Iowa House of Representatives

House Democrats today unveiled their plan for the 2009 legislative session. The Plan to Secure Iowa’s Economic Future focuses on helping middle class families and businesses succeed in today’s challenging global economy.

“Middle class families and small businesses are being hit financially by high gasoline and energy prices, increasing healthcare costs, potential job loss, and natural disasters. Our plan will provide more economic security for Iowa families and businesses,” said House Speaker Pat Murphy of Dubuque. More →

Ron Rosmann

Ron Rosmann, of Shelby County, is considered a state and national leader in sustainable and organic agriculture issues. Ron is a founding board member and past president of Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI). He has been an on-farm research cooperator with PFI, Iowa State University and the USDA since 1987. Ron served on the national board of directors and was board president of the Organic Farming Research Foundation. He helped create the Iowa Organic Association. He has also been invited to testify before the U.S. House and Senate Agricultural committees on several occasions.

Ron is very active in his local community. He is the vice-chair of the Shelby County Extension Council. He is a past Shelby County Farm Bureau director. He was a 4-H leader for more than 10 years. Ron, a lifelong member of St. Boniface Church in Westphalia, served as project co-chair for the church’s recently completed parish and community center. He has been a church musician for 40 years. More →

Two state boards took action this week to implement Governor Culver’s $40 million flood recovery intiative for homeowners and small businesses.  The Iowa Department of Economic Development Board approved $10 million for the initiative today and will also administer the Jumpstart Small Business Assistance Program.

Yesterday, the Iowa Power Fund Board approved $7.5 million for energy efficient flood repair and rebuilding.  Applications for the Jumpstart initiative should be available next week.

Jan Creasman

Janice Creasman was born and raised in Mondamin, Iowa. Her father, from North
Carolina, was a laborer and a veteran of World War II. Her mother was born and raised in Mondamin in a family of 17 and worked hard all her life. Janice has two living siblings, a brother and sister. Her brother is a Vietnam veteran.

Janice, currently a geriatric social worker, has been married for nine years to a software engineer. She has a daughter, who is employed and responsible for networking computers. Her daughter is married, and her son-in-law is a prison guard. Janice has one granddaughter.

As a social worker, Janice has spent her life working with the people that most need government services. The arenas have spanned adult and child protective services; health care; adult, child and family services; substance abuse; mental health; and homelessness. More →

Carlos Venable-Ridley

Growing up in the ghettoes of Dallas, Carlos Venable-Ridley quickly identified ways to overcome obstacles with a how-to-succeed mentality. After delaying his own education and putting two brothers through college, Carlos received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Illinois University in 1995, and later earned a Master of Science in administrative studies from South Dakota University in 1999.

Since moving to the Midwest in 1995, Carlos has tirelessly served the working class community of Sioux City as an activist and an advocate. Selected as one of Siouxland’s “Forty under Forty” in 2002 for his commitment to community issues, Carlos has an established record of public service. He is a former member of the Girls Inc. Board of Directors, a former treasurer for Mary Treglia House, the vice president of the Coalition for Cultural Awareness, the vice president of Task Force Friend, an executive board member of the Sioux Chapter of the NAACP, project coordinator for the Iowa Accountability Project and a former member of the Sioux City Human Rights Commission. Selected by Governor Vilsack, Carlos served on the 3rd District Judicial Selection Committee for four years. His community volunteerism has also found expression in coaching fifth-grade football, boys’ and girls’ basketball and track and field. More →

Lori Sokolowski

Lori Sokolowski has lived in Cherokee County her entire life, growing up on a farm and now living on a farm with her husband, Dick. They have four children whose families all live in Cherokee County. They have eight grandchildren.

Lori attended two years of advanced business education and followed through with continual marketing classes for her own business expansion. In 1976, the Sokolowskis started their own farming operation. Lori started her own livestock business in 1983 and added new marketing networks with other area producers. Recently, the Sokolowski’s son and his family took over part of the farming operation. Last year, Lori added a new job to her responsibilities in working with people with disabilities. More →

Governor Chet Culver announced today that the state will provide $40 million in housing and business assistance for Iowans impacted by floods and tornadoes this year. For more information on the Jumpstart Housing program, click here. Information on the Jumpstart Business program is available here.

The $20 million in housing assistance will help Iowans rebuild, repair, relocate, or make interim mortgage payments up to $1,000 per month, which also helps Iowans with property tax payments. Businesses will get the other $20 million in assistance with up to a $50,000 forgivable loan, which means they won’t have to be repaid like the federal SBA loans, to help re-open or rebuild.

Russell Camerer

Russell Camerer was born June 11, 1955, in Storm Lake, Iowa. He was raised outside of Alta by Bill and Mary Camerer. His dad worked in the loading department at Hy-Grade. His mom was a full-time housewife and mother to his two brothers and himself.

Russell attended all 12 years of school in the Alta Community School District, graduating in 1973. Since the age of 12, he has always had a job. He started with babysitting at home and moved on to many types of farm work, such as bailing hay, planting, harvesting and caring for livestock, with area farmers.

At 16, Russell began working in construction, building hog confinements with a company out of South Dakota. His next job was building pole sheds for Wicks. The work required travel, so Russell was gone from the area Monday through Friday, but he spent most of his weekends in Alta with his family. While at Wicks, Russell traveled in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1975, the sales base at Wicks moved to Fairmont, Minn., and Russell moved with the company. He stayed with the company until the winter of 1976 when he had an accident and broke both of his arms. He then moved to Alta and in with his parents to recuperate. While recuperating, he met his wife, who was attending B.V. College. More →

Susan Temere

Susan Temere teaches in Waukee, Adel and Dallas Center school districts in the middle schools and high schools. She also is an instructor of speech communications at Des Moines Area Community College. Specifically, she teaches public speaking, group dynamics and interpersonal communications. She has been teaching since 1997.

In 2006 and three previous election cycles, Susan was employed as a political consultant/election organizer for women’s groups’ targeted and endorsed races, such as the gubernatorial race of Gov. Chet Culver, state Senate and state House races.

Susan was executive director for nine years of a nonprofit she co-founded for women facing discrimination in their jobs. The organization provided support, information and training to women and organizations concerning the identification and proper handling of such problems related to human resource management concerns.

Susan was employed at General Motors for 18 years in industrial security, employee communications and as a first-line supervisor in the car assembly plant. While employed as a supervisor, she effectively handled labor relations and administered the UAW contract for 40 hourly employees on the car assembly line. For three years in security, she was elected as steward or union representative and participated in contract negotiations between management and the union. She also was a co-editor of a departmental employee newsletter.

As a citizen lobbyist, Susan played a significant role in passage of the Criminal Sexual Conduct Act and other educational legislation. She lobbied for successful passage of the human trafficking bill, which passed the Iowa Legislature in 2006. Most recently, she lobbied for passage of a clean election bill called VOICE, or Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections. The bill is currently in the House Appropriations Committee and will be taken up in the House in 2008.

Susan has a Bachelor of Science “with honors” in criminal justice and another major in journalism from Michigan State University. She has her master’s degree in speech communications from Wayne State University in Michigan.

In the 2007, the Legislature created the Iowa Power Fund and the Office of Energy Independence to keep Iowa a world leader in renewable energy production and technology.   The Power Fund Board made its largest award yesterday with a $14.5 million grant to Poet LLC to build a new ethanol plant in Emmetsburg using the next generation of  technology, cellulosic ethanol.

State Representative Nathan Reichert of Muscatine serves on the Iowa Power Fund Board of Directors and said the Poet award is exactly what the Legislature had in mind when they created the Power Fund.