Despite the disappointing loss, the University of Iowa football team heads to Columbus next weekend for a game that will determine plenty ...

Can Iowa's freshman QB James Vandenberg join USC's Matt Barkley and Purdue's Joey Elliott as QBs that have been a part of teams that have beat Ohio State in 2009?

Barkley was playing his 2Nd college football game vs. Ohio State in Columbus this season, when USC beat OSU 18-15. Joey Elliott and Purdue's 26-18 win was even more surprising, since Ohio State was going for a record win streak on the road.

Now, the game in the Horseshoe this Saturday is for the Big Ten title and a trip to the Rose Bowl. Ohio State has lost one game in Columbus already. At Purdue, a record win streak was on the line, but OSU came up short. Maybe, the Iowa game can be 'three's a charm' for a Hawkeye team needing a little something, after the loss on Saturday.

Iowa needs to build on five major categories in Columbus:

1. Defense,
2. Special Teams,
3. Turnovers,
4. Field Position,
5. Coaching Adjustments!

Iowa's quarterback situation is what it is. Ohio State's quarterback needs to be forced into mistakes by the Iowa defense. Iowa must avoid beating themselves and giving their opponent a short field, which is how Northwestern won vs. Iowa on Saturday.

Iowa is 9-1, 5-1 in the Big Ten and is still playing for a Big Ten title, despite Iowa's disappointing 10-17 loss vs. Northwestern at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday. Ohio State is 8-2, 5-1 in the Big Ten and is going for it's fifth straight share or outright Big Ten title in five years.

The loss of QB Ricky Stanzi is huge for Iowa. As our the losses of RB Adam Robinson, OL Dace Richardson, WR/PR Colin Sandeman and FS Brett Greenwood have been the past two weeks. The "next man in" motto has always been a part of Iowa football under coach Kirk Ferentz.

Iowa opened the season with the loss of RB Jewel Hampton and CB Jordan Bernstine. The loss of WR/PR Paul Chaney earlier in the season required some adjustments. In Iowa's biggest game to date this season, the Hawkeyes won 21-10 at Penn State, despite missing the play of WR Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, LT Bryan Bulaga and TE Tony Moeaki.

Iowa still has to play out the season and see what happens. Ohio State is playing outstanding football, after a 24-7 win at Penn State this weekend. But, will the pressure of playing in front of the home crowd impact the Buckeyes? Ohio State is still a young team.

The coaching staff and players at Iowa will have to circle the wagons this week. If Iowa can get a lead and build on it, as Purdue did in their upset win, maybe Iowa can find some mojo again? In the past wins at Columbus, the TE came up big. Can we see a repeat of Marv Cook (in '87) and Alan Cross' ('91) magic in the form of TE Tony Moeaki or some other special group of Hawkeyes in 2009?

On Iowa!

Hawkeyes-Wildcats at Kinnick today!

Carole and I attended the City High-Washington high school football game Friday night in Iowa City at Bates Field. The Washington Warriors closed out a good season in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A playoffs. Congratulations to the Warriors.

Time to swing back to Iowa City for today's Big Ten football game between: Iowa and Northwestern. My daughter is finished with marching band season for the Warriors, so we will make it a game at Kinnick Stadium today.

Lets get to 10-0 Hawks!

It may not be 62-10, like 2002, but a Hawkeye win at Kinnick to get to 10-0 will be sweet music for Hawkeye fans everywhere!

Robin Tucker

This week with the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids ...

The Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids will take part in a wonderful joint all-Metro Rotary Club Meeting on Thursday, November 19, 2009.

At Ron Corbett's victory celebration on Tuesday night at the IBEW Hall on Wiley Blvd., I had the chance to talk to Doug Laird, our Club's President-Elect about the upcoming event. It will be a wonderful speaker in Doug Olberman, who suffers from polio.

The meeting will be at Kirkwood Community College Continuing
Education Center on November 19 at 11:30 A M. Admittance will be only
with a ticket and we don't believe there will be an opportunity to purchase at
the door.

The speaker will be Doug Olberman, an attorney from Cedar Falls, who
will speak in support of PolioPlus. Doug was struck with Polio when he was
8 years old and slept in an iron lung for over 50 years while graduating from
college and law school and enjoying a successful law practice for 29
years.

Tickets are $20. Please let Larry Christy (363-6301)(crrotary@mchsi.com) know as soon as
possible if you want a ticket. He will bill your Rotary account. $20
tickets can also be purchased on the Cedar Rapids West web site (www.crwestrotary.org).

Ripples From the Rapids, written by Editor Larry Christy, the following was mentioned about our program for Monday, November 2, 2009 for the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids.

DR. BEN ALLEN, PRESIDENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN
IOWA

Benjamin J. Allen was named the ninth president of the
University of Northern Iowa in April 2006. His educational background
includes a B.S. in Business Economics from Indiana University and an M.A. and
Ph.D. in Economics from The University of Illinois. Before joining the
University of Northern Iowa, he was Vice President for Academic Affairs and
Provost at ISU.

The University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls was founded in
1876. It has an instructional faculty of over 850 and more than 120
undergraduate majors. Its student body is composed 92% Iowans. The
University’s 2009 fall enrollment was 13 thousand including 11.1 thousand
undergraduate students and 1.9 thousand graduate
students.

Dr. Allen is still excited about being President of
the University of Northern Iowa despite the current difficult financial
challenges like the current across-the-board 10-percent budget cut for fiscal
2010 the Regent Universities are all facing. The new budget reduction equates to
an approximately $8.8 million additional cut for UNI. Declining funding
presents a bigger problem for UNI as the University relies more heavily on state
funding than the UI or ISU. This cut along with recent decreases in state
appropriations represents a reduction in state funds for UNI of $23 million, or
25 percent, since November 2008.

Dr. Allen set a priority to move UNI from a “very good”
undergraduate educational experience to a “great” undergraduate educational
experience by strengthening its already strong liberal arts programs and
selecting a handful of other programs like accounting for additional investment
and strengthening. He wants UNI to be the leading academic institution in
the state in addressing Pre-K through 12 issues and producing the best possible
teachers (approximately 25% of Iowa’s current teachers graduated from
UNI). Doing this has required increased collaborations, better connection
to the Pre-K-12 effort and the need to grow enrollment both from Iowa and out of
state.

More state funding, not less, is needed. Dr. Allen says the
funding cuts will require substantial, structural changes to the university and
sizable slashing of programs and initiatives will be necessary. Everything
is on the table; salary reductions, temporary layoffs/furloughs, a tuition
surcharge, postponing non-essential maintenance and repairs, potential program
eliminations and selling of non-essential assets will be considered.

He hopes to seize on opportunities to collaborate
wherever possible with the UI and ISU and he wants to retain the guiding
principles of the university and keep them intact throughout this process.
Reductions will be made as strategically as possible.

Our next Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids meeting will feature the following program.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Noon
THE CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL
DAVE VAUDT,

AUDITOR of STATE OF IOWA

Robin Tucker

Tuesday, November 3 is Election Day in Cedar Rapids, Iowa ...

Make sure that on Tuesday, November 3, you find time to cast your vote. Voting day information, including candidate profiles can be found on the Linn County Auditors web site.

Being a resident of District 2 Cedar Rapids, we will get to vote

for Mayor and two At-Large positions on the City of Cedar Rapids City Council.

Robin Tucker

R&P Report from nwyc.com for November 2, 2009 ...

National Write Your Congressman’s Mission
To encourage
responsible Americans to use their influence in government to preserve the
freedoms set forth by our Founding Fathers.

REVIEW

Health Care Legislation: House Democratic leaders unveiled a comprehensive health care bill that differs from a Senate health care plan in the way it would finance the overhaul.

Public options are similar in the measures, though the Senate bill is expected to include a provision allowing states to “opt out” of participation if their legislatures pass a law rejecting the plan and their governors sign it. House Democrats want to finance the expansion of insurance coverage by levying a surtax on people earning more than $500,000 a year. Senate Democrats want to levy an excise tax on insurance plans with high premiums. Both the House and Senate bills would create health insurance “exchanges” — regulated marketplaces where people without insurance could shop for coverage. Both would subsidize the purchase of private insurance for low-income people, and both would expand Medicaid.

Floor debate is scheduled for this week. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation would cost less than $900 billion over 10 years, which is President Obama’s spending target for the measure. (H.R.3200)

PREVIEW

Unemployment Compensation: The Senate is expected to vote this week on a measure that would allow unemployed individuals in all 50 states to draw an extra 14 weeks of benefits, with six more weeks available to those in states with a jobless rate exceeding 8.5 percent. (H.R.3548)

Click here to view a list of unemployment rates for states.

Powers of the Fed: Lawmakers are considering draft legislation that would create a Financial Services Oversight Council to determine if firms pose a threat to the economy. It would require the Fed to gain approval from the Treasury secretary before providing money under certain conditions.

Homebuyer Tax Credit: Negotiators have reached an agreement on legislation that would extend the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers for sales contracts entered into by April 30, 2010, and closed within 60 days. It would also add a $6,500 credit for some owners of existing homes. It is still unclear what measure the proposal will be attached to. Click here to voice your opinion on this issue.

Credit Rating Rules: House lawmakers will be considering a bill that would require the Security Exchange Commission to strengthen regulations of credit rating firms. It would require banking regulators to report to Congress on modifications. (H.R.3890)

Click here to view the R&P Report as a PDF

Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids meeting for November 2, 2009 ...

Robin Tucker is scheduled to attend today's Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids meeting at Noon. Robin is celebrated his 20Th year anniversary as a member of Rotary International in September 2009.

The Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids is now on Twitter! Link

Monday, November 2, 2009

CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL

Today's Speaker and Program:
Dr. Ben Allen, President

The University of Northern Iowa

Robin Tucker

P.S. - Our daughter, Cheryl, is a student at the University of Northern Iowa.

November 1, 2009: Beautiful Autumn Day Today ...

The weather in Cedar Rapids was very nice today. Let's hope it's a sign for the rest of the month. Happy All Saints Day everyone!

First full day of standard time, since we set the clocks back an hour at 2 a.m. It was nice to get an extra hour of shut eye.

A great weekend for Hawkeye Football, Halloween cheer and now only if my Green Bay Packers could find a little magic and come back over the Minnesota Vikings on FOX this afternoon.

It will be another busy month.

Robin Tucker