George Davison Iowa Law

An Untimely Death

(Des Moines)  One of the founders and the long-time executive director of Agape Pregnancy Center in Des Moines died in a two vehicle collision on Martin Luther King Junior Parkway in Des Moines on Tuesday.  74 year old Jan Ebert was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision.  Authorities continue their investigation into the crash, but it appears that Ebert was attempting to pull from the parking lot of the Agape Pregnancy Center onto MLK. 

Ebert was a driving force behind the Agape Pregnancy Center which provides free counseling and pregnancy tests.  Over the years Ebert was instrumental in helping a number of young women to place their babies for adoption.  

Agape Pregnancy Center originally was located in the Sherman Hill Neighborhood.  It moved to Martin Luther King Junior Parkway to larger facilities over ten years ago.  Agape Pregnancy Center recently concluded its twenty-fifth year of operation.

"Big Brother" In A Computer

A good friend of this Blog, Brett Trout, has provided information about what appears to me to be a very questionable situation in Pennsylvania.  A school district issues laptop computers to students.  The computers contain web cams.  The school district does not advise that the web cams can be activated remotely by school officials.  That occurs.  After a school official activates a web cam on a computer, the student is observed in the family home doing something to which school officials object.  The student is confronted by school officials about his conduct.

A lawsuit has been filed in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  The plaintiffs, Blake Robbins and his parents, seek a class certification to pursue a variety of claims against the school district.  Among the claims asserted are invasion of privacy, violation of civil rights, and violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (which provides that the people are to be secure in their persons and property and government may search only upon a showing of probable cause.).

This situation raises some very serious Constitutional questions, including the right of the government to place electronic devices in private homes and to observe actions and activities that when they are behind the closed doors of the home are considered to be private and free from government interference.

IAIS 513 Ready to Head to Iowa

Iowa Interstate locomotive 513, which honors the line's Rock Island heritage, is ready to leave Kansas City and to begin service.  Mid American in Kansas City did the painting.  The locomotive will be delivered to Iowa Interstate in Davenport.  It will travel on the former Milwaukee line from Kansas City to the Quad Cities.

More Snow in December?

The National Weather Service is watching systems to see if more snow is going to fall in Des Moines in 2009.  So far, a total of 27.2 inches of snow have been recorded at the Des Moines Airport.  That is a record amount of snow for a December in Des Moines.  December 2009 is now the third snowiest month on record.  March 1912 with a total of 28 inches of snow is currently in second place, and January 1886 when 37 inches of snow fell has a distinction of being the snowiest month on record in Des Moines.