Satanic prayer causes uproar at city council meeting

CHAD DRURY Courier staff writer


OTTUMWA — An invocation at the beginning of Tuesday's Ottumwa City Council meeting overshadowed everything else that took place over the course of 80 minutes.

Resident and former council member Matt Dalbey read a satanic prayer — capped off by "Hail Satan" — to kick off the meeting at City Hall, leading to a reaction from New Life Center pastor Rick Bick during a contentious opening few minutes of the meeting.

In a private message, Dalbey said the prayer is used by the Satanic Temple of Iowa, of which he is a member, "but has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity."

The Satanic Temple of Iowa is "a resolutely non-theistic" religious organization that follows seven core tenants, according to its website.

Soon after Dalbey left the podium and after the council, staff and audience recited the Pledge of Allegiance, Bick had his turn, and was out of turn with the meeting's protocol of speaking on agenda items.

"Let's just reverse this curse that was put on our city. That 'Hail Satan' is not welcome here," Bick said.

Council member Cara Galloway, who has never stood for an invocation, said that Bick should speak during the portion of the meeting where citizens can speak on either agenda or non-agenda items; Bick spoke after the roll call was taken and the council was to discuss the consent agenda.

"It needs to be done now," he said. "I appreciate what Ms. Galloway is saying, but that was a curse put on the city. Most of you know that, and we need to just stop and reverse it."

Mayor Benjamin Foote then called for a 30-second moment of silence "to reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time," but again, Galloway said "it was time to move forward" before being overruled by the mayor.

Dalbey's invocation was within the scope of the city's invocation policy, which was approved Jan. 20, with Galloway the only council member to vote against it. In part, the policy says:

Former head of Iowa school district sentenced to 2 years for falsely claiming to be a US citizen

This photo provided by WOI Local 5 News in September 2025 shows Des Moines schools Superintendent Ian Roberts. (WOI Local 5 News via AP, File)

By HANNAH FINGERHUT
Updated 3:41 PM EDT, May 29, 2026


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district who was arrested last year in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was sentenced Friday to two years in prison.

Attorneys for Ian Roberts said they expect he will likely to be deported to his native Guyana in South America once he serves the sentence. He pleaded guilty in January to falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen and illegally possessing firearms.

Prosecutors alleged Roberts knowingly lacked employment authorization for nearly all of his two-decade career in urban education and submitted a counterfeit Social Security card when he was hired to lead the Des Moines public school district, which serves 30,000 students.

His September arrest outraged and stunned the Des Moines community as President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign was escalating in cities across the country. Roberts was subject to a final removal order issued in 2024.

Roberts, who appeared in the courtroom Friday with his wrists and feet cuffed, spoke to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger for nearly a half hour. He pleaded for leniency as he acknowledged that his dedication to teaching thousands of children and his achievements did not “excuse my poor choice, my ethical lapse,” and he said he knew he had disappointed many people, including children.

Roberts wiped away tears as he described a letter he received from a Des Moines second grader.

The Master Impostor

Dr. Ian Robert.
December 18, 1973
Georgetown, Guyana

This great petender remids me of the infamous Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. who faked several identities pretending to be a doctor, an egineer, a prison-warden, a sheriff deputy, and a lawyer. In fact, Demara's life story was written in a book, then filmed as a movie called "The Great Impostor." Dr. Ian Roberts's DECEPTION resembles Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr.'s deception and megalomania, and both have Roman Catholic formation. 

Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr.

December 1921 

Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.

While Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. lived for several years with TRAPPIST Monks, as a matter of fact he lived at the New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque, Iowa; Recently, Dr. Ian Roberts was Superintendent of the Des Moines Independent Community School District, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Dr. Ian Roberts attended various CATHOLIC institutions, St. Francis College & St. John's University in New York City, and Washington D.C.'s GEORGETOWN University, America's oldest JESUIT higher-education institution. 

And coincidently, 'IOWA' is where Dr. Ian Roberts was detained by ICE on an order of removal of a "criminal alien" and a public safety threat with deportation orders as of May 2024.

The similarities are impressive.

References:

• Wikipedia
• https://unbounded.org/people/dr-ian-roberts/
• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/ferdinand-waldo-demara-the-great-imposter-con-artist-fraud-a9080991.html

Vivek Ramaswamy Talks About Hindu Faith At Major Iowa 'Faith And Family'...

Explosion at Google facility leaves three people in critical condition

Univ. of Iowa sued again over religious liberty

by David Roach, posted Wednesday, August 08, 2018 (3 days ago)

IOWA CITY, Iowa (BP) -- For the second time in less than a year, a Christian student group has sued the University of Iowa to protect its right to select leaders who hold traditional Christian beliefs.

InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship has become the second student group in less than a year to sue the University of Iowa for religious discrimination.

University of Iowa photo

InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship has become the second student group in less than a year to sue the University of Iowa for religious discrimination.
University of Iowa photo The InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship filed a lawsuit in federal court Aug. 6 after the university revoked the fellowship's status as an official student organization for requiring group leaders "to share the group's faith and exemplify its Christian values," according to the complaint filed by the nonprofit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The university told InterVarsity Graduate via email it would not even be permitted to state in its constitution that leaders were "strongly encouraged" to hold the Christian faith.

In December 2017, the student organization Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC) filed a similar lawsuit against the university after it was kicked off campus for requiring leaders to hold biblical beliefs about human sexuality. A federal judge ruled in January that the university must temporarily restore BLinC's registered status while the case is pending.

InterVarsity Graduate was one of 38 student groups deregistered in July for allegedly failing to comply with the university's human rights policy, according to The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Twenty-two of those groups "are organized around religion, culture or ideology," The Gazette reported, including Christian, Muslim, Mormon and Sikh groups.

The university's human rights policy states, according to the lawsuit, "In no aspect of [the university's] program shall there be differences in the treatment of persons because of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy, disability, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, service in the U.S. military, sexual orientation, gender identity, associational preferences, or any other classification that deprives the person of consideration as an individual."

InterVarsity Graduate student president Katrina Schrock said, "We're grateful to have been part of the university community for 25 years, and we think that the university has been a richer place for having Sikh, Muslim, Mormon, Catholic, Jewish, atheist and Christian groups. Because we love our school, we hope it reconsiders and lets religious groups continue to authentically reflect their religious roots," according to a Becket news release.

Iowa City's Press-Citizen reported the university set out in January and February to enforce its human rights policy and reviewed the constitutions of 513 student organizations. The 356 groups that did not include a "full and correct" statement of the university's human rights policy in their constitutions were given deadlines to remedy the perceived problem -- June 15 for most types of organizations and Sept. 4 for sororities and fraternities.

Though InterVarsity Graduate placed the university-required nondiscrimination language in its constitution, its leadership requirements still landed the group among the 38 deregistered.

One argument in InterVarsity Graduate's lawsuit is that the university allows other student groups to discriminate based on gender and personal beliefs while not extending the same prerogative to religious groups. That type of discrimination violates the U.S. and Iowa Constitutions, the complaint claims.

"The university (rightly) allows fraternities to have only male leaders and members, and female athletic clubs to have only female leaders and members," the complaint states. "Republicans and Democrats can each choose to be led by those who share their political beliefs. Yet while it makes broad exceptions for political groups, fraternities, sororities, and sports clubs to select both their leadership and membership, it denies a narrower accommodation for religious groups to select their leaders."

The complaint also notes two other InterVarsity chapters at the University of Iowa -- Black Campus Ministries and International Neighbors -- were not deregistered even though they hold the same leadership requirements as InterVarsity Graduate.

Becket senior counsel Daniel Blomberg said in the news release, "If public universities really want to foster an intellectually diverse environment, this isn't how to do it. Universities should allow students the space to form their own groups that challenge and grow their sincere beliefs. Banning religious groups from having religious leaders just flattens diversity and impoverishes the campus."

A university spokesperson told BP "the university will not comment on the merits of the case per its policy on pending litigation."

Source

Keep car sales closed on Sundays

Howard Splittgerber, Carlisle, Letter to the Editor

Published 2:27 p.m. CT Feb. 12, 2018

(Photo: Kelsey Kremer/The Register)


I am a 20-year veteran of the new car sales business who has worked in a state where Sunday sales are allowed. When I moved to Iowa, I was very pleased when I learned the state prohibited auto sales on Sunday. I am speaking for all of us in the car business when I say we dread working on Sundays. Most of us are men and women who love our families and want to be with them as much as we can, especially on Sundays. There is a saying in business: If you can't be profitable in six days a week, seven days a week is not the cure.

As far as the customer goes, they will find a way to buy in the evenings or on Saturdays. With the internet at their fingertips and digital cameras able to email photos of the trade-ins, it is easier than ever to get the best deal right from your own home and just go to the dealership and pick up your purchase. Let's leave Sunday as a day of rest for us in the car business who work way too many hours already.

— Howard Splittgerber, Carlisle

Source

American Fascism: Government Trying to Control Church Sermons

American Fascism: Government Trying to Control Church Sermons


Written by Selwyn Duke

Thursday, 11 August 2016 16:46

When you hear about government controlling church sermons, you might assume that China or Cuba would be the scene of such tyranny. But now the United States is also, with Iowa state officials not only claiming the power to determine what is and isn’t a “religious purpose,” but also, shockingly, to control church sermons.

At issue is the Iowa Civil Rights Act and a state bureaucracy’s position that churches are, to use the tendentious designation conjured up by judges decades ago, “public accommodations.” This makes them subject to the same rules as businesses; meaning, they don’t get to determine who uses their own facilities, paid for with their own money. This also could have a bearing on sermons. As WND.com wrote Tuesday, “The Iowa Civil Rights Act bans places of ‘public accommodation’ from expressing their views on human sexuality if they would ‘directly or indirectly’ make ‘persons of any particular … gender identity’ feel ‘unwelcome.’”

Iowa Mayor Calls For 'Caring Cities' To Take In Young Immigrants

by CHERYL CORLEY
July 24, 2014 6:01 AM ET

Listen to the Story

Morning Edition

4 min 47 sec

Playlist

Download

Transcript

The city of Davenport, Iowa, is home to about 100,000 people. The city's mayor, Bill Gluba, wants the city to shelter some of the unaccompanied minors who have crossed the southern border of the U.S., but some members of the City Council oppose his efforts.scmcgee/Flickr

Thousands of unaccompanied children from Central America have been crossing the Southern border of the U.S. over the past few months.

That's led to protests and debates — not only in the Southwest but across the country, as children have been given shelter in cities and towns that are sometimes quite far from the border.

In Iowa — a state with a history of providing a safe place for refugees — the question of these undocumented minors has caused a stark divide. While Iowa's governor says none of the unaccompanied minors from Central America should be allowed to stay, other figures, including the mayor of Des Moines and some religious leaders, think otherwise.

And in the city of Davenport, the possibility of sheltering the children has set the mayor against members of his City Council.

Bill Gluba, the mayor of Davenport, is trying to find appropriate sites that could serve as shelters for Central American minors.pioneer98/Flickr

Finding Sponsors, Looking For Shelters

Bill Gluba, the silver-haired mayor of Davenport, has been working with social services agencies trying to figure out a way to house some of the minors. He's also asking residents to support his effort, called the Caring Cities Campaign.

But he has met with pushback from some of the city's council members, who say they don't want any city funds spent on an effort to bring unaccompanied minors to Iowa's Quad Cities area.

The federal government operates about 100 short-term shelters for children who enter the country without a parent. Because of the large increase in the number of unaccompanied children — primarily from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — there's been a push to open temporary shelters.

Nora Dvorak, who ran the Refugee Resettlement Office in Davenport for years and is one of the leaders of the Caring Cities Campaign, says the city could help.

"We have three sites that are potential [shelter] sites, but we really need to do some more exploration about them," she says. "They are certainly better than where they are currently being held in detention cells and what have you. That's ... simply not OK for children."

This week, the mayor of Des Moines announced his support for the Caring Cities Campaign. But both he and Gluba are at odds with the state's governor, Terry Branstad.

"Listen, I'm very empathetic for these teenagers and kids, but they've come here illegally," Branstad says.

Politics
What's Causing The Latest Immigration Crisis? A Brief Explainer

"It would not be wise to say if you can come here, if you can somehow get here illegally, then you can stay. That would be just the wrong signal and would make a bad situation much worse."

Under a 2008 federal law, the minors caught by Border Patrol are handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services, which coordinates their care and finds them safe housing until their cases are decided. In a statement, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says HHS informed his staff that since January, at least 139 of those unaccompanied children have been released to sponsors in Iowa.

Gluba and supporters of the Caring Cities Campaign say Davenport alone could house up to 50 children.

The mayor says his campaign is a private one, with no call for city funds. Even so, Alderman Bill Edmond led the charge for a motion that prohibits the use of city money or staff for Caring Cities. The Davenport City Council tabled the motion indefinitely Wednesday night, but Edmond says the message is clear — and he says the Caring Cities Campaign could be dangerous to residents here.

"Our own [Department of Homeland Security] says that the majority of these children are actually over the age of 14, and 75 percent of them are male — many of them with gang tattoos on them," Edmond says. "I'm not sure that's what we want to bring in to the city of Davenport."

i

In the 1970s, Iowans provided shelter to refugees fleeing the Vietnamese war (the "Vietnamese boat people").COR/AFP/Getty Images

A History Of Midwestern Hospitality

But Gluba says Iowa has a history of helping the displaced. Former Republican Gov. Bob Ray initiated a private effort to help settle refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in Iowa in the 1970s.

"He welcomed people. He said, 'Sure, we'll take as many [refugees] as we can handle,' " Gluba says. "They got in touch with Catholic social services and the various dioceses and Lutheran social services and all the good folks in the state of Iowa, and they welcomed, welcomed, families into the state."

Frank Cownie, the mayor of Des Moines and a supporter of the Caring Cities Campaign, also points to the shelter the state's residents provided to those fleeing the Vietnam War. "Iowans opened their arms. They opened up their homes. They opened up their churches. They opened up their apartments," he says. "They did everything that they could do to help, feed, clothe and educate and do what was necessary."

Branstad, the current governor, says there's a difference between what's happening now and what occurred more than 35 years ago.

"What Gov. Ray did was legal. And [the refugees] came as intact families, and they worked to resettle them permanently here," Branstad says. "The difference is between coming here legally and illegally."

A Widening Challenge

In the parking lot of a Davenport grocery store, opinions were mixed. Darin Vanpaemel says he thinks bringing the minors to Davenport is a crazy idea.

From 'All Things Considered'


Listen

playlist
download


Iowa's governor says unaccompanied minors from Central America should not find shelter in his state, but more than 100 are already there. The mayor of Des Moines, the state's largest city, and many religious leaders are at odds with the governor: They say Iowa should be welcoming and help children in need. Full transcript here.

"I mean, I feel bad for the kids, but we've got kids here that are in trouble," he says. "So we take care of those kids that are here in trouble first."

Others say the immigration laws need to be enforced. But Mark Anderson, a Davenport minister, says he knows plenty of people who'd be willing to let the minors come in.

"Davenport is the heartland of America, and [there are] a lot of good folks here in the Midwest city," Anderson says. "I think it would be a good thing for the community, and a good thing for those folks as well."

Unless immigration rules change to allow young migrants to be sent home more quickly, undocumented minors from Central America will continue to be kept in the U.S. for months or years until they get a hearing.

In the meantime, Sen. Grassley says he'll co-sponsor legislation that would require the federal government to notify the governor of any state 48 hours before placing any of the minors in facilities or with sponsors in that particular state.

And Gluba says his Caring Cities Campaign goes well beyond Iowa's Quad Cities. He's approached the U.S. Conference of Mayors in hopes of persuading other mayors throughout the country, who may be reluctant, to provide a safe haven for the unaccompanied minors.

Source

.

Christian Businesses in Trouble Over Christian Policies

Monday, 14 October 2013 16:10
Written by Raven Clabough




A Mennonite couple in Iowa may be forced to choose between financial penalties or disregarding their own principles after the Iowa Civil Rights Commission filed suit against them for refusing to host a same-sex wedding. Dick and Betty Odgaard, who operate The Gortz Haus Gallery in Grimes, Iowa, has filed a counter-lawsuit against the state’s Civil Rights Commission in the hopes that they may be able to maintain their own convictions without penalty.

The Odgaards’ Gallery served as the location of a Lutheran church for over 60 years, but is now a bistro, floral and arts shop, as well as a wedding facility. They declined a request from Lee Stafford and his partner Jared to host a same-sex wedding in August. According to their countersuit, they did so “because their religion forbids them from personally planning, facilitating or hosting wedding ceremonies not between one man and one woman.”

His wife Betty explained to local television station KCCI that the company policy reflects their Christian faith. “That decision is based on our religious beliefs,” she stated. “And we want to honor that. We want people to know that is our stand, [which] comes from our faith and convictions, and I think we should stand by those [convictions] no matter what.”

The Odgaards did offer to provide the flowers or cake for the ceremony, but indicated that they were not comfortable allowing an exchanging of vows between the two men on their premises. “I would serve them in every other way; we simply don’t want to take part.… It just comes down to that final line of taking their vows in our facility,” she told reporter Billy Hallowell. “I do not hate these people and they have the right to do what they want to do under the law and in humanity.”

Their offer was not well-received by Stafford, who filed a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and accused the Odgaards of violating state law, as same-sex "marriage" was legalized in Iowa in 2009 after a state Supreme Court ruling. “They discriminated against us based on our sexual orientation. Iowa code says if you have a public accommodation, you can’t discriminate based on sexual orientation,” said Stafford.

On October 7, the Odgaards responded by filing a counter-lawsuit through the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty.

“The Iowa Civil Rights Commission is now seeking to force the Odgaards to plan, facilitate and host same-sex wedding ceremonies at the Gallery,” the suit reads. “Publicly associating with a wedding ceremony that violates their beliefs would send a message to others who share their beliefs, including some of their employees, that those beliefs are untrue or unworthy of devotion, and thereby cause others to sin.”

Meanwhile, Stafford found another facility at which to host the ceremony for him and his partner.

But that has not stopped angry critics from hurling angry expletives at the Odgaards. After the incident at the Gortz Haus Gallery became public knowledge, the couple indicates that they began receiving harsh and angry e-mails. “You are mean, rude, selfish, [expletive] racist sons of [expletive] from Hell,” one message stated. “[Expletive] your God. [Expletive] your religion.”

“Betty, you’re very old and almost dead,” another e-mail read. “How do you both feel knowing that America and the world will be a better place without you?”

Likewise, the incident has been harmful to their business. Christian News reported, “Two clients also canceled their reservations, and several others have asked for their money back.”

Others within the community, however, have reportedly been largely supportive of the Christian couple.

And Betty Odgaard does not believe that she should feel anymore guilty for maintaining her own views on the subject as those who have grown angry over the incident. “Can’t I have my beliefs without being ostracized for that?” she opined. “I think that I have my right, too, to stand firm on my convictions and beliefs.”

But the Odgaards do fear that they may be forced to shutdown if they continue to refuse to host same-sex weddings.

And the Odgaards are not the only ones who have found themselves in legal troubles because of their strict adherence to their beliefs.

A Christian couple in Oregon was forced to close their bakery business because of the harassment they had received from homosexual advocates after they refused to make a cake for a lesbian wedding.

“It’s a sad day for Christian business owners and it’s a sad day for the First Amendment,” Aaron Klein, co-owner of Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Gresham, Oregon, told commentator Todd Starnes. “The LGBT attacks are the reason we are shutting down the shop. They have killed our business through mob tactics.”

“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” he stated. “I don’t want to help somebody celebrate a commitment to a lifetime of sin.”

Across the ocean, in Cornwall, England, another Christian couple experienced a similar dispute that resulted in the couple selling their business.

Peter and Hazelmary Bull, Christian owners of the Chymorvah Hotel, were forced to sell their bed and breakfast, which also served as their home, after legal costs and harassment from opponents drove them out of business.

In 2008, Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy reserved a double room but were turned away by the Bulls because of their homosexuality, and the Chymorvah Hotel does not permit unmarried couples — homosexual or heterosexual — to share a room.

“Please note that as Christians we have a deep regard for marriage (being the union of one man to one woman for life to the exclusion of all others),” the business website states. “Therefore, although we extend to all a warm welcome to our home, our double bedded accommodation is not available to unmarried couples.”

The Bulls were forced to pay restitution to the Hall and Preddy of nearly $3,000 each. The couple also accumulated a considerable amount in legal fees.

Furthermore, they have been targeted by vandals who have also been issuing death threats. Christian News reported, “They told reporters that a dead rabbit was once nailed to their fence, the bolts were removed out of the wheels of their car, and they were infected with pornography on their computer."

The Bulls attempted to remain strong in the face of such intolerance but were ultimately forced to close their doors and sell their business when the financial impact of the dispute began to take its toll.

It is becoming increasingly clear that some of the loudest proponents of “tolerance” are intolerant of beliefs that are not their own.


Source
.

Bluffs in Top-10 cities for data security operations

Staff photo/Jon Leu

John Boyd Jr., a principal in The Boyd Co., a location consulting firm headquartered in Princeton, N.J., said a recent study found Council Bluffs to be in the Top 10 American cities – actually ranking No. 4 – to locate secure, low-risk data security operations. Boyd said commercial property tax reduction, an effort touted by Gov. Terry Branstad and being debated in the Iowa Legislature, would be a “game changer.”

Posted: Sunday, January 22, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 6:06 pm, Sat Jan 21, 2012.

By Jon Leu
jleu@nonpareilonline.com

A new corporate site selection study comparing data security costs in a series of 45 U.S. cities ranked Council Bluffs No. 4 on a list of the 10 best security cities.

The study, conducted by The Boyd Co., a firm headquartered in Princeton, N.J., that specializes in location consulting, covered many of the nation’s largest regional financial centers, including New York; Boston; Chicago; Charlotte, N.C.; Kansas City, Mo.; Des Moines, Denver and San Francisco as well as other cities named as best meeting site selection criteria for housing highly secure, low-risk and cost-effective data security operations for the banking and financial services industry.

According to the report, factors distinguishing Council Bluffs’ attractiveness to the data security field are its secure, mid-continent location, favorable operating cost structures and its proximity to an National Security Agency accredited National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

While not included in the report, John Boyd Jr., a principal in the consulting firm, said the current debate by Iowa lawmakers and Gov. Terry Branstad about lowering the state’s commercial property taxes has caught the attention of corporate executives looking to expand or relocate their operations.

“Right now, reducing commercial property taxes is the most important thing the governor and the Legislature can do. It would be a tremendous positive, a game changer that would create a national buzz,” Boyd said.

The report, “Banking & Financial Services: A comparative Cost Analysis for Information Assurance Operations,” names information assurance as leading a new wave of post-debt crisis spending and facilities planning within the financial services industry.

The study focuses on the growing information assurance sector and those units dedicated to preventing security breaches and computer crimes like fraud and identify theft.

The overall field of information assurance is projected by Boyd’s company to be a major driver of corporate re-engineering, capital spending and strategic site selection planning in 2012 as compliance to growing federal data security legislation is extending beyond financial services and reaching all sectors of commerce.

The study analyzes all major geographically variable operating costs that are most critical to the decision where to locate new data security facilities. Those costs include skilled labor in information assurance and financial services, land costs, construction costs, taxes, utilities and corporate travel.

For purposes of comparison, the study’s basic assumption scales annual operating costs to a data security center employing 75 workers and occupying 125,000 square feet of space. Based on those assumptions, annual operating costs ranged from a high of $23.6 million in New York to a low of $10.3 million in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Ranking fourth among the top 10, the study projected annual costs at $11.1 million for Council Bluffs. Omaha, which ranked eighth among the top 10, had total annual operating costs of $11.5 million.

“Operating costs are really carrying the day,” said Boyd. “Another consideration is the fact that you have cheap, low cost, reliable power.

“I think the Midwest is going to be the next frontier. Smart people are staying here because this is where the jobs are,” he said. “Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota are very stable fiscally.”

Source
.

Pierre-Jean De Smet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pierre-Jean De Smet (30 January 1801 – 23 May 1873), also known as Pieter-Jan De Smet, was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), active in missionary work among the Native Americans of the Midwestern United States in the mid-19th century.

His extensive travels as a missionary were said to total 180,000 miles. He was known as the "Friend of Sitting Bull", because he persuaded the Sioux war chief to participate in negotiations with the United States government for the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Pierre-Jean De Smet

photograph by Mathew Brady, circa 1860-1865.

Born 30 January 1801
Dendermonde, Belgium

Died 23 May 1873 (aged 72)
St. Louis, Missouri

Other names Pieter-Jan De Smet

Education White Marsh Novitiate in present-day Bowie, Maryland

Church Roman Catholic

Ordained 23 September 1827

Early life

De Smet was born in Dendermonde, in what is now Belgium. He first came to the United States with eleven other Belgian Jesuits in 1821 to begin his novitiate at White Marsh, a Jesuit estate near Baltimore, Maryland. Part of the complex survives today as Sacred Heart Church in Bowie.

De Smet and five other Belgian novices, led by Charles Van Quickenborne, moved to Florissant, Missouri, at the invitation of bishop Dubourg. Several academic institutions were immediately founded, among which the St. Regis Seminary where De Smet had his first contacts with indigenous boys. After further studies, he was ordained priest on 23 September 1827. Until 1830, he learned about Indian customs and languages as a prefect at the seminary. In 1833 he had to return to Belgium due to health problems. It was 1837 before he could return to Missouri.

De Smet's map of the Council Bluffs, Iowa area, 1839. De Smet's mission is labeled "St. Joseph's", The area labeled 'Caldwell's Camp' was a Potawatomi village led by Sauganash; this was at or near the later town of Kanesville, the precursor of Council Bluffs.[1]

Mission work in Iowa Territory

In 1838 and 1839, De Smet helped to establish St. Joseph's Mission in what is now Council Bluffs, Iowa. Taking over the abandoned Council Bluffs Blockhouse military fort, De Smet worked primarily with a Potawatomi band led by Billy Caldwell, also known as Sauganash (of Irish and Mohawk descent, he was born in Canada and spoke English as well as some Indian languages.).
De Smet was appalled by the murders and brutality resulting from the whiskey trade, which caused much social disruption among the Indian people. He tried to protect them. With little success in religious conversions, De Smet was said to secretly baptize Indian children. During this time, he also assisted and supported Joseph Nicollet’s efforts at mapping the Upper Midwest. De Smet used newly acquired mapping skills to produce the first detailed map of the Missouri River valley system, from below the Platte River to the Big Sioux River. His map shows the locations of Indian villages and other cultural features, including the wreck of the Steamboat Pirate.[2][3]

Flathead mission

De Smet's travels in the West meant that he spent years exploring and organizing missions. He was involved in extensive missionary work, especially among the Flathead. He was sent by Bishop Joseph Rosati after several pleas from the Nez Perce and Flathead Indians to receive a "Black robe". This was the name by which they referred to the Catholic missionaries, based on their traditional long black cassocks.

1845-1846 expedition

Engraving of a Kaw (Kansas) village by De Smet, showing earthlodges and other traditional house forms.

One of De Smet's longest explorations began in August 1845. He started from Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho and crossed into the Kootenay River valley. From there he followed the valley, eventually crossing over to the source of the Columbia River. He traversed a portion of that valley, followed Sinclair Pass, recrossed the Kootenay and, using White Man’s Pass, reached the Bow River valley, near the site of present-day Canmore, Alberta. From there he headed north to Rocky Mountain House. By this time it was October and he fulfilled one of his goals; to meet with the Cree, Chippewa, and Blackfeet of the area. At the end of the month, De Smet traveled to the east to search for more Natives. He was fortunate to find his way back to Rocky Mountain House and was guided from there to Fort Edmonton, where he spent the winter of 1845-1846.

In the spring, De Smet returned to Jasper House and, with terrible suffering, he reached the Columbia River and Fort Vancouver. He returned to his mission at Sainte-Marie on the Bitterroot River. Finally he returned to St. Louis, Missouri. His time as a missionary in the Rockies was over.

Later years and death

Statue of Pieter-Jan de Smet in Dendermonde

In his remaining years, De Smet was active in work regarding the missions he helped establish and fund. During his career, he sailed back to Europe eight times to raise money for the missions among supporters there.
In 1868 he persuaded Sitting Bull to accept the Treaty of Fort Laramie.

He died in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was originally buried with some fellow early Jesuit explorers at St. Stanislaus Seminary near Florissant. In 2003, after some controversy, his remains and those of the other Jesuits were moved and reinterred at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, the burial site for many Missouri Province Jesuits.

Legacy

His papers, with accounts of his travels and missionary work with Native Americans, are held by the library at St. Louis University, which he helped establish and added to with valuable books from Europe.

Namesake places

Several places are named in honor of De Smet:

DeSmet, Benewah County, Idaho
DeSmet, Missoula County, Montana, an unincorporated site near the Missoula International Airport
DeSmet, South Dakota, the childhood home of Laura Ingalls Wilder
De Smet Lake, outside Sheridan, Wyoming
De Smet Jesuit High School in Creve Coeur, Missouri
DeSmet Hall at Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington
DeSmet Hall at Regis University, Denver, Colorado

References

^ Whittaker (2008): "Pierre-Jean De Smet’s Remarkable Map of the Missouri River Valley, 1839: What Did He See in Iowa?", Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society 55:1-13
^ Whittaker (2008).
^ Mullen, Frank (1925) "Father De Smet and the Pottawattamie Indian Mission", Iowa Journal of History and Politics 23:192-216.
[edit]Sources
Killoren, John J. "Come, Blackrobe": De Smet and the Indian Tragedy, The Institute of Jesuit Sources (2003), reprint of the University of Oklahoma Press (1994); ISBN 1880810506


External links

• Jesuit website
• Biography from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913
• Biography at Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Biographies and other publications of Father De Smet
• The Apostle of the Rocky Mountains: Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S.J. by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

.

.

Posted at 10:16 AM ET, 08/12/2011

Faith up for debate

By Jacques Berlinerblau

Republican presidential candidates (L-R) former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, businessman Herman Cain, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) take the stage for a debate in the Stephens Auditorium at Iowa State University August 11, 2011 in Ames, Iowa (Chip Somodevilla - GETTY IMAGES)

The eight candidates at Thursday night’s GOP debate were willing to get into one another’s grills or, failing that, into the grills of the four journalists who subjected them to fair, hard-hitting and well organized questions (this was some of the best moderator work I can recall in a recent presidential debate).

Oddly, things were much more lively before and after the dirge-like “social issues” segment. Those issues were relegated to a brief 10-minute interlude. For whatever reasons, the air seemed to have been sucked out of the room as the candidates were put through their paces on gay marriage, abortion, and Islam. Here are some bleary-eyed observations.

Disaffected Democrats and Independents--Is Jon Huntsman Your Man?: A very solid performance by the former governor of Utah. True, he raised his hand in lock step with his seven colleagues agreeing to not accept a budget deal in which spending cuts would outweigh tax revenues by 10-1 (10 to 1!).
Republican presidential candidates former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, left, and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty are pictured during the Iowa GOP/Fox News Debate at the CY Stephens Auditorium in Ames, Iowa, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011. (Charlie Neibergall - AP)

Yet on other issues he “pivoted to the general” as observers like to say about candidates who think beyond the primaries and the base.

Huntsman came out, unambiguously, in favor of civil unions. He called attention to China and his unique strengths in dealing with that country. He looked like an exasperated adult--sort of a Red State mirror image of Barack Obama.

Huntsman appeared ready to zing Rick Perry: “We all need prayers and I hope he offers them for everyone on this stage.” But that’s as far as he went.

Rick Santorum is Much More Appealing When NOT Addressing Social Issues: The former senator from Pennsylvania had a good night of it, mostly because he was not rehearsing his anger about being perceived as an “ultra” conservative.

“Iran is not Iceland, Ron” he rightly noted, delivering the remarks that signal the official end of Ron Paul’s presidential dreams (see below).

Santorum was even expressing concerns about the status of gay people under the Iranian Mullahcracy! But then he got back to those social issues. A nation that permits abortion in the case of rape, he pointed out, was a nation that victimized the unborn child twice. The victimization of that other rape victim, the woman, was left unaddressed by Santorum.

Herman Cain Should Simply Stop Making Comments about Religion: If only because he constantly claims he is misquoted or misunderstood. His unfortunate remarks about Muslim loyalty and mosques are well known. Tonight Cain had to walk back ambiguous comments he recently made about Mormonism not really being something that folks in the South might know much about, if you know what he means.

(Michele Bachmann debates Thursday night./Getty))Michele Bachmann: Hermeneut Extraordinaire!: When reminded that she once approvingly cited the scriptures about being submissive to her husband (”Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord,” Ephesians 5:22) the moderator asked her if she would do the same as president of the United States.

This deliciously snarky, but very relevant question--after all, it is Bachmann who draws attention to her faith on the campaign trail--was met with a lusty chorus of boos.

But Bachmann was ready, trans-valuing “submit” to mean “respect.” It may not have satisfied fundamentalists, but it was an effective response--a little hermeneutical jujitsu. Crisis averted.

Newt Gingrich: A Lesson in Journalistic Ethics: Back in 2008 a word cloud depicting a GOP presidential debate would have had a gargantuan REAGAN at is center. No longer. Only Newt invoked the Great Communicator and then, cuz he felt like it, he roughed up Chris Wallace.

True journalists, charged the former speaker of the house, don’t focus on minutiae. True journalists, Gingrich insinuated, do let Republicans demonstrate how different they are from Barack Obama.

Mitt Romney: On Top For Now?: Romney is the frontrunner and understandably so. He can unite fiscal conservatives and those social conservatives who don’t harbor irrational prejudices toward Mormons. He has a foot in both of the GOP’s roiling streams.

Tonight he spent a good deal of time discussing his experience as a business man placating the money wing of the GOP. For the sake of the social conservatives he reiterated his preference for a federal marriage amendment (“ I believe the issue of marriage should be decided at the federal level. . .people move from state to state”).

Rick Perry’s forthcoming entrance into the race is Romney’s next big challenge. Like Mike Huckabee back in 2008. Perry will demonstrate a unique ability to pick off Romney-friendly evangelicals. This is the biggest threat to Romney’s presidential bid and his handlers better be ready.

Ron Paul: It Was Fun While It Lasted: Even liberals will have a hard time nodding their heads in approval to Paul’s extended defense of Iran’s right to develop nuclear weapons. Why Ron? Why?

Years from now Paul will be seen as a mock-up, a precursor to a younger less idiosyncratic Libertarian candidate who stands a chance of winning his or her party’s nomination.

Winners: Fox News and The Washington Examiner. This debate was well run and informative. The questions were tough and the pace brisk. As for the candidates: Huntsman looked like an adult. Bachmann was on message. Santorum performed capably. Newt Gingrich smartly noted that even the Reagan (1980) and McCain (2008) campaigns were once seen as total disasters. So by those standards, he’s right on track!

Losers: TPaw needs to rethink and retool. His scrum with Michele Bachmann did little for him and some consultant needs to figure out why he consistently fails to connect. Ron Paul is done.

Barack Obama should not be too worried about remarks to the effect that he is clueless, ineffectual and incapable of leading. After all, these are Republicans. He should be concerned that some Democrats are making precisely the same allegations.

By Jacques Berlinerblau | 10:16 AM ET, 08/12/2011

Source

.

GOP presidential hopefuls push moral code at Iowa forum

Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer speaks at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, Monday, March 7, 2011, at the Point of Grace Church in Waukee, Iowa.

AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

1:17 AM, Mar. 8, 2011

Written by
THOMAS BEAUMONT and REID FORGRAVE

Five Republican presidential prospects Monday professed before an influential audience of Iowa evangelical conservatives how religious faith ought to blend with public life.

But some of the five potential candidates who spoke to the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's spring kickoff event in Waukee balanced their calls for a more conservative moral code with appeals for unity across the conservative spectrum in trying to solve the nation's vexing economic problems.

It was the first group appearance of the developing campaign for the Iowa caucuses and an opportunity for a first impression with an active and loyal segment of the Republican caucus electorate. Iowa polls have shown that about 45 percent of Iowa's caucus and primary voting base consider themselves evangelical Christians.

However, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty also used their speeches to the audience of about 1,500 at a Waukee church to remind the audience it will take a unified conservative front to retake the White House next year.

"We're all going to have to be on the same team when this is over," Gingrich said. "It's going to take all of us to defeat the left."

Gingrich, who last week began raising money to explore seeking the 2012 nomination, proposed a series of executive orders that he argued could quickly set a more socially conservative tone in the federal government.

They include issues that resonated with the audience at the evangelical, theater-style suburban church: reinstating policies banning federal spending on international organizations that provide abortions and allowing doctors and nurses to refuse as a matter of conscience to perform abortions.

They also include eliminating the high-level White House advisers known by their opponents as czars and requiring the U.S. State Department to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Gingrich said in a Des Moines Register interview earlier Monday that the array of presidential orders would appeal to the entire spectrum of conservatives.

Gingrich and Pawlenty drew on the Declaration of Independence to support their arguments that government service and religious faith have been intertwined since the nation's inception.

"It means that power comes from God to each one of you personally," Gingrich said. "You loan power to the government. The government does not loan power to you."

Pawlenty also hit the themes of opposing abortion rights and gay marriage, a particularly hot issue among conservatives in Iowa, where the state supreme court struck down a statutory gay-marriage ban in 2009.

"We have people in Washington, D.C., who say marriage will be defined however we feel like defining it," Pawlenty said. "No, it won't. It should be defined as between a man and a woman."

But he also said Americans would have to come together to solve the nation's biggest challenges, as they did during pivotal moments in history.

"This ain't about easy," he said. "This is about rolling up our sleeves, plowing ahead and getting the job done."

Rounding out the presidential prospects who attended the event were former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

About 150 state, national and international media representatives covered the event.

Of the five, Gingrich, Pawlenty and Santorum have visited Iowa most often and signaled plans to run all-out for the caucuses. Pawlenty said Monday he was at most weeks away from an announcement about his presidential plans.

The balance between social and economic issues is one that has been an early topic of debate in the developing Republican contest.

National Faith & Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed, a featured guest at the event, jabbed at potential presidential candidate Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, though not by name, for his comment suggesting social issues take a back seat to the economy and federal debt.

Daniels was not at the event, nor were other GOP prospects including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Reed said social conservatives helped turn the midterm elections for Republicans last year, and would again for the White House in 2012.

"In spite of all the talk of it being about the economy and jobs - and clearly economy and jobs were critical - they found that 32 percent of the entire electorate on Nov. 2 was made up of conservative and evangelical Christians, who voted 78-to-21 Republican," Reed said. "And they were the booster rocket that drove the biggest off-year landslide in a century, and they will be key to victory in 2012 again."

The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll taken the week before the 2008 Republican caucuses showed 46 percent of likely GOP caucusgoers considered themselves born-again or fundamentalist Christians. The same poll showed 41 percent of Republican caucusgoers said they preferred a fiscal conservative; 26 percent said a social conservative.

Santorum said that he had played key roles as a member of the U.S. House on domestic policy, such as health care and welfare reform. But he spent most of his time on his reputation as an abortion opponent.

Santorum recalled that during his Senate career he offered the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2002.

"If a child is born as a result of a quote 'botched' abortion, then that child is entitled to medical protection and entitled to treatment," Santorum said. "To my knowledge in this country it was only one person on the floor of any state legislature who stood up and opposed it. That happens to be the current president of the United States, who stood up and said he opposed this bill because it would impinge on a woman's right on Roe v. Wade."

.

Source

.