Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham touted his military experience while speaking with voters at a Town Hall Meeting in West Des Moines earlier today. Graham says he’s ready to lead, not manage, the nation. Graham kicked off his campaign in his home state of South Carolina on Monday.
Two Iowa companies made the Fortune 500 list this year. Principal Financial Group came in at number 282, and Ankeny-based Casey’s General Store landed at number 382 this year. Both jumped spots from last year.
A planned outlet mall in Altoona has hit a construction delay. New England Development and Altoona officials have been meeting to refine the site plans. They say it should be opening as planned in the fall of 2016, although construction was originally slated to start this spring.
Legislators continue to work at the capitol with many saying today is the last day of the session. A few budget bills are lingering on the docket, but lawmakers managed to pass a bill yesterday that would require that any woman wanting an abortion be offered a chance to look at the fetus’ ultrasound first. They’d also have to be offered information about abortion alternatives.
It looks like the speed enforcement cameras on I-235 in Des Moines will stay up. A federal judge denied a request to turn them off…saying removing the cameras “might create a more hazardous traffic condition at the camera location.” IDOT has separately ordered the city to turn off the cameras because they weren’t making roads safer.
Des Moines Public Schools is offering breakfast and lunch over the summer months to school age kids, starting next week. Last summer, DMPS staff fed kids more than 28-thousand breakfasts and nearly 80-thousand lunches.
More jobs and more soybeans are in store for Ralston. West Central Cooperative has lined up a $27 million expansion that will increase its soybean processing capability by 50 percent. That means an extra six million bushels of soybeans each year, and 11 more openings.
It’s a good year to be in information technology. 20 percent of tech execs in central Iowa say they’re expecting to expand their IT teams in the second half of this year, according to Robert Half. And 65 percent say they’re having a hard time finding skilled talent.
It could be years down the road, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants all cars to have alcohol detection technology. Yesterday, the agency revealed a prototype that could help decrease the number of drunk drivers on the road. Here in Iowa, repeat and first-time OWI offenders who want to drive have to install the ignition-interlock breathalyzer in their car.
Jeb Bush is expected to announce his candidacy for president in about two weeks, and hit New Hampshire and Iowa immediately after. First stop in Iowa will be in Pella on June 17th.
