Victims of Gun Violence, Law Enforcement, Elected Officials and Concerned Citizens Gather in Davenport, Des Moines to Urge Sen. Grassley to Support Gun Violence Prevention Legislation  

Davenport/Des Moines, IA - Across Iowa, residents who are victims of gun violence, members of law enforcement who witness this violence all too often, elected officials and concerned citizens will gather outside the Davenport Police Department and outside the Federal Building to press Sen. Chuck Grassley to support gun violence prevention legislation. Sen. Grassley is a key vote on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee which will be considering this legislation, including universal background checks, this week.

DAVENPORT, MARCH 5

Who: Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba, Police Chief Frank Donchez and other concerned citizens

What: Quad City effort to reduce gun violence.  The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will be considering legislation to require Universal Background Checks for all gun sales, and ban hundreds of military-style assault weapons and parts on Thursday, March 7th. Sen. Chuck Grassley is on the Judiciary committee and considered a key vote and Iowans are asking him to stand with the 88% of Iowans who feel stronger background checks are necessary by voting in favor of the pending legislation.

Where: Davenport Police Department, corner of 4^th and Harrison, Davenport, IA
First Floor Community Room

When:             Tuesday, March 5 at 6 PM

DES MOINES, MARCH 6

Who:               Former Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson

Carmen Lampe Zeitler, Children and Families Urban Ministries

Pat Peterson, concerned grandmother

Where:            721 Federal Building, 210 Walnut Street, Des Moines, IA

When:             Wednesday, March 6 at 4pm

A person is killed by guns in Iowa almost every day.

• In Iowa, a person is killed by guns every forty hours. There were over 200 people were killed in gun-related violence in 2010.
• In the last ten years (2001-2010), 1,976 people were killed by guns in Iowa. That's almost 20 percent more the number of US combat deaths during the entire war in Afghanistan.

Iowa is not immune to daily acts of gun violence and serious gun crime.

• There were almost 600 reported aggravated assaults in the state in 2011 alone, or one roughly every 15 hours.

Women and Children are regularly victims on gun violence.

• In 2010, Iowa's rate of gun homicides among women was 22nd highest in the country.
• There have been 177 children under age nineteen killed by guns in the last ten years (2001-2010).

Iowa's gun safety ratings are weak.

• Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence gave Iowa 7 out of 100 possible points on their 2011 state scorecard.
• Iowa received a 'C-' from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which called its gun violence prevention laws "modest."
• While Iowa requires that all handgun purchasers get a background check, "long" guns like rifles and shotguns do not require similar measures. The state also does not prohibit high-capacity magazines.
• Iowa's rate of submitting mental health records to the federal database?records that are used in background checks to deny dangerous people from getting guns?is more than five and a half times lower than the national average.

Polls show that Iowans strongly support key gun violence prevention measures.

• Iowans overwhelming support universal background checks: Almost nine in ten (88 percent) support a provision to require "background checks for all gun sales, including those at gun shows and by private sellers." Only 11 percent oppose.
• By a 23-point margin (60-37), Iowans favor a ban on "military-style weapons, commonly known as assault weapons."
• By a 23-point margin (59-36), Iowans far a ban on ammunition magazine with more than 10 rounds.
• In the poll, 54 percent of Iowans also said in the poll that the "easy availability of guns" was a "major factor" in contributing to gun violence.

Farmers, Workers, Processors Fear Unfair Competition from New Zealand Dairy Industry

(WASHINGTON) Congress should not approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal without carefully considering the impact on vulnerable U.S. dairy farms and workers. That was the message delivered today by 11 national organizations representing dairy farmers and dairy industry workers in a letter to eight key members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

The TPP has the potential to become the biggest trade deal in history.  As the 16^th round of talks gets underway today  in Singapore, negotiators now include Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States and Vietnam.  Other Pacific Rim nations - notably Japan, the Philippines and Thailand - are watching the talks closely, with an eye to joining the controversial trade pact.

U.S. dairy interests are especially concerned that the trade deal will damage family farmers, dairy processors and consumers.

The letter states the pending trade deal could have tremendous impact on where and how dairy products are produced and processed.

"New market access for New Zealand's monopolistic dairy sector would be especially damaging to U.S. dairy farmers and those who produce and process nonfat dry milk, butterfat or cheese," the letter states.

To make sure the U.S. dairy industry won't be decimated by the TPP, the letter urges Congress to adopt new trade policymaking procedures rather than reinstating so-called "fast-track" authority.

"Congress must make sure this trade deal doesn't open the door to unfair competition," said Rome Aloise, international vice president for the Teamsters and head of the union's dairy conference, which represents 30,000 dairy workers throughout the supply chain. "The dairy industry is too important to our economy and to our food supply."

Aloise added the Teamsters would not support any trade deal that provides lesser protections to workers than to corporations.

Ben Burkett, a farmer and the president of the National Family Farm Coalition, explained why his group joined the call to Congress, "This letter elevates an issue so important to our dairy farmer members and to all consumers. The future of our nation's 60,000 dairy farmers is at stake."

"National Farmers Union supports trade agreements that benefit U.S. agriculture and promotes societal goals of healthy communities, feeding the poor, economic justice, human rights, and a sound environment. If those high standards are to be met in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Congress needs to weigh in on the terms of the agreement now, before the negotiations are concluded," said Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union.

"It's especially important that Congress review the impact of the TPP on the U.S. dairy industry because the deal has been negotiated in complete secrecy," said James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The letter was sent to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma and Ranking Member Collin Peterson of Minnesota; House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp and Ranking Member Sander Levin, both of Michigan; Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Ranking Member Thad Cochran of Mississippi; and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana and Ranking Member Thad Cochran of Mississippi

The letter was hand-delivered today to Capitol Hill by representatives of the ad-hoc national "fair trade" coalition, consisting of the Citizens Trade Campaign, Family Farm Defenders, Food & Water Watch, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, League of Rural Voters, the National Farmers Union, and Rural Coalition/Coalicion Rural.

An example of the letter can be found here.

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KERRVILLE, TX (03/04/2013)(readMedia)-- The Schreiner University Chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta welcomed Samuel Kuznetsov of Bettendorf, IA into the Freshman Honor Society at the February induction ceremony held at the Floyd & Kathleen Cailloux Campus Activity Center. Alpha Lambda Delta is a national honor society recognizing students who have achieved outstanding scholarship status during their freshman year at the college and university level.

Schreiner University is an independent coeducational liberal arts university related by choice and by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). For more information, visit Schreiner's website at www.schreiner.edu or call the Office of Admission at 830-792-7217.