Coralville Courier

No direct link between RFS and rising food prices: study | Des Moines Register Staff Blogs

CORALVILLE COURIER EDITOR'S NOTE: A study funded by the ethanol industry....... This defies common sense and the laws of supply and demand. We're tolerating the taking of food out of the food supply and turning it into fuel.   This so-called study is an insult and isn't worth the paper it's printed on.  Sheer spin.

A study funded by the ethanol industry found there is no direct link between the country’s renewable fuel policy and higher food prices.

The report, released by ABF Economics, said the country’s Renewable Fuel Standard — an 8-year-old law that requires refiners to produce alternative fuels to help reduce the country’s dependence on foreign energy – is only one factor behind the increase in corn prices. Commodity market speculation, expanding global demand for food and agricultural commodities are among the other contributing factors.

via blogs.desmoinesregister.com

Coralville leadership needs to publicly update the following projections

By Mike Thayer

I wrote the following back in April of 2012.  Moody's downgraded Coralville that month and they've downgraded Coralville yet again here in June of 2013.  That's not a good thing folks. 

Moody's has downgraded Coralville's rating because city leaders have forced residents into a boatload of debt.  Check out the following numbers for TIF debt and keep in mind that this does NOT include the debt piling up for the "Phase 1 Retail" project going on in the Iowa River Landing, i.e., the micro-brewery, the proposed city owned retail office space, etc. 

Fiscal Year	TIF Obligations	Estimated TIF Income	Annual TIF Surplus
2012	$16,178,871	$14,385,633	-$1,793,238
2013	$16,146,285	$15,648,825	-$497,460
2014	$16,125,650	$16,115,708	-$9,942
2015	$16,098,623	$16,134,038	$35,415
2016	$15,815,128	$16,152,917	$337,789
2017	$16,254,468	$16,172,362	-$82,106
2018	$17,086,480	$16,192,391	-$894,089
2019	$7,751,163	$5,763,967	-$1,987,196
2020	$7,490,905	$5,785,216	-$1,705,689
2021	$7,378,868	$5,807,102	-$1,571,766
2022	$7,392,763	$5,800,445	-$1,592,318
2023	$7,590,020	$5,823,664	-$1,766,356
2024	$7,161,938	$5,847,580	-$1,314,358
2025	$6,170,465	$5,872,213	-$298,252
2026	$6,155,190	$5,897,585	-$257,605
2027	$6,368,302	$5,593,427	-$774,875
2028	$5,749,655	$5,618,733	-$130,922
2029	$5,716,305	$5,646,548	-$69,757
2030	$8,591,474	$5,594,151	-$2,997,323

That's called deficit spending folks, a.k.a. check kiting, floating debt....  those are negative numbers in the 'surplus' column.  That's 17 out of 19 years in the RED.   The TIF spending is a taxpayer money pit!  It's not economic development any businessman would want to hang his hat on, but the city of Coralville is!  Kelly Hayworth and his rose colored glasses aren't to be trusted.  And it gets worse, the cumulative negative surplus continues through the year 2046 according to the projections obtained by the Coralville Courier. 

That was back in 2012 folks.  A LOT more city spending has taken place since then.....

Ask city leaders to update these numbers, you have a right to know, it's YOUR money being spent.

Coralville City Officials

Mayor Jim Fausett	jfausett@ci.coralville.ia.us
Council Member Jill Dodds	jdodds@ci.coralville.ia.us
Council Member Tom Gill	tgill@ci.coralville.ia.us
Council Member Mitch Gross	mgross@ci.coralville.ia.us
Council Member Bill Hoeft	bhoeft@ci.coralville.ia.us
Council Member Jim Lundell	jlundell@ci.coralville.ia.us

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Obama to return 5 percent of salary to Treasury - Yahoo! News

CORALVILLE COURIER EDITOR'S NOTE: Symbolism over substance.... This guy mocks reality and the media just eats his antics up as if it all has some basis in credibility.  Barack Obama isn't going to feel any pain from this, he still lives as if he's a King.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sharing a bit of budget pain, President Barack Obama will return 5 percent of his salary to the Treasury in a show of solidarity with federal workers smarting from government-wide spending cuts.

Obama's decision grew out of a desire to share in the sacrifice that government employees are making, a White House official said Wednesday.

via news.yahoo.com

Michele Bachmann's Presidential Campaign Investigated By Ethics Watchdog - Yahoo! News

CORALVILLE COURIER EDITOR'S NOTE: Check out the office doing this sham of an *investigation*....  It's NOT the FEC, the ONLY authority in such matters....  The questions are being asked by the Office of Congressional Ethics....  So the question becomes, why are THEY asking questions?  They're after Bachmann to tarnish, not because they really care about wrongdoing....  Why would they do that?  Well, it's either based in liberal Democrats having an agenda, or establishment Republicans having an agenda because Bachmann is a Tea Party person and that scares them....  This is to thwart a Tea Party supporter and Tea Party backed legislation, nothing more.  If Bachmann was guilty of campaign violations, affidavits would have been filed long ago and the FEC would already be well into an investigation. 

Federal investigators are probing allegations that Rep. Michele Bachmann, or members of her staff, inappropriately used money raised during her presidential campaign, her lawyer and former campaign staffers said today.

Bachmann has not been formally accused of any wrong doing, but staffers said they had been questioned by federal authorities. The investigators are working on behalf of the Office of Congressional Ethics.

via news.yahoo.com

Can computer geeks save the GOP? Meet the guys trying to give the party a digital edge | Power Players - Yahoo! News

CORALVILLE COURIER EDITOR'S NOTE: Another element trying to get ahead.... too bad their analysis is bogus. This wasn't about demographics, tech stuff, mechanics or how money was spent/not spent...... Romney lost because he failed to craft a strong enough message, period.

If only Mitt Romney had had a few thousand more Twitter followers and Facebook friends.

So say Bret Jacobson and Ian Spencer, millennial techies and co-founders of the conservative digital strategy group Red Edge. The high-tech entrepreneurs believe the failed GOP presidential nominee could have defeated President Obama simply with a better showing on social media.

via news.yahoo.com

White House warns Easter Egg Roll could be canceled – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

CORALVILLE COURIER EDITOR'S NOTE: The White House is playing games with the sequester and funding authorizations....   First the cancelation of White House tours and now this, it's shameless.   Will Barack Obama be going on another $1 million golf outing instead?  The egg roll is funded by the sale of eggs and donations by outside groups.

Washington (CNN) - Ticket holders for the upcoming White House Easter Egg Roll are being warned the annual event could be canceled if lawmakers can't agree on a measure funding the federal government.

As for now, the event will go on as planned – though warnings have gone out to members of Congress and ticketholders that a partial government shutdown would cause the egg roll to be scrapped.

via politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

Tying stories together,  the Coralville Courier is doing what the liberal media fails to do.....

RELATED STORY:  http://coralvillecourier.typepad.com/community/2013/03/iowa-students-make-it-to-white-house-gates-but-not-inside-yahoo-news.html

10 years later, many see Iraq War as costly mistake

CORALVILLE COURIER EDITOR'S NOTE: The following story was run by the Iowa City Depressed Citizen today, coupled with a 'local protest' piece written by Adam Sullivan. Neither piece cared to cover just how many prominent Democrats supported the war. Shoddy journalism.

Democrats tend to characterize the war as a misadventure from the start, instigated by Bush administration officials spoiling for a fight with Saddam and willing to use the flimsiest evidence to exploit the American public's anxiety about terrorism after al-Qaida's Sept. 11, 2001, strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

via www.usatoday.com

Tying stories together, it's what we do here at the Coralville Courier......

RELATED STORY:  http://coralvillecourier.typepad.com/community/2013/03/local-protests-fizzled-as-war-dragged-on-iowa-city-press-citizen-press-citizencom.html

RELATED STORY:  http://coralvillecourier.typepad.com/community/2013/03/morning-joe-revisits-dems-who-supported-iraq-war-before-they-were-against-it-by-andrew-johnson-the-corner-national-revi.html

Iowa's kids: In child care, struggles with cost and quality | The Des Moines Register

CORALVILLE COURIER EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a set-up piece, a propaganda piece for pushing government-run daycare centers with a designed segue tie-in to government-run preschool for a later date.  That's the Des Moines Register newspaper pushing an agenda, NOT news reporting.   Check out the emotional tugs in the article such as, In 2011, a single mother in Iowa with one infant, earning the state median income for single-mother families, spent an average of $8,859, or 38.8 percent of her income, on child care, a national child care study found.  We're supposed to feel sorry for the single mother, it's implied that government should take this chore over, that the single mother can't or shouldn't handle the burden, that her situation could never possibly improve, moreover, the so-called *study* goes unnamed....  That's rather interesting don't you think?  It's not sloppy reporting, the study goes unnamed for a reason.....  If it was legitimate, it would be referenced.   The Des Moines Register article isn't news reporting, it's propaganda.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA. — Lindsay Trumblee spent a month searching for child care she thought would keep her toddler daughter safe, happy and learning.

“I had checked out centers and just was really discouraged — there were too many kids. It was not organized,” said Trumblee, 24, who eventually found an in-home provider where Avri, now 3, has thrived.

via www.desmoinesregister.com

Janelle Rettig's unprofessional liberal bias on display, it's unbecoming of a Supervisor

By Mike Thayer

I thought Democrats were supposed to be tolerant, open-minded, embracing?  Janelle Rettig isn't.  If you don't share her point of view, she's completely unprofessional.  Rettig is an elected official, she SUPPOSEDLY represents the good people of Johnson County, an Ambassador of sorts if you will.....  And what does she do?  She manipulates and distorts what took place during her first meeting with Supervisor Elect John Etheredge.