February 3, 2012

On Wednesday the Senate Education Committee passed a bill to approve a 4% allowable growth for schools.  This would be an increase of $146.2 million, pushing total state expenditures on K-12 education to $2.66 billion.  There is no doubt K-12 education needs more resources however, politicians are confused on the definition of "resource."  Where Iowa once set the national standard, student achievement scores have continually slipped over the past twenty years and now we are below the national average.  We continually hear the mantra that more money will solve the problem.  There are many more aspects than money at play.  Parts of the governor's education reform package have merit.  The question is if we can get any part of it to move through the Senate.

On Wednesday the Senate Natural Resources Committee passed a bill requiring all deer stands to be tagged with the owners name, address and hunter's license number.  Supporters argued it was done to curb poaching.  Logical thought would say, people who poach probably won't put their name on the equipment they use to poach.

The Iowa House issued their budget targets for the 2013 fiscal year.  Total expenditures are projected to be roughly $100 million more than last year and $190 million less than the governor's budget.  This budget suggests the Economic Emergency Fund ($350 million), Cash Reserve Levy ($600 million), and Taxpayer Relief Fund ($60 million) accounts will all be full.  Also, it projects an ending balance of $285 million.  The fiscal health of our state is very strong as many of our neighbors look at Iowa with envy.

On Tuesday Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn stepped down.  Chairman Strawn was successful in pushing the Iowa GOP to campaign and issue successes it hasn't seen in twenty years.  Though now may be the time for transition and new leadership, I wish the Republican Party the best of luck in trying to replace him.

I always welcome your opinions, thoughts and ideas. 

Thank you for letting me serve as your voice in the Capitol.

Thank you for letting me represent the 42nd District.

Shawn Hamerlinck
State Senator

He was the 31-year-old stockbroker dubbed "The Wall Street Whiz Kid" by Good Morning America's Steve Crowley for his uncanny knack of predicting market highs and lows.

Now, after 25 years and two debilitating bouts of clinical depression, Peter Grandich, author of  Confessions of a Wall Street Whiz Kid, (www.confessionsofawallstreetwhizkid.com), says Americans' market-driven fixation on amassing a fortune is driving us crazy.

"The fight to keep up with the Joneses is leading to more people with intolerable levels of anxiety and stress, which contribute to serious mental health problems," says Grandich, who runs Trinity Financial Sports & Entertainment Management Co., a firm that specializes in offering professional athletes, celebrities and the general public estate planning from a Christian perspective.

A January Gallup poll found Americans at their highest money stress levels in 10 years, with 51 percent worried about maintaining their standard of living.

"Our whole culture now is built on the premise that we have to have more money and more stuff to feel happy and secure," he says. "Public storage is the poster child for what's wrong with America. We have too much stuff because we've bought into the myth fabricated by Wall Street and Madison Avenue, which rely on millions of people driven to make more money so they can profit from this insane quest."

Grandich was one of those people, he says. He loved making money, making more, and spending it. By his mid-30s, he was a multi-millionaire suffering his first disabling panic attacks. Looking back, he says, part of the problem was a life out of balance.

"My priorities were, No. 1, me, my reputation and my ego, and then my wife and our daughter," he says. "There was not much else."

Everything rode on how he did in the market, and when that wavered, Grandich grew increasingly anxious. Within a year of his first panic attack, bouts of crippling anxiety and hopelessness rooted as a deep and pervasive depression. Twice, he came to the point of attempting suicide.

In 1995, Grandich left the professional money management and brokerage business, but it took him several more years to find his way back to enjoying his life. He wants to warn others caught up in the money chase, and to offer hope to the one in 10 Americans who suffer depression.

He offers this guidance from his own experience:

• Anybody who has suffered depression more than once is at risk to go through it again. Grandich says he learned he is genetically predisposed to clinical depression because of his family history. "Be prepared to understand that it will always be with you," he says. "It's medically driven due to chemical imbalances in the brain."

• Get professional help. Without medical help you have no chance. "For me, it was talk therapy and pharmaceutical intervention to flip that chemical switch in my brain," Grandich says. "You can't just 'snap out of it' because you don't think rationally."

• It's not a sign of weakness and nothing to be ashamed about. With men especially, the "macho thing" gets in the way of seeking help, Grandich notes. It's not something that can be fixed with will power or that you can just snap out of; the brain is injured.

• Get seriously reacquainted with your Creator. Grandich grew up without religion and became a Catholic simply to marry his wife. He had no spiritual anchor and his relationship to God was "the occasional 9-1-1call." He has found comfort in recognizing that there is "someone bigger than me" in control and in having rules that make sense for governing his life. When friends ask, "What if it turns out there really is no God and no afterlife?" he says, "It's still a better way to live."

Grandich says he's grateful for the revelations he experienced, and that he found a way out of the painful darkness.

"I'm satisfied it happened for a reason, and not to use my experience to help others would be unfair," he says. "The blessing for me is, I've been shown the mess I was. There are still a lot of people out there who don't yet realize that, if money is their god, they're headed for a lot of suffering."

About Peter Grandich

Peter Grandich became renowned in the financial industry when he predicted market crashes and rebounds in The Grandich Letter, a newsletter he created in 1984. It's currently a blog featuring his commentary on the world's economies and financial markets as well as social and political topics. Grandich is co-founder, with former New York Giants player Lee Rouson, of Trinity Financial Sports & Entertainment Management Co., a firm that specializes in offering guidance from a Christian perspective to professional athletes and celebrities.

ST. LOUIS (February 3, 2012) - Biodiesel became a one-billion gallon industry, setting an all-time production record last year. That's thanks in part to its predominant fuel source: soy biodiesel. U.S. biodiesel production far exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's 2011 production requirement of 800 million gallons. In fact, production reached nearly 1.1 billion gallons, which surpassed the previous record of 690 million gallons set in 2008.

U.S. soybean farmers and their checkoff helped establish soy's role in the biodiesel marketplace, originally looking for a new use of surplus soybean oil more than 20 years ago. Today, the soybean checkoff continues to support biodiesel through research and education efforts.

"As Americans, we have a need for an American fuel and the checkoff is seeing their investment start to come to fruition," says Robert Stobaugh, soybean farmer from Atkins, Ark., and United Soybean Board farmer-director. "The checkoff marketing efforts at the state and national level helped soy become the primary source and we still have room for growth."

The industry expects biodiesel production to grow even larger in 2012. And the Environmental Protection Agency's Renewable Fuel Standard requires it to meet 1 billion gallons again next year. As production continues to increase, diesel users will be able to find biodiesel more readily than ever before.

"Biodiesel is now more available and as it expands into metropolitan areas it will be easier for the rural areas to get a hold of it," adds Stobaugh. "As our urban neighbors pick up the torch and carry it, we won't have to ask for it - fuel suppliers will already have it."

USB is made up of 69 farmer-directors who oversee the investments of the soybean checkoff on behalf of all U.S. soybean farmers. Checkoff funds are invested in the areas of animal utilization, human utilization, industrial utilization, industry relations, market access and supply. As stipulated in the Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service has oversight responsibilities for USB and the soybean checkoff.

For more information on the United Soybean Board, visit www.unitedsoybean.org
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During his weekly video address, Senator Chuck Grassley celebrates the 25th anniversary of a major update to the False Claims Act he authored to empower whistleblowers to file suit on behalf of the federal government against contractors who fraudulently claim taxpayer dollars. The law is the most successful tool of the federal government in rooting out fraud against the federal treasury, and has helped recover more than $30 billion in taxpayer funds that otherwise would be lost, and is said to have deterred billions more.

Click here for audio.

Here is the text of the address:

This week marked the 25th anniversary of a major update of the False Claims Act.

In 1986, with Representative Howard Berman of California, I authored legislation to empower private-sector whistleblowers to come forward with valuable information about fraud by government contractors.  At that time, the focus was on defense contract fraud.  Today, these qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act have become the government's most effective tool against health care fraud, especially in Medicare.

In 25 years, the whistleblower provisions have recovered more than $30 billion for taxpayers that otherwise would have been lost to fraud.  Experts say the deterrent effect of the law to be billions more.

I'm committed - and new threats are constant - to safeguarding and strengthening this law with legislation whenever it's needed and with oversight all the time.  The broad scope of government programs where whistleblowers have helped to recover taxpayer dollars with the False Claims Act is a testament to the 1986 law's flexibility and value.

American workers also need new export markets for the goods and services they manufacture.  They need an energetic and enthusiastic effort to establish new international trade relationships for the United States.

The economy benefits from affordable energy, so domestic production has got to be a priority and a reality.  Even so, President Obama is denying the Keystone XL pipeline project.  This infrastructure project would create as many as 20,000 jobs.  The President's position works against creating jobs and getting people back to work.

Since 2009, President Obama's big spending stimulus and government intervention has failed in terms of job creation, economic growth and fiscal responsibility. We need a new direction.

On top of that, President Obama seems determined to test and even exceed the powers of his office.  America has a system of checks and balances that's generally worked for more than two centuries.  The President's interest in putting the executive branch above the other branches of government is unconstitutional and counter-productive.  It's something Americans rejected 235 years ago.

Today, finding common ground with the elected representatives of Congress would be more productive than trying to govern by edict from the Oval Office.