Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge (right) visited with flood victims following a ceremony in downtown Cedar Rapids Saturday that commemorated the one-year anniversary of the massive 2008 floods.

CEDAR RAPIDS — The one-year anniversary of unprecedented flooding in Iowa’s second-largest city was commemorated in a ceremony on Saturday just steps away from the now calm Cedar River and massive piles of debris. While state and local officials stopped to remember the state’s largest natural disaster, they also looked to the future.

Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, who spoke at the ceremony and serves as Gov. Chet Culver’s point-person for disaster recovery, said she continues to experience a host of emotions.

“Certainly I have pride in the city and the people and what they’ve been able to accomplish and the way they’ve pulled together and worked so hard,” Judge told the Iowa Independent when the ceremony was complete. “What they’ve been able to accomplish is really quite remarkable. When you look at other disasters in other parts of the country, this type of recovery just doesn’t happen this quickly.

“Of course, I also felt the frustration that the people feel. And the governor and I understand that. We sympathize, and, believe me, you’ll never know all of the back story on getting to where we are today with federal money and state programs to try to assist — things that didn’t exist a year ago that we’ve been able to accomplish.

“I’m also sad. This has been a wonderful ceremony, but there is a sense of sadness yet here, of loss.”

Officials at all levels of government, including U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, praised the progress that has been made in Cedar Rapids but lamented the continued frustrations of flood victims.

Judge acknowledges that there are critics of the way recovery has been handled, but said she also believes that the decisions made were the right ones.

“We know that there continue to be some factions that believe there should have been a special session [of the legislature] called,” she said. “I’m still not sure what would have been accomplished by a special session that was not accomplished.”

Gov. Chet Culver, in consultation with an executive council, had authority to use ending balance money to address immediate needs following the floods and tornadoes that affected Iowans.

“We felt like we had assistance flowing as rapidly as would have happened otherwise,” Judge said. “We feel like that we did what we needed to do and that we made the right decisions.”

One of the first formal meetings on flood recovery once the legislature reconvened was held in Judge’s office. She said the entire Linn County delegation was present and pressing for assistance.

“Believe me, you don’t want to try to deter [Sen.] Rob Hogg or [Rep.] Tyler Olson or any of the rest of them when they are on a mission,” she said.

In addition to giving credit to the Linn County state delegation, Judge also had high praise for the communication and logistical efforts required to evacuate Mercy Medical Center during the flood.

“It was such a team effort,” she said. “The idea of evacuating an entire critical care hospital and all of the patients from newborn babies to heart attack patients and everything in between, and doing it as quickly as it actually was done is an incredible task. People in public health and emergency management just can’t fathom it.”

Judge, as well as many others speaking at the ceremony, also took a moment to thank the members of the Iowa National Guard who were deployed to Cedar Rapids to help with securing and inspecting flood zones.

“Just as [Cedar Rapids] Mayor Kay Halloran said today, my thanks will always go out to the Iowa National Guard. They stepped up and there was, I think, a sense of reassurance and calmness when the Guard arrived.”

The evidence that good decisions were made “on every level,” according to Judge, is the fact that not one life was lost in the Cedar Rapids floods.

“We couldn’t stop the water. If we could have, we would have. I don’t know what we could have done differently to prevent this,” she said.

Judge also pledged that the governor’s office will stand with city and county officials throughout the continued recovery effort.

“We certainly want to stay with the city and the county as they think about long-term preparedness and mitigation,” she said. “If there are things we need to do to prevent this type of flooding again in Cedar Rapids, we need to do that. We’ll be with them. We’ll be helping with that.”

Here’s the bit Letterman called “An Important Swine Flu Announcement from the Lt. Governor of Iowa.”

“Today, the Office of Governor Chet Culver and Lt. Governor Patty Judge received a suspicious letter that appeared to be similar to those received recently by other Governors’ Offices around the country. The matter is being investigated by the US Postal Inspection Service, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Iowa Department of Public Safety. As this is an ongoing investigation, our office cannot comment any further, and all inquiries regarding this matter should be directed to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

More than 20 state offices have now received suspicious letters since the beginning of the month. Offices in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming have reported such letters. In addition, officials in the Virgin Islands also received a suspicious letter. Field tests of the white powdery substances in those cases have all returned negative for dangerous substances, but further lab tests are underway.

Officials in the Omaha office of the FBI are expected to make a statement regarding the incident later today.

Once the nation’s largest supplier of kosher meat and an economic boon to northeastern Iowa, Agriprocessors’ failure is now threatening to saddle the town of Postville with obligations to repay a federal loan. Documents filed this week in a New York bankruptcy court reveal that if the company doesn’t resume payments on a 20-year U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) loan the city took on its behalf to build a sewage-treatment plant, the city could likely owe the more than $4 million in debt that remains. Agriprocessors had been paying nearly $25,000 per month on the loan, but is now more than $100,000 behind on payments.

The treatment plant, constructed several years ago as part of a settlement of environmental complaints against Agriprocessors, was paid for with a $3.3 million federal grant and the USDA loan.  Although the company has returned to limited poultry production under the supervision of bankruptcy trustee Joseph Sarachek, and possible buyers are under consideration, Agriprocessors remains unable to meet even its current monthly obligations.

Sen. Charles Grassley hopes the Department of Agriculture won't try to collect a loan payment from the town of Postville next month.

Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said in his weekly conference call that he hopes the Agriculture Department will not demand payment immediately.

Noting that “you can’t get blood out of a turnip,” Grassley indicated he would be willing to go to bat for Postville, but not at the risk of having taxpayers pick up the tab for the potential buyers — individuals Grassley believes would reap direct benefits from the facility.

Grassley said Postville should not be unduly worried about the upcoming payment that is due in January.

“I don’t think they have to be worried about it because I think the USDA is — without making any decisions — just doesn’t have to push anything in January against Postville,” he said. “Now, whether the people at the USDA feel the same way that I’ve told you about this, I can’t say at this point.”

Sen. Tom Harkin has intervened on behalf of producers and auction barns that have not been paid for livestock sold to Agriprocessors.

In a letter released Dec. 1, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin began correspondence with Ed Schafer, the U.S. secretary of agriculture, on behalf of producers and auction barns that have not been paid for livestock sold to Agriprocessors.

According to the letter, Harkin, as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, received “numerous calls” from interested parties.

“These producers and auction barns are already in most instances operating at a loss due to low market prices, and if they go unpaid for their livestock or poultry, their own prospects for remaining in business are greatly reduced,” Harkin wrote.

Harkin urged the USDA to enforce the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act, which provides payment protection to these entities.

“It has become apparent that the USDA has allowed this company to operate insolvent, causing further financial injury to producers and auction barns [and] jeopardizing their own operations,” Harkin said in a prepared statement. “USDA should step up its actions immediately and make clear that unpaid sellers of livestock and poultry receive what they are owed, as the law requires, and not be tangled up for perhaps a long time in bankruptcy court proceedings.”

The letter closed with a request for the USDA to hold public hearings in Iowa so that the producers and auction houses could know their rights and learn how to become involved in the bankruptcy proceedings, if necessary.

While there were some Iowa auction houses who were still allowing Agriprocesssors to purchase livestock as usual, others moved the company to a “cash-only” basis within weeks of the massive May 12 immigration raid. In his letter to the USDA, Harkin admitted that he does not know how many producers or auction houses have been affected by non-payment.

Marvin Waterhouse, manager of Manchester Livestock Auction, told Iowa Independent this summer that he had decided to move Agriprocessors, which had typically been a slow-paying client before the raid, to cash-only status.

“I informed them that they would need to pay up front,” Waterhouse said. “It was nothing against them personally, it’s just that I need to protect my business. If something else were to happen, I simply couldn’t afford to be left holding an unpaid bill.”

Waterhouse explained that businesses come to the auction and make purchases. Although some companies arrive with checkbook in hand, most are invoiced the same day as the sale and pay within 24 to 48 hours. It was not unusual, he said, for Agriprocessors to purchase $100,000 of livestock during an auction.

Agriprocessors, facing a $35 million lawsuit from First Bank Capital Investments, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early November. The plant’s former chief executive, Sholom Rubashkin, remains in federal custody pending a trial on a host of bank fraud and immigration-related charges. In total, seven members of plant management are facing federal charges.

Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge traveled to Postville last week and faced uncomfortable scrutiny from local residents for not visiting the community in the wake of a May immigration raid that saw roughly half of the plant’s employees detained, criminally convicted and deported. The purpose of Judge’s visit was to announce a $700,000 state aid package for former workers and the assignment of three AmeriCorps volunteers to the community.

According to information released by the state, Judge plans to “review support the state has provided and is available to the community, discuss steps the state is taking to working with residents on short and long-term needs, and get input from residents on other issues.” Judge also plans to announce new aid to the community and those affected by the string of incidents at Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant which was once the region’s largest employer. Three AmeriCorps-VISTA members are anticipated to begin work with community leaders and residents next week.

The meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. at Turner Hall, the site the city has proclaimed to be a neutral site for all types of emergency and long-term assistance for former workers and residents in need. At last estimate there were 600 individuals remaining in the community — several hundred of them Jewish — in need of assistance.

Judge comes into the community on the day that Agriprocessors’ bankruptcy trustee has resumed limited poultry production at the plant. Joseph Sarachek, the court-appointed trustee, faced high emotions yesterday as former workers demanded to know the process by which workers were selected to come back into the plant. Their requests for information, however, were not sated by Saracheck.

The idea, Skinny says, is that the move would bolster Gov. Chet Culver’s standing leading up to his re-election bid in 2010.

Here’s the guy’s note to Skinny: “Taking a page out of Vilsack’s playbook (for once), Chet wants Patty as the chair of IDP just as Vilsack had Sally Pederson as chair of the party.” He adds: “It makes sense to have the lieutenant governor overseeing the party as they roll into the 2010 campaign. Vilsack put Pederson in as chair in 2006 as they rolled into his unsuccessful presidential bid. Pederson’s draw was that she was universally liked by the party and had access to a big Rolodex of donors.” Then he asks, in what Skinny can interpret only as a snotty aside, “What is Patty’s draw?” (Well, she did have her name on every gas pump in the state for a few years.)

The theory goes that current Iowa Democratic Party chairman Scott Brennan will step down to either practice law or fill Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller’s position if he is tapped to serve in the administration of President-elect Barack Obama (Miller was an early and fervent supporter of Obama).

The Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Guard Bureau, Washington, D.C., have ordered the 1133rd and 1168th Transportation Companies to federal active duty. The mobilization is part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Global War on Terrorism. The Soldiers will leave Iowa and report to Fort Bliss, Texas for additional preparation and training before departing for the Central Command theater of operation.

To honor the guardsmen, political dignitaries joined family and friends at the sendoff ceremonies in Audubon, Iowa City, Mason City, Perry and Marshalltown.

Audubon

Several hundred people crowded in to the Audubon High School to say goodbye to 65 members in Detachment 2 of the 1168th Transportation Company. They were joined by Gov. Chet Culver and U.S. Rep. Steve King, D-Iowa, who presided over the ceremony, the Caroll Daily-Times Herald reported.

“I’m here with a simple message,” Culver, a surprise guest, told the soldiers standing at attention in six ranks before him. “To thank the members of the Guard for your service to our country, to our state, and to join every Iowan in honoring you as you are deployed.”

“But as you depart, I want you to always remember you are not alone. We will always be here for you, and we will always be grateful for your service to the country that we love. Because our service members are Iowa’s heroes…”

King remarked that he was impressed by Thursday’s show of community support.

“I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when we came over the hill here today at Audubon,” he said, referring to the hundreds of vehicles parked outside.

“You come out, Audubon, Audubon County and the surrounding area. You come out to support our military men and women who have sent themselves up as volunteers to defend our freedom and promote freedom around the world. This is a powerful testimony to the best that America has to offer here in the heartland of America.”

Iowa City

Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, joined 25 members in Detachment 1, 1133rd Transportation Company at the Regina High gymnasium in Iowa City, commending them for being both members of a community and defenders of it, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported.

“You are true patriots and you represent the best of America,” Loebsack said. “You make Iowa and our nation proud.”

Not everyone was excited about the upcoming deployment, including Jennifer — the pregnant wife of Sgt. Nile Watkins-Schoening, who is preparing for his second deployment in three years.

Jennifer said she “was a little irate” when she heard her husband would deploy again. He also missed Eve’s [his 2-year old daughter] birth, returning when she was already 15 months old after serving with the Iowa Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry from September 2005 to July 2007.

Marshalltown

Hundreds of well-wishers gathered at the Babe Harder Gymnasium on the Marshalltown Community College campus in Marshalltown to say goodbye to 40 members in Detachment 1, 1168th Transportation Company, the Marshalltown Times-Republican reported.

Kaleb Morrow of Centerville, who was previously deployed from 2003 to 2004 to Iraq admitted that the second deployment was going to more difficult since he is leaving behind his two young daughters, including 2-year-old Emilia and 2-month-old Alexandria, and his wife, Bernadette.

“It’s going to be very rough to say goodbye,” he said before the ceremony.

Morrow said he feels they are better equipped this time around especially when it comes to more armor.

Mason City

Hundreds of family members and friends filled the Mason City High School gymnasium to help send off 115 members of the 1133rd Transportation Company, the Mason City Globe-Gazette reported.

Lt. Gov. Patty judge spoke on behalf of Culver:

“Once before you have traveled to Iraq to protect the people of America and Iraq,” said Lt. Gov. Patty Judge. “There isn’t an Iowan who isn’t grateful for your sacrifices.”

“On behalf of Gov. Culver, myself and our families, we want you to know that we will be thinking of you, following your work and you will be in our prayers every day,” she said.

Several of the soldiers are serving their second deployment, including Staff Sgt. Scott Dunning, whose wife is expecting their first child, a boy, on Sunday.

“I’m due on Sunday,” she said. “That’s in three days.”

Looking at his wife, Dunning’s voice cracked, saying, “It makes it very, very difficult to leave.”

Perry

A sendoff ceremony was also planned for 65 members in the 1168th Transportation Company Perry High School gymnasium in Perry.

“I have spent a lot of time thinking about, of all the women in the United States of America, why did John McCain pick Sarah Palin?” Judge said.

“If she is qualified to be the Vice President of the United States — a heartbeat away from the presidency — why didn’t Barack Obama call me?”

“We both wear glasses.  We’ve both got kids and we like them a lot.  My resume is substantially longer than hers, but you shouldn’t hold that against me.  We both have special skills that have been widely publicized: hers being field-dressing a moose, mine being castrating a calf.”

“I have trouble understanding why this woman annoys me so darn much.”

“And I can probably get past the ‘aw shucks’ business and the ‘you’re darn right’ stuff.  The winking is super-annoying.  But in a final analysis, I’ll tell you why she annoys me so much.”

“Women have worked so hard to take our place at the political table, and we have done that by being smart by working hard, by being tough, and by being committed… And when John McCain picked this woman to be his running-mate, it was a reckless, arrogant act,” Judge concluded.

The two female politicians differ on almost every major issue of the day, Judge said, but the differences between them don’t stop there.

“Sarah knows how to field dress a moose,” Judge told a crowd of about 1,000 at Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual steak fry. “I know how to castrate a calf. The thing is, neither of those things have anything to do with this election.”

Judge said it would be stupid for Republican presidential nominee John McCain to think simply putting a woman on the ticket will mean women will support his candidacy.

“Just because you wear a pantsuit doesn’t qualify you to be in the sisterhood,” she said.

On the issues that really matter to female voters, Palin is out of touch, Judge said.

“Sarah does not believe a woman has the right to reproductive choice,” Judge said. “She does not believe in science-based education as the foundation to truth and learning. And the fact that she could be a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States scares me to death.”

She also called into question Palin’s resume, which includes serving as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and governor of Alaska for less than 2 years.

“I was elected twice to the state senate, twice as Iowa’s secretary of agriculture and now as the state’s lieutenant governor,” she said.

Then she added, jokingly, “but here’s the rub: [Sen. Barack] Obama never called.”

Judge spoke on behalf of Gov. Chet Culver who was not in attendance.

Chet Culver

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver traveled back to his football roots to lay a little smack-down on the management of Agriprocessors in the guest column he penned for the Des Moines Register. Comparing the situation at Agriprocessors with novelist Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” and implying that management at the kosher plant have opted to travel a ‘low road,’ Culver outlined his response and continued action in relation to the plant.

Before the federal raid, Agriprocessors already had a history of sanctions by Iowa’s state regulatory agencies for water pollution, as well as health and safety law violations. Alarming information about working conditions at the Postville plant – including allegations ranging from the use of child labor in prohibited jobs to sexual and physical abuse by supervisors; from the nonpayment of regular and overtime wages to the denial of immediate medical attention for workplace injuries – brought to national attention by the raid forces me to believe that, in contrast to our state’s overall economic-development strategy, this company’s owners have deliberately chosen to take the low road in its business practices.

I believe Iowa businesses should take the high road by following the law.

Culver writes that he has directed Lis Buck, director of Iowa Workforce Development, to prohibit Agriprocessors listing open position on state job lists because of the “unsafe working conditions at the Postville facility.” He has also called on Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller to “prosecute all alleged criminal and civil-law violations that are backed by sufficient evidence.”

Agriprocessors has every resource at its disposal to be a good Iowa corporate neighbor – one that provides a safe workplace, pays good wages and benefits, protects our environment and respects the dignity of our workers. If its owners choose to operate in this manner, they will find a skilled work force ready to join this company. I want to publicly ask Agriprocessors to “take the high road” and join the family of responsible businesses in Iowa.

To date, in public statements, Agriprocessors’ owners have denied any wrongdoing related to their business practices. They are entitled to do so. Because of Iowa’s long history of clean and fair regulatory and judicial processes, companies like Agriprocessors, if accused of wrongdoing, will be afforded every due-process right to which they are entitled under law. But, at the end of the day, they must obey each and every law that protects workers and keeps our food supply safe.

There is little doubt that Culver will take a few hits of his own for writing this piece. Amid the truckloads of political contributions shelled out by the Rubashkins, the Hasidic Jewish family that owns Agriprocessors, to Republican candidates and political organizations, there are also a handful that went to Democratic office holders and candidates. In particular, $10,000 was given by Sholom and Leah Rubashkin in 2005 to the failed Democratic primary bid by now Lt. Gov. Patty Judge. At that time she was serving as the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and the contributions came roughly a year after she had toured the plant in the wake of allegations of animal mistreatment, providing a public and positive assessment of the ritual slaughter.

When Judge ended her gubernatorial bid and joined with Culver, Sholom Rubashkin, who was employed as the president of Agriprocessors, gave $3,000 to that ticket.

Jim Nussle, the former Republican congressman who launched an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid against the Culver-Judge ticket, was a much larger beneficiary of the Rubashkin family. In 2006, Sholom Rubashkin gave Nussle $22,500 to advance his gubernatorial bid. In addition, Abraham Rubashkin, listing both his previous Brooklyn, N.Y. and Postville addresses, provided $7,500 to the Nussle campaign.

Nussle, after being defeated by Culver, took a job as one of the top members of the Bush administration, serving as director of the Office of Management and Budget.