CEDAR FALLS - Water levels in Cedar Falls are leading to some road closures, but people there, including the mayor, say the flooding could be much more severe.

The Cedar River stretches through Cedar Falls and pushes close to the Hibbs Bridge on Main Street.

With projections for the Cedar to crest Monday, that only creates more curiosity.

If you drive down West 1st Street into Cedar Falls, you can see the water everywhere. Mark Harrington was flooded out in 2008 and still has this trailer on his property.

Harrington rebuilt his living space nine feet higher than two years ago.

“I have the second floor of my old house built inside the new house,” said Mark Harrington.

North of downtown, Barb Simons is used to high water from the Cedar River.
She says she isn’t worried because she runs a boat propeller shop.

“We aren’t concerned at all about this year. We can always just grab a canoe,” said Bard Simons at the Prop Shop.

Mayor Jon Crews said the water is visible but expected to top out at 9 feet lower than the 2008 peak.

“We are keeping a high level of alert because of predictions of high water tables and if you had heavy rains like we did two years ago,” said Jon Crews, Cedar Falls Mayor.

Crews said only a few roads are blocked and so far, no calls for evacuations.

Nuisance may be the proper word for this run of high water.

“Right now it doesn’t look that bad. Everyone has built their house up. They’re all ready for it,” said Mike Buckendahl of Evensdale.

CEDAR RAPIDS – Amid the tense words fired off daily over health care reform, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says the push to improve public education should not become as tense.

“I have put together a team of Republicans and Democrats to work on this,” said Harkin on Sunday afternoon, just minutes after he led a discussion on the updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) at Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School.

A crowd of about 200 people, including educators and school administrators from many districts, took an hour out of their Sunday afternoon to listen to the Obama Administration’s push to move from the No Child Left Behind Act to a revised ESEA.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan described the problems with No Child Left Behind, which both the Senate and House overwhelmingly voted into place in 2002.

“Too punitive. Too prescriptive,” said Duncan. “We want to have a high bar and reward success.”

Over the weekend, the Department of Education’s Web site released a 41-page “blueprint” for the new ESEA. The document does not go deep into specifics, such as differences that would be implemented by the administration. However, Harkin indicated education reform would be in place by the end of the year.

Duncan described early childhood education as “hugely important” along with K-12 reform. He reiterated President Obama’s call on Saturday for public education that ensures more high school graduates are ready for careers once their public education is complete.

In the President’s Saturday radio address, he stressed less of a focus on standardized tests and more on an individual student’s total record. “Our view is that it has to be more rounded that just one test at one time,” said Harkin on Sunday.

Questions from the audience at Jefferson ranged from funding special education programs, gifted courses, emphasizing physical education and arts classes again and trying to keep the most talented teachers from leaving the profession.

Harkin said, from a national standpoint, this is needed as he pointed to “1.2 million students” who drop out of school each year.

As many Iowa school districts face budget shortfalls and look at cutting courses, staff or even buildings, Duncan’s proposal calls for at least a $3 billion increase for educational programs.

Harkin admitted achieving this would require more money to execute.

“All levels of government have to step up to the plate on this one,” said Harkin. “We are not going to have a strong economic recovery in this country unless we focus on education.”

Dr. Dave Benson, superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District, said the Department of Education’s plan would allow the district to compete for federal grants for various programs. Yet he also admitted that would come with a cost, even as his school district is also trying to balance its budget.

“We need to find a way to fund our priorities,” said Benson after Sunday’s forum. “Our priorities have to be what works and what enhances education for kids.”

CEDAR RAPIDS - The second you walk into Lefty’s Cedar River Tattoo Expo at the Clarion Hotel and Convention Center in southwest Cedar Rapids, you can see the work that has been done.

But it’s the sound that says you’ve entered the inner chamber.

“It’s a comforting environment. I love tattoo shows,” said Troy “Lefty” McDaniel about the constant and unending hum of the tools applying the ink.

McDaniel owns Lefty’s Tattoo and Piercing and he said he wanted to bring one of these expos to his comforting environment of Cedar Rapids.

Saturday was Day Two of this first-time event — a three-day convention for people to look at art that has already been applied — as well as what the mind can pull up.

Yet for Shantelle Deeds of Hiawatha, it’s not the mind but the heart.

“I’m getting a lilly on the foot,” said Deeds, 20, pointing to her foot. “It says ‘grandma’ and it is in honor of my grandma.” She said this would be her sixth tattoo and admitted her first one came “a week after” she turned 18.

That’s the main aspect behind each piece of art — or tattoo. Each one comes with a story.

Yet from the business side, there is also a story here. Tattoos artists and owners of tattoo shops across the Midwest, from Sioux City, Omaha and Chicago, made Cedar Rapids their destination for the weekend.

“You say it’s unusual but a lot of people don’t realize it’s a major form of art,” said Jason Evans of Neon Dragon Tattoo in Hiawatha. “It’s very important to a lot of people.”

And to keep these artists, and hundreds of paying customers, coming back, providing a welcoming environment plus plenty of competition between the top artists could make for a top draw.

“Some aren’t even here to get a tattoo,” said organizer Jeremiah Klein. “It’s just to show people how good they are.”

With so much talk of flood recovery, McDaniel has also experienced this with the flood. He said, four years ago, he and his wife took $1,500 to start the business. Now, even after having lost one shop in the Flood of 2008, McDaniel said the plans are in place for another expo next year but it does take plenty of planning. For this first time out, he said about 30 artists and shops came to town.

CEDAR FALLS - Claude Brown is in his element, standing in front of a projection screen in a dark room talking CPR and, more importantly, teaching CPR.

“If you’re prepared, you can do it! Don’t be afraid to do it!”

The energy in Brown’s voice comes through, even after teaching CPR for what he calls “the last 50 years.” Brown said he is an instructor to the instructors, having taught about 4,000 of them.

“If a child is choking and you don’t know CPR, you’re going to watch him die,” Brown said slowly, stretching out the syllables to underscore the importance.

Brown didn’t impart his training of CPR to thousands on Sunday at the UNI Wellness & Recreation Center but he did reach hundreds who came through the doors. The Hawkeye Chapter of the American Red Cross put on its 19th annual CPR training.

With the emphasis on adult, infant and child CPR and AED (Automated External Defibrillation), the students who came for certification had the same end goals even if they planned to apply them differently.

“Practice makes perfect and with a couple of rounds here we feel very confident,” said Jeff Klein of Cedar Falls after he worked on an AED simulator with a non-human victim in need of CPR. Klein said he is looking to enhance his skills as a mountain bike patrol out on local trails and CPR certification is a requirement.

As for whether he would be ready in case he had to save someone?

“Absolutely, I understand there will be vomit and blood but what I’ve learned in class would be useful,” Klein said.

Michelle Thompson of Cedar Falls is hoping to be ready in case younger people need immediate assistance. “I work with preschoolers and I have a three-year-old at home,” Thompson said. “My husband should learn it, too.”

The Hawkeye Chapter offered eight different classes throughout the day at UNI, including one class that just provided the basics. CPR Made Simple is a “short course” designed for people who want to learn the skills but are not seeking certification.

After thanking another group of students in the classroom and sending them for practice, Brown noted that CPR procedures are constantly being reevaluated for optimum effectiveness.

“In a two or three-hour period, I could teach you everything you need to know,” Brown said before adding a touch of humor. “If you don’t know it and your wife does, I’d say ‘dump him and get someone who can save your life and the life of your kid!”

PARKERSBURG — With the Mark Becker murder trial coming to an end, the hope in Parkersburg is that Monday’s verdict will help the town return to normal. From the deadly 2008 tornado to the Thomas murder last June, Parkersburg has had plenty of attention.

As with so many small towns, Parkersburg is full of friendly people. Yet, with Monday’s verdict, the sense of trying to move past this tragedy was all over the community

With two families — the Thomas family and the Becker family such a part of Parkersburg, finding people to speak publicly about Mark Becker’s murder conviction was difficult. “I think everybody just wants to be left alone. The tornado and this happening everybody is just getting a little worn out,” Parkersburg resident William Hammar told TV9,

Between rebuilding after the deadly tornado in 2008 and Thomas’ murder in the school’s temporary weight room in June of 2009, Father Dennis Quint of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church says all of the attention can wear on people — even after the outreach from the outside during the times of trial, “It has become a bit tiring at times in the spotlight.”

Through the trial, Aplington-Parkersburg High School administrators asked to be away from the attention. Principal Dave Meyer says, “The agony of watching those kids go through the trial process and struggling as they relieved those situations. Now it is relief that it is over.” That was been the theme for the past 18 months, coming back through adversity. Meyer also praised his students for how they have handled all of this unexpected attention.

IOWA CITY - Diana Baculis plans to get rid of an old washer in the basement. Picking up a $200 rebate from the state would only help that process.

“I kept clicking on and it said the link was broken,” said Baculis, from the kitchen of her Iowa City home. “The state of Iowa should have been ready for hundreds of calls and they weren’t.”

All throughout Monday, people in Eastern Iowa spent hours dialing a phone number or hitting a refresh button on a web browser. Over and over. By 4 P.M., the state reported, on a website, that all of the rebate money - about $2.7 million dollars - had been “exhausted” on all qualifying appliances.

“Dialing, redialing, redialing,” said Jo Ann McNiel of Cedar Rapids about her morning. She pointed to her Amana Master Clean 5000 dishwasher, which she speculated may have even been in place in 1976, the year her home was built. “While it’s okay and not one of the major problems of the world, we decided it was a good time to replace it.” McNiel also wondered about people who may have taken off work or were really counting on the rebate money.

The state activated the Energy Efficiency Appliance Rebate Program for 8 A.M. on Monday morning. The Iowa Office of Energy Independence website states Iowa’s allocation of $2,775,150 for rebates on refrigerators, clothes washers and dishwashers would lead to about 9,000 people securing the rebates, ranging from $100 to $500 per appliance.

Dave and Amber Marty of Solon also needed a new dishwasher. After trying to log on “with no luck”, they drove to the Sears at Coral Ridge Mall with no rebate documentation. The Martys picked out a dishwasher and were surprised to find out they qualified for a $200 rebate as the customer service clerk was able to get through the system.

“We’ll have to go back in and see if there’s any other appliances we need,” Dave Marty joked in the parking lot afterward.

Marty said they paid less than $400 for the dishwasher before the $200 rebate.

Even when some people were able to get through to the website, their hopes were squashed. Kerry and Mary Jo Fitzpatrick of North Liberty are retired and spent hours trying to get a rebate. Kerry worked the keyboard and Mary Jo kept dialing. Finally, at 11:15 AM, more than three hours after they started, Kerry’s hard work paid off as he got through to the website. He entered the information about his upcoming dishwasher purchase and clicked ahead to the next web page.

Only the next page read, “Oops! This link appears to be broken.” He had to start the process over again.

A little note on our WeatherWise question.

Justin Gehrts has been making the question very difficult. But with the challenge that can be deemed impossible, a man can - on occasion - rise to that occasion.

Somehow, through cunning and guile, this reporter has been able to spread a well-known lack of weather knowledge into a formidable (second) career as a multiple-choice WeatherWise guesser.

The day Justin decides to force me into providing “short answers” instead of multiple choice, I will no longer be King of the Castle. Yet for now, Justin, bring me more caviar.

However, Mr. Gehrts may not be well versed in my history of pulling off correct guesses on live television….

Until next time.

The Sammy Project