25
Nov
2003
• Iowa State Treasurer Michael L. Fitzgerald has announced that College Savings Iowa, the state's 529 plan, has reached $600 million in assets under management, an increase of nearly 30 percent from one year ago. Earlier this year, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and Money magazines named College Savings Iowa among the top 529 plans in the nation. The program lets anyone invest for college on behalf of a child. Investors do not need to be a state resident and the beneficiary can use his or her 529 savings to pay for qualified higher-education expenses, including tuition, books, supplies, and room and board at any college, university, community college, or accredited technical training school in the United States. Iowa residents can deduct up to $2,230 of contributions per account from their adjusted gross income for each child they are saving for. Withdrawals from the plan for qualified higher-education expenses are also free from federal and Iowa income taxes. For more information on College Savings Iowa, visit (http://www.collegesavingsiowa.com) or call (888)672-9116.
• Juveniles arrested but not convicted could have their DNA end up in the FBI's national DNA database. USA Today reports: "DNA profiles from hundreds of thousands of juvenile offenders and adults arrested but not convicted of crimes could be added to the FBI's national DNA crime-fighting program under a proposed law moving through Congress. The law, if enacted, would be the greatest single expansion of the federal government's power to collect and use DNA since the FBI's national database was created in 1992. The FBI says its national DNA database holds genetic profiles from about 1.4 million adults convicted of state and federal crimes." The House of Representatives has passed the bill, with the provision in a little-noticed section of a bill authorizing $755 million for DNA testing. The Senate will be looking at its version of the bill by early next year. You can see the whole article for yourself at (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-11-16-fbi-juvenile-dna_x.htm).
• Students from the Family Resources Whittenmeyer Learning Center have donated copies of their new book-review publication, entitled He Reads, to the Bettendorf Public Library and its patrons. He Reads is a review publication for young male readers, written and edited by students at the Whittenmeyer Learning Center. He Reads is published bi-monthly throughout the calendar year and is available at the Bettendorf Public Library.
• According to Data Advantage Corporation of Louisville, Kentucky, Genesis Medical Center's heart- catheterization lab is the 21st largest interventional heart program in the U.S. That's up two spots from the rating Genesis received in the previous year. Data Advantage selects 200 hospitals that have the highest volume in diseases and disorders of the circulatory system and have an open-heart program. The data is extracted from the bills submitted by hospitals for Medicare payment. Genesis performed 799 angioplasty procedures (or percutaneous coronary interventions) using stents on patients not having a heart attack last year.
• The Scott County Health Department is encouraging Scott County residents to be a part of a unique cancer study being conducted by the Marin County Cancer Project and the University of California, San Francisco. Scott County has been identified as a peer county to Marin County, California. In an effort to determine why Marin County continues to have significantly higher cancer rates than the national average, residents of 33 peer counties across the nation are being asked to complete an online survey. The survey takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete, is anonymous, and includes questions related to demographic, environmental, genetic, lifestyle, and migratory characteristics. Residents of Marin County are completing the same survey, and then the data will be analyzed to better understand factors that might explain the area's high cancer rates. Researchers will also provide county-specific information to the participating peer counties. To participate in the research, go to (http://www.surveyhost.com/searchforthecause).
• The Indiana Republican best known for authoring the Higher Education Act's anti-drug provision is about to introduce legislation that would jam federal prisons even more full of drug offenders. Representative Mark Souder will be introducing the so-called "Drug Sentencing Reform Act" within the next two weeks. Representative Souder's bill would: expand the purview of the Feeney Amendment, which restricts federal judges' ability to reduce sentences, to include drug offenses; mandate random drug testing for almost all federal parolees and probationers, not just drug offenders or people suspected of having substance- abuse problems; direct the U.S. Sentencing Commission to no longer allow lower sentences for nonviolent drug offenders who have certain mitigating circumstances (such as being addicted to drugs) or who lack previous criminal records; and add harsh new penalties for growing "high potency" marijuana.
• Another record was recently logged at the Quad City International Airport, with 36,012 passengers boarding planes in October. The former record was in the year 2000, with 33,714 boardings. This is the eighth record-breaking month this year, joining January, February, May, June, July, August, and September.
• For the 16th year in a row, Scott County has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States & Canada (GFOA). This year's award was for Scott County's Fiscal Year 2002 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment. Scott County is one of only five Iowa counties to hold the Certificate of Achievement, and only 42 of the 1,488 governmental units in the State of Iowa currently hold this honor. The GFOA is a not-for-profit professional association serving approximately 14,000 government finance professionals.
• Juveniles arrested but not convicted could have their DNA end up in the FBI's national DNA database. USA Today reports: "DNA profiles from hundreds of thousands of juvenile offenders and adults arrested but not convicted of crimes could be added to the FBI's national DNA crime-fighting program under a proposed law moving through Congress. The law, if enacted, would be the greatest single expansion of the federal government's power to collect and use DNA since the FBI's national database was created in 1992. The FBI says its national DNA database holds genetic profiles from about 1.4 million adults convicted of state and federal crimes." The House of Representatives has passed the bill, with the provision in a little-noticed section of a bill authorizing $755 million for DNA testing. The Senate will be looking at its version of the bill by early next year. You can see the whole article for yourself at (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-11-16-fbi-juvenile-dna_x.htm).
• Students from the Family Resources Whittenmeyer Learning Center have donated copies of their new book-review publication, entitled He Reads, to the Bettendorf Public Library and its patrons. He Reads is a review publication for young male readers, written and edited by students at the Whittenmeyer Learning Center. He Reads is published bi-monthly throughout the calendar year and is available at the Bettendorf Public Library.
• According to Data Advantage Corporation of Louisville, Kentucky, Genesis Medical Center's heart- catheterization lab is the 21st largest interventional heart program in the U.S. That's up two spots from the rating Genesis received in the previous year. Data Advantage selects 200 hospitals that have the highest volume in diseases and disorders of the circulatory system and have an open-heart program. The data is extracted from the bills submitted by hospitals for Medicare payment. Genesis performed 799 angioplasty procedures (or percutaneous coronary interventions) using stents on patients not having a heart attack last year.
• The Scott County Health Department is encouraging Scott County residents to be a part of a unique cancer study being conducted by the Marin County Cancer Project and the University of California, San Francisco. Scott County has been identified as a peer county to Marin County, California. In an effort to determine why Marin County continues to have significantly higher cancer rates than the national average, residents of 33 peer counties across the nation are being asked to complete an online survey. The survey takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete, is anonymous, and includes questions related to demographic, environmental, genetic, lifestyle, and migratory characteristics. Residents of Marin County are completing the same survey, and then the data will be analyzed to better understand factors that might explain the area's high cancer rates. Researchers will also provide county-specific information to the participating peer counties. To participate in the research, go to (http://www.surveyhost.com/searchforthecause).
• The Indiana Republican best known for authoring the Higher Education Act's anti-drug provision is about to introduce legislation that would jam federal prisons even more full of drug offenders. Representative Mark Souder will be introducing the so-called "Drug Sentencing Reform Act" within the next two weeks. Representative Souder's bill would: expand the purview of the Feeney Amendment, which restricts federal judges' ability to reduce sentences, to include drug offenses; mandate random drug testing for almost all federal parolees and probationers, not just drug offenders or people suspected of having substance- abuse problems; direct the U.S. Sentencing Commission to no longer allow lower sentences for nonviolent drug offenders who have certain mitigating circumstances (such as being addicted to drugs) or who lack previous criminal records; and add harsh new penalties for growing "high potency" marijuana.
• Another record was recently logged at the Quad City International Airport, with 36,012 passengers boarding planes in October. The former record was in the year 2000, with 33,714 boardings. This is the eighth record-breaking month this year, joining January, February, May, June, July, August, and September.
• For the 16th year in a row, Scott County has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States & Canada (GFOA). This year's award was for Scott County's Fiscal Year 2002 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment. Scott County is one of only five Iowa counties to hold the Certificate of Achievement, and only 42 of the 1,488 governmental units in the State of Iowa currently hold this honor. The GFOA is a not-for-profit professional association serving approximately 14,000 government finance professionals.
