May 23, 2012

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Pedal power in use for Bike to Work Week

May 14, 2012 By

Iowa motorists will notice more two-wheelers on the road this morning as part of Bike to Work Week. Whether it’s for exercise, to save money or to live a greener lifestyle, Iowa Bicycle Coalition executive director Mark Wyatt says plenty of people are turning to pedal power, and not just for a week. He encourages Iowans to give biking to work a spin.

“A lot of times your commute is much shorter than you can even imagine and it’s pretty comparable by car,” Wyatt says. “It’s easy. If you really want to start, give it a try it on a weekend and get out there and see how long your commute’s going to be and help with your timing and such.”

Common complaints are that people don’t want to be all sweaty when they get to work, or that their hair will be messed up from wearing a bike helmet. “You can take your clothes to work,” Wyatt says. “Hair products are portable so it’s really easy to set up there at work, towel off and change clothes before you go on about your day.”

One study found that biking to work instead of driving a car can save $6,000 to $7,000 a year. While the winter months pose a challenge in Iowa, Wyatt says there’s no valid excuse to not try biking to work this spring — and this week. “We have 1,600 miles of trails available for people to use and countless number of bike lanes that are starting to pop up in urban areas,” Wyatt says.

“As far as bike friendliness, we’re ranked #6 so there’s plenty of opportunities you can get out and bike on facilities designated for bicycles.” In the ten years since his organization started promoting Bike to Work Week in Iowa, Wyatt says the number of participants has grown from a few hundred to several thousand statewide. He says it’s easy to get involved and before you get on the road, you can start online.

“Go to http://www.bikeiowa.comor www.iowagoesbybicycle.com,” Wyatt says. “We have a national bicycle challenge that we’re participating in so users can log their miles and keep track of how long it takes to get to work and how much fun you’re having along the way.”

There is a host of rides, races and other bike-related events over the coming weeks as part of National Bike Month.

Filed Under: Business, Health & Medicine, News Tagged With:

College graduates face hard work to find a job

May 9, 2012 By

A new crop of college graduates is heading into the workforce, and while the challenge of studying and taking tests is over, the new challenge of getting a job now looms ahead. Surveys show more than half of recent college grads are unemployed or underemployed.

Twenty-two-year-old Dennis Bowen just graduated with a history degree from the University of Northern Iowa, and is anxious about the next step. “I’m pretty nervous right now looking for a job. But I’ll be living with my parents for now, until I can save money,” Bowen says.

 Bowen isn’t afraid to get started right out of college in a job that doesn’t fit his degree. “I wouldn’t mind working retail for a while, or maybe, like, serving tables. Long term I really have no idea, and I think that’s what the scariest thing is,” according to Bowen.

The unemployment rate for the young and the educated is about 16% or twice as bad as the general unemployment rate. One way to avoid some of the scarier aspects of the job search is to reevaluate what you want to do.

For example, Pat Quinn wanted to become a music writer for Rolling Stone when he left Chicago to attend the University of Iowa. But he got interested in marketing — and after graduating last year — he became a marketing manager at the Technology Association of Iowa and ended up staying here.

“Yeah, I’m taking this, like, four-year vacation into the cornfields of Iowa, and then I’m going back to like, where all the other stuff is happening. And I think I just kind of saw that, I mean, Des Moines is just so much on the rise. Meteoric rise. And I don’t know if a lot of people cared to discover that,” Quinn says.

After he changed his initial plan, Quinn then worked three different marketing jobs on campus, which gave him some solid experience that helped land a job once he graduated. Iowa State University career coordinator, Tammy Stegman, says finding that first job isn’t impossible — it’s just harder.

“We’ll talk to students that say, I just can’t find a job, I’ve done everything I could, I don’t know what else to do. And I’ll say, how many jobs have you applied for? Three. Or, I’ve talked to 10 people in the last six months. So the thing that sets them apart is, how hard are they working,” Stegman says. Stegman says the key is to not give up if you don’t find a job right away.

Filed Under: Education, News Tagged With:

Creston hospital work delayed by strike

May 9, 2012 By

The rebuilding of a hospital damaged by a tornado was delayed a bit this month by striking painters. Around 200 members with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Local 246 went on strike at midnight on April 30.

Union business manager Bob Gilmore says one of the facilities impacted by the strike is the Greater Regional Medical Center in Creston.

“Unfortunately, one of the contractors that had the work is one of our employers,” Gilmore said.

“When we’re withholding service from our employers, that means they don’t have people to paint and the project can get delayed.” Gilmore noted that union members who’d been working on the Creston hospital prior to the strike offered to volunteer their time and finish the job.

The contractor and the union, however, agreed to pay a handful of painters while the others remain on strike. The union and its employers are scheduled to meet today to negotiate new contract terms.

“In our industry, this is one of the ways, unfortunately, that disagreements are resolved between the employers and the (union) members,” Gilmore said. The tornado that damaged the hospital in Creston on April 14 was categorized as an EF2 with wind speeds of 130 miles an hour.

Six people were injured in the storm in Creston, one critically.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Health & Medicine, News Tagged With:

USDA responds to Grassley’s comments on closing of beef processing plants

May 9, 2012 By

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is taking issue with comments Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley made regarding the closing of three plants that produced the lean finely textured beef product (LFTB). In a conference call with reporters Monday, the Republican Senator said the U.S.D.A. and FDA were partly to blame for the closings, because they didn’t defend the product after it had been labeled “pink slime” on a network TV program.

Grassley said, “They immediately said hot lunch programs didn’t have to purchase it and so that sent a signal if it wasn’t good enough for the hot lunch program, it wasn’t good enough for this supermarket and that supermarket and they all jumped on board.” U.S.D.A. communications director, Matt Paul doesn’t agree with the senator.

“You know, we were very disappointed that Senator Grassley made that characterization. From the first discussion of this in the national news, U.S.D.A. was very strong in pointing out the safety record of LFTB. And in fact, at the pinnacle of this public discussion, the company cited U.S.D.A.’s support for the product,” Paul says.

As for the school lunch program, Paul says the U.S.D.A. does what Senator Grassley does, and was listening to its customers. He says they had four staff members dedicated to answering concerns about LTFB.

“All we said was that schools have a choice if they don’t want to receive this product, we on behalf of them, sort of their wholesaler, are simply making a case based on their concerns until there’s some greater public understanding of LFTB, that we would give district the option,” according to Paul.

“But again, it was based on a consistent message about the safety of this product.” Beef Products Incorporated suspended operations at three plants that make LFTB during the debate over its safety, and then announced Monday the closings were permanent.

Paul points out that Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack was one of the officials who appeared with Iowa’s governor and those from other states to support LFTB at the one production plant that remained open. “We dispatched our top food safety expert on this to make an appearance with the five governors in South Sioux City to talk about the safety of the product. So, the U.S.D.A. consistently touted the safety of this product,” Paul says.

“Our heart goes out to these impacted workers. It’s a sad situation, but not a situation that’s going to benefit from Washington finger pointing,” Paul says. The closing of the Waterloo plant means the loss of 220 jobs. Vilsack is a Democrat and former Iowa governor.

 

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

Grassley says USDA, FDA partly to blame for BPI plant closings

May 8, 2012 By

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration are partly to blame for the closure of three beef processing factories in Iowa, Texas and Kansas. Beef Products Incorporated announced Monday it would permanently close the plants due to a consumer backlash over the product it calls “lean, finely textured beef,” referred to as “pink slime” in an A.B.C. TV report.

Grassley says the U.S.D.A. and the FDA should have defended the product, but didn’t. Grassley says, “They immediately said hot lunch programs didn’t have to purchase it and so that sent a signal if it wasn’t good enough for the hot lunch program, it wasn’t good enough for this supermarket and that supermarket and they all jumped on board.”

After the U.S.D.A. and FDA’s actions, criticism of the beef product on social media went viral. The actions caused irreversible harm to BPI, Grassley says, and the plants — which were temporarily closed in March — are now closed for good.

“So then you try to make up for that harm and there’s not much that the Department of Agriculture can do, even by having four or five governors join in to save the jobs, it didn’t happen,” Grassley says. “It’s just a crime.”

The BPI factory in Waterloo had 220 employees. The closures of the plants in Kansas and Texas take the total number of jobs lost to 650.

Another BPI plant in South Sioux City, Nebraska, will remain open but production is being cut back. Grassley says, “You would think people would be more interested in human beings and preserving jobs than they would be in animal agriculture, but obviously the people that are against animal agriculture that wanted to create this fraud on ABC are more interested in animals than they are people.”

While Grassley says what’s taken place is a crime, he doesn’t expect any charges to be filed. He says: “It’s all within the freedom of speech of our broadcasters.” The other plants that are being shuttered are in Amarillo, Texas and Garden City, Kansas.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Featured Story, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Sioux City mayor expresses support for BPI

May 8, 2012 By

Beef Products Incorporated (BPI) won’t reopen the three plants it closed in the wake of the controversy over its finely textured beef product, but the company does plan to keep its Sioux City area plant open. Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott says the news about the other plants is sad for the company.

“We’d all hoped that they would rebound, and I’m hopeful that they will find a solution some day down the road for what’s happened to them,” Scott says. “I think it’s terribly unfortunate. I think what’s happened to that company is just a result of this modern media frenzy that we get into even though the facts are not well grounded. It’s terrible what’s happened, we’re talking people’s jobs, families, lives and that.”

BPI closed it’s plants in Waterloo, Amarillo, Texas and Garden City, Kansas after the product they produce was called “pink slime” and questions were raised about its safety. The governor, U.S. ag secretary, and the Iowa congressional delegation all came to the company’s defense, saying the product has been used for years and is safe.

Mayor Scott says his city will continue to do what it can for the company.”Obviously they’re good for this region, they’ve been good corporate citizens to help fund projects for this community, and it’s just a sad day when something like this happens,” Scott says.

The Waterloo plant employed 220 people. Production continues at the Sioux City plant, but has been reduced.

By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With: , ,

Northwood mayor fires police chief

May 3, 2012 By

The police chief in the northern Iowa town of Northwood has been fired. Mayor Randy Severson made the announcement that he has fired Leo Dorsey in a prepared statement released Wednesday.

Severson says due to the series of events involving his activities with his former wife, in which Severson says violated the city’s police department policies that he terminated Dorsey on Tuesday. District Judge James Drew last month had ruled that a temporary injunction against Dorsey would remain in effect which barred him from being anywhere near his ex-wife’s Northwood home.

Dorsey is running in the Republican primary in June for Worth County Sheriff against former sheriff David Gentz for the right to face incumbent Jay Langenbau in the November general election. Dorsey had been the city’s police chief for the last 15 years.

By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News Tagged With:
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