Stories

An international team of scientists, funded with $10 million in grant money from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and supported by at least two Iowa entities, has completed the first draft of the genome of a domesticated pig — a scientific advance that holds promise for both future swine production and human medicine.
“Understanding [...]

Reversing an earlier decision, Iowa’s three public universities will begin a groundwater-monitoring program at a quarry in Waterloo that they use to dump coal ash.

Student environmental activists from Iowa State University will meet with the school’s president Oct. 2 to demand that the university’s practice of disposing toxic coal ash in an unlined quarry in Waterloo be stopped.

Student activists at Iowa State University want their school to alter its coal ash disposal method by the end of 2009, and they began their campaign Monday to make that happen.

A joint study of earmarks from the 110th Congress shows Iowa State University receiving the fifth highest benefit from lawmakers, trailing four institutions of higher learning in Alabama and Mississippi.

Students at Iowa’s state universities say getting their schools to change their coal ash disposal methods will be a priority during the coming school year, and a new organization could make that easier.

Iowa’s three largest public universities have determined that their coal ash disposal method does not pose a risk to the public health, a decision some say was made without sufficient evidence or regard for experiences with contamination in neighboring states.

Officials at Iowa State University will meet with the owners of the site where its toxic coal ash is dumped to discuss possible public health dangers, a move that could lead the school to weigh “the ramifications of changing” its dumping policy.

Jeffrey Witt, assistant director of utilities for Iowa State University, said since new information has come to light, “it was time to touch base again” with the owners of the unlined, unmonitored dump.

When Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources last year began to draft tougher regulations on the disposal of coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal, it faced an enormous backlash. And joining the fight against regulation was the University of Iowa.

Nate Silver, the political prognosticator who rose to fame during the 2008 presidential campaign, will speak at Iowa State University on Monday, April 20, at 8 p.m. His presentation, “How Obama Really Won the Election,” is free and open to the public.