22
Apr
2003
• Iowa House File 65 has passed both the House and Senate and now awaits the governor's signature. The bill lowers the level of alcohol needed in a person's blood to be presumed drunk, from ten hundredths of one percent (.10 ) to eight hundredths of one percent (.08). Iowa was threatened with losing $45.6 million in federal highway-construction funds if it did not adopt a .08 blood-alcohol-content threshold. The bill also changes when a first-time offender can get a work permit.
• U.S. Cellular recently awarded nearly $315,000 in grants to not-for-profit organizations nationwide, including four local agencies: John Lewis Coffee Shop, Schuetzen Park Gilde, DeLaCerda House Inc., and the Salvation Army of the Quad Cities. U.S. Cellular's Connecting with Our Communities Program provides monetary contributions and associate-matched grants to tax-exempt, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organizations that focus on the following areas of concern: civic and community, education, health and human services, environment, and arts and culture. Institutions and projects funded though the program must be nonsectarian, nonpolitical, and nondenominational. Organizations interested in learning more about U.S. Cellular's Connecting with Our Communities Program or applying for a grant should visit the company's Web site at (http://www.uscellular.com).
• In fall 2002, the Family Museum of Arts & Science was selected to receive a prestigious grant from the Federal Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS). The $112,500 award will be used over the next two years to further the museum's long-range goal of providing access to museum services to every child aged 14 and under in Scott, Rock Island, and Henry counties by the year 2010. Subsidies for school outreach, school staff development, early-childhood activities, and transportation constitute target areas for the grant monies. Currently, in-depth pre-assessment is underway in Scott, Rock Island, and Henry counties for fall 2003 school outreach under the IMLS grant. The museum staff and Family Museum Education Advisory Committee will use their feedback to select the fall programs that both accommodate individual school populations and support curriculum standards.
• The Iowa House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Dave Heaton of Mount Pleasant, has cut $194,125 from the Iowa Department of Public Health, Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Fiscal Year 2004 budget. The cut was made from tobacco-settlement monies that the EMS Bureau has been receiving the past few years. In the current fiscal year, funds for EMS from the tobacco money are $381,445, with a proposed '04 budget that was $187,320. The $194,125 is being diverted to the correction facility located in Newton. This cut in funds will in effect eliminate the EMS System Development grants program made available to counties since the tobacco settlement. In the current fiscal year, more than 60 of Iowa's counties applied for assistance through the competitive grant process. EMS System Development grants have been successful particularly in assisting Iowa's volunteer programs in identifying innovative strategies in the delivery of EMS in rural areas.
• Davenport Reads has been initiated locally by librarians at the Davenport Public Library and media specialists working in the Davenport Community School District. It is a citywide reading project in which residents read the same book at the same time: Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago. What's unique to Davenport Reads is that a book has been chosen that is appropriate for elementary-school children (as young as third-grade) as well as their parents and grandparents. The project is meant to promote reading, discussion, and writing, and to bring the community together. Several events are planned for the coming months, with the book to be read by the community and schools in April, May, and June. For more information, look at (http://www.davenportreads.org).
• The Iowa College Student Aid Commission's online application for the Teacher Forgivable Loan program is now available for Iowa students entering teaching at (http://www.iowacollegeaid.org/). Forty percent of Iowa teachers will be eligible to retire in the next 10 years. In addition, 17 percent of first-year Iowa teachers leave the classroom after only one year - nearly twice the national average. The Teacher Forgivable Loan program provides loans of up to $3,000 to Iowa college students enrolled in teacher-preparation programs who plan to teach in a designated shortage area in the state upon graduation. For the 2002-2003 school year, 542 loans were made. The deadline to apply is June 15.
• The Libertarian Party has named its "top 10 spending outrages" this year, including the U.S. Agency for International Development awarding a $170-million grant to Population Services International, or PSI, a not-for-profit corporation whose mission is to curb sexually transmitted diseases. PSI was founded in 1971 by Philip Harvey, who runs a massive mail-order pornography firm called Adam & Eve. The organization also cited spending $3.6 million for "team-building" exercises for the U.S. Postal Service. At a series of employee retreats, hundreds of postal workers played children's games, sang "We Are Family," wrote Christmas carols, went on treasure hunts, dressed in cat costumes, took scat-singing lessons, and talked to imaginary wizards, magicians, and mad scientists at staff meetings. The government has also been mailing Social Security checks to fugitives. Though a 1996 law prohibits the payments, 36,752 fugitives have been collecting benefits anyway, costing taxpayers $223.7 million, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition, the federal government is hiring 2 million workers - in Iraq. As part of the postwar plan to "promote stability," the Pentagon wants to pay the salaries of 2 million soldiers, teachers, police officers, and other government workers in Iraq - in effect putting one out of every 10 Iraqis on the U.S. government payroll. For the rest of the list, check out the Libertarian Party's home page at (http://www.lp.org).
• U.S. Cellular recently awarded nearly $315,000 in grants to not-for-profit organizations nationwide, including four local agencies: John Lewis Coffee Shop, Schuetzen Park Gilde, DeLaCerda House Inc., and the Salvation Army of the Quad Cities. U.S. Cellular's Connecting with Our Communities Program provides monetary contributions and associate-matched grants to tax-exempt, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organizations that focus on the following areas of concern: civic and community, education, health and human services, environment, and arts and culture. Institutions and projects funded though the program must be nonsectarian, nonpolitical, and nondenominational. Organizations interested in learning more about U.S. Cellular's Connecting with Our Communities Program or applying for a grant should visit the company's Web site at (http://www.uscellular.com).
• In fall 2002, the Family Museum of Arts & Science was selected to receive a prestigious grant from the Federal Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS). The $112,500 award will be used over the next two years to further the museum's long-range goal of providing access to museum services to every child aged 14 and under in Scott, Rock Island, and Henry counties by the year 2010. Subsidies for school outreach, school staff development, early-childhood activities, and transportation constitute target areas for the grant monies. Currently, in-depth pre-assessment is underway in Scott, Rock Island, and Henry counties for fall 2003 school outreach under the IMLS grant. The museum staff and Family Museum Education Advisory Committee will use their feedback to select the fall programs that both accommodate individual school populations and support curriculum standards.
• The Iowa House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Dave Heaton of Mount Pleasant, has cut $194,125 from the Iowa Department of Public Health, Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Fiscal Year 2004 budget. The cut was made from tobacco-settlement monies that the EMS Bureau has been receiving the past few years. In the current fiscal year, funds for EMS from the tobacco money are $381,445, with a proposed '04 budget that was $187,320. The $194,125 is being diverted to the correction facility located in Newton. This cut in funds will in effect eliminate the EMS System Development grants program made available to counties since the tobacco settlement. In the current fiscal year, more than 60 of Iowa's counties applied for assistance through the competitive grant process. EMS System Development grants have been successful particularly in assisting Iowa's volunteer programs in identifying innovative strategies in the delivery of EMS in rural areas.
• Davenport Reads has been initiated locally by librarians at the Davenport Public Library and media specialists working in the Davenport Community School District. It is a citywide reading project in which residents read the same book at the same time: Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago. What's unique to Davenport Reads is that a book has been chosen that is appropriate for elementary-school children (as young as third-grade) as well as their parents and grandparents. The project is meant to promote reading, discussion, and writing, and to bring the community together. Several events are planned for the coming months, with the book to be read by the community and schools in April, May, and June. For more information, look at (http://www.davenportreads.org).
• The Iowa College Student Aid Commission's online application for the Teacher Forgivable Loan program is now available for Iowa students entering teaching at (http://www.iowacollegeaid.org/). Forty percent of Iowa teachers will be eligible to retire in the next 10 years. In addition, 17 percent of first-year Iowa teachers leave the classroom after only one year - nearly twice the national average. The Teacher Forgivable Loan program provides loans of up to $3,000 to Iowa college students enrolled in teacher-preparation programs who plan to teach in a designated shortage area in the state upon graduation. For the 2002-2003 school year, 542 loans were made. The deadline to apply is June 15.
• The Libertarian Party has named its "top 10 spending outrages" this year, including the U.S. Agency for International Development awarding a $170-million grant to Population Services International, or PSI, a not-for-profit corporation whose mission is to curb sexually transmitted diseases. PSI was founded in 1971 by Philip Harvey, who runs a massive mail-order pornography firm called Adam & Eve. The organization also cited spending $3.6 million for "team-building" exercises for the U.S. Postal Service. At a series of employee retreats, hundreds of postal workers played children's games, sang "We Are Family," wrote Christmas carols, went on treasure hunts, dressed in cat costumes, took scat-singing lessons, and talked to imaginary wizards, magicians, and mad scientists at staff meetings. The government has also been mailing Social Security checks to fugitives. Though a 1996 law prohibits the payments, 36,752 fugitives have been collecting benefits anyway, costing taxpayers $223.7 million, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition, the federal government is hiring 2 million workers - in Iraq. As part of the postwar plan to "promote stability," the Pentagon wants to pay the salaries of 2 million soldiers, teachers, police officers, and other government workers in Iraq - in effect putting one out of every 10 Iraqis on the U.S. government payroll. For the rest of the list, check out the Libertarian Party's home page at (http://www.lp.org).
