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School board candidates talk about concerns, ideas
Found: Minutes ago
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier - WATERLOO --- Candidates for two Board of Education seats discussed concerns with Waterloo Community Schools and laid out their ideas to improve the district during a forum Tuesday at the Education Service Center....
Des Moines Police Chief Honored by American Legion
Found: 1 Day 17 Hours 46 Minutes ago
WHO 13 News - Des Moines' top cop has received one of the American Legion's highest honors. The organization has named Chief Judy Bradshaw, National Law Officer of the Year....
Dorman: McCain's nomination may change Iowa's straw poll
Found: 1 Day 23 Hours 7 Minutes ago
The Gazette - As the political world focuses on St. Paul for the Republican National Convention, it's hard to believe that just more than a year ago, the center of the presidential universe was a short Interstate 35 drive to the south. Last August, we media types were crowing that the Iowa GOP straw poll in Ames could have a big impact on the race for the Republican nomination. You remember the straw poll and#8212; thousands of Iowans paid $35 for the chance to cast a non-binding vote in a White House beauty pageant. The state party raised a hayrack-load of dough. It was billed as a critical test of organizational strength. But John McCain skipped the straw poll entirely, hoping to focus his scarce resources on winning real votes. Many Iowa Republicans predicted that the Arizona senator would regret not showing up for their big tent party. Mitt Romney, ever eager to please Iowans, spent his way to a fat victory and looked destined to jog to the nomination, with nary a hair out of place. But then a funny thing happened.McCain's tough calls on where to fight and where to pull back, including skipping the straw poll, sustained his cash-strapped campaign through dark days. He rebounded to win the nomination. Romney is now spending more time with his family.And for the first time since 1988, the winner of the straw poll is not the Republican nominee. Couple that with concerns that the pricey event is taking some luster off Iowa's crucial caucuses, and it raises the question: Have we seen the last straw?"I think the party is going to have to take a look at the whole straw poll," said Dave Roederer, a longtime party leader who chairs McCain's Iowa operation. He was in on the decision last summer to skip the straw poll."It was like we were ostracized, like we were some bad people for not having the money to give to the party," Roederer said. "This whole thing started out as sort of a fun, festive type of thing. But as the importance kept growing and growing, it kind of quit having fun and it became like another election."Roederer said McCain's staffers thought they would have to spend $1 million to credibly compete in the straw poll. "Even some of the candidates that did participate, and did well in the end, they didn't think that it was a wise way to spend their money," he said. There are two main knocks against the straw poll. For one thing, jealous states hoping to scrap Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus status argue that the straw poll unfairly gives Iowa "two bites of the apple," or two early contests that grab the national spotlight. Second, what was once a chance for Republicans to gather and hear candidates has become an elimination round months before real votes are cast. A poor fake-vote finish can mean an end for real campaigns. That doesn't fit with Iowa's "anyone can run here" caucus myth. But, the truth is, as long as the poll raises gobs of money for Republicans, it will survive. "I think there will continue to be a straw poll," said Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Stew Iverson, who said no poll will be needed in 2012 if McCain wins the presidency. "If it's a wide-open field, I don't think it will be a scaled-back event."It may get scaled back anyway. After more than 23,000 Iowans came to the 1999 straw poll, just more than 14,000 came in 2007. That was far below GOP expectations. McCain, on the other hand, exceeded expectations after not showing up. It's likely other candidates will follow his lead or at least spend less lavishly. Mike Huckabee gained a second-place boost on a shoestring budget.We probably haven't seen the last straw poll. But McCain may have mowed its importance down to size....
ISU loses player to broken arm in victory
Found: 2 Days 1 Hour 45 Minutes ago
The Gazette - What had been shaping up as a promising season for Iowa State defensive back Kennard Banks has been cut short by a broken arm that will sideline him indefinitely.Banks, a junior who transferred from Dodge City Community College in Kansas, was injured midway through the Cyclones' 44-17 victory over South Dakota State last Thursday. Coach Gene Chizik said Banks needed surgery and he's not sure how long the 5-foot-10, 193-pounder will be out."To put an exact time or weeks on it, we don't know," Chizik said Monday. "Everybody rehabs different. It'll be awhile."Banks, who's from Boynton, Fla., started as a true freshman at Western Michigan in 2005. He made 58 tackles that year, broke up 13 passes and intercepted a pass despite playing with a broken finger.After sitting out the 2006 season while attending Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., Banks transferred to Dodge City, where he earned all-conference honors after intercepting three passes, breaking up 13 and returning a fumble 50 yards for a touchdown.In his Iowa State debut, Banks made three tackles before getting hurt."He was a great team leader," Chizik said. "He was really on his way to being a great player here."...
Ames man Legion's newest commander
Found: Minutes ago
WOI 5 News - Associated Press - September 2, 2008 8:14 PM ET DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - An Ames man and U.S. Army veteran is now the national commander of The American Legion.
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Jolynn and Randy Hoffman
Found: 2 Days 14 Hours 12 Minutes ago
Le Mars Daily Sentinel - Mr. and Mrs. Randy Hoffman of Le Mars celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on Aug. 20, 2008, with a trip to Las Vegas, Nev. Mr. Hoffman and the former Jolynn Pick were married Aug. 28, 1983, at......
Butts pile up since smoking ban
Found: 2 Days 15 Hours 51 Minutes ago
Quad City Times - CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa ?Business owners say the statewide ban on smoking inside is creating a mess outside....
Butts piling up since smoking ban
Found: 2 Days 17 Hours 8 Minutes ago
KWQC 6 News - Associated Press - September 2, 2008 10:34 AM ET CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - Business owners say the statewide ban on smoking inside is creating a mess outside.
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ISU football: 5 things the Cyclones must do differently to beat Kent ...
Found: 2 Days 20 Hours 47 Minutes ago
Des Moines Register - Ames, Ia. — A year ago, Kent State played the role of spoiler....
Thompson looks back on 'dumb strategy' in Iowa
Found: 2 Days 21 Hours 16 Minutes ago
The Gazette - BLOOMINGTON, Minn. and#8212; If he was going to do it again and#8212; and he insists he won't, Tommy Thompson wouldn't have based his entire campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on winning the Iowa caucuses."It was a dumb strategy," the former Wisconsin governor said Monday morning after speaking to the Iowa GOP national convention delegation. "I would have spent a lot more time in New Hampshire."Thompson, 66, recalled some wonderful times campaigning in Iowa. He made 42 visits for 65 days, coming to Iowa every week from Jan. 1, 2007, until he dropped out after the Iowa GOP straw poll in August. That was second to Mitt Romney's 77 days on 43 visits."There were some not-so-wonderful times, too," Thompson told the delegates. The low point was the day of the straw poll when, Thompson said, 97-degree heat kept many of his supporters away from the Ames extravaganza."I was sure I was going to come in second," he said. Instead, Thompson finished sixth and soon dropped out of the race.Since then, George W. Bush's former secretary of Health and Human Services has been working with the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease. The group believes the strength and viability of the health care system lies in policies that help Americans better prevent and manage chronic illnesses.Thompson made no bones last year that he thought his all-Iowa approach would lead to success among fellow Midwestern Republicans when they caucused in January. He maintains he had the best ideas of the crowded GOP field.However, Thompson said, he was caught in a lose-lose situation where he didn't capture the attention of the national media because he wasn't raising the kind of money Romney and others were attracting. And without national media attention, he couldn't raise large amounts of money.In retrospect, Thompson said he would have been better off spending time in New Hampshire, Florida and South Carolina like John McCain and#8212; who finished 10th in the straw poll and fourth in the Iowa caucuses."New Hampshire has more of an independent philosophy," he told reporters at the La Quinta Hotel in Bloomington where the Iowa delegation is bivouacked."I might have done better if I had spent more time in New Hampshire."...
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