Looking in at Iowa

Former Iowa Rep. Jim Nussle released this statement yesterday:

According to news reports today, House and Senate Democratic leaders are nearing agreement among themselves on a mammoth omnibus spending bill, two-and-a-half months after the end of the last fiscal year.

Although the Administration has not seen the legislation, according to press reports it would include 18 billion in additional domestic and emergency spending above the President’s budget. When added to emergency domestic spending Congress already included in the Defense Appropriations bill, this so-called compromise would result in more excess spending than even the Democrats’ original budget included.

This is not fiscally responsible. Our economic growth and job creation cannot be taken for granted, and Congress should not burden taxpayers with billions of dollars in additional wasteful spending.

Press reports also suggest that the Democrats in Congress believe this excessive spending is the price for providing a fraction of the funding requested for our troops in the field. Instead of trying to leverage troop-funding for more pork-barrel spending, Congress ought to pass responsible appropriations bills and the funding for the troops our commanders say they need to build on their battlefield successes.

If presented a bill like the one described in today’s press reports, the President would veto it. If Congress insists on sending the President a budget-busting bill they know he will veto and that will not become law, they should also pass a continuing resolution that keeps the government running and provides the troops in the field the funds they need without disrupting the operations of the Department of Defense and the lives of hundreds of thousands of its employees and men and women in uniform.

From today’s New York Times:

How to Solve a Subprime Mess? An Iowan Says, Let’s Caucus

A HALF-DOZEN years before subprime mortgages were on the national agenda, Tom Miller, the attorney general of Iowa, led teams of state officials from around the country in negotiating settlements totaling more than $800 million with two large home lenders that were accused of misleading and overcharging borrowers.

Now, as the mortgage boom of the last few years unravels, Mr. Miller is leading another multistate campaign to help consumers. This time, he is not threatening major litigation — at least not yet. Rather, he is trying to stem what most experts say will be a surge of foreclosures by cajoling and pressuring mortgage servicing companies to modify loans before borrowers fall too far behind.

“It’s not an obvious law-enforcement attitude,” Mr. Miller, 63, said in early November in his office in Des Moines. “But we view ourselves as consumer protectors and we see an avalanche of foreclosures sitting out there and you have to learn from experience.” …

From Indianapolis Star today:

Jamaal Tinsley of the Pacers and several companions were shot at by someone armed with an assault rifle outside the Conrad Hotel in Downtown Indianapolis early today, wounding a person who was with the athlete.

Police said Pacers equipment manager Joey Qatato, 48, was struck in both elbows as he sat with Tinsley in the player’s Rolls Royce. An official at Methodist Hospital early this afternoon said Qatato had been discharged.

Pacers coach Jim O’Brien said Tinsley was excused from practice today “because he went through a traumatic experience last night and we wanted him to get away from basketball for the day.” …

From the Washington Post yesterday:

… Already she has stopped running the practices and pacing the sidelines during games and screaming at the top of her lungs for defensive players to get back in position. Looking calmer than most any other coach you’ve ever seen, she sits through games in a black leather office chair. There’s a pillow at her back to cushion a bulging disk. Standing rarely, clapping occasionally, she disseminates her court wisdom through assistants. During timeouts, her chair is rolled to the front of the bench so she can sit while instructing the team.

Of course many women must learn to juggle childbirth and workplace, but coaching high-level college basketball — an increasingly competitive, high-profile, lucrative sport — is unusually demanding, physically and psychologically. And the coaches interviewed for this story agree that someone who does it successfully is a rare bird. …

For Frese, her job is a dream come true. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she played at the University of Arizona, where she graduated in 1993, then was an assistant at Kent State and Iowa State. …