Wednesday Reads -- The Twinkie Defense

This morning's Sioux City Journal fronts Charlotte Eby's account of a public hearing yesterday where school officials from around Iowa assailed proposed nutritional requirements that would soak up the financial gravy train from selling junk food. The rules, created through a bill signed by Gov. Culver, would restrict fat, sugar calories and sodium, with the goal of getting kids to eat better. Full-strength soda, for instance, is out.

The schools say healthy stuff won't sell as well and the rules will drive kids to spend their money elsewhere. There are also those who contend the rules are so strict that lowfat yogurt and other healthy foods wouldn't make the cut. The bill also requires schools to incorporate more physical activity into kids' schedules.

The voting roles got fatter on election day, according to Mike Glover's AP story. Nearly 46,000 Iowans used same-day registration to register at the polls. Things went smoothly, with a few problems, according to our secretary of state.

Glover apparently is losing his "Iowa Press" hosting partner. The Des Moines Register reports that longtime political columnist David Yepsen is leaving to take over the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He apparently got the job after the other two finalists withdrew.

Meanwhile, lawmakers can't quit the idea of raising the gas tax, according to James Q. Lynch in The Gazette. Gov. Culver has said repeatedly that he doesn't favor a tax increase, but Democratic legislative leaders point out that he's never used the word "veto."

He did use these words, however: "I don't know how much more clear I could be," Culver said about his repeated opposition to a gas tax increase. "I do not believe raising the gas tax during a recession is a prudent thing to do."

 I'm thinking the surest way to hear the V word is to go ahead and pass a gas tax hike.

Lots of school districts across Iowa were voting last night on bonds, support levy plans, sales tax spending proposals etc. Voters overwhelmingly approved a new middle school in Marion and several eastern Iowa communities approved "revenue purpose statements" on how they'll spend the now statewide penny school sales tax.

But Mason City voters shot down an instructional support levy.

In other voting Tuesday, the Linn County Compensation board voted to freeze paychecks for the Board of Supervisors at $87,622. The comp board declined to hold the supervisors to last year's pre-election pay cut promise.

More on that later today.