Winners

Fans of arena football rejoice. The Iowa Barnstormers will be back in 2008 after a seven-year hiatus. Arenafootball2 President Jerry Kurz announced that the owners of the team have approved a new investor group, Iowa Pro Football L.P., headed by Ankeny lawyer Jeff Lamberti and Des Moines businessman Dan Stanbrough. With the Barnstormers’ revival, and the addition of the Iowa Energy, the Iowa Stars, Des Moines Buccaneers and Iowa Cubs already in place, Des Moines is becoming a haven for minor league sports teams. Whether or not the Capital City can support all five teams remains to be seen.

It’s nice to see some bipartisanship on behalf of by Sens. Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley who secured $3.72 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Education to give to the Des Moines Public Schools. The money will be used to enhance curriculum offerings in reading, math, technology and advanced placement courses for students at East, Hoover, North, Lincoln and Roosevelt high schools. The grant is for three years but may be continued if significant progress is made, officials say.

Enrollment at Drake University is up. Drake enrolled 924 first-year students this fall, which makes the entering class the largest since 1981 when there were 967 freshmen. The 2007-08 entering class is 18 percent larger than last year’s class of 781. The new class, combined with the major increase in graduate enrollment, brings Drake’s total enrollment to 5,617, a 4.7 percent increase over the 5,366 students enrolled last year. Drake’s enrollment has steadily climbed over the last past five years, increasing 8.8 percent since 2003, when there were a total of 5,164 students.

Losers

Des Moines-area elected leaders complained last week about tightening their eight-year, informal “fair play” pact that bans excessive perks to lure businesses from neighboring cities. The whining was set off by a series of recent events including Aviva USA’s decision to relocate its headquarters from downtown Des Moines to West Des Moines; Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s decision to remain in Des Moines; and the decision by five West Des Moines-based companies to move to neighboring suburbs in the past five years. A 1999 treaty by local governments limited property tax giveaways to a maximum of 75 percent on a five-year sliding scale and allowed for tax money to pay for improvements to each project, but some officials have offered 100 percent, 10-year property tax rebates. West Des Moines officials were the ones to bring forward the idea to review the “fair play” agreement. But until elected officials and business leaders can convince voters that regionalism is a good idea — one that has been defeated soundly at the polls for years, including Project Destiny — no real progress will be made in this arena because voters want to protect the interest of their communities first and the region second. Until then, expect more whining by elected officials as capitalism runs its course, with or without a “fair play” pact.

The Johnston Police Department mistook missing Alzheimer’s patient Luis Hernandez for a homeless person last week after Des Moines Police had issued a missing persons report for the 61-year-old man. A construction worker brought Hernandez to Johnston police, who didn’t know he was a missing person, and told the worker to drop him off near a convenience store. Hernandez was picked again 24 hours later and transported to a hospital where he was treated and released.

Lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate are at odds over reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), an important program that was created to help low-income children, but if it becomes law will hurt Iowa seniors, health care providers and low-income children. Republicans argue that the bill passed by the Democrat-led House will benefit illegal aliens, adults and “well-off families” with incomes of $83,000 or more. SCHIP was created 10 years ago by Congress to help low-income children and to provide a health care safety net for families caught in a loophole of earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. The House Democrats expanded the program to cover 1.5 million Americans who currently have insurance, to allow states to provide coverage to children of families earning four times the poverty level, and to no longer require proof of citizenship to be eligible for benefits, according to a Congressional Budget Office report. Iowa Republicans argue the new bill takes away Medicaid benefits from almost 51,000 Iowa seniors to pay for the program, including $193 million in cuts to Medicaid, jeopardizing health care services to those who can’t afford them.

Adm. William Fallon, head of the U.S. Central Command, said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is supplying roadside bombs to militants in Afghanistan and said the U.S. would “act decisively” if the cross-border flow continues. Iran, consider yourself warned. CV

Comment on this story | Return to top