|
|
Thursday, August 19
A Report in from OWEN for Iowans
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 19 Aug 2004 05:20 PM CDT
A Report in from OWEN for Iowans
Mike Owen / Democrat for State Representative
District 79 / Cedar, Johnson, Muscatine Counties
Join Us This Week If You Haven't Already!
We had a
great event Monday in West Liberty as Sen. Tom Harkin spoke to a full
house for better House (and Senate). Sen. Harkin spoke eloquently
of how government can give people hope, and of the importance of
electing Mike Owen to the Iowa House and Tom Fiegen to the Iowa Senate. U.S. Senate candidate Art Small and U.S. House candidate Dave Franker also addressed the group.
Friday Aug. 20, Tipton: Fundraiser Open House for Mike Owen
Home of Nick & Maureen Arensdorf, 202 West 8th St., 5 p.m. to 8
p.m. Bring a snack food or bottle of wine. Punch and coffee
will be provided.
Saturday Aug. 21, Mount Vernon: Garden Party for Rep. Ro Foege & Mike Owen
Home of Steve Maravetz & Dixie Collins, 218 7th Avenue North, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Hope to
see you at either or both events! Thank you to Nick &
Maureen, and Steve & Dixie, for hosting these events for our
campaign.
Also, we'll be passing along details soon about our Labor Day Barn Picnic, where we'll have a special guest!
All Together Now - The "Front Burner" Issues
Good schools.
Good jobs.
Health care.
Yes,
we're still talking about those things, and will be for the next 75
days. Then, we'll take them on to the Statehouse and work on
them. Those are the front-burner issues, and they're too hot for
the current legislative leadership to handle. They'd rather touch
flashy "hot button" issues that they use to drive wedges among Iowans
and distract us from our real challenges. So, keep that in mind
when you see the "hot buttons" in surveys and advertising, appealing to
emotions. Our positive alternative is to appeal to Iowans' sense
of community, responsibility, public spirit, thrift and common sense.
Mike Owen
Democratic Candidate for State Representative
District 79, Cedar, Muscatine, Johnson counties
owen4iowans@Lcom.net
(319) 643-5714
Owen for Iowans
563 Oliphant St.
West Branch, IA 52358
To learn more about Mike Owen or to contribute to his campaign, click here.
Krugman: Saving the Vote
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 19 Aug 2004 12:31 PM CDT
Krugman: Saving the Vote
by Paul Krugman, New York Times
...Much
of Florida's vote will be counted by electronic voting machines with no
paper trails. Independent computer scientists who have examined some of
these machines' programming code are appalled at the security flaws. So
there will be reasonable doubts about whether Florida's votes were
properly counted, and no paper ballots to recount. The public will have
to take the result on faith.
Yet the
behavior of Gov. Jeb Bush's officials with regard to other
election-related matters offers no justification for such faith. First,
there was the affair of the felon list. Florida law denies the vote to
convicted felons. But in 2000 many innocent people, a great number of
them black, couldn't vote because they were erroneously put on a list
of felons; these wrongful exclusions may have put Governor Bush's
brother in the White House.
This
year, Florida again drew up a felon list, and tried to keep it secret.
When a judge forced the list's release, it turned out that it once
again wrongly disenfranchised many people - again, largely
African-American [Democratic voters] - while including almost no Hispanics [Republican voters].
[Monday], my colleague Bob Herbert reported
on another highly suspicious Florida initiative: state police officers
have gone into the homes of elderly African-American voters - including
participants in get-out-the-vote operations - and interrogated them as
part of what the state says is a fraud investigation. But the state has
provided little information about the investigation, and, as Mr.
Herbert says, this looks remarkably like an attempt to intimidate
voters.
Given
this pattern, there will be skepticism if Florida's paperless voting
machines give [pseudo-]pResident Bush an upset, uncheckable victory. [Skepticism? That's got to be the understatement of the century.]
Congress
should have acted long ago to place the coming election above suspicion
by requiring a paper trail for votes. But legislation was bottled up in
committee [meaning, the Republican chair of the House Admin Committee intentionally prevented it from going to the floor for a vote], and it may be too late to change the hardware. Yet it is crucial that this election be credible. What can be done?
(more) Free Registration Required
Tomorrow,
Blog for Iowa will offer up some suggestions about what you can do
right here at home to ensure accurate and fair elections.
[My comments are in italics above.]
Thanks to JoyAnn in Cedar Rapids for alerting Blog for Iowa about this article.
Andrew Smith Comments on Iowa Beef Closing
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 19 Aug 2004 09:32 AM CDT
Andrew Smith Comments on Iowa Beef Closing
I am
saddened and troubled by the estimated 540 jobs that will be lost when
Iowa Quality Beef in Tama shuts down operations Friday. This will cause
yet more heartache and trouble for the people of Tama County, who have
already had to deal with so much heartache and economic turmoil these
past five years. Unfortunately, Iowa's small town economies are no
longer diversified, and when a big plant closes in any of Iowa's small
towns today, the entire community in which that company resides suffers
tremendously. Because of a lack of economic diversity, and the slow
decay of our main streets, it will be difficult for Tama County to
absorb a job loss of this magnitude. What is currently being done to
help diversify our small town economies in Iowa is not good enough. The
Republican-controlled legislature needs to stop the corporate welfare
to the places that need economic development the least, and start
helping entrepreneurs and small businesses grow and develop in Iowa’s
rural communities, the places that need economic development the most.
We must do everything in our power to diversify our small town
economies, or we are doomed to see this pattern of heartache, sorrow,
and economic despair repeat itself in many Iowa small towns.
Andrew Smith, Democratic Candidate for Iowa House District 40, in Tama and Grundy counties
Layoffs Cast Pall Over Iowa
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 19 Aug 2004 05:01 AM CDT
Layoffs Cast Pall Over Iowa
540 Layoffs At Tama Meat Plant
KWWL.com
Shocking News Out of Tama
540 eastern Iowa meatcutters are out of a job. Iowa Quality Beef in Tama will suspend operations on Friday.
As plant
workers leave for home, they deal with a lot of uncertainty. The
company calls it a temporary layoff and the plant will stop all
operations. The president of Iowa Quality Beef says the cattle market
isn't good because of the Mad Cow Disease scare. And because of that,
there's less demand. Countries like Japan and Korea aren't accepting
beef from the U.S.
Ward Wehrman is an Iowa Quality Beef employee and says, "It's been kinda slow and we were all wondering if it was flying."
The
plant is the second largest employer in Tama County. Its closing is a
major blow to the economy and a big surprise for many workers. Simon
Trevino is another plant employee and says, "How am I gonna pay my
bills? I got two checks coming for this week, next week, and that's it.
Then I got to go file for unemployment or look for other work."
(more)
Layoffs near for Oakdale
Iowa City Press-Citizen
OAKDALE
-- Layoffs are imminent at the Iowa Medical and Classifica-tion Center
and could number up to 35 employees, the president of the union
representing a majority of the prison's employees said Tuesday.
..."(Today)
is going to be our first step. We're getting together local legislators
here to discuss what it (the layoffs) would do to us and our safety and
go that route," Hathaway said. "Then, we have a meeting Friday with all
our membership and we'll just go from there."
Hathaway
represents about 200 of the 320-person work force at the Oakdale
prison. It is not yet known what employees will be losing their jobs.
Hathaway said he represents all the correctional officers, clerical
workers and "blue-collar" workers.
As of
April, Oakdale had lost 23 permanent positions in the past two years
with seven current vacancies and two staff members serving in the
military. Hathaway said the prison has since lost more positions, but
he declined to say how many until today's press conference.
(more)
Dubuque Furniture Maker Lays Off Workers
Des Moines Register
A
Flexsteel Industries Inc. spokesman says the layoff of 50 employees at
its Dubuque plant isn't permanent, but a union leader says those jobs
will be transferred to another state.
On
Monday, the furniture maker laid off 27 employees in its Dubuque
upholstery division. Another 19 employees found out Wednesday that they
will lose their jobs early next week.
Flexsteel
spokesman Tom Baldwin said that retirements and increased business
levels could bring back job opportunities for some of the displaced
workers.
Baldwin
said Flexsteel, which announced in June it would shut down an
upholstery production line at the Dubuque plant, is trying to
streamline production efficiencies at its seven U.S. factories.
(more)
Working Condition Complaints Hit Record High at UI Due to Layoffs
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Worries
about budget cuts at the University of Iowa are causing feelings of
frustration and driving a record number of complaints related to
working conditions, according to the UI Office of the Ombudsperson.
In a
report released Wednesday, the number of new complaints in 2003-04
totaled 409. That is 106, or 35 percent, more complaints than last year.
...Recent
layoffs include 17 UI employees in June, followed by 31 layoffs at
University Hospitals in July. Employees now are waiting for future cuts.
(more)
Citigroup Announces Iowa Layoffs
IslandPacket.com
DES
MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Citigroup Inc. will close a credit customer service
center in suburban Des Moines next year, laying off 450 workers, as the
New York-based financial services giant continues to slash jobs
following last year's purchase of Sears' credit and financial services
arm.
The
workers at the West Des Moines center process credit applications and
accounts and contact cardholders about payments. Their work is expected
to be transferred to other Citigroup locations by the second quarter of
2005, the company said.
(more)
|
|
