s name on it, so pins the blame on General Manager
Andy Long. Later in the year, Long is forced out after allowing the front office to
run dangerously low on paper clips.
A proposal for whitewater rafting in downtown Des Moines creates a burst of
excitement. It’s followed by a suggestion for hunting deer in the skywalks, which
generates less enthusiasm.
Powerful real estate magnate Bill Knapp is accused of land-grab chicanery in a
Sunday newspaper story. By lunchtime on Monday, the newspaper building has
vanished, jittery city officials say they don’t remember it ever being there and
publisher Mary Stier is spotted working as a waitress.
It’s announced that every building downtown will be turned into condos. City
leaders unveil a plan to move everyone living in Carlisle into 801 Grand “by force
if necessary.” The McCaughey family immediately claims the 39th and 40th
floors.
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Des Moines Register
12/29/05
ISU to study walkers' safety after 2 deaths
By LISA LIVERMORE
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
Ames, Ia. — Iowa State University officials will study the safety of seven campus
crosswalks in the coming weeks, partly in response to two recent deaths of
pedestrians on or near campus.
Cathy Brown, an ISU campus planner, said a group made up of staff from the
facilities planning and management department, the ISU Department of Public
Safety and the Center for Transportation Research and Education, along with a
member of an ISU transportation advisory council, will participate.
They might also hire a traffic engineer to assist in the effort, she said.
Robert Stupka, 21, died Nov. 30 after he was hit by a bus while crossing Pammel
Drive. Three days later, Kelly Laughery, 20, was struck by a vehicle while she
was walking on Mortensen Road in southwest Ames. She was found about 4:30
a.m. and pronounced dead later at a hospital.
Police said Shanda Rae Munn, 20, an ISU student, was the driver in the
accident. Police are investigating, and no charges have been filed
"We got some additional concerns expressed from campus community, so we're
following up on those," Brown said Wednesday. "We look at this as an
opportunity to take a look at the situations and see if we can make the
improvement."
The review, which will be in the next couple of weeks, will examine lighting,
pavement markings, signs and walk alignments of crosswalks that are heavily
used by pedestrians, Brown said.
Locations
Ames crosswalks to be studied for pedestrian safety:
• Pammel Drive near the Molecular Biology Building
• Union Drive near the Union Drive Community Center
• Beach Road by the Hixson-Lied Student Success Center and Maple Hall
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• Beach Road near the
Forker building
• Pammel Drive near the
Insectary Building
• Two crossings on Wallace Road near the East Campus Parking Deck
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Des Moines Register
12/29/05
Dateline Iowa
By REGISTER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
$40,000 ordered paid in open-records case
An Iowa district judge has ordered that the Iowa Board of Regents pay $40,000
for attorney fees and costs to the plaintiffs in an open-records case.
In an order filed earlier this month, District Judge Timothy Finn said that the fees
must be paid to Mark Gannon and Arlen Nichols. Gannon and Nichols sued
Iowa State University and the Iowa Board of Regents, claiming the ISU
Foundation's records should be open to public examination. In a February
ruling, the Iowa Supreme Court sided with the two men.
Gary Steinke, the regents' executive director, said the regents have been
reimbursed by the foundation for payment of legal fees.
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Des Moines Register
12/29/05
An athlete's journey: Sheepish to sheepskin
By RANDY PETERSON
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Houston, Texas — This is the third anniversary of Nik Moser's day of decision.
"I had two choices," said the strong safety for Iowa State University's football
team. "I could run away someplace and never come back, or I could own up to
my situation."
Moser telephoned his parents from Boise, Idaho, two days before he was
supposed to play in the Dec. 31, 2002, Humanitarian Bowl, to tell them that he
had become academically ineligible to participate in his first bowl game.
The Fort Dodge native lived the nightmare that is played out in college football
locker rooms throughout the country: dealing with academic failure. He also lived
out one of the consequences any college student could face: breaking the news
to parents.
"Toughest phone call of my life, without a doubt," Moser said.
Now, two days before the final college football game of his life, Moser won't have
to make that dreaded phone call. He not only will start against Texas Christian
University in Saturday's Houston Bowl but also graduated two weeks ago —
"with a 3.5 grade-point average, no less," Moser said with pride.
"What a story," said Nik's father, Sam, a former football coach at Fort Dodge
High School. "The phone call — it was terrible, but he accepted the
responsibility."
Moser had run afoul of a Big 12 Conference rule that says athletes have to pass
at least six hours' worth of classes to be eligible for postseason competition. He
learned 48 hours before the game that he did not meet that criterion.
"It's the biggest disappointment I've had since I've been in college," Moser said. "I
got all excited, and everyone in my family and among my friends got excited, too,
because I was about to play in my first bowl game. Then all of a sudden I found
out I couldn't play.
"It was gut-wrenching."
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Making that announcement to his parents was even tougher because both were
teachers in the Fort Dodge school system.
"I grew up in a home where parents stressed education," Moser said. "I couldn't
go outside until my homework was finished, but here I was, in Boise, Idaho, and
ineligible to play in the bowl game."
Uhhh, Mom, Dad?
Nik, your son, here.
I can't play in the bowl game.
Bad grades.
"No sense in them coming all the way to Boise if I wasn't going to play," Moser
said.
They came anyway.
" Greaaaat ," Nik thought to himself with a cynical tone. "I can't be on the
sidelines — all I could do was sit in the stands — and my mom and dad were still
coming."
Mom and Dad would have it no other way.
"Everybody makes mistakes," Sam Moser said. "I coached 30 years, and trust
me — we're not lily-white up here in Fort Dodge, but we stand by our mistakes.
"There was no second-guessing making the trip to Boise. I'm not saying we didn't
have a word or two with Nik when we got there, but we had to go to say, 'Hey,
we're supporting you, we still love you,' and that life will go on.
"If that's the worst the kid ever does, he's a heck of a lot better person than I am."
Nik Moser played in 13 games that season. He spent more time reading the
playbook than his textbook. "I pretty much didn't go to class," he said. "I thought I
went enough, but I found out that I didn't. Man, did I pay for it."
He was unable to participate in Humanitarian Bowl functions. He sat in the
stands during a 34-16 loss against Boise State.
"I felt like an idiot," Moser recalled. "I let the team down, but more important, I let
my parents and family down."
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The happy ending is that Nik will start Saturday against TCU — with his diploma
signifying a degree in liberal studies ready for framing back home in Fort Dodge.
"I can look back on that day in 2002 now and say it was the biggest learning
experience of my life, making that call to my parents," Moser said. "It's when I
knew that I had grown up.
"Now after the game, I can go out looking for a job in the real world."
Nik Moser
GRADE: Senior
POSITION: Safety
STATISTICS: 6-0, 205
RESIDES: Fort Dodge
BRIEFLY: Earned Big 12 Conference academic achievement award in 2003.
Had four interceptions this season.
MOSER SAYS: "As hard as my dad is on me at times, it was harder listening to
my mom and what she had to say when I called home to say I was ineligible. She
was mad at me. No one was ever mad at Iowa State; it was all on me."
EXPLAINING THE TURNAROUND: "You tell your parents that you're ineligible,
and then see how quickly you get your grades back up," Moser said. "The last
couple of years, I had teachers that I really liked, and I think they really liked me,
too. They made school fun for me again."
What are the rules?
To be eligible to participate in a bowl game, Big 12 Conference players must
successfully pass six semester hours of credit. Each conference sets its own
standards.
'Clones are OK
Iowa State football coach Dan McCarney said all Cyclones are academically
eligible to play in Saturday's game.
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Des Moines Register
12/29/05
Looking back: Notable Iowans from 2005
Throughout 2005, Iowa Life has told the stories of dozens of Iowans, from
miracle babies to video gamers, from a new Superman to a dancing duck.
As the year ends, we find out what's happened since we first told you about
them.
Solar-powered car comes in third
Who: Team PrISUm
Story originally ran: July 13
Team PrISUm, the Iowa State University students who built a solar-powered
car named "PrISUm Fusion," raced across the country in August for the 2005
North American Solar Challenge.
After 2,500 miles and more than 71 hours on the road, their solar car finished the
race in Calgary, Alberta, in third place in the stock class — a successful run for
the Iowa State team.
Team PrISUm is already discussing the design and construction of P9, Team
PrISUm's ninth solar car, for the 2007 race.
— Reid Forgrave
Brain surgery called a complete success
Who: Barbara Mack
Story originally ran: Aug. 17
Five months after undergoing delicate surgery to treat a brain aneurysm, Barbara
Mack is a self-described "walking miracle."
In July, Mack had tiny platinum coils placed in a tiny bulge in a vessel in her
brain, in the hopes of preventing it from rupturing. Dr. John Chaloupka at the
University of Iowa performed the procedure.
A follow-up visit with Chaloupka in October showed that Mack's neurological
tests are normal, and there have been no complications due to the surgery, she
said. "I feel great. I've been living my life again."
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That has included resuming teaching at Iowa State University and riding her
horse, Mikki.
"I'm working in my garden," Mack added. "We're (she and husband Jim Giles)
planning a trip to Europe next May."
— Dawn Sagario
Intelligent design scholar has busy semester
Who: Guillermo Gonzalez
Story originally ran: Aug. 31
Life hasn't gotten any less hectic this semester for Iowa State University
astronomy professor Guillermo Gonzalez.
In late summer, more than 100 faculty members at Iowa State signed a petition
against representing intelligent design as science.
Gonzalez, who claims his research indicates the uniqueness of the Earth points
toward an "intelligent designer" being behind it all, has spoken on the
controversial theory at various schools throughout the country.
His book on his intelligent design findings, "The Privileged Planet," in two years
has sold about 10,000 copies, a lot for a science book. He taught two astronomy
classes this semester — neither of them dealing with intelligent design - and is
awaiting the May publication of his astronomy textbook, "Observational
Astronomy."
"It has been a very busy semester for me," he said.
So busy, he hasn't had time to continue his intelligent design research.
Gonzalez has, however, kept up on the trial in Dover, Penn., where a verdict
came down in December ruling that intelligent design is not science.
"If it had been a decision that intelligent design shouldn't be taught as formulated
by the Dover school board, that would be fine. . . . But it went way beyond that,
where the judge defined intelligent design as not science."
— Reid Forgrave
Cyber whiz keeps competing
Who: Josh Sievers
Story originally ran: Sept. 15
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Iowa's own "cyber athlete" grabbed the gold in November when he and his team
flew to Singapore to compete in the World Cyber Games with other elite video
gamers from around the globe.
Josh Sievers, a junior in business management at Iowa State University in
Ames and a Polk City native, won first place and a share of $50,000 as part of
the New York-based Team 3D, by outwitting all competitors with their guerilla
military tactics in the virtual role-playing game "Counter-Strike: Condition Zero."
"It just made me want to practice more and make sure we stay (at the top),"
Sievers said last week, back in Ames.
Team 3D has since competed in another tournament in Dallas, where Sievers
and his fellow gunmen placed ninth, defeated in triple overtime by the Swedish
team that ultimately won the day.
"We messed up," Sievers said.
Meanwhile, watch for Team 3D's triumph in Singapore to be featured in the Jan.
11 episode of "60 Minutes" on CBS.
— Kyle Munson
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Des Moines Register
12/30/05
Sun sets on Allen’s bowl games
Cyclone assistant coach moves to smaller stage after Saturday's
bowl.
By RANDY PETERSON
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Houston, Texas — Saturday is likely to be the final major-college bowl game of
Terry Allen's life — and Wednesday, he paid the humiliating price.
He lost a Hula Hoop contest.
"There's a reason the guys nominated me to do it," Allen said of his participation
in a contest among players and coaches from the Cyclones and Texas Christian.
"I'm the short-timer."
After coaching in Saturday's Houston Bowl against the 14th-ranked Horned
Frogs at Reliant Stadium, Allen will devote his full attention to the head coaching
position at NCAA Division I-AA Missouri State that he accepted last week.
No more major-college coaching. No more Division I-A bowl games.
Crass, yes. But accurate.
"I guess this is it - pretty plain and simple," said Allen, who coaches tight ends
and special teams for Iowa State. "When I walk off the field Saturday - that's it."
Allen nearly choked on what suddenly hit him.
"It's going to be pretty emotional for me," he said. "But in this business, we all
move on.
"That's the outlook that I'm taking right now. I'm going to Missouri State to sink
my heels in and lay down some roots — hopefully for the next 10 to 12 years."
Allen coached I-AA Northern Iowa to six playoff appearances while compiling a
75-26 record in eight seasons from 1989 through '96. He left Northern Iowa to
become the head coach at Kansas, where he was fired after a five-season record
of 21-38. He was hired at Iowa State in 2002.
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"Dan McCarney resurrected my career, without a doubt," Allen said. "When you
get fired like I did at Kansas, you have a tendency to question how you coach
and how you do things.
"Watching what's gone on around Iowa State the last four years, and being part
of it, has re-invigorated me. It's made me believe that what I did was right. Dan
literally has recharged my battery."
Allen has been part of Cyclone teams that won 23 games, and by late Saturday
afternoon will have participated in the Humanitarian, Independence and Houston
bowls.
He earned $126,000 this season. He will earn $126,000 as the head coach at
what used to be Southwest Missouri State.
"I've never been a guy that wanted for a lot," Allen said. "Coaching in college, to
me, has always been about being around kids. Coming back to Iowa to coach
after being fired at Kansas helped solidify that thinking."
Allen grew up in Iowa City, as did McCarney.
"When we were growing up, sure we knew one another," Allen said, "but did we
ever think we'd end up being best friends and coaching with one another? Who
ever knew we'd even be coaches?"
McCarney was the first to congratulate Allen on becoming Kansas' coach. He
was the first to offer condolences when he was fired.
"Dan's been super to me from day one," Allen said. "When I became a head
coach in the Big 12, he was always someone I could call and tell my problems to.
When I was out of a job, he called and asked if I wanted to coach again."
Allen did - first as McCarney's assistant, then as the head of his own I-AA
program.
"I'm 48 years old and we have three children," Allen said. "They need to be
settled in one place, as do I because I've seen what happens to coaches and
families who are one place two years, and somewhere else two years later.
"What happens so many times is a dysfunctional family, and I don't want that to
happen. That's why I say that I want to dig in my heels in my new job, carve out a
niche that hopefully will last for a long time."
And, he adds, without ever looking back.
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"I don't have that all-encompassing drive to play before 100,000 fans in the
Super Bowl sometime down the way," he said.
Instead, he will settle for his new ultimate prize - winning the NCAA I-AA
championship.
"So as far as this being my last bowl," Allen said, "I think you can safely that's
accurate.
"It's also accurate to say that I will never attempt to Hula Hoop again."
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Des Moines Register
12/30/05
Clark: Cyclones’ hospital visit lifts spirits of
patients
By NANCY CLARK
REGISTER COLUMNIST
Houston, Texas — Christopher Mingo, 11, a patient at Memorial Hermann
Children's Hospital , is a big Kobe Bryant fan.
"He's my favorite," Mingo said of the Los Angeles Lakers' all-star guard.
"Basketball is my favorite."
But when Iowa State quarterback Bret Meyer sat next to the little, round-faced
boy in the baggy hospital gown, talked to him and signed a T-shirt and poster for
him, Mingo's eyes widened with excitement.
"I can't wait to wear this!" he told his uncle. "I'll wear it to school and make
everyone jealous. And I'm going to hang the poster in my room. I'm going to get it
framed."
The real gift that Meyer and a dozen of his football teammates gave Thursday to
seriously ill and injured children was priceless. They gave the gift of healing.
"I feel better," said Mingo, of suburban Houston, who was rushed to the hospital
Monday after he suddenly began to feel dizzy, couldn't walk and quit eating. He
is undergoing tests to determine the cause.
The Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital, with 178 beds, is a Level I trauma
center and comprehensive children's medical facility with more than 40 subspecialties.
After a 90-minute practice Thursday morning at the Houston Texans' training
facility, the Iowa State players took time out of preparations for Saturday's
Houston Bowl game against 14th-ranked Texas Christian to cheer up some kids
who had been feeling left out.
The youngsters thought it was cool to get a visit from a real, live quarterback.
Or defensive back.
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DeAndre Jackson, a junior from Garland, Texas, who has brought smiles to
Cyclone fans with his exploits on the field, wants to work the same magic off the
field.
"I always feel I've got to give back," Jackson said.
He recalls a time when he was in a Texas hospital for a week after lacerating a
kidney in a high school football game.
"It was very scary," he said. "I was really scared that I might not ever be able to
play football again.
"It made me happy when people came to visit me. I felt people really cared."
That was how Jose Valladares, 9, felt after linebackers Shawn Moorehead and
Jamarr Buchanan, tight end Ben Barkema, safety Nik Moser and kicker Tony
Yelk came to his hospital room.
"I watch football a lot," said Valladares, who lacerated his right leg when jumping
on a bed and accidentally kicking out a window. "So this is exciting."
Alvaro Arteaga, 10, had his picture taken with a group of Cyclones standing
around his hospital bed.
"You're definitely the best-looking one in that picture," Moorehead teased.
Arteaga beamed.
Jackson said he and a dozen or so teammates went to Mary Greeley Medical
Center in Ames on Fridays before home games this season, visiting patients
young and old.
"Sometimes now I'll be out somewhere and see those people, and they stop and
talk to me," he said.
When he heard about the hospital visit in Houston, he volunteered.
"It makes me be thankful," he said. "And I like putting smiles on people's faces."
Jackson said the visits make him a better person.
And, he has come to understand, a better football player.
"It carries over," he said.
"It sure does for me."
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Des Moines Register
12/31/05
Letters to the Editor
By REGISTER READERS
A word about my dad on his retirement
My dad, Norm Riggs, retires today after a 30-year career as a community
development specialist for Iowa State University. Such a life transition deserves
great attention, but as his daughter, I'm at a loss as to how to acknowledge his
accomplishment. His colleagues have honored him with dinners, parties, teas
and the like, but these tributes are out of context for me.
When my brother and I graduated from Roosevelt High School, he wrote us
words of wisdom and encouragement for our future that were published in The
Des Moines Register. I'd like to give him that same honor, but who am I to write
words of reflection on a career that is almost as old as I am?
Community development specialist. When I was a kid, I just wished my dad did
something that I could both say and understand. Doctor. Vet. Engineer. Fireman.
I couldn't wrap my brain around the concept of someone who develops a
community. It took me a long time to understand what my father did, and even
longer to appreciate the skill required to navigate the politics, human emotion and
harsh economic reality facing Iowa's communities. My dad brought together
young and old, farmer and developer, politician and activist, businesspeople and
those threatened by big business. It was messy, but my dad thrives on this type
of challenge.
I always say, "I never fear getting a flat tire in central Iowa. With the mention of
my dad's name, someone will come to my rescue." He is well-respected in most
communities, and well-loved in many. At home he's an introvert, but in his
professional capacity he has perfected the simultaneous roles of a psychologist,
sociologist, mediator and public speaker.
My dad's approach to his life and career demonstrates several vital qualities. He
is a father first: My brother and I know we are always at the top of his list. He is
passionate. He is modest. He has perfected balance in life through the many
interests that will keep him busy post-retirement. He's a political activist, an
advocate for the homeless and an avid outdoorsman. An accomplished
gardener. His insatiable appetite for reading and broadening his horizons keeps
him engaged and energetic.
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He's moving on with both the understandable sadness of leaving a rewarding
career, and with great anticipation of life's next chapter. I'm proud of him.
-Katrina Riggs Webster, Shelburne, Vt.
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Des Moines Register
12/31/05
Hopes for 2006
. . . the new year will bring us new ability in genetic engineering of plants.
We hope to make this technology more efficient and accurate. Plant genetic
engineering is a critical tool for deciphering the functions of plant genes. The
more we understand plants, their evolution and their relationships with the
environment, the better we can improve crop productivities. We can and should
respect different cultures (religions, opinions) as well as nature (the perpetual
changes and its diversity).
— KAN WANG, associate professor of plant molecular biology in the
agronomy department at Iowa State University and director of the Center
for Plant Transformation in the Plant Sciences Institute
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Des Moines Register
01/01/06
Grassroots
Crop risk is workshop topic
Managing Crop Risks in 2006 workshops will be held ThursdayJan.5-Jan. 26 in
20 locations in Iowa.
Workshops will focus on input costs and alternative energy sources.
Steven Johnson, farm and agribusiness management field specialist at
Iowa State University Extension, will speak on high energy costs, bio-diesel
and marketing strategies before and after harvest.
Farm Credit Services of America crop insurance specialists also will speak.
Thursday’s workshop will be held at Des Moines Area Community College in
Newton. On Friday, a workshop will be at the Elks Lodge in Perry. Both begin at
10 a.m
Two and a half hour programs also will be held in Webster City, Mason City,
Waterloo, Jackson Junction, Arlington, Cedar Rapids, Durant, Marshalltown,
Carroll, Alta, Emmetsburg, Hospers, Sioux City, Mount Pleasant, Oskaloosa,
Harlan, Red Oak and Osceola.
Preregistration is required three days in advance of the seminar.
For dates, times and registration details, call (800) 884-3276 or go to
www.ManagingCropRisks.com
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Des Moines Register
01/01/06
New outreach at ISU
As the vice provost in the 1990s, Johnson found new sources of money to
keep the service going.
Jack Payne intends to build on Johnson's work, seeking other sources of
cash and more outreach.
By JERRY PERKINS
REGISTER FARM EDITOR
Ames, Ia. — Stanley Johnson turned Iowa State University Extension into a
paying proposition during his nine-year tenure as vice provost of the institution.
Johnson, 67, steps down from the job on Tuesday because his wife, Maureen
Kilkenny, has taken a job teaching economics at the University of Nevada at
Reno.
"This is her time to shine," said Johnson. "I've been at this nine years. It's time to
go."
Throughout its 102 years of existence, ISU Extension has educated Iowa farmers
about the latest innovations in agriculture — from hybrid seed corn, to
breakthroughs in pest control, to new techniques for combating erosion. But for
Johnson, his vivid recollection is of the daunting task he faced when he accepted
the job as vice provost for Extension in 1996 — finding new sources of money for
the program.
ISU Extension was beset by controversy and confusion as it struggled to find its
way to the 21st Century. A consulting company had recommended that
Extension's role in Iowa be re-evaluated because the competition for money had
become so acute, both in the Iowa Legislature and in Congress.
Johnson proved he could raise money when he was director of ISU's Center for
Agriculture and Rural Development from 1985 to 1996.
He went looking for more "non-traditional" sources of money for ISU Extension,
drumming up money from private business, charging fees for some formerly free
services and finding other sources of money.
At the time of his appointment, Johnson said that he expected Extension to
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become "much more entrepreneurial in finding its funding. . . . If we are
innovative in Extension, we can attract money from external sources, non-state
and federal sources."
After nine years, Johnson said, that mission has been accomplished, but
changing the funding culture of Extension was not easy.
"Some thought I was crazy, and maybe I was," he said.
Johnson established an entrepreneurial culture at Extension, charging user fees,
seeking grants and contracting with private businesses to provide services. He
reduced administration and the organization became more efficient, he said.
During his tenure, Extension received 28 percent less from the state's budget,
but more than made up for the loss by getting more grants and contracts.
The bottom line is that ISU Extension has not had to downsize as have other
states' Extension services.
ISU Extension has the same number of employees it had when Johnson took
over in 1996, "but not all are doing what they were before," Johnson added.
The organization's budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year totaled $86.6 million, a 48
percent increase from fiscal year 1997.
Apart from protecting Extension's bottom line, Johnson said one of his proudest
accomplishments is the formation of Extension county foundations that have
been established for people who want to give money to their local Extension
programs.
There are 100 county foundations being established to accept donations and to
decide how to spend it locally, Johnson said.
Because Extension is shifting many of its services from free to a fee, it is
important to offer people what they want, he said.
"For the first time, people will drive what the Extension does," he said. "We have
to be one step ahead and provide products that people will need. . . . The onus is
on us to provide a high-quality service that meets people's demands. We have to
move faster than the fast-moving world we live in."
"I'm going to miss Iowa State and Iowa a lot. It's not so much retirement that
bothers me as it is leaving Iowa," Johnson said.
Ames, IA — Jack Payne is leaving his small ranch in Utah with its quarter
horses, Australian shepherds and Angus cattle to become the new vice
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provost of Iowa State University Extension and outreach.
Payne can ride a horse for weeks in the Utah wilderness without seeing a fence,
he said in an interview with the Des Moines Sunday Register after he was named
to succeed to Stanley Johnson.
“That's going to be difficult to match in Iowa, I know,” Payne said. “But Iowa is
probably the best Extension job in the country, and I think it will be an honor to
follow Stan Johnson.”
ISU Extension in Iowa is at least three times larger than the Extension service in
Utah, Payne said, and the Iowa program is known as a leader in many national
issues.
“I was in Iowa three times for interviews, and everyone I visited with was just
terrific, from the people in the county offices to the president of the university,”
Payne said. “It was a good fit from the very beginning.”
He knows he faces a challenge in finding funding for Extension programs.
“All of us in the land grant system have had tremendous challenges, and we will
continue,” he said.
Utah Extension was no different from Iowa and other Extension services that
faced severe budget cuts and a lot of competition for money.
“We will have to find alternative sources of money,” Payne said. “Stan has been
a role model for those of us in other states who have faced the same dilemma.
Some think Extension should stay the same and not change, but we have to.”
Payne, 58, has taken an unconventional path to the job of running ISU
Extension.
He was the first chief executive officer of the American National Fish and Wildlife
Museum in Springfield, Mo., and spent 10 years with Ducks Unlimited, including
a stint as acting executive director of Duck Unlimited de Mexico.
Payne said he was the first natural resources professional to become a state
Extension director when Utah hired him. Because his background was not in
agriculture, some people were concerned that he would be less friendly to
production agriculture.
But Payne said he has spent most of his professional life bringing conservation
interests and agricultural interests together. When he worked in Texas for Ducks
Unlimited, he said, a lot of farmers there were turned off by the organization
criticizing agriculture and the loss of wetlands.
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Payne turned that around, he said, by going to agricultural groups and telling
them that Ducks Unlimited wanted to work with them, not against them.
“I understand that the future of wildlife habitat is in the hands of people who make
a living off the land,” Payne said. “Partnerships are essential to restore more
wetlands.”
When he took over supervision of Utah Extension, Payne said, he worked to
provide the same types of partnerships between ranchers and environmentalists
who understand that agriculture supports clean air, clean water and open space.
“It's one thing to understand the science,” Payne said, “but we need to
understand values and how to reach a consensus.”
Economic development also will be a big part of ISU Extension’s work during his
tenure, Payne said.
“We need to provide jobs for our kids and preserve the wonderful quality of life in
Iowa towns,” he said.
Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy is interested in having him lead
some initiatives outside of Extension for economic development, Payne said.
“That’s why he changed the title to vice provost for Extension and outreach,”
Payne said.
ISU Extension facts
DIRECTOR: Michael Ouart, associate vice provost, is interim director; Jack
Payne starts Jan. 16 as vice provost for Extension and outreach.
2004-05 FISCAL YEAR BUDGET: $86.6 million, including 27 percent from state
government, 23 percent from user fees, 20 percent from grants, 17 percent from
Iowa counties, 12 percent from the federal government and 2 percent from gifts.
EMPLOYEES: 1,323, including 39 percent on the Ames campus, 61 percent in
field and in county offices.
MAJOR PROGRAMS:
• Continuing education and communication services
• 4-H youth development
• Agriculture and natural resources
• Business and industry
• Community and economic development
• Families
TELEPHONE: (515) 294-4576
WEB SITE:
Health concerns
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In July 2004, Stanley Johnson was hospitalized in Orlando, Fla., after suffering a
stroke at a conference of the National Association of State Universities and LandGrant Colleges.
But Johnson said his decision to step down as head of Iowa State University
Extension was not influenced by the stroke. Although he says he still has some
problems with his memory, he has recovered almost completely, Johnson said.
In Reno, Johnson said he will work on projects that interest him.
Stanley Johnson
AGE: 67
TITLE: Vice provost for Extension, Iowa State University, 1996-2006;
distinguished professor of agriculture.
EDUCATION: Ph.D. in agricultural economics, Texas A & M University; master's
degree in agricultural economics, Texas Technical College; bachelor's degree in
agricultural economics, Western Illinois University.
HONORS: Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association, member
of the Former Soviet Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Russian
Academy of Agricultural Science and the Ukraine Agricultural Academy of
Science, honorary professor of the Center for Rural Development Research,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, foreign member of the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences, honorary professor of the Ukrainian State Agricultural University,
received the Wilton Park International Service Award, and received the
International Honor Award, Office of International Cooperation and Development,
United States Department of Agriculture.
FAMILY: Married to Maureen Kilkenny; two grown sons, Ben and Peter.
Jack M. Payne
AGE: 58
TITLE: Vice provost of Iowa State University Extension and outreach.
EXPERIENCE: Vice president for University Extension at Utah State University,
including serving as director of the Utah Cooperative Extension Service and dean
of continuing education.
PAST EXPERIENCE: Faculty member at the Pennsylvania State University
School of Forest Resources and state Extension wildlife specialist; Texas A&M
University faculty in the fisheries and wildlife department; Extension wildlife
specialist in Texas; Ducks Unlimited, most recently national director of
conservation.
FAMILY: wife Renee; six grown children.
Extension numbers
Following are statistics for Iowa State University Extension for the fiscal year
ended July 1, 2005:
8 million — number of online Extension educational materials downloaded
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754,000 — number of clients of ISU Extension programs
50,000 — number of listeners to Extension market news, commodity and
business reports
16,000 — number of volunteers who worked with Extension programs
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Des Moines Register
01/01/06
ISU fans gather at home to cheer for football
team
Iowa State University football fans shared a long day's journey into the new
year Saturday afternoon, watching their Cyclones play — and ultimately fall — in
Houston Bowl.
Texas Christian University's team defeated the Cyclones, 27-24, at Houston's
Reliant Stadium, where ISU officials estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Cyclone fans
saw the game in person.
As the last seconds ticked away, some ISU fans back in the Des Moines area
were already looking ahead to 2006.
"They let me down by a hair," said Larry Odegaard, 48, at the Nest Bar & Grill in
Johnston. "It was a nice, hard-fought game on both sides, and a tight defensive
battle in the second half."
"I'll be there rooting for them again," he said. "Hopefully, they'll go to a bowl game
again next year."
Tamer than usual
With the game falling on New Year's Eve day, football parties in the Des Moines
and Ames areas seemed tamer than in the past, several bar owners said.
Rich Marx, owner of the Nest Bar & Grill, said that he expected more fans but
that he was pleased that people filtered into the bar throughout the first half. He
attributed the lower turnout to the game being on New Year's Eve and there
being many more places for Cyclones fans to go than there were when he
opened the bar seven years ago.
In West Des Moines, Tom Zmolek , owner of A.K. O'Connor's and an Iowa State
alumnus, said the crowd at his bar was simply "OK."
"I'm a lifelong Cyclone fan, and we have crowds here every game. This is the
lowest turnout we've had yet, but I think a lot of fans went down to Houston,"
Zmolek said.
Despite a smaller crowd, the establishment was lively. From cheers to
profanities, the crowd at A.K.'s was a mix of ISU alumni and football fans in
general., and much of the crowd with a loud cry of optimism. "Don't get
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depressed. Sept. 2 is the first ISU game — just relax," he said.
Life's lessons
There are few greater lessons learned from a football game than those shared
from your fellow bar mates.
That's what Dana Morrone, 26, an Iowa State University graduate student,
figured out during the first quarter of ISU's bowl game at Legends American Grill,
a sports bar on the seventh floor of an apartment complex in Campustown in
Ames.
That's why he was drinking water as he watched Saturday's game. Talking to
fellow bar-stool warmers, he learned "about football and married life in your mid40s."
While the game raged, he heard, "She's not the pretty young lady they once
married." He looked around and contemplated, "It's a life lesson. Notice — I'm
drinking water. Not beer."
He wants to avoid a beer gut, he said.
At the other side of the bar, three Campustown roommates stuck together and
watched a Cyclone player let the ball slip out of his hands. "He threw it down,"
said Jessa Harding, a 22-year-old ISU senior from Des Moines. "Now he's in
trouble."
Legends waitress Kelsey LaPointe, 21, an ISU senior, watched snippets of the
game between splitting time between four tables.
She said more and more women know about football — although that may not
include her.
"I don't know a whole lot," she said. "I know what's going on half the time — most
of the time."
Always underdogs
Positive thinking was abundant before kickoff at the Nest Bar & Grill in Johnston.
Randy Peters, 42, of Johnston predicted a 14-point win for the Cyclones. "They
are always the underdogs, but they often turn out to do well," he said.
Kirstin Harding, 33, of Johnston told her friends she thought the Cyclones would
win. "It seems like they have been practicing good," she said. "They have the
passion."
Her friend, Jeff Schoondyke, 36, of Johnston, disagreed:
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"They are going to get smoked."
Harding said, however, that Schoondyke is really a University of Iowa fan. And
Schoondyke admitted that he would soon be flying to Tampa, Fla., where the
Hawkeyes will take on the University of Florida on Monday in the Outback Bowl.
"I'm getting nervous about that game," Schoondyke said.
Across the room, Dottie and Larry Odegaard, who drove to Johnston from
Knoxville to view the game at the Nest, were feeling positive, even as TCU pulled
ahead early in the first quarter.
"Adjustments," said Dottie Odegaard. "It's time to make some adjustments."
Just moments later, as a Cyclone hauled in a long pass and Iowa State scored,
Larry and Dottie each downed a shot of cinnamon schnapps.
Larry had had Dottie order the schnapps because he felt a touchdown was near.
Of course, the cinnamon schnapps was nearly the color of their matching longsleeved Cyclone T-shirts.
"We think it helps," Dottie said.
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Muscatine Journal, IA
01/03/05
Louisa retail sales growth tops state again
WAPELLO, Iowa - Retail sales growth in Louisa County has for the secondstraight quarter outpaced that of the state, and officials are crediting response to
a local promotion campaign called Shop Louisa.
This is welcome news in the county that has long held the 99th position among
Iowa counties in terms of retail sales activity.
The Iowa Department of Revenue recently reported sales figures for the second
quarter of 2005 (April through June). Taxable sales in Louisa County grew 5.9
percent compared to the same period in 2004. Growth for the state was reported
as 4.3 percent.
For decades, Louisa County has had the misfortune of having the lowest retail
pull factor in Iowa, according to a news release from Mallory Smith, executive
director of the Louisa County Development Group. Pull factor is calculated by
dividing the per capita current dollar sales of a town or county by the state’s per
capita sales.
For the last five years, Louisa County’s pull factor has averaged 0.22, translating
to millions of dollars in lost sales every year. A recent publication by Iowa State
University’s Office of Social and Economic Trend Analysis (SETA) “A guide
to Understanding Iowa Retail Data” uses Louisa County as the example of the
dollar impact of a low pull factor.
The authors calculate that Louisa County lost more than $70 million in potential
sales in 2003.
In December 2004, Louisa Development Group, the local economic development
organization, in partnership with the six Louisa County banks, launched a
campaign aimed at capturing some of that lost sales revenue. Shop Louisa asks
people to spend $5 more per week in the county. The cumulative effect is
calculated at more than $1 million, which translates into increased tax revenues
and jobs.
Louisa County residents responded. Taxable sales increased 8 percent in the
first quarter of the year and 5.9 percent in the second, in both cases posting
gains larger than that of the state.
“It’s very impressive how people have taken this campaign to heart,” Smith said.
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She said the campaign will be continued this year.
For more information about Louisa Development Group or Shop Louisa, contact
Smith at 319-527-5182 or loudevgr@louisacomm.net
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Radio Iowa
01/02/06
I-S-U lab helps find leaks in space
by Darwin Danielson
Researchers at the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation at Iowa State
University in Ames are working on better ways to find leaks in spacecraft. The
leaks can be caused by collisions with tiny meteorites or other space debris, but
center director Bruce Thompson says they aren't always easy to find.
Thompson says if your car tire has a leak in it, you hear the hissing sound and
know the air is coming out. But, he says in a space vehicle the gas is leaking out
into a vacuum and you don't hear the leak. You can take a tire and put it in a tub
of water to detect a leak -- but that's not a method that works in space.
He says even if you did know it was leaking because of a drop in cabin pressure,
you would have no way to know where the leak was. He says many leak
detectors are based on moving a microphone around to hear the sound of the
leak. Thompson says in space you have to get much more precise in finding the
leak.
He says there are sounds carried by the metal in the space structure, so you
have to put high frequency microphones up to the metal to hear sounds.
Thompson says you then have to process that sound to determine the location of
the leak. Thompson says researchers at I-S-U are working on techniques that
can pinpoint the leaks within seconds by using the vibrations detected in the skin
of the spacecraft.
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Sioux City Journal, IA
12/29/05
Extension office to host beef Webcast
Feedlot and cow-calf producers in Northwest Iowa are invited to participate in a
statewide webcast featuring beef markets. The webcast begins at 7 p.m. Monday
at the Woodbury County Extension office, 4301 Sergeant Road, suite number
213.
The Webcast will focus on four issues -- how to qualify for Japanese beef
exports, cattle market outlook, risk management and new cattle insurance
products. It is sponsored by Iowa State University Extension and the Iowa Beef
Center and is made possible by a grant from the USDA Risk Management
Agency.
Exporting beef to Japan will involve more than just birthdates. Specific
procedures must be followed to qualify and prove the age of the animals. These
procedures will be discussed by Samantha Simon, a USDA representative based
in Washington, D.C.
Dr. John Lawrence, director of the Iowa Beef Center at Iowa State
University, will discuss the current market situation and price implications of
resuming exports to Japan and Korea. Dermot Hayes, ISU ag economist, will
discuss a new insurance product available to cattle feeders that allows them to
manage risk and insure a gross margin over corn and feeder cattle costs.
Beef producers and industry affiliates interested in viewing the webcast should
contact the Woodbury County Extension office to register at (712) 276-2157. A
$5 attendance fee will be taken at the door.
To learn more about this and other programs provided for beef producers in
Woodbury County, visit the county Extension Website at
www.extension.iastate.edu/woodbury or call the county Extension office at (712)
276-2157.
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The American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston,
Virginia
01/01/06
Better Bridges
AMES, Iowa (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Bridges take a beating, and it can
really break the bank to repair them. Now, researchers are breaking bridges to
learn how to build them better and save you money.
Justin Doornink spends his mornings underneath bridges. He's an engineering
student and, as part of his homework, he's installing sensors to measure the
impact of traffic on the bridge. He's trying to figure out how to strengthen the
structures. One option is ultra-high-performance concrete, which is made from
sand, cement, water and small steel fibers.
Brent Phares, Ph.D., a civil engineer and associate director at the Iowa
State University Bridge Engineering Center in Ames, says, "It's much, much
stronger. It's basically impermeable to water. What those two things mean is you
can build a bridge that has a higher capacity and should last a longer period of
time."
Brent did a small-scale test with the new concrete, pushing it to its breaking
point. It held close to 595,000 pounds -- that's more than seven semi trucks. The
material costs 10-times as much as traditional concrete, but you need less of it,
and it lasts longer.
"You're never going to advance the state-of-the-art unless you do some
research, try some things out, maybe take some risks and see what might
ultimately save the taxpayers money," he says.
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The Guthrian, IA
12/28/05
ANNUAL FARMLAND STUDY COMPLETED
The value of Guthrie County farmland soared to record heights again in 2004.
The average price per acre jumped up $255 going from $2,388 in 2004 to $2,643
in 2005, a leap of 10.7 percent.
That was the third straight year of double digit percentage increases and came
on the heels of a 20.5 percent gain in 2004 and a 13.8 percent hike in 2003.
Since 2002, farmland in the county has escalated in value by an unprecedented
51.8 percent.
For 22 years, until 2003, the highest recorded value of farmland in Guthrie
County was $1,763 in 1981. Five years later, in 1986, farmland in the county
bottomed out at $671 an acre.
The average value of an acre of farmland in Iowa reached an all-time high of
$2,914 in 2005, an average increase of $285 or 10.8 percent from the prior year,
according to the annual land survey conducted by Iowa State University.
Using the average value of $2,914, the total value of the state's 32.6 million acres
of farmland is about $95 billion.
Mike Duffy, ISU Extension farm economist who conducts the survey, said the
effect of inflation on the value of a dollar means that the 2005 figure is roughly
the same as the value of land in 1973, before the run-up that led to a peak of
$2,147 in 1981.
After the 1981 peak, Iowa land values dropped sharply, reaching a statewide
average of $787 per acre in 1986. The 2005 figure represents an increase of 270
percent in the past 19 years.
Values increased in all 99 Iowa counties and topped $1,000 an acre in every
county for the second time since ISU began conducting the survey in 1941.
Gains of less than 10 percent were reported in only 21 counties. The smallest
percentage increase was 3.6 percent in Marshall County and the largest increase
was 24.3 percent in Ringgold County.
The largest dollar increase was $540 per acre in Scott County (Davenport) which
also set a state record with an average value of $4,707 per acre.
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The survey of real estate brokers, farm lenders and others who work directly with
the land markets, indicated the increases topped 8 percent in all nine of the
state's crop reporting districts. The highest average values were reported in the
Central Iowa district, $3,415 per acre. Values in the West Central district grew by
11.7 percent to $3,048 per acre.
Iowa farmland has increased by about 57 percent the past five years. Duffy, said
he is frequently asked whether land values have peaked or if the market is too
high.
He said the answers to those questions cannot be determined from the survey,
but "it does appear that these concerns are on people's minds. When you
combine several of the similar negative factors mentioned, well over a fourth of
the respondents are concerned that the market is too high for profitable farm
production."
Duffy noted farmland rental rates have increased more slowly than land values.
Factors that might contribute to stability in land prices include the observation
that about 45% of the farmland in Iowa is owned by people who do not live on
farms, and about 19% of those non-farm owners do not even live in Iowa. Those
factors, combined with a survey that showed about 75% over Iowa's farmland is
owned without debt, indicate the potential for significant land value declines is
less than it was in the early 1980s.
Duffy said low interest rates were a major factor in value increases this year and
were mentioned by 27 percent of those responding to the survey. Other positive
factors were good crop yields, mentioned by 26% of the respondents; tax-free
treatment of land transactions involving land exchanges, mentioned by 20%;
government programs and payments, mentioned by 16%; and strong investment
demand, mentioned by 12%.
Negative factors that worked against greater increases this year included lower
current grain prices, listed by 28 percent of the respondents; high costs of farm
inputs and machinery and low profitability in general, mentioned by 16%; and an
uptrend in interest rates, also mentioned by 16%.
Low grade land, which averaged $1,961 per acre in 2005, a 14.5% increase over
the previous year. Medium grade land averaged $2,736 per acre, an 11.4%
increase, and high grade land averaged $3,511 per acre, an increase of 10.0%.
Forty-eight percent of the survey respondents said the number of sales this year
was about the same as last year, while 29 percent said there were more sales in
2005, and 23 percent said there were fewer sales.
Existing farmers were buyers in about 56 percent of the transactions with
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investors accounting for about 39 percent of the sales, new farmers three percent
and other purchasers two percent.
Values as of November 1, 2005:
2004
2005
+or%chg
Adair
1766
2020
$254
14.4%
Audubon
2421
2824
403
16.6%
Carroll
3054
3307
253
8.3%
Cass
2279
2610
331
14.5%
Dallas
2947
3167
220
7.5%
Greene
2909
3154
245
8.4%
Guthrie
2388
2643
255
10.7%
Madison
2136
2427
291
13.6%
State
2629
2914
285
10.8%
Also ran in: Missouri Valley Times News, IA
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Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier
01/02/06
Waterloo schools turn into fitness facilitites
after dark
By ANDREW WIND, Courier Staff Writer
WATERLOO --- The Christmas cookies and New Year's parties are past, but now
you're stuck with the results of holiday overeating.
Beginning this week, though, two schools are opening their doors after hours to
help families drop those pounds and pick up some nutrition and health tips.
Hal's Pals, a collaborative effort being led by the Black Hawk County Health
Department and Waterloo Community Schools, is kicking off from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Thursday at Irving Elementary and from 5:30 to 7 p.m. next Monday at Dr. Walter
Cunningham School for Excellence. The program targets people living in those
neighborhoods but is open to all who are interested. Participants will have
physical fitness screenings their first visit and can then return every Tuesday and
Thursday to take part in a series of exercises and heath education activities.
Hal is a mascot created earlier this year by the Youth Fitness & Obesity Institute
at the University of Northern Iowa, one of the project's nine collaborators. The
name is an acronym that stands for "Healthy, Active Lifestyles."
"The young kids really seem to connect to the Hal character," said UNI Professor
Larry Hensley, the institute's director.
But children can't come to Hal's Pals by themselves. The program is designed for
families, and participants are expected to bring their children or grandchildren.
Those 5 and older can participate while child care is provided for younger kids.
The cardiovascular, strengthening and flexibility exercises will be set up in about
12 different circuits, said Norm Johnson, CEO of the Family YMCA of Black
Hawk County, another collaborating agency. Participants will spend 60 seconds
on each exercise in a circuit before moving on to the next one. Johnson said the
circuits will change each session to keep the activities fresh.
"Our goal is to keep these fairly simple activities," he noted. "These are exercises
everybody can do. The 7-year-old can do it next to the 67-year-old grandparent."
The exercise circuit was demonstrated last month before winter break at
Cunningham. Stations in the circuit were arranged in a circle and included
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equipment like a Bosu ball and mats. Teachers and students volunteered to
demonstrate such activities as crunches, push-ups and balancing exercises while
upbeat techno music blared from a boom box.
The Hal mascot also made an appearance, to the delight of students. Brochures
about the program were sent home with students. A similar demonstration also
was done at Irving.
Bruce Meisinger, manager of health planning and development for the county,
said the initial screenings will gather baseline information on participants' height,
weight, blood pressure and other indicators. The exercise circuits are designed to
have a impact on regular participants that will be measured at a later point in the
program.
Participants also will be able to join classes on such topics as meal planning,
nutrition and healthy recipes.
Jill Weber, a nutrition specialist with Iowa State University Extension
(another collaborating agency), said they will be, for example, "focusing on
picking a better snack --- fruits and vegetables, whole grain."
Other topics will include oral health education, tobacco use prevention and
cessation and arthritis prevention interventions.
Meisinger said the annual screening done by the health department of all
Waterloo students shows 37 percent are obese, based on height and weight
measurements for their age.
"We're targeting the neighborhoods around Irving and Cunningham," he said.
"Our data shows that's where the highest prevalence of kids are that are
overweight and obese.
"The important thing here," he added, "this isn't a kid thing. This is family
wellness." Research indicates a high probability that at least one parent of an
overweight or obese child is likely to have a weight problem.
The program provides a wider community use for Cunningham and Irving
schools, both of which opened in the past three years.
"They've really kind of built this building with community use in mind and this is
our first opportunity," said Michelle Temeyer, the school district's community
education director, referring to Cunningham.
Hal's Pals is one of three programs being started with the help of a $187,500
federal wellness grant awarded to the county in September by the Iowa
Department of Health. The $94,000 going toward the program will sustain the
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twice-weekly activities through the end of the school year and throughout the
2006-07 school year. The money paid for equipment and will cover costs to staff
the program.
The remaining funding will go toward similar efforts to promote wellness in the
workplace and for the elderly.
UNI's college of health, physical and leisure services will lead the workplace
initiative among Cedar Falls industrial park business and city employees. The
Hawkeye Valley Area Agency on Aging will lead the initiative with people 60 and
older at the Cedar Falls Community Center. A portion of the funding also will go
toward upgrading the database containing the health screening information on
Waterloo students.
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