The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 15

el)f ffsJlloinrsficQistfr DM METRO IOWA NEWS DESK 51 5-284-8461e-mail: metroiowadmreg.com March 8, 2006 TODAY Momejf Ml iip Funds will be shifted to homeland security By LEE ROOD REGISTER STAFF WRITER The president's messenger got a lukewarm reception in Iowa. While law enforcement officials and legislators were happy to receive kudos Tuesday from national drug czar John Walters for Iowa's efforts to combat methamphet-amine, many disliked the federal budget news that he brought to the Statehouse. Effects of the cuts AMOUNT: Roughly $12.7 million could be cut from Iowa criminal justice programs. EFFECTS: Critics say the cuts could cripple Iowa's drug enforcement efforts, potentially wiping out as many as 25 task forces and affecting up to 70 crime-control projects statewide. The Bush administration, Walters confirmed, will be shifting more federal money earmarked for battling meth and other drugs to homeland security efforts.

However, states will still be able to make choices as to how some of that money will be used, Walters said. "That's just double-talk," said Des Moines Police Chief William McCarthy, who has been arguing his own case for more money for antiterrorism efforts in Des Moines. "We set priorities. We don't pit them against one another." The visit from Walters proved an opportunity for several powerful officials, particularly Democrats, to vent publicly about roughly $12.7 million that the administration has proposed eliminating from Iowa criminal justice programs by 2007. See DRUGS, Page 6B Computer on practice' babies get moms' nerves L-J 1 Assess your muscles Experience firsthand what osteopathic medicine is all about from 6 to 9 p.m.

at Des Moines University. Nearly 100 medical students will be on hand to offer free, full-body structural and muscular assessments and treatments, known as osteopathic manipulative therapy, and to answer questions. The event will take place at the university's Student Education Center at 3300 Grand Ave. Door prizes and refreshments will also be available. For more information, call Kristin Prewitt at (515)418-2978.

mm Technician sentenced A former West Des Moines police technician who worked four years in the department's evidence room was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing at least $37,000 in forfeited drug money during the period he worked. Page 3B All she knew is that she walked in I expecting to have a job. And she gets in there and they start making very, very insensitive remarks, and embarrassing her and humiliating her. Jill Zwagerman, lawyer for a Des Moines woman who said she lost her job because she wore a head scarf required by her religion. Article on Page 3B a 2 1 I Polk rise in crime by youths worries officials By TOM ALEX REGISTER STAFF WRITER Polk County Juvenile Court authorities hope a recent increase in teenage crime does not signal a long-term trend.

Polk County Juvenile Court logged 104 more cases in January and February than during the same period last year. And 14 of the 34 robbery suspects arrested by Des Moines police this year are teens. "We're seeing more gang activity, especially in the schools. The middle schools, particularly, "juvenile courts spokeswoman Pamm Cox said Tuesday. Police Sgt.

David Ness said the numbers are only half the story. "Robberies committed by those under the age of 20 have been some of the most frightening, the most dangerous," he said. "They've been going behind the counter, assaulting employees." Cedar Rapids Police Lt. Chuck Minks said juvenile crime appears to be on an average pace this year. Officials in other cities reported the same.

But Des Moines police said they have dealt with a handful of cases in which the crime went beyond typical teen trouble: East High School student James Riddell, 18, was beaten by four teenagers as he See JUVENILE, Page3B Vilsack pushes for education package By JONATHAN R00S REGISTER STAFF WRITER Education improvement efforts that could bring big changes to Iowa schools received a closer look Tuesday from Gov. Tom Vilsack and a group of key legislators. Vilsack said he won't take "no" for an answer from school board and teacher groups that see problems with proposals for basing the school calendar on hours of instruction, rather than the number of days that classes are held. "If we're letting kids out early because there's a snowflake flying or they all want to go to a basketball tournament, at some point in time we need to make that up because when kids compete in the work force, it's going to be too late to make it up," the Democratic governor told lawmakers. Vilsack also said he remains adamant that this year's education initiatives include a bigger financial commitment toward making See EDUCATION, Page 6B GARY FANDEL REGISTER PHOTOS And homework, too: Saphire Dale, left, and Kara Knott, both juniors, carry their "Baty-Think-It-Over" computerized dolls in the halls of Waukee High School.

Students in Hallie Wells' child development class are assigned the dolls and care for them like real babies. Waukee students' dolls cry for bottle or diaper change W-A degree in English had prepared me for driving a truck. About 10 hours a day I was cruising the Catskill Mountains delivering snowmobiles. And I was listening to the radio. These were Nixon's last days in the White House, and it was getting ugly.

The reporters were all over him. I was driving, hearing that and thinking it sounded like a lot of fun being a reporter. You can get in some important guy's face and ask the most tasteless, inappropriate questions. And get paid for doing it. r7 How it works: Each student is assigned a "Baby-Think-lt-Over" doll, which is programmed for a day or two of a real infant's behavior.

Each doll has a schedule and will cry for attention at different times. When the doll cries, the student has two minutes to place a bracelet with a sensor in the doll's back and two minutes to identify and fix the problem. Then the doll will stop crying and make sounds 'such as eating or cooing. A computer in the doll logs response times, and sensors track mishaps such as a doll's being dropped or shaken. The teacher checks all data and grades students accordingly.

A few months later, I was in the news business. I was asking the deputy mayor of Kingston, New York, about his finances and trying to get him to say: "I am not a crook." So in some way I should have thanked Nixon. But I never got the chance. I never met him. I met Bush and I liked the guy.

In December 1999 he was running in the Iowa caucuses and came in to meet with the Register editorial writers. I sat in. See B0RSELLIN0, Page 8B By MEGAN HAWKINS REGISTER STAFF WRITER Saphire Dale lugged her doll in a baby carrier through the school hallway. "This is so much worse than the maternity belly. I have to have it all day long!" she said to a Waukee High School classmate.

Later on, the computerized child in her arms would begin to wail, for one reason or another, forcing Saphire, 17, to hurry and touch her sensor bracelet to the doll's back, then figure out the problem. A dirty diaper, its head fell back, or it was hungry for a bottle, most likely. Saphire was experiencing the latest in home economics curriculum. Gone are the days when kids had to carry around an egg for a week to prove their parenting skills. Now they are in charge of sensor-filled dolls that let out cries and coos recorded from real children and are set to the schedules of real infants.

"It went off all during second and fourth block and all night. It was hungry a lot," Saphire said. "I had track practice, work and a lot of homework, and I couldn't get any of it done without the baby crying. I See BABIES, Page 8B Just when you thought it couldn't get worse Monitor: Teacher Hallie Wells attaches a receiver to a student "parent." It keeps a record of the baby doll's schedule. "it Vt BORSELLIXO Katrina, Scooter Libby or Dubai.

Nobody even talks about the crippling deficit and the long-term damage to the U.S. economy. We're in a free fall on science banning stem cell research, pushing intelligent design. It's tough to find teachers or folks who know anything about education who don't think No Child Left Behind is a disaster in the works. There are dozens of other things.

So I'm feeling a lot better about Nixon. And I've always felt I owed him something. In some ways the guy woke me up. It was the summer of "74, I'd just gotten out of college and I was doing the kind of work a I thought I bottomed out with Richard Nixon. By the time he quit, there was no way I could feel any more anger or have less respect for somebody running this country.

Now I look back and the guy seems harmless. Nixon was just bad for the country while he was president. George W. Bush is poisoning things long term, and he's going global. Years after he's gone we'll be digging out if there's anything left to dig for.

You could go on for days about problems and never mention Iraq, wr "Tn -f(p.