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Survey says Iowa salaries will rise slightly next year

November 28, 2011 By

A survey finds starting salaries in Iowa will rise a little over 3% next year, slightly under the national average. Mike Gremmer is a regional vice president for Robert Half International, the recruiting firm that produced the study. Gremmer, who’s based in Des Moines, says starting salaries nationwide will rise about three-point-four percent next year, but the numbers for Iowa are a little lower.

“Accounting and financial positions are looking to increase about 3.3%, salaries across the board between IT, creative marketing, legal, administrative support, all combined would be about 3.2%,” Gremmer says. “Our technology, a little higher, at about 4.3%.”

Some professions will see better boosts, according to the agency’s 2012 Salary Survey, including business systems analysts, financial analysts and staff accountants. With increasing demand on websites, email and other information technologies, he says I-T positions will see the biggest gains in Iowa and nationwide.

Gremmer says, “In the technology arena, your systems and network engineers, developers, those with .net and java skills, data warehousing, business intelligence professionals, these would range upwards of 5.5 to 6.7% increases on their starting salaries.” He says there are two key areas where most workers are virtually guaranteed a good salary.

“Certainly the IT is a very good arena to start in and continue to grow with,” Gremmer says. “Accounting and finance has continued on and it’s going to be a very important piece of a company’s ability to grow and to maintain their growth.” Parts of the Midwest have been well insulated from some of the impact of the recession the past few years.

While Iowa’s salary numbers may be slightly below the national average, he says that may be because they weren’t as negatively impacted by the economy as those in other regions.

See the survey here: www.rhi.com/SalaryGuides

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With:

Odds for reintroducing Poweshiek skipperling butterfly to Iowa seem long

November 28, 2011 By

The Poweshiek skipperling butterfly has been identified as a candidate to be put on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species list. Some experts believe the butterfly is already gone from Iowa, but F-W-S endangered species biologist Phil Delphey, says there are still some in other states.

He says the endangered species designation could help preserve the remaining butterflies, but he says getting them back into Iowa could be tough. Delphey says the adult butterflies only fly about two weeks out of the year and the rest of the time are eggs or caterpillars, so they have a very short time span where they are flying.

He says they don’t fly very far when they are adults, so if they were to recolonized an area, it would have to be very close by to where they are now. Delphey says a Wisconsin woman has been trying to figure out how to raise the butterflies in captivity, and he says there is another effort underway too.

The Minnesota Zoo is planning to hire a butterfly biologist who will try to figure out how to propagate the Poweshiek skipperling and later the Dakota skipper. Delphey says the odds would likely be against any effort to artificially reintroduce the Poweshiek skipperling into Iowa.

Delphey says when it comes to endangered species, they’ve had success reintroducing a few species of fresh-water mussels. He says it’s always “a costly endeavor” so they would probably only do that in areas where they think there’s a good chance of success and reintroducing them would have a “tangible benefit to the conservation of the species.”

Delphey says there are several steps to go through before the butterfly is added to the list. Delphey says a service biologist is working on a proposed rule that will be published in the federal register and will describe the threat to the species, and the areas that should be designated as special habitat.

The final decision on moving the Poweshiek skipperling to the endangered species list is at least a year or more away.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Featured Story, News

Cyber Monday tips to avoid problems

November 26, 2011 By

Not everyone likes to venture out and face the crowds to do their holiday shopping and buying gifts on-line is an alternative. Geoff Greenwood of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office says choose your on-line shopping sites as carefully as you would regular stores.

He says there should be websites you are comfortable buying on-line from, and he says you need to know about the websites where you are shopping. Greenwood says know the websites rules on refunds and returns, do they charge shipping fees, and do you need a record of the purchase for returns. He says you should keep a paper trail of your transactions.

Greenwood says be sure to print out a copy of your receipt and save it as your proof you bought the product. He says make sure the website has a phone number so you can contact them if there is a problem. One important thing is the way you pay.

Greenwood says use do not use a debit card as it is just like giving them access to your cash. He says use a credit card and you get extra protections, such as not paying a disputed charge, that you don’t get with a debit card. Greenwood says take some time to read the website policies before you make your on-line purchase to save yourself some hassles later on.

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With:

Catholics to see changes in wording of liturgy

November 26, 2011 By

Catholics in Iowa will see some major changes in the liturgy and hymns as they attend mass this weekend. The Director of Liturgy for the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Peggy Loverien says the church has changed the way it translate things from Latin.

Loverien says they have gone from using the “dynamic equivalent,” or making use of the meaning that they find in the Latin text, to the “formal equivalent,” which uses the literal sense of what the original text means in Latin. She says the text of mass, and the music they sing will all be adjusted on the first Sunday of advent.

Loverien says she’s been hearing from parishioners and believes the older members of the church will find it to be a major change.

“For folks who have been praying these prayers for 45 years, this is difficult,” She says. Loverien says a Baptist friend of hers once joked that the Catholics “all know their lines by heart.”

Loverien says that is true for those who have been in the church for 30 and 40 years, but she says the younger people don’t seem to have a problem with it. Loverien says the changes will be evident as soon as the mass begins. She says for example, one thing they will hear right away is “The Lord be with you” and the people with respond with “And in your spirit,” instead of the previous response of “And also with you.” Loverien says the response is more in line with the literal Latin version of the phrase.

The Iowa Catholic Conference says there are nearly half a million Catholics in Iowa. You can find out more information on the new changes by visiting: www.usccb.org./romanmissal.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Filed Under: News, Religion

Iowans encouraged to take 100 Day Wellness Challenge

November 26, 2011 By

Iowans looking for a way to lose weight after the holidays might want to consider joining a team-based, statewide initiative called the 100 Day Wellness Challenge. Nicole Bruce, with Live Healthy Iowa, says the challenge is scheduled for January 23 through May 1.

Live Healthy Iowa, formerly Lighten Up Iowa, was formed in 2001 to address the state’s growing obesity problem. “It’s going to be our 11th year for the 100 Day Wellness Challenge. We’re very excited about that and we’re going to be rolling out a new website,” Bruce said. “We’re partnering with the Healthiest State Initiative to try and get as many Iowans involved as possible and work toward that goal of making Iowa the healthiest state in the nation.”

Participants in the Wellness Challenge track their activity and weight loss online for 100 days. The program comes with a relatively small registration fee. The $20 cost per person includes a t-shirt, a magazine subscription, access to the website, opportunities for prizes and weekly motivational e-mails. Five dollar discount coupons are also available through Hy-Vee.

Bruce is looking to chose a few participants next year who’ll receive free registration. Applications for the so-called Live Healthy Iowa “Dream Team” are due December 2. The dream team will consist of two to 10 members. Bruce says information about each dream team member’s progress will be highlighted and shared will all participants in the 100 Day Wellness Challenge.

Last year, more than 152,000 Iowans took part in the challenge.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Human Interest, News

Grassley “digging and digging and digging” into “Fast & Furious”

November 26, 2011 By

Senator Chuck Grassley says his staff is “digging…every day” into the federal program that failed to track guns in the U.S. that were sold to Mexican drug runners.

“Trying to follow every lead that we can,” Grassley says, “and these leads have brought us a long ways now, compared to when we started.”

The project was called “Fast and Furious.” Agents in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms monitored large gun sales in Arizona, with the goal of tracking the guns to the drug cartels in Mexico. Agents lost track of some of the weapons, one of which was found near the body of a murdered border patrol agent last December. Two officials connected to the program have resigned, but Grassley says Attorney General Eric Holder needs to explain how much he knew about the program, and how early he knew about the problems.

“For instance, the February 4 letter from the Justice Department said that there wasn’t anything to ‘Fast and Furious’ and it was that way even after we showed them documents showing them they were wrong,” Grassley says. “They still wrote us letters in March, saying there wasn’t anything to it.” 

The attorney general has said he knew of the program last year, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that he learned of the problems.

“We just are digging and digging and digging with a goal that we want to make sure that whoever o.k.’ed this gets fired,” Grassley says. “…And, lastly, we want to make sure a stupid program like this doesn’t happen again.”

The Obama Administration has released documents indicating the strategy to track gun sales in the U.S. to drug cartels in Mexico was begun during the Bush Administration. The controversy has become a campaign issue. Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry this week called on Attorney General Holder to resign.

On December 8, the attorney general will testify before the House committee investigating the operation. Grassley will also testify at that House hearing.

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

Huskers roll over Hawkeyes in football

November 25, 2011 By

A season with very few peaks and a lot of valleys ended in embarrassing fashion for the Iowa Hawkeyes who were steamrolled at Nebraska 20-7. The Huskers dominated every phase of they game.

The running game churned out 221 yards on the ground, the defense shut down the Hawkeyes, who needed a late touchdown to avoid their first shutout in more than 11 years. In fact, things were so bad that Nebraska’s Taylor Martinez and his nearly side arm delivery was clearly the better passer.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says Nebraska is a good football team when they are playing well and said they played well against his team today. Ferentz says the Huskers didn’t play well last week but did in this game.

The Hawkeyes owned field position in the first quarter but failed to come away with points on three drives into Nebraska territory. Ferentz says they didn’t finish drives and were not able to do anything in Nebraska’s territory. He says the game turned on the 80-yard Nebraska drive where they scored their first touchdown.

Now, less than two years after winning the Orange Bowl the Iowa program has plunged into mediocrity with a second straight 7-5 season, including a 4-4 mark in the Big Ten.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: ,
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