Iowa City Press-Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa • Page 2

STATEREGION WEDNESDAY, October 30, 1991 2A Iowa City Press-Citizen State news Branstad tells crowd his son not 'getting off hook' in crash v. DES MOINES Gov. Terry Branstad said Tuesday that it was not fair to say his son was let off the hook after an August traffic accident which killed two people. At the Governor's Youth Conference in Des Moines, Branstad spoke for three minutes in a choked voice telling the luncheon crowd about the agony his family endured. He urged the 300 students in the room to wear seat belts and drive carefully.

Branstad had just finished reiterating his support for small schools when a boy approached a microphone in the audience and asked the question that made other students gasp. Branstad began his answer by repeating the question: "What do I think about my son getting let off the hook so easily when somebody else would be charged with manslaughter? "First of all, let me say this. Many of you may be 16 pretty soon. Let me tell you this. Be very careful when you get behind the wheel of a car." Eric Branstad was charged with improper passing, a misdemeanor traffic violation, after the Aug.

18 accident west of Granger. Authorities said he pulled out to pass other vehicles and did not return to his own lane in time to avoid a head-on collision with a van driven by Charles McCullough of Des Moines. McCullough, 65, and his wife Jean, 60, were killed. Eric Branstad's case goes to court in November, his father said Tuesday. "And you say he's been let off easily.

He's got to go through a trial. "He had a severe head injury. I thank God that he recovered from that. He will probably never recover from statements saying that he's been let off the hook (more) easily than other people. "That just is not true.

The county attorney makes that decision. The county attorney in Dallas County is a Democrat. We had absolutely nothing to do with the decision that was made on what charges would be filed," the Republican governor said. Iowa to idle most acres in farm plan Associated Press DES MOINES Iowa ranked first in the nation in the number of acres tentatively approved by the government for enrollment in the latest signup for a farm conservation program. And over the life of the Con-, servation Reserve Program, which began in 1986, Iowa ranks fifth in the nation in acres of highly erodible crop land removed from production for peri- ods of at least 10 years, Tuesday report showed.

In the 1 1th CRP signup in July, more than 2,000 Iowa farmers offered 1 10,532 acres of land for retirement from production, Jeffrey Vonk said. He is state conservationist for the federal Soil Conservation Service. The leading Iowa counties and acreages offered were Lucas, Davis, Keokuk, Page, and Pow-, eshiek, 3,250. CRP was authorized by Congress in 1985 and modified in 1990 to focus more on environmentally sensitive farmland. Since the program began, Iowa has taken 2,127,421 acres of crop land out of production under CRP.

That trails only the almost 4.1 million acres in Texas, 3.2 million in North Dakota, 2.9 million in Kansas and 2.8 million in Montana, the Soil Conservation Service said. Associated Press Mount Pleasant Mayor Tom Vilsack stands near new apartments in a housing project. State program helps Iowans get housing Police capture escapee from halfway house Associated Press DES MOINES Local officials and real estate agents say massive federal housing subsidies are a thing of the past. "The federal government was heavily in the business of subsidizing housing, but then three or four years ago that stopped," Tom L. Vilsack, mayor of Mount Pleasant, said.

"In the late '70s they were doing about 300,000 units a year. It's just completely eliminated." Iowa is grappling with its own budget deficit, but there are still some programs to help low- and moderate-income folks buy into the American dream. applicants than there is money to help executive director Ted Chapler said. "It's our job to get people on that train from homelessness on up to owning their own home," he said. The latest round of low-interest mortgage loans offered by IFA offers $30 million to first-time home buyers with low and moderate incomes.

Chapler said the money was being snatched up at a record pace. The program to date has offered more than $700 million to about 18,000 Iowans buying new or existing homes. The Farmers Home Administration during the summer ran a program guaranteeing $100 million in commercial loans to help low- and moderate-income families in rural areas get home financing, The pilot program, which ran in Iowa and 19 other states until Sept. 30, included reduced interest rates for low-income borrowers. The Veterans Administration runs a similar program.

The Iowa Finance Authority, a quasi-state agency, sponsors several housing programs aimed mostly at low-income and homeless Iowans. Most draw far more Jischke fielded questions from about 40 people at the second of two two-hour public forums to debate proposed budget cuts. He also received two reports from university administrators that recommend cuts they said would save $7 million to $9 million. Jischke will formulate his own recommendations to pass on to the state Board of Regents for final approval. One targeted area is religious studies.

Susan Schonberg a junior in religious studies from Omaha, said, "I came here to Iowa State to learn, I didn't come here to see what Sioux City needs for their farms." Faculty, students grill Jischke UNI secretary on probation for embezzling VINING Kenneth Kistner, 29, an escapee from a Mar-shalltown halfway house, was captured after a foot chase in rural Tama County on Tuesday. More than a dozen officers, an airplane and a dog were used to track down Kistner. Tama County sheriffs deputies said they were alerted to the man's presence by a 7:30 a.m. report of a stolen car in Traer. Region news Caterpillar faces BLOOMINGTON, 111.

-Bargainers for Caterpillar Inc. said they were surprised when the United Auto Workers union announced a midnight Sunday deadline for a contract settlement. The bargaining teams had barely settled into their seats Tuesday at the negotiating headquarters in a Bloomington strip The car was recovered in Otter Creek Township after it crashed through several fences and gates and into a field. Corrections officials said Kistner escaped from the Mar-shalltown house at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

He was serving a term for second-degree theft at the time of his release and will face an additional escape charge in Marshall County for fleeing the work-release center. UAW strike mall when the union said Cater--pillar could face a strike. The union defended its action, saying the company was aware the union planned to pattern its Caterpillar demands after a recent contract settlement the UAW reached with Deere Co. in Moline. From news services and said that he participated only in covering up the crime.

The brothers were convicted in the slaying of Jennifer Gardner at the Ames apartment where she lived with their older brother. WATERLOO (AP) A former University of Northern Iowa secretary was put on probation and ordered to perform community service for embezzling more than $50,000 from the Cedar Falls school. Former secretary Catherine C. Brown, 60, of Cedar Falls, was given a 10-year suspended prison sentence and was placed on probation for five years. She pleaded guilty to first-degree theft in the theft of $50,375 from an account used to pay for speakers' fees at the political science department, where she was a secretary.

Court upholds murder conviction of 2nd Deases brother Providing a diverse range of Home Health Care Services to meet your needs Judge L.D. Lybbert on Monday ordered her to serve 250 hours in community service and repay the money. He said he did not impose a prison term because Brown had no prior record and was unlikely to commit more crimes. She was accused of issuing 87 checks from June 16, 1987, to Nov. 29, 1990.

Prosecutors said she wrote the checks to UNI graduates and deposited them into her own account. Brown apologized to her family and to the state. "I want to go on from here," she said. HOME LIFE Medicare Services Inc. Visit or Hourly Services Avaiable Medicare Certified Call for a Free Consultation 337-9055 or 337-9666 1752-54 Fifth Street, Coralville eoe HOME LIFE Health Services DES MOINES (AP) The Iowa Court of Appeals refused Tuesday to tamper with the murder conviction of Edward Deases for his role in the slaying and decapitation of an Ames woman.

The decision is the second conviction in the case to withstand initial appeals. Deases said his brother, Ruben, was responsible for the slaying SEE -at- Lunch Served all Day 1 18 E. WanhlnRlon 337-4703 AMES (AP) Faculty, staff and students pleaded with Iowa State University President Martin Jischke not to make budget cuts to the programs they care about. Dorcas Speer, a retired university employee, is concerned about -a recommended cut in the retirement counseling program. Speer told Jischke at a public forum Tuesday that satisfied retired university faculty and staff were some of the best public relations the university could have and were generous donors to the school.

But Jischke wondered where else he could make the cut. "Someplace else," Speer said. Another brother, Johnny, was granted immunity and testified in the case. The head of Gardner was found in 1989 along a road south of Ames. Her torso was found in a lake north of the city.

Volume 153, Number 272 Wednesday, October 30, 1991 by 5 p.m. Monday through do not receive it by 6:30 a.m. appropriate editor or reporter White or Scott Norris at 337-3181. The Press-Citizen run a correction. or to place a classified ad call 'Everything for the Patient at Home Registered Nurses Licensed Practical Nurses Home Health Aides Physical Therapy Speech Therapy Medical Social Services Traditions Open House Christmas! Christmas! Christmas! Craft Show Saturday, November 2, 9-5 We're Thinking Christmas at Traditions Come join us for refreshments and start your holiday shopping early! Tea Room Dining Room Where Catering is Our Specialty.

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