Iowa's Tony Ramos celebrates his 133 lbs. championship win over Wisconsin's Tyler Graff during the finals of the Big Ten Conference Wrestling Tournament at the Kohl Center on Sunday, March 9, 2014, in Madison, Wis. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – If you were to rank the Iowa wrestling team in order of confidence, it wouldn’t be long before the name “Tony Ramos” was uttered.

But even the outspoken Hawkeye senior admits he received a jolt from claiming his first Big Ten championship on Mar. 9.

“It was a reliever,” Ramos said at a press conference before the NCAA Division I wrestling championships at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City (Okla.). “I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.”

With a conference title in hand, Ramos turns his attention to one final chance at a coveted national championship. After finishing third two two years ago and dropping a 7-4 decision in the final last year at Des Moines, Ramos begins today as the third seed at 133.

“I think coming in here it’s going to let me open up a lot more,” Ramos said of the confidence boost. “Wrestle even tougher and just let it fly even more going into this tournament.”

Competition begins today at 11 a.m. with pigtails and first-round matches.

If the seeds hold up, Ramos (27-2) will have the opportunity to avenge one of his two losses this season in the semifinals against second-seed A.J. Schopp. Ramos, who scored a major decision over Schopp last season, dismisses the notion that the Edinboro junior has closed the gap following the 3-2 decision on Dec. 5.

“No, I don’t think he closed the gap at all,” Ramos said. “There’s a lot of weaknesses that we’ve noticed watching film on him, and if I do wrestle him in the semis I think I’ll exploit that a lot.”

With 10 national qualifiers – including three first-timers – and a second-place team finish in the conference tournament, the Hawkeyes enter the national tournament with some momentum.

“We feel good about ourselves,” Iowa Coach Tom Brands said. “We feel good about our team as coaches and I think our guys feel good about themselves.”

Ramos felt the team’s performance in Madison last week “opened some eyes.”

“Tony Ramos, he talks a lot bigger game than I talk,” Brands countered. “He’s a pretty confident guy. Opening eyes in the Big Ten would have been slamming the door on a Sunday.”

IOWA STATE WELL RESTED

Iowa State qualified six wrestlers for the national tournament, highlighted by fifth-seed Kyven Gadsen (25-2) at 133. Due the limitations of a four-team, one day Big 12 tournament, the Cyclones will have had just one day of competition between their dual at Minnesota on Feb. 23 and nationals.

It is a format that Big 12 coaches find less than ideal when preparing for this week.

“I don’t think a one-day tournament does much for you,” said Oklahoma State Coach John Smith, who voted against the one-day format. “I don’t think it’s a disadvantage, but I don’t think it gives you every advantage to wrestle your best.”

LAST HURRAH FOR NELSON, TAYLOR

A Big Ten pair of No. 1 seed, three-time All American wrestlers – Minnesota heavyweight Tony Nelson and Penn State 165-pounder David Taylor – will close out their decorated college careers this week. Nelson (26-4) will attempt to become the first three-time national champion in Gophers history.

“We’ve always had guys coming in,” Nelson said. “Really awesome to be part of that tradition. It’s special to be in that class of guys.”

Taylor, one of just three undefeated top seeds at 29-0 and the 2012 Hodge Trophy winner, enters with a sparkling career record of 129-3 hoping for his second national title.

“I just have to focus on what I have been doing for my entire life,” Taylor said. “I have five matches left to do that and that is all I can really focus on at this point.”

“There’s a chance and a lot of people are pulling for them and it would be a really nice victory,” said House Transportation Committee Chairman Josh Byrnes, R-Osage, who’s working on his doctorate at ISU.

And the odds of winning approval of a state gas tax increase for the first time since 1989 are improving now that the deadline for candidates to file for legislative offices has passed, he said.

Incumbents, who now know whether they face primary opposition, may be more inclined to listen to the arguments for raising the tax to address the state’s infrastructure backlog, which the Iowa Department of Transportation pegs at $215 million a year.

Add to that the potholes drivers are encountering as the ground thaws and Byrnes thinks his colleagues are beginning to feel pressure to take action sooner rather than later.

“We’re at a point where I can hope to get people moving” toward supporting his proposal, Byrnes said Wednesday.

He’s also been busy doing “background work” on the proposal, addressing individual lawmaker’s concerns about specific transportation-related issues in their districts.

“Some of them tell me ‘I’ll support it if the DOT does this or that,’” Byrnes explained.

If there is action, he doubts it will be on his original plan to raise the tax by 10 cents a gallon over three years.

Instead, he’s proposing to cut the state’s per-gallon fuel tax but bump sales taxes on fuel wholesalers. Every 1 percent increase in the wholesale tax would bring in $47 million compared to $22 million raised by every 1-cent increase in the pump price of fuel, Byrnes said.

If the state had taken that approach in 1989, Byrnes said, Iowa would have collected $3 billion more than it has in the past 25 years.

“We probably wouldn’t need to raise the gas tax now if we had done that,” he said.

Another factor in winning support is a proposal by DOT Director Paul Trombino to “buy out” federal transportation construction funds received by counties. Often there are strings attached to those funds that can increase the cost of projects.

“Because of its staff and resources, the DOT is better situated to deal with those regulations,” Byrnes said. “So the DOT would essentially swap out federal dollars for state dollars. We think we can get more projects done that way.”

Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, claims Iowa Workforce Development Director Teresa Wahlert is trying illegally to exert influence over administrative law judges who decide unemployment cases.

During a Statehouse news conference at which he released copies of emails and related stories of his interviews with Workforce Development employees, Dotzler said Wahlert had the judges develop “tip sheets” for employers to help them win their cases and asked for tallies of how judges decided their cases.

She did this, Dotzler said, after she fired the former chief administrative law judge and made the 14 other judges in the department report to her.

“I believe we have some of the best administrative law judges in the country,” he said. “I’m serving notice to the director to leave them alone.”

Wahlert did not respond to an interview request made through her communications staff Wednesday. Her office did, however, release a statement saying that her office just received a positive report from a routine inquiry on its unemployment appeals process.

“U.S. (Department of Labor) completed a three-day visit last week and will be releasing a report that does not contain any negative findings, a first in a number of years,” Wahlert said in the statement. “The department expects to be released from the corrective action plan that was in place from the previous administration.”

The regional U.S. Department of Labor office in Chicago could not immediately provide a copy of the report or contact information for the team that did the on-site visit.

Administrative law judges are federally funded positions. That is why Dotzler has asked the federal department to investigate. He also called on the director to resign.

“Sen. Dotzler’s engagement in Washington, D.C.-style partisan attacks has no place in Iowa,” said Jimmy Centers, a spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad. “The taxpayers expect their elected leaders to work in a bipartisan fashion to pass meaningful legislation, not engage in Senate Democrats’ petty political theater.”

The Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, which began five years ago, is a campus-wide effort to work with partners in the cities of Cedar Rapids, Washington, and Muscatine. Students and teachers of roughly ten disciplines such as engineering and public health will work on roughly 25 different community projects this year — the most projects it has ever had, and the most communities the initiative has ever worked with at once.

“We’re always looking to try and better serve the community,” said Nick Benson, program coordinator for the initiative. “The program is not static, we’re always looking for how to evolve this program based on the sustainable initiative program.”

The initiative was based on a program at the University of Oregon, but was adapted to fit community needs in Iowa. Depending on the class involved, each project can last for a semester or year. Students create plans for their community organization with the help of UI faculty who act as advisors.

Beyond helping communities in the state, Benson said an inclusive approach helps unite the university students and staff as well.

“In 2012 we realized with sustainability, you have to look at it holistically,” Benson said. “We involve a lot of different departments, and also provide more opportunities for civic engagement for students.”

Students “learning while doing” is an approach that is becoming more popular, said Chuck Connerly, founder of the program. He is a director and professor in the UI School of Urban and Regional Planning.

“They like the idea of working with a local community,” Connerly said. “It raises the bar, but it also means what you’re doing now is not just a paper your professor sees at the end of the semester. It means you can make a difference that will have a lasting impact.”

While the initiative has grown this year, Connerly said the goal of the program is not necessarily to continue to add more projects for students to complete, but to try and further the inclusion of other UI departments, such as many colleges in the College of Liberal Arts.

“We’ve gotten where we want to, now we have to look toward the future where we’re not sure bigger is always better,” he said. “We want more departments to be involved. We’re looking at the mainstream liberal arts department to participate more; we have a few rhetoric classes that are involved, and we would love to expand [to more colleges in the UI].”

Communities receiving the help and feedback from students are also appreciative new ideas the students can offer.

“It’s always great to have fresh minds look at something with a fresh perspective,” said Sandi Fowler, assistant city manager-development services for the city of Cedar Rapids. “It’s been a while since most of us have been in a classroom, and it’s great to see what they’ve been learning in the classroom.”

Connerly hopes the program will expand beyond eastern Iowa, and benefit more areas across the state. Fowler said Iowa as a whole could benefit from the initiative, as cities always need more help.

“Cities across the state, and cities across the country, want to get more projects done than they have staff available,” Fowler said. “As long as you have enough people to manage the program, this is very beneficial and a great way to supplement staff with people with academic experience.”

The Car Show and Test and Tune originally set for April 19 will now take place on April 26. The season opener, originally set for April 25, will now be May 2 and so on.

The full schedule for the 2014 Hawkeye Downs Speedway race season can be found here.

You can save the Ric Flair “Woo” after some of the head-scratching seeds for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.

A handful of coaches commented on some of the seeds and the process during a pre-tournament news conference Wednesday at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Minnesota Coach J Robinson said the committee needs to explain their decisions, validating the final seeds.

“I think the Committee and the people that do it owe an explanation why it is done, because if it isn’t done the right way you can’t correct it,” Robinson said. “I believe it needs to be transparent.”

You don’t have to look too far to see a couple questionable seeds. University of Northern Iowa’s Ryan Loder is a returning All-American at 184 and has reached at least the round of 12 in all three NCAA tournament appearances. He is 12-2 this season, but a loss in the Mid-American Conference finals dropped him to a 15th seed, which could mean a second-round bout with Penn State’s two-time NCAA champion Ed Ruth.

Iowa State’s Kyven Gadson ended the regular season as the consensus No. 1 ranked wrestler in the country and is 25-2 after winning his second straight Big 12 Conference title. He is seeded fifth at 197.

“I don’t understand how Gadson’s at No. 5,” Robinson said. “I was one of the ranking coaches this year. All through the year you’re looking at who’s wrestled and one tournament he doesn’t lose.

“He’s the most glaring one,” Robinson said. “(Penn State’s Zain) Retherford is another one.”

Retherford, a true freshman, is 29-1. His only loss was to Ohio State’s two-time NCAA champion Logan Stieber in the 141-pound final of the Big Ten Championships. Despite beating Stieber earlier in the season, he opens with The Citadel’s All-American and unseeded Undrakhbayar Khishignyam (22-3).

Penn State’s Cael Sanderson said it doesn’t matter now and that every wrestler still has to beat five or six opponents to win a title.

“It is not a time for us to worry about how things happened or why they didn’t happen,” Sanderson said. “If you look at all the weight classes, there were some strange some of the seeds. Why that is I don’t know, but it’s what we have and we have to make do.”

Iowa Coach Tom Brands said the qualifying rules have changed. With 33 wrestlers per bracket and more of an effort to get the nation’s very best wrestlers in the field, it is a tougher task to sort out the top half.

“The qualifying rules have changed,” Brands said. “There’s no question the brackets are deeper.”

Oklahoma Coach Mark Cody said that he heard some mention the Sooners were “hammered” when it came to tough draws. He said a new process may have some things to tweak, but the decision-makers try to be as fair as possible.

“The way we look at it is you get the seed you get and then you prepare and that was our focus,” Cody said. “I didn’t really notice one way or the other.”

Oklahoma State Coach John Smith questioned how you judge whether seeds are accurate. He said many people who complain don’t do their homework.

“When you’re seeding 160 athletes, there are probably a few that could have went either way,” Smtih said. “Overall, I looked at it and it looks pretty good.”

Wrestling with parity

The topsy-turvy college wrestling season has seen revolving doors at the top of rankings and defending national champions lose. The sport’s landscape at this level might be levelling a bit.

“I think it’s very exciting,” Iowa Coach Tom Brands said. “It hardens our guys and our program to the battle. We love it.”

A couple reasons were thrown out Wednesday. Coaching has improved and money has caused wrestlers to seek a more fiscally responsible decision coming out of high school.

“I think we’re going to see it more and more as we go forward from here,” Oklahoma State Coach John Smith said. “I think we have some great coaches out there, working hard at it.

“With tuition and fees going up money does make a difference in recruiting and people are choosing somewhere else because of that opportunity. I think we’ll continue to see it get tighter and tighter.”

Most agree parity creates a buzz, even if Penn State has had a grasp on the last three NCAA and Big Ten titles. Minnesota Coach J Robinson said competitiveness is cyclical. He also mentioned that technology has helped followers gain access to results and generate discussion, which is a huge plus.

“Regardless of what it does, it is good,” Robinson said. “Whether you win or lose, what happens is you get people talking and when they talk they get engaged and when they get engaged they pull other people into the conversation.”

Finals order

Last year, the NCAA switched the order of the championship bouts, deviating from their normal lightest to heaviest lineup to highlight the 165-pound match between Cornell’s four-time NCAA champion Kyle Dake and Penn State’s three-time national finalist and this year’s top-seeded David Taylor.

The order this year won’t be determined until the championship pairings are decided.

Penn State’s Cael Sanderson seemed fine with the format and Oklahoma State’s John Smith said he likes it, saying he wouldn’t be against doing that in regular-season duals.

“I think it makes sense,” Sanderson said. “They’re following the models of other combat sports, obviously boxing and MMA, and why not? The sport had great success with it last year.”

Smith added, “I think it’s a great idea. I think we ought to continue to do it. There are highlight matches, and we need to try to expose those highlight matches at the right time.”

A House Appropriations subcommittee approved a $728 million justice systems budget that included language to require the attorney general to get the approval of the state’s Executive Council before agreeing to a settlement. The council includes the governor, secretaries of state and agriculture, treasurer and auditor. The attorney general advises the council.

“That’s one of the basic powers of the office,” said Miller, who did not attend the meeting.

However, Rep. Chip Baltimore, R-Boone, argued that an attorney should have to consult with his client before accepting a settlement.

“An attorney does not get to make decisions on behalf of his client,” Baltimore said. In these cases, he said, “the client is the people of Iowa.”

He cited the example of the National Mortgage Settlement with the country’s five largest mortgage servicers. Miller was the lead attorney on the case that involved 48 other state attorneys general.

Miller drafted the consent decree to give himself complete discretion and place himself in a position to develop policies for implementing the $50 billion settlement, Baltimore said.

“That’s not the job the attorney general,” he said. “Policy-making is up to the legislature and executive branch.”

Miller did come to the Legislature with policy legislation, but at that point, Baltimore said, lawmakers had little choice but to accept legislation complying with the court order.

Democrats on the subcommittee sought to strike that language, arguing the requirement is unreasonable.

“He’s a constitutional officer. This is a core function of his office,” said Rep. Marti Anderson, D-Des Moines, a former employee of Miller’s office. The requirement might undermine the attorney general, she added, and doubted the Executive Council would have time to give proposed settlements the same level of review as they get from the attorney general and his staff.

Rep. Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, said that although Miller’s client is the people of Iowa, they have elected the attorney general to represent them.

Baltimore allowed that the relationship is “a little different than the typical attorney-client situation, “but gives the client a voice in settlements and what policies will be created.”

He called the measure a “responsible accountability feature.”

In the end, Anderson’s amendment to strike the language was defeated on a voice vote and the budget was approved on a party line vote.

It now goes to the full House Appropriations Committee Thursday.

Subcommittee Chairman Gary Worthan, R-Storm Lake, said he’s certain the language will not be in the bill when it comes back from the Senate.

Instead, band members will give it to students they’ve never met at Beckman Catholic High School in Dyersville.

To compete in the online March Music Madness contest, area high school pep bands made videos showcasing their school spirit. The 15 participating bands were organized into two brackets. Voting took place from March 6 to 15.

Spencer Sahu, Gracie Jurgens, Nicole Banks and Ben Retz practice March 17 with the rest of the Benton Community High School concert band. (Brady Smith/The Gazette)

In round one, Benton beat Aplington-Parkersburg by about 6,000 votes.

“It got pretty heated the first night,” said Adam Gorkow, a Benton senior and band member.

Benton met Independence in round two.

“The round that meant the most was the second round against Independence,” said senior Keaton Betterton. “They’re kind of our rivals.”

Once they’d secured a win in round two, Benton focused its votes on Beckman, which needed a push against Columbus to get to the third round.

“A couple of their kids had asked in an email to me if they would be interested in voting for them, because they were having a hard time getting past Columbus,” and needed the money for instrument repairs, said Scott Weber, director of bands at Benton.

So, he and his kids started voting.

“We stayed up until midnight that final night of the semifinals, trying to get (Beckman) into the finals,” Weber said.

Regardless of the outcome, Benton had already decided to donate its money to Beckman. So, Benton figured, it was a win either way.

If Benton helped Beckman get to the finals and won, Benton could give Beckman $300 on top of the $200 prize the second place school would receive.

Instrument repairs can eat up a program’s budget quickly, Weber said.

“It can repair a couple instruments if it’s a bigger instrument, the baritone sax, for example,” he said. “If it needs new padding, it can pretty much eat up that fund right away.”

In the end, Columbus edged out Beckman by fewer than 1,300 votes to continue into the next round.

Ultimately, Columbus Community took second place in Benton’s bracket. In the first bracket, Grundy Center took first place and North-Linn took second.

But the outcome didn’t change Benton students’ minds about what they were going to do with the $300 in prize money. Weber sent an email to Beckman’s band director telling her they’d get all of it.

Benton students also have taken up a separate collection. As of March 18, they’d collected another $104 for Beckman.

“We were all very shocked and I actually forwarded the email onto students, saying look how awesome this is, and a lot of them replied back very surprised and are already trying to figure out a way to say thank you for such a generous offer,” said Meredith Warren, Beckman band director.

“It just shows you what kind of heart my kids have, and they’re like this the entire year. Not just with something like this, but they always put other people first,” Weber said.

Benton will still come out of the experience with some extra money in its coffers, though. Chelsea Savings Bank in Van Horne told Weber on Tuesday that it would donate $300 to the program.

Northwestern Wildcats guard Tre Demps (14) tries to stop the advance of Iowa Hawkeyes guard Roy Devyn Marble (4) during the second half of a first round Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament game at Bankers Life Field in Indianapolis on Thursday , March 13, 2014. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)

I  love “A Bronx Tale.” It had everything from an all-star cast to one of the more quotable moments among 1990s movies.

Lorenzo, who was played by Robert De Niro,was a bus driver spoke to his son, C, on the bus route one day through New York City. C asks Lorenzo about whether or not he could become a baseball player. Lorenzo tells C he can be anything that he wants to be. He then adds, “the saddest thing in life is wasted talent. If you don’t do the right thing with that talent, nothing happens. But if you do right, good things happen.”

That line could define either the Iowa or Tennessee men’s basketball seasons. The Hawkeyes, once ranked 10th nationally, barely entered the NCAA tournament by sharing the 11th seed line with the Volunteers. Iowa blew out Big Ten champion Michigan by 18 points and beat Ohio State on the road by 10. The Hawkeyes were up double-digits on Villanova, Iowa State and Wisconsin — all at least No. 3 seeds — before falling apart in the second half.

Coaches, team officials and basketball fans have wondered — most off the record — why Iowa has underperformed this year. One team official from a prominent men’s basketball program said Iowa easily was the best team in the Big Ten and was perplexed why the Hawkeyes didn’t perform up to expectations. Those skeptics were reinforced late in the season when Iowa dropped six of its final seven, including back-to-back losses to Illinois and Northwestern. Iowa rolled Northwestern twice by 26 points, so that loss was perhaps the most head-shaking.

Likewise, Tennessee sits at the same disappointment table as Iowa as the teams break bread tonight in an NCAA first-round game (8 p.m. truTV). The Volunteers were one of the final six teams left out of the NCAA tournament last year, like Iowa. Tennessee returned two all-SEC-caliber players in guard Jordan McRae and forward Jarnell Stokes from a 20-win team. The Volunteers received the most votes of any non-top 25 team entering the season, doubling up even Iowa.

The season started in rocky fashion for Tennessee with a four-point loss at Xavier in the season opener. Tennessee later dropped their Battle 4 Atlantis opener to UTEP. A pair of non-conference losses to Wichita State and then N.C. State heightened the disappointment. The Volunteers continued their slide with disappointing losses to SEC middleweights Vanderbilt and Texas A&M. Entering the final stretch, the Volunteers were 16-11 and 7-7 in the SEC. Coach Cuonzo Martin, a former Purdue star, faced the prospects of a season and — potentially — a tenure falling apart.

The Volunteers did rally. They won their last four regular-season games, including the final three by at least 27 points. Tennessee drilled South Carolina 59-44 in the SEC Tournament opener before falling by seven to Florida in an SEC Tournament semifinal last Saturday.

Both teams are talking about fresh starts entering the NCAA tournament and a chance to wipe away disappointing regular seasons.

“For us it’s definitely something new,” McRae said. “Everybody’s record is like 0-0. Sixty-eight teams right now are trying to do the same thing.”

“Obviously the stage is a big stage, and this is an elimination setting, but as far as our preparation, you know, the coaches have built the culture of us always being diligent and focusing no matter who you play,” Iowa forward Melsahn Basabe said.

-

KEY BATTLE: On the boards. Tennessee ranks third nationally in rebound margin at plus-8.5. Iowa ranks ninth at plus-7.4. Tennessee is one the nation’s best offensive rebounding teams at 13.7 per game. Jarnell Stokes and Jeronne Maymon combine for 7.7 offensive rebounds a game.

Stokes is Tennessee’s school-recorder holder with 319 offensive rebounds. Stokes was a first-team all-SEC selection with 19 double-doubles a game. He averaged 15.1 points and 11. 1 rebounds and was one of only three players nationally in major conferences with that distinction. He has 37 career double-doubles.

Stokes and Maymon are big, wide and physical in the post. They have a skill set Iowa can’t match. Kentucky center Dakari Johnson said, “(Stokes) was probably the strongest player I’ve ever played against.”

But Iowa has its advantages, too. Three different players ranked among the Big Ten’s top 20 in rebounding. Two were in the top 12 for blocked shots. Gabe Olaseni was second in offensive rebounds per game with 2.6. Basabe was ninth at 1.9. The Hawkeyes ranked 19th nationally in offensive rebounding at 19.75 a game. Tennessee was 21st at 19.7.

-

STYLES MAKE FIGHTS. In a classic sense, the team that imposes its will, should win the game. Tennessee prefers a half-court, defensive game. The Volunteers allow 61 points a game and in their last four have given up just 47.4. The most points Tennessee have allowed is 78, and that was to UTEP at the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Iowa, conversely, averaged 82 points a game and scored at least 80 points 21 times in a game. The Hawkeyes get up and down the court.

Mar 15, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Iowa State Cyclones forward Dustin Hogue (22) dunks the ball during the second half against the Baylor Bears in the championship game of the Big 12 Conference college basketball tournament at Sprint Center. Iowa State won 74 - 65. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

AMES — The words lurk in Iowa State junior Dustin Hogue’s mind, sometimes distant, sometimes close.

They both demean and uplift, and they crystallize in one blunt phrase: ’You’ll never be a Division I basketball player.’

“There’s a lot of naysayers where I’m from,” said Hogue, who proudly hails from Yonkers, N.Y., and has flourished with the third-seeded Cyclones (27-6), who open NCAA tournament East regional play at 8:50 p.m. Friday against 14th-seeded North Carolina Central at San Antonio, Texas. “When I’m playing, I always think of them.”

But whether Hogue’s playing or not, he thinks of — and communicates — with his older brother, Doug Hogue, Jr.

And doubt is never a topic of conversation.

“I’ve always told him this: I expect him to be better and do bigger things than me,” Doug Hogue said in a telephone interview.

That’s saying something, considering Doug ranks ninth all-time in Syracuse football history with 26.5 tackles for loss, and played in the NFL for the Detroit Lions and Carolina Panthers.

He’s bound for the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers in May — after he continues work toward his master’s degree — and Dustin credits him for his toughness.

“Ironically, he’s the one that taught me more about basketball than anybody else,” said Dustin Hogue, who averages 10.7 points and 8.6 rebounds. “He just always told me to be aggressive on the court. Leave it all out there.”

Doug not only told him that.

He showed him.

When the two brothers scrapped around the playgrounds and at home, Doug didn’t take it easy.

“I was kind of a little softie back in the day,” said Dustin, who now earns fully un-soft nicknames such as “monster” and “beast” from friends and foes alike.

Wait, softie?

Please.

“Dustin was never a softie,” Doug Hogue said, laughing. “Never. But being the big brother, I kind of had my way with him a little bit.”

Try doing that now.

Hogue earned Oscar Robertson national player of the week honors in December after a 22-point, 16-rebound effort in a rout of Auburn.

He’s angrily dunked nine times.

His late strip of Kansas State’s Marcus Foster in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals helped turn a three-point lead into a five-point cushion and eventual triumph, which set up the Cyclones’ first conference tournament title run in 14 years.

Some softie.

“Do you see them out there?” ISU star and Big 12 player of the year Melvin Ejim said. “The dude’s a beast. He has no regard for life, (including) his own.”

What he does value highly are grit and gumption.

Hogue had 16 points in a nonconference win over Iowa.

He’s collected 10 or more boards in 12 games and the Cyclones won 10 of those.

“When he produces, we win games,” ISU forward Georges Niang said.

That’s naturally what’s on Hogue’s mind now as the detractors retreat.

“It’s not going to be an easy road,” he said. “Teams are going to come out giving everything they’ve got.”

Just like Hogue, who said people from New York “play hard ball.”

And while that truism covers both words and actions, the latter always wins out.

“When I see him out there and I see him throwing his body around, I’m just proud,” Doug Hogue said. “Proud.”

Instructor Debbie Jump leads her students during a Nia dance session at Epic Steps Dance Studio, 3960 Center Point Rd NE, on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, in northeast Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The exercise form is gaining followers as a fitness option in Eastern Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)

Bruce Thayer wasn’t sure a dance-based fitness class was for him.

“I’ve been a lifelong dance-phobic. I was never one to get out on the dance floor,” he says. “For some reason I thought you had to have all your stuff together to do that.”

But Thayer, 66, of Iowa City, decided he’d try Nia, a fitness program gaining followers in Eastern Iowa. Within 15 minutes of his first class, he says he had gotten over his inhibitions and was simply having fun.

“Part of it was Nia encourages a lot of vocalizations. One minute we might be doing cave man grunts and the next minute we might be skipping and doing bird chirps,” he says. “I was having a ball. It reminded me of playing with kids. We had all these adults in the room who were kind of getting in touch with their inner child.”

Having fun is central to Nia, which lists “The Joy of Movement” as it’s first guiding principle.

Pamela Feenstra of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, throws punches as she works out during a Nia dance session at Epic Steps Dance Studio, 3960 Center Point Rd NE, on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, in northeast Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)

Nia is fairly new to the Corridor, but it has been around for about 30 years. California fitness professionals Debbie Rosas and Carlos AyaRosas created Nia in the early 1980s, seeking to find a low-impact alternative to the aerobics craze after Rosas suffered a number of sports-related injuries.

Nia seeks to integrate body, mind, spirit and emotion. Fifty-two moves are combined to create routines, and moves can be done at different levels depending on a dancer’s comfort and experience. There also are 52

principles, from the joy of movement principal to living with intent.

“We want to dance through life,” says Beth Pelton, 66, who teaches Nia at Body Move Fitness and Wellness Center in Coralville.

Nia is meant to be gentler on the body than, say, zumba, Pelton says. Dancers are supposed to develop awareness of their bodies to avoid injuries. Free-dance is part of every routine, and it’s ok if not all dancers are following every step.

Pelton, who retired from teaching in the University of Iowa’s Department of Health Promotion, opened Body Move Fitness just more than a year ago. The studio also offers yoga, zumba and other fitness classes. Since opening, Pelton says she’s grown her Nia following to about 20 to 30 people.

That may not seem like a lot, but for several years she didn’t have a studio space of her own. Teaching in places like church basements and hopping from space to space, she had only a handful of students after she started teaching Nia in 2007. Now she’s able to expose more people as the studio’s yoga and zumba students give the class a try.

Debbie Jump, 56, teaches Nia in Cedar Rapids. Like Pelton, she also has a small group of dedicated Nia enthusiasts who have followed her from venue to venue over the last several years. She currently teaches a Friday class at Epic Steps Dance Studio.

Along with Karla Schmidt, also at Body Move Fitness, they are the only Nia teachers they’re aware of in the Corridor. In Iowa, there also are Nia classes in Cedar Falls, the Des Moines area and Fairfield, Jump and Pelton say.

Every licensed Nia instructor is expected to learn four routines a year. Enthusiasts who want to earn belts — from white to black — do so through weeklong immersion seminars. Pelton is a black belt and Jump is a brown belt.

On a recent Friday, Jump led students in a lunch-hour session of dance. She countered any hint of awkwardness or inhibition with a simple invocation: “Choose joy! Find joy in your movement.”

Comments: (319) 398-8434; alison.gowans@sourcemedia.net

The index reflects the approximate nine- to 12-month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending. Any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings.

The new projects inquiry index was 56.8 in February, down from the reading of 58.5 the previous month.

Jessica Reinert, executive director of the Iowa Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in Des Moines, said severe weather in the Midwest and nationally have prohibited most design and construction activity.

“In the Midwest region, the average is a few points lower than it was at this time last year, likely due to the extended cold and deep freeze,” Reinert said in a press release. “The coming months will likely give us a better idea of the status of design and construction markets as we see projects that have been shelved or postponed come back online.”

The Midwest regional index reading was 47.6 in February, up from 46.5 in January.

The architectural billings index is derived from a monthly “work-on-the-boards” survey that is sent to a panel of American Association of Architects member-owned firms. Participants are asked whether their billings increased, decreased, or stayed the same in the month that just ended as compared with the prior month.

The monthly results are seasonally adjusted to allow for comparison with prior months.

Construction of some major projects in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor have been halted due to the cold and snow this winter. Contractors have been waiting for sustained temperatures above freezing to install roofing and other materials.

(Reuters) – Fierce solar blasts that could have badly damaged electrical grids and disabled satellites in space narrowly missed Earth in 2012, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The bursts would have wreaked havoc on the Earth’s magnetic field, matching the severity of the 1859 Carrington event, the largest solar magnetic storm ever reported on the planet. That blast knocked out the telegraph system across the United States, according to University of California, Berkeley research physicist Janet Luhmann.

“Had it hit Earth, it probably would have been like the big one in 1859, but the effect today, with our modern technologies, would have been tremendous,” Luhmann said in a statement.

A 2013 study estimated that a solar storm like the Carrington Event could take a $2.6 trillion bite out of the current global economy.

Massive bursts of solar wind and magnetic fields, shot into space on July 23, 2012, would have been aimed directly at Earth if they had happened nine days earlier, Luhmann said.

The bursts from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, carried southward magnetic fields and would have clashed with Earth’s northward field, causing a shift in electrical currents that could have caused electrical transformers to burst into flames, Luhmann said. The fields also would have interfered with global positioning system satellites.

The event, detected by NASA’s STEREO A spacecraft, is the focus of a paper that was released in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday by Luhmann, China’s State Key Laboratory of Space Weather professor Ying Liu and their colleagues.

Although coronal mass injections can happen several times a day during the sun’s most active 11-year cycle, the blasts are usually small or weak compared to the 2012 and 1859 events, she said.

Luhmann said that by studying images captured by the sun-observing spacecraft, scientists can better understand coronal mass injections and predict solar magnetic storms in the future.

“We have the opportunity to really look closely at one of these events in all of its glory and look at why in this instance was so extreme,” Luhmann said.

(Editing by Scott Malone and David Gregorio)

Related articles

• Fierce 2012 magnetic storm barely missed Earth: Earth dodged huge magnetic bullet from the sun

Dylan McLaughlin

BENSENVILLE, Ill. – Andrew Poturalski had two goals and Alec Marsh a goal and four assists as the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders toppled the Chicago Steel, 7-3, in a rare Wednesday morning USHL game.

The game began at 10 a.m.as part of a school day promotion.

The RoughRiders allowed the first two goals of the game but scored seven of the final eight, all in the second and third periods. Poturalski scored 56 seconds into the second, then Freddy Tiffels tied the game at the 8:56 mark.

Goals from Marsh, Poturalski and defenseman Ivan Provorov made it a five-goal second for Cedar Rapids. Mark Auk and Jason Kalinowski (empty net) scored in the third period.

Marsh recorded a plus-minus rating of plus-five. Dylan McLaughlin picked up four assists and was plus-four.

Danny Tirone made 29 saves go notch the win in goal. He made his sixth straight start.

The win improved Cedar Rapids’ record to 32-19-3, its 67 points good for second place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference. Dubuque is three points back of the Riders, with the teams playing Saturday night at Dubuque.

The RoughRiders host Omaha on Friday night.

Here is the official gamesheet:

Patrict McCaffery messes around with his dad Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery during the team's shoot around before their NIT semi-final matchup against Maryland Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at Madison Square Garden in New York. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery is on his way back to Dayton after his son’s surgery this morning. Here is his statement:

“Today’s surgery for my son Patrick went as planned. Doctors will continue tests in the coming days to determine further treatment. Patrick was in good spirits after the operation.

Our family would like to thank the surgeons who performed the operation and the doctors and nurses at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics who have helped treat Patrick during this process.

The outpouring of support and encouragement Patrick and our family have received this past week has been overwhelming; words cannot express how genuinely thankful we are to everyone who has offered their thoughts and prayers.”

Two of the principles that this country was founded upon are freedom of religion and expression. It is really sad to see that we have become more concerned with offending someone else’s beliefs that we are willing to give up these beliefs.

The image on the Cedar Rapids Fire Department’s truck should remain as is. As a volunteer firefighter, I believe that there is a higher power guiding me and my fellow volunteers, as with our professional brothers.

Ronald Metz

Middle Amana

 Correspondent

 AMES — Iowa State legacy all-American wrestler Kyven Gadson said the words over and over.

The top-ranked, but, oddly, fifth-seeded 197-pounder at the NCAA Championships, which runs Thursday through Saturday at Oklahoma City, had created the following phrase to pave the mental path toward a national title:

“I will be a NCAA national champion.”

It felt good to say it — until a friend of the family, former ISU standout Mike Mann, told him a tweak was required.

“He told me I had to change it to, ‘I am a national champion,’ because it affirms my thinking,” said Gadson, who rolls into nationals on an 11-match winning streak, five of which gleaned bonus points. “So I’ve told myself many time that, ‘I am a national champion.’ I just have to go out there and prove myself and just let it fly.”

Gadson’s the top title contender among six Cyclones who will compete at nationals.

Others in the mix: all-American 165-pounder Michael Moreno; his brother and first-time qualifier, Gabe Moreno (149); 2013 NCAA qualifier Trent Weatherman (174); Big 12 champ Lelund Weatherspoon (184); and at-large qualifier Earl Hall (125).

“I really think they’re ready to take advantage of this opportunity,” said ISU Coach Kevin Jackson, whose team hopes to improve on am 11th-place finish last season. “It’s what we talk about all year. It’s what we work towards all year. And I think we’re focused on that first match. Once we get through that first match, you kind of get on a roll.”

Gadson — who earlier this month joined his father, the late Willie Gadson, as part of the only father-son duo to win two conference titles — thrives on inspiration, but isn’t too concerned with numbers that don’t begin and end at “1” on Saturday.

Being seeded fifth baffled Jackson, though, as well as much of the wrestling world.

“Initially you’re a little shocked by it; you don’t understand it,” Jackson said. “But you can only control what you can control. We can’t control that. We can only control ourselves and what we do. He’s adjusted to the draw and obviously if you’re the best, you have to prove it. And he has to prove it.”

Just the way Gadson likes it.

Along with visualizing and verbalizing success beyond all-American status, he’s focused on staying calm and relaxed.

To that end, he partook in a soothing pre-NCAA Championships massage, then sat still for a pedicure with his girlfriend.

“Got to get lighter on my feet,” he said, laughing.

Last season, Gadson competed under a heavy load of emotion.

His father had passed away from cancer days before the NCAAs.

Gadson channeled his grief into a sixth-place finish at nationals.

Now he’s reinvigorated by a deeper commitment to his faith and still wrestling to make dad proud.

The robe he wore to honor his father at last year’s Championships will be neatly packed among his belongings.

He’s still unsure if he’ll take the mat with it at any point, but he will step out confidently, mentally powered by those reworked words.

“I feel great,” Gadson said. “My body feels great and, more importantly, my mind’s feeling good.”

I would like to thank the emergency rescue crew of Cedar Rapids.

You saved a blind dog who was floating on a piece of ice down the Cedar River late evening on March 10. I hope the owners know how lucky they are for your hard work and are grateful.

Citizens of Cedar Rapids are fortunate for your unselfishness and dedication to our city.

Cecelia Roman

Cedar Rapids

In the years following a devastating flood, Cedar Rapids has worked hard to pull ourselves up and revitalize our city. We have made much progress in a short time and the exciting momentum

continues.

There is one more component that would be the capstone to these efforts: Cedar Crossing Casino.

With a new convention center in the downtown, we have seen renewed interest in our area meeting and convention facilities. However, one item many regional and national convention groups are looking for is the night life and 24/7 entertainment a casino can provide.

As we continue to sell Cedar Rapids as a vibrant, renewed city, we need this piece of the puzzle to stand up against other cities our size.

We look forward to the visitors, continued investment and economic impact it can bring to our area. Our community supports a casino in Linn County and easily passed the referendum. We now ask the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to please award a license to the Cedar Crossing Casino.

Marilee Fowler

President/CEO,

Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau

First, there’s “Mallard” vs. “Doonesbury.” I read both comic strips. I also have read the letters that have been published by proponents and opponents of each. Here’s my two cents worth.

“Doonesbury” takes a satirical look at real world events or situations as they become relevant.

He does this in the same way as “The Daily Show” presents fake (real) news by shining a different light on it. Surely it can, and will, be seen as left-wing bias, but it’s usually funny and always truthful.

“Mallard” repeats the often made-up and always nasty commentary from the right-wing echo machine. In order to stay “fair and balanced,” keep them both so as not to deprive anyone.

Next, there’s “Wumo” vs “Dustin.” Dump “Wumo,” and while you’re at it “Mutts,” and bring back “Dustin.” “Dustin” had some intellectual content and usually was funny. “Wumo” and “Mutts” are just plain dumb.

David Kyllingstad

Iowa City

Iowa's Derek St. John (facing camera) wrestles Penn State's Dylan Alton during their 157 lbs. match at the Big Ten Conference Wrestling Tournament at the Kohl Center on Saturday, March 8, 2014, in Madison, Wis. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

IOWA CITY – Derek St. John has produced memorable postseason moments for the University of Iowa.

His earliest recollections of the national tournament were simpler and involved former Hawkeyes and his father, Trent.

“My first memory was sitting at home, listening to it on the radio with my dad,” St. John said. “It was Cliff Moore and that era, pretty much.”

Ten years later, the 23-year-old will make one last run at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Okla., beginning Thursday at 11 a.m. Defending national champion and second-seeded St. John opens with Lehigh’s Joe Napoli in the first round of the 157-pound bracket.

While hanging on every word of the radio announcer, the junior-high wrestler aspired to be in Moore’s position. He may not have pictured it that way exactly, but he has matched and surpassed those Hawkeyes achievements.

“I never thought about it like that, but always strived for it,” St. John said. “I never really saw myself in that spot. I wanted it.”

As a red-shirt freshman, St. John qualified for the national tournament, placing fourth. He joined the long list of Iowa All-Americans.

“It was awesome,” St. John said about his first NCAA experience. “I didn’t think about the past too much, but I was getting ready for the present.”

Currently, St. John’s wrestling career has come full circle from the days he first watched the NCAA tournament on television, including a runner-up finish of Ryan Fulsaas. Young wrestlers now look up to St. John, who has worked clinics at Iowa City West. Youth wrestlers will be updating websites and watching television or online video of St. John competing, like he did via the radio years ago.

“There are kids that look up to you and one day will be in your spot,” said St. John, a two-time state champ and four-time medalist for the Trojans. “It’s a pretty big deal.”

St. John has made an impact from when he stepped in the practice room. He wasted little time battling two-time NCAA champion and three-time finalist Brent Metcalf. His competitive nature and fire is strong, despite his constantly controlled demeanor. Throughout his prep and college career, he has approached the tussles in practice as a national championship bout.

Visualizing those moments in training has helped him reach the actual finals moment the last two seasons.

“You are in a room full of guys who want to tear off your head,” St. John said. “You come ready to go or you’re going to get your behind whomped.”

The tough, hard-nosed St. John has always let his actions do the most talking. The resume speaks for itself. St. John (25-4) has the chance to become Iowa’s 17th two-time national titlist and 18th four-time All-American, finishing as a runner-up in 2012. A second straight title is more important.

“I don’t know how many people have done that in back-to-back years,” St. John said. “It would be a big thing.”

Iowa Coach Tom Brands said this is the time for St. John and all the Hawkeyes to cement their legacy.

“I think every time out is another time to prove himself,” Brands said. “Isn’t that life? Isn’t that competition? It is certainly wrestling and when you have the competitive makeup of these guys it holds true.”

Iowa 165-pounder Nick Moore has known St. John since before they became teammates at West. They have won state titles together and now the longtime friends have a final shot to earn All-America status together.

“If that’s something you need to get yourself up for a match then that’s something you go to,” Moore said. “You realize this is our last chance to do it together. I think it can be incredibly motivating.”

St. John has plans to train with the Hawkeye Wrestling Club in the future. He has one more bracket to try and conquer. He has not bother to see the draw outside of his pairing with Napoli.

“The first round match is a pretty big one,” St. John said. “Other than that I don’t really know.

“It doesn’t matter. You have to win five matches to win the title anyway.”

One more run with more memories.

It’s the first First Four Fun Facts in Hlog history.

I covered the NCAA tournament in Dayton last year. The NCAA tournament loves Dayton. Dayton loves the NCAA tournament. Not all relationships are as balanced, like the one between me and pizza. Now, on with the Fun Facts:

1. Iowa and Tennessee have played each other three previous times, in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Honolulu. Dayton isn’t Los Angeles, Las Vegas or Honolulu.

2. Iowa is 25-20 against current SEC members, but has never played Auburn, Florida, Mississippi, Texas A&M or Vanderbilt. The only way it plays any of them this season is if it meets overall No. 1-seed Florida in the national-championship game.

3. Virginia Commonwealth went from its No. 11-seed First Four game in 2011 to the Final Four. It was the third No. 11-seed to go to the Final Four. The others were LSU in 1986 and George Mason in 2006. No team seeded 10th, or 12th through 16th, has ever gone to a Final Four

4. Sunday, Fran McCaffery became the 12th coach to take four different schools to NCAA Division I basketball tourneys. They were Lehigh, North Carolina-Greensboro, Siena and Iowa. The day before, Steve Alford became the 11th. He has done so at Southwest Missouri State, Iowa, New Mexico and UCLA. Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger is the only coach to guide five schools to the big tournament.

5. Tennessee hasn’t defeated a ranked team all season and is 2-7 against teams in the NCAAs. Iowa has two wins over ranked clubs (Ohio State, Michigan) and is 4-8 against NCAA teams.

6. Iowa is 7-8 away from Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Tennessee is 7-9 away from Thompson-Boling Arena.

7. Tennessee has players from 10 different states. Including Tennessee.

8. This is the Volunteers’ ninth-straight season without a losing record in the SEC.

9. Tennessee’s Jordan McRae has six games of at least 24 points and averages 18.6, but has averaged just 12.4 in the last five games.

10. Tennessee’s average home crowd this season was 15,475. Iowa’s was 15,246. Tennessee’s seating capacity is 21,678. Iowa’s is 15,400.

11. The Volunteers’ averaged over 20,000 fans in 2007-08 and 2008-09 when Bruce Pearl was their coach.

12. David Climer of The Tennessean says Vols Coach Cuonzo Martin should have to win two games in the NCAAs to keep his job.

13. On Feb. 27. Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said this about Tennessee fans calling for Martin’s firing: “Hopefully, the powers that be over at Tennessee will tune those idiots out and give (Martin) the kind of time he deserves to do the job he needs to do.”

14. This will be the 105th NCAA tournament game played in Dayton. The vast majority were at University of Dayton Arena, which opened in 1969. No venue has hosted more NCAA games.

15. The state of Iowa hasn’t hosted the NCAA men’s tourney since Ames did in 1972. Iowa City was a host site in 1954, 1956, 1962 and 1966. It was a different time.

English: Photograph of Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. Willi Sanke postcard #503 (cropped). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

BY ERIK KIRSCHBAUM

BERLIN (Reuters) – A simple plaque marks the forsaken spot where the Red Baron was buried in central Berlin but hardly anyone stops to remember the flying ace shot down in 1918. For Germans, the Great War holds so little interest.

The centenary of the outbreak of World War One has caught Germany off guard, while Britain, France, the United States and others mark it with battlefield tours, television programs, exhibitions and plans for ceremonies on the day, in August.

Germans aren’t sure how, or even if, they should commemorate a war that cost them 13 percent of their territory, all their colonies, huge reparations and 2.5 million lives. The government is under fire for its inactivity.

“Most Germans don’t want to have anything to do with the militaristic past,” said Stefan Scheybal, a mason who tends graves at the Invalids’ cemetery where Manfred von Richthofen was buried, a plot of land now bisected by a busy cycle path.

“We were brought up to scorn patriotism and everything about our belligerent history, so no one really feels a connection to World War One,” said Scheybal, 51. “Most Germans don’t care who the Red Baron was. Only English people come to see his grave.”

The way Germany treats its war dead – even the gallant Red Baron, who shot down 80 enemy planes – helps explain why it is having a hard time figuring out how to mark the centenary of the start of a war that shaped the 20th century.

REASONS FOR APATHY

The reasons for German apathy run deeper than the obvious fact that they lost the war. Modern Germany has no appetite for war and shudders at the memories of Imperial Germany, with its spiked “Pickelhaube” helmets and exuberant militarism.

“Germans today are probably the least belligerent and most pacifist-oriented people anywhere in Europe,” said Herfried Muenkler, a Humboldt University historian whose new book “Der Grosse Krieg” is making waves for challenging long-held notions that Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany was to blame for starting it.

“But that’s due to the collective memory of World War Two, as that overshadows World War One in every category from the loss of lives to the level of German guilt,” he told Reuters.

Another reason the war is so little remembered is that the Nazis manipulated its legacy for nationalistic propaganda in their march to power in 1933. Defeat was cast as the result of betrayal of the army by weak, defeatist civilians and communist revolutionaries.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has no plans at this point to take part in World War One memorials, but she acknowledged that its historical significance has been accentuated by tensions with Russia over its incursion into Ukrainian territory in Crimea.

In a speech to parliament last week, Merkel said Europe had clearly not put behind it such 19th and 20th century-style conflicts about spheres of influence and territorial ambitions.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says the lesson of the war is that diplomacy failed, though he warns that “drawing frivolous historical parallels can distort our view of what’s behind the current crisis”.

MOSS-COVERED GRAVESTONES

A plaque marks the sport where Manfred von Richthofen (alias the Red Baron) was buried at Invaliden cemetery in Berlin. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

There is no better way to gauge German lack of interest in World War One than looking at how it remembers its soldiers.

When Germany’s last World War One veteran, Erich Kaestner, died at the age of 107 in 2008 it merited little attention, nor was there any confirmation that he was the last of the Great War veterans because the defense ministry keeps no such records.

Kaestner’s little noted passing stood in marked contrast to the honors France bestowed on Lazere Ponticelli. France’s last war veteran got a state funeral led by then-President Nicolas Sarkozy when he died at 110 – three months after Kaestner.

German neglect of its veterans is matched by the condition of graveyards like the one housing von Richthofen’s memorial: weeds grow instead of flowers and the stone is worn by the wind and weather. His remains were moved to Wiesbaden in West Germany in 1975 after the Berlin Wall cut straight through the cemetery.

“Germany has forgotten those killed in World War One,” Gerd Krumeich, a scholar of the period, told Reuters. “Hardly anyone visits war graves. They’re covered with moss. No one’s interested. Germans will never commemorate that war.”

Across town at the Alte Garnison Friedhof, Katrin Saenger was basking in the sun reading a book, cheerfully oblivious to the iron crosses marking the graves of captains and colonels.

“I’ve been coming here on my lunch break for the last year because it’s nice and quiet,” said the 34-year-old fashion designer. “It might be strange but I like the aura, if you can say that about a cemetery. Hardly anyone ever comes here. It’s only once in a great while you see someone looking at a grave.”

The public apathy explains why Merkel’s government has devoted scant resources or attention to the 100th anniversary.

The opposition Left party has criticized the government for failing to schedule any major events and for spending just 4.7 million euros on the anniversary, while Britain and France are devoting about 60 million euros each to this summer’s centenial.

Sevim Dagdelen, a lawmaker from the anti-militaristic Left, calls the government’s lack of enthusiasm “scandalous”.

“You get the impression that it’s not a priority at all to remember a lost world war. They don’t want to talk about it,” she said, suggesting parliament should host a memorial event with delegations from France, Britain, Russia and Serbia.

“That would be the decent thing to do.”

(Writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Stephen Brown and Ralph Boulton)

Reyst said she needed to go so that she could allow herself to forgive the man who killed her brother, Waterloo police officer Michael Hoing, and his partner, officer Wayne Rice, in 1981.

That man, James Michael Taylor, initially resisted to the meeting before he had a change of heart and discovered he wanted to ask for her forgiveness, Reyst said.

“He actually pulled out a little poem and said, ‘I read this for your family every night,’” Reyst recalled Wednesday from her home in Crystal Falls, Mich., during a telephone interview. “It said, ‘Let go and let God.’”

The Iowa Department of Corrections said Wednesday that Taylor, 60, had died Tuesday at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics from natural causes due to complications from an aortic aneurysm. Taylor was serving two life sentences for the deaths of Hoing and Rice.

Reyst said she has “mixed feelings” about Taylor’s death. While he’s gone, the pain of her brother’s death lives on.

James M. "T-Bone" Taylor is led ouf of a bean field northeast of La Porte City July 17, 1981, by from left, Waterloo Police Officers Tom Shimp and Larry Coffin, State Trooper Marv Messerschmidt and Waterloo Police Officer Mark Shoars. Messerschmidt is credited with capturing Taylor, who was hiding in the bean field. (COPYRIGHT PHOTO FOR WATERLOO COURIER BY ROY DABNER)

“His prison term is over,” she said. “Ours continues until the day we die. We are sentenced to live imprisonment ourselves.”

Reyst said when she met with Taylor in 2003, he told her what had  happened that night of July 12, 1981.

When the Waterloo police officers went to the residence a second time in response to a loud party call, they were attacked by people at the home. A man hit Rice over the head with a chair, knocking him out.

Taylor then was able to grab Rice’s gun and use it to shoot Hoing two or three times. Taylor then shot Rice “point blank,” Reyst said. Hoing died shortly after midnight on July 13.

Waterloo Police Captain Tim Pillack said Taylor fled, and a manhunt was launched. Taylor left Waterloo in a car that was found abandoned in LaPorte City.

He was apprehended after police got a tip he was hiding in an abandoned house.

“We found him in a bean field,” Pillack said. “We caught him on Friday, July 17.”

Dave Hoing, Michael Hoing’s brother, said he didn’t know how to feel about Taylor’s death.

“I don’t hate the guy, I gave up on that a long time ago,” said Hoing, who still lives in Waterloo. “I can’t say I’m going to miss him, either. I don’t know what to feel about it.”

Hoing said Taylor reached out to him after Reyst went to see him in prison and asked to meet with him. Hoing turned down the request.

“As I told him in the letter, I’m really just better off if I don’t think about it,” Hoing said. “I told him I didn’t hate him. I just didn’t want to think about him … .

“I don’t know what to think about it,” Dave Hoing said. “I’m not relieved. I’m not sad.”

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad announced Iowa is among three states to be designated an All★Vet State by Hiring Our Heroes, a program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

The All★Vet States initiative was created to highlight the incredible opportunities, services, and support being offered by states to attract and hire transitioning service members and military spouses.  By showcasing the benefits and opportunities important to veterans and their families, a state can help influence a transitioning service member’s decision-making process in bringing their skill sets and revenue to that state.

Continue reading

Willie Hilson

A homeless man is accused of robbing a woman outside of a Walgreens.

According to the Coralville Police Department, on March 16, 56-year-old Willie J. Hilson approached a woman outside of Walgreens, 102 Second St., and demanded she give him cash. Police said Hilson forced the woman to go to the back of the building, where she gave him $40.

After the woman gave Hilson the money, he allegedly pushed her to the ground and kicked her. The woman was taken to the hospital, where she was treated for fractured ribs and a headache.

Hilson was arrested and faces one count of second-degree robbery.

The post What’s the Best Tool for Managing Twitter? appeared first on Brand Driven Digital.

Continue reading

However, there was disagreement on whether small business owners need an Arizona-like conscience law to protect their religious liberties.

Four Republicans hoping to succeed Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin spent most of a forum in front of the National Federation of Independent Business Tuesday night singing from the same hymnal. However, there was some dissonance when the quartet was asked about their support for the Arizona religious freedom law that would have made it easier for business owners to refuse service to gay people on religious grounds.

College professor Sam Clovis called Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s veto a mistake because religious freedom is a First Amendment right that means “our religious faith, our religious doctrine should be protected and there are no exceptions.”

State Sen. Joni Ernst called it a “very, very difficult issue.” As conservatives, she said, the GOP was based on the premise that all people are created equal “do not want to discriminate anybody regardless of whatever their sexual preference might be.”

“However, I do not believe that we should be forcing people who have a religious objection to providing services that deal with their religious liberties,” she said.

She wouldn’t support discriminating against a gay couple who went to a restaurant for a meal, Ernst said, adding “it’s a very complicated issue.”

Matt Whitaker said he hadn’t been following the Arizona situation, but he does care about religious liberty and cases of religious organizations being forced to do things that violate their beliefs.

“As a Christian, I practice my Christian religion and I don’t want to get in the way of others, whether you are Muslim or Jewish or some other denomination, from you practicing your religion,” he said.

Mark Jacobs shares his competitors’ concern with the federal government’s encroachment on religious liberty and promised to “fight very vigorously” to defend religious liberty.

“In the instances of religious organizations, I absolutely, 100 percent support the idea that we can have no religious encroachment,” Jacobs said. “But when people choose to enter the field of commerce, I think we have to make sure that we have an environment that those businesses are open to law-abiding citizens. I’m very concerned about the discriminatory nature that could creep into that if we open that door.”

Speaking to members of the NFIB, which has nearly 11,000 members in Iowa – 92 percent of whom work for businesses with 20 or fewer employees — the candidates generally agreed the current $7.25-an-hour minimum wage is appropriate and there is no role for the federal government in raising it. Three of the four candidates said they had worked for the minimum wage at one time.

They also generally agreed the common core education standard should be scrapped, but called for higher education standards set by states and local school boards. They’d also like to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and get rid of the Department of Education and the Dodd-Frank act.

For the first time, the Roundup will be held at the new McGrath Amphitheater near the Cedar River. Six national vendors are returning, including: Camp 31, Just North of Memphis, Big Bone Barbecue, Cowboy’s Barbecue and more. The BBQ Roundup will also feature local entertainment. Roundup staff says those performers will be announced later this year.

William Smith coats ribs with a thick layer of barbecue sauce at Camp 31 BBQ's tent at the Cedar Rapids BBQ Roundup in Cedar Rapids in June 2011. (The Gazette)

Iowa’s near jackpot-winning tickets were purchased in Shenandoah and Coggon and won prizes of $15,000 each.

The $400 million grand prize ($224.8 million if taken as a lump-sum cash option) will be split by the holders of jackpot-winning tickets purchased in Florida and Maryland. The overall jackpot was the third largest in the history of the Mega Millions game.

The winning numbers in Tuesday’s drawing were: 11-19-24-33-51 and Mega Ball 7. The Megaplier was 3.

In Iowa, official results show that more than 50,000 plays sold at outlets around the state won prizes ranging from $1 up to $15,000. More than $823,000 Mega Millions tickets were sold in Iowa in the run-up to Tuesday’s drawing, including more than $475,000 in tickets on Tuesday alone. During Tuesday’s busiest stretch from about 5-6 p.m., Iowa Lottery officials say Mega Millions tickets were selling at an average of about $1,085 per minute in Iowa.

Two tickets that matched four of the five numbers drawn and the Mega Ball were purchased at Casey’s stores in Shenandoah and Coggon. Normally, that wins a $5,000 prize but, since each ticket had the Megaplier option added, the prize amounts were multiplied by three making them each a $15,000 prize, lottery officials said.

The Mega Millions jackpot returns to $15 million annuity ($8.3 million cash option) for Friday’s drawing.

The Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency Board on Tuesday picked a Wisconsin engineering and environmental firm from among four finalists to develop a master plan for how the agency’s now-closed riverside landfill near downtown will function in the future and fit into the city around it.

Karmin McShane, the agency’s executive director, said the redevelopment experience of Ayers Associates, Eau Claire, Wis., with riverfront redevelopments and landfill reclamations “give us a lot of hope” for the coming transformation of the agency’s Site 1 landfill affectionately called Mount Trashmore.

McShane said she is guilty of thinking of the landfill as “a site,” but she said the Ayers firm has shown how the 208-foot tall hill of trash one day can blend into the neighborhoods around it and change how residents see it and see from it.

Bill Micheel, the agency’s supervisor at the Site 1 landfill, said the newly capped landfill was seeded last fall to provide the hill with cover to prevent erosion. Come spring, the agency will plant permanent native grasses on the landfill, which Micheel said should make the place look like a native prairie this summer, weather permitting, he said.

Micheel said Ayers’ master plan will focus both on the aesthetics and the functionality of the landfill, which is 208 feet tall and 65 acres at its base and is expected to lose about 30 feet of height to settling in future years.

Micheel said the Solid Waste Agency Board decided in 2012 to continue to operate the agency’s compost facility at the base of the closed landfill and to use as it as a drop-off for yard waste and most recyclables.

As a result, the new master plan will need address how the site can provide outdoor and recreational opportunities even as it functions as a compost and recycling operation while the agency continues to manage the collection of methane from decomposing garbage.

“The whole idea is to turn it into a community asset where people will want to go,” Micheel said.

Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson, chairman of the Solid Waste Agency board, said he doubted Mount Trashmore would become a place for downhill skiing, remembering the winter of 2008 when Cedar Rapids City Council members Pat Shey and Tom Podzimek spent an afternoon skiing down the hill of trash and imaging how it might be used.

Oleson said the landfill’s gas-collection wells and uneven topography likely will preclude downhill skiing, but he said he could see hiking trails around and on the hill. He also said he’d like to see a lot of trees on the hill, too, but the roots of trees might penetrate the landfill’s protective membrane, he said.

“I’d like to call it Mount Treemore instead of Mount Trashmore, but I’m not sure if planting trees is an option,” Oleson said.

Micheel estimated that the landfill master plan will cost the agency between $130,000 and $135,000. The four finalists competing for the work bid between $100,000 and $300,000, though cost was only one of several factors in the selection, he said.

What has become Mount Trashmore opened in 1965 along the Cedar River in what had been the Otis Quarry. It had closed for good on July 31, 2006, leaving the Solid Waste Agency with just one landfill, Site 2 at County Home Road and Highway 13. However, the agency received special permission to reopen Site 1 when Cedar Rapids needed a nearby place to bury debris from the flood of 2008. Some 430,000 tons of flood debris went into Site 1, adding 32 to 34 feet to the landfill height, before it closed for good in late 2012.

In May, the agency’s plan is to let participants in the classic car show at Houby Days in Czech Village drive to the top of Mount Trashmore to take photographs of the city below, Micheel said.

—–

“A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a face, or a tragedy, or both.” —  James Madison

Our country’s fourth president understood that a transparent, accessible government was critical to ensuring a free and stable nation. His wisdom is no less important today in a world that has become increasingly complicated and connected by technology.

Thus, as we observe the annual Sunshine Week, we’re thankful for and commend to Iowans the Iowa Public Information Board.

Created by legislation in 2012 after several years of wrangling about its structure, purpose and funding, the board has been active since July. Contrary to critics of the idea, it’s serving a need. In the first eight months, the board staff has fielded 368 questions, complaints and requests.

The majority are from citizens who want help in acquiring public records or gaining access to meetings without having to file a formal complaint that may take weeks or months to resolve. And about one-third of the contacts are requests from government officials and staff for assistance in interpreting and implementing Iowa’s open meetings and public records laws.

While it’s too soon to judge the board’s effectiveness and whether being part of the governor’s administrative umbrella allows enough independence, we’re encouraged by the growing use of its resources. It’s a one-stop agency where Iowans can get answers regarding their concerns about how state and local government should be responding.

It’s a valuable citizen tool to ensure there’s plenty of sunshine on government in Iowa.

Use it as needed.

Comments: editorial@thegazette.com or (319) 398-8262

TO GET HELP:

The Iowa Public Information Board website provides advice on what public meetings should be open, how to get copies of public records as well as other information on Iowa’s open meetings and public records laws and a training section on those laws at

www.ipib.iowa.gov

Or, call the board at (515) 725-1783

Or, email the deputy director, Margaret.Johnson@iowa.gov

By Richard Running

—-

We always have believed in and supported cooperatives because they are democratically run organizations that support their members and employees. So when we moved back to southwest Cedar Rapids about four years ago, we signed with South Slope Cooperative for our phone, Internet and television services. Unfortunately, management has changed since then and so has the support and respect for South Slope members and employees.

As a result of an investigation by the field examiner for the National Labor Relations Board, a Complaint and Notice of Hearing has been issued by the NLRB finding merit in multiple charges against South Slope Cooperative and our CEO, Justyn Miller.

Charges against Miller include threatening employees with loss of benefits, locking out employees and refusing to bargain collectively in good faith with South Slope employees.

These and other charges against Miller are mostly violations of the National Labor Relations Act section 8 (a).

In an effort to gather more information, I stopped by the South Slope office in North Liberty last week. At the customer service counter, I informed the attendant that I was a member and would like a copy of 2013’s annual meeting minutes.

The courteous counter person said she would get it but came back later and requested my name.

Later, I was informed that CEO Miller would have to talk to me. Mr. Miller came up behind me and announced who he was. I again requested 2013 meeting minutes and was told I couldn’t have them and that 2013 minutes only would be passed out at this year’s meeting.

I asked if they hadn’t taken minutes a year ago and was informed they had but the public version would be handed out only at the meeting. I asked for the date of this year’s meeting but was informed he couldn’t tell me because the financials weren’t completed.

I requested South Slope’s IRS financial Form 990 and was informed that 990 forms are not given to members but that other financial reports would be available at the annual meeting.

IRS 990s are public information but it looks like members will have to go through the IRS to get our copies.

As a South Slope Cooperative member, my concern is for the future of South Slope. I’ve already heard from members leaving because of the alleged violations of federal law. These actions diminish not only the reputation of South Slope but cooperatives in general.

All of us who are South Slope members must make it clear that we expect full transparency and improved governance from our South Slope CEO and board of directors or we must consider whether these current members need to be replaced.

Richard Running of Cedar Rapids served 15 years as an Iowa legislator. He also was the 1995 presidential appointment as the Secretary of Labor’s representative for the Kansas City Region. In 1999, he was named director of Iowa Workforce Development, severing seven years. In 2007, he became the executive director of the Dubuque Area Labor Management Council, then retired in 2012. Comments: rrichrun253@gmail.com