Postville’s Somalis – Two Views

I don’t want to give you the impression that I’m Postville-obsessed, but I found the differences between these two takes on Somalis now moving into town fascinating.
One is from the Des Moines Register and the other is from the Associated Press.
The big difference is that The Register quotes immigrants who have worked at Agriprocessors and the AP [...]

Postville Rally Coverage from Elsewhere

Minneapolis Star-Tribune
The New York Times
Associated Press
CBS News:

Beer Back on Top

As I prepare to to leave for a couple weeks of R&R, I leave you with some good news.
From a new Gallup Poll:
PRINCETON, NJ — Beer has regained a comfortable margin over wine when U.S. drinkers are asked to name which alcoholic beverage they most often drink. In recent years, wine had [...]

Mold Wars — The Bureaucracy Strikes Out

Did anyone else almost spit out their coffee this morning upon reading that some families moved out of mold-tainted mobile homes will now get squeezed into smaller “park” trailers? Unbelieveable. We’re moving into fiasco territory, folks.
After Lt. Gov. Patty Judge directed FEMA to immediately remove 232 mold-bearing mobile homes, I thought it was an overreaction that [...]

Blame it on the Arkansas Rain

So how did that infamous mold get into FEMA trailers, the ones being pulled out of Eastern Iowa at the stern request of Lt. Gov. Patty Judge? Blame it on Arkansas rain, according to William Vogel, FEMA’s top man in Iowa. He visited The Gazette today along with Judge and other officials.
It’s really very simple. While [...]

Overreaction — Underreaction

Overreaction — Mold Wars – I understand Lt. Gov. Patty Judge’s concern about mold found in exterior water heater compartments on FEMA mobile homes. But there had to be a better way to handle this other than pulling out the homes and shaking up the lives of their occupants yet again.
Would it have at least [...]

Weather Word of the Day — Derechos

I like unusual words, and I’m a weather geek, so this item about rough weather overnight and this morning in the Quad-City Times caught my eye:
The system created a 60-mile-wide path of destruction, starting out in Omaha and pushing through to Chicago, said Linda Engebretson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “It’s something we call a ‘derecho,’ [...]

Rebuild Iowa — A logo and so much more

Finally, the Rebuild Iowa Commission is hard at work. They even have a logo. Sharp.
So what inspiring message did the best and brightest deliver to weary Iowans?
State and federal officials acknowledged Thursday there will be “huge gaps” between the financial aid government can provide and the resources that will be needed for many Iowa communities [...]

What’s Offending Us?

 
 
 
 
 
 
1. The New Yorker. What’s more offensive, this magazine cover, or the fact that a candidate who has put himself and his family through an 18-month meat grinder of a presidential campaign still has to prove he loves his country, or that the media treats the manufactured patriotism debate as a real story?
The cover, definitely.
2. [...]

Who’s on (Flooded) First?

Welcome to this official briefing for the owners of flood-damaged homes. I’m Mr. Abbott and this is my deputy, Mr. Costello. We’re with the Combined Recovery Advisory Panel, and we’re here to clearly explain the current situation with regard to where and how rebuilding can proceed in the flood zones.
Now, in order to make this easy to understand, [...]