Award honors achievement, leadership, commitment to ag, community

WEST DES MOINES, IOWA - July 3, 2012 - It's one thing to succeed in agriculture and another to be honored for excellence. Each year, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) recognizes one young farmer with the Excellence in Ag Award at the IFBF annual meeting in December.

Counties can nominate young Farm Bureau members online at www.iowafarmbureau.com and click on the Bob Joslin Award link. Nominations are due Aug. 31.

The award celebrates a young farmer who demonstrates outstanding leadership qualities in Farm Bureau, agriculture and his/her community. Jay Lynch, a grain farmer from Humboldt, was last year's winner.

"It's quite an honor, especially because I give Farm Bureau a lot of credit for getting me actively involved," Lynch said. "Hopefully, I'll have done enough good to offset some of what they've given to me."

The Joslin Award winner receives a plaque, a $750 gift card from GROWMARK and expense-paid trips to the American Farm Bureau annual meeting in Nashville, the GROWMARK annual meeting in Chicago and the IFBF Young Farmer conference in West Des Moines.

The Excellence in Ag Award is given in memory of Bob Joslin, who served as IFBF president from January 1986 to December 1987 and was known for his support and encouragement of young farmers.

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Square Dancers Choose Greater Des Moines

DES MOINES, IOWA - The National Square Dance Convention has selected Greater Des Moines as their host city in June 2016. The group will bring approximately 6,000 square dancers to the city for four nights, for an estimated 8,000 room nights.

Representatives from the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau (GDMCVB), Des Moines City Councilman Chris Coleman (Chair of the GDMCVB Board), Global Spectrum staff (Iowa Events Center) and local square dance enthusiasts all traveled to Spokane, WA to make the bid presentation to the site selection committee late last week. A video from Governor Branstad (a former square dancer) also helped lure the group to Greater Des Moines.

"A booking like this is a win for our entire region," said Greg Edwards, President and CEO of the GDMCVB. "This is an upbeat, passionate group that will be highly visible throughout the Metro during their stay here."

Vicki Comegys, Vice President of Sales and Services at the GDMCVB, and Margie Marble, Director of Sales at the GDMCVB began taking reservations for the square dancers Saturday night. "By the time we shut down our booth, we had already received 397 reservations for 2016," said Comegys. "This group couldn't be happier about the site selection committee's choice and we couldn't be happier to welcome them to Greater Des Moines."

The Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote Greater Des Moines as a fun, vibrant and affordable destination statewide, nationally and internationally. Our focus increases visitors to our community through meetings, conventions, sports events, leisure travel, and group tours, thereby contributing to the local economy.

WASHINGTON, DC – Insisting that the use of drug-sniffing dogs by police to carry out warrantless searches of private homes favors canine sensibilities over citizens' privacy rights, The Rutherford Institute has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the practice unconstitutional in violation of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. In filing an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Florida v. Jardines, Institute attorneys cite mounting empirical evidence that narcotics detection dogs are unreliable and inaccurate. Institute attorneys also point out that the amount of time it takes for the dogs to carry out a detection sniff on the perimeter of a private residence constitutes a trespass under Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.

The Rutherford Institute's brief in Florida v. Jardines is available at www.rutherford.org.

"The specter of a police dog handler team with supporting armed backup at the front door of a private residence is a chilling scenario indicative of the entrenchment of a growing police state," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "If this Court permits warrantless dog sniffs of citizens' homes, it will unleash an Orwellian nightmare of intimidation, leaving no one safe from the prying sniffs of the American Police State."

The case arose out of an incident that took place in November 2006, when Miami police responded to an "anonymous" tip that marijuana was being grown at the residence of Joelis Jardines. After police surveillance of the Jardines home failed to reveal any incriminating evidence, the police brought in a drug-sniffing dog and handler to inspect the property at 7:30 a.m. The police handler walked the dog up to the front door on a leash and the dog allegedly "alerted" to the scent of contraband, which was reported to the investigating police who also approached the door and allegedly smelled marijuana. Using this information, the police obtained a warrant to search the Jardines residence, resulting in the seizure of marijuana plants. In court, Jardines' lawyer moved to suppress the evidence obtained under the warrant, insisting that the warrant itself was invalid because of its reliance on the alert by the drug-sniffing dog. On appeal, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the use of detection dogs at private residences raises significant privacy concerns. The U.S. Supreme Court, having ruled in previous cases that dog sniffs do not constitute "searches" for purposes of the Fourth Amendment, agreed to review the state court decision. In weighing in on the matter, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute argued against the reliance on drug-sniffing dogs as the basis for search warrants, pointing out that both anecdotal evidence and research show that dogs frequently signal false alerts and show sensitivity to handler bias. Institute attorneys also noted that the mere presence of the dogs on private property and the amount of time it takes for the dogs to alert to any alleged contraband constitute an illegal trespass. A better, more constitutional, alternative, as the Institute's brief makes clear, would be for police to obtain a search warrant prior to introducing dogs onto the scene for a perimeter sniff.

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