(LE MARS)–A serious independent energy strategy is the solution to higher gas prices being offered by a possible Presidential candidate.
Herman Cain, a radio talk show host and former co-owner of Godfather’s Pizza, answered a KLEM News question about gas prices.
Short-term, Cain said, consumers will pay five and six dollars a gallon for gas because things weren’t done to anticipate what’s happening in the Middle East.
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Coal is on Cain’s list of energy resources.
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About a dozen Plymouth County residents heard Cain speak in the Gathering Place of Habitue in Le Mars this (Wednesday) morning
(LE MARS) A group whose members donated hours valued at more than 100-thousand dollars will be recognized next month.
Floyd Valley Hospital and the Floyd Valley Hospital Auxiliary will host their annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon April 6th with the theme, “Wanted: Volunteers!”
According to Hospital Auxiliary President Kathy Bartelli, volunteers donated more than 16-thousand hours of service in 2010 with an value of 117-thousand dollars.
The keynote speaker is Floyd Valley Patient Relations Manager Tammy Hatting.
The appreciation luncheon begins at 9:30 in the morning in the lower level Conference Center at the hospital. Hatting speaks at 10:30 and her presentation will be followed by a square dance demonstration. The “chuck wagon” luncheon is at 11:30.
Those who will be honored with an hours of service award have received an invitation . Anyone who volunteers at Floyd Valley, Park Place Estates, Family Medicine Clinics or with the hospital’s auxiliary and or Foundation and their events is encouraged to attend.
Information about volunteer opportunities at Floyd Valley is available by contacting Activities Coordinator Michelle Ten Napel by calling 546-3385.
(SIOUX CENTER)–The Family Leader forum for Texas Congressman Ron Paul will be in April on the Dordt College campus in Sioux Center.
Weather conditions prevented Paul from traveling in northwest Iowa Monday morning. He did speak at two other Family Leader forums.
Paul, a Republican, will now be part of the Presidential lecture series on Monday, April 11th. A scheduling conflict will prevent Republican Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman from keeping her April 11th presentation at Sioux Center.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Human rights leaders complained at a Statehouse news conference that deep budget cuts are hurting their ability to advocate and warned that staffers are being muzzled.
Iowa Human Rights Board chairwoman Jill Olsen said Wednesday that staffers at the Department of Human Rights have been told not to talk to the media or to legislators. And Olsen says budget cuts proposed for the agency are out of line with what other agencies are being asked to absorb.
Tim Albrecht is spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad. Albrecht says the state is facing tough budget times and that all agencies are being asked to handle cutbacks. Albrecht also says decisions about who can speak for an agency are left to the agency’s head.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) A candidate for Cedar Rapids City Council acknowledges that she pleaded guilty to theft of more than $10,000 in 2006.
The Gazette of Cedar Rapids says a reader brought up Ruth Hart’s record after reading a story about her candidacy for an at-large seat in the November election.
On Tuesday, Hart said the theft was closer to $100,000
Her crime occurred between July 2004 and June 2005. In 2006 she was given a deferred sentence for the theft and placed on probation.
Hart says the crime occurred after her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and Hart moved her to a nursing home.
Hart says she spent some of her mother’s trust fund money to attend massage school.
She says she’ll remain in the race.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) An Iowa official has reinstated a nearly $1.2 million fine against a Texas labor broker accused of exploiting dozens of mentally disabled men.
The Des Moines Register says Henry’s Turkey Service paid more than 70 of the men about 41 cents an hour, plus room and board, to work in a Muscatine County meat plant. They were housed in a decrepit old schoolhouse.
Iowa Workforce Development fined Henry’s for making improper deductions from workers’ pay, failing to pay minimum wage and failing to give pay stubs to workers. Henry’s has denied any wrongdoing.
The company appealed, and an administrative law judge cut the fine to nearly $175,000.
Iowa Workforce Development appealed that decision to state commissioner of workers’ compensation Christopher Godfrey. On Tuesday, Godfrey reinstated the original fine.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) Police are holding a suspect in the shooting death of a Nebraska man in Council Bluffs.
Council Bluffs police say officers were called to a home east of Lake Manawa a little before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. They found the body of 44-year-old Robert Chapin, of Omaha. Officers say Chapin had been shot in the head. A .40-caliber pistol found at the house is the suspected murder weapon.
Police identified the suspect as 33-year-old Christopher Hyde, of Council Bluffs. Hyde was at the residence when officers arrived.
He has been booked into Pottawattamie Council Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder. It’s not clear whether he’s retained an attorney.
WHEATLAND, Iowa (AP) Authorities say it appears a house fire in the eastern Iowa town of Wheatland where a mother and her young son died was accidental.
The Clinton County sheriff’s office on Tuesday says the state fire marshal’s office determined the fire started in a bedroom in the basement and was accidental in nature.
Clinton County Sheriff Rick Lincoln says he had not heard specific details about what may started the fire.
Twenty-six-year-old Taren Burris and her 2-year-old son, Logan, died in the fire on March 1.
NORWALK, Iowa (AP) The chief state medical examiner says a man found dead near a display railroad caboose in a city park in Norwalk in central Iowa committed suicide.
The Des Moines Register says Dr. Julia Goodin issued the ruling in the death of 41-year-old Robert Fletcher. His body was discovered Feb. 11.
Police initially considered Fletcher’s death as suspicious because there was evidence of blood and wounds.
Fletcher lived alone in an apartment near the park.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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