W eather Thursday, January 25, 2007
Today, mostly cloudy. High 25. Tonight, partly cloudy. Low around 20, with temperature rising
overnight. Tomorrow, mostly cloudy with a chance of light freezing drizzle. High in the upper 30s.
Von Maur pullout latest blow for Westdale
A surprise announcement yesterday that Von Maur Inc. will close its Cedar Rapids Westdale Mall
store Jan. 31 is the latest setback for the mall’s recovery plans, the Gazette reported. Von Maur
officials cited unacceptably low shopper traffic for its decision. It will offer 80 staff at the Westdale
store equivalent positions at its Lindale Mall location in Cedar Rapids and its Sycamore Mall store
in Iowa City. Westdale opened to huge business in 1979 but has recently fallen on hard times.
Leach to join Princeton faculty
Former Congressman Jim Leach next month will join the faculty at his alma mater, Princeton
University, the school announced. Leach, a Republican from Iowa City, will have a three-
semester appointment. He said he will not sever his Iowa ties and plans to live at his Iowa City
home during the summer and possibly give lectures at Iowa colleges, the Press-Citizen reported.
Today in history: Democrats seek GOP support on Iraq resolution
Senate Democrats have won their first major vote against the Iraq war. Now they need to get
some Republicans on board. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday passed 12-9 a
In 1966, Chester
resolution that dismissed President Bush’s plans to increase troops in Iraq as “not in the national
John “Chet” interest.” The resolution is headed to the full Senate as early as next week as administration
Culver—who officials and Republican leaders labor to keep the effort from gaining more GOP support.
recently took the
Rumors of Obama’s ‘radical’ education debunked
reins as Iowa’s
An ABC News producer and crew visited the school in Jakarta, Indonesia, attended by Sen.
40th governor— Barack Obama in his youth and found it to be a normal government public school without even a
was born in hint of the extremist elements reported by various conservative news outlets in the last week.
Washington, D.C.
Ford loses record $12.7 billion
Ford Motor Co. lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter amid slumping sales and huge restructuring
costs, pushing the automaker’s deficit for 2006 to $12.7 billion, the largest in its 103-year history.
Russian smuggled nuclear-bomb uranium, officials say
Republic of Georgia authorities, aided by the CIA, set up a sting operation last summer that led to
the arrest of a Russian man who tried to sell a small amount of nuclear-bomb grade uranium in a
plastic bag in his jacket pocket, officials said. The arrest underscored concerns about the
possibility of terrorists acquiring nuclear bomb-making material on the black market.
U.S. picks up signal of missing jet
The USNS Mary Sears, an oceanographic survey ship, has picked up signals from the flight data
recorder and the cockpit voice recorder of an Indonesian plane that crashed into the Java Sea on
New Year’s Day, killing all 102 people on board, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said.
Exhausted scientists concede to unmovable sloth
Scientists in the eastern German city of Jena said yesterday they have finally given up after three
years of failed attempts to entice a sloth into budging as part of an experiment in animal
movement. The sloth, named Mats, was remanded to a zoo after consistently refusing to climb up
and then back down a pole, even ignoring the allure of cucumbers and homemade spaghetti.
Second-half surge lifts Iowa over Penn State
Adam Haluska scored 24 points and Tyler Smith added 19 to lead Iowa to a 79-63 basketball
victory over Penn State last night. The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Hawkeyes.
THE SMOKING CESSATION GROUP CLINIC is a new service available at UI Hospitals and Clinics. A clinical pharmacist
will lead this clinic to provide a well-rounded approach to smoking cessation. Each group will meet over the noon hour for
a total of six sessions over a period of eight weeks and discuss topics related to quitting. To participate, you must be older
than 18, smoke daily, and be willing to quit smoking within the first 30 days of the clinic. For more details, call 356-4712.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: An open meeting will be held at 7:30 tonight, Conference Room G, 7 JCP.
TUNE IN: An interview about palliative care with Rick Dobyns, MD, a clinical professor and a family medicine specialist
who directs the Palliative Care Program, will air at 7:30 and 9:50 a.m. tomorrow on the KXIC-AM (800) University of Iowa
Health Care Today program.
PROJECT ART WELCOMES: The Jazz band Spontaneous Combustion will play and sing music from the New Orleans
Dixieland jazz tradition at noon tomorrow in the Colloton Pavilion Atrium.
STAFF PROFESSIONAL INTERNSHIP PROGRAM: UI staff members who wish to develop skills in an area of interest
that is not available to them in their current job may be eligible to intern in another department. For eligibility requirements
and application forms (due March 31), visit www.uiowa.edu/%7Efusstfdv/awards/internship.htm or attend an open house
from noon to 1 p.m. Jan. 31 at 112 USB. Contact nancy-noyer@uiowa.edu or 335-0560 with questions.
WOMEN OF INFLUENCE: Nominations are being accepted until Feb. 7 for the Corridor Business Journal’s 2007 Women
of Influence Awards, which identify women who have made a difference in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor and are
representative role models as leaders in their fields and community. Nomination forms are available in the office of
Community and Patient Relations, 8023 JCP, or by contacting Tom Walljasper, tom-walljasper@uiowa.edu or 384-7353.
Honorees will be recognized at an awards dinner March 8. UI Hospitals and Clinics is the presenting sponsor of the event.
ADVANCES IN HEART IMAGING: Edwin van Beek, MD, Department of Radiology, and Dinesh Jagasia, MD, UI Heart
and Vascular Care, will discuss advances in heart imaging and their role in treating heart problems at the next Health For
Your Lifetime program, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Coralville. Register for
this free community program by calling UI Health Access at 384-8442 or 800-777-8442.
CHOLESTEROL AND DIABETES STUDY: You are invited to participate in a 2½-month study (10 visits) if you have
type 2 diabetes and are 30 to 65 years old with high triglyceride and low HDL (good) cholesterol levels. This research will
evaluate the safety and effects of an investigational medication on cholesterol and blood sugar levels, compared to
placebo (an inactive pill). If you qualify for the study, you will receive physical exams, electrocardiograms, lab evaluations,
nutrition counseling, and study medication. Compensation for travel/parking available. Call 384-5046 or 800-887-6917.
NON-ASTHMATIC, NONSMOKING, HEALTHY ADULTS aged 18 to 55 who are on no medications other than birth
control are invited to participate in an investigation on the effects of diesel exhaust particles on lung function. Four or five
visits required; monetary compensation provided. Call the Environmental Exposure Facility, Department of Internal
Medicine, at 356-3240 or 877-428-0635 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
PATIENT PRIVACY/HIPAA REMINDER: Please remember to only access, use, and/or share patient information when
you need to do so as part of your job. To do otherwise constitutes a violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. More importantly,
such actions may erode the trust that patients and their families place in us, adding additional stress and anxiety to an
already difficult time in their lives. Want more information? Visit the HIPAA presentation at http://icon.uiowa.edu/.
REGISTER for a RefWorks class at Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. RefWorks allows you to import citations from
databases like PubMed and CINAHL, organize your citations and share them with colleagues, and insert the citations into
papers and format them in any of hundreds of bibliographic styles. Visit www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/regform.html.
RESEARCH STUDY: Children ages 8 to 13 with language learning disabilities are invited to participate in a research
study on word learning. Participants will take tests of current vocabulary and play computer games to assess word
learning. The study involves four visits of about two hours each to the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology on
the UI campus. Compensation available. Contact Amanda Murphy, 353-5779 (Iowa City area), 866-778-5816 (toll free
statewide), or amanda-murphy@uiowa.edu.