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Iowa’s unemployment rate up a tenth of a percent

November 20, 2009 By

Iowa’s unemployment rate went up slightly in October, according to Kerry Koonce of Iowa Workforce Development. Koonce says it did raise a tenth of a percent in October to 6.7% compared to the adjusted rate for September. She says that’s still better than the 10.2% national unemployment rate.

The September rate was originally reported at 6.7%, and then revised down to 6.6%. Koonce says the small increase in unemployment came despite the addition of jobs in some areas. She says the state added 2,000 jobs in the education and health services areas — 1,300 were in health services. There were 900 new jobs in professional and business services, a large portion of those in temporary hiring, and 700 in financial services.

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Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

ISU research featured in Science

November 20, 2009 By

A prestigious academic journal called Science is featuring some Iowa State University research as its latest “cover” story. Patrick Schnable, an I.S.U. agronomy professor, is lead author of research which identifies some of the basic characteristics of “maize” or corn.

“This is a very exciting milestone for me as a scientist,” Schnable says. “But for me as a citizen and for all the other citizens out there, this is also an important milestone.”

Schnable and his research team have discovered the genetic make-up or “genome sequence” of corn is nearly as large as the human genome — and more complex. “Corn is a very important crop in Iowa, in the United States and around the world. Yields have been going up through the very heroic efforts of plant breeders over the last 70 and 80 years, but it becomes harder and harder for them to continue to increase yields,” Schnable says. “…The maize genome sequence provides tools for plant breeders to become more efficient at generating the next generation of hybrids.”

The I.S.U. reseachers submitted their manuscript to the editors of the journal “Science” and the work was sent to other scientists who reviewed it for accuracy and significance. It passed that hurdle, and Schnable says the editors at “Science” must have decided the work at I.S.U. had great significance and potential impact.

“It certainly gives prominence to this and I hope will lead to funding to continue to decipher how the corn plant works so that we can ultimately reengineer it to better suit our needs,” he says. “For example, farmers use a lot of nitrogen fertilizer as an input to produce the high yields that we need. This is an expensive input and it’s also important that the nitrogen get used byhe crop and not end up in the environment, so the genome sequence will provide clues to develop maize lines, corn lines that have better nitrogen use efficiency.”

An on-line academic journal called the Public Library of Science is publishing some of the I.S.U. data, too. The issue of “Science” that highlights the Iowa State research has a picture of an ear of corn on the cover.

See the cover here:www.sciencemag.org/content/vol326/issue5956/cover.dtl

Filed Under: Agriculture, Education Tagged With: ,

Retailers not happy about possible Everclear ban

November 20, 2009 By

State regulators say it’s time to discuss the popularity of high-proof alcohol on college campuses. Thursday’s meeting of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Commission followed an incident earlier this month involving a Drake University student who landed in the hospital after a heavy night of drinking Everclear.

Commission member Jim Clayton says he worries about the increasing number of products, like Everclear, that are high in alcohol content. “Young people are buying it…what for? Making punch…spiking a watermelon with grape juice and Everclear,” Clayton said. At 150 proof, Everclear has nearly twice the concentration of alcohol as most vodkas.

“Doing things with it that add alcohol to a situation where you’re really not knowing whether somebody put in two shots or took the bottle…and glug, glug, glug into a container,” Clayton said. “So, I’d like to talk about it.” Brian Duax owns Central City Liquor in Des Moines. He told the commission that it would be unfair to punish everyone for one kid’s mistake.

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Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Sullivan Museum celebrates anniversary

November 20, 2009 By

The Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum opened in Waterloo one year ago, and a special World War Two-themed event is planned Saturday to mark the anniversary. Bob Neymeyer, the museum’s project coordinator, says they’ve put together a program that is modeled after the canteens of World War Two and the events include a performance by the U-S-O Liberty Bells of New York City. The event, called “A Night at the Hollywood Canteen”, will also feature dance lessons, local celebrity servers, and actors dressed as Hollywood stars who may have visited a canteen during World War Two.

Neymeyer says anniversary events will tell the story of Iowa veterans, just as the museum does. The facility, which opened in November 2008, honors the estimated 800,000 Iowa veterans from the Civil War to the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says they continue to collect information on veterans, particularly those who died in the service as they have a memorial wall that provides more information on the veterans.

Neymeyer says the first-year interest has exceeded the museum’s goal. Neymeyer says they’ve had 25 to 27,000 people visit the first seven months of the year and he says they’ve had a lot of out-of-state visitors who were visiting their family an came to the museum. The winner of the Sullivan Brothers Outstanding Military Family Award will be announced at Saturday’s event too. The award and museum are both named after the five Waterloo siblings, who served and died together in World War Two.

Their deaths in 1942 resulted in the biggest sacrifice by one family in American military history. Neymeyer says the award recognizes a family who has at least three members serving in combat or at home to support those soldiers – much like the Sullivans. He says they look forward to honoring another family for both their service overseas, and the work they’ve done on the home front. Saturday’s anniversary events run from 5 to 9 p.m. at the museum in Waterloo.

Contributed by Elwin Huffman, KOEL, Oelwein

Filed Under: Human Interest, Military
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