Iowa School Board Overturns Committee Recommendation, Bans Book (GLBT)
The North Scott Press
by Bill Tubbs The
United Methodist Church defrocked the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud
on a 7-6 vote for being honest about her sexual orientation....The
church's decision appears to be, at best, an effort to achieve unity by
sacrificing reality and truth.
[That] very week, the networks, who flooded the airwaves all fall with half-truths
disguised as political ads, rejected as "too controversial" a 30-second
commercial of the United Church of Christ which showed a bouncer
standing guard outside a church and choosing whom to allow into
services. Among those rejected are people of color and a same-sex
couple.
Just when you think all the issues are national, the school board of
the Pleasant Valley [Iowa] School District sent shudders through
academia with a 4-3 vote to overturn a committee's recommendation that
it is OK to continue using the book, "The Misfits" by James Howe, in an
elementary classroom. Parents protested when they learned that Linda
Goetz, a sixth-grade teacher at Bridgeview Elementary in LeClaire, was
reading the book aloud in an effort to curb name-calling. Their
objection? One of the characters is gay.
(click here to read the entire story)
Iowa Department of Education Hosts Conference on Bullying and Harassment
"Bullying in Our Schools: Power and Empowerment"
The GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force is one of several
sponsors of this conference which will take place on Thursday,
January 27, 2005, at the Scheman Conference Center in Ames.
This conference is designed to help school teams (including youth and
community) create plans to prevent bullying and harassment
against all students, including those that are gay, lesbian, bisexual,
and transgender (GLBT).
Sessions will help team members learn what works, how to
effectively intervene when bullying happens, and how to recognize the
many forms that bullying can take. A special strand is being
offered for middle school and high school youth team members, in addition to a strand to address bullying/harassment against
diverse populations (GLBT students, students of color, students
with disabilities, religious minorities).
Pederson Elected Head of Iowa Democratic Party Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier
DES MOINES
(AP) -- The Iowa Democratic Party chose Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson
Saturday as its new leader. Pederson becomes chairwoman immediately....
The Democratic State Central Committee convened to replace Des Moines
lawyer Gordon Fischer, who is stepping down from the post.
[Pederson]
is expected to face huge challenges, the foremost of which is
preserving Iowa's first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses. A party
commission is studying the primary calendar.
Losing
those caucuses would deal a blow to both parties, which have used the
national attention drawn by the Iowa Caucuses to build party operations
that are among the best organized and financed in the nation.
She will
also face bitter feelings that linger after Democratic presidential
nominee John Kerry lost the state, while some of the party's state
candidates successfully defeated Republicans for legislative seats.
Some Democrats were unhappy about how money allocated to Iowa from the
Democratic National Committee was spent.
The
Central Committee also chose Rob Tully of Des Moines as first vice
chairman and Sara Swisher of Iowa City as second vice chairwoman. Jim
Hutter of Ames is the committee secretary and Ken Sagar of Des Moines
is treasurer.
Recycle 'Til You Drop! Waste Commissions In Your Area There
once was a girl name' of
ANN
Who'd recycle every jar, every
can
'cycling cartons and
boxes
And papers and
watches
Such a good little example this girl name' of Ann
Did you know the recycled cardboard that your cereal comes in used only
1/4 the energy to make and also only created 1/2 the pollution as a
newly made box?
Besides decreased
energy use and pollution reduction, another advantage is the resultant
pride knowing you are contributing to the welfare of your community and
state. It can also be a chance to create a family project at home or
with your friends. See who can recycle the most as well as
purchase recycled items. List items that you find are made by recycling
means. This can be something we ALL can work on every day of our
lives.
From a recycled garden in Davenport on North
Carey Avenue above 53rd Street, to a Davenport resident winning a car
for her years of recycling, IOWANS are doing their part to make our
state a cleaner state.
So what can recycling do for you and what can you do for
recycling? Park benches, rugs, goggles and fiber for filling ski
jackets are just a few items that can be made from recycled
plastics. Used aluminum and steel have each found a second life
as bikes, cookware, and cars.
Every county in IOWA should have a WASTE COMMISSION. Check out your
government listings. Here in SCOTT COUNTY you can go to
www.wastecom.com to find more
information. Or you can contact them at
WASTE COMMISSION OF SCOTT COUNTY/PO BOX 563 BUFFALO, IOWA 52728/(563)
381-1300/ or FAX 381-1301...Love, Peace, Happy Holidays.... Please,
remember to CPR: CONSERVE, PARTICIPATE, &
RECYCLE.
Race for DNC Chair Heats Up as Iowa’s First-in-the-nation Status Comes under Fire Clinton
war-room veteran Simon Rosenberg built his [centrist] New Democrat Network into a
formidable political operation with the help of financial backers in
New York. Now he’s considering a dark-horse run for chair of the
Democratic National Committee.
But
according to the Associated Press, a New Democrat victory would put the
first-in-the-nation status of both Iowa and New Hampshire at risk.
"Iowa
and New Hampshire should not go first in the primary calendar, and we
need to create a system that allows other states to have equal
footing," said Rosenberg….. "I have no problem with Iowa and New
Hampshire being part of the early states, but their days as the sole
arbiters of who our nominee is should come to an end," he said Friday.
The
Democratic National Committee formed a 40-member panel a week ago to
study whether to shake up the dominance that Iowa and New Hampshire
hold in presidential nominations.
However, two Iowans on the 40-member commission believe Iowa’s status is safe.
Des
Moines lawyer Roxanne Conlin, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman
and the party's 1982 candidate for governor, says Iowa has earned the
status through years of hard work. Des Moines lawyer and
Democratic activist Jerry Crawford says Iowa activists have an edge in
the debate because the caucuses have proven to be a positive force for
the party.
MOUNT VERNON, Iowa (Dec.
16, 2004) -- Iowa's nonfarm jobs dropped by 1,500 in November after a
slow four-month climb, while the state's unemployment rate fell
slightly to 4.7 percent as 4,000 people left the state's labor market.
The
November numbers showed 1,455,100 nonfarm jobs, down from the 12-month
high of 1,456,600 posted the month before, but up 10,100 from a year
earlier. The number is up 2,900 from November 2001, at the end of the
last recession, and down 19,100 from the March 2001 start of that
recession.
Despite
that context, Iowa Workforce Development Director Richard Running
claimed in the agency's monthly report that Iowa "remains in a recovery
mode" three years after the 2001 recession.
"That's
overstating things a bit," said Peter Fisher, research director at the
nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project. "Iowa has spent a lot of these three
years lagging well behind any meaningful recovery pace from the
recession.
"Even
now, we are still over 19,000 jobs behind the more pertinent measure -
where Iowa stood at the start of the recession. That number shows what
kind of ground we need to make up."
Fisher
noted Iowa would have to gain nearly 1,600 nonfarm jobs per month
over a year just to get back to where the state stood at the start of
the 2001 recession. That compares with an average nonfarm job growth of
842 per month over the past 12 months.
"Over
the next 12 months, we need to do almost twice as well as we did during
the past 12 months," Fisher said. "We need a much stronger recovery
than we've seen if the economy is going to offer sufficient job
opportunities for Iowans still out of work or just entering the
workforce.”
The
2,900-job growth since the 2001 recession also lags far behind the pace
of the recovery from the 1990s recession. At the comparable 36-month
mark following the March 1991 end of that recession, Iowa had gained
70,200 jobs.
Iowa's nonfarm job numbers hovered between 1,444,200 (June) and 1,456,600 (October) through the year.
The
12-month increase in jobs includes a 1,100 net increase in
manufacturing, following a downturn in that sector in 2003. Financial
activities with a 4,600 increase, education and health services at
4,200 and construction at 1,800 had the largest gains.
The only major declines cited by IWD came in government, 2,300, and information, 800.
Key numbers from Thursday's release:
--
Iowa's unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent, down slightly from 4.8
percent in October but up slightly from 4.6 percent in November 2003.
--
Iowa's nonfarm jobs stood at 1,455,100 in November, down from 1,456,600
in October and up 10,100 jobs, from 1,445,000, in November 2003.
--
Iowa's labor force stood at 1,631,600 in November, with 4,000 fewer
people working or looking for work than in October. The number is up
significantly, however, from the 1,603,000 labor force figure in
November 2003.
--
The nonfarm job total is 27,200 short of the 47,000 promised to be
created from June 2003 to November 2004 under the federal "Jobs and
Growth" tax cut.
Three years after the end of the 2001 recession:
-- Iowa has 2,900 more jobs.
-- Iowa's unemployment rate is up a full percentage point, to 4.7 percent from 3.7 percent.
Report Shows State Policy Squeezing Local Government Services
DES MOINES, Iowa
(Dec. 15, 2004) -- State budget shortfalls and higher costs that hit
Iowa cities and counties over the last four years have compromised
basic services while driving local taxes up and fund balances down, a
new study reports.
The
report, the fourth in a series from the Iowa Fiscal Partnership about
the impact of Iowa's budget crisis, illustrates a dilemma increasingly
faced by local government officials: how to meet residents' demand for
services with fewer or restricted means to pay for it.
"Short-sighted
state policy is putting local policy-makers in an impossible
situation," said Peter Fisher, research director of the Iowa Policy
Project and co-author of the report for the Iowa Fiscal Partnership.
"As our report illustrates, when the economy contracts, people demand
more services – at the same time that the state is cutting back,
property values are stagnant and costs are rising. In this climate,
local officials are asked to do more with less. "Like
the state, local officials are turning to one-time sources of money for
ongoing services, and they can't do that year after year."
The report noted:
-- State support for local governments has fallen by 42 percent, $119 million, since FY2001.
--
All but two of Iowa’s 99 counties have reached or exceeded their
general fund property tax levy limit, with 17 using their authority to
go higher due to unusual circumstances. Only one county did that in
FY2001.
-- The percentage of cities at their general fund levy limit has gone from 71 percent in FY2001 to 78 percent in FY2005.
--
Health insurance costs have increased for local governments just as
they have for private employers. From FY2001 to FY04, the cost for
county health premiums rose by 78.4 percent. Local governments have
increasingly used special levies to finance the added costs. On
average, about three-fourths of the increase in overall city property
tax rates is due to employee benefit levies.
-- Despite an increasing use of local-option sales taxes, this has not solved local governments' financial problems.
--
The property tax base has not grown to keep pace with either higher
costs or cuts in state support. This primarily is due to the state's
system of rollbacks, which has effectively reduced residential
valuation to less than half of its market value, and to the system of
valuing agricultural property based on productivity rather than market
value.
"Our
findings have critical implications for the coming debate on property
tax reform in the Legislature," said Victor Elias, senior associate at
the Child & Family Policy Center and a co-author of the report. "We
have a combination of limits on tax rates and slow growth in valuation.
This has clearly constrained the ability of cities and counties to
finance services."
The
Iowa Fiscal Partnership (IFP) is a joint initiative of two nonprofit
policy research organizations, the Iowa Policy Project in Mount Vernon
and the Child & Family Policy Center in Des Moines. Reports from
the IFP are available on the web at www.iowafiscal.org.
The
first three reports in the current IFP series on the state budget
crisis are available at that site. They include an overview comparing
Iowa's handling of its fiscal challenges to efforts of other states; an
analysis of the impact of the budget crisis on education; and an
analysis of the impact on human services.
Children living close to large factory hog farms have a higher than
normal incidence of ASTHMA than children who do not live in such
areas. Those children living close to factory farms that use
antibiotics on the swine incur the highest rate of ASTHMA.
This information was reported on IOWA Public Radio Friday, December
10th and is from a study in part by Dr. James A. Merchant. Dr.
Merchant is Dean of the University of IOWA College of Public Health in
IOWA City. The College of Public Health at the U of I teaches and
publishes research on causes of rural illness and prevention as well as
environmental health policy. They also have published information
on "Cancer In IOWA", the "IOWA Birth Defects Registry Annual Report"
and "Environmental Health Science Research".
Connections between use of pesticides and prostate cancer are
laid out in their 2004 College of Public Health Research
Publication. On page 16 entitled "All in a Day's Work" it
states: "In IOWA individual farm holders have 27% increased
risk of prostate cancer, while commercial pesticide applicators have a
41% increased risk."
*IBLTV is a group of citizens from the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area who are concerned about the decline in the quality of local television. Fight local media consolidation, as it leads to an unaccountable medium that enriches itself while disregarding the need to serve the public good.
*The rational counter to 'The Point,' 'The Counterpoint' critiques and corrects the daily editorial by Sinclair Broadcasting's corporate vice president, Mark Hyman, that is broadcast on all Sinclair-owned television stations across the country
Iowa School Board Overturns Committee Recommendation, Bans Book (GLBT)
Join your fellow Iowans in the fight to take back the media for ordinary citizens. Click here to join RapidResponse - Iowa.
Pederson Elected Head of Iowa Democratic Party
Recycle 'Til You Drop! 
Race for DNC Chair Heats Up as Iowa’s First-in-the-nation Status Comes under Fire
Iowa Jobs Fall in November
Iowa Budget Crisis: Cuts, Costs Hitting Cities, Counties
Asthma Danger To Rural Children