Joey Gase heads to the track prior the NASCAR Nationwide Series U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway in Newton on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011. He will return to the track this weekend for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Pioneer Hi-Bred 250. (David Scrivner/SourceMedia Group)

Jimmy Means Racing means Joey Gase receives another shot in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

The talented young driver from Cedar Rapids returns to the elite auto racing circuit after a two-race hiatus from competition.

Gase will be behind the wheel for the No. 52 car of JMR at the Nationwide Series Pioneer Hi-Bred 250 this weekend at Iowa Speedway in Newton. Gase started the first five races of the season with Go Green Racing, but was without a ride when he found himself without sponsorship.

“I’m super excited about it,” the 19-year-old Gase said. “I’m really glad he’s able to help us out and put me in the car for this weekend. I’m really glad to be back in the Nationwide Series and even more glad to be racing at Iowa Speedway.”

Gase is 29th in the Nationwide Series points standings, placing 23rd in the Royal Purple 300 at Auto Club Speedway on March 24. He completed 148 of 150 laps of that race and has finished 29th or higher in three of his five starts.

The deal had only been in the works for a week or two. The future is uncertain, but Gase wouldn’t mind an extended relationship with JMR and hasn’t ruled out a chance to rejoin GGR. The car will be sponsored by Pauliewood.com, a livestream reality TV show expected to debut in December.

“It’s a big relief to know I’ll be back in the Series again,” Gase said. “We’re hoping to do more races with Jimmy Means Racing. We’ll see what all happens and maybe we’ll fins a sponsor again here soon.

“We’re glad to have (Pauliewood.com) on the car this weekend. We’re hoping to keep them on the car.”

Late Model driver Joey Gase of Cedar Rapids prepares to head onto the track for hot laps on the opening day of races at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids on Friday, May 4, 2012. Gase will compete with Jimmy Means Racing at Iowa Speedway in Newton on May 19-20, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

That appears to be the biggest hurdle to clear for Gase. Sponsorship in auto racing is an on-going battle that affects almost everybody.

“It seems even the top teams are having trouble finding sponsors in the Nationwide Series,” said Gase, who raced the last two Friday nights at Hawkeye Downs Speedway, earning a late model feature win last week after Griffin McGrath was disqualified after failing a post-race inspection. “No matter what position you are, you’re almost always looking for sponsors.

Gase made his Nationwide Series debut last August at Iowa Speedway, placing 20th for GGR in the U.S. Cellular 250. He enters the race with confidence.

“I’ll be very happy if we get a top 25,” Gase said. “The team I’m with is a very good team, but they’re very underfunded at the same time.”

The race weekend kicks off Saturday with Nationwide Series practice 8:30 a.m.  with NASCAR K&N Pro Series practice at 11 a.m. Nationwide Series qualifying is 3:40 p.m. Saturday, and race Sunday at 1 p.m.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series has qualifying Saturday at 5:10 p.m. followed by the race at 7.

CEDAR RAPIDS (Wed., May 16, 2012) – The Dennis and Donna Oldorf Hospice House of Mercy has been serving eastern Iowa patients and their families with compassionate, end-of-life care for five years. The Hospice House is marking this milestone with a public open house and refreshments on Wednesday, May 23, from 4 to 6 p.m. The Hospice House is located at 315 18th Avenue, Hiawatha.

The Hospice House of Mercy provides 24-hour nursing care for each patient, serving people of all ages from all walks of life.

Since opening in May 2007, more than 1,100 patients have been directly served. As the only hospice house in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City corridor, its outreach is extensive. The next closest hospice house is in Waterloo.

The goal of the Hospice House is to provide a variety of services so patients can spend their final days in a caring, comfortable environment, surrounded by family members and caregivers who are both competent and compassionate.

The 22,000-square foot facility has 12 patient rooms with hospital-standard medical resources and accommodations for families. Each patient room has access to a private outdoor patio. An open kitchen, dining room and living room areas, children’s play areas, walking paths, a garden, a chapel/meditation room for all faiths and a library enrich the homelike atmosphere.

It was hospice volunteers who first gathered more than 3,500 signatures to raise awareness of the need for a hospice house in the Cedar Rapids area. Donna Oldorf’s generous lead gift of $1.1 million in memory of her husband, Dennis, a Hospice of Mercy patient, enabled the construction of the Hospice House. More than 2,000 community-wide donors also contributed, and the Hall-Perrine Foundation provided $1.7 million.

For more information on the Dennis and Donna Oldorf Hospice House of Mercy, visit www.mercycare.org or call (319) 398-6496.

EVENT DETAILS

What:  Open house to celebrate the 5^th anniversary of the Dennis & Donna Oldorf Hospice House of Mercy

When:  Wednesday, May 23, 4 to 6 p.m.  Ribbon-cutting & brief program at 4 p.m.

Where:  Dennis & Donna Oldorf Hospice House of Mercy, 315 18^th Avenue, Hiawatha

Who:  The public is invited for a brief program, tours and refreshments.

Police talk at the scene of a large fight near the intersection of Jacolyn Drive and First Avenue NW Tuesday night. (image taken from KCRG-TV9 video)

UPDATE: About 40 people were involved in a brawl Tuesday evening in Cedar Rapids that involved baseball bats and left one girl with glass in her eye.

Six young women were arrested after the fight, which erupted around 6:20 p.m. near the corner of First Avenue and Jacolyn Drive NW. Police said none of the injuries were serious.

According to a police report, the first officer to respond saw some of the people involved in the brawl holding baseball bats. Several people ran away, but police found two sisters who were arguing with two other women and threatening each other, police said.

Police said Felisha S. Kearney, 19, of Hiawatha, and Tarsha L. Kearney, 20, of Cedar Rapids, were involved in the initial fight and breaking out windows in a vehicle. The sisters were arguing with Shayla C. Vesey, 18, of Cedar Rapids, and LaShay Lekin, 17, of Hiawatha, police said.

Lekin, who was inside a car when it had windows broken out, got glass in her eye, according to police. She was taken to a hospital but also charged with disorderly conduct and interference with official acts for her role in the fight and resisting arrest, police said.

The Kearney sisters were also charged with disorderly conduct. Vesey, and 17-year-olds Delecia Jenkins-Irvin and Martink Thomas, both of Cedar Rapids, were charged with disorderly conduct and interference with official acts.

Police said Vesey hit her head against Plexiglas once she was in the squad car, causing a cut to her forehead. She was treated at a hospital before being taken to jail.

An investigation was continuing. No details about what led up to the fight were released.

Justin Anderson

A Tama volunteer firefighter, who’s also the son of the city’s fire chief, is being accused of setting a series of fires in the Tama area.

Justin Anderson, 18, faces seven arson charges. According to Tama County Sheriff Dennis Kucera, Anderson is suspected of setting fires at two vacant homes and a barn in Tama from March to May.

It’s not yet clear if Anderson helped fight the fires he’s charged with setting.

Justin Anderson is the son of Tama fire chief Ron Anderson, officials said.

The case remains under investigation.

Water fills a trench on C Avenue NW after heavy rain in August 2009. (Jeff Raasch/The Gazette)

A scientific report issued Wednesday confirms what most Iowans have long known or suspected: that heavy rains have been falling with increasing frequency, causing disastrous flooding.

Incidences of the most severe downpours have doubled during the past 50 years in eight Midwest states, according to a report by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Among the eight states in the study, Iowa registered the lowest impact with a 32 percent increase in the frequency of rainfalls totaling 3 or more inches in 24 hours. The other states, with their percentage increase in parentheses, are Indiana (160), Wisconsin (203), Missouri (81), Michigan (180), Minnesota (104), Illinois (83) and Ohio (40).

“The increases were much more than we expected,” said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the report’s lead author.

The new study, unlike others preceding it, includes data from 2008 through 2011, he said.

For the past several years, Iowa climate scientists – including Eugene Takle and Christopher Anderson, both of Iowa State University – have been documenting and warning Iowans about the increase in extreme rainfall events.

Saunders said the trend toward more frequent extreme storms accelerated during the past decade.

In the Midwest, the first 12 years of this century included seven of the nine top years (since 1961) for the most extreme storms, according to Saunders.

For the June 2008 storm that swamped Cedar Rapids and other Iowa locales, 48 percent of the floodwater fell in the form of extreme rainfall events, he said.

The study also found that the average interval between extreme storms at an individual Midwest location had shrunk from 3.8 years in the 1960s to 2.2 years during the past decade.

Although Saunders acknowledged that localized data does not constitute proof of human-caused climate change, he said that other global studies have established that connection to the satisfaction of most scientists.

I wish I could take responsibility for the $2 billion loss at JPMorgan Chase and still expect a $21 million bonus. Way to go, chief executive officer Jamie Dimon. Also, $15 million for the gal who resigned in disgrace (?) Or maybe the shareholders will vote them down.

Palmer Holden

Iowa State Univ., Emeritus Professor

Iowa City

http://hooplanow.com/2012/05/16/opening-bands-announced-for-counting-crows-concert/

The Air Force Wings of Blue parachute team flies the Iowa flag into Sun Devil Stadium Iowa's game against Oklahoma in the 2011 Insight Bowl Friday,Dec. 30, 2011 in Tempe, Ariz. (Brian Ray/ SourceMedia Group News)

CHICAGO — Fan bases at Iowa and Nebraska are known nationally to take over bowl sites and the turn the stadium into a pseudo-home environment for their football teams.

Yet each school’s athletics department sold around half of its bowl ticket allotment last year, costing both the school and Big Ten significant revenue. Iowa was required to take 11,000 tickets for the Insight Bowl per the league’s four-year contract. Iowa sold 5,411, yet observers estimate between 17,000 and 20,000 Iowa fans attended the game.

Nebraska took 12,500 tickets for its Capital One Bowl trip, and sold 6,594 through the school. Nebraska Athletics Director Tom Osborne said more than one-third of the bowl’s 61,351 announced attendance featured Cornhusker fans.

“Just looking at the crowd and looking at the attire of everybody was there, my guess is there was between 20,000 and 25,000 Nebraska fans down at the bowl in Florida,” Osborne said.

Despite sending hordes of Big Ten fans to destination environments and receiving nearly $45 million in bowl revenue last season, the cost of unsold tickets is eroding enthusiasm for the status quo among Big Ten administrators. According to documents supplied by eight Big Ten schools to The Gazette through state open-records laws, nearly every league school struggled to sell their non-Rose Bowl ticket allotment. Those unsold ticket costs syndicate to each league school and the league office.

Of the 10 Big Ten schools attending bowl games last year, eight sent their NCAA survey for bowl expenses to The Gazette as part of a state open-records request. Northwestern, as a private school, was not required to disclose the form. Penn State also did not submit information.

Outside of Wisconsin and the Rose Bowl, the other seven Big Ten schools committed 96,001 tickets to bowl games. Only 41,739 tickets were sold. Of the seven bowls, only one — Michigan in the Sugar Bowl — did the Big Ten school’s sold ticket total sold reach more than 10 percent of the overall game attendance.

Iowa's Rafael Eubanks greets Hawkeye fans as they celebrate Iowa's win over Georgia Tech at the Orange Bowl on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010, in Miami. Iowa won, 24-14. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

The primary problem league officials have is with the location of bowl tickets. The schools often are given tickets in the upper deck or away from the field, while the bowl itself sells tickets in prime locations. Instead of purchasing tickets from the school, fans are buying directly from the bowl either over the phone or online.

“Part of the reason is sometimes your bowl allotment for the school is not situated in the best parts of the stadium,” Osborne said. “Therefore people have gotten sophisticated enough to realize if we go directly through the bowl, you’ll get better seats.”

“It’s not necessarily the old days of go right to your school and buy the tickets,” Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said. “So can we come up with a plan that meets your goals, the bowl, of selling tickets and meets our goals for our fans to have access to better seats. Maybe we have to adjust the financial model in tune with that, and we’re willing and open to look at that.

“The thing I would see happening in the next round of bowl negotiations is try to create a win-win but acknowledging doing business the old way doesn’t necessarily make sense.”

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said the league might take a lower payout from the bowls or engage in a different form of revenue sharing so the ticket situation changes.

“I don’t think that it’s necessary that we take huge blocks of tickets in advance,” Delany said. “It may be important for us to take a different payout and have the upside be based on how that game is sells in a local community. But we want our fans to have access to good tickets, to have a reasonable number of tickets and to use technology to make sure that the demand and supply curve works well.

“I don’t think it’s healthy to have so many tickets floating around, and I think conferences and bowls, you’ll see restructured relationships, maybe the payouts aren’t as high but they’ll be predicated on the real demand for the game.”

While we appreciate the efforts of St. Luke’s Hospital and Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa to invest in our city, it seems that demolishing a building like First Christian Church just to gain some parking spaces is over the top. I believe that there are enough people interested in preservation of this building that some compromise should be reached, given time.

I have been told that the City of Cedar Rapids is not requiring these parking spaces to meet code, so why demolish this great structure?

Robert Kocher

Marvin D. Cone

Professor of Art Emeritus

Coe College

Cedar Rapids

As a Gulf War combat veteran and a former council member for the City of West Branch, David has shown time and again that he values and dedicates his life to public service. David also believes, and rightly so, that investing in education gives society immediate returns as well as in our future.

In his current career at the University of Iowa, he certifies incoming student veterans so that they can get their GI Bill benefits. As a person who attended college on a GI Bill, he knows all too well the value of an education. I believe he has the strongest education platform of any of the House candidates.

During the first two years on the City Council, David was unsatisfied with the budget allocations to his public library. To make up for the inadequate funding, he donated his yearly council salary to the library. This proves to me that he is aware of smaller town issues we face and actually cares.

Please vote for David Johnson in the June 5 primary.

Laura M. Cataldo

Stanwood

My first knowledge of Rockwell Collins was the ARC series of radios used by our military providing much-needed and reliable communications through many launches and recoveries from our carriers stationed throughout the world.

Rockwell Collins has been and always will be a premier supplier of up-to-date equipment required to keep this country as we now know it. I also would like to recognize Mount Mercy University for providing a venue for the award so richly deserved.

To those who feel the need to protest I suggest you go home and remove the locks from your home; apparently you see no need!

Daniel E. Spahn

Commander, VFW Post 788

Cedar Rapids

I worked with Dick on a past United Way campaign and have seen the results of his work in the formation of the Community Foundation of Johnson County. He was focused, reasonable and a smart worker. I admire his work ethic, volunteerism and commitment to his community.

He has that rare combination of talent, brains and good judgment. To top that all off, he has humility and a lack of guile. There is never a hidden agenda. I respect him enormously and I trust him. He would be fair and would work toward solutions to Iowa’s many challenges in the state legislature.

Kristin Summerwill

Iowa City

This cancer is close to my heart as my nephew, Ryan, died at the age of 21 because of melanoma. In memory of Ryan and others who were taken too soon from us, I want to “rays” awareness about this type of cancer and the organization “Outrun the Rays” to hopefully help others.

Did you know the vast majority of skin cancers are caused by exposure to excessive UV radiation? There are more than 3.5 million new cases of skin cancer diagnosed and more than 76,000 new cases of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, diagnosed each year.

On May 26, the non-profit group “Outrun the Rays” will be having a 5,000-meter walk/run and bike ride in Peosta. More than $12,000 was raised last year! The proceeds were used to purchase sunscreen for local pools, ballparks and golf courses, and on billboards warning of the dangers of melanoma. The group also is providing roofs for dugouts at local ballparks to keep our children sun safe and encouraging high schools to “ban the tan” at prom!

Join us to honor our family and friends touched by this disease.

To sign up, participate or learn how you may volunteer, email Janel Kluesner at janelkluesner@yahoo.com or “like” “Outrun the Rays” on Facebook.

Kim Miller

Cedar Rapids

Sheriff officers lead Isaiah Sweet into the Clayton County Courthouse in Elkader, Iowa Tuesday May 15, 2012. Sweet is being charged for killing his grandparents Richard and Janet Sweet of Manchester, Iowa on Friday May 11. (AP Photo/Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Dave Kettering, Pool)

Richard and Janet Sweet died of gunshot wounds in their Manchester home, state officials said Wednesday.

Isaiah Sweet, 17, was arrested in the case in Cedar Rapids Monday and faces two counts of first-degree murder in his grandparents’ death.

Mug shot of Isaiah Sweet, accused in the murder of his grandparents in Manchester.

Isaiah Sweet had told a woman over the phone Friday that he had drugged his grandparents and he thought they were dead because he could not find a pulse, according to an arrest warrant filed Monday in Delaware County District Court.

Here’s the news release issued Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Safety:

As the investigation into the death of 62 year old Janet Sweet and 55 year old Richard Sweet continues, law enforcement are now releasing the cause and manner of death for the deceased.

Doctors at the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny, Iowa conducted autopsies on the remains of Mr. and Mrs. Sweet on Monday, May 14, 2012. Based on findings from the autopsies, the State Medical Examiner determined both individuals died of gunshot wounds through the course of a homicide.

The suspect in these shootings is 17 year old Isaiah Sweet. He remains in custody at the Buchanan County Jail on $1,000,000 bond.

To learn more about the investigation into the Sweet homicide and subsequent apprehension of the suspect, please review previous releases on this matter.

The successful and safe execution of the investigation into these homicides was made possible through the cooperative efforts of many law enforcement agencies including the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Iowa State Patrol, Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, Manchester Police Department, Linn County Sheriff’s Office, Cedar Rapids Police Department, Iowa City Police Department, and the Hiawatha Police Department.

Attorney Thomas Newkirk announced Wednesday he had filed a notice of appeal, and would ask the Iowa Supreme Court to reinstate the lawsuit. The high court could hear the case, or send it to the Court of Appeals.

District Judge Robert Blink ruled last month the class of up to 6,000 blacks passed over for jobs and promotions dating back to 2003 failed to prove the widespread discrimination they alleged. Their case is based largely on research suggesting Americans subconsciously prefer whites to blacks.

Newkirk says he disagrees with suggestions that the case would require a new interpretation of the law to succeed.

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If you’re one of those people who thinks taking off your shoes and submitting to a patdown in the airport security line is a waste of time and invasion of privacy that doesn’t really stop terrorists, here’s a question for you:

What do you think now?

As details emerge about the thwarted attempt by al-Qaida to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner, it is becoming apparent that security measures at U.S. airports aren’t overly cautious. As a matter of fact, a full body scan might just catch a would-be terrorist — and that sort of airport scrutiny is pushing al-Qaida to create more sophisticated devices.

Unfortunately, that’s just what they have been doing. The American perception of a terrorist group likely far underestimates the cell’s sophistication. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is thought to have a team of engineers, scientists and doctors working on improving bomb technology. In 2009, when the group had only a small, modest lab in a rural area, they still managed to use a suicide bomber wearing a chemical underwear bomb to attempt to assassinate the director of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism program.

Later, they deployed another operative to try to blow up a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit. In these cases, the devices did not detonate properly, but the intent and ingenuity were there.

The same bomb-maker is suspected in a 2010 plot to hide bombs inside computer printer cartridges loaded on cargo planes, which were found before they reached their destination in Chicago.

Now experts believe that rural lab has been expanded to a modern, well-equipped facility. The bomb recovered from the recent thwarted attempt was made with zero metal parts — making it possible to go undetected by traditional screenings. U.S. officials are studying the bomb to determine what precautions are needed to take to keep airline travel safe.

Unfortunately, most other countries don’t adhere to the United States’ high-tech, vigilant protocol for screening passengers. That makes planes entering the United States from other countries an area of vulnerability.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a profile in courage, the double-agent working for Saudi Arabia’s security services was truly heroic. At a time when we tend to think of heroes as people who throw touchdowns or slam dunk basketballs, here’s someone that worked through Saudi officials, posed as the would-be bomber, then worked with the CIA to get the sophisticated bomb into the hands of the U.S. government for study. He also helped locate al-Qaida’s senior operations leader in Yemen, Fahd al-Quso, who was subsequently killed in a drone strike. Talk about working to combat the bad guys, this is a superhero whose name we’ll never know.

After more than a decade of fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan, the recent bombing attempt is a reminder that terrorists have roots and fingers throughout the world, and this al-Qaida branch in Yemen is particularly troubling. As the men and women in our armed forces and government intelligence deal with the complicated web of tracking terrorist activity, we’ll think harder before we complain about not being able to carry liquid containers onto planes.

—-

“There’s a reason you’re confused. They want you to be confused.”

That’s what Gary Fethke told the folks over at the Des Moines Register about why they were having trouble getting straight answers from the University of Iowa Foundation.

And we think Fethke — former dean of the UI Tippie College of Business and the interim UI president between David Skorton and Sally Mason — summed it up well.

As much as we support the fundraising work being done by the foundation on behalf of the university, we don’t like how its fundraising efforts and finances begin to dust up any money trail until it’s all but opaque.

Take the relationship between UI and the Old Capitol Town Center, for example.

It’s convenient shorthand to say that the university “owns” about two-thirds of the Old Capitol Town Center — which UI calls University Capitol Centre.

But the truth is the spaces occupied by UI are owned by UI Facilities Corp., a taxable nonprofit arm of the UI Foundation. Over the past few decades, UI Facilities Corp. has assisted in financing UI buildings such as the Eckstein Medical Research Building, the Medical Education and Biomedical Research Facility, the Pomerantz Center and the Carver Biomedical Research Building.

In the case of the University Capitol Centre, back in the mid-2000s UI Facilities Corp. financed the purchase and improvements of the former Younkers mall space through issuance of tax-exempt bonds. It then entered a lease agreement with the Iowa state Board of Regents stating that, at the end of the 20-year financing period and lease term, the property could be transferred to UI. A similar process was used when UI Facilities Corp. financed additional space in the mall on behalf of the Board of Regents and the university after the 2008 floods.

There’s nothing necessarily shady about the arrangement. (The UI Foundation folks stress that all of these transactions were approved by the Board of Regents and that the corporation “receives no pecuniary benefit from leasing to the university as all lease payments go to satisfy acquisition debt.”) But it just makes following the money that much more difficult.

So, we’re not surprised that — when our Register colleagues began looking into how much of the foundation’s $1.1 billion in assets is going for student aid — they discovered just how quickly that trail becomes murky.

“The foundation tells the IRS its financial statements are available online,” the Register Editorial Board wrote Monday. “The Des Moines Register opinion staff couldn’t locate a comprehensive statement and finally had to ask the foundation to send one. Officials did — along with a message that any future questions (including whether the foundation could have allocated more than $13.7 million to student financial aid last year) should be directed to the university.”

And we don’t quite understand the foundation’s tactic here of deferring further questions to the university. Back in 2005, the Iowa Supreme Court clearly ruled that the university foundations were subject to the state’s open government laws.

“A government body may not outsource one or more of its functions to a private corporation and thereby secret its doings from the public,” the court wrote.

For years after the court ruling, we received a number of similar responses from the UI Foundation when we requested information — as foundation staff were adjusting to the new political reality and perhaps hoping the Iowa Legislature would change the law to shield them from such public scrutiny.

But it’s long past time for the UI Foundation to ensure that it is as transparent as possible.

As the Register wrote, “There is no doubt the finances of such a huge foundation are complicated. Of course that complexity is exactly why more detailed financial information, including auditors’ reports, should be easily available to the public.”

That’s the only way the foundation is going to be able to defend itself against its critics. And that’s the only way the foundation is going to maintain trust among Iowans interested in ensuring that their donated dollars go to benefit students.

The Hawkeye flag is waved over Kinnick Stadium after an Iowa field goal in the third quarter of Iowa's 45-24 homecoming win against Indiana at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, in Iowa City. Iowa won 45-24. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News)

CHICAGO — Don’t get too comfortable in your seat at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta said Wednesday that Kinnick will once again be re-seated in 2014. The stadium was re-seated after a $90 million renovation project in 2006. Barta said Iowa told fans in ’06 that the process would happen again in five years.

So, here it comes again in 2014. It should be less jarring than in 2006, when seniority seating was replaced by a points system based on donation.

“By the time this goes into effect, it will be eight years, giving fans a two-year heads up to prepare for the process,” Barta said at the Big Ten spring meetings.

In ’06, Iowa introduced a priority seating system that ran on “points,” accumulated for everything from the yearly $7,500 donation for membership in the Kinnick Society worth 50 points to the 10 points ticketholders get for being an Iowa graduate.

Barta didn’t go into details on how the ’14 re-seating will be prioritized. He said it’s a chance to grow revenue — “find more contributors” — and, potentially, give fans a shot at a better seat.

“It becomes an opportunity to grow our fan base and donor base, but it’s also about fairness,” Barta said. “If people are sitting in a seat and they want to improve it and they’ve had ‘X’ number of years as a season-ticket purchaser and they’ve been contributing, they want to see their seats improve.”

In 2006, 15,000 fans bought their way into the “priority seating system.” The Iowa ticket office made 150 phone calls a day, starting with fans who had the highest number of point, and handed out seats. There also was a website that allowed fans to choose seats in near real-time.

Before ’06, Iowa’s seating system leaned toward seniority. Donations weren’t taken into consideration. When Iowa put together its priority seating system, school officials researched what other Big Ten schools did and took what they thought fit at Iowa.

—–

The 2012 session of the Iowa Legislature has to be considered a disappointment based on the failure to come to agreement on one issue.

That’s the elusive commercial property tax relief package that Republicans and Democrats alike — in the split-control Legislature — had identified as their top priority in the early days of the session. It has been a priority in past sessions, as well. In fact it has been discussed and debated without coming to a reasonable conclusion for over three decades.

Leaders of the House and Senate met with Gov. Terry Branstad before the session adjourned in hopes of finding a compromise on a plan to reduce commercial property taxes while limiting growth for other property classes and providing state “backfill” money to cushion the potential loss of revenue to local governments.

An agreement could not be reached.

Later, Branstad said he would consider calling a special legislative session to pass a comprehensive property tax relief package if he and state legislators can work out a satisfactory compromise.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he is willing to continue to work with the House and look for common ground.

However, the history of this issue, a polarized political climate and the fact that this is an election year are all working against that.

We have long known that commercial property taxes in Iowa are out of line with neighboring states. Iowa has the second highest commercial property tax rate in the nation. These are obvious hurdles to economic growth and the fostering of a business climate that could greatly benefit the state.

We know this is a tough issue. We don’t want to see such a move eventually become a simple shifting of tax burdens to home property taxes. Efficiencies in local and state governments should be part of the equation.

Gridlock is alive and well in Iowa. Apparently, it’s still too large of an obstacle for our legislators to overcome — even on the self-proclaimed No. 1 issue of the past session. Again, it has been caught up in partisan politics with elections looming.

While a special session would give us a glimmer of hope that this issue can be resolved, that hope is quickly waning. Again.

—-

Many been having a lot of fun with the “pink slime” story, if only because the moniker attached to the hamburger filler conjures up a humorous while repulsive image. But the humor is lost on 650 packing-plant workers in Iowa, Kansas and Texas who have lost their jobs because of the story.

A story that otherwise might have run out of steam as facts countered hysteria has instead escalated to the point where the beef industry has taken a serious economic body blow. Consumers apparently spooked by the controversy steered away from hamburger containing the product, and the packers that produced it may have permanently closed their plants.

The net effect: A legitimate and safe food product may be removed from the food supply. Ironically consumers now have one less option and could see higher meat prices and hamburger with more fat content.

If that’s what they want, that’s fine. But the public should at least know why it happened and who or what to blame.

The lesson for farmers and food processors is that, in today’s environment, any one of them can be similarly slimed. Rather than attack the critics, they should counter falsehood with fact and use popular social-media tools to tell their story. But ultimately the consumer will decide what the food marketplace will look like, and the industry will have to adjust accordingly.

The uproar over what the beef industry prefers to call “lean, finely textured beef” caused school lunch programs and some grocery chains to drop hamburger containing the product. The beef industry and supporters went into war mode, condemning everything from the “media” to a malicious campaign of misinformation by beef haters. Gov. Terry Branstad at one point called for a Congressional investigation.

This reaction came on the heels of the Iowa Legislature passing a bill that makes it a crime for applicants to misrepresent their real reasons for wanting to be hired by an animal confinement operation. The bill was a version of an earlier effort to bar surreptitious recordings showing how animals are treated, but the bill sent the same message: Iowa lawmakers are prepared to make it a crime to report the truth about what happens inside hog barns and chicken cages.

This punitive approach will only create suspicion that the industry has something to hide and make food critics and animal-rights groups even more determined to see for themselves what’s going on.

The better response is for the industry itself to open its doors to the public. If what they are doing is in keeping with the best standards of animal welfare, and in the best interest of consumers’ health, they should have nothing to fear.

Still, some people may not like what they see — such as the image of chickens packed tightly into small cages, pigs that live their entire lives jammed into metal confinement buildings and sows that are confined to gestation crates to protect piglets. Producers have explained the economic and humane reasons for these practices, but increasingly animal-rights groups and the public have prevailed in getting national grocery and restaurant chains to insist on changes.

The critic finds sympathy among people who have no concept of how food is produced. What happens in modern commercial food production and food processing operations is the same thing that has happened since humankind transitioned from hunter-gatherers to farmers. Public squeamishness with that reality is at odds with the expectation that food be plentiful, cheap and readily available on their grocery shelves and at their favorite restaurants.

The vast majority of us rely on mass production of food that is affordable and plentiful because of efficiencies made possible by the industrialization of agriculture and food processing. When the industry is forced to change its processes, it necessarily becomes less efficient. That affects the supply and price of food.

That may be a tradeoff consumers are willing to make. If not, they should let their voices be heard to counter campaigns of misinformation and unrealistic expectations about the realities of modern agriculture.

Emergency response workers conduct a disaster drill Wednesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. (Gazette photo by Brian Ray)

Tucked inside Coca-Cola-shaped trash cans that ring Carver-Hawkeye Arena, authorities on Wednesday found devices wired to disseminate toxic gas into the facility capable of holding more than 15,000 people.

Fortunately, the mock devices were planted as part of a statewide emergency preparedness exercise spearheaded by the State of Iowa Weapons of Mass Destruction Response Team. Emergency responders from 10 state agencies participated in the day-long drill on the University of Iowa campus, and dozens of volunteers played the role of victim in the exercise that had them stand under a decontamination hose outside Carver on Wednesday morning before being transported to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics emergency room.

“We have spent eight months preparing for this,” said Clint Powell, survey team leader with the 71^st Civil Support Team for the Iowa National Guard. “We’re getting good training value out of this already, and it’s not even 10 a.m.”

To stage the drill, organizers wired trash cans in Carver with false gas-disseminating devices and then staged a bomb outside the arena aimed at creating more casualties. Once outside, volunteers participating in Wednesday’s drill stood under a decontaminating device – which looked like a massive shower – to clean off any toxic fumes.

Faux patients went to the UI’s Hospitals and Clinics with cards detailing symptoms for emergency responders.

The goal of the exercise, Powell said, was to practice communication procedures and agency coordination, employ equipment that responders don’t always use, and evaluate what’s working and what’s not.

“We hope this raises awareness about the things we could do better and the things we’re already doing well,” Powell said.

Iowa City’s Carver arena was chosen as the drill site, according to Powell, because it’s among the biggest in the state and can hold thousands of people.

“It’s a top candidate for an attack,” he said. “It’s in the top 10 for sure.”

Iowa City and its agencies participate in several exercises like the one Wednesday each year because, Powell said, a real disaster presents a “no-fail environment.”

Workers wearing protective suits participate in a disaster drill Wednesday inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

This week’s drill involved about 25 volunteers and enough responders to total about 100 participants. UI senior Bridgette Hunemuller, hugging her knees while soaking wet on a yellow tarp in the Carver parking lot, said she volunteered to participate as a victim in the drill because she believes in the value of practice.

“I think it’s really important to make sure all the teams are prepared,” said Hunemuller, a member of the UI Emergency Medical Services Student Interest Organization.

Moments earlier, Hunemuller had stood under the decontaminating hose and then rattled off her symptoms to an EMS responder.

“I’m pre-med, and I thought it would be a good experience to see how it would go if I had to help and be a part of it,” she said.

The drill started around 8:45 Wednesday and was scheduled to continue until 4 p.m. In an effort to make it as realistic as possible, UI spokesman Tom Moore said, exercise organizers kept details about the drill confidential from many of the men and woman participating.

The exercise used some emergency room space at the university hospitals, and Moore said the hospitals are no stranger to disaster drills. They conduct two full-scale exercises every year, and Moore said the Joint Commission – a national group that accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States – rated the hospitals as having one of the finest emergency preparedness programs in the country.

“We all need to be prepared,” Moore said. “These things can happen when you least expect it.”

Participants in Wednesday’s exercise include the Iowa City Fire Department, Johnson County Hazardous Materials Team, the Johnson County Emergency Management Agency, Johnson County Ambulance, the UI Department of Public Safety, UI Hospitals and Clinics, the State Hygienic Laboratory, Iowa, the Iowa National Guard’s 71^st Civil Support Team, the Salvation Army and the State of Iowa Weapons of Mass Destruction HazMat Team.

Buds Community Garden, a program of the HACAP Food Reservoir, is excited to announce the start of the 2012 local ‘Plant a Row for the Hungry’ program on May 15th. The program invites farmers and gardeners to donate fresh produce to local emergency food programs and families with limited access to fresh foods. The program runs through October 1^st.

Last year 6650 lbs. were donated thanks to many donors including Abbe Hills Farm, ZJ Farm, First Christian Presbyterian Church and Sonia Kendrick who each donated over 1000 lbs!

A goal of 10,000 pounds had been established for the HACAP Food Reservoir, a Feeding America food bank, service area of Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Linn and Washington counties.

Buds Community Garden Network supports community gardens by connecting them to resources and to each other. Additional information and donor reporting form can be found at www.budsgardennetwork.org or by calling Dora Bopp at 319.739.0051.

Caption: (from left) Iowa's Lebron Daniel, Kyle Haganman, Broderick Binns and Karl Klug head toward Northwestern during a kick off return during the first half at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City on Saturday, September 27, 2008. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

CHICAGO — The kickoff, as we know it, is in its final days.

Since 2010, the NCAA has twice changed kickoff rules in an effort to improve player safety. The NFL has talked about some form of punting with a tighter space between teams as a replacement for the kickoff, which has been proven to be the most dangerous play in the game.

“I think we have to keep changing the kickoff,” Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith said during the Big Ten spring meetings. “With today’s kids, who are faster, stronger and more explosive, we’re taking a lot of risks for concussions and neck injuries.

“It’s something we have to look at every year. It’s one of the most dangerous plays.”

One year after the NFL banned wedge blocking on kickoffs because of safety concerns, the NCAA followed the lead in ’10 with a rule that says when the team receiving a kickoff has more than two players standing within two yards of one another, shoulder to shoulder, it will be assessed a 15-yard penalty — even if there is no contact between the teams.

This season, teams will kick off at the 35-yard line instead of the 30. Also, players on the kicking team can’t line up for the play behind the 30-yard line, which is intended to limit the running start kicking teams used to have during the play. Also, touchbacks on free kicks will be moved to the 25-yard line instead of the 20 to encourage more touchbacks.

The recommended changes came from the Football Rules Committee after that group examined NCAA data showing that injuries during kickoffs occur more often than in other phases of the game.

Not all Big Ten athletics directors want the kickoff eliminated.

Nebraska’s Tom Osborne sees the danger, but also said it would change the face of the game. It is, after all, the first play of every game. It sets field position and, in some cases, tone.

“If two teams have a good run at each other, no question, you’re going to have more concussions and more violent collisions, and so there may be some who want to eliminate the kickoff,” Osborne said. “Personally, I think that would be unfortunate. If you start at the 35- or 40-yard line, your chances of scoring about double over starting at your own 20.

“I think it’s an important part of the game. . . . Personally, I would hate to see the kickoff taken out of the game.”

Smith has a different perspective. From 1977 to 1981, Smith coached special teams at Notre Dame, his alma mater. He picked the “kamikazes,” a player whose job was to break through the “wedge.”

“I looked for the guys who could bust that wedge,” Smith said. “Now I look back at it and feel guilty. I think the kickoff is one of the most dangerous plays we have. We have to constantly look at how we can protect the kids.”

The 35-yard line rule is a significant change. When the NFL moved its kickoff point to the 35 last season, returns fell from 2,033 in 2010 to 1,375. In 2010, 80.1 percent of kickoffs were returned. Last year, the percentage of kickoffs returns was 53.5 percent, the lowest in NFL history. The average yards per kickoff return was 23.8, the highest in history (the previous high was 23.7 in 1962).

Touchbacks rose to 1,120 (43.6 percent) in 2011 from 416 (16.4 percent) the year before. The residual effect health-wise was a 40 percent drop in concussions, according to the NFL.

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta played quarterback for North Dakota State teams that won national titles in 1983, ’85 and ’86. Barta isn’t willing to go as far to say that kickoff is on death row, but he acknowledges the risk of the game and favors a safe approach on kickoffs.

“Football is a contact sport and there is inherent danger to that,” Barta said. “I know that, I played the game, I’ve had surgeries, I’ve had issues related to that. And yet, I smile and say it was one of the great periods of my life, it’s a great sport and I’m glad I played it.

“That being said, if there are things we can do to lessen the chance of a violent injury, then we need to do that.”

Wisconsin athletics director Barry Alvarez won three Rose Bowls as the Badgers’ head coach. He made his football bones as a defensive coach, coaching linebackers at Iowa from 1979-86 and then moving to defensive coordinator at Notre Dame before accepting the UW job in 1990.

He pointed to the percentage of injuries on kickoffs and is open to anything. Of course, as a defensive coach, he’s good with touchbacks.

“The more touchbacks, the better, as far as I’m concerned,” Alvarez said.

So, here lie kickoffs. How much time does it have?

“That’s a very good question,” Smith said. “If it were up to me, it would be short lived.”

Paul Saldivar (family photo)

The man who stopped breathing in the back of a Cedar Rapids police squad car last week will be pulled off life support, according to his cousin.

Paul R. Saldivar Sr., 33, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested last Thursday evening for public intoxication after he was kicked out of two downtown bars, police said. Police said in a statement Saldivar was hitting his head against the armrest while he was being handcuffed, and remained combative while he was being taken to jail, but was unconscious when the officer arrived at jail.

At a candlelight vigil Tuesday outside of Mercy Medical Center, family members announced that Saldivar would be taken off life support soon. Saldivar’s cousin, Jamie Gifford, who attended the vigil, said tests have not revealed any brain injuries, leaving the family with more questions than answers.

Gifford said Saldivar had seizures after the incident, but those had lessened since he was placed in a medically induced coma.

According to police, Saldivar ran from officers after being kicked out of Hazzard County Saloon, 315 Second Ave. SE shortly after 11 p.m. on May 10. He reportedly became verbally agitated when he was caught in an alley and kicked at the interior of the police car while en route to the Linn County Jail.

Saldivar became quiet just prior to arriving at the jail, police said. The officer parked and found Saldivar unresponsive in the back seat.

Police Sgt. Cristy Hamblin said Wednesday that one officer was with Saldivar as he was being transported to jail. When the officer learned he was not breathing, CPR was administered and deputies at the jail came out to help. A police commander also arrived at the scene before an ambulance took Saldivar to Mercy Medical Center. He was admitted to the intensive care unit.

“Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with the family,” Hamblin said.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was notified and is continuing to investigate the incident. Hamblin confirmed the officer who had been transporting Saldivar to the jail remains on a normal work schedule.

People transported in Cedar Rapids police cars are handcuffed, but are usually not otherwise restrained. Metal bars were installed over the back seat windows a few summers ago, after several were kicked out in one week. The department also transitioned from metal grating to Plexiglas to separate the front and back seats, when spitting on officers became a problem.

The squad car used to transport Saldivar was not equipped with in-car video cameras, as the department continues an upgrade. Hamblin said the vendor for the department’s dash cameras, as they are commonly called, went bankrupt, and only about a dozen of the 60 squad cars currently have the new video cameras.

Hamblin said the goal is to have all squad cars upgraded to the new cameras by the end of 2013. She said a few of the new Chevrolet Caprice squad cars have gone into service, and going forward, the department anticipates a new squad car equipped with cameras each week.

The department has prioritized hiring officers over the need for in-car cameras, Hamblin said.

“It comes down to the money,” Hamblin said. “We don’t have the money.”

Saldivar has a lengthy criminal history, including felony convictions for extortion, burglary and drug possession, according to online court records.

The council voted 6-0, with Terry Dickens absent, to pass an ordinance preventing the construction of multifamily dwellings with more than three bedrooms per unit.

The other ordinance requires more parking spaces for larger apartments in a defined zone that’s generally near the UI campus. That vote was 5-1, with Jim Throgmorton dissenting.

The council voted earlier this month to prohibit more than three unrelated people from living together.

Artist Eliezer Sotillo of Iowa City paints the cover on a piano outside of the Plaza Towers building on the Pedestrian Mall May 18, 2011, in downtown Iowa City. The design was based on a painting by Frank Lloyd Wright with Sotillo's own twist. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

The City Council Tuesday night gave its OK for a mural to be painted on the side of a five-story tall parking ramp downtown.

The mural, by Iowa City artist Eliezer Sotillo, is to depict more than a dozen arms and hands that interlock and hold each other. Sotillo plans to spend a month starting in June creating the piece, using spray paint and a durable paint meant for concrete, on the north side of the Dubuque Street parking ramp.

The ramp is owned by the city, and the council’s 6-0 vote allows the project to proceed. Developer Marc Moen, whose Plaza Towers is next to the parking ramp, is paying for the work, which he estimated would cost more than $10,000.

Here’s what Delany said about the postseason and he clarified his comments about Alabama:

The new Apple Macbook Air laptop is seen on display at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

College Community Schools hosted an information session Tuesday to explain why every high school student needs a laptop computer.

The school district wants to give every ninth through 12th grader a school-issued laptop.

The plan is to order around 1,400 11-inch Macbook Air laptops. College Community has been studying the concept for three years.  They now say that the new technology is essential for student learning.

“We’re looking for our kids to be engaged differently,” said College Community ITS Director Craig Barnum.  “We’re looking to our staff to teach differently, and we realize it’s not going to happen overnight, but we’re ready to have the conversation and do that.”

Parents that attended the informational meeting say they’re excited to see the district treat technology as an asset to student learning.

“That’s what they’re going to be giving the students,” said Micki Crispin, a parent with three students in the district.  “There are websites out there we don’t even know exist that will benefit them.”

An “issue” at the city’s water plant has prompted the warning, but city officials did not say what the issue entailed.

“It is imperative that customers conserve water while the issue is being repaired,” officials said in a news release.

It’s hoped the issue is repaired by the end of the day, officials said. The advisory is not a boil order, just a request to conserve water.

“It’s appropriate to set aside a week to honor those who serve in emergency medical services,” said Miller-Meeks. “Access to quality emergency care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury.” There are more than 12,000 career and volunteer EMS providers in Iowa, including emergency physicians, emergency nurses, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters, educators, and administrators.

For more information on the IDPH Bureau of EMS, visit www.idph.state.ia.us/ems/default.asp. To learn more about National EMS Week, visit www.acep.org/emsweek/

Heins-Johnson Professor of Biology Harlow Hadow is recognized after receiving the Charles J. Lynch Outstanding Teacher Award at Coe's commencement.

Two members of the Coe community received special recognition at the college’s commencement ceremony on May 6.  The first lady of Coe College, Linnie Phifer, received the Eliza Hickok Kesler Outstanding Service Award, while Biology Professor Harlo Hadow was honored with the Lynch Award for outstanding teaching.  The citations were presented by Gene Henderson, chair of the Coe Board of Trustees and a 1968 alumnus of the college.

Eliza Hickok Kesler Outstanding Service Award

The Eliza Hickok Kesler Outstanding Service Award is given most years, but not every year, at Coe’s graduation.  It was created in 1999 for the purpose of honoring superior, long-term service to Coe – service that advances the purposes and mission of the institution.  Faculty, staff, alumni and trustees are all eligible.  This award is named for Eliza Hickok Kesler, class of 1931, known to generations of the Coe family as Roby, whose lifetime of distinguished service to the college is unparalleled.

Linnie Phifer, the wife of Coe President James Phifer, has served the college in differing capacities for more than 25 years.  Throughout that time, she has worked tirelessly to advance the cause of the institution.  Her most visible efforts have been in planning and overseeing countless Coe events, both on campus and at gatherings of alumni across the country.

“In organizing and directing college events, Linnie has set a new high standard for the way the college presents itself to the larger world.  Her efforts have elevated the pride in the institution felt both by members of the campus community and by alumni,” said Henderson.  “In everything she does, Linnie displays extraordinary devotion to the success of the institution on a broad front, and a commitment to fostering the well-being of the Coe community.”

In choosing this year’s Kesler winner, the executive committee of the faculty noted in particular the degree to which her values parallel those of Roby Kesler, for whom the award is named.  Linnie Phifer’s career at Coe has not only reflected but exalted the tradition of commitment to Coe established by Roby.  Each has served the college as the greatest cheerleader for all things Coe.

Charles J. Lynch Outstanding Teacher Award

As selected by the Coe College class of 2012, the Charles J. Lynch Outstanding Teacher Award was presented to Heins-Johnson Professor of Biology Harlo Hadow.  The award was established at Coe in 1983.  It is presented annually at commencement and consists of a $2,000 prize made possible by an endowment gift.

Hadow earned his bachelor’s degree from Milton College and his master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder.  He has taught in the Coe Biology Department since 1977.

Educated as a vertebrate behavioral ecologist, Hadow has researched the communication, growth and development, and ecology of various woodpeckers in the U.S. and Central America.  Other research interests include the salamander population dynamics in Iowa and urban deer populations in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.   Hadow also serves as the director of the Coe Wilderness Field Station on the boundary waters near Ely, Minnesota.  He teaches classes in human anatomy, comparative chordate anatomy, embryology, ornithology and vertebrate natural history.

Members of the class of 2012 were invited by Coe President James Phifer to nominate a member of the faculty for this award.  In doing so they were asked to give careful consideration to three criteria: quality of teaching; concern for students as individuals; and scholarship.

The Charles J. Lynch Outstanding Teacher Award memorializes the values and service of C.J. Lynch, an alumnus of Coe College, class of 1926.  Lynch was a prominent Cedar Rapids attorney whose dedication to Coe College was reflected, among other ways, by 43 years of service on the board of trustees of the college.  Above all things, C.J. Lynch valued inspirational teaching and sound scholarship.

The first lady of Coe, Linnie Phifer, graciously greets the commencement audience upon being named the recipient of the Eliza Hickok Kesler Outstanding Service Award by Gene Henderson, class of 1968 and chair of the Coe Board of Trustees (beside podium).

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A camera in a Cedar Rapids police car. (image taken from KCRG-TV9 video)

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation continues to look into a Cedar Rapids arrest that ended with a man in critical condition.

Officers arrested Paul Saldivar, 33, late Thursday night. Police said he was causing problems at a downtown Cedar Rapids bar.

On the way to jail, police said Saldivar started kicking the squad car seats and hitting his head on an arm rest. When they got to jail, Saldivar was unresponsive. Now a full swing  state investigation is under way, but  there were no cameras in the squad car at the time to record what happened that night.

That’s an issue the police department said it is actively working on. Cedar Rapids Sgt. Cristy Hamblin said the camera wasn’t there because the department is going through a transition to change camera technology throughout the fleet.

“It’s not a fast get it done right away kind of project. It’s one that is going to take quite a bit of time because the cost is the number one factor. It will take a lot of time to install the cameras, get the cameras synced to the computers, and there are two cameras in the car, really,” Hamblin said.

Police with the Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Marion police departments said all of their marked cars have cameras inside. The Cedar Rapids Police Department, however, only has cameras in about a dozen of its 60 vehicles.

The old systems were removed due to technical issues that created problems for officers. Police say it’s frustrating, but installing new technology is a slow and expensive process.

“I’ve been on the department for 29 years, and it would have been nice to have the cameras for the last 29 years in every single squad car,” Hamblin said.

The goal is for every vehicle to have the new camera equipment by the end of 2013.

The equipment will automatically record what’s happening outside and in the back seat of the police car moments after patrol officers turn on their emergency lights and sirens.

Officers said having the technology inside the car would have helped with the DCI’s investigation of the arrest Thursday night.

“In cases like that, it’s always going to be beneficial when we’re taking someone to Linn County Jail, if they have made statements, if they have been disruptive, and it corroborates what is being said by the individual and the officer as well,” Sgt. Hamblin said.

Traffic camera revenue is helping pay for the installation of the cameras in squad cars.

Iowa's Brett Morse is tackled by Mitchell Evans of Indiana before he can reach the end zone during the first half at semi-empty Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind., on Saturday, November 6, 2010. (Cliff Jette/Sourcemedia Group News)

As the Big Ten meetings wind down today (and playoff talk around the country ramps up), it’s important to look at what’s most important to the league and its member institutions: money.

Every public Big Ten athletics department (11 schools) achieved the gold standard of college sports by equaling revenue and expenses in fiscal year 2011. Those schools submitted that information to The Gazette this spring through each state’s open-records laws.

The bottom line for Big Ten schools has three major power surges helping it achieve and sustain financial success: league/NCAA revenue (TV, etc.), contributions and football revenue. Each school earns roughly the same amount in league/NCAA revenue depending on tournament reimbursements and other issues. Contributions will vary among the schools, soaring if there’s a facility drive, slipping if there’s not. Football, however, is the driving force for on-campus, athletics department revenue, so let’s look at this a little more closely.

In fiscal year 2011, Ohio State ($79.3 million) and Michigan ($70.3 million) blazed past their Big Ten brethren in football revenue. Trailing way behind are Illinois ($28.3 million), Indiana ($24.4 million) and Purdue ($18.3 million). We in the media endlessly have discussed and written about the financial disparity among Big 12 and other conferences, but this is just as real in Big Ten country. The only difference is the league/NCAA revenue-sharing structure enacted by the Big Ten.

Those numbers won’t fall for the league powerhouses and maybe the bottom ones will climb if any of the three schools gain some football traction and consistency. But don’t expect the gap to close too soon between the heavyweights and welterweights.

Football revenues and expenses for the 2011 fiscal year:

• Ohio State: $79,339,962/$39,217,983
• Michigan: $70,300,676/$23,552,233
• Penn State: $58,893,006/$15,049,592
• Nebraska: $54,748,156/$20,147,302
• Michigan State: $45,041,806/$18,913,908
• Iowa: $44,506,833/$20,510,805
• Wisconsin: $43,296,598/$23,662,925
• Minnesota: $30,524,946/$16,985,183
• Illinois: $28,353,822/$14,146,821
• Indiana: $24,379,333/$16,175,386
• Purdue: $18,359,413/$12,420,742
• Northwestern N/A

Ohio State fans fill the field after their overtime victory over Iowa at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday, November 14, 2009. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Perhaps even more telling are football ticket sales. Nothing shows a fan base’s commitment to their program quite like how they purchase tickets and fill their stadiums. It doesn’t take Christopher Columbus to discover a sold-out 105,000-seat stadium (ironically in Columbus) generates more revenue than one in Indiana (where people literally wonder, “Who’s here?”). But the disparity still is somewhat staggering.

Big Ten’s ticket sales for 2011 fiscal year:

• Ohio State $41,885,216
• Michigan $35,747,432
• Penn State $34,232,483
• Nebraska $27,378,667
• Iowa $20,272,653
• Wisconsin $18,285,170
• Michigan State $16,877139
• Minnesota $10,787,667
• Purdue $10,239,049
• Illinois $9,426,634
• Indiana $4,711,558
• Northwestern N/A-

– Scott Dochterman

CHAIN LINKS

– Incoming freshman running back Barkley Hill of Cedar Falls is built to come in and make the transition both mentally and physically.

Sez who? Sez his soon-to-be Iowa football coach, Kirk Ferentz. Those were Ferentz’s exact words at the I-Club event in Waterloo Monday night.

– Flying in the face of the wishes of Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta and some of his Big Ten peers, Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads said he strongly favors bowl-eligibility not being changed from six to seven wins.

The guess here is Rhoads speaks for a lot of coaches.

– Andrew Sweat started at linebacker for Ohio State the last two years. He signed as an undrafted free agent and went to rookie camp with the Cleveland Browns last month, but then bid the gridiron adieu. His Monday tweet at @asweat42:

“Concussion symptoms didn’t want to risk it.. Thanks to the browns for the opportunity. Health trumps football any day”

– Buzz Bissinger wrote one of the great sports books of any time two decades ago. It is called “Friday Night Lights.”

Bissinger has what sounds like another terrific read in “Father’s Day,” a story of his relationship with his son Zach, now in his 20s, whose brain was deprived of oxygen at birth and who has an IQ of about 70. The two went on a cross-country trip together, including a stop back in Odessa, Texas, where “Friday Night Lights” was set.

It does not sound anything close to overly sentimental, but rather, painfully honest. I look forward to reading it.

– Dochterman and Morehouse were in Chicago this week for the Big Ten meetings. (Well, they weren’t in the actual meetings, but you know what I mean). They may not have heard this while they’ve been there:

Wrigley Field must be destroyed.

 – Compiled by Mike Hlas

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For many, the idea of forming a new district is more of a sign of how frustrated they have become at what they see as the school board’s wavering on whether to build a high school in the fast-growing North Liberty area.

But it is a notion some people take seriously, said parent Marisa Keeney, who added that she is not sure whether a separate school district would be in her town’s best interest.

“It usually comes up when people are getting frustrated with the lack of movement — I shouldn’t even say movement — the back and forth related to whether or not another comprehensive high school is going to be built on the north side,” said Keeney, who has three children at North Liberty’s Penn Elementary School.

West High, where North Liberty students attend, is over capacity and projected to continue to add students. Parents also want a high school closer to home.

Having part of a district split away would be unprecedented in Iowa history and is unlikely to happen, state education officials said.

“Not without going through a lot of hoops,” said Carol Greta, an attorney with the Iowa Department of Education.

There’s a state law on school district reorganization that focuses on consolidation and doesn’t even address breaking away. Greta said a split “seems counterintuitive to the intent of the law,” but the procedure would be the same as consolidation.

A petition with a certain number of signatures and other information would need to be submitted to the local Area Education Agency board, which would decide whether to send the matter to voters.

The trend in Iowa is consolidation of shrinking school districts done with the support of school boards. Greta wasn’t sure how an AEA board would view a proposed reorganization that lacked the backing of a school board.

Complicating matters for North Liberty is that a second school district, Clear Creek Amana, juts into the western edge of city limits.

Public school systems receive several thousand dollars in state aid for every student, and many Iowa school districts are struggling with the loss of funds from declining enrollment.

The Iowa City school district, which covers Iowa City, North Liberty, Coralville, Hills and University Heights, would not be keen on losing a growing part of the district, Superintendent Stephen Murley and school board President Marla Swesey said.

“I think (the) Iowa City (school district) has been fortunate to be growing because of the numbers of people in that area, and we like growth,” Swesey said.

North Liberty’s population increased 149 percent from 2000 to 2010, and is now more than 13,000 people.

Since 2005, the Iowa City district has opened two elementary schools and a junior high and Clear Creek Amana has opened an elementary school. The Iowa City district’s Penn Elementary has been in place for 50 years.

There’s strong support in the community for a high school, and the Iowa City school district is exploring a possible 900-student high school in or near the town.

In 2010, the school board voted to build a new high school when the district had the money and enrollment to do so. Current projections show the enrollment target is approaching.

This spring, however, school board members said they wanted administrators to look at alternatives to building a new high school.

Also, dating back at least to 2010, some Iowa City parents have opposed a new high school.

There also are growing calls for a new elementary school in east Iowa City, to go with the need for another North Liberty elementary school. The district cannot afford to build two new elementary schools unless it taps into money it’s saving for a high school.

Murley expects the school board to make decisions on these issues after a district committee studying a North Liberty high school submits a report in June.

Like many North Liberty parents, Anne Johnson believes the Iowa City school district is first-rate academically, but West High is too crowded and too far away. That’s why she and her family — husband Jay and children Rylee, 10 and Drew, 7 — are building a house in Solon to start the children in school there next fall.

“I haven’t seen any proof that we’re moving toward a third high school in the near future,” said Johnson, who ran for Iowa City school board in 2009.

Of the 418 students who open enrolled out of the Iowa City school district this school year, the highest number, 157, went to Clear Creek Amana, and the third most, 77, to Solon. Those districts border North Liberty.

Murley, calling that a significant number of kids from one area, said when it is facilities rather than programs that are causing people to leave, it’s incumbent on him and the school board to be clear on their short-, medium- and long-term plans.

Jay and Anne Johnson monitor their children Drew, 7 and Rylee, 10, play on top of a pile of gravel at their new home being constructed in Solon Monday evening. The Johnsons are relocating to Solon becasue they don't think the Iowa City School District is committed to building a new high school in North Liberty.(Justin Torner/Freelance)

http://hooplanow.com/2012/05/16/six-fun-things-to-do-this-week-2/

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that 38-year-old Matthew VanWaus and his wife, 31-year-old Leah VanWaus, both had self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

The couple’s bodies were found near the Victor cemetery on Friday after family members found their cars parked nearby.

Matthew VanWaus used to be Eldridge’s assistant city administrator until last May.

The Iowa County Sheriff’s office says the deaths are still under investigation.

The crystal components of the large chandelier at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids awaits reassembly on Tuesday, May 15, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

A beacon of hope during the Floods of 2008 is taking shape to prepare for its reinstallation in the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library.

The museum’s signature chandelier was carefully dismantled in November 2010 — the last item removed before the building was relocated to higher ground the following summer. More than 1,000 crystals, along with globes, lamp arms and other pieces, were kept crated in storage until this week, when workers began the process of reassembling the 8-foot-tall chandelier.

“It’s a job that must be done right,” said facilities director Grant Smith, pointing to row upon row of numbered crystals laid out on five tables inside the museum. “It can’t be rushed.”

The chandelier was one of few items left untouched by 8-foot-high Cedar River floodwaters that inundated the building in June 2008.

Grant Smith, director of facilities at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids, returns a component of the chandelier as it awaits being reassemble and hung in the museum. Any missing or broken electrical parts need to be fabricated. The museum is planning to reassemble and rehang the chandelier later this week. . Shot on Tuesday, May 15, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

Museum library director Dave Muhlena said 13 pallets of books and archival materials were returned from storage Monday, some of which had been restored at the University of Iowa. Other preparations are being completed as the museum readies for its July 14 reopening date.

On Tuesday, Smith was tasked with devising a connection between the top of the chandelier and a new hoist that will allow staff to raise and lower the nearly 500-pound fixture for cleaning or changing bulbs.

Smith said new bulbs will have an environmental twist. Previously, 48 40-watt lights were used, pulling 1,920 watts of power. New 3-watt LED bulbs will draw just 144 watts, he said, for the same amount of light.

The fixture will be lit whenever the building is open.

“It is a centerpiece of the museum,” Smith said.

The Czech-made chandelier, donated by siblings Leora and Edwin Zahorik, was installed by three electricians from the Czech Republic in 1998. Dave Dyrland of Paulsen Electric, who rewired the fixture in 2007, helped dismantle the piece for storage. The company is also being used for the reinstallation.

Jason Wright, museum vice president for development, said the chandelier cheered staff members who saw it upon returning to the building after the flood. When power was restored to the area, he said, the chandelier was lit as a demonstration of the recovery.

“It was like the soul of the building was still there,” Wright said. “It was this glimmering beacon of hope.”