The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 13

(tljcttanioincsKcqtsfcr mum ST RANDY ESSEX, Assistant Managing Editor April 6, 2005 TODAY intra rfi 1 Newton speedway planners want a state tax break private corporations," said Zaun, former mayor of Urbandale. "We have a responsibility for the taxpayers to find out what is going on." The city of Newton has agreed to put up about $12 million for the project. In turn, the city is seeking $4 million from a state fund for community attractions and a $5 million road grant from the state. Mayor Chaz Allen said the speedway would be a good fit with the area's other tourism See NEWTON, Page 2B By JONATHAN ROOS REGISTER STAFF WRITER Representatives of a planned auto racing track in Newton and the city's mayor urged legislators Tuesday to back a state tax break that would complete financing of the $70 million project. Their disclosure of seven Iowa investors in the project did little, however, to ease the concerns of some lawmakers that they don't know enough about how the deal has been put together.

U.S. Motorsport Entertainment the track's developer, is seeking legislation allowing it to keep up to $12.5 million in state sales taxes collected by the facility in its first 10 years of operation. "This is the final, big piece of the puzzle that makes it happen," said race car owner Larry Clement of Fort Dodge, one of the track investors. The proposal, both praised as a risk-free way for the state to help and criticized as a back-door corporate handout, has been endorsed by the tax policy committees in the House and Senate. But the plan could require retooling to win the approval of Gov.

TomVilsack. Members of the Senate Commerce Committee were furnished Tuesday with a list of seven Iowans, including Clement, who were described as major investors in the track project. The other investors identified were Brad Manatt of Newton, president of Manatt's a construction company that does concrete and asphalt paving; Manatt's co-owners, Tony Manatt of DeWitt, John Manatt of Brooklyn and Mike Manatt of Brooklyn; Dennis Chalupa, a Newton attorney; and Stan Clement of Newton. Some legislators expressed frustration that they hadn't gotten much information about private financing of the track and its operating plan. "You're talking a lot of state dollars and local dollars here," said Sen.

Brad Zaun, an Urbandale Republican. Track representatives said that a confidentiality agreement with the lender prevented them from disclosing details, but that they would try to get more information. "Confidentiality is for "It's a little nerve-racking at first. You look out and there are the huge seats and audience. But once you start, it's no big deal." Lisa Putz, 15, an Indianola sophomore piano and flute player Muscatine police call 2 deaths related Officers say a man and a woman died in what appears to be a murder-suicide.

i-bt Author talks at Temple Author Don Harstad, above, a former Clayton County sheriff's deputy, will give the first AViD Authors reading at 7 p.m. in the Temple for Performing Arts, 1011 Locust Des Moines. The northeast Iowa author's mysteries are read worldwide in several languages. The AViD series is financed by the Des Moines Public Libraries Foundation. Admission is free.

Call 283-4152. See film in Cedar Falls "A Day Without a Mexican" will be shown at 7 p.m. in the University of Northern Iowa's Maucker Union, Room 109, in Cedar Falls. For more information, call (319) 273-2250 or go to www.uni.educme. I SJ II 1 ft 4 By LYNN FREEH1LL REGISTER STAFF WRITER A double shooting in Muscatine appears to have been a murder-suicide, police said Tuesday.

Officers, responding to an alert about possible gunshots around 9:30 a.m., found the body of victim Michelle Barnhart, 45, in her home at 804 Whicher Sgt. Les Wegter said. An hour later, after hearing a radio alert that the suspect might be driving a Chevy P'7n i i' 7Mi INSIDE DES MOINES Blazer, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources officer spot Muscatine) 0 Miles 00 Bill to help health care The Iowa House introduced a bill to help the state avoid losing federal money. Page 3B i i i I J. I if mi i it iii.h ii itftritrr- INSIDER DOUG WELLSTHE REGISTER Setting up: Percussionist Jery Inbarasu of Des Moines Christian School gets drums ready for the school's performance Tuesday in the Class 1-A competition of the Iowa Jazz Championships at the Polk County Convention Complex in Des Moines.

An lowan in Iraq helps run a police training school. Read more in today's INSIDER: REWIND. ted the car at Wild Cat Den State Park in rural Muscatine County. Inside, the officer found the body of Shawn Taylor, 38, of Muscatine. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Taylor and Barnhart appeared to have been romantically involved, Wegter said. Barnhart's neighbor, Kate Green, said she saw Taylor coming and going at the home frequently. Two teenage boys also live at the home, where Barnhart had lived for less than a year, Green said. "It had always been very, very quiet over there." One teenager, whose relationship to Barnhart or Taylor was unclear, was home at the time of the shooting, Assistant County Attorney Alan Ostergren said. Ostergren wasn't sure whether the teen witnessed the killing; the call to police was made by another family member, he said.

Green said she was home Tuesday morning but didn't hear any gunshots. Barnhart's home stood about a mile from the neighborhood where a couple was slain in February, police said. A Miami man was charged in that double homicide. QUOTC It's an honor to be here' at jazz event Seventy-five high school bands compete to see who can can swing the best at the Iowa Jazz Championships in Des Moines. By MEGAN HAWKINS REGISTER STAFF WRITER Kassidy Lyons has never gotten the chance to play at the Iowa Jazz Championships, but that didn't stop the Union High School senior from sitting in the audience Tuesday, tapping her toe and applauding for soloists.

"You can always get better by listening to other bands play," said Lyons, 17, a senior tenor saxophone player from Dysart. She and about 200 other people sat in a room in the Polk County Convention Complex as a band prepared to take the stage. "We didn't make it, but it's still fun to watch people we competed against." A grinning director cued his Hampton-Dumont band, snapping his fingers. "A one, a two, a one, two, three, four Trombone players rose from chairs on risers to blare the beginning of a snappy tune. The next song was slower, with soloists taking turns to showcase their talents.

The third opened with piano and bass, and the last song wowed the crowd with ominous crescendos and a jazzy bass line. The first thing students heard when they took the instruments from their tingling lips was, "Good job, you guys," from the director, and the applause began. The all-day event brought 75 bands in five classes to Des Moines for competition at the convention complex and the Civic Center to see who could make this year's sweetest sounds. See JAZZ, Page 3B We feel it sets a bad precedent. We feel there isn't enough money to cover programs for the poor at this stage.

Wave of hope sweeps in after tide of losses Judie Hoffman, a representative of Ecumenical Ministries of Iowa, on a proposed tax break that would allow the developer of a Newton racetrack to keep up to $12.5 million in state sales taxes collected by the facility the first 10 years it is open. quarter mile from shore. When we showed up, these people had to be convinced that we were realiy there to help them." r3r Bolin makes it clear were there to help, not take over and do everything ourselves." By the time he left, houses and schools were being rebuilt, water was being restored. And for the first time in I When he was a priest he spent 15 years in Bangkok, and he's been around the world in the worst of times. He was in the orphanages in Vietnam at the end of the Tet offensive.

He's seen the poverty on the streets of Bombay and in the Amazon region of Brazil. On the personal front, leaving the priesthood involved his own loss of faith and hope. Bolin was a priest for 23 years 1956 to 1979, from the age of 25 to 48. "I was struggling. I'd made a lifelong commitment, I'd taken the vows.

I liked the work. But I was tired of being alone." It got to the point where he was playing around with a handgun, a .45, thinking See BORSELUNO, Page 2B Bill Bolin is 74, an ex-priest who lives in Des Moines, and he just got back from a month-long tsunami relief effort in Thailand. He was part of a three-man team that raised money in Bangkok from Phillip Morris, the German embassy, Catholic Relief Services. Then the men got on the road and traveled village to village in the devastated Phuket region. They were trying to find out what folks needed and then trying to get it for them.

These were the tsunami victims who didn't get face time on TV. "That's a big tourist region, and a lot of the money and effort we heard about went into rebuilding hotels and nightclubs," Bolin CORRECTION An incomplete phone number was listed in an item about the postponement of a lecture by Tim Russert in Tuesday's newspaper. The correct number is (515) 271-3994. Bolin months these people were feeling they might survive. BORSELLIXO said.

"Our job was to find the smaller, poorer villages, places where homes and jobs and everything else was gone. These were mostly fishing villages. Boats were washed a Bolin said he was dealing with people "who had descended into a loss of faith and hope." Bolin can talk about the loss of faith and hope personally and professionally..