Couple of local issues

There's an article in the Press Citizen today about the recommendation of the Iowa City Alcohol Advisory Board. In a shocker, they say forcing the bars to go 21-only is not the answer. The co-chair of this Board is none other than Leah Cohen, owner of Bo-James, a downtown, um, bar. Isn't that sort of like setting the fox to watch the henhouse? Of course, the Board is going to say the 21-only ordinance is not the answer. They have a vested interest in alcohol sales. This whole thing is just a sham, just like the last time they got together and said they'd make changes to help the underage drinking problem.

Although councilors say they intend to hear the bar owners' proposal, Mayor Ernie Lehman and some city activists assert that bar owners did not keep the promises they made last year in association with the 19-only proposal.

Owners vowed last year to hire extra bar monitors, mandate wristbands, provide free non-alcoholic beverages and require all alcohol servers to be trained to identify underage patrons and fake IDs.

Just go 21-over and be done with it.
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Moving onto the rainforest issue, there's a PC article explaining that David Oman and his board voted 14-1 to stick with Coralville. Oh, gee, thanks. Really thrilled with that decision. Couldn't find any other sucker cities that want a monorail, huh?

And in a attempt to save face, Senator Grassley said that the Rain Forest folks wouldn't be able to use any more of the $50 million government pork grant until they come up with matching funds. The deadline for that is 2007. I am rolling my eyes, in case that's not coming through. And apparently, they've already spent $2.9 million and have no matching funds to show for it. Way to waste $2.9 million in govenment money, Chuck.