In October, the group’s political action committee asked the FEC to issue an advisory opinion on whether state laws restricting robo calls should apply, or whether they are pre-empted by a less restrictive federal law. Ten states have laws that govern automated phone calls. Minnesota, for instance, requires campaigns to use live operators to introduce automated calls and get the consent of the person answering the phone to play them.

Several state attorneys general have urged the FEC allow the state statutes to stand, and last month they were successful. The FEC lissued two draft opinions — one that said it was not the federal government’s responsibility to govern state election laws and another that refused to issue a formal opinion on the idea. American Future Fund filed another brief asking the agency to reconsider.

As pointed out by the liberal blog Talking Points Memo, American Future Fund is being represented by Jason Torchinsky, who was also behind the American Center for Voting Rights.

That was the bogus “voting-rights” group that was set up by GOP operatives in 2005 to “give ‘think tank’ academic cachet to the unproven idea that voter fraud is a major problem in elections,” as election law expert Rick Hasen has written.AFFPA also has ties to DCI Group, the notorious Republican consulting firm that has represented the Burmese junta and helped create “Smokers Rights” groups on behalf of RJ Reynolds.

Torchinsky works for Holtzman Vogel PLLC, D.C. law firm that was instrumental in the establishment of both the American Future Fund and its state-level counterpart, Iowa Progress Project (formerly Iowa Future Fund).

The four mental health institutions that serve Iowa each have specific geographic regions of the state from which they draw general adults in need of care. In addition, each facility has a specialized area of care that serves patients in an even larger area.

DHS Director Charles Krogmeier has recommended the state close the Mental Health Institute (MHI) in Mount Pleasant and shift its responsibility to a facility in Independence, more than 100 miles away in Buchanan County.

“What we have tried to say in our report, and I know the task force hit on this fairly hard in their report, is that this discussion or this decision needs to be made in the context of ‘What should the overall mental health delivery system in Iowa look like? What are the needs? Where are the services? What are the gaps? And, how do the [mental health institutes] fit into that overall discussion?’ I think they are part of it, but how much they are a part of it is the question,” Krogmeier said on a conference call with reporters.

Former Democratic state Rep. Ro Foege served as chairman of a 12-member task force that evaluated, toured and held public meetings in each of the four communities with a mental health facility — Mount Pleasant, Independence, Clarinda and Cherokee. Following deliberations, the task force concluded that none of the facilities should be immediately closed. Instead, the members of the task force have advocated the four should remain open until the state has fully explored the existing system — the people it serves, public safety, total costs and best practices.

“I think the task force took a very sincere and hard look at this and decided that it just couldn’t recommend closing one of these facilities at this point,” Foege said in an interview with The Iowa Independent. “We need to make sure there are services available.

“The part that is very important is that the state, I believe, needs to provide a safety net, and that is what these four mental health institutes have been. We need to make sure that the safety net remains in place.”

Had it not been for the mandate, which was included in the Human Services appropriations bill last year, Krogmeier said closing Mount Pleasant would not be a position he would take. Outside of presenting the plan, he also does not plan to advocate the closing to members of the legislature.

“The cost of any of these services is predominately staff, drugs and feeding and housing the population. If you keep the population the same, and you provide all the same services, your costs are going to be about the same,” he said. “There are some marginal cost savings … but it is not huge.”

If the legislature elects to move forward on closing Mount Pleasant, the cost savings achieved will depend if existing personnel are consolidated into a facility in Independence, due to collective bargaining agreements that provide for relocation reimbursements. The Department of Human Services also shares administrative and support costs with the Iowa Department of Corrections, which operates a medium-security correctional facility on the Mount Pleasant campus. The shared costs associated with the DOC in fiscal year 2011 are estimated to be $1.4 million. Presumably, much of that cost would be reabsorbed by the Department of Corrections.

The department’s recommendation also anticipates that the Department of Corrections would begin to utilize the space vacated in Mount Pleasant following the move. Because the task force found that collaborative efforts and communication should continue between the state departments of Human Services, Corrections and Education and the Judicial Branch, Foege is hopeful that some of the existing personnel at the mental health institute could be utilized within the expanded correctional facilities.

Both men also point to community-based delivery changes that have been made in Minnesota as possible opportunities that Iowa should explore. Switching to smaller facilities would also allow the state to gain federal appropriations for the care it provides.

“[What we were asked to do] is quite different than looking at the overall system and the kinds of care that need to be provided, and how best we provide those,” Krogmeier said. “That’s where we would like to see the policy-makers go. We would like to seriously have that discussion and move the state in that direction. Whether we physically have four or three MHIs in that whole discussion is a relatively small issue — although it is very important to those communities, and very important to our employees at those locations. But when you frame this in terms of what should the mental health system look like, [the MHIs] are just one piece.”

Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, right, visits with Cedar Rapids flood victims on the one year anniversary of the massive 2008 floods (Iowa Independent file photo).

However, while the figure may be massive it remains less than a third of the $3.6 billion in disaster recovery funds that have been promised to Iowa.

While more than 20 individual funding streams exist, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s funds have been the most utilized by Iowans. The agency’s Other Needs Assistance (ONA) funds, jointly administered by FEMA and the Iowa Department of Human Services for victims immediately following a disaster, has spent all but roughly $1 million of the $136.5 million allocated to Iowa.

More than $750 million of the total disaster recovery funds promised to Iowa remains unallocated or earmarked for specific projects or entities.

State officials involved in recovery efforts are to quick to point out that such a massive recovery will take time, and that especially mitigation projects need to be methodical and thoughtful in order to prevent future disasters. They also point to the fact that Iowa remains ahead of other natural disaster sites in the nation in terms of receiving and distributing recovery funds.

Much of the recovery effort in Iowa centers in northeastern Linn and Johnson counties, where Cedar Rapids and Iowa City were both hard-hit by June 2008 floods. Local officials in Cedar Rapids, who were displaced from their facilities by the flood, continue to debate and accept public comment regarding the future of certain structures. Until plans such as those are closer to reality, it is difficult for the Rebuild Iowa Office or other state and federal agencies to allocate funds to the projects.

According to figures from the Rebuild Iowa Office, more than 39,800 Iowans have registered with FEMA, and more than 35,000 Iowans have visited disaster recovery centers throughout the state. In addition to the 85 Iowa counties eligible for federal assistance, 77 counties are also eligible for state and public assistance.

A detailed look at the various funding streams, the amounts that have been promised/allocated to Iowa, what’s been approved for local use and the totals spent as of Dec. 4 are in the chart below:

The Iowa Legislature Web site also makes a document available for download with estimated disaster recovery funding by county.

Dave Funk

In a blog post at TheIowaRepublican.com, Funk discussed a story from the conservative Web Site “The American Thinker.” It argued that the “universally-taught belief that petroleum deposits are derived exclusively from long-dead plants and dinosaurs is about as scientifically sound as the concept of Anthropogenic Global Warming.”

He then pointed to the so-called “Climategate” scandal, where hundreds of private e-mail messages and documents were stolen from a computer server at a British university that global warming critics say prove a conspiracy to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change. Funk said when coupled together, the myth of climate change and limited oil supply show “how government interference in our economy has slowed our economic growth, artificially increased our energy costs and allowed a massive transfer of wealth out of our country.”

It is time, he said, that U.S. energy policy is run by “adults in America and not environmental zealots.”

The concept Funk is discussing is called “abiogenic petroleum origin,” a theory that states petroleum was formed from deep carbon deposits dating to the Earth’s origins, as opposed to the prevailing belief that it was formed from ancient biologic material. The concept came to fame in the Soviet Union during the mid-20^th Century, but has little support among contemporary geologists. Its proponents argue that if it is proven true it would mean much larger oils reserves than currently predicted.

Dr. Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which is charged with the task of assessing future energy supplies, said in August that the global oil supply is likely to peak in about 10 years. He warned that oil production has already peaked in non-OPEC countries and the era of cheap oil has come to an end.

Birol’s dire predictions are not universally accepted, but all authoritative estimates of the world’s existing energy reserves conclude there is a limit, even if it won’t be reached for many decades.

Funk is running against state Sen. Brad Zaun and former Iowa State University wrestling coach Jim Gibbons for the chance to challenge incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell in 2010.

On the same day that the Republican primary field grew to three with state Sen. Brad Zaun formally entering the campaign, Gibbons said the 2010 House calendar shows only 17 days where votes are scheduled in the first two months of the year.

“At a time when Iowans are facing rising unemployment and home foreclosures, Congressman Boswell and Nancy Pelosi are wasting the first few months of next year to enrich their political war chests instead of doing the work they were sent to Washington to do,”  Gibbons said.

But the liberal blog Bleeding Heartland researched Gibbons’ complaint and found the 2010 vote schedule is actually much busier than previous years.

I wondered whether 17 voting days in two months was an unusually light load for the House of Representatives, so I contacted David Waldman, who runs the outstanding Congress Matters blog. He told me that the 109th Congress, the last under GOP control, “had roll call votes on just 7 days in Jan/Feb 2006.” Waldman also noted that there were 11 days of roll call voting during the first two months of 2004, 12 days during the comparable period in 2002, 10 days in 2000, nine days in 1998, and 10 days in 1996. The Republicans controlled the House calendar during all of those years. Gibbons should step up his background research before making unfounded attacks on Boswell’s work ethic.

In addition to Gibbons and Zaun, former pilot Dave Funk is also seeking the GOP nomination.

Nick Klinefeldt & Stephanie Rose

Saturday, the full Senate voted on President Obama’s U.S. attorney nominees for Iowa, confirming Nick Klinefeldt for the Southern District and Stephanie Rose for the Northern District. That means that Iowa’s two U.S. Attorney offices will soon be under new management.

Although both incoming U.S. attorneys have taken some public criticism on the road to confirmation, Rose, who has worked for more than a decade in the Northern District as a federal prosecutor, was a common target of those who believed her role in the prosecution of several hundred immigrant workers at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville tainted her recommendation to lead the office.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, who recommended both individuals for their new jobs, said such criticism was misplaced, even while he applauded a judicial ruling stating the criminal prosecutions of the workers were inappropriate. Harkin’s confidence in Rose also recently received an added boost when U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley noted how admirable it was to see a career prosecutor rise through the ranks of the Department of Justice and be recommended to take over the post.

Despite all of the concerns that have revolved around Rose’s role in the Postville prosecutions, she is most well known within the Justice Department for investigating and prosecuting Internet pharmaceutical companies. She will become the second woman in state history to serve as a U.S. Attorney, and the first Senate-confirmed woman to lead the Northern District office.

Both Klinefeldt, whose recommendation was of a more traditional political nature since he had previously served as a Harkin aide and attorney for the Obama campaign, and Rose will replace individuals selected by Grassley and placed before the U.S. Senate by then-President George W. Bush.

Matt Whitaker, who has served the Southern District of Iowa, was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in June 2004. Matt Dummermuth, who has served the Northern District, was appointed to the post by Bush, but despite being nominated for the post in December 2008, never stood for Senate confirmation.

Grassley, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee that unanimously approved Rose’s nomination for a full vote, said he would guess that her Senate confirmation is not in jeopardy.

“I’ve had a chance to interview her, and she’s been an assistant U.S. Attorney for a long period of time,” Grassley said during a conference call. “She’s absolutely qualified to do the job she’s been appointed to.”

Rose’s handling of any one particular case, according to Grassley, should not be used as a litmus test for her entire career as a federal prosecutor. He also note how unusual it is for someone within the office ranks to be recommended and nominate for such a post.

“Very seldom does somebody at that professional career track get selected by a U.S. senator,” he said. “They usually pick someone who has been not only a good lawyer, but also very active in the political process… I think it’s quite a feather in Sen. Harkin’s hat that he’d be willing to help someone who’s been a professional all these years to advance to be a U.S. Attorney.”

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley is a member with seniority, agreed today by unanimous consent to pass the nominations of Stephanie Rose and Nick Klinefeldt on to the full Senate.

“These individuals are enthusiastic, intelligent attorneys, and I’m pleased to support their nominations,” Grassley wrote in his statement for the committee. “I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for [them].”

Nick Klinefeldt & Stephanie Rose

Although both nominees are considered well-qualified for the positions, neither has been able to escape criticism.

Rose’s critics point to her role in the prosecution of the more than 300 immigrants that were detained in the raid at Agriprocessors in Postville. Criticism of Klinefeldt, which has been little more than a whisper when compared to the organized and often aggressive effort against Rose, has not centered on him personally, but on the fact that his father is currently serving a 10-year sentence on drug-related charges. In each instance, Harkin has vehemently defended the two attorneys.

In addition to the two Iowa nominees, the committee also approved by unanimous consent the nomination of Kenyen Brown for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.

If confirmed by the Senate, Klinefeldt will replace Matt Whitaker, who was nominated by then-President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June 2004. If confirmed, Rose will replace Matt Dummermuth, an attorney recommended by Grassley and appointed by then-President George W. Bush in January 2007. Although nominated by the Bush administration in December 2008, Dummermuth never faced Senate confirmation.

There are a total of 93 U.S. Attorney posts in the nation. To date, including the three nominees today, the Judiciary Committee has approved 24 individuals, and 18 of those have gone to be confirmed by the Senate.

Stephanie Rose

A social justice organization has taken a stand against the woman nominated to be the next U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.

Friends of Justice issued a statement Wednesday describing the nomination of Stephanie Rose for U.S. attorney as “just plain wrong.”

Rose, who has worked in the office since 1997 and currently serves as the deputy criminal chief, is tainted, according to the organization, due to her involvement in the prosecutions of hundreds of immigrants following a massive raid of the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville in 2008.

…Rose helped execute the unprecedented use of expedited trials and exploding plea agreements to convict 306 undocumented workers at the Postville. At the time of the Postville Prosecutions, Rose was not a low ranking member of the office but was in a leadership position as third in charge in the office for criminal prosecutions. Earlier this year, Stephanie Rose was asked about her role at Postville. Even in hindsight, she defended the raid and prosecutions saying “executing the massive operation required amazing effort and a ton of good work.”

… We find it impossible to understand what grounds Ms Rose and her colleagues had for choosing to exercise their prosecutorial discretion in this case with such aggression and lack of respect for due process, other than the requirements of their own ambition. They brought the full force of the USA office to bear on the most vulnerable members of a community with full knowledge that the U.S. Department of Labor was conducting an ongoing investigation of child-labor and wage violations at the plant where these same workers were being victimized…

It is criticism that U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, who recommended Rose for the nomination, has heard and answered previously.

“We looked into this in great detail [while considering the recommendation of Rose for the U.S. attorney post],” Harkin told The Iowa Independent in April. “We contacted lawyers that were involved on the defense side during the hearings in Waterloo. The lawyers, who provided defense during that event, have come out with a letter in support of Rose’s nomination.”

The letter referenced by Harkin was signed by 11 defense attorneys who agreed that Rose took no part in the decisions to conduct the immigration raid in Postville or to fast-track the immigrant workers who were detained as a part of the raid.

…She did not make the decision to fast track these cases, nor did she have any part in how the individuals were to be housed. In addition, she did not make the decision regarding what charges were to be brought against these individuals. With the limited discretion that she had regarding the circumstances and particularly the plea agreements, Ms. Rose exercised her judgment admirably and very favorably to defendants.

Any criticism about Stephanie Rose apparently comes from those who have never had a criminal case with her, and instead represent a blanket disagreement with the Immigration policies and statutes of the United States.

Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, a federal court interpreter who wrote an explosive essay condemning the handling of the prosecutions resulting from the Postville raid, vehemently disagrees with the defense lawyers who signed the letter in support of Rose.

He provided a brief to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday stating that the “Postville defense attorneys who sent a letter of support for AUSA Rose to Senator Harkin, who recommended her, have no specific knowledge of Rose’s participation in confidential decisions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and are not in a position to vouch for her as though there had been no problems with the proceedings or their participation in the defense.”

Camayd-Freixas asserts that the defense attorneys who signed onto the letter were “severely criticized nationally by their colleagues for ineffective assistance of counsel, including taking on an average 17 defendants each, failing to provide accurate advice on immigration consequences, and failing to protect the human and due process rights of their clients.”

In his brief, Camayd-Freixas does fail to note that much of the criticism in the wake of the Postville raid and prosecutions was sparked by and nearly without fail reference his own published essay regarding what transpired and his theories as to why. Camayd-Freixas also pulls information from a wide variety of sources, including congressional testimony, to make his case that Rose’s involvement in the fast-track prosecutions was much more integral than has been described and that the overall process was one that usurped due process in favor of expediency.

Although President Obama has accepted Harkin’s recommendation and placed Rose on the nomination list, the Senate Judiciary Committee has not yet scheduled a hearing on her nomination. When the committee does take up the nomination, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley will be involved as a member with seniority.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa continues to be led by Matt Dummermuth, a man on the fringe of the national U.S. Attorney scandal who was nominated by then-President George W. Bush, but has never faced Senate confirmation.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly attributed a statement made about U.S. attorney nominee Stephanie Rose to a southern justice organization called Friends of Justice. A different organization also calling themselves Friends of Justice issued the statement on Wednesday night, not the nonprofit group organized in the wake of a 1999 Tulia drug sting in Texas, which denies it made the statement.

In March, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) recommended Stephanie Rose to lead the Northern District and Nick Klinefeldt to lead the Southern District. Upon learning that his two recommendations would now begin the formal confirmation process, Harkin said, that both candidates “are superb attorneys who have the character, experiences and expertise to vigorously and fairly enforce the law.”

Both of Iowa’s U.S. Senators — Harkin and Chuck Grassley (R) — will now file paperwork with the Senate Judicial Committee in relation to the two candidates. Once that paperwork is received, the committee will schedule confirmation hearings. If those hearings are successful, the two candidates will then be placed before the entire Senate for final consideration and confirmation.

Despite criticism of his selections, Harkin maintains that the two individuals are the best positioned to lead the U.S. prosecution arm in Iowa.

“Stephanie Rose is extremely qualified to be U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. As a 12-year attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she has demonstrated great intellect and judgment, leadership and strength of character, and commitment to the unique role and responsibilities of a U.S. Attorney,” Harkin said. “Her nomination has historic significance for Iowa given that she would be the first confirmed woman to hold this position for the Northern District.”

If confirmed, Rose will replace Matt Dummermuth, an attorney recommended by Sen. Chuck Grassley and appointed by Pres. George W. Bush in January 2007. Although nominated by the Bush administration in Dec. 2008, Dummermuth never faced Senate confirmation.

Harkin also offered praise for Klinefeldt, calling the 35-year-old “extremely well-qualified” to serve the Southern District.

“As a federal criminal defense attorney practicing in the Southern District of Iowa, he has demonstrated intellect and judgment. He understands, moreover, the unique role and responsibilities of a U.S. Attorney. Nick Klinefeldt has the right combination of experience and integrity to bring effective leadership and justice to the Southern District of Iowa.”

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Klinefeldt will replace Matt Whitaker, who was nominated by Pres. George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June 2004.