The Thomas More Society, a self-described “not-for-profit, public interest law firm dedicated to fighting for the rights and dignity of all human life,” issued a press release this week announcing that it would defend Coalition of Life for Iowa in its battle to obtain 501(c)(3) tax-exemption.

In order for an organization to be given such a tax-exemption it must be organized and operated exclusively for purposes deemed by the IRS as worthy of exemption. Those purposes include actions items such as relief of the poor or underprivileged, advancement of religion, combating juvenile delinquency, advancement of education or science, maintaining or erecting public buildings and monuments, lessening the burdens of government, eliminating prejudice and discrimination or defending human and civil rights secured by law.

The Coalition for Life of Iowa, which was incorporated with the Iowa Secretary of State in May 2008, made application with the IRS for the tax exemption. Upon receiving the application, the IRS requested additional information to determine if the group’s focus qualified for the exemption. For instance, the IRS, according to a letter sent to Coalition of Life Iowa, wanted to know if the organization would engage in partisan political activities or seek to influence legislation.

Coalition for Life initially answered the follow-up requests, but took offense when the IRS began to question the educational value of prayer meetings held by the organization outside of Planned Parenthood.

“We respectfully request a definition of the following words: organize, picketing, protesting,” Susan Martinek, president of the Coalition, wrote in June 10 correspondence. “This is so we know what guidelines we need to be sure we are within with future action. Also we respectfully request where in the Form 1023 Application for Recognition of Exemption under Section 501(c)(3) this is addressed?”

The IRS responded on June 22 with the specific information needed in relation to the prayer meetings:

Please explain how all of your activities, including the prayer meetings held outside of Planned Parenthood are considered educational as defined under 501(c)(3). Organizations exempt under 501(c)(3) may present opinions with scientific or medical facts. Please explain in detail the activities at these prayer meetings. Also, please provide the percentage of time your organization spends on prayer groups as compared with the other activities of the organization.

In a phone conversation … it was asked about certain signs that may or may not be held up outside of Planned Parenthood. Please explain in detail the signs that are being held up outside of Planned Parenthood and explain how they are considered educational.

This request was answered by Chicago attorney Sally Wagenmaker who charged the IRS with “repeatedly seeking information that is unnecessary and in violation of constitutional principles affecting the Coalition’s supporters.”

“The Coalition for Life,” she wrote, “is dedicated to principles of preserving life. Consequently, the Coalition certainly would never engage in or sanction activities that incite people to violence, involve destruction of property, or are otherwise illegal. The fact that certain individuals in very isolated, egregious situations involving abortion clinics have caused tragic personal harm to others should not mean the coalition is denied its tax exempt status or subjected to repeated, unwarranted inquiries about its own educational, religious and charitable activities promoting sanctity of life principles.”

Although Wagenmaker asserts in her response to the IRS that the Coalition’s “efforts to organize and hold educational forums has comprised nearly all of its tax-exempt activities,” the organization’s online calendar is nearly exclusively a list of upcoming and frequent prayer vigils outside of either Planned Parenthood in Cedar Rapids or the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City.

Mills will joined by Catherine Ringen, a professor and Linguistics Department chairwoman, and Tom Southard, a professor and head of the Orthodontics Department, as they make the case for Mills.

“We hope we have a free and frank discussion of the issue,” Lewis-Beck, who spearheaded the petition, told the Press-Citizen. “We want to make her more aware of how important this decision is and how important it is for it to be reconsidered and ultimately he be reinstated.”

Lewis-Beck began circulating the petition among UI faculty last month a few days after Mills’ termination Sept. 23 following the release of the Stolar report, an independent investigation which implicated Mills for his role in the handling an on-campus sexual assault case involving two former UI football players in Oct. 2007.

Map of Iowa’s fallen soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since March 2003:

View Larger Map for easier navigationThe U.S. Department of Defense said Wolfer, who was deployed to Iraq in December 2007, died of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 11th Battalion, 104th Division of Boise, Idaho. Also killed in the attack was Col. Stephen Scott, 54, of New Market, Ala.

Funeral services, which are open to the community, will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Beth El Jacob Synagogue in Des Moines. Graveside services will directly follow at Glendale Cemetery in the Jewish section.

Wolfer is survived by his wife, Lee Anne, whom he met while stationed in Iowa in 1995, and their three daughters: Lillian Wade, 5; Melissa Lacey-Marie, 3; and Isadora Ruth, 1. The Wolfers currently reside in the Emmett, Idaho, area.

“He was a very loving and amazing father,” Lee Anne Wolfer said in a written statement. “He called his children beautiful, because he said they looked like their mother. He held his family foremost in his life. Stuart was an amazing man and will continue to live on in the hearts of those he touched forever.”

Mapping Iowa’s Fallen Soldiers

View Larger Map for easier navigation.Wanken was injured in September 2007, when he suffered eye, ear and other facial injuries while in Fallujah, and was then transferred to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he underwent surgery. His parents, Rick and Susan Wanken of Hampton, said that his death was related to the injuries sustained in Iraq.

However, spokesperson 2nd Lt. Jaymie Sicking of the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton in San Diego would not release details about his death, saying it is under investigation.

Wanken was a machine gunner in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.

Wanken, a 2006 graduate of Hampton-Dumont High School, was the 2005-06 president of the Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates, Hampton-Dumont chapter. A standout football player, Wanken was named to the Class 3A, District 2 defensive team after his senior year.

In September, Des Moines Register columnist John Carlson reached Wanken by phone a day after surgery to talk with him about a letter he had written to himself and eventually sent to his parents. At that time, Wanken didn’t want to discuss much about what had happened in Iraq, but wanted his friends back home to know he would be home soon for a visit. “I haven’t been home in a while,” Wanken told Carlson. “I just want to get back to Iowa and hang out with my family.”

Wanken did make it back to Iowa for a visit and spoke to students at Hampton-Dumont High School, where he graduated in 2006, Principal Trent Grundmeyer told the Des Moines Register.

“I wasn’t principal here when he was in high school, but he did a very nice job talking to the students,” Grundmeyer said.

Grundmeyer said it was a positive meeting, and that he thanked Wanken for serving his country. “One thing I remember specifically about what he said is that the news media doesn’t catch exactly what’s going on over in Iraq. People don’t see all the really horrific things, but they also don’t see all the positive things,” Grundmeyer said. “He had been injured pretty badly. I could tell … there were scars on his jaw and it was a challenge for him to talk.”

Wanken’s body arrived at the Des Moines International Airport Tuesday before being transported to Hampton.

Wanken was the 66th person with Iowa ties to die in Iraq or Afghanistan since March 2003.

Saturday, the Clinton campaign announced their first Johnson County visit in two months: a 7:30 p.m. Monday stop in Coralville.  That’s the Monday night of finals week.  Last weekend, she held events in two neighboring small counties, Iowa and Washington… without an Iowa City event.

Clinton’s last Johnson County appearance was as the closing act at the Johnson County Democrats’ fall barbecue on Oct. 6.  None of the five candidates at the event took questions from the stage.  Clinton, who appeared with 1972 Democratic nominee George McGovern, was the last speaker and spent close to 45 minutes greeting the crowd afterward. 

Iowa City caucus goers expect to ask the candidate a question, and usually not a soft one.  Clinton has sent top-level surrogates to campus to take questions, including her husband Monday and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.  But those are very different experiences than asking the candidate herself a question.

Senator Clinton’s only University of Iowa stop was in July, with the former president.  The event was attended by thousands, but she did not take questions.  This is only one campus, and we Iowans may set high expectations.  But compare this to the other leading candidates.  Virtually every John Edwards event, including several on campus, includes questions and answers.  He most recently spoke in Iowa City on Wednesday, at the close to campus public library.  And, while there was some grumbling from backers of other candidates that he hadn’t done it earlier, Barack Obama did a Q & A on the U of I campus on Oct. 3.  Obama also visited campus at a student-oriented Dec. 4 rally, bud did not take questions.  Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson have also, with varying frequency, done events with questions on campus or in downtown Iowa City at student-friendly times.

The last Iowa City event at which Hillary Clinton took a public question was on April 3, at a mid-day event at a hotel on the edge of town, attended largely by people who already supported her.

Perhaps students don’t fit the working mom and senior women target groups the Clinton campaign seems to be aiming for. Or perhaps there’s another concern.

“If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from.” — Hillary Clinton, February 17, 2007

That’s a general election statement, meant to make Clinton look tough like a Commander in Chief.  The vision of a woman taking the salute as she gets off the Marine One chopper is not yet battle-tested at the ballot box.  But the statement is classic Clinton 42 triangulation, and positions her between the Peace Freaks and Bush.

The University of Iowa is well-known as a peace-movement stronghold, and among the Democratic candidates, Clinton has drawn particular vitriol from the peace movement.  The Des Moines-based “Seasons of our Discontent: a Presidential Occupation Project” (SODaPOP) group, with only enough willing to get arrested bodies to occupy two presidential campaign offices, chose Clinton and Rudy Giuliani.  Clinton might argue, as she has in debates, that she’s attacked because she’s ahead, at least nationally.  But a look at the schedule begs the question: is Hillary avoiding the bleeding heart of the People’s Republic of Johnson County?  Does she want to steer clear of a confrontational question or a raucous student protest?

Probably.  And from her campaign’s perspective, that’s not dumb.  Witness the robot who’s still mad about Sister Souljah who bothered Bill last week.  But the difference from other campaigns, and from John Edwards’ apology for his war vote, certainly needs to be pointed out.  The anti-war left, already mad that Congress hasn’t shut off war funding and started impeachment hearings, is not a sure thing for the “any Democrat is better than any Republican” argument.  Observers will note Green Candidate Cynthia McKinney making the rounds, and stopping where else but Iowa City.  Democrats needs a two to one win out of Johnson County to win statewide, and a few thousand peace protest votes could swing the state, and the nation.

Literally.

During a weekend news conference held as part of a two-day visit to Storm Lake, in northwest Iowa, Fox said the anti-immigration rhetoric from some U.S. public opinion shapers is not only driving a policy debate but fanning hatred and even violence. In fact, Fox singled out CNN’s Lou Dobbs, known for his strong views on immigration.

“There is confusion that immigrants are terrorists, which is absolutely false,” Fox said at Buena Vista University. “The decision process is being guided by the xenophobics, the Minutemen in Arizona, the violent, and I’m sorry to say violent like Lou Dobbs.”

Fox, who served as president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, said language used by some anti-immigration forces spawns more violence than what results from those who, in Fox’s words, would be “using the stick.”

“There are many using violent words like Lou Dobbs, which is moving public opinion to divide, which is bringing in violence to local communities,” Fox said.

In other remarks during his time in Storm Lake, Fox said the effect of building a wall along the Mexican border is “terrible” for the image of the United States.

“I couldn’t conceive anything worse than building a wall,” he said.

Fox added, “Walls don’t work. The Chinese Wall didn’t work against their enemies. The Berlin Wall didn’t work against freedom. The West Bank wall is not working and this one won’t work. We should be building bridges instead of walls.”

A recent report shows Iowa is in desperate need of more workers. Meanwhile, U.S. Census data reveal that a Latinization of some cities in western Iowa is the primary reason for their growth, and that other communities, without the Hispanic influence, are aging dangerously where commercial and industrial matters are concerned.

If ths clear need for workers were being met with Canadians or Germans would Americans have such a level of negative reaction?

“No, they would not,” Fox said.

Fox wonders what happened to the United States of globalization and free trade and competition.

“The champion and the leader today isolates from the rest of the world, now that we learn to compete,” Fox said.

Over the weekend, Fox spoke four times on the campus of this northwest Iowa private college. Fox is another in a long line of distinguished speakers to visit the campus as part of the William W. Siebens lecture series. In the news conference, he fielded questions from Iowa Independent and other reporters, most in English but one in Spanish from the western Iowa newspaper, La Prensa.

Lorena Lopez, editor of the western Iowa Spanish-language newspaper La Prensa, said Fox’s remarks, while motivating for many in the Hispanic community, were clearly aimed at “Anglos.”

“It’s not much, every year, every day, that a president from Mexico comes to the United States and speaks English,” Lopez said. “I think it is important that he let people know that Mexico and the United States are neighbors and need to work together. He just confirmed that immigrants come here to work and improve their lives and they don’t want to be here forever. I liked what he said. He said we need one another. The United States needs part of that labor from workers from another country. Immigrants need the good money that is paid here.”

Fox has been in the United States in recent weeks in large part to promote his book “Revolution Of Hope.”

“The book is addressed to my heroes, to my beloved Mexicans that are here in the United States, making this economy prosper, bringing in quality of life to every home, making the economy productive and competitive in front the Asian challenge, China’s challenge,” he said.

Fox said here are some obvious reasons the United States and Mexico are “complementary” economies.

Mexico’s average income is one-sixth of that in the United States, and America needs more labor to see continued economic growth, Fox said.

“As long as we have that difference, that gap, people will be looking for a better life and people will be trying to come here,” Fox said.

Fox said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told him that city would “collapse” if it weren’t for the Latino immigrants.

Fox’s book contains several references to President George W. Bush, including one in which he referred to the Texan as a “windshield cowboy.” Fox suggests in the book that Bush is actually afraid of horses.

“It’s my first candid impression,” Fox said in Storm Lake.

That's because the U.S. senator from Illinois is making time to listen to rural residents and agricultural experts instead of Washington lobbyists, says Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

As Obama pursues the Democratic nomination for president, he and his campaign staff will continue collecting the ideas of rural Americans "to ensure that our campaign is listening to people's opinions before offering policy proposals," Vietor said. "After all, the last thing we need is another plan written by and for Washington that doesn't do enough to address the real issues Iowans confront in their daily lives."

One such venue was Obama's "rural summit" held last week in Tama, where approximately 350 people participated in breakout sessions on major issues facing rural America. At the end of each session, policy recommendations were presented to Obama by the group.

There was also an online component to the summit, where anyone could voice opinions and submit questions.

Vietor said that Obama will review all of the recommendations then release a rural plan this fall.Obama has assembled a team of agriculture and rural economic development experts to help craft his rural policies. One is Neil Hamilton, director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University. In an interview with Iowa Independent, Hamilton said that the Tama summit was successful as a forum for collecting the opinions and concerns of rural residents.

"There were three different sessions at the summit, one on energy, one on rural development and quality of life, and one on agriculture," said Hamilton, pictured at right. "I sat in on the agricultural session and there was a lot of discussion on farm programs and farm program reform. There was discussion about issues of creating opportunity for beginning farmers, about what we can do to help support farmers with prices in the marketplace, and there was discussion about competition issues. We went through an exercise in which we had small groups that identified their top four or five ideas and then we put those on the board. The major issue that was discussed was related to farm programs and payment reform."

Hamilton said that improving conservation programs and strengthening enforcement of competition provisions in agriculture law were also hot topics at the summit.

Many of the topics that will become part of Obama's rural policy are being debated for the 2007 Farm Bill. Some may even be passed into law before the presidential election. But, as Hamilton observed, there's more to it than just getting initiatives passed in the farm bill. "Certainly the 2002 farm bill shows us, it's not what you get passed in the bill, but it's how it's actually implemented by the administration," Hamilton said. "From the position of being the president, Sen. Obama's hope is that if he's elected president he'll be able to put the people in place in the administration to actually implement the bill."

Hamilton recalled being with Sen. Tom Harkin "in a meeting a year and a half ago and we were talking about the 2007 farm bill and what ought to be in it, and his comment was: 'A good starting point would be to actually implement the things that passed in 2002 that we've never actually done yet.' And that's still true to some extent. A number of the ideas that are going to be key in the 2007 bill are not new ideas. They're things that people have been working on that haven't actually been implemented or adequately funded yet," said Hamilton.

Another of Obama's advisers is Gary Lamb (pictured below), a farmer from Chelsea who has long been an active advocate for agriculture.

"For about the last four presidential elections, I've been trying to meet with presidential candidates and encourage them to really take a serious look at the negative impact that's taking place out here in rural America," said Lamb. "Not just farmers leaving the land, but in all the communities, the businesses that are leaving. The institutions, the schools, small rural hospitals, fire departments, EMTs — they're struggling to maintain their viability because they lack one vital resource: people. So I hadn't had too much luck in trying to encourage these presidential candidates to have a dialog, bring in some of the most knowledgeable, respected people and try to determine what we need to change in public policy for agriculture and rural America."

But Lamb said that Obama's approach has been quite different from most presidential candidates of today and in the past. "Most of them, it kinda goes in one ear and out the other. And I don't mind saying I was pleasantly surprised when Obama's rural outreach director called me and wanted to come up and talk to me. My first response was, well, just another presidential campaign that wants to pretend they're concerned about agriculture and rural America. You know, I've traveled and visited with lots of presidential candidates, and for the most part, their thoughts are focused on other questions. I've been trying to get presidential candidates to do something like this for the last four presidential elections. I've been to hundreds of meetings all across the country over the years, and I was impressed with the knowledge and experience and the concern of the people that participated in the summit in Tama."

Lamb is a veteran in the fight to improve policies affecting rural America. During his life he has made an unsuccessful run for Congress, worked as an agriculture liaison for Iowa Sen. Harkin, and served as president of the Iowa Farmers Union. "I became aware of influences in farm policy back in the early '80s, and I got involved because I began to recognize that public policy of any kind, including farm policy, doesn't set to right itself. Somebody or something influences it."

He wants to remind everyone about the farm crisis of the 1980s, and how we must all work to make sure that situation doesn't arise again. "I was convinced in the early '80s that we were headed for a train wreck. Our land was inflating in value and all of the so-called experts were telling us it was the 'Golden Era of Agriculture;' we were getting rich in our sleep because our rent was inflating. I began to stand up and publicly question this and asking what would happen if land values went down," said Lamb.

"I was told at that time by the president of the largest farm organization in our country, and I won't mention any names, but I asked him what would happen if land values went down. His response was, 'We don't need pessimists and negative thinkers in today's agriculture.' Well, my worst fear became reality a year or so later. Land values went down 60 percent and we were reminded rather painfully that agriculture is about much more than the farms that dot our countryside. We lost thousands of small businesses. The point I'm making is, this is more than just farmers and agriculture. The farm crisis rippled way beyond the farm gates."

Lamb said that reforming farm programs will be an important step to strengthen small family farms rather than large agribusinesses to ensure that such a crisis does not happen again. Farm payment limitations were the major issue discussed at the summit, he said. "We need some kind of reasonable payment limitations put on this thing. The House farm bill really didn't do that. When you have an atmosphere out there where 10 percent of the farmers get about 70 or 75 percent of the total subsidies, it's just a vicious cycle. They use those big subsidies to get even bigger and squeeze out the young farmer or small farmer."

"Now the argument has been made that rice and cotton farmers down South are opposed to payment limitations," said Lamb. "Now that's not exactly true. I've met with a lot of people from rice and cotton country, and they see a lot of the same thing that we see happening up here. And I'm fairly well convinced that if the formula for payment limitations would take into account the higher input costs for rice and cotton, they would support that. And of course there's entities out there like Riceland Foods in Arkansas that got $15.8 million in subsidies. They wouldn't be for that I suppose, but I'm convinced that the average rice and cotton farmer, if we were to give them a little higher payment limitation for the higher input cost, they would support it."

Obama has called for significant reforms in farm program payments. He has called for a cap of $250,000 as a payment limitation, and has worked for competition reforms in agriculture. The next step for the campaign will be to continue collecting the opinions of rural residents before finalizing a rural policy that will be released early this fall.