GOP Free Lunch

So much for the party of “personal responsibility.”

Over the past few days, Republicans in the Iowa Senate have weighed in on three big issues with three big free passes.

Trashmore Name Ideas

The continuing saga of finding a permanent name for Mount Trashmore popped up in the paper over the weekend, and I feel a column coming on.

Got any ideas? Should we let Trashmore be Trashmore? What about Krasna Hora, or “beautiful mountain” in Czech, as was floated by Council Member Podzimek?

Be serious, be a comedian. I don’t care. Give me your best take.

Tuesday’s Weather Will Blow

 

Hope you enjoyed the fleeting 50s. From the National Weather Service:

…BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 8 AM TO 8 PM CST TUESDAY…THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN QUAD CITIES HAS ISSUED A BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 8 AM TO 8 PM CST TUESDAY.

A STRONG ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP THROUGH THE AREA SHORTLY AFTER SUNRISE. VERY STRONG WINDS OF 25 TO 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 50 MPH WILL COMBINE WITH 1 TO 3 INCHES OF NEW SNOW TO CREATE WIDESPREAD BLOWING SNOW. THERE IS A VERY REAL POSSIBILITY THAT WHITE OUT CONDITIONS MAY BE SEEN IN RURAL AREAS. THE SNOW WILL END BY EARLY EVENING WITH WINDS DIMINISHING TUESDAY NIGHT.

A BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY MEANS THAT VISIBILITIES WILL BE ONE-HALF MILE OR LESS DUE TO STRONG WINDS CAUSING BLOWING SNOW. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL…BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL AND ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME TO REACH YOUR DESTINATION.

Biotech 2, Childhood memories 0

From Radio Iowa:

“An Iowa based seed-corn company is looking at a new corn variety that will do away with what was once a rite of passage for Iowa teens, and a way for adults to make some extra money in the summer. Pioneer seed company chairman Dean Ostreich told lawmakers this week the company has a new variety that will not require detasseling.”

First, they killed off bean-walking with Roundup-ready soybeans, now this.

How is the next generation going to learn how to avoid corn cuts, how to make a garbage bag rain coat or how to chew tobacco? Who will teach them that ditch weed will only give you a headache? Where will they hear a string of jaw-dropping dirty jokes that stretches for a half-mile and back? I wish I knew.

Thanks, biotechnology.

Friday Mail Bag — Riverwalking

Lots of good e-mails from readers this week.

I figured I’d get slapped around pretty good after I wrote Tuesday that’s it’s way too soon to bury a proposed downtown river walk in vitriol. I thought this town’s bumper crop of government-haters would tell me to walk into the river, as soon as it thaws.

That wasn’t the case. Most messages applauded the idea and decried what they see as too much negativity on the part of critics.

Stimulated

From the NY Times:

“House leaders and the White House on Thursday reached a tentative agreement on an economic stimulus package of roughly $150 billion that would pay stipends of $300 to $1,200 per family and provide tax incentives for businesses to encourage spending.”

My family, with two children, would get $1,200. But how best to spend it?

Frigid

 

From the National Weather Service:

RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE SET AT CEDAR RAPIDS…

A RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE OF -23 DEGREES WAS SET AT CEDAR RAPIDS TODAY.
THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF -18 SET IN 1897.

…RECORD DAILY MINIMUM TEMPERATURES BROKEN AT WATERLOO AND LAMONI…

A RECORD MINIMUM TEMPERATURE OF 26 DEGREES BELOW ZERO WAS SET IN
WATERLOO AT 644 AM THIS MORNING. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 23
DEGREES BELOW ZERO SET IN 1904.

ALSO…A RECORD MINIMUM TEMPERATURE OF 13 DEGREES BELOW ZERO WAS SET
IN LAMONI AT 509 AM THIS MORNING. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 12
DEGREES BELOW ZERO SET IN 1915.

…UNOFFICIAL RECORD SET IN WEBSTER CITY…

A RECORD MINIMUM TEMPERATURE OF 21 DEGREES BELOW ZERO WAS SET IN
WEBSTER CITY THIS MORNING.  THIS BREAKS THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 19
DEGREES BELOW ZERO SET BACK IN 1897.

…RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE SET AT BURLINGTON…
 A RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE OF -9 DEGREES WAS SET AT BURLINGTON TODAY.
THIS TIES THE OLD RECORD OF -9 LAST SET IN 1963.

Working Class Dog

If you read my Thursday column, you’ll understand.

One Meeeellion Dollars

From today’s Gazette

The first formal action by the Iowa Senate came Tuesday in the form of modest property tax relief.
Senators voted 46-0 to earmark about $1.2 million into a property tax replacement risk pool available to help counties that face problems meeting their mental-health program obligations. An oversight board handles the fund, which is designed to help counties ease the cost of mental-health costs to local property owners.
The money, which totals $627,000 this fiscal year and grows to nearly $1.2 million each year thereafter, resulted from a tax change enacted about five years ago that created a windfall to the state via the sale by Alliant Energy of the Duane Arnold Energy Plant near Palo to FPL Energy of Vero Beach, Fla. Alliant sold its 70 percent majority share of the 595-megawatt plant to FPL in January 2006.
Senate File 2023 now goes to the House, where approval is expected.

Of course, it goes without saying that the Legislature should be embarrassed to call this property tax relief. You’d need an electron microscope to see what percentage $1.2 million is compared to the total property tax load Iowans pay.

Broken and Buried, but hopeful

I love snow, but our relationship has become tiresome and strained.

All the shoveling and sliding and spinning is getting old. I’m suffocating. It’s time to take break.  I’d like to see other weather. Please.

Our break-up was inevitable, though. Thankfully, time is running out.

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in 40,320 minutes

The first day of spring is 83,520 minutes away.

Baseball’s opening day is in 99,360 minutes

The average date of Cedar Rapids’ last frost is 155,520 minutes from today

Memorial Day is in 180,000 minutes

The Fourth of July is in a mere 236,160 minutes.

Do your own warm, hopeful calculations here.