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08/05/2009
IOWA NEWS
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Iowa Department of Public Health will get $3.4 million in federal money to prepare for an expected resurgence of H1N1 flu this fall. .
Governor Chet Culver announced the funding on Tuesday, saying his office and state health officials are developing a strategy to deal with the virus, also known as H1N1.
The announcement comes a day after the state reported its first death from the flu, which first surfaced in Iowa last spring.
Culver says it's impossible to predict the severity of any future outbreak but that the state is preparing for whatever direction the virus takes.
The money will support vaccination programs, public information campaigns and help pay for local health programs.
RALSTON, Iowa (AP) One person is dead after a car and train collided near Ralston in western Iowa.
The Iowa State Patrol says the driver of the car failed to stop for an eastbound Union Pacific train just before 8 a.m. Tuesday. The train hit the car on the driver's side, causing the car to go into the ditch and burst into flames.
The name of the victim hasn't been released.
INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) Officials say no one was hurt when a hot air balloon participating in the National Balloon Classic hit some power lines in central Iowa.
The Warren County sheriff's office says the balloon struck the power lines around 9 a.m. Tuesday near the balloon field east of Indianola.
The sheriff's office says the basket landed on the ground and everybody got out safely.
Authorities didn't immediately know how many people were in the gondola or their hometowns.
No other details were immediately available.
The week-long classic, now its 40th year, attracts about 100 hot air balloons. It runs through Aug. 8.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) American officials say that the remains of a U.S. airman from Iowa killed in Hungary near the end of World War II are on their way back to the United States.
The U.S. Embassy in Budapest says the remains of Sgt. 1st Class Marvin Steinford were found five years ago in a grave in the town on Zirc in western Hungary, where he had been buried with 26 Soviet soldiers.
The Iowa native was part of a 10-man crew of a B-17 bomber which was hit on March 14, 1945, while returning to its base in Italy from a mission over Hungary.
Steinford's remains were handed over Tuesday by the Hungarian defense ministry to the U.S. military, which will take them to Hawaii for final positive identification.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Delta Airlines has announced it will discontinue daily service from Des Moines to Salt Lake City at the end of August.
Officials at the Des Moines International Airport announced the decision in a news release on Tuesday.
The service had restarted in May, but Delta officials say economic and industry conditions prevent the route from being profitable.
Delta officials say the route may be reinstated if the economy and commercial air industry rebound.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) A Postville man has pleaded guilty to making false statements to a bank as part of a request for advances on a loan.
Fifty-six-year-old Yomtov Bensasson entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday. He remains free on bond until he is sentenced.
A date for sentencing hasn't been scheduled.
The U.S. attorney's office says Bensasson admitted that he conspired with others between September 2007 and October 2008 to make false statements to a bank, including signing a Collateral Certificate that overstated the value of collateral as part of his employer's request for an advance on a revolving loan.
He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
DRAKESVILLE, Iowa (AP) Officials say there's a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of whoever reintroduced a troublesome fish species to a southern Iowa lake.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources on Tuesday said investigators had ruled out all natural ways that the gizzard shad fish could've infiltrated Lake Wapello near Drakesville. That means someone broke the law by intentionally stocking the lake.
Officials in April completed a $400,000 renovation, dam repair and watershed improvement project at Lake Wapello. Biologist Mark Flammang says the premature reintroduction of the shad means some of that work will have to be undone.
The natural resources department says fishing at Lake Wapello contributes $700,000 per year to the local economy.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) Police and animal control officials say they've been unable to capture an elusive lamb that's been loose and on the move for more than two weeks.
Police say people began reporting sightings of the sheep in Waterloo about two weeks ago. Over the next few days, people called to say they saw the lamb in Cedar Falls.
Cedar Bend Humane Society co-director Kristy Gardner says the sheep escaped from a home in rural Cedar Falls. It's been seen in open areas, but the lamb quickly retreats to cornfields.
Officials say they've been getting two calls a day about the sheep. An animal control officer shot the animal with a tranquilizer pellet, but it didn't penetrate the lamb's skin.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) Del Laverdure, chief legal counsel for the executive branch of the Crow Tribe, has been named the post of deputy assistant secretary with the Department of Indian Affairs.
Laverdure was appointed July 29 by Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk.
Echo Hawk says Laverdure shares his vision for improving tribal communities and supporting tribal sovereignty.
Laverdure held judgeships with the Crow and other tribes. He was an assistant professor of law at the Michigan State College of Law from 2003-2006 and was founder of its Indigenous Law Program. He has also worked in private practice.
© 2002 Associated Press.
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