School Board Candidate List Now at Five, er Make That Eight

With the announcements of April Armstrong, incumbent Michael Cooper, Tuyet Dorau, Anne Johnson, Jean Jordison, Josh Kaine, Jeffrey Manthey, and Sarah Swisher running for three school board seats, the make-up of the school board could shift dramatically at a time when the boundaries of the schools are being discussed for revision, the budget is currently $4-6 million dollars in the red, and a new high school is scheduled to be built. For a non-partisan race, this one is shaping up to be anything but.

The Lineup:

April Armstrong (R) is a Weber Elementary and Northwest Junior High parent who was on the Facilities Advisory Committee (FAC) that recommended the closure of Roosevelt Elementary.

Tuyet Dorau (D) is a Coralvillian who wants to focus on helping the district overcome its $6 million budget shortfall and eventually build a third high school in the North Liberty area. She also wants to also look at settling the district's boundary issues and plan further ahead than five years.

Anne Johnson (I) is a North Libertarian who recently helped lead a petition drive to encourage the school board to work toward the third high school. The mother of a Penn Elementary third-grader and a 4-year-old son, she said she has been attending school board meetings in recent weeks and offering her opinion regularly. She said along with working on the third high school and the district's budget issues, she wants to work on improving communications between the board and the public.

Jean Jordison (R) has been on the district's Comprehensive School Improvement Plan Advisory Committee which was selected by Superintendent Lane Plugge.

Joshua "Josh" Kaine (D) is a Dad and member of the We Love our Neighborhood Schools group and is "hoping to represent those of us in the community who feel strongly about the value of smaller neighborhood schools. Supporting historic preservation, with an emphasis on obtaining a better balance of tax dollars spent on new vs. older schools. Working for greater transparency in communications with the public from the board and the district, including an emphasis on seeking public input well before plans are written."

Jeffrey Manthey (I) also a North Liberty resident wants to focus on the budget, boundary changes across the district, crowding at West High and disparity of students receiving free- and reduced-priced lunches in the district.

Sarah Swisher (D) co-chaired the Yes for Kids campaign for the $39 million bond referendum in 2003 said she wants to, among other things, promote income and social equity in the schools and expand the number of volunteers working in the district. She also is a local labor leader for the SEIU and a former county chair for the Democratic party.

John Deeth (D) has a different take. Well worth the read.

Note: Thanks to a tip from an anonymous comment I received, I updated this story to correct the party affiliation for Tuyet Dorau who I listed initially as Independent. I've also added links to other sources with more info about the candidates.

Community Discussion on Deng Killing Moves to City Hall

Dr. Vershawn Ashanti Young, a University of Iowa professor of African-American Studies and Rhetoric organized a forum on racial issues in Iowa City that was to be held at the Iowa City public library. According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Young said he is interested in discussing issues that he said are not directly tied to, but are related to, the death of 26-year-old transient John Deng. Deng was shot by a Johnson County Deputy after stabbing another man on July 26.

However, according to Donald Baxter who attended the discussion, the group, at his instigation, marched to the City Hall and had the discussion there. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that 30 or so people met at Iowa City's City Hall to discuss the killing of John Bior Deng, the homeless man who was shot by Johnson County deputy Terry Stotler during an altercation between Deng and Iowa City resident John Bohnenkamp outside a bar on Prentiss St. last Friday.

At the meeting, participants questioned whether race played a role in the shooting. Deng is black and Stotler is white. They also wanted to know more about the fight between Deng and Bohnenkamp and asked why Stotler didn’t try only to wound Deng. Young said “All the community is asking for is a liaison, a conversation.”

So far the investigation has been conducted with limited information being provided to the press and public. As of yesterday, County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek has not released transcripts of the 911 calls about the incident or commented on the ongoing investigation.

Tale of Two Stories

In a disturbing local story, a homeless man was shot by an off-duty sheriff's deputy after allegedly stabbing a University of Iowa worker during a disagreement. According to police reports, "the deputy confronted the knife-wielding transient. The transient ignored the deputy's repeated commands to drop the knife. Instead, the armed transient advanced threateningly toward the already injured Iowa City resident and was shot by the deputy."

However, according to a story by Gazette reporters Adam Belz and Aaron Hepker, two eyewitnesses saw something quite different. According to their story "the 26-year-old homeless man was not wielding a knife and did not lunge at anyone, said Brock Brones and Mike Tibbetts, both of Iowa City."

Brones and Tibbetts, who both work for a telecommunications company, got off work Friday at 7 p.m. and drove with another co-worker to Old Capitol Brew Works to have a drink. As their vehicle was coming out of the alley next to City Electric, which was blocked by bags of cans and bottles and some broken glass, they saw the episode unfolding to their left and turned off the radio so they could hear what was going on.

A skinny black man was laying on the pavement with his head against the tire of a car about 40 feet away. He was missing teeth, his clothes were dirty, and he had blood on his torso. The deputy, wearing civilian clothes, had a gun pointed at the man, and a third man was standing next to the deputy telling him to shoot, Brones and Tibbetts said.

The homeless man on the ground appeared to be drunk. The deputy told him not to get up, or he would shoot, Brones and Tibbetts said.

"I don't give a f---," the homeless man responded.

The deputy repeated the threat, and ordered the man not to get up. Again, the homeless man said he didn't care. Then he stood up, put his arms out, and stumbled a few feet to the side before the deputy shot him in the chest from about 15 feet away, Brones and Tibbetts said.

The two men insist the homeless man had no knife when he was shot.

"There was no knife. There was no lunging," Tibbetts, of Iowa City, said."(The deputy) didn't try to talk him down. He shot him dead, right in front of my eyes."

Brones said the homeless man was wobbling and, though he disobeyed the deputy, he never made a threatening move.

"It wasn't aggressive," Brones said. "He was just drunk."

Police squad cars soon arrived, and the deputy, who Tibbetts said looked stunned, held up his badge for police to see.

Police have not identified either the deputy or the man he killed. Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek has declined to comment. The deputy has been placed on administrative leave.

“It’s just standard operating procedure following a traumatic incident such as this, until the outcome of the Iowa City police and DCI investigation,” said Sgt. Dan Quiles of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.

It started, police said, when a patron and his wife left the Hawkeye Hideaway on Prentiss Street and saw a 26-year-old man fiddling with bags of cans and bottles in the alley next to City Electric. An argument ensued, police said, and the 26-year-old, who is homeless, stabbed the patron, who friends identified as John Bohnenkamp, a University of Iowa maintenance worker and a regular at the Hawkeye Hideaway.

The deputy, who was not in uniform, drove by the scene in a tan-colored vehicle, police said, stopped, jumped out, drew his gun, and trained it on the homeless man.

From then on, the detailed account Tibbetts and Brones gave The Gazette is at odds with the police account, particularly in how it describes the moments before the deputy fired his gun.

"He could hardly stand," Brones said of the homeless man. "He was just wobbling."

Bohnenekamp underwent emergency surgery Friday night at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and was released Saturday. Bohenenekamp has declined comment “Stop calling me, because I’m not going to say a word,” he said.

In a town that has been rife with racial tension and prejudice against the homeless, this story is likely to raise some questions. Hopefully there will be a fair, transparent investigation into the events that transpired.

Gates v. Crowley: Not Just Black and White

When Judge Clarence Thomas was in front of the Senate Judical Committee during his confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court, he was vigorously questioned about allegations made by a subordinate that Thomas had subjected her to inappropriate harassing comments of a sexual nature. In the context of those allegations, Thomas said "This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you."

Fast forward to a July 16 at a little after 12:30 pm when Distinguished Harvard Professor Henry Gates, Jr. was arrested at his own home during an investigation about a break in called in by one of Gates' neighbors by Officer James Crowley "after exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior, in a public space directed at a uniformed police officer."

The facts as laid out in the police report and the facts as described by Dr. Gates in an interview in the Root are in conflict. As the charges were later dropped, there may never be a clear understanding of what actually occurred unless a civil suit is filed by Dr. Gates or if the officer is subjected to disciplinary action.

What is impossible to know is if it was merely a misunderstanding that quickly became a battle of wills between two proud men; one exerting his authority as a police officer, the other his position as a well thought of scholar at a prestigious University. It is likely that both men acted "stupidly" in the face of fear and bravado.

Did race play a part in how the events turned out, from Gate's perspective, absolutely. His own words belie the fact that he felt threatened because of his race. With the police officer it is less clear.

Police officers often ask for identification during the course of investigating a reported incident. In many cases people comply with their requests. Based on the officer's report he said that Gates' behavior led to his arrest, not his race.

I am not in the position to take sides. What we can agree to is that earnest black men in the United States feel and are targeted for persecution based on their race and earnest police officers feel and are damned for doing their job.

As there were witnesses and the court of public opinion, there will no doubt be sides being taken. The sad thing is that two adult men could have chosen to act civilly toward each other and didn't. That is a legacy that we can not abide. It is a national disgrace.

Three Ways to Pay For Health Care Without Hurting the Hurting

Amy Logsdon provided this link to this Citizens for Tax Justice proposals to pay for health care without hurting the bottom 60% of taxpayers in Iowa. If you are in the top 1% of income earners, you won't like this but at least you can afford it. CTJ proposes:

If Congress enacts the surcharge included in H.R. 3200, the richest one percent of taxpayers in Iowa would have an average tax increase of $12,637 in 2011 while middle-income taxpayers would have no tax increase at all.

If Congress instead enacts the Medicare tax expansion described here, the richest one
percent of taxpayers in Iowa would have an average tax increase of $11,454 in 2011.
The middle fifth of taxpayers would have an average tax increase of just $56.

Finally, Congress could enact the President's proposal to limit itemized deductions for the wealthy. The richest one percent of Iowa taxpayers would have an average tax
increase of $5,796 in 2011 while middle income taxpayers would have no tax increase at all.

The CTJ folks say that these proposals could raise between $260 to $543 Billion dollars over the next 10 years. how many Iowans would be affected? 2100, the majority making over $200,000.

Lean, Green, Military Machines Good for Green Economy?

Imagine owning a motorized vehicle that could fuel itself on biomass that it finds lying around. Pretty cool idea, huh? Now imagine that technology is used to do reconnaissance and surveillance work for the military. Kind of creeps you out, doesn't it? That is exactly what Robotic Technology Inc. and Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. is designing. Maybe not the ideal of green industry that President Obama has been touting, but hey!

It's called a EATR or Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot, a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research project sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and recently was featured on Fox News and other news outlets who erroneously reported that the device could use human flesh as fuel causing the builders to put out a press release dispelling the urban legend. Good to to know.

The press release says “We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” stated Harry Schoell, Cyclone’s CEO. “We are focused on demonstrating that our engines can create usable, green power from plentiful, renewable plant matter. The commercial applications alone for this earth-friendly energy solution are enormous.” EATR apparently runs on fuel "no scarier than twigs, grass clippings and wood chips –small, plant-based items for which RTI’s robotic technology is designed to forage."

Bottom Line: Health Care for Those Who Don't Have Access

In March Families USA released a report that said one out of three Americans under 65were without health insurance at some point during 2007 and 2008. The study, commissioned by the consumer health advocacy group Families USA, found 86.7 million Americans were uninsured at one point during the past two years.

Among the report's key findings:

• Nearly three out of four uninsured Americans were without health insurance for at least six months.

• Almost two-thirds were uninsured for nine months or more.

• Four out of five of the uninsured were in working families.

• People without health insurance are less likely to have a usual doctor and often go without screenings or preventative care.

One would wonder if the folks in DC really are trying to fix the problem or create a slew of new ones by attempting to bring everyone in the pool all at once. With the predictions from the Congressional Budgeting Office showing that the current plans are not likely to produce a reduction in government outlays in the long run, it might be a good time to retrench and develop a plan that helps those most at risk. To do this almost assuredly calls for a single-payer system to achieve affordable care.

The questions then become, what's that system and who pays for the average of 46 million people who are uninsured annually? Answers: "Medicare plus" and we all do. If every worker and employer paid into the system, like they do for social security and unemployment insurance, we could cover those who are the most at risk today. If we learn that the coverage is equal to or superior to the private sector, there is not a doubt in my mind that the demand would be there for a single-payer health care system for everyone who wanted to be in the pool.

The point is that it moves us in the right direction. Providing needed care to those who can ill afford any insurance is a moral imperative, if not an absolute right. If we can do this and do this well, the skeptics and opponents of universal health care will be forced to provide better reasons why the private sector is more credible or become truly competitive.

Batter Up?

Both the school board and city council races are around the corner in Iowa City and the surrounding communities and so far there are a very limited number of brave souls stepping up to run for the offices.

On deck for the next Iowa City city council is the hiring of a "permanent" city manager, looking at revenue projections and solutions to shore up a sagging tax base, and the usual issues that face the city council every year (re: crime, college students in the bars, etc.). No to mention the continued need for affordable rental housing and the needs for the poorer cousins in the community. So far Mark McCallum, Susan Mimms, and Terry Dickens have announced they will run for office. More on this can be found on John Deeth's blog.

As for the school board, there is the boundary issue where the existing and future schools are concerned, as well as the transparency issue of how business is conducted at ICCSD. Finally, there is the staffing issues for the coming school years in light of decreasing revenue at the state level. With possibly all three of the incumbent board directors opting not to run for re-election, there is a real need for candidates to step up.

In these stressful times, it may be difficult to attract civic-minded individuals to fill these elected slots, just as it is hard to find volunteers for non-elected commissions. Let's face it, the grief that a person has to be willing to deal with is significant, as well as the commitment of time-- and yet, it is crucial that fair-minded people do the work. If we end up with ineffective persons to govern, it is largely the fault of the attentive public for not putting themselves in the game.

Eclectic Electric Car in CR and IC

What goes 130 miles per hour, uses no oil and emits no carbon dioxide? The Tesla all-electric roadster which will make a stop in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City on a coast-to-coast journey this Tue. & Wed., July 21 & 22

Where: Kirkwood Community College, Auto Technology Building, Main campus from 7:00 –9:00 pm Tuesday, July 21

University of Iowa Madison Street Services Building (MSSB) in Iowa City, on the corner of South Madison and West Prentiss streets. from 8:00 – 9:00 am Wednesday, July 22

Both events are free and open to the public.

The Renew America Roadtrip™ is America’s first green coast-to-coast trip in an all-electric sports car. The event will help raise awareness of renewable, sustainable, and eco-friendly initiatives and features three electric cars, including the Tesla Roadster. The Tesla Roadster is a $100,000 all-electric sports car. The Roadster is a pure battery-electric vehicle with a range of 240 miles per charge, a 130 mph top speed, and goes from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds. In addition to the Tesla roadster, the Renew America Roadtrip team includes Jerry Asher and his “Spirit of DC” plug-in-hybrid Prius and a beautiful new 2009 Nissan Altima hybrid support vehicle provided courtesy of Nissan USA. The stop is a chance to view the all-electric Tesla Roadster and talk with the crew of the Roadtrip project, which is demonstrating the advantages of all-electric vehicles. The team will be visiting the area and charging up the vehicle on their way cross-country from New York City to San Francisco.


For more details on RAR check out the Web site: http://www.renewamericaroadtrip.com.

For more information on the event, contact I-Renew
Mike Carberry
Executive Director
Iowa Renewable Energy Association (I-Renew)

PO Box 3405
Iowa City IA 52244

mobile: 319-594-6453
office: 319-338-1076

mike@irenew.org
www.irenew.org

I've Seen the Future and It Is Chicken Feathers

I would not advocate for petroleum-based plastics, whether they were biodegradable or not. However, if you had 4 billion pounds of chicken feathers to discard every year, in addition to eggs that don't meet USDA standards, it might not be bad to consider other uses--even biodegradable plastic bags, car fuel, and mulch made out of chicken feathers. This makes even more sense as the EPA reports, plastic packaging adds 29 million tons of non-biodegradable waste to landfills every year.

Enter Dr. Justin Barone of the Agricultural Research Service who, along with Walter Schmidt, have developed a process that uses only heat, pressure and water to dissolve the sulphur-sulphur bonds in the keratin of the feathers to create plastics. The production is much cheaper and easier than traditional petroleum-based plastic. Not only does the feather plastic reduce waste, but the plastic made from feathers and eggs are also biodegradeable.

While cloth bags for shopping are gaining acceptance, if a replacement for the oil-based plastic bag can be made inexpensively, perhaps this is a good use of science. If chickens can run our cars, this might answer the age old question: "which came first, the chicken or the egghead?"

(Gimme) Shelter House

After attending the very touching groundbreaking ceremony with about 110 concerned folks at the new Shelter House location yesterday afternoon, I feel the need to convey some information that you may not know. As a "truth in advertising" statement, I was a Shelter House Board member until this past month. My opinions to follow do not represent the views of the Shelter House or its board members.

No one appreciates the voice of dissent more than I do. I'm on the short end of the stick in many causes I have been associated with, but in the case of the Shelter House, too much misinformation has come from those fighting against it being built.

1) The Shelter House is not a facility for pedophiles or any other kind of sexual predator to live, as it serves the needs of homeless men, women, and children. The difference is that the shelter does have a mission of compassion for those in need, even if it does not provide shelter to all. That is to say, the Shelter House has programs for all homeless people including helping them to stabilize and find work. It has facilities for people to shower, change their clothes and launder. The new facility will likely train people in the culinary arts and other vocations, in addition to housing them. At present, volunteers bring in dinners for the homeless to the shelter.

2) The 30 or so people who were picketing the site are the worst kind of fearmongerers, as the shelter does more to prevent sexual predators from using its facilities than most rental property managers do. A scan of the Iowa Sexual Offenders Registry site will show you examples of that. In addition, the sexual predator rate in Iowa is much lower than the national average something like 1 in 1000 people are convicted sexual predators and most of that number involve acquaintances and/or family members.

3) Though the Hilltop owners and the Waterfront Neighborhood Association would like you to believe that they are just trying to protect kids, it should be noted that this same group has been using every conceivable legal and public relations maneuver to stop the shelter from being built including numerous nuisance lawsuits after the state Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision.

4) The Shelter House has been planning an enlarged shelter for roughly seven years. Ernie Lehman was the mayor when the original plans were rolled out at a public meeting. Locating an acceptable location has been extremely difficult. As you may imagine, no one is rolling out the red carpet for a homeless shelter. More importantly, we had some very specific requirements for a new location. We wanted it to be on a bus line, in closer proximity to other low income support services, and on land affordable for the shelter to be built to the scale that meets the demand.
It is true that we received ideas for possible locations from Joyce Barker and others, the board's new building and/or executive committees vetted each one. However the location on Southgate and Waterfront best met the needs for the shelter.

5) While city,county, and federal government officials have been great and the funds have been very helpful to the success of running Shelter House and it's services, donations by people like you and me keep the shelter going and are sorely needed to complete the new shelter. At this time, about half the money to build the new shelter has been raised. If you are in Iowa City tomorrow (Friday, July 3) night, you can help by coming to Dawn's Coffeehouse at Dawn's Bead and Hideaway (310 Washington St.) anytime between 5 and 8 pm. For a donation you can listen to Saxophonist Saul Lubaroff and support the building of the new shelter. If you can't come, consider making a donation this way.

Michael Jackson, Inc. Lives!

Last night, as tributes to the late performer Michael Jackson covered mainstream media, I observed that the "man" was not the point of any talking heads' discussions. Michael Jackson the "brand" was. As a phenomenon, there are very few that can parallel Michael Jackson. He was arguably the most successful artist of his generation. In terms of record sales, Pepsi and other product endorsements, and ownership of song rights, he truly was the "King of Pop."

He was an industry unto himself. Rag media, legal eagles, and paparazzi were fueled by the insatiable thirst that the public has for celebrity and the cashing in thereof. And Jackson himself was quite savvy about his brand recognition, including planting stories such as sleeping in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and purchasing the Elephant Man's bones, and performing at the half-time show of the Super Bowl for 137 million captivated people at the game and at home. His artistic temperament and business acumen combined with his necessarily reclusive lifestyle created demand for all things Michael Jackson. For him, it also must have created a dissonance between Michael Jackson the personality and the person.

Whoever Michael Jackson was is gone now. Philanthropist or pedophile-- angel or devil--saint or sinner? We will never really know the rest of the story. We can be assured that his life will be picked apart by those buzzards who stand to profit from telling his tale.

Michael Jackson, Inc. is open for business and family members, former employees, and biographers will cash in on his likeness. The media will rewrite and reinvent his legacy for a public whose fickle nature embraces both scorn and redemption in equal parts. Like all icons before him, he will be reborn-- "new and improved."

As for me, I will genuinely miss the ambassador of goodwill that Michael Jackson represented to those living in poverty, hunger, and with HIV/AIDS. I will miss his showmanship and creativity. He was a person who lived like his famous moonwalk dance, giving the impression he was ahead of us and, at the same time, letting us know his time was cemented in the past.

Kresowik: We Need ACES and Truth from Critics

From University of Iowa Student President and current Sierra Club staffer Mark Kresowik:

Friends, tomorrow a remarkable bill will be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives. It's called the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), was drafted by Congressmen Waxman and Markey, with some excellent work by our own Congressman Braley, and would be the first time our U.S. Congress made a serious effort to deal with global warming. I wasn't going to write anything until after the vote, but the misrepresentations being spouted by MidAmerican Energy in Iowa, and then the RNCC and electric cooperatives going after Congressman Braley this week, really got to me.

I have put a lot of time into analyzing the bill and the modeling done by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Congressional Budget Office. I have tracked this bill from its draft form through committee and now tomorrow, to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

I can tell you that MidAmerican, Iowa's electric cooperatives, and the GOP are full of crap. And then Congressman Boswell bought their nonsense hook, line, and sinker. So we need to contact our Congressional officials and make sure they know we're not buying what MidAm is trying to sell, and that the ACES bill needs to go forward to the Senate.

Congressman Loebsack's number - (202) 225-6576
Thank Congressman Braley for his hard work - (202) 225-2911
Congressman Boswell's number - : (202) 225-3806

First, MidAmerican and Iowa's other utilities had the very stupid idea to build a very dirty coal plant in Council Bluffs a few years ago. Their bad management decisions shouldn't be taken out on this legislation or ratepayers. They may want to whine about it, but they should bear some of the cost of their bad decisions (sound familiar?).

Second, this bill is not going to cause the rate increases these utilities are claiming. We're already giving these utilities more than 50% of their pollution for free, and even if they had to pay for all the extra pollution beyond those allowances rates would increase less than half what MidAmerican is claiming. And why is that a bad thing? It gives them an incentive to actually reduce pollution, imagine that. With the strong energy efficiency provisions, energy use in the country will be held flat - even as the economy rebounds - through 2020. Which means those of you who take advantage of efficiency opportunities may ultimately be paying less than you would if this bill doesn't pass.

Finally, that doesn't count all of the jobs Iowa stands to get from investing in clean, renewable energy or the payments to farmers to practice better soil conservation and stewardship to reduce pollution. Iowa is a leader in a lot of those areas, and this bill recognizes and rewards that.

ACES would be a huge boon to the state of Iowa, to our economy, and to the environment. MidAmerican's crap shouldn't be left unopposed.

If you do one thing today or Friday, please call Congressmen Loebsack, Braley, and Boswell.

Congressman Loebsack's number - (202) 225-6576
Thank Congressman Braley for his hard work - (202) 225-2911
Congressman Boswell's number - : (202) 225-3806

If you want more information about what MidAm is saying and why it is so blatantly wrong, send me an email. I'm happy to run you through the economics and impacts of the bill. I'm not saying it is perfect, but it should pass on to the Senate. We need it.

Thank you very much,

Mark
kresowik@gmail.com
319-621-7393

P.S. I'm not writing this as a staff member of the Sierra Club. The lies being tossed around Iowa right now hit me personally. I've spent way too much time on these issues to watch MidAmerican and the electric cooperatives misrepresent the impacts of this bill on people who are already struggling to pay their electric bills. Their statements don't serve their ratepayers. This bill does an enormous amount, possibly even too much, to cushion electric utilities and ratepayers. And it will certainly be good for Iowa. Even if you don't agree with the bill, stand up for truth in advertising!

One more thing. According to the EPA's latest modeling results, released this morning, average household electricity expenditures go DOWN through 2015 by 3.5% with ACES compared to business as usual. If you needed any more evidence that MidAmerican is full of crap, there is it is.

Iran So Far Away (From Democracy)

Sitting here in Iowa, even without knowing what is the unvarnished truth concerning the outcome of the Iranian presidential election, it is still hard not to speak about the obvious horrors going on within the borders of Iran. There are some points of clarity that can be seen even half a world away:

- Brave people of conviction are marching by the thousands in Tehran, other Iranian cities, and in solidarity in other world cities to protest the outcome of an election that Iranians find faulty and are communicating to the rest of the listening world to the best of their ability.
- The "supreme" leadership, those clerics who choose the candidates, are in serious trouble if they have indeed rigged the election.
- While the elected President is not the supreme leader of the country, he is the mouthpiece that the world press looks toward in reporting the news. If one of the candidates is thrown under the bus, and it really doesn't matter whom it is, what matters is how it looks through the eyes of the media.
- Other countries, the US included, can not step in and declare a winner, but should let the Iranian people know diplomatically that we support their choice.
- More Iranians are likely to die today and that, in the long run, will perversely lead to a more democratic Iran tomorrow.

History teaches us that tyranny does not hold in the final appraisal. The Supreme Leader and his Guardian Council can not hope to survive, even if they command the armed forces, if the people it rules does not believe that they are infallable. By the mere suspicion of wrongdoing, the clerics are weakened.

Sadly, because of each sacrifice of life offered by the protestors, Iran draws closer to either full martial law or a collapse of a system that has failed its people. The question is not really one of which will prevail, but when a functional government will rule.

To those in Iran who are struggling, know that in the land of the "Western Devil", there is a person who enjoins you in your protest and wishes you As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم).

Universal Health Care Now!

I've been taking some time away from blogging because, let's face it, problems never really go away and everyone needs a chance to chill out. In my absence, the national health care debate rages on. Many people actually thought there was a national health care bill ready to go when President Obama was elected. Certainly his plan was shopped publicly when he was running for the office. But apparently there is not a "shovel-ready" health care bill or enough money to pay for the bill, depending on who you ask.

This is my solution. No holidays for Congress until a bill is forwarded for the President's signature that makes sure that 100% of Americans have access to affordable health care. At this point I don't care if it is a single-payer or gazillion-payer model, just that it is universal and affordable to all.

As for those Congressional leaders who line up he pieces on the chess board who need to get this done, lock down Capitol Hill and take your fellow public servants off the grid. This means no lobbyists, cell phones, or computers (except in the capable hands of the recorders who will write up the final bill). No tweeting, crackberry texting, facebooking, etc. Clearly this bunch is overly distracted and needs time to focus. If necessary, cut off the air conditioning (think of it as reliving the Continental Congress).

The point is that health care is the one thing that is needed by every worker and the thing that American industry claims keeps it from being competitive globally. If we really want to rev up the economic recovery machine, make sure everyone has the opportunity to be healthy--even corporate personages.

Trial lawyers, unions, big biz, doctors, and insurers beware, you can not dictate the discourse on this issue any more. You had your chance. If you are found within 100 miles of the halls of Congress, you should expect to be deported to Palau (we should at least get our money's worth out of that deal). We know you have been assailing us with your ideas of what is best for us, but really, it is always about what is best for you.

We the people are sick of being sick because the pursuit of profits are involved. We want health care as a fundamental right--after all what is the pursuit of happiness if you can't get out of bed to pursue it?

So listen up Congress--drop everything else you are doing and get this legislation done. If it isn't perfect coming out of the gate, don't worry about it--we'll make you keep working on it until it is or elect people who can. Congressmen Braley, Loebsack, Boswell, Latham, and King and Senators Grassley and Harkin, this means you.

How Much Does It Cost To Ease a Nation's Conscience?

Apparently $11,764,705.88 per prisoner is the going rate for not allowing trials for Guantanamo prisoners to occur. Since the US Senate said "no" to housing detainees in the United States, the US plans to banish 17 Chinese Muslim captives from the Guantanamo Bay prison to the remote North Pacific archipelago of Palau (Palau comprises of a number of scattered islands over 500 miles east of the Philippines with a population less than 20,000 people).

The US decided to transfer the Uighur detainees to the small pacific island nation after inking an accord with the president of Palau, Johnson Toribiong, on Tuesday in exchange for a $200 million long-term aid package.

Toribiong said he “agreed to accommodate the United States of America's request” to “temporarily resettle” the Guantanamo prisoners and called his country's bid a “humanitarian gesture,” adding that he was “honored and proud” to close the deal.

Sandra Pierantozzi, Palau's minister of state, in an interview with VOA, says her nation is glad to have the Uighurs.

"If they want to settle in Palau we would welcome them," Pierantozzi said. "This is very much in line with the culture of Palau, where people who drift in and who needs settlement and place are welcome to our shores and our tradition will take care of them and insert them into our society."

The Uighurs are from China's western Xinjiang province. Beijing has accused the Uighurs, who dominate the province, as separatists who want to create an independent "East Turkestan." Washington is refusing to send the Uighurs back to China, fearing they would be persecuted.

sources: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-10-voa7.cfm
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97655§ionid=3510203

Glad That We Aren't New York

What do you get when you take one criminally-indicted Democrat, one under ethics investigation and 30 power-hungry Republican state senators? A majority. This makes Texas politics look sane.

HUD Funds Flood Iowa

From Rebuild Iowa Office RIO:

Governor Chet Culver, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Congressman Dave Loebsack (IA-2) yesterday announced that Iowa will receive $516.7 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for disaster recovery. This brings Iowa’s funding from HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to nearly $800 million to date. The funding will be administered by the state under an agreement to follow modified rules of the CDBG program, a flexible program that provides communities with resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs such as home buyouts, public infrastructure projects, and assistance to businesses, economic revitalization and flood mitigation.

“Iowa has come so far in the past year – rebuilding piece by piece and block by block with every dollar of assistance that has come into our state. But there are still significant areas that still show signs of devastation and have a very damaged local economy,” said Senator Harkin. “You need only walk through downtown Cedar Rapids to see empty window fronts and padlocked doors that once represented a thriving economy. Iowa suffered one of the five largest natural disasters on record of any state, and we are far from full recovery. These funds will help in that effort.”

“Nearly one year after the floods of last summer devastated Iowa, we are still rebuilding. These funds will aid Iowa’s long term recovery and rebuilding efforts,” said Congressman Loebsack. “As our families struggle to move forward, it is essential that we distribute these funds to communities based on unmet and long term recovery needs. One of the communities that will benefit significantly from these funds is Linn County, whose citizens are still coping with severe damage to their homes, businesses, and infrastructure. Just days after the flood waters hit Iowa, the Iowa Delegation was fighting for Iowans. As we continue in our recovery efforts, I will continue to make sure that the voices of Eastern Iowa are heard in Washington.”

“We continue to make great progress with our recovery efforts in Iowa thanks to strong partnerships, not only between federal, state and local governments, but with thousands of Iowans who have hope and confidence in the communities they call home. This commitment by President Obama and Secretary Donovan means that, as of today, more than $3 billion in federal and state funds have been committed to rebuilding our great state after the historic floods and storms of 2008,” said Governor Culver. “This $517 million in additional CDBG funds will give Cedar Rapids and communities throughout the state more resources to rebuild from past disasters and help prevent future disasters. In the end, these funds allow us to keep rebuilding Iowa, even better and stronger than before.”

There is $6.1 billion for CDBG from the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act that passed on September 30, 2008. Today’s funding announcement allocates that funding. One third of it had been preliminarily allocated under a provision Senator Harkin wrote that required that a portion of the money would come to the states more quickly, to have the funds allocated within 60 days. But, the entire amount uses the formula that is being announced today.

Harkin, Loebsack and Culver have worked with Secretary Donovan as well as a number of members of the White House staff to have a formula that fairly allocated the funds among the states that suffered from 2008 disasters. A key part of that discussion was the need to properly consider the need to consider economic revitalization which is far more necessary in larger disasters, particularly those involving large cities.

The total federal assistance allocated to Iowa now is over $3 billion, approximately half of which has been administered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.)

Repurpose Roosevelt for Learning Center for K to 5

Given that the Iowa City Consolidated School District board of directors have elected to close Roosevelt school, here is a suggestion. Reopen it as an alternative learning center for those kids who are behind the learning curve. Educational research shows that kids who are behind by the third grade seldom catch up. If the children in the primary grades in the ICCSD who are falling behind had an alternative learning center where they could be taught in more intimate surroundings with state-of-the-art methods, perhaps they could succeed in the long run. In fact this would be a great opportunity for the Grant Wood AEA to step forward and showcase their expertise or for a separate charter school to be established.

Think it over, there is no hurry now that a new school will be built, another enlarged, and the same students will still need the help.

School Board to Vote on Roosevelt's Future Tonight

Despite the amount of time and effort that supporters for keeping Roosevelt School open have put into presenting a counter-argument, the alternative options that have been presented appear much more complicated than cracking open a fresh piece of ground and building a new, state-of-the-art school. From the school board's viewpoint, the benefits are numerous and include:
- less disruption to students at multiple schools;
- they are living up to the board's policy to create educational equity;
- putting new schools where growth is occurring and likely to occur;
- replacing infrastructure that does not meet their model of adequate teaching
environment;
- and the promise to repurpose Roosevelt in the future addresses the neighborhood's
chief concerns, despite the unknown, but relatively small costs of maintaining the
school shell.

Said differently, this is the path of least resistance. For a board that is incremental in nature, this would be deemed a victory; that is, making the least amount of people unhappy.

From the Roosevelt supporters point-of-view, the loss could be devastating for a corner of the community anchored by a living school. In discussing what will happen to Roosevelt, supporters are wise to be wary of any "promises" made in the heat of achieving the school board's intended goals. The school board can always declare a mea culpa because of budget concerns and all good faith agreements disappear.

Have the arguments for keeping Roosevelt open really been heard? Listening to the board members as they justify their decision tonight will be the best way of knowing the answer to this. With a school board election around the corner, it wouldn't be surprising for a member or two of the board to vote against the plan. So even the perception that Roosevelt supporters have received a fair hearing will likely be questioned.

In the final assessment, looming in the distance is a really important discussion that has not taken place. How to redistrict the district so that all schools remain relevant rather than closing old ones down to make room for sprawling new schools. The school district is not in a position to build new school after new school without making class sizes increase dramatically. Getting the most mileage out of existing schools has got to be predicated on the boundary lines of the schools flexing over time. For parents to be okay with this, each school will need to perform at similar levels and that is more difficult to govern.

The longer term solution to policy issues will need to come from reforming the board. If board members were elected in a district format like the city council, there would likely be more vigorous debate among board members about budget decisions and the growth within the district. With only two weeks before the deadline to put this on the ballot, it may not happen this election, but, if the fire is still lit by those disenchanted with the board's process, it could happen in the next election cycle.