The Ames RAGBRAI committee is still needing volunteers for the overnight stop next week.
Volunteers can sign up Saturday at LOWES on South Duff or contact the Ames Visitor and
Convention Bureau. Volunteers are needed for giving directions at the campgrounds and
needed for the route through Ames.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa is drying out again after a night
of thunderstorms brought heavy rain to the state. Almost 4.8 inches
of rain fell northeast of Ames, with over three inches at the
National Weather Service office in Johnston. More thunderstorms are
possible today over southern Iowa, where flash flood watches have
been issued.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Governor Culver says he'll likely call a
special session to deal with the deadly storms and record flooding
that have hit Iowa. A decision on when he'll call lawmakers to Des
Moines won't be made until he receives an initial assessment of
damage recovery in early September.
FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) - Heavy rain has wiped out six games at
the state softball tournament in Fort Dodge. The storm hit
yesterday afternoon, forcing the games to be postponed until today.
They include four Class 4-A quarterfinals and both Class 1-A
semifinals. All consolation games were canceled.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - A pretrial conference in the sex abuse
case of James Bentley is slated today at the Jones County
Courthouse in Anamosa. Bentley is accused of abusing a 10-year-old
Cedar Rapids girl, who was later killed by his brother, Roger
Bentley.
DES MOINES, Iowa - Two federal agencies have contradicted each
other over whether they communicated before a raid at a northeast
Iowa meatpacking plant in May. That's according to Iowa Congressman
Rep. Bruce Braley. He sent a letter just days after the May 12 raid
to the Department of Labor and the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. Braley says the immigration agency said the
departments had coordinated. The labor agency said it wasn't
notified.
CEDAR RPAIDS, Iowa - Two supervisors from the Agriprocessors
Inc. plant in Postville pleaded not guilty yesterday to aiding and
abetting illegal workers. The pair are charged with aiding and
abetting another in knowingly possessing, obtaining, accepting and
receiving a resident alien card. They're also charged with knowing
the card had been forged, counterfeited, falsely made or otherwise
unlawfully obtained.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The Federal Emergency Management Agency
has added Lucas, Appanoose, and Monroe counties to the list of Iowa
counties granted a presidential disaster declaration.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Shares of office furniture and home
fireplace manufacturer HNI Corp. are up nearly 30 percent after the
company reported better-than-expected profits. Muscatine-based HNI
reports second quarter earnings of $13.5 million, or 30 cents a
share, on sales of $613 million.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - A lawsuit that seeks to recover more
than $1.3 million in taxpayer money in the CIETC pay scandal could
go to trial in two years.
Attorneys in the case agreed Thursday on an August 2010 trial
date.
The Iowa attorney general's office filed the lawsuit in March
seeking to recover federal funds allegedly misspent by the defunct
Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium and its officials.
The lawsuit names seven former executives, including former CEO
Ramona Cunningham, and a former CIETC consultant and former
auditing firm.
The lawsuit was filed before a federal criminal case involving
CIETC officials and others went to trial in April in Davenport.
Cunningham pleaded guilty on June 30 to eight counts for her
role in the scandal.
