Some black parents must acknowledge their “Driving While Black” fears when their children first learn to drive.

From left: Captain Dana Wingert and Major David Lillard (Des Moines Police Department) and Keith Ratliff and Linda Carter Lewis (NAACP).

Those fears and concerns have intensified in Des Moines since two white police officers maced and beat a black couple with police batons during a traffic stop on Sept. 12.

Black leaders, residents and others gathered at a meeting organized by the Des Moines Branch of the NAACP to learn more about the case and voice their concerns. Several people, including two Iowa Legislators, asked for better policing techniques and improved community relations.

“I still think we’re heading to a crisis,” said State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, (D-Des Moines). “What we’re seeing now are just signs. And we’re watching it escalate each time something happens… down the road it’s going to hit a brick wall.”

About 40 people, including police officers and members of the NAACP, met Monday at the Bob Mickle Center in Des Moines to get details of the case involving Erin Evans, 21 and Octavius Bonds, 24. Neither the couple nor their attorney, Peter Berger, attended the meeting.

Bonds and Evans were stopped by officers Mersed Dautovic and John Mailander after Evans allegedly failed to yield to an emergency vehicle. According to the Des Moines Register, the officers reported that the couple was uncooperative and failed to respond to their orders, and they struck them with police batons and also used mace on Bonds. The couple was charged with interference with official acts. Bonds also was charged with assault on a police officer. Both have pleaded not guilty. The couple’s arraignment is Oct. 24. One witness told the Des Moines Register that the couple did not act aggressively toward the officers.

Linda Carter-Lewis, president of the Des Moines branch of the NAACP, said no conclusions have been drawn about the case, but they organized the meeting to provide the community with more facts.

Major David Lillard of the police department told meeting attendees that the complaint process has stalled because the couple’s attorney, Berger, had advised them against sharing their version of what happened with police until after the criminal trial, which could be sometime in February of 2009. He said the long wait for information is “not ideal.”

Lillard said both officers are still on duty. Lillard said regardless of the outcome of the trial, the allegations that the officers used too much force will be investigated. He said they also need the couple’s version of what happened.

“We want to get every piece of information from them that we can,” Lillard said.

Lillard stressed that if it is found that the “young officers” had made mistakes, they would be held accountable. A few residents said the inexperience of the officers did not justify their behavior.

Lillard also explained that anytime officers use physical force, including batons and tasers, they must file a report that is reviewed by several people, including Chief of Police Judy Bradshaw. Reports also are reviewed by Rudy Sims, director of the Des Moines Human Rights Commission and the city attorney and city manager, Lillard said.

“Not all the evidence is in,” Lillard said. “Not all the facts have been gathered.”

State Rep. Wayne Ford, (D-Des Moines) asked officials about their stance on using citizen review panels. Lillard said the community has not pushed for such a review mechanism, but that the investigation will have a “transparent conclusion.”

In 2007, the Des Moines Police Department received 28 citizen complaints and 45 internal complaints against officers. Of the citizen complaints, 11 were “sustained” which meant the officers “did something wrong and were disciplined,” Lillard said. Of the 45 internal complaints, 48 were sustained. The number of sustained complaints is higher because some of the internal complaints involved more than one police officers. Penalties for the officers could include counseling, oral reprimand, written reprimand, suspension without pay and termination.

Two officers were terminated for their behavior in 2007, Lillard said.

Sgt. Bernell Edwards of the Des Moines Police Department speaks to meeting attendees.

Lillard did not provide disaggregated or comparative data of the complaints, but more detailed data was requested by residents, including Drake University Professor Eric Johnson.

Officials said there are 382 sworn officers in Des Moines and of that total, 211 are patrol officers. Lillard said he didn’t have data on the officers’ racial makeup.

Resident Betty Petty asked Lillard why there have not been media requests, like in other high profile cases, asking for witnesses to come forward. Lillard said he couldn’t answer that, but that “the more eyes we have on this incident, the better off we are going to be able to get to the truth.”

Officers are supposed to use “just enough force to take that person into custody and nothing more,” Lillard said.

Educator Kittie Weston-Knauer asked officials if it wouldn’t make more sense to remove the two officers from duty pending the investigations.

Lillard said all the parties are entitled to due process, but that the officers are “under extreme scrutiny” because of this case.

Residents asked a variety of questions about officer training for anger management, the number of cameras in squad cars, how much force is considered too much and what is being done to improve police community relations with blacks.

Lillard said officers receive annual trainings and “refresher” diversity training. He said budget constraints limit the number of cameras in squad cars. He hopes neighborhood-based officers and meetings such as the one held on Monday night might help improve community relations.

Des Moines School Board Member Jonathan Narcisse said there are a growing number of concerns about racial profiling and police intimidation.

“We’re not out there to intimidate people,” Lillard responded. He added that officers would prefer to help people without ever having to take someone to jail.

Sgt. Bernell Edwards said he spends a lot of time in neighborhoods north of downtown and has good interactions with residents.

“We need to reach out to the rest of this community,” he said.

Community Activist Veola Perry said the police department must become “more creative” at reaching out to residents who might not feel comfortable attending a meeting.

“Go where they are,” said Jo Ann Lovelady, a community activist. “They’re not coming because they’re already intimidated.”

A few residents shared stories about being stopped by police. Debra Green, 34, said she had been stopped by police several times. One time she didn’t have a child in a car seat, but felt that because she has a criminal record, officers asked to search her car for drugs.

Green said that officers should treat people respectfully regardless of whether the motorist has a criminal record or not.

“Because you have a record, that doesn’t give police a right to beat you,” she said.

Green told police officials that young officers need more guidance on how not to abuse their power.

Lillard stressed to residents that if they feel they’ve been mistreated by a police officer to file a complaint with the department’s Office of Professional Standards. He said the complaints are investigated and residents will receive a letter detailing the outcome of the complaint.

Sportscaster Chris Hassel (Photo: whotv.com)

On Aug. 10 as she watched a WHO-TV Sunday evening broadcast on Channel 13, sports reporter Chris Hassel recapped the 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Beijing by referring to the Chinese men’s basketball team as the U.S.’s first “eggroll on their plate.”

“I just got angry,” Paul told about 50 people who gathered inside Drake University’s Harmon Arts Center for a “Public Forum on Race and Ethnicity in Public Discourse.”

Since the newscast, Paul, who is Vietnamese, said she has traded nearly 10 emails with WHO’s News Director Rod Peterson, sports reporters Chris Hassel and Andy Fales and Dale Woods, general manager.

Most disturbing, Paul told the audience and panel, was an email she received from Fales on Aug. 11. Paul said Fales wrote that she was “being too sensitive.” He also wrote that “Referencing eggrolls when speaking of China is akin to referencing hamburgers when discussing Americans.”

Cyndi Chen, division administrator of the Status of Iowans of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage, said the goal of the forum held on Tuesday was to create an open dialogue and a “better place to live” by addressing inappropriate comments in the media.

“Reporting is not comedy,” Chen said. “Why are reporters using those words to refer to people? I don’t like it. I’m more than just food.”

No one from WHO-TV participated in the forum. In an interview on Wednesday with Iowa Independent, Peterson, the station’s News Director, said he was invited to sponsor and be a part of the forum, but was never provided details of the event, which Chen denied.

Peterson, who is Hassel and Fales’ boss, deflected Iowa Independent’s questions about whether the comments made on the newscast and in Fales’ email were offensive, professional and represented the station.

“It would be in Ms. Paul’s opinion,” that the comments were offensive, Peterson said.

The meeting and panel included Drake University professors Judy Allen, associate professor of psychology; Lenore Metrick-Chen, assistant professor of art and design; and Sandra Patton-Imani, associate professor of American Studies; and Leland Searles, professor of sociocultural anthropology at Des Moines Area Community College and Rudy Simms, executive director of the Des Moines Human Rights Commission.

Paul wrote Peterson on Aug. 11 that the sportscaster’s attempt at humor was “something a news reporter should be unbiased to and above” and played into racial stereotypes.

“This statement was small-minded and highly inappropriate for a news station,” Paul wrote.
Paul also wrote a letter to the editor in The Des Moines Register voicing her concerns.

Patton-Imani, associate professor of American Studies at Drake, said when people of color object to such comments, they are often told they’re being too sensitive, but there is no such thing as “innocent language.”

“So when racial comments are made, we need to think critically about how they support white supremacy. About how they foster discrimination,” she said. “About how they even unwittingly perpetuate a society where people are silently ranked by race, ethnicity, history and power.”

Paul provided a copy of Fales’ email to forum participants. Fales stated, “Censoring language is a very half-assed method of changing thought. It places blame on the wrong entity and does nothing to change the actual condition. What’s more, it reveals (an) inner lining of insecurity, fear and hostility that does far more to exacerbate the situation than language itself.”

Fales stated in the email that he understood the connotations of racial slurs like “chinaman and gook” and that it was a “good thing that we’ve taught ourselves to move away from them. But to go up in arms about the affable association of an appetizer, which is in no way linked to poverty, oppression or violence is pushing the envelope of political correctness too far.”

Searles, the DMACC professor of Sociocultural Anthropology, said equating a group of people with food isn’t an innocent act, which he found offensive.

“There’s almost an implied aggression. If you are an eggroll and I’m going to eat you metaphorically speaking, I’m going to do violence against you,” Searles said. “There’s a metaphorical death in calling a team a group of eggrolls or referring to them as eggrolls.”

Many people who spoke at the forum denounced the comments and shared similar stories of media insensitivity. Examples included Don Imus, a commentator who referred to the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball team as “nappy headed hos”; the term “Welfare Queen” and how the media used it in reference to black women; and the use of the terms “illegal immigrant and undocumented immigrant.”, among others. The panelist discussed the effects of such language on society.

One Drake professor in the audience who did not give his name said the media has failed to address fears about the U.S. “slipping” and China moving ahead.

Audience member Don Brown, who lives in West Des Moines and formerly worked at WHO-TV and the Des Moines Register, told the panel that he has experienced anger over comments made by WHO-TV sportscasters regarding Tiger Woods. Brown said he also contacted the reporters who “tried to minimize it.”

Allen, the Drake associate professor of psychology, said the comments objectified, devalued and dehumanized people. She said the use of humor is a way to rationalize the comments, but such comments harm the bystanders who hear it as well as those who make the utterances by destroying empathy.

Chen said Fales offered to meet one-on-one with Paul, but Paul felt uncomfortable with the idea. Paul said she is still awaiting answers and an apology.

“Was the response from Fales WHO’s official response?” Paul said. “And if not, what are they going to do?”

Peterson, who has been news director for two years, said he met with Chen on Aug. 19 and that the meeting was “very good.”

Chen said that Peterson was unaware at that point about Fales’ email to Paul. She said she questioned him on whether Fales’ email followed station protocol. They also discussed reporting in general, and she invited him to sponsor and participate in the forum.

Peterson said reporters at WHO-TV are instructed to copy him with any email correspondence they have with viewers, as that correspondence becomes a part of the station’s public file with the Federal Communications Commission. Peterson said Fales did not copy him on the email response he sent to Paul and was told that he should have.

Peterson said WHO-TV staff are concerned about the needs of “all of our viewers.”

“Almost every other week you hear about some shooting that happened,” said Abraham Funchess, division administrator for the Iowa Commission on the Status of African-Americans.

The Iowa State Baptist Convention, which represents about 8,000 congregants, is working with the commission on a “10 Point Plan for the 21st Century” based on a similar program in Boston. Organizers also hope members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Church of God and Christ will join in the efforts. Several other entities, including Iowa Workforce Development, Iowa Department of Education and Wells Fargo also have agreed to assist, he said.

The plan will take place in the 10 target cities the commission is working in as part of its Ongoing-Covenant with Black Iowa, which is a plan to improve the lives of blacks in Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Fort Dodge, Davenport, Burlington, Ft. Madison, Iowa City, Sioux City and Des Moines.

“It’s pulling in our most critical institution – the church,” Funchess said.

According to the National Crime Prevention Council, youth crime and gang activity is most prevalent during the summer when many youth are unsupervised. According to a summer 2008 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the arrests of juveniles under the age of 18 for murder rose 3.4% in 2006 compared with 2005, according to 2008 FBI statistics. The report also found that people under the age of 25 accounted for 52% of those arrested for murder and 64.8% of those arrested for robbery in 2006. A spike also was noted in gang activity, the report found.

The 10 point plan will address a variety of issues, including:

· A cultural shift to help reduce youth violence, both physically and verbally within the black community by sparking conversation, introspection and reflection on the thoughts and actions that hold blacks back as a people, individually and collectively.

· Churches will develop a curriculum regarding black and Latino history with an emphasis on the struggles of women of color.

· Address the trauma as a physical and emotional reality on the lives of young people and their families as a direct result of violence.

· Build meaningful relationships with high-risk youth.

· Focus on connecting and rebuilding the lives of youth who have been incarcerated and stigmatized by mainstream society.

· Provide youth advocacy and one-one-one mentoring for high-risk youth.

· Provide gang mediation and intervention for high-risk youth with the goal of establishing cease-fires and building the foundation for active peace.

· Establish accountable, community-based economic development projects with an emphasis on revenue generation and demystifying the accumulation and power of money through financial literacy.

· Building partnerships with the social/secular institutions, with suburban and downtown communities of faith to help provide spiritual, human and material support.

· Provide ongoing training for individual churches along with a systematic program in leadership development to create, maintain, and sustain community mobilization.

The Boston 10 Point plan arose after gang violence occurred inside a church. A similar problem occurred recently at a funeral held in Davenport at the church of Iowa State Baptist Convention President Rev. Rogers Kirk, Funchess said. Kirk was unavailable for comment.

The plan will feature a national curriculum, “Community Works: Smart Teens make Safer Communities,” which is part of the National Crime and Prevention Council. It’s an 11-week program for youth to help them understand how violence affects them and culminates in a community project, Funchess said.

“The idea is that this is something that will never die,” Funchess said. “It will be sustaining.”

Funchess said physical violence isn’t the only type of violence being addressed by the 10 point plan. He said the plan also addresses the “disproportionality” that affects black youth in nearly every aspect of their lives as Iowans.

A task force organized by Gov. Chet Culver is trying to address problems within the juvenile justice system, including the disproportionate number of blacks who are detained in juvenile detention facilities. A disproportionate number of blacks are imprisoned in Iowa and suspended and expelled from schools across the state, according to state criminal justice and education data.

Funchess recently told the task force that “accountability begins at home, and the church of all institutions can help create these values.”

According to the CDC’s 2008 report, homicide was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 24, with 82 percent of them dying because of a firearm.

“This stuff is happening so much that we get desensitized,” Funchess said. “But it does require our intervention.”

But, officials said they couldn’t explain why a disproportionate number of their detainees are minorities – at a time when the number of youth overall in the facilities appears to be decreasing.

Third District Associate Court Judge Todd Hensley from Sioux City, one of about 25 members of the task force who met Thursday at Iowa Workforce Development, asked the officials for insights into why the numbers aren’t decreasing for minorities.

“It hasn’t changed,” said Scott Reed, program administrator for the Polk County Juvenile Detention Center in Des Moines.

“The minority issue is huge,” he added. “It needs more discussion.”

The task force, which was created last year, is studying the racial disparities in the juvenile justice system and will make recommendations to Culver in 2009. The 40-member group includes judges, juvenile court officers, child advocates and others.

Between 40 and 50 percent of the youth detained in Polk County belong to a minority group, Reed said. The facility, which is staffed to house 33 youth, had a 35 percent recidivism rate from July 2007 through June 2008, he said.

Reed, who is also vice president of the Iowa Juvenile Detention Association, said more alternatives to detention are needed before a youth is sent to a detention center. The centers don’t have a big impact on who is detained because courts order youth for detention, Reed said.

The state’s facilities, which are comprised of county facilities and regional facilities that serve multiple counties, are staffed to serve about 240 youth, but the facilities can hold more youth, officials said. Officials also expressed concerns about potential closures of regional centers that serve multiple counties.

Detention centers provide a range of services, including multiple health assessments and year round classrooms. The facilities also provide a long list of other services, such as suicide assessments, dental screenings and religious services. Officials said they deal with a few suicide attempts from youth and are quick to monitor youth who exhibit signs they may harm themselves.

“Unlike most states, we do not just lock up our youth,” Reed said. “We take an opportunity to teach.”

Staff talk with youth about their behaviors and try to ward off problems, he said. In severe instances, some youth must be physically restrained, he said. Reed said there were 41 physical restraints last year in Polk County, which had decreased from previous years. He did not provide comparative data. He attributed the drop to improved training techniques.

Reed said the public has some misperceptions about detention centers. He said more discussion is necessary about what to do with youth if detention isn’t an option, such as “in-home detention.”

“We’re not a jail and a lot of people perceive us in that way,” he said. “We provide a whole slate of services.”

The task force also has created a committee that is gearing up to write the comprehensive report that is due next year to Culver’s office.

Commissioners will begin discussing past and future priorities and the commission’s 2008 annual report during a meeting at 1 p.m. today at the Grimes State Office Building.

“We always have to factor in the new election,” said Alicia Claypool, commission chairwoman.

Commissioners and volunteers also have a booth at the Iowa State Fair this week. Fairgoers can win prizes for taking a quiz about civil rights. Youth can complete a survey. The booth is located along the south wall of the Varied Industries Building.

“It gives us a chance to talk to people from all over Iowa so that’s a good thing,” Claypool said.

Claypool said the commission has experienced many successes during the past two years, including being able this year to extend the deadline for Iowans to file discrimination complaints from 180 to 300 days.

At today’s meeting, the commission will review its policy decisions since 2001, some of which include:

• Des Moines School Board member Jonathan Narcisse discussed the state of African-Americans in Iowa. The commission supported his work to create a report about the problems.
• The commission supported the Ames City Council, which invited a former commissioner to speak about making Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a city holiday.
• The commission signed a statement for El Forro, a Latino and Latina advocacy group, warning against discrimination of people of Middle Eastern descent.
• In 2002, the commission supported efforts to end the use of Native American mascots, particularly for schools. The commission lauded Iowa schools that chose new mascots.
• The commission sent a letter in 2002 to the Iowa Utilities Board to allow expansion of the program to people who have physical and cognitive disabilities, which the board declined.
• In 2004, the commission wrote a letter praising WHO-TV for removing ads deemed as “anti-immigration.”
• The commission voted unanimously in 2004 to support the right of felons to vote.
• The commission, along with Des Moines Area religious leaders, denounced the distribution of Neo-Nazi fliers in 2005.
• The commission sent a message to Iowa State University in support of an anti-hate rally in response to homophobic graffiti.
• The commission supported an educational center in Des Moines for immigrants.
• The commission opposed making English the official state language.
• The commission supported the Iowa Department of Education in creating a nondiscrimination policy and anti-bulling policies, which included sexual orientation.
• The commission opposed requiring all citizens to obtain voter ID cards.
• The commission worked against predatory lending practices.
• The commission supported legislative proposals that would allow immigrants to qualify for state residency to pursue college regardless of immigration status.
• The commission opposed a state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.
• The commission worked to improve housing accessibility on behalf of people who have disabilities.
• The commission has worked for immigration reform, calling for system overhauls, more visas and family reunification, among other fixes.

Children “do the time right alongside of their parents,” said Lisa Thorpe-Vaugn, president of Non-Profit Leadership Training Institute and a program administrator from Pittsburg, Pa.

Caregiver’s Choice is a national program that pairs adult mentors with children who have a parent who is incarcerated. Creative Visions, a Des Moines social service agency led by Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad (D-Des Moines), plans to offer the program, Abdul-Samad said.

Thorpe-Vaughn said the problems of incarceration affect children in urban, suburban and rural communities across the country. There are 10 million children between the ages of 4-18 who have one or both parents in prison, she said.

“This is one of the worst epidemics,” she said. “We could fill school districts up just with children who have parents incarcerated.”

Children of incarcerated parents face a higher risk of being incarcerated, she said. About 65 percent of the children of prisoners will one day find themselves incarcerated, said Thorpe-Vaughn who visited Iowa prisons last week during a recruitment effort iniatiated by Rev. M.D. Eppright. She spoke to Iowa prisoners — some who had 10 or more children, she said. The average prisoner has about three children, she said.

Amy Shull, 34, spent eight years in the women’s prison in Mitchellville and will be on parole for four years. She applauds the program and the fact that mentors continue working with children once their parent returns home from prison.

“This is a very good program for us mothers who were in there and who are trying to improve our lives and want to see our childen do well,” Shull said recently during an informational event at Creative Visions.

The federally-funded program began eight years ago with mentors from churches and universities. The mentors were asked to commit one hour each week for a year. The program was successful at finding mentors, but struggled to find the children to mentor even though statistically, organizers knew there were plenty of children needing help, she said.The mentors, who must undergo background checks and home visits and who are matched with a same gender mentee, get a $1,000 voucher that is given to a non-profit agency of their choice for use in mentoring the child. The agency gets the money to support the match and support the child, Thorpe-Vaughn said. The money could, for example, be used to pay for educational materials if the mentor noticed the child was struggling academically, she said.

The mentor program is already underway in social service programs in Davenport, Sioux Falls, Dubuque and Cedar Rapids, she said.

Ketterer told commissioners there is still confusion over whether the Iowa Department of Public Health or other state agencies will handle complaints about smoking at casino facilities. Gambling research, casino crimes that are on the increase and other issues also were discussed during the meeting Thursday at Stoney Creek Inn in Johnston.

“They have a big task at public health to interpret the statute and implement these rules on short notice,” said Ketterer. “I’m sure it will be an evolving issue.”

Ketterer said state officials from several agencies have agreed that gaming floors, which he defined as areas where gaming activities take place, are the responsibility of the commission. The definition of “enclosed areas” at gambling facilities will be determined by the public health department, he said. Diagrams and pictures of restaurants and bars near gaming floors in Iowa casinos will be sent to public health officials who will use the pictures and diagrams in assessing complaints about how the ban applies to those areas, he said.

Ketterer said anyone who goes through the state’s two publicly owned racetrack facilities’ grandstands and the “apron” areas in front of the casinos, won’t be able to smoke there. Smoking is allowed on all Iowa gaming floors, he said. Restaurants and bars within the gaming floors are not exempt and no smoking is allowed, he said.

Smoking is allowed outside, he said. No smoking is allowed in areas on the properties, such as enclosed barns, kennel buildings, racing offices or jock’s rooms, he added.

Commissioners also heard from Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Assistant Director Charis Paulsen who told commissioners about the background investigations that 109 agents conduct on gaming companies and casino employees. Five agents also investigate non-casino crimes, including bookmaking, illegal gambling, amusement devices and lottery ticket forgery.

Paulsen said due to the expansion of gaming in Iowa, low-level gaming licenses increased from 1,790 in 2003 to 2,716 in 2006. In 2007, the agency conducted 2,527 gaming background checks, and 6,812 checks were performed on employees, she said.

Criminal investigations are conducted in all casinos, she said. Agents help casino officials check the identification of patrons and eject unruly or intoxicated patrons, among other things. Agents are most frequently involved in cases that include public intoxication, disorderly conduct, theft and gambling investigations, which include cheating and the use of Iowa licenses to gain unlawful entry into casinos in the state, she said. They also look for patrons who engage in “buffalo hunting,” which Paulsen said involves patrons who look for coins on the casino floors and slot or racing tickets that can be turned in for cash, which don’t belong to them.

Paulsen said the DCI tracks casino crimes across the state. Here are the crimes Paulsen reported for the state’s 17 licensed casinos in 2007:

*  194 public intoxication and disorderly conduct cases
*  74 thefts
*  29 gambling investigations
*  69 fraud cases
*  64 forgery cases
*  88 criminal trespass cases
*  34 assaults

She said the biggest increases were in cases of forgery, assaults and people who applied for gaming licenses but were arrested for having outstanding warrants, which Paulsen said has increased tenfold, but she did not provide the warrant figures or comparative data.

Christine Reilly, executive director of the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders, warned the commission about the effects of problem gambling on society. She said 1 percent of the population has problems with gambling, and certain groups, including college students, ethnic minorities and older adults, may be more vulnerable to developing problems with gambling.

“That’s a lot of people we need to care about,” she said.

Ketterer also told commissioners that the state database that will track gamblers who win $10,000 won’t be operational until September. The winners’ names will be checked against the database to see if they owe child support and other types of government debts, and if they do, their winnings will be confiscated.

Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Administrator Jack Ketterer said he’ll update commissioners on the database that will be used to track jackpot winners’ government debts.

“The state hasn’t made their database available yet,” he said.

The meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m. July 17 at Stoney Creek Inn in Johnston.

Iowa’s new Smokefree Air Act will also be discussed with commissioners. The law prohibits smoking in public places, workplaces and some outdoor areas. Ketterer said casino patrons are still allowed to smoke on gaming floors, but other areas of the casinos, such as restaurants and bars now prohibit smoking.

Christine Reilly, executive director of the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders, also will give a presentation.

Discussions on new gaming licenses are still on hold until sometime this fall, Ketterer said.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Griffin’s legendary battle against Katz Drug Store, which had refused Griffin and other African-Americans service because of their skin color.

The museum, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, the Des Moines Human Rights Commission and the Des Moines Chapter of the NAACP will host a tribute to Griffin, who died in 2000.

At 2 p.m., on July 7 at the Grimes State Office Building, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission will have a ceremony to name its offices after Griffin. At 7 p.m., the museum will hold a theatrical tribute featuring Ruth Ann Gaines, Maureen Korte of the Iowa Arts Council and musician John Cheatem. A symbolic march will follow the production.

In 1948, after Griffin and others picketed the downtown Des Moines store, Griffin sued Katz Drug Store under the 1884 Iowa Civil Rights Act, and won. The series of legal victories Griffin won paved the way for blacks to receive equal access in public accommodations — seven years before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott sparked a national Civil Rights Movement.

The museum, which honors the U.S. Army’s first officer candidate class for black men in 1917 and the first Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942, has a little known connection to Griffin, said Joe Nolte, executive director.

Griffin was a member of the (WAAC’s) but it’s unclear whether she served in Des Moines, he said. Griffin’s military background was used by defense lawyers for Katz, Nolte said.

“We thought that was something worth celebrating,” he said, of her military background. “We want to make sure people understand the courage, the bravery and the skills she would have needed were definitely honed during her time in the military.”

The event, which is sponsored by Banker’s Trust, will end with a march by candle light.

“As a tribute to the folks who worked so hard and sacrificed so much to make sure we had civil rights in Iowa,” Nolte said. 

As employees entered the south entrance of a busy West Des Moines office building on Tuesday, the familiar smell of cigarette smoke was gone.

So were the chatty smokers who usually gathered there daily for breaks and lunch outside the building entrance that was affectionately known by all as “the smokers’ entrance.”

The landscape of the parking lot was transformed on the first day of Iowa’s Smokefree Air Act, which went into effect July 1, 2008 and prohibits smoking in public places, workplaces and some outdoor areas. Instead, workers sat in solitary confinement inside their personal vehicles puffing away. Some sat with the windows cracked. Others, perhaps more defiantly, stood outside their cars. Puffing away alone.

Throughout the busy office building, some employees quizzed each other on where it’s still legal to smoke in Iowa. Some complained about the change to their daily routines.

Most non-smokers who used the entrance seemed to go about their day as usual. I thought of the smokers as I went in and out the entrance that day. The ban didn’t have much effect on me so far because I don’t smoke. The main difference I’ve noticed so far is the missing smell of smoke outside the entrance.

But, I couldn’t help but notice the parking lot, which was dotted with solemn smokers lighting up while sitting alone inside their cars.

It looked odd to me. But then I remembered how odd I thought it was that a building would have a dedicated “smokers’ entrance” to begin with — given all that’s known about the dangers of smoking.