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Steven Grace
Contact Steven:
Steven Grace
Program Director - AM 800 KXIC
1 Stephen Atkins Drive
Iowa City, IA 52245
StevenGrace@kxic.com
319-354-9500 ext. 104
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On Air Details
6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.: Local News and Information
9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.: KXIC's "Your Town", a look at what's happening in and around the Iowa City area
8:00 a.m. (Saturday): Coaches' Corner: Live from the Cottage Bakery and Deli
Fall Friday nights: High School Football, covering City High, West High, Regina, Solon and West Branch.
November through March: University of Iowa Wrestling |
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More on Steven
Program and News Director Steven Grace is a 2002 graduate of the University of Iowa with degrees in Journalism and Communications Studies. He's a local boy, who grew up and still lives in West Branch. A die hard Hawkeye and Cub fan, he fits right in at KXIC. Steven is on Mon. thru Fri. from 6-9, and then hosts "Your Town" from 9-10. He also hosts the Coaches' Corner on Saturday mornings. He's also the resident computer expert (which is sad, because he doesn't know that much to begin with!!).
Drop Steven a line and let him know what's on your mind: StevenGrace@kxic.com |
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Steven's Favorite Links
Press-Citizen.com--Iowa City news
GazetteOnline.com--Eastern Iowa news
ESPN.com--Good source for sports news!
Sports Illustrated--Great for subscribers.
Rotoworld.com--For all you fantasy nuts, a site with player news. For those like me that doesn't play fantasy sports, a site with player news.
HawkeyeNation & HawkeyeReport--These aren't in order...they both provide a great look at Hawkeye sports.
GameSpot--A comprehensive look at any gaming platform you can think of. It includes game reviews, walk-throughs, and cheat codes.
Gamehouse--More games just like those we love on KXIC.com.
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Local Reaction to Lower Drinking Age
Wednesday 08-20-2008 5:05am CT
College presidents call for lower drinking age, local leaders weigh in
By Brian Morelli
Iowa City Press-Citizen www.press-citizen.com
August 19, 2008
Local leaders have mixed feelings about a call to look at lowering the drinking age.
“I don’t think it makes any sense, and I am sure some where in Budweiser-land, they are sending up a cheer,” said Jim Clayton, Iowa Alcoholic Beverage Commission chairman and executive committee co-chairman for the Stepping Up Project, which is a University of Iowa and community collaboration to battle underage and binge drinking.
“(These presidents) want the problem to go away. They don’t want to do anything about it … They want to white wash it. They want to cover it up,” Clayton said, who fought unsuccessfully last year to increase the age limit to enter Iowa City bars.
About 100 presidents from well-known universities around the country, including Duke University, Ohio State University and Dartmouth University, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws encourage binge drinking on campus. The movement is called the Amethyst Initiative.
UI President Sally Mason has not yet weighed in on the sentiments of her peers, but she is expected to release a statement later today.
Leah Cohen, owner the bar and restaurant Bo James and co-chairwoman of Iowa City Alcohol Advisory Board, supports lowering the drinking age, although she said 18 may be too young.
“I have been saying that for the five or six years, since our alcohol board first started,” Cohen said. “What I think has happened, a lot of the youth has gone to the hard alcohol. It appears they are drinking far more hard alcohol drinks. I think that started with the 21 age limit.”
“I am not for certain that 18 is the age, that is awfully young, but I do think it is time to look at what has happened to drinking and binge drinking in the last 10 years,” she said. “(And), I do think 21 is a little old for people to wait to drink.” Lower Drinking Age?
Tuesday 08-19-2008 7:04am CT
College presidents seek debate on drinking ageBy Justin Pope
Associated Press Writer
College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.
The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age.
"This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."
Other prominent schools in the group include Syracuse, Tufts, Colgate, Kenyon and Morehouse.
University of North Dakota President Robert Kelley received a letter last week from the Amethyst Initiative asking the school to join the group, UND spokesman Peter Johnson said.The school declined, he said.
"We have trouble understanding an advantage to anybody by dropping the drinking age from 21 to 18," Johnson said. "We don't seen how dropping the age can make a positive impact."
North Dakota State University athletic director Gene Taylor said NDSU also was asked to join the initiative but declined.
"We would certainly be opposed to that," Taylor said. He and Johnson said North Dakota's high rate of binge drinking is one big reason not to lower the limit.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes. It accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD officials are even urging parents to think carefully about the safety of colleges whose presidents have signed on.
"It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those campuses," said Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD.
Both sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem.
Research has found more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependance. One study has estimated more than 500,000 full-time students at four-year colleges suffer injuries each year related in some way to drinking, and about 1,700 die in such accidents.
A recent Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005.
Moana Jagasia, a Duke University sophomore from Singapore, where the drinking age is lower, said reducing the age in the U.S. could be helpful.
"There isn't that much difference in maturity between 21 and 18," she said. "If the age is younger, you're getting exposed to it at a younger age, and you don't freak out when you get to campus."
McCardell's group takes its name from ancient Greece, where the purple gemstone amethyst was widely believed to ward off drunkenness if used in drinking vessels and jewelry. He said college students will drink no matter what, but do so more dangerously when it's illegal.
The statement the presidents have signed avoids calling explicitly for a younger drinking age. Rather, it seeks "an informed and dispassionate debate" over the issue and the federal highway law that made 21 the de facto national drinking age by denying money to any state that bucks the trend.
But the statement makes clear the signers think the current law isn't working, citing a "culture of dangerous, clandestine binge-drinking," and noting that while adults under 21 can vote and enlist in the military, they "are told they are not mature enough to have a beer." Furthermore, "by choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law."
"I'm not sure where the dialogue will lead, but it's an important topic to American families and it deserves a straightforward dialogue," said William Trout, president of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., who has signed the statement.
But some other college administrators sharply disagree that lowering the drinking age would help. University of Miami President Donna Shalala, who served as secretary of health and human services under President Clinton, declined to sign.
"I remember college campuses when we had 18-year-old drinking ages, and I honestly believe we've made some progress," Shalala said in a telephone interview. "To just shift it back down to the high schools makes no sense at all."
McCardell claims that his experiences as a president and a parent, as well as a historian studying Prohibition, have persuaded him the drinking age isn't working.
But critics say McCardell has badly misrepresented the research by suggesting that the decision to raise the drinking age from 18 to 21 may not have saved lives.
In fact, MADD CEO Chuck Hurley said, nearly all peer-reviewed studies looking at the change showed raising the drinking age reduced drunk-driving deaths. A survey of research from the U.S. and other countries by the Centers for Disease Control and others reached the same conclusion.
McCardell cites the work of Alexander Wagenaar, a University of Florida epidemiologist and expert on how changes in the drinking age affect safety. But Wagenaar himself sides with MADD in the debate.
The college presidents "see a problem of drinking on college campuses, and they don't want to deal with it," Wagenaar said in a telephone interview. "It's really unfortunate, but the science is very clear."
Another scholar who has extensively researched college binge-drinking also criticized the presidents' initiative.
"I understand why colleges are doing it, because it splits their students, and they like to treat them all alike rather than having to card some of them. It's a nuisance to them," said Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health.
But, "I wish these college presidents sat around and tried to work out ways to deal with the problem on their campus rather than try to eliminate the problem by defining it out of existence," he said.
Duke faced accusations of ignoring the heavy drinking that formed the backdrop of 2006 rape allegations against three lacrosse players. The rape allegations proved to be a hoax, but the alcohol-fueled party was never disputed.
Duke senior Wey Ruepten said university officials should accept the reality that students are going to drink and give them the responsibility that comes with alcohol.
"If you treat students like children, they're going to act like children," he said.
Duke President Richard Brodhead declined an interview request. But he wrote in a statement on the Amethyst Initiative's Web site that the 21-year-old drinking age "pushes drinking into hiding, heightening its risks." It also prevents school officials "from addressing drinking with students as an issue of responsible choice."
Hurley, of MADD, has a different take on the presidents.
"They're waving the white flag," he said.
Weekend Recap
Monday 07-28-2008 7:42am CT
What a summer it has been! I can't believe we're through the Johnson County Fair, and August is just around the corner. This past weekend was a pretty good one. Saturday, I spent the day with my dad and brother, working on some small projects. It's fun to get your hands dirty! I was able to do that on Sunday. After church, my wife and I picked green beans. It's been several years since I've had a vegetable garden, so it was great to get out and enjoy the fruits (vegetables) of our labors!
Also, this coming weekend is Hooverfest, and the 21st Annual Hoover-ball National Championships. I've spent much of the summer working on new fields for the tournament, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things go. More info can be found at www.hooverassociation.org. Doug Schwab
Wednesday 07-09-2008 8:09am CT
Doug Schwab, assistant wrestling coach at the University of Iowa, has made the Olympic Wrestling Team, and is headed to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics!!! Doug is making several appearances to sign autographs this week in Iowa City.
On Thursday, July 10th, Doug will be at Dodge St. Tire, 605 N. Dodge St. in Iowa City from 12:30-2:00 p.m.
On Friday, July 11th, Doug will be at Iowa City Tire, 410 Kirkwood Ave. in Iowa City from 12:30-2:00 p.m.
Doug also has T-shirts for sale. Each shirt costs $20, and proceeds will help Doug pay for the trip to China. For more information, contact Allyson Schwab @ 319-400-7213. Or fill out the order form below, and email allyson.campbell@yahoo.com.
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© 2008