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West Des Moines company adding 100 jobs

April 28, 2011 By

A West Des Moines based company has started hiring some 100 employees for its call centers in Jefferson, Manning and Newton. Caleris co-founder Rick Grewell says they seen an increase in companies seeking their call center services. He says they now provide support for 60 to 80 different companies.

He says they range from internet services providers to various hardware providers, from televisions to video projectors. One of the new customers is an auto company that has a new product coming out. Grewell says they been going after companies and getting them to keep the jobs here instead of sending them out of the country.

Grewell says their slogan is “Outsource to Iowa, not India,” and he says they are able to be cost competitive by using the workforce in smaller Iowa towns. He says the employees are well educated, and can get issues on calls resolved in half to one-third the time it would take centers outside the country, which he says results in huge savings for customers.

Grewell says the majority of the new jobs will go to Newton. He says they jobs have a broad salary range. Grewell says the jobs range from 10 to 13 dollars an hour and can be over that depending on the technical skill level. He says they are “very much into promoting from within”, so they can provide a career path for people.

The company currently has some 300 employees and will be adding the additional 100 over the next several weeks. You can find out more about the jobs at:www.caleris.com.

Filed Under: Business

U-I students try to offsett carbon footprint by planting shrubs

April 28, 2011 By

Geology students at the University of Iowa plan to plant hundreds of shrubs near the Iowa City campus to offset the carbon footprint from a field trip they’ll take next month. Art Bettis, the U-of-I geology professor leading the trip to Colorado and New Mexico, says three vans will carry 15 students about 3,000 miles. Bettis did the math — and says the trek will leave a carbon footprint of 6.2 metric tons.

“We calculated that if we take a thousand of the native shrubs that we’re going to be using, we’re getting them from the Iowa State Nursery, the city of Iowa City bought them and the state nursery donated some,” Bettis says. “We’re going to be putting them into this area, about a four or five-acre area as far as strips and nice shapes and stuff like that.”

The students and their professor plan to spend at least three full days planting the native Iowa shrubs at Sycamore Greenspace, a city park and wetland area constructed for storm water management. The mass planting will include about 1,050 ninebark, nannyberry and arrowwood shrubs, in addition to another 50 elderberry and coralberry shrubs. Bettis says the shrubs will sequester more than six-metric tons of carbon in 3-5 years.

“There’s a bike path along this wetland and the shrub planting will shield the bike path from the agricultural fields that are off to the east,” Bettis says. “It’ll make for a lot of nice habitat for wildlife and make the bike path more aesthetically pleasing, too.” He didn’t require any of the students in his class to take part in the carbon challenge aspect of the course, but he says every one of them wanted to get involved. Many are taking their efforts to another level, too.

“There are various things you can do to use less carbon in your lifestyle,” Bettis says. “Some of the students have decided to have one less meal that they eat meat in, because meat’s a big demander. Students are riding their bikes or walking to work instead of driving, taking the bus for various sorts of things. Some of them are even taking the bus to go shop for groceries.”

Bettis and the students will leave on the ten-day camping adventure in mid-May. The plan was to start planting the shrubs on Earth Day last week but it’s too soggy from all the rain. They now hope to get the shrubs in the ground in another week or two.

Filed Under: Education, Environment & Conservation Tagged With:

Latham speaks publicly for first time about race against Boswell

April 28, 2011 By

The 2012 race pitting Republican Congressman Tom Latham against Democratic Congressman Leonard Boswell is already billed as one of the nation’s marquee contests. 

The new congressional district lines were approved at the statehouse in mid-April. Latham quickly announced in a written statement that he would move into the new third congressional district rather than stay in Ames and face a race against Congressman Steve King, a fellow Republican who lives in the new fourth district.

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Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Much work remains, but most legislators head home for the weekend

April 28, 2011 By

Friday is the last scheduled day of the 2011 Iowa legislative session, but there’s no agreement on key taxing and spending plans ,  and most of the 150 legislators have gone home. A few lawmakers, mostly leaders, are at the statehouse, meeting behind closed-doors to hammer out deals, however it could be days, perhaps weeks, before agreements are reached.

Representative Scott Raecker, a Republican from Urbandale, is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “The priorities have been established and we see where there is movement and alignment,” Raecker says. “And we will find that movement and alignment.”

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Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Display honoring fallen soldiers to begin run in Iowa May 1

April 28, 2011 By

A display featuring hundreds of photos is about to start its Iowa tour, honoring members of the military who’ve died in combat since the Nine-Eleven attacks of 2001. The exhibit called “Remembering Our Fallen” is sponsored by Bellevue University, just south of Omaha, Nebraska. Jim Maxwell is a spokesman for the school.

“The exhibit…was created to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,” Maxwell says. “It’s a legacy that these men and women will never be forgotten and their names will be remembered and spoken.” The display includes photos of 98 service members from Nebraska and Iowa who have died in the War on Terror in the past decade. Maxwell says the exhibit has been at Bellevue University since late March and it’s brought an emotional response like nothing else they’ve had on campus.

“Some people have left written notes on the display itself to be given to the families at a later date,” he says. “If you view the display yourself, you’re used to seeing people in uniform but when you start to see photos of people in their everyday lives, people in roles as fathers, wives and mothers and you see children in the photos, it really hits home.”

Maxwell says the exhibit is especially moving because of where the university is located. “We’re right next door to Offutt Air Force Base, a close connection to the military so we’re very proud,” he says. “Nearly 20-percent of our students are active duty or military veterans and our student veterans association chapter is one of the largest in the nation. This isn’t just another sponsorship. This is something we are very proud to be a part of.”

As of May 1st, the display will start what is hoped to be a national campaign, appearing at various locations in Nebraska and Iowa through the end of the year.

Iowa schedule: May 1, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., private unveiling to families of the fallen; 1:30 p.m. program open to the public 2-4 p.m., Adel-DeSoto-Minburn High School, Adel; May 2-5, State Capitol Rotunda, Des Moines; May 8-14, Centre Mall, Sioux Center; May 16-22, Community Center, Exira; May 24-30, Courthouse, LeMars; June 13-18, Shenandoah Chamber & Industry Association, Shenandoah; June 20-25, Wilson Performing Arts Center, Red Oak; July 22-29, Site TBD, Muscatine; September 6-11, Onawa Public Library, Onawa; September 13-17, Stanton School, Stanton; September 18, Remembrance Run, Sandpiper Rec Area, Saylorville Lake.

Filed Under: Human Interest, Military

Think safety when looking for garage sale items

April 28, 2011 By

The garage sale season is here, but those finds you buy could give you more than you bargained for if you’re not careful. Department of Public Health medical director, Patricia Quinlisk says bed bugs are now a concern for some used items.

Quinlisk says used mattresses or other things people have slept on, like sofa beds are the highest risk. She says chairs are not as much a risk, especially if it is something like a wooden kitchen chair. Quinlisk says purchasing something with bed bugs could lead to an infestation throughout your home.

She says you should be sure to check out the item thoroughly and be sure there is no sign of bed bugs anywhere, because once you get bed bugs in your home, they are hard to deal with. Quinlisk says the bed bugs don’t spread disease, but are a nuisance, and the best plan my be to buy a new mattress from a reputable dealer. Quinlisk says while bed bugs are more of a nuisance than safety issue, there are more serious dangers if you buy used cribs or other items for children.

Quinlisk says some of the older items may’ve been recalled due to safety concerns, drop-down cribs for example are called dangerous for babies because they could get trapped on injured in them. She says you should research any product on safety websites. Quinklisk says it’s better to pass up a good buy than it is to get something that doesn’t work properly.

Quinlisk says for example, make sure a carseat fits properly and works in your care before you buy it. You can look for on-line product updates at the Consumer Product Safety Commission website: www.saferproducts.gov.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Human Interest

King says its too early to speculate on Christie Vilsack run

April 28, 2011 By

Republican Congressman Steve King says it’s too soon for him to speculate about facing former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack in the 2012 election. “The Democrats may have a primary. On my side I may have a primary so we can’t presume that that is a match up at this point, although it seems to be likely,” King says. “She placed a courtesy call to let me know that she has an exploratory committee. I think that’s to her credit and we’ll see how this emerges.”

Vilsack, who is a life-long Democrat, announced last week she is moving to Ames, which is in the new fourth congressional district where King lives, and will be conducting a “listening tour” with voters in the district. King says he and Vilsack have a “complete philosophical disagreement on how the world looks.”

“That could be an engaging and interesting discussion taking place across 39 counties,” King says. “I was born here. I live here. My roots go down here. Our family for three generations, four generations, I guess more, go down in this part of the state.”

Christie Vilsack is also an Iowa native, but her hometown of Mount Pleasant is in southeast Iowa and is not part of the new fourth congressional district. King says it’s “hard to estimate” how tough an opponent Christie Vilsack may be. “Not having a track record, it’s hard to estimate that. I think that people on her side think so and so I would take her and any opponent very seriously and intend to do my share of this work and put together the best team we can,” King says.

“Anytime you have a new district and the extra counties that are added it makes it a more difficult task and certainly I expect that.” After winning a seat in congress in 2002, King has refused to debate his Democratic opponents in the past four elections. And King is making no commitment to debating Christie Vilsack.

“Nor am I declining. That’s something that I would think would be discussed between the two camps, if it got to that point,” King says. “But I would just say that most everybody in Iowa knows that I’ve debated a Vilsack many, many times…Tom and I served in the Iowa Senate together as we engaged each other over and over again. And then as he as governor, and I as a senator and then, he as governor and I as a congressman and now he as the secretary of agriculture and I as a congressman.”

King suggests he’ll have even more debates with Tom Vilsack before debates Christie Vilsack. King made his comments on the Iowa Public Radio program, “The Exchange”.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,
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