Arrested development

Three Waterloo Community Schools employees were arrested within 1-1/2 months. They included East High School coach and administrative assistant Ed Madlock, East coach Antonio Mays and West High School teacher Larry Twigg. Mays was also coordinator of the Iowa Jobs for America's Graduates at East, a position the school contracted with the organization to provide. Both coaches were arrested for marijuana possession. Twigg was charged for five counts of lascivious acts a minor, a 17-year-old male student. To learn more, click on the links below from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

http://www.wcfcourier.com/sports/high-school/east_high_trojans/article_cac6843e-ebf3-11de-84be-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_b034a044-fa24-11de-be07-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_cbc8a4b8-119e-11df-af71-001cc4c002e0.html

Hitler vs. Satan

The deadlock between cable provider Mediacom and Sinclair Broadcasting Group was looking pretty ugly. The fee Sinclair was demanding to allow Mediacom to carry its 22 TV stations across the U.S. was more than the cable company was willing to pay. Those stations include Cedar Rapids-based CBS affiliate KGAN and Fox affiliate KFXA plus Des Moines Fox affiliate KDSM. The disagreement festered and threatened to keep fans from seeing the Iowa Hawkeyes play in the Orange Bowl until the two sides reached a temporary agreement. Pile that on top of the less-than-positive feelings viewers have for these two companies and you come up with a Hitler vs. Satan situation. To read more, follow this link to the Cedar Rapids Gazette: http://gazetteonline.com/local-news/2009/12/31/former-fcc-commissioner-no-white-hats-in-mediacom-sinclair-dispute

Running in Terry's shadow

Ever since Terry Branstad mentioned the possibility of running for governor again, it seemed inevitable that he would get into the race and most of the other Republicans would subsequently drop out. Even in his exploratory phase, the focus seemed to be solely on Chet Culver, not his Republican competitors. After all, he was the only one with any experience as governor --- and has much more than Culver. News that he would consider running caused a lot of excitement and got more attention than any of the candidates who had already been campaigning for a while. To read more about the GOP field of candidates, follow this link to the Sioux City Journal: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/article_22e28b2c-cc6e-11de-86c5-001cc4c002e0.html