CEDAR VALLEY PAGE A3

SPORTS PAGE B1

COMMUNITY ART
Young artists leave their mark in Waterloo with completion of mural

SHINING DEFENSE
Clarksville shuts out rival Janesville 3-0 in Iowa Star Conference softball

TUESDAY | JUNE 28, 2011

WATERLOO www.wcfcourier.com CEDAR FALLS

NEWSSTAND PRICE 75

RICK CHASE / Courier Staff Photographer

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and her husband, Marcus, work the crowd at her presidential campaign announcement at the Snowden House in the Grout Museum District in Waterloo.

Bachmann joins presidential race

Minnesota congresswoman touts Iowa roots as she kicks off campaign in Waterloo
By MIKE WISER
michael.wiser@lee.net

and JOSH NELSON

josh.nelson@wcfcourier.com

Candidate makes good impression on Waterloo crowd at announcement.

By MIKE WISER
michael.wiser@lee.net

WATERLOO Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., touted her Iowa roots and her national role as a leader in the tea party movement during a speech announcing her formal entry into To watch Bachmanns the presidential speech and view race Monday. more photos from Standing in the event, visit front of the hisWCFCourier.com. toric Snowden House just outside of downtown Waterloo, the 55year-old Bachmann told a crowd of about 200 people she was the voice that has been missing in the halls of Washington, D.C. She also said the country cannot afford another four years of a housing crisis, joblessness and foreign policy from a president who leads from behind. I do so because I am grateful for the blessings God and this country have given to me, and not because of the position of the office, but because I am determined that every American deserves these blessings and that together we can once again strengthen America and restore the promise of the future, she said. Bachmann was born at Waterloos Allen Hospital and lived in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area until she was 12. She attended Valley Park and Cedar Heights elementary schools in Cedar Falls. Bachmann was anked by several

and JOSH NELSON

josh.nelson@wcfcourier.com

MATTHEW PUTNEY / Courier Photo Editor

Michele Bachmann ofcially announces her bid for the White House in Waterloo on Monday. family members, including her husband, Marcus; her aunt, Adys Taber of Cedar Falls, her brother, David Amble, and several cousins. The Minnesota congresswoman has caught re since her performance at a June 13 debate in New Hampshire where she rst said she intended to run for president. New polls, including one released Sunday by the Des Moines Register, show Bachmann in a statistical tie with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the GOP race. Ive been to Iowa, and we had a very good sense on the ground that they were very favorably inclined to my candidacy, but to have it conrmed by this poll in the Des Moines Register let us know that what we were seeing on the ground was actual, Bachmann said in an interview with The Courier after her speech. Bachmann said shes seen similar results in Florida and South Carolina. That could set up a contest between her and Romney similar to the one between Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Hucakbee, who won the 2008 caucuses. The race could be upset again, however, if candidates like Alaskas Sarah Palin or Texas Gov. Rick Perry enter. Bachmann now heads to New Hampshire and South Carolina.

WATERLOO Tom Heathershaw caucused for Barack Obama and voted for him in 2008. The smart money says he wont do that again. The 22-year-old religious studies major at the University of Iowa is a Waterloo native and one of a couple of hundredof people who came to the Snowden House on a warm and humid Monday morning to hear another Waterloo native formally announce her entry into the Republican presidential race. Rep. Michele Bachmann didnt speak much about her faith during her 32-minute speech save for a single Scripture reference and a God bless you and a God bless the United States of America at its close. But those who have followed her rise from losing a seat on the Stillwater, Minn., school board to joining Congress and becoming a national leader of the tea party movement know her Christian faith and social conservatism are part of her makeup. And her appeal. Especially in the public sphere when they openly endorse that kind of thing, thats always attracted me, Heathershaw said.

See BACHMANN, page A13

See REACTION, page A13

High court strikes down California ban on violent video game sales to kids
WASHINGTON (AP) States cannot ban the sale or rental of ultraviolent video games to children, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting such limits as a violation of young peoples First Amendment rights and leaving it up to parents and the multibillion-dollar gaming industry to decide what kids can buy. The high court, on a 7-2 vote, threw out Californias 2005 law covering games sold or rented to those under 18, calling it an unconstitutional violation of free-speech rights. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said, Even where the protection of children is the object, the constitutional limits on governmental action apply. Scalia, who pointed out the violence in a number of childrens fairy tales, said while states have legitimate power to protect chilAsk Amy .............. A10 Business&Farm .........A7 Bridge ................... A8

dren from harm, that does not include a free-oating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed. Justices Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas dissented, saying it makes no sense to legally block childrens access to pornography yet allow them to buy or rent brutally violent video games. What sense does it make to forbid selling to a 13-year-old
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boy a magazine with an image of a nude woman, while protecting the sale to that 13-year-old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds and gags the woman, then tortures and kills her? Breyer said. Video games, said Scalias majority opinion, fall into the same category as books, plays and movies as entertainment that communicates ideas and even social mesOpinion ................. A5 Puzzles.................. A8 Sports ................... B1

sages deserving of First Amendment free-speech protection. And non-obscene speech cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable for them, he said. This decision follows a string of similar decisions by the court on recent First Amendment cases.

See HIGH COURT, page A2

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