A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Iowa PI News

A UNI worker repairing the dome roof slipped and fell onto a platform some unknown distance below. He was rescued by firefighters using a platform aerial ladder boom truck. The real question here is why the worker being more than 15 feet off the ground was not required to wear a safety harness as required by OSHA. Answer that and you've got the makings of a decent lawsuit and workers' compensation claim.  His employer was Schwickert Co. out of Mankato, Minnesota.

Clarke County Democrats are convening to select from their membership a candidate to fill the slot vacated by Ron Wheeler. It's reported Wheeler withdrew his name from consideration for the county attorney seat.  Read the Des Moines Register story to see why, I'm not touching this one with a ten-foot pole.

Iowa state government is reported to have paid $6.6 million, yes that's million, to settle claims for this and that.  Half of it was to settle a medical malpractice claim at the University of Iowa Hospitals.  Then there is the $450,000 paid to resolve two lawsuits over reversing course on Iowa Lottery's TouchPlay video enterprises.  Realistically for an enterprise the size of Iowa that's not all that bad.

A teacher at Belmont-Klemme High School was cleared of charges alleging she had sexual relations with an adult student. Yes you read that right; adults having sex is a felony in Iowa, when one is a student and the other a teacher. You have to wait till the summer vacation of their senior year before consummating the relationship.  So that's the good news, now the bad news. She's going to file multiple civil suits against her accusers.  All I can say is have at it. I hate this stupid law. And as for the title of the news story, Iowa teacher cleared of charges of sex with teen, you will remember that at nineteen you're still a teenager. I have to read this law because if at age 55 I reenroll in a GED class it may be a felony to have sexual relations with a 20-year-old GED teacher? Remember Barbara this is speaking only hypothetically.

Police in Ottumwa are investigating a series of car fires.  There were four car wires since this last weekend and the police chief doesn't believe they are connected.  Perhaps it was spontaneous combustion maybe?

Like the Pella Swimming Pool incident, the Lake Delhi Lake or Nine Mile Lake Dam lawsuit is going to come to a question of immunity. Questions are being raised about those three floodgates and the one that was broken. Trust me on this one; the issue is going to be about discretionary function versus proper maintenance. Those will be the fighting issues and sufficient insurance coverage will be a close third.  I'm picking the citizen residents surrounding the lake and those below to win this one.

And then there is the news that Lake Delhi residents will have to pay for removing debris from their yards. Let's see how much money did we send to New York for victims of 9/11 and to New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina, but the State of Iowa or their county officials won't even send a dump truck and workers to help haul away debris? Wow, that's tough love. This is what is wrong today with leadership. Where is the elected leadership assembling volunteers and supporting those volunteers to help Iowans with this Iowa problem? I'd help; just tell me where and when. I've got a truck, a trailer, a chain saw, sledge hammers and other tools that could be used to clean up debris. How about if the State of Iowa throws in some gas money? To read more go to Lake Delhi flood victims will have to pay for debris removal. 

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver called the cleanup effort "a partnership that will bring state, county and private resources to bear on the urgent need for debris cleanup and removal."

Once debris arrives at a temporary landfill on Highway 38 south of Delhi, the county or the state will pay to haul it to a landfill in Dubuque, Miller said. The government would be eligible for federal reimbursement for that work.

The City of Pella won its lawsuit against Central Electric, Co. But in this case, that win is going to prove to be very expensive. The Knoxville jury came back with an award of $788,000 for damages having to do with the breach of contract claim over the lights, wire and encasings.  So now the City of Pella has the dough to change burned out light bulbs in the pool? Right? Okay it's not very funny, but it is a good question. Now the fighting issue may become one of res judicata or offensive issue preclusion. This is going to be a legal can of worms after the death of those two Kansas City, Missouri boys. In the end the moral of this story may be when is winning really losing? Or how can we avoid accepting responsibility for those deaths without the next generation knowing what we are really doing?