Iowa’s unemployment rate for February is a repeat of January’s numbers, with the seasonally adjusted rate sitting at 3.6% for both of the first two months in 2021. Participation in the labor force also remained essentially flat between both months; much like in January, Iowa saw workforce participation around 65.6% in February.
John Deere will hold two more job fairs to hire more workers at its Waterloo plants. The fairs will be Tuesday and Thursday of next week, April 6th and 8th, from noon to 6 p.m. at the John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum downtown; that’s the same location where an initial fair was held March 6. The spots are production jobs, including welders, assemblers and other positions. Pay starts at more than $19 an hour, with benefits including health insurance and 401(K) retirement and pension plans.
The Iowa House last week passed a bill that would ban combined fire and police departments, like the one in Cedar Falls. House File 683 allows cities, townships and counties to establish emergency response districts for fire protection. But it also says a city with an institution of higher education governed by the state board of regents must maintain a professional fire department that is separate from the city’s police department. That would include Cedar Falls, home to the University of Northern Iowa. The city has the first cross trained public safety department in the state. The bill is now in the Iowa Senate.
After a nearly 3 hour meeting Thursday, the Waterloo City Council adopted its fiscal year 2022 budget in a 5-2 vote. Council members heard from a handful of public speakers who all opposed tax increases as the result of this year’s budget. Despite that, the tax rate increased by 3.49% for residential properties and 1.04% for commercial properties. Two major issues dominated the conversation–the changing of the police patch and, the largest point of contention amongst council, adding a new “chief of staff” position to the mayor’s office.
Court records show an Iowa gun store refused to sell a semi-automatic rifle to a heavily armed and agitated Colorado man who said he was surprised his friends didn’t suspect he was the Boulder mass shooter. Federal agents say Adam Vannoy made the remark Tuesday when he was trying to purchase an AR-style rifle from Sportsman’s Warehouse in Ankeny, Iowa. The store denied the sale and notified federal authorities. Vannoy reportedly said he had 500 rounds of ammunition in his truck. He has been arrested on a federal weapons charge stemming from a March 14 traffic stop in Nebraska, when authorities say he had several firearms, an illegal silencer and marijuana.
Gov. Kim Reynolds has ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff today to remember the prison nurse and correctional officer killed in a failed escape attempt at the Anamosa penitentiary last Tuesday. She said the state “grieves the loss” of 50-year-old nurse Lorena Schulte of Cedar Rapids, and 46-year-old Officer Robert McFarland of Ely. Two inmates, 28-year-old Michael Dutcher and 39-year-old Thomas Woodard, are charged with two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and second-degree kidnapping.
A record number of Iowa high school students are earning dual high school and community college credit. In the 2019-2020 school year, there were 51,800 students earning community college credit, up by 1,200 from the previous year. Students were awarded 216 associate degrees, 49 diplomas, and 642 certificates while at the same time earning high school diplomas. 10 of Iowa’s 15 community colleges saw joint enrollment increases last year. High school students in joint enrollment programs accounted for 40.8% of total community college enrollment.
Only a few days after announcing his candidacy, small business owner Jake Brummer has dropped out of the race for mayor in Cedar Rapids, and has endorsed Amara Andrews. She has also received endorsements from Democrat State Senator Rob Hogg, Democrat State Representative Liz Bennett, and Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague, among others.
In case you spent some time this past weekend working in the yard…a reminder that the City of Waterloo’s compost facility will open for the season this Thursday…the facility is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, including holidays. The site is located at 2745 Independence Avenue, and is open only to Waterloo residents. No commercial dumping is allowed. There is free drop off of yard waste, brush, and grass clippings…and the site also offers free access for pickup of compost, wood chips/mulch, and wood that may be cut for firewood.
Another member of Iowa City’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has resigned. This time the former commissioner is a member of the Iowa Freedom Riders, a racial equity group launched during the protests following George Floyd’s death last May. Raneem Hamad submitted her resignation letter last week. She is the fifth person to leave the commission this month. The Iowa Freedom Riders announced Friday it is launching its own Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Iowa residents in the 515 and 319 area codes will soon have to get used to dialing all 10 digits of a phone number when making calls. The Federal Communications Commission is requiring them to start dialing both the area code and phone number when making a call starting Oct. 24. The reason for the change is that officials are preparing to add a new three-digit number, 988, for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. Those two area codes must make the change because some of their local phone numbers use 988 as the prefix for some seven-digit phone numbers.
