#Iowa CCI

[catrocketship]

from the Iowa CCI archives, photo mine

[regulatorsrus]

1. Note that the $6000 fine was for Air Pollution issues, not water. "Opacity" is a visibility measurement of particulate matter (PM) in the air.

2. Enforcement of the Clean Water Act is still being discussed. Link to the most recent article from the DNR here: https://www.iowadnr.gov/About-DNR/DNR-News-Releases/ArticleID/4933/Montgomery-County-fertilizer-spill-killed-more-than-749-000-fish.

"Per Iowa Code section 455B.186, a pollutant cannot be discharged into a river without a permit. DNR field staff are working with the DNR’s Legal Services Bureau to determine next steps with regards to enforcement action and restitution for lost aquatic life. The DNR will continue to monitor cleanup efforts."

3. The DNR *will* have a public notice period regarding enforcement for this spill. If their fine is insufficient, please, please comment, tell them that's insufficient due to damage to environmental health. You can request a public hearing for anything on public notice.

4. I'm not digging into their fee structure right now, but it's likely that $10k is not the DNR's limit for fines. Iowa CCI states "Under the CWA, penalties are up to $37,000 *per day per violation*, which would include penalties for discharges or other violations of a permit."

5. If when enforcement is issued, the fines are low, you can also bother i) your state representatives (they can introduce legislation to increase the DNR'S ability to fine polluters), or ii) EPA Region 7, if it appears that the fines are insufficient to ensure compliance with the clean water act.

6. Until enforcement is issued, keep talking about this. Keep people aware of what's going on and how it's affected the environment. Make sure New Cooperative doesn't get away lightly with pulling this shit. Because high fines here will discourage others from doing the same thing.

Hey guys, I know there are a lot of really severe tragedies in the world right now and I in no way desire to push those aside, nor do I really want to load another thing onto people's plates, but anyone here in the US needs to be aware that on March 11, 2024, an agricultural company known as NEW Cooperative spilled 265,000 gallons (1500 tons) of liquid nitrogen fertilizer into the East Nishnabotna River. This is the ecological equivalent of dropping a nuclear weapon into the river. Over a 60 mile stretch downstream of the spill its been a near total ecological wipeout for the river. So far, an estimate of 850,000 fish have been killed from this spill, and that's to say nothing for the insects, amphibians, reptiles and birds that relied on or lived in this river. It is literally filled with animal corpses. This river flows into the Missouri River and the impacts will likely continue to spread far past this 60 mile stretch. And this disaster has barely made local tv in Iowa, let alone national tv, despite the fact that 60 miles of river ecosystem were just wiped out in a way that may be impossible to recover from. And what's the punishment for this heinous act of destruction through negligence, you might ask? As it stands, its looking like a 6k fine from the DNR to the company. Not 600k. Not 60k. 6000 dollars. The maximum fine that the DNR can charge in Iowa is 10k unless they decide to take it further in court. That's why these spills are so frequent in Iowa: it's literally cheaper to eat the fines than it is to bother properly storing fertilizer. I don't know exactly what the proper course of action is here, or who needs to be contacted to enact change--I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable than me will chime in with that information--but at the very least, every one of us should know. Every one of us should make sure we don't forget this. And every one of us should blacklist NEW Cooperative fertilizer unilaterally.

Sources:

[inde-60]

I found this on NewsBreak: Iowa CCI files ethics complaint against Rep. Fisher over involvement with Tama-Toledo Christian School

I found this on NewsBreak: Iowa CCI files ethics complaint against Rep. Fisher over involvement with Tama-Toledo Christian School

[clancarruthers]

Harold W Carruthers

Clan Carruthers Int Society CCIS

  Harold Carruthers

August 24, 1954 – January 31, 2020

      Harold Walter Carruthers, 65, entered into Heaven on January 31, 2020. The beloved husband of Brenda Carruthers (nee Blomquist) for 42 years; cherished father of John (Alysia) Carruthers of O’Fallon, Mary (Ray Gibson) Carruthers of St. Johns; dear PaPaw of Jace, Jonas, Addyson and Ayla; loving brother of…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago Court strikes down Iowa's unconstitutional ag-gag law

"Ag-gag" laws -- which ban the collection of evidence of wrongdoing on farms, from animal cruelty to food-safety violations -- are a sterling example of how monopolism perpetuates itself by taking over the political process.

As American agribusiness has grown ever-more concentrated -- while antitrust regulators looked the other way, embracing the Reagan-era doctrine of only punishing monopolies for raising prices and permitting every other kind of monopolistic abuse -- it has been able to collude, joining industry groups like ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which drafts industry-favoring "model legislation" and then lobbies state legislatures to adopt it.

ALEC's contribution to Big Ag is the nationwide epidemic of "ag-gag" laws, which felonize the collection and disclosure of true facts of intense public interest. Ag-gag laws are plainly unconstitutional, but that hasn't stopped state authorities from prosecuting and imprisoning animal rights activists and food safety whistleblowers.

Invalidating ag-gag laws is an expensive, state-by-state process, and activists and impact litigators have already overturned the laws of Wyoming, Utah and Idaho, and fifteen other states, and now they've just scored a victory in Iowa, after a victory in a lawsuit filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI), Bailing Out Benji, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and the Center for Food Safety struck down the state's 2012 law.

The court took notice of the legislative history of the ag-gag law, which was passed after evidence of extreme animal cruelty was published by activists.

Ag-gag laws remain on the books in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, and North Dakota, with challenges pending in Kansas and North Carolina.

I eat meat, and I go to real lengths to make sure that I'm buying from sustainable, free-range producers who treat their animals with respect and dignity. The idea that markets are best served if I'm not allowed to know when a producer fails to live up to those standards is absurd, and reveals late-stage capitalism's lip-service indifference to markets: markets exist to extract from consumers, not to discipline producers according to the desires and preferences of their customers. If customers don't like a producer's conduct, the remedy is to hide that conduct from the customer, tricking them into buying inferior products.

https://boingboing.net/2019/01/11/hawkeye-shutmouths.html

[thoosie-thursday]

On the topic of best coaster

I'm tired of thoosies claiming that their coaster "is the best". There's no such thing as an objective best coaster. That being said, you're all wrong because this beautiful monstrosity is the best coaster.

That's right, it's Boss.

Now I know what you're thinking. "How can you say the best coaster is a sub par CCI?" Well, sit down and let ya girl educate you.

Sheer Capitalism

Think about the name for a second. What other coaster in existence has a name that just feels like the late stage capitalism hellscape we're in? Just going up to the ride makes you feel like you're getting called in for a yearly performance eval. The long queue hike slowly building that anxiety, same as when your boss looks at your productivity reports. The remains of the helix sitting there, showing the corners cut for the sake of profit. The intimidating drop, just like that of the Six Flags stock as of late, plummeting out of sight.

Them Trains

This is a hot opinion I know, but those gerstlauer trains are a work of art. They're so open and free, especially in the front row. All that holds you in is a single ratcheting lapbar. That's right, where we're going we don't need seatbelts. Just look at this sexy CAD drawing I ripped from gerstlauers site and be in awe of the engineering marvel.

The Thoosie Complaint Index

As all true coaster fans know, thoosies are the worst when it comes to knowing literally anything. That's why Millennium Force won the golden ticket so many times when Ohio was home to much better coasters than it. That's why I rate coasters on a scale I call the Thoosie Complaint Index. It basically works off the idea that the more things there are for a thoosie to complain about on the ride, the better it is. Now let's see what boss has going for it.

it's at a super low tier six flags park. Thoosies hate any park without a hyper, so that's already a plus

It's a CCi that isn't Boulder Dash or at Holiday World, so into the dumpster it goes

Gerst trains

It's "rough" (but as we all know thoosies think anything that isn't smooth as glass is rough)

They removed the helix so it's "bad"

The midcourse "stops you" (last time I checked it only slows you to a couple miles per hour that's not a stop)

The long queue hike (betcha wish you shelled out for diamond elite now idiot)

It doesn't "do much"

Look at that, 8 things thoosies hate about it. Using my patented Thoosie Complaint Index, that gives it a perfect score of 160. It's the perfect ride.

Missouri

As we all know, Missouri is the best state. That's right, fuck you Illinois. Fuck you Iowa. Fuck you Arkansas. Nebraska you're cool. But most of all, fuck you Kansas. Come take your city back idiots.

In conclusion if you disagree with this you're an idiot. Boss is the best coaster, it's just science.

[notanotherberniesandersblog]

“Some 2020 Presidential candidates have been embracing or acknowledging movement politics. But only one of them has been doing it for decades, just like Iowa CCI Action and our sister organization Iowa CCI,” said the head of Iowa CCI's political arm, Iowa CCI Action. “That's why Iowa CCI Action is endorsing Bernie Sanders. We’re standing with Bernie because Bernie stands with us.”

“Iowa CCI is not only the largest progressive organization in Iowa, they are the hardest working and know what it takes to win for working people,” added Misty Rebik, state director for the Sanders campaign. “The members of Iowa CCI made this endorsement because they know that when Bernie Sanders is in the White House, he will fight alongside us because he always has.”

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this Nation of Change article:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has denied a Clean Water Act “de-delegation petition,” which has been under consideration for more than 11 years. Iowans and environmental advocates say that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is neglecting its duties.

“EPA’s petition denial is a whitewashing of Iowa’s ongoing failure to regulate factory farms,” says Tarah Heinzen, Senior Staff Attorney at Food & Water Watch, which has represented Iowa CCI on the petition for several years. “EPA has given these facilities carte blanche to pollute Iowa’s waterways. This decision is just one more reason why Iowa’s leaders must step up an enact a moratorium on factory farms.”

Factory farms in Iowa produce enough toxic manure to fill the largest building in Iowa, the Des Moines Principle building, 2.5 times per day. There have been more than 800 documented manure spills since 1996, that along with corporate agriculture practices have contributed to the decline of Iowa’s water ways throughout time.

“The DNR is failing us and has been failing us for a long time. We need tough rules and regulations paired with tough enforcement. The DNR showed us with this work plan, they don’t take this problem seriously. What we really need is a moratorium,” said Iowa CCI member Shannon Walker.

[12-3amproductions]

Dear Zachary

In today’s case-study, we will be talking about a true-crime story which has also been made into a documentary called ‘Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father’. Basically, the story revolves around a vicious murder committed by Shirley Turner, the mother of Zachary Andrew Turner, who was then found to be murdered following the death of his father, Andrew Bagby. 

Andrew David Bagby’s body was found on November 6, 2001, in a state park near Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He had been shot 5 times; once at back of the head, once at his face, once at his chest, and twice in his buttocks. He was 28-years old when he passed. 

The investigators immediately turned their attention to Shirley Turner. 

Previously, Andrew Bagby had been engaged with former finance, Heather Arnold, and had struggled with moving on after they broke up. He became extremely devastated, and would often poke fun of himself and end up settling for any woman that showed him interest as he found comfort in that and also felt that he didn’t have anybody better. This left him vulnerable to women like Shirley Turner who ended up ruining his life, as well as the people dear to him, tremendously.  

Bagby and Turner had met in a medical school at Memorial University in St. Johns, Newfoundland. They started dating. Turner was 40-years old and twice divorced with 3 children of different last names from her. Friends of Bagby have described Turner to be “incongruous”, normal on one day and psycho on another, and was “always making sexually and inappropriate comments”, and was “extremely possessive over Andrew”.

Bagby previously performed surgery for period of time until he realized that it wasn’t for him and switched to a practice family residency in Latrobe Pennsylvania in 2001. He loved it and at that point, he wanted Turner to go away. Both Bagby and Turner then ended their relationship on November 4, 2001, before she was put on a plane to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she lived at that time. However, Turner rang Bagby up on both his cell and house phones for about 30 times and had even left him with quite a few messages. 

On November 5, 2001, Turner then showed up at Bagby’s doorstep while his friend, Clark Simpson, recalled him saying; “You’ll never guess who showed up on my doorstep”, “The psychotic bitch”. Bagby had initially arranged to meet with Simpson to catch up about at Simpson’s house at 7.30pm after he had met Turner at 6pm. Bagby, was never (a person to be) late.

When Bagby didn’t show up at 7.30pm or later, Simpson knew that something was amiss. Bagby didn’t show up at work the next day, nobody picked up when his friends called or was in when they dropped by at his house. Everybody close to him was then later notified of his death. 

Bagby’s body was found lying behind his car on Tuesday, November 6, in Keystone State Park. 

A passerby had seen his black Toyota Corolla parked next to an SUV (Turner drives a RAV4 SUV). This was 10 minutes after he told Simpson that he was going to meet Turner. 

The ammunition identified which was used to shoot Bagby were .22 caliber bullets. Turner also owned a .22 caliber handgun, which she had claimed was “for protection” and “wanted to know for safety and thought instruction was a good thing”. She previously had 3 sessions with a firearms instructor who said that in her last lesson, she was using CCI 22 caliber ammunition and her gun malfunctioned and would sometimes eject live rounds onto the ground. When asked if she could turn her gun in to the police department, she agreed before making tons of excuses such as “It’s either in my closet, or my bedroom, or it’s in the car”, and then claiming to have given the gun to Bagby and saying she had been homesick on November 5. 

When she was questioned with when the last time of her talking to Bagby was, she lied that it was on “Sunday”. Cell phone records proved otherwise and showed phone calls being made from different locations by Turner to Bagby at multiple time intervals. 

There was a complicated series of delays in hearings and granted bails and Turner remained free for months while the decision regarding her extradition was still in process. Things got even more complicated when she announced not long after that she was pregnant with Bagby’s son, who was later named as Zachary Andrew Turner. 

In the course of the next two years, Turner’s extradition process dragged on, as Bagby’s parents; Kate and David Bagby, moved from California to Newfoundland to fight for the custody of Zachary. This took an even more terrible turn. 

Turner was put in jail, pending murder trial with no bail, while Zachary got to stay with Bagby’s parents. Turner then decided to write to justice Gale Welsh about the matter and Welsh decided to give her directions on how to appeal. After which, Welsh set Turner’s bail at $75 000 and Turner’s psychiatrist put up $65 000 of it. Welsh’s reasoning was that Turner’s crime was “Not directed at the public at large but was specific in nature”. Further, “there is no indication of a psychological disorder that would give concern about potential harm to the public generally”. She also cited the fundamental right to be presumed innocent. 

Turner got out on bail and reunited with Zachary. 

On August 18, 2003, Turner drove Zachary and herself to the town of Conception Bay South. It was believed that she fed Zachary up to 30 tablets of Ativan (an anti-anxiety medication prescribed to her by psychiatrist, John Doucet) by mixing it into his formula, and taking some of them herself. She then strapped Zachary onto her stomach with a sweater before leaping off the end of a pier into the Atlantic Ocean. Zachary died at 13 months old.

During the period of time where Zachary got to spend time with Bagby’s parents, family, and friends, Turner would get paranoid that they would tell Zachary things about her. She didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of Zachary being anywhere near the Bagbys and their friends and would often give phone calls to them to check on what they were doing with Zachary, and how he was with them. She even requested the Bagbys’ time with Zachary to be under supervision and that their time spent together went as short as an hour. Turner even got jealous that Zachary would pick Kate (Andrew’s mom) over her every time. It is believed that all these build-up of jealousy, anxiety, paranoia and fear whenever Zachary was with the Bagbys had been one of the reasons why she decided to take Zachary’s and her own life. 

Below is a video of the documentary of which this case is based on.

That’s the end of our case-study. Before we end with our conclusion, we would like to leave you with a question and 2 choices.

If you were Bagby’s parents and having already knew that Turner had killed you son and has your grandson in her custody, what would you do? 

Would you:

1. Kill her. Even if it meant your partner would have to bring Zachary up single-handedly and depart from the world before him as your partner would be getting on in his/her years.

2. Take Zachary with you abroad even if it means leaving behind your true identity, as well as your friends and family. This could be forever. 

That being said, feel free to comment and take a look at our conclusion!

Conclusion

[spanky606]

Regrann from @kishlb #iowa #desmonies #racialprofiling #desmoniesiowa #officerklyethies #montraylittle DES MOINES, Iowa -- #DesMoinesPolice still aren't commenting on a traffic stop by Officer Kyle Thies that Iowa CCI says is textbook racial profiling.  However the department is correcting the record on claims about Thies' #arrest statistics. According to Sgt. Paul Parizek, Officer Thies made 253 arrests in 2017.  127 of those arrestees were black, or 50%. #IowaCCI claimed on Wednesday that Thies made 282 arrests in 2017 and 100% of those were black. ,🙄🙄🙄🙄 A spreadsheet of arrests supplied by Iowa CCI showed numerous duplicate names for suspects facing multiple charges. On Wednesday Iowa CCI released multiple dashcam and body camera videos obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.  The videos show a traffic stop on July 13th made by Officer Thies and #OfficerNatalieHeinemann.  The video shows 23-year-old Montray Little being pulled over near #UnionPark.  Without being told why he was stopped, Little is accused of having drugs in the car and his passenger, 21-year-old #JaredClinton, is accused of carrying a weapon.  Little is handcuffed while the vehicle is searched.  No drugs or weapons are found and both men were allowed to leave the scene with no charges or citations.

[catrocketship]

Someone said I looked like an action figure today so, I'm doing ok

[wcuijobs]

ARDMS-RDCS or CCI-RVS Registered Cardiac Echo Sonographer ($5,000 SIGN-ON BONUS – 3 positions available) – Cedar Rapids, Iowa

https://ultrasoundjobs.ardms.org/jobs/14000419/cardiac-echo-sonographer

[clancarruthers]

ELAYNA R. CARUTHERS - CLAN CARRUTHERS CCIS

ELAYNA R. CARUTHERS – CLAN CARRUTHERS CCIS

ELAYNA R. CARUTHERS      Elayna Rue Caruthers of Granger passed away peacefully surrounded by her family Saturday, August 13, 2022, at the Kavanagh House Hospice. She was 53 years old. Elayna was born January 9, 1969 in Des Moines, the daughter of Larry and Janice (Bristle) Nelson. She grew up in Woodward, Iowa where she graduated from Woodward-Granger High School in 1987. Elayna went on to Iowa…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Court strikes down Iowa's unconstitutional ag-gag law

"Ag-gag" laws -- which ban the collection of evidence of wrongdoing on farms, from animal cruelty to food-safety violations -- are a sterling example of how monopolism perpetuates itself by taking over the political process.

As American agribusiness has grown ever-more concentrated -- while antitrust regulators looked the other way, embracing the Reagan-era doctrine of only punishing monopolies for raising prices and permitting every other kind of monopolistic abuse -- it has been able to collude, joining industry groups like ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which drafts industry-favoring "model legislation" and then lobbies state legislatures to adopt it.

ALEC's contribution to Big Ag is the nationwide epidemic of "ag-gag" laws, which felonize the collection and disclosure of true facts of intense public interest. Ag-gag laws are plainly unconstitutional, but that hasn't stopped state authorities from prosecuting and imprisoning animal rights activists and food safety whistleblowers.

Invalidating ag-gag laws is an expensive, state-by-state process, and activists and impact litigators have already overturned the laws of Wyoming, Utah and Idaho, and fifteen other states, and now they've just scored a victory in Iowa, after a victory in a lawsuit filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI), Bailing Out Benji, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and the Center for Food Safety struck down the state's 2012 law.

The court took notice of the legislative history of the ag-gag law, which was passed after evidence of extreme animal cruelty was published by activists.

Ag-gag laws remain on the books in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, and North Dakota, with challenges pending in Kansas and North Carolina.

I eat meat, and I go to real lengths to make sure that I'm buying from sustainable, free-range producers who treat their animals with respect and dignity. The idea that markets are best served if I'm not allowed to know when a producer fails to live up to those standards is absurd, and reveals late-stage capitalism's lip-service indifference to markets: markets exist to extract from consumers, not to discipline producers according to the desires and preferences of their customers. If customers don't like a producer's conduct, the remedy is to hide that conduct from the customer, tricking them into buying inferior products.

https://boingboing.net/2019/01/11/hawkeye-shutmouths.html

[artbeacondsm]

Week of 2/9

via thenewspeed: New 22x15” #graphite #drawing #pencil #worksonpaper #lines #pattern  #complications #winterdrawings

N E W

An exhibit of new drawings by Aaron Tinder has been on display in Simpson College's Farnham Galleries. Join the artist for a closing reception this evening, 5 PM. Event Info.

--

T H U R S D A Y :

5 PM - CLOSING Aaron Tinder Farnham Galleries

5 PM - Queer Fashion & Style: Stories from the Heartland Iowa State University

7 PM - Poet Greg Brownderville Reading Wesley House, Drake University

7 PM - DRINK & DRAW- Love Birds Capes Kafe

7 PM - The Film Lounge: Des Moines Watch Party The Fleur Cinema & Cafe

--

F R I D A Y :

5 PM - Immigration Art Action: Planning Meeting Iowa CCI Action Fund

A bill is moving through the House – SF 481 – that would force local police to act as ICE agents. Immigrant communities and allies have been organizing around this since its arrival last year. Now – we’re calling on activists within the art community to join our fight.

We want to bring organizing and art together. Organizers are pushing Democratic law makers to call for a public hearing on SF 481. This would give us the opportunity to create astonishing visuals that express the story of Iowa immigrants.

Join Iowa CCI Action Fund on Friday, February 9th for a planning meeting to discuss how the artists and the creative community can support the work of organizers in a meaningful way. 

--

S A T U R D A Y : 

8 PM - Galentine's Day Des Moines Social Club **tickets**

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O N G O I N G :

Support Art Beacon on Pateron for a dollar a month.

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O P P O R T U N I T I E S : ** new & last chance**

Call for Murals - Downtown Iowa City Apply Now

**Calls for Art: Dickinson Law: Iowa Artists on Display Deadline February 12**

THE PARTICIPATORY WALK: PERFORMANCE ART WORKSHOP WITH TODD SHALOM Register before February 19

PedalArt Show 2018: Call for Artists Deadline February 20

**CALL to Artists - City Sounds 2018 Deadline February 28**

**Call for Artists: Public Art at the Drake Community Library Deadline February 28**

Call to Artists - 2018 Ring Out for Art Sculpture Contest Jefferson Matters March 12th

Iowa Women's Art Exhibition Deadline April 1

GG’s Classified Updated weekly