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The Associated Press Bureau e-mail: apdesmoines@ap.org (click on the link above to view video) Chief of Bureau: Carol Riha
News Editor:
Scott
McFetridge Reporter: Michael J. Crumb Iowa City: Nigel Duara Political Writer: Mike Glover Sports Writer: Luke Meredith Photographer: Charlie Neibergall
Upcoming Events: Nov. 14: Iowa State-Colorado FBC Nov. 21: Iowa-Minnesota FBC; Vice President Joe Biden headlines the Iowa Democratic Party's 2009 Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines. Nov. 22: Mississippi Valley St-Iowa St FBC. If you know of additional upcoming events that you think should be listed here, please contact the AP bureau in Des Moines. |
Kenny Spetman hauls grain trailers of soybeans before unloading at the Heartland Co-op on Nov. 4 in Booneville. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
November 2009
Highlights from the state report DES MOINES _ The world can make huge strides in reducing hunger and poverty by helping the world's poorest farmers become more productive, Microsoft Inc. co-founder Bill Gates said Thursday. Gates, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, spoke at the World Food Prize symposium, where he said more needs to be done to help small-holder farmers in Africa increase production and get their crops to market. "If we can make small-holder farming more productive and more profitable, we can have a massive impact on hunger and nutrition and poverty," Gates said. The World Food Prize and the annual conference where it is awarded was founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, a crop scientist known as the father of the green revolution ... Earlier Thursday, the Gates Foundation announced nearly $120 million in grants to help bring a green revolution to sub-Saharan Africa. BC-US--Gates Foundation-Agriculture. Moved Oct. 15. By Michael J. Crumb. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. _ Prosecutors portrayed a former kosher slaughterhouse manager as a schemer who funneled money through a school and grocery to avoid loan payments, while a defense attorney said he was simply involved with financial transactions he didn't understand. The conflicting portraits emerged Wednesday during opening statements in the man's federal trial on financial fraud charges. Sholom Rubashkin, the former manager at an Agriprocessors, Inc., plant in northeast Iowa, faces 91 financial charges, including bank fraud, mail and wire fraud and money laundering. He was arrested months after federal agents raided the plant in May 2008, arresting 389 illegal immigrants. BC-US--Kosher Slaughterhouse-Trial. Moved Oct. 14. By Nigel Duara. DES MOINES _ The nation's two biggest lottery games are talking about cross-selling tickets in U.S. lottery jurisdictions with the potential for a national lottery, the head of a lottery association said Tuesday. Powerball is played in 31 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Mega Millions is played in 12 states. The consortium behind Mega Millions and the Urbandale, Iowa-based Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs Powerball, have agreed in principle to cross-sell tickets for both games beginning next year, officials said. "It's a way to increase sales and reach out to more players," said Tom Shaheen, the president of the lottery association's board of directors and executive director of the North Carolina Education Lottery. BC-US--National Lottery. Moved Oct. 13. By Melanie S. Welte. DES MOINES _ Little more than a year before the general election, Iowa's top two races are effectively frozen _ one by a potential candidate who hasn't decided whether to run, the other by a promised candidate who hasn't decided whether to be named. Republicans are waiting to see if former four-term Gov. Terry Branstad will seek the office again after a 12-year absence. And Democrats wonder who the mystery candidate is that party leaders assure them will give GOP Sen. Charles Grassley "the race of his life" as he seeks a sixth term. "Both sides are doing the same thing," said former Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Stewart Iverson. ... "There are some Iowans who are going to wait to see what happens before they engage in the governor's race on the Republican side, or in the Senate race on the Democratic side," said Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, a Democrat from Council Bluffs. BC-US--Iowa-Mystery Candidates. Moved Oct. 6. By Mike Glover. IOWA CITY _ A judge ruled Monday that the man accused of gunning down a longtime Iowa high school football coach is mentally competent to stand trial. Mark D. Becker, 24, can appreciate the first-degree murder charges against him, understand the proceedings and assist with his defense, according to an order filed by Butler County District Judge Stephen Carroll. Becker had been scheduled to stand trial last month in the June shooting death of Aplington-Parkersburg High coach Ed Thomas, who led the northeast Iowa team for 34 seasons and was named the NFL's High School Coach of the Year in 2005. ... The judge said Becker's paranoid schizophrenia is "undisputed" but that an increased dosage of an anti-psychotic medication, along with findings of the prosecution's psychiatrist, lead him to believe Becker can understand the trial proceedings. BC-US--Football Coach Shot-Trial. Moved Oct. 5. By Nigel Duara. DES MOINES _ After burning through $1 million in savings and seeing no end to their losses, dairy farmers Jake and Lori Slegers figured they didn't have much choice _ they had to kill the cows. So one day last summer their sons tagged all 1,571 cows, loaded them onto trailers at their farm south of Fresno, Calif., and watched them rumble away to a slaughterhouse. Lori Slegers said her husband came into the house and broke down. "He said it was the hardest thing he ever had to do," she said. ... Growing demand in developing nations drove up milk prices when times were good, and dairy farmers expanded their herds. But the global recession hurt exports and left farmers with too much milk on their hands. Milk processors cut the price they were willing to pay farmers, in many cases below what it cost to produce milk. BC-US--Farm Scene-Killing Cows. Moved Oct. 27. By Michael J. Crumb. ____ Photos of the Month
A farmer combines a path into a soybean field near Clear Lake on Oct. 19. Record harvests were forecast for corn and soybeans despite earlier concerns over a cool growing season. (AP Photo/The Globe Gazette, Bryon Houlgrave)
Iowa National Guard members attend an Oct. 20 briefing at Camp Dodge. Brig. Gen. Tim Orr announced that 3,500 Guard members were alerted for possible duty in Afghanistan next year. (AP Photo/The Des Moines Register, Rodney White) ___ Member News
The 2009 Midwest Newspaper Summit was just the first part in the discussions to determine new business models and revenue streams for the news industry. The Midwest Newspaper Summit 2 will be hosted in collaboration with the Iowa Newspaper Association Annual Convention and Trade Show, Feb. 4-5 in Des Moines. Speakers confirmed to date include: ___ AP News AP Winter Games Network offers top coverage Last summer, 4.7 billion viewers tuned in to the Summer Olympics in Beijing – making it the most watched global event ever. As the weather turns cooler, attention now turns to the Winter Olympics taking place Feb. 12-28 in Vancouver.
Participation in the Winter Games Network is free and you have two options for participating:
AP also offers premium Olympics services at a reasonable cost for members who want to sell their own ads and retain all of the revenue. For more information, please contact Iowa COB Carol Riha. ___ Meet Starr Talley
Starr Talley is the AP Radio
Division II Regional Sales Executive. She manages Feel free to contact Starr about any radio issues in the state. Her e-mail is stalley@ap.org. She's reachable by phone at (202) 641-9057. Check out AP Radio services online at www.apbroadcast.com. ___ Money & Markets gears up for its annual year-end publication
The Associated Press' financial data product, Money
& Markets, is gearing Money & Markets’ year-end review offers a comprehensive look back at the significant financial events of 2009 paired with charts, graphs and commentary for both stocks and mutual funds. Money & Markets subscribers who want to participate can elect to receive year-end or quarter-end financial pages or tables. For additional information, please contact the Money & Markets team at market stocks@ap.org or your Iowa COB Carol Riha. .___ AP releases new, improved version of AP WebFeeds Manager A new version of AP’s WebFeeds Manager software is now live and in production. Newspapers use this free software to retrieve content from saved searches in AP Exchange and move it to the production system. The new WebFeeds manager offers a number of enhancements that make it easier for members to set up AP WebFeeds quickly. The major change is that clients now configure their WebFeeds Manager feeds via a new Web site, http://wfm.ap.org. This site improves the user interface and offers greater flexibility in terms of choices for pulling content and ease of access. In addition to logging into the WFM site, clients are still required to download a Java application (called the AP WebFeeds Agent) that does the heavy lifting in terms of content being requested and delivered. The http://wfm.ap.org Web site is used to configure the Agent. Over the past several months, users have shared feedback and suggestions on WebFeeds Manager, and many of those ideas have been built into the new version. Other enhancements include:
Please note that all versions of WebFeeds Manager prior to WFM 2.0 will no longer be supported after Jan. 31. Member IT departments already using WebFeeds Manager are being contacted directly by AP about upgrading. If you aren’t using WebFeeds Manager and would like to order it, contact Dorothy Abernathy at dabernathy@ap.org. ___ Beats of the Week Baghdad bombings
After the first blast, Sami sent Fahmi to the scene on a motorcycle, and the second bomb went off at the Justice Ministry while he was en route. When authorities closed bridges to the explosion site, Sami asked Fahmi to cross on foot and told him to ask people fleeing if they had video on their mobile phone. One man did. It was the very moment of the explosion - you could hear its power - and Fahmi secured it. The exclusive video could be seen throughout the day on CNN and the BBC, among others.
Beat reporting
Baker has been on top of
the story since the start, and when news came that the state was going
to release prisoners, he used his sources to put AP some 90 minutes
ahead of the state's press release. The next day, he took a close look
at the records of prisoners who were going to be released and found
that many of them have been cited repeatedly for violence behind bars.
Baker's close-to-the-news enterprise dominated state Web sites.
Apuzzo and Wagner pored over seven months of appointment books for Geithner, his deputies and other key administration officials to report exclusively that the treasury secretary maintains regular contacts with a very small cadre of Wall Street executives.
Working for months with AP assistant general
counsel Karen Kaiser, Apuzzo and Wagner obtained the calendars under
the FOIA only after Kaiser threatened to sue the Treasury Department.
The story garnered sensational play on Yahoo, MSNBC and Huffington
Post Web sites. Bill Moyers led his PBS broadcast with the story, and
The New York Times and National Public Radio blogged about it. Tsunami coverage
Fili Sagapolutele, the AP stringer in American
Samoa, provided exclusive ___ Lifestyles
We'll have 12 days of cookies for a package moving Nov. 20, kicking off our holiday coverage. If you would like to receive the weekly Lifestyles digest, e-mail Lifestyles Editor Lisa Tolin, ltolin@ap.org. ____ Special Editions
The ''Holidays'' Special Edition moved
Tuesday, Nov. 3. Stories include a Special Editions is included in AP Complete, which all newspapers members receive this year. It will be part of full AP Complete in 2010 and can be added to the AP Limited Wire next year as part of the premium Lifestyles service. Contact your bureau chief if you would like to learn more about rates or receive additional information. Special Editions move on the first or second Tuesday of each month. Here's the calendar for upcoming Special Editions: · Dec. 1 - Weddings · Jan.26 - Taxes · Feb. 2 – Pets · March 2 - Homes- Spring Cleaning · April 13 – Outdoors · May 4 – Careers · June 1 – Weddings · July 13 - Back to School · Aug. 3 - Fall Homes · Sept. 14 – Cars · Oct. 5 - Green Living · Nov. 9 – Holidays · Dec. 7 - Weddings |
AP links:
Iowa: http://www.ifoic.org
Journalism: Iowa AP:
Online Training: AP offers weekly online training sessions for several of its services, including: AP Exchange: Join a School of Search training session and learn how to become a search expert and find relevant news quickly in AP Exchange. Thirty-minute training sessions are held Thursdays at 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. CT. AP Member Marketplace: Learn how to share your news with other papers in your state, your group or around the country. Thirty-minute training sessions are held every Tuesday at 1 p.m. CT. AP WebFeeds and WebFeeds Manager: Learn how to work with AP’s new online distribution platform, a fast, convenient way to get the AP content you want most into your production system or onto your Web site. Sixty-minute sessions are held Wednesdays at noon Central Time. All sessions are held using Web Dialogs, allowing participants to join in both online and by telephone. To join any of these training sessions, go to www.webdialogs.com/join with conference ID 95552 and dial (866) 206-0240 with conference ID 965 385#.
Technical problems? Call AP Customer Support at 1-877-836-9477 |
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©2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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AP
is helping newspaper Web sites become a destination for Olympics
coverage by offering AP's Winter Games Network, a free
service that will carry the reporting of AP’s team of journalists
across all media types. The service also will include updated
statistics from our partner, STATS LLC. 
AP contact with both commercial and non-commercial radio stations,
including those at colleges at universities, in Iowa, Kansas,
Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota. She also is pursuing a degree in
management studies at the University of Maryland.
up for its annual year-end publication. The economy and rebounding
stock markets continue to make headlines generating interest in
financial stories, data and analysis. 
attack in Iraq this year, APTN senior producer Ahmed Sami wasn't
satisfied with graphic staff video of the immediate aftermath, even
though it was far ahead of all competition. Sami and cameraman Wameed
Fahmi searched for more and found it - stunning cell phone footage of
the second explosion as it happened. 
Chasing
down a story in Washington can entail using Freedom of Information
laws to obtain documents - and getting a little help from an AP
lawyer. Matt Apuzzo, of the Washington enterprise team, and Business
Writer Dan Wagner used that strategy to pierce the secrecy of Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner's inner circle. 
coverage of the tsunami that devastated the U.S. territory. She cast
aside any personal worries, the possibility of aftershocks and
tempting freelance offers from other news organizations to put the AP
hours ahead on coverage of the disaster. Sagapolutele called the AP
right after the underwater earthquake hit and provided powerful
dispatches from the tsunami zone.
Thanksgiving
coverage began Friday, Nov. 6 with the lowdown on turkey rubs and
brines and tips on how to keep the holiday healthy. But save some room
for holiday cookies. 
look at the popular sing-along performances of Handel's ''Messiah''
and why they have become a December tradition; office-party plans in a
down economy; and a trio of stories about holiday gift giving: a guide
to great gifts under $25, why some people spread holiday shopping
across the whole year, and what it's like when families decide not to
exchange presents for Christmas. The stories are accompanied by
photos.