Search Results for ‘sioux city journal’
David Yepsen was singing the praises of Chet Culver today for undermining efforts to allow teachers and other public employees the same rights as private sector employees. Apparently if this happens, there’s a chance that teachers may negotiate for smaller class sizes as part of collective bargaining and why would any Iowa school want smaller class sizes? Except, of course, that there is a definitive link between class size and academic performance among students. Yepsen also brings up the scary fact that the collective bargaining bill would mean more binding arbitration which Yepsen is sure means higher costs to government. However, Ed Tibbets in an exhaustive piece for the Quad City Times shows that binding arbitration only happens rarely. In fact, it only occurs in 1% of all contract disputes in Iowa. In fact, binding arbitration may work against teachers and other public employees union. While opponents of the bills claim that in arbitration cases involving school districts, teachers prevail against management 57% of the time (although includes a mere 63 cases that occurred over the past 5 years), the Quad City Times’ review of arbitration cases in Scott County shows the contrary and management prevailing over public employees almost 60% of the time.
However, this isn’t stopping the fearmongering. Far-right organizations like Iowans for Tax Relief are claiming (without any data to back up their claims, of course) this could lead to disastrous rises in property taxes, leading Iowa to become more like such states as Maryland, Kansas and Maine and less like such states as Alabama, Arkansas and New Mexico (which incidentally not only have the lowest property taxes in the nation but rank in the bottom for household income, percentage of those living in poverty, employment and just about every other indicator of economic and social health available). So why is Chet going against fairness for teachers and other public employees (along with virtually every Democrat in the legislature) to bathe in the good graces of Iowans for Tax Relief and David Yepsen?
One assumes this is political posturing, designed to strengthen Culver’s hand in his dealings with the legislature. After all, as the Sioux City Journal notes “Culver raised no objections with the substance of the bill, just the process by which it passed. Spokesman Brad Anderson said Culver was ‘not pleased’ that he wasn’t notified earlier, and felt the public should have been included in the debate.” This isn’t politics, it’s personal pique.
As a result, Culver’s annoyance with Mike Gronstal and Pat Murphy, he’s fanned the flames of this issue in a way that has energized Republicans and hurt working people. Iowa Democrats have waited 40 years to pass progressive legislation and for Culver to show such pettiness by standing in the way is disgraceful and sullies an otherwise admirable record as Governor. As Jack Kibbie notes, one imagines that Culver will support the collective bargaining bill “because of his future. He’s running on the Democratic ticket, I presume.” But if Culver continues to stand against guaranteeing public employees the same rights as their private sector counterparts, he’ll be as good a fit on the Republican ticket as on the Democratic one.
March 30th, 2008
While most people think that the Iowa Legislature’s passage of a bill to authorize stem cell research was an important step that offers hope to tens of millions of Americans suffering a wide range of horrible diseases and ailments, there are some dissenting voices. A far-right wing Catholic organization called Fidelis denounced the passage of the bill as “a shameful and cowardly flip flop.” Fidelis also pointed out who the real villain was behind the bill. It wasn’t Chet Culver, Mike Gronstal or Pat Murphy. It was “California rock star” Sheryl Crow. Apparently Crow called a wavering Democratic state legislator and encouraged him to vote for the bill, although the legislator, Brian Quirk of New Hampton, said that he was swayed not by Crow, but by the more mundane concept of giving sick people hope. Despite that, Fidelis still attacked Sheryl Crow for her role in corrupting the state of Iowa. The attacks may not be true but all Fidelis really wants to do is have some fun.
On a side note, fierce stem cell opponent Betty DeBoef, voted for the bill. Why? Apparently, she pressed the wrong button on the voting machine. When you can’t operate a two button machine on one of the most important bills of the year, something’s really wrong. There have been rumors that DeBoef might retire for sometime. A mishap like this can only make it more likely that DeBoef will follow Iowa’s ban on stem cell research off into the sunset.
February 24th, 2007
Mary Lundby, the Brutus to Stew Iverson’s Caesar, showed that she had the same ability to read English as her noble Roman predecessor the other day when she said that SF 115, the bill before the Iowa State Senate to allow stem cell research, would allow human cloning. In fact, she went even further than that;
“I’ve seen the deterioration of things that we consider taboo. Gratuitous violence on television and in video games. If you watch any of the prime time sitcoms, the double entendre has new meaning in the fact that it shows up in every other sentence. I just think Iowans are going to draw the line at the process of human cloning.”
Apparently, the reason for stem cell research was Tipper Gore’s failure twenty years ago and it’s just one slippery slope from Darling Nikki to curing Parkinson’s.
Lundby, along with other Republican all stars like David Hartsuch, are trying conflate stem cell research with human cloning. If they had bothered to read the bill, rather than talking points written by the Iowa Christian Alliance, they would have noticed that the bill explicitly bans human cloning and states that one of the purposes of the bill is “to prohibit human reproductive cloning.” It further goes on to explictly define human reproductive cloning as “human asexual reproduction, using somatic cell nuclear transfer, for implantation or attempted implantation into a woman’s uterus or substitute for a woman’s uterus. ‘Human reproductive cloning’ does not include somatic cell nuclear transfer performed for the purpose of creating embryonic stem cells.” It seems fair enough but you would think from Mary Lundby’s language that Chet Culver was using the proposed state grant for stem cell research to create something out of Blade Runner in Iowa City.
In reality, the Republican caucus in the State Senate, and especially a vulnerable moderate like Mary Lundby, is beholden to the far right wing elements in the Republican Party of Iowa like the Iowa Christian Alliance (in fact, it’s fair say that, to a large extent, the entire RPI is beholden to the Iowa Christian Alliance ) and the right wingers are taking their pound of flesh on this issue. Bill Dotzler gets it right when he says the Republican opposition is based on “politics and semantics, not the issues.” Although adult illiteracy is embarassing, Mary Lundby using it to hide a problem far worse, the fact that she’s playing politics with people’s lives.
February 13th, 2007
As part of the strategy of giving normal people tax cuts and rich peopl tax hikes, the Democrats in the Iowa Senate unveiled their new tax plan:
Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs said the package would provide tax relief for more than 90 percent of Iowa taxpayers. However, an analysis indicated taxpayers making more than $100,000 annually would see their taxes go up, with the highest bracket seeing a 37.5 percent spike.
“This tax-cut plan is built on common-sense priorities of Iowans,” Gronstal said, noting that it would simplify the state’s income tax and eliminate a “middle class inequity” whereby Iowans with moderate incomes currently pay 62 percent of the tax liability.
The Republicans, of course, have their own plan, which you can read about in this more detailed AP piece.
April 5th, 2006
On Thursday, the Iowa General Assembly honored Iowa native Norman Borlaug, the Sioux City Journal reports. Borlaug has spent his life developing techniques to help improve food production in developing nations, including India, Pakistan, and Mexico. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
The Senate said in its resolution that it “honors and expresses its thanks to Prof. Norman Borlaug, a Cresco, Iowa, native, who has made it his life’s work to feed the hungry and uplift the poor, and in doing so has made the 21st Century a time of hope for billions of people.”
Although Borlaug left Iowa at a young age, he credits his upbringing here as being crucial to his work.
“It was that black soil under my fingernails that led me in the worst of the Depression of the 1930s to seek a career in agriculture,” he said.
It is nice to know that we get to take credit for the work of all those famous people that were born in Iowa–and then high-tailed it out of here as soon as possible. Nice work, Borlaug, Herbert Hoover, and John Wayne.
March 17th, 2006
Well, first it was this story about an Osceola, IA, woman who was involved in a high-tech kiddie porn ring:
In this case he says investigators think they were distributing “child molestation on demand.” Instead of selling videotapes or e-mailing photos, the investigators charge people were committing acts of child molestation and streaming the video live to viewers as it happened. Patrons would request certain acts be performed, and “get it on demand,” what Counts describes as “pretty sick stuff.”
And then it was this one:
Daniel Dean Duello, 34, of Mount Auburn, was charged with sexual exploitation by a school employee after a two-year investigation, police said.
Duello is accused of having a sexual relationship with a female student from June through December 2004 while he was head varsity football coach and assistant varsity girls’ basketball coach at Vinton-Shellsburg High School. Duello resigned after the allegations surfaced in 2005.
And then another one! Hull, IA, teachers’ aide Kelly Jean Cuperus, 38, had a relationship with a 15-year-old student (which continued on after his 16th birthday):
Sioux County Attorney Melissa O’Rourke said the sex abuse and lascivious conduct counts are connected to two incidents in which sexual conduct took place last summer, when the boy was 15 years old. Iowa’s age of consent is 16, she said.
The count of sexual exploitation by a school employee alleges that the pair also engaged in sexual conduct several times during the current school year, O’Rourke said.
Anyone think that Iowa has a problem? This Register article describes the second two cases together and reveals that the Duello case went unresolved for over a year!
Vinton Police Chief Jeff Tilson said the student, who has since graduated, was a member of the varsity girls basketball team, of which Duello was the assistant head coach.
Tilson said he was notified of the alleged sexual conduct in Sept. 2004. He said the investigation concluded after about 1 1/2 years after the police department was able to “track down witnesses – current and former students.”
He still has his teaching license, although that’s finally under review, too.
March 16th, 2006
