Group tries to show off the many facets of Iowa

As national media attention turns to Iowa for the January 24th Iowa Caucuses, a group of local officials have a project up and running to convince outsiders that Iowa’s more than corn fields and hog houses. Iowa Department of Economic Development director David Lyons is part of the Iowa Caucus Project 2000.He says the value of Iowa factory goods exported internationally is now MORE than Iowa’s ag exports. Lyons says Iowa’s economy is growing in a number of areas. For example, software companies are growing more than 100-percent a year.Lyons says while Iowa IS among the top ag states, it’s the nation’s number two insurance center.Lyons, by the way, is leaving his state job at the end of the month to take a new post at the Iowa Farm Bureau.