If the first stop in Sarah Palin’s nationwide “Going Rouge” tour is any indication, the Barnes & Nobles store and Southern Hills Mall in Sioux City should be one busy place when the former Alaska governor visits on Dec. 5.
Despite freezing temperatures, people began standing outside the Barnes & Noble in Grand Rapids, Mich. to greet Palin, the Detroit Free Press reports, ” By 5 am, the crowd outside had swelled to more than 1,500. Check out the YouTube video above as she arrives.
The big turnout came on a school day in the middle of the week. Palin’s stop in Sioux City will come on a Saturday, when many more people have the day off. Because it’s the only Iowa stop on her tour, the appearance likely will drive fans from hundreds of miles away.
How big of crowd do you think it will be? Are you planning to go? Do you plan to buy her book? Let us know.
The Obama administration boasts federal stimulus dollars “saved” or created jobs in 13 Iowa congressional districts.
The trouble is the last time I checked Iowa only had five districts. Not sure where the other eight districts are located. Where are they and why haven’t we heard about them before?
The federal Website that tracks stimulus dollars spent, recovery.gov shows $10.6 million spent – and 39 jobs created — in non-existent districts in Iowa.
Not sure if Gotham City, NY., Lake Woebegone, Minn. or Margaritaville, Fla. are among the cities where the administration claims credit for creating jobs.
Administration officials blame the faulty reporting on human error.
Here’s the key graph about Terra boss Mike Bennett, whom Reuters notes started at the Sioux City-based company as an operations technician at the Port Neal plant in 1973 and worked his way up the ladder to become CEO in 2001.
“He has earned a reputation as a strong operator and a consummate company man who is fiercely loyal to Sioux City.”
The story points out that Bennett and other senior Terra management face tough sledding at the company’s annual shareholders meeting on Nov. 20, where CF has nominated slate of candidates to replace three Terra-based directors.
A victory for the CF nominees would likely help the Deerfield, Ill.-based firm clinch a deal.
“This is a gritty management (at Terra) and they value their independence. And I think they’ve made an awful good case for continuing to be independent,” Charlie Rentschler, analyst at Wall Street Access, told Reuters.
More than 100 local business, education and goverment leaders packed a conference room at the Stoney Creek Inn this morning for the unveiling of a workforce plan that was nearly two years in the making.
For highlights of the strategic plan, designed to realign skills of the area workforce with the needs of employers, check out my coverage from today.
To read the entire plan, click http://rig.witcc.edu
Let me know what you think about the plan. Do you agree with the recommendations? If not, what would you suggest instead?
Unemployment in nearly all Northwest Iowa counties was below the statewide average of 6.7 percent for September. Three exceptions were Emmet, 8.7 percent, Monona, 7.1 percent, and Palo Alto, 7 percent. Sioux County posted the lowest area rate of 4.1 percent.
A portion of Terra Industries’ Port Neal facility south of Sioux City is shown above. (Sioux City Journal photo by Tim Hynds)
Monday was another busy day of public disclosures for Terra Industries. The Sioux City-based company announced that it had agreed to buy a 50 percent interest in a Canadian nitrogen plant owned by Agrium Inc. As I reported, the $250 million deal could help both companies in their respective hostile takeovers involving rival CF Industries, “Terra, Agrium join forces to fight CF.”
To help finance the Agrium plant deal, Terra also announced plans to issue $600 million in debt capital in a private offering.”
And, Terra gave investors a hint of its third quarter earnings, which will be fully released on Thursday. The preliminary results were not pretty, as the company said it expects its earnings to plummet 72 percent, compared to the year-ago quarter.
Though brutal the numbers were in line with what analysts are expecting, giving the tough environment in the fertilizer industry.
South Dakota has the most “business-friendly” tax system, and New Jersey has the least, according to the Tax Foundation’s 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index.
Iowa ranked 46th, ahead of only Ohio, California, New York and New Jersey.
Sioux City and other Northwest Iowa cities have faced difficulty in the past competing with neighboring South Dakota, which has no corporate or individual income tax.
The Index measures the competitiveness of the 50 states’ tax systems and ranks them accordingly based on the taxes that matter most to businesses and business investment — corporate income, individual income, sales, property and unemployment insurance taxes.
The states are scored on these taxes, and the scores are weighted based on the relative importance or impact of the tax to a business.
The Index measures how well a state’s tax system encourages investment by maintaining a broad tax base and low rates.
Today marked the third and final day for New Yorkers and tourists from around the world to snag a free ice cream cone, made right here in Northwest Iowa.
Le Mars, Iowa-based Wells’ Dairy gave away a total of 50,000 Champ cones to pedestrians in Times Square. Company representatives handed out coupons for $1 off a future purchase of a six-pack of Champs. The coupon listed retail outlets in the New York area where Blue Bunny products are sold. The company entered the Northeast market about three years ago.
Here is some video from the first day of the massive sampling on the busy streets of New York City. The footage is courtesy of Blue Bunny.
Wells’ Blue Bunny handed out more than 16,000 free ice cream cones in less than two hours in New York City’s Times Square today.
The first day of distributing 50,000 Champ cones went on without a hitch, reports Wells’ spokesman Dave Smetter.
“We planned on being here for four hours, but it was about half that time,” Smetter said.
“We didn’t have a hard time keeping up. It was just nice and steady. There were a lot of people. It helped that it was a beautiful day.”
Times Square is not only one of the busiest spots in the nation, but also the top U.S. tourist attraction. Despite the onslaught of pedestrian traffic during the lunch hour, Smetter said the crowds were well behaved, with no reports of pushing and shoving to snag a free cone.
“People were very appreciative and very surprised they could still get something for free,” he said.
The giveaway, which continues Wednesday and Thursday, should help build brand awareness in the New York market and other parts of the Northeast, which Blue Bunny entered three years ago. Smetter said. (more…)
