Winners

It’s that time of year when we hear about the need to feed the homeless and the poor, but the need to help those less fortunate is a year-round commitment as we’re reminded by some of the findings presented at the first Iowa Hunger Summit in Des Moines. Thankfully, we Iowans are a generous lot when it comes to donating food. Over the last year, Iowans contributed more than $6 million, 15 millions pounds of food and 65,000 volunteer hours to combat hunger both at home and abroad. It’s a good start to combating a problem that deserves our attention every day of the year.

Because arts are usually the first to be cut in school programs when budgets are tight — though studies show they play a significant role in enhancing learning for students — the Metro Arts Alliance is helping out by partnering with Jackson Elementary School in Des Moines to pilot Project Impact as part of its education outreach, “Education on Location.” Project Impact is a long-term artist residency designed to assess how arts in the classroom affect learning. The goal is to create an intensive, arts education experience for children, integrating the arts into curriculum through repeated classroom visits. Artists will work with teachers to create arts-based experiences that address curriculum benchmarks in academic subjects. Any time you can find a way to reach a student’s potential — whether it be through arts, sports or academics — it has to be a good thing.

Speaking of Des Moines schools, the 640 students and faculty at Goodrell Middle School returned to their old stomping grounds after construction forced them to attend other schools. The $12.4 million project includes a new kitchen and cafeteria, new art room, larger library, renovated music room, additional parking, a new elevator, enhanced security features, and a geo-thermal heating and cooling system. An open house is scheduled Nov. 7.

While Iowa and Iowa State football fans suffer through another miserable season, the consistently powerful football team at the University of Northern Iowa is enjoying one of its best seasons and is ranked No. 1 in its NCAA subdivision for the first time since 1992. The team is in the driver’s seat to win the Gateway Conference and go deep into the playoffs with aspirations of returning to the national championship title game. Break out the purple and gold.

Losers

Newton Correctional Facility Warden Terry Mapes recently turned 50 and to celebrate the milestone his co-workers threw him a birthday party at the prison that included the usual gags and gifts mocking his age. All in all, it was fairly harmless stuff until some of the party photos were posted on the prison’s computer network, including one of him sitting in a wheelchair holding a book entitled “Sex After 50,” and others including a picture of his photo posted on the prison’s unisex bathroom door with a message that read “You’ll still get a little action when your prune juice starts working…” According to a reader who sent Cityview copies of the photos, Deputy Warden Jill Dursky “led the charge” by posting various signs that “many employees viewed as offensive,” including pictures that “made fun of old people that were in bad taste.” Things got worse after a number of complaints were filed with Department of Corrections officials and one, allegedly, with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. Mapes and Dursky were ordered to remove the photos from the state’s computer system.

The KKK claims to have scored a victory of sorts in North Carolina when the Rhino Times, a Greensboro newspaper, dropped its lawsuit against the Klan for using its back issues as a means to distribute its literature. The Klan was using old issues of the newspaper for weight purposes and would wrap its leaflets around the outside of the newsprint. In return, the Klan assured the newspaper that it doesn’t encourage, suggest or promote the “insertion” of leaflets into the Rhino Times. The Klan’s attorney declared it “a major victory for the entire white nationalist movement” and the KKK’s National Director Pastor Thomas Robb, added in a written statement that “It is our goal to never back away from a fight when the liberty of white Christians are at stake.” Wow, being able to stuff leaflets with old newsprint — what a score.

Six-year-old New York City resident Natalie Shea faces a $300 fine from the City of New York for drawing a picture on sidewalk outside her apartment using sidewalk chalk. A neighbor called the cops to report the “graffiti,” a blue chalk splotch, and the Department of Sanitation sent a letter to the girl’s mother asking her to remove the graffiti, which New York law defines as “any letter, word, name, number, symbol, slogan, message, drawing, picture, writing… that is drawn, painted, chiseled, scratched, or etched on a commercial building or residential building.” “In other words, Shea is not an artistic little girl, but a graffiti scofflaw?” a Brooklyn columnist wrote. Fortunately, the girl’s mother is holding form that her daughter is a petty artist and not a petty criminal. CV

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