“My roommates [at the Team USA tryouts] didn’t really know much about Iowa, so they were just asking a bunch of questions,” Christofferson said. “The topic came up about how I used to show pigs, so that took a while to explain to them.”
And how was it finally resolved?
“I had to demonstrate how I showed pigs,” Christofferson said.
That’s only part of the larger story about how she’s working both an internship and workouts this summer.
Andy Staples fawns over Nebraska’s move to the Big Ten:
If Nebraska and Oklahoma could somehow find a way to play an annual out-of-conference game, I’d bump this move to an A-plus. That was the best game in the Big 8 and pretty much the only thing anyone misses about Nebraska being in the Big 12. With the playoff coming, it might be worth it to both schools. Oklahoma has never been scared to play anyone. Neither has Nebraska. So let’s make it happen every year.
“The only thing anyone misses.” You know, aside from the five teams in four neighboring states, many with more than 90 games played against Nebraska, who may never get to face the Huskers again. But who cares if the teams partially responsible for making Nebraska what it is today never get another shot?
He also writes that loss of the Texas-A&M game is “a needless consequence” and could be played “if their leaders quit being babies about it.” Hogwash (actually, another, more serious word). Notably, he does not say the same thing about Missouri-Kansas.
June 12, 2006: Even if IA 192 got decommissioned, the route would still work as a Business Loop I-29. This is the north end’s direct merge into the interstate.
Council Bluffs is so desperate to get water and sewer work done on West Broadway (US 6) that it’s willing to take responsibility for IA 192 (16th Street) north of there, reports the Omaha World-Herald. The article notes cities are responsible for that even on state-maintained roads.
The article also says, “What’s more, the city will take over ownership of the South Expressway between I-80 and West Broadway as part of a railroad consolidation agreement for the Interstate reconstruction project.” I think that means the south segment including a viaduct will be turned over regardless of what happens with 16th Street. In that case, IA 192’s length would be cut in half, left only with the portion that used to be US 75 on 16th Street. Transfer of that would, of course, eliminate the highway altogether.
However, interstate reconstruction in that area is still years off. There’s a state website dedicated to the project, but it sorely needs to be updated since it still says “Construction on Segment 2 is expected to begin in 2011.”
In other news, the highway commission approved the five-year plan yesterday.
The Iowa Department of Education has online the two dozen or so appeals about school closings since 1977. That year, the Iowa Department of Public Instruction created the “Barker rules”. In response to a case regarding the Van Buren school district (PDF), recommendations but not a law were put out for how a school board should proceed in closing a building.*
The recommendations became “administrative rules” in 2003 — which is how things fell apart. It’s only fitting that a procedure that mostly affects rural areas got brought down by something happening in Des Moines.
As part of a comprehensive assessment of the Des Moines school district, the school board there after multiple reviews and meetings voted in July 2005 to close a handful of buildings. Some parents and others claimed the district had not followed the Barker rules. The district said it had, and the Board of Education sided with it. The parents/community members then went to court, which culminated in an Iowa Supreme Court ruling (PDF) on July 31, 2009.
Not only did the court uphold the building closures, it ruled that “legislative authorization for the ISBE’s adoption of rules prescribing the procedure school districts must follow in making school closing decisions is noticeably absent in the Code.” (Wallace v. Iowa State Board of Education, 07-0943, p.8) The board had made an “erroneous interpretation of the statues” and “[a]ccordingly, the rules are void.” (p.9)
Since then, the Department of Education still encourages districts to follow the Barker rules, but they are not required. Once a local school board has made its decision, there isn’t much recourse left.
*The Barker ruling is about the only time the state overruled the school district with actual consequences. The board said Sutherland was wrong in closing Calumet in 1984, but by the time that happened it was too late.
According to Pew Research Center, 56% of all American adults now have a smart phone and 67% are on Facebook.
Considering there are some people who fall in the latter category but not the former (and likely much more than vice versa), the percentage who have neither — and are under the age of 60 — may border on vanishingly small. However, I remain among them.
July 7, 2008: I-64 in Indiana, four miles from the Kentucky state line. In other news, this picture is nearly five years old.
(Sorry for the lack of stuff, been preoccupied.)
There’s the obvious one, an interchange at the present intersection, and the expensive one, an interchange between the intersections with a sort of frontage road on the east side.
I took advantage of one of the few days that didn’t have much rain in it to go to Davenport and see the exhibit “Marking Territory: Cartographic Treasures of the Mississippi River and the World Beyond.” It’s around for two more weeks.
I have to say it was a mixed bag at best. I loved seeing the old maps. However, this is an art exhibit, not a map or history exhibit. The maps aren’t in much of a chronological order and documentation was skimpy at best and included little that was Iowa-specific. The narrative that does exist clearly has an agenda/perspective, not unlike the American West and Regionalism galleries elsewhere in the museum. (The text at the links is the text at the entrance to each gallery.)
Elsewhere in the museum, the most interesting pieces may have been the “blueprints” for Wayne Manor and the “Brady Bunch” home” along with a map of Mayberry in the Pop Art exhibit. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s … this.
Not necessarily news, but interesting nonetheless. This selection from Gordon Gee’s comments come around the 11:38 mark, right after he says there’s no way the Big Ten would take Cincinnati or Pitt. (SI’s Andy Staples has excerpts right before and after. When you read this, Gee calls it Missou-ruh.)
“One of the problems we face is that Iowa has tremendous pressure about Iowa State. We’re not interested in Iowa State. We are interested in Missouri and Kansas eventually, I think. … I would see potentially Missouri and Kansas. By the way it goes without saying this all has to be speculation that remains right here.”
Mike Hlas has some more observations.
Iowa State didn’t need another reason to be disgusted with Ohio State, or the Big Ten in general, but there you go.
Over the last couple of years, Google Maps has steadily been encountering feature creep and some decreases in quality. Yesterday, things took another turn for the worse.
Look at the numeral “1”. It is a little taller, or starts a pixel higher, than the others. In addition, it’s not kerned correctly. These images key along to the next points:
I’ve searched for a general feedback page or e-mail address, but can’t seem to find one. (Ironic, yes?) The errors are too widespread and systematic to narrow it down to a specific location and say “Report problem here.” I don’t know what’s going on in the Googleplex, but perhaps the team needs a road geek or two.
