Carroll and the Economy – links

Here’s a rundown of links for Thursday’s Iowa Journal program.

Downtown Carroll, Iowa

You can now watch the feature on Carroll, Iowa and their economic balance by clicking here.
The background post from me is here. That has lots of links to places featured in our story.

Our studio discussion with Joe Crookham of Musco Lighting, Charles Sukup of Sukup Manufacturing and Eric Lohmeier of NCP, Inc. can be found here. That discussion covers topics of big ideas, healthcare, liquidity of banks — especially mid-range/level banks in metro/rural Iowa and status reports of their business. Again, the link to the entire show can be found here.

If you want to watch a quick behind the scenes video of the technical crew getting ready for the Journal, here is that. The video is a little blurry, but the audio is good. You’ll see Brian, Dave, Deb and Judy. We don’t zoom in on Gretchen. So, Gretch, you’re in the clear.

You can still watch the Iowa Journal, Friday at 630p on Iowa Public Television. Later in the night, you can watch Governor Chet Culver on Iowa Press as he mentions Jesup, Iowa. What exactly did he say about Jesup? Tune in at 730p to find out.

Next week we are talking childhood obesity and looking at the PE4Life program in Grundy Center.

And finally, one last Carroll story to share. It was a sad day in Carroll following a crash involving a long-time nurse who was in an ambulance on a patient transport Thursday. A story can be found here from the Des Moines Register. One of the victims, Sheryl Stoolman, received the Iowa Hospitals Association’s “Hospital Heroes” award in 2007. She was one of the first recipients.

Economic Recovery in Iowa?

We are talking about the economy this week on the Iowa Journal.

We’ll be featuring the efforts of Carroll and then holding an in-studio discussion. A post about Carroll is in the works.

Her now, the official press release.

Economic Recovery in Iowa?
On the Thursday, May 13 edition
of The Iowa Journal

(Johnston, Iowa) –Thursday’s episode of The Iowa Journal will look at the state of Iowa’s business climate and job opportunities. This program airs Thursday, May 13 at 8 p.m. It will be rebroadcast Friday, May 14 at 6:30 p.m. on statewide Iowa Public Television and Saturday, May 15 at 8:30 a.m. on IPTV WORLD. It will also be available online at iptv.org/iowajournal.

While key economic indicators show Iowa’s economy is gaining strength, job growth continues to lag. Although Iowa’s unemployment rate of 6.8 percent is well below the 9.9 percent national rate the number of Iowans unemployed rose to 114,600 statewide.

But not all of Iowa suffers as high a loss of jobs. The Iowa Journal visits the town of Carroll, where the unemployment rate has dropped to 5.1 percent – the second lowest in the state. The community has helped build a diverse range of industry through strategies including the Western Iowa Advantage partnership that utilizes the strengths of an eight county region. 

In the studio to discuss Iowa’s economic recovery are Joe Crookham, president and principal owner of Musco Lighting in Oskaloosa; Charles Sukup, president of Sukup Manufacturing Company in Sheffield and a former chair of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry; and Eric Lohmeier, co-founder and managing director of NCP, Inc. in Des Moines.

For more information about The Iowa Journal, visit http://www.iptv.org/iowajournal or call (515) 242-3146. For information on how to watch IPTV WORLD in your area, visit Iptv.org.

The Iowa Economy: Improving?

Good news about Iowa’s economy continues to trickle in, but does this mean the economy is turning the corner or a case of we had nowhere to go but up?

Iowa’s unemployment rate is 6.8% or 114,600 Iowans out of work. The lowest rate is in Lyon County (4.8%) in far northwest Iowa. The second lowest is Carroll County at 5.1%. The highest level is in Allamakee at 11.8%.

Job openings are starting to appear in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Is that a good sign? The fields hiring? According to the story:

The top categories for jobs were general help, followed by accounting, general administration, sales, nursing and social work.

Another story in the Des Moines Register shows the Iowa economy has seen gains for six months in a row.

What does that exactly mean?
Where is the growth happening?
Are you getting back to work yet?

We have put together another economic roundtable for May 13 on the Iowa Journal. Our feature piece will likely be about Carroll, Iowa. What have they done in Carroll County to keep that number low and be a regional economic engine? We hope to find out in our visit this week.

What other spots are improving? Where do you live and what is the economy like there? Tell your story below in the comments or send us an email to IowaJournal@IPTV.org.

Obama Ottumwa Links

Looking to view President Barack Obama’s speech in Iowa on April 27, 2010, well Iowa Public Television can help.

We’ve got the speech and town hall here that took place in Ottumwa. Here’s the link to that speech.

Then The Iowa Journal took the discussion a step further with Bill Brown, chairman of the board of directors of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry. Brown also is a lawyer with BrownWinick in Des Moines. His clients largely are manufacturing companies. Also on the panel was David Swenson, associate scientist in the economics department at ISU.

Both have been on the program before.

Here’s our discussion which includes reaction to the Obama speech, what is unique about the southeast Iowa economy and how is Iowa doing when we talk economy.

We do mention Waverly, Jesup, Jewell and Jefferson to name a few spots on the map. What context ask? Click here and find out for yourself.

The Iowa Journal will also discuss the economy again on May 13.

President Obama to Iowa, Missouri and Illinois

President Obama is in Iowa Tuesday before heading to Missouri and Illinois on Wednesday.

You can watch the town hall meeting from Ottumwa on www.IPTV.org as it happens or after the event. For my friends in Iowa, you can watch the White House to Main Street event on our .3 signal or as it is called IPTV World. If you don’t get all 3 channels we offer here at Iowa Public Television, you are really missing out on some great programming that does not make our main service. All you need is an antenna, digital tuner and some electricity to power your TV.

My coworkers at Market to Market are working on a series of events called the Rural Economic Summit. There’s been a town hall in Iowa and Wisconsin and now the three state tour of the president will be a part of the new installment seen Friday at 8p in Iowa on Market to Market. The show also has a new Twitter feed. You can follow us @MarketToMarket.

There’s also a blog that updates many things about the rural economy not only in Iowa and the midwest but ag regions. You can see that blog here.

Tuesday night IPTV will re-air the president’s speech and town hall tonight at 8. Then we’ll host an Iowa Journal discussion in the studio about how to revive the Iowa economy, will the president’s plan work, why did he pick Ottumwa for the visit and several other questions that I have on notebook. That will follow the speech, around 9 tonight.

Dave Swenson and Bill Brown will be in studio with me tonight around 9. Swenson is an associate scientist in the economics department at Iowa State University. He’s also an adjunct lecturer in Community and Regional Planning at ISU, and lecturer in the Urban and Regional Planning Program at The University of Iowa. Nonetheless, his primary appointment is as a staff research economist at ISU.

Brown is a partner in the BrownWinick law firm in Des Moines, this year he is also serving as chair of the board of directors for the Iowa Association of Business of Industry.

Brown and Swenson have both been guests on TIJ before.

We will be showing Frontline about 30 minutes later tonight at 930, so bear with us.

We’ll also be talking beer on Thursday’s regularly scheduled Iowa Journal slot of 8p. Here’s a post on that program.

President Obama to Ottumwa

President Barack Obama is coming back to Iowa on Tuesday. He’ll be coming to Ft. Madison, Mt. Pleasant and Ottumwa. Iowa Public Television will be there at two of those stops. The first stop in Ft. Madison will be documented by Chris Gourley.

Our larger crew will be in Ottumwa to cover the town hall meeting. That will air on our IPTV World or .3 channel as it happens Tuesday afternoon. That will be around 4p. Then we’ll replay the President’s remarks at 8p follow that up with a discussion in our studio.

You will be able to view the President’s Speech and Town Hall in Iowa by going to our Iowa Public Television website of http://www.iptv.org

Here’s the official release from the IPTV press shop.

Iowa Public Television Coverage of
President Obama’s Town-Hall Meeting in Ottumwa

Presidential Town-Hall Covered Live on IPTV WORLD at 4 p.m.
Rebroadcast with a Follow-Up Program on IPTV at 8 p.m.

(Johnston, Iowa)  – Iowa Public Television will provide live coverage of President Obama’s town-hall meeting at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa on Tuesday, April 27 at 4 p.m.

The town-hall meeting will be broadcast live on IPTV WORLD (.3 or Mediacom channel 119), at approximately 4 p.m. The meeting will be rebroadcast on Iowa Public Television (.1) that evening at 8, followed by a special edition of The Iowa Journal to discuss the issues raised during the Ottumwa event. In the studio to discuss how the president’s visit and proposals may play out in rural Iowa are two guests: Iowa State University Staff Research Economist David Swenson, and Bill Brown, chairman of the board of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry.

Calling his trip to the Midwest the “White House to Main Street Tour,” President Obama will make three stops in Iowa, culminating with a town-hall meeting where he is expected to focus on the rural economy.  The speech will be followed by questions from the audience.

For inquiries about the broadcast, or for information about the availability of this coverage online, contact Jennifer Konfrst at 515-242-3146.

The President is planning to spend the night in Des Moines before flying to Missouri for another economic event. WHO-TV reporter Dave Price says the President will be at a reception at Baby Boomer’s for staffer David Axelrod. Here’s Dave’s post.

The last time President Obama was in Iowa, he was talking healthcare while in Iowa City. IPTV also carried that event. You can watch the speech and the Iowa Journal discussion that followed here.

What unemployment questions do you have?

We are getting ready to record our Iowa Journal on Unemployment in Iowa.

We are looking to answer as many questions as possible that will help you.

Here’s our panel and their backgrounds in jobs, financial advising and emotional effects of unemployment. Post your question to me and we’ll do our best to get it answered.

Guests in the studio will be Mike Wilkinson, regional area coordinator for Iowa Works; Amanda Jones of Veridian Credit Union, who teaches classes on managing finances after layoffs and provides instruction on budgeting and conserving cash if the job loss extends for a long period of time; and Susan Schiltz-Day, is a counselor, assisting people to maintain their emotional health regarding a wide variety of issues, including loss. Schiltz-Day works for both Des Moines University and Wadle & Associates.

You can learn more about our full program here.

Send me your questions to paul.yeager@iptv.org or post them in the comments so others can see the question. Even if you are outside of Iowa, your question still may be very relevant to share and ask.

We are recording around 330p on Thursday in Johnston. If you see this after the fact, still drop me a line and we’ll get the questions to appropriate person.

A sample of questions already given to me to ask:
-Do employers have the upper hand in hiring? Can they and are they exploiting the market to say, if you don’t take this job, I’ve got 6 other people who will take it and like the 12 month probation and no health benefits in the first 18 months?
-How much savings should I have on hand?
-How do I get past ego and ask for help?

If you’ve got others for me to ask, send them my way. Just try to get them to me before 3p on Thursday, February 11.

Thank you for the time.

This week’s Iowa Journal airs at 8p on Iowa Public Television and Friday at 630p and will live on http://www.iptv.org/iowa journal for you to see and share.

You can read more about the broadcast and how it turned out here.

Tax Credits and Pilot Knob on The Iowa Journal

Thursday’s episode of The Iowa Journal looks at how a call for reforms in tax credits may affect Iowa’s business climate as well as affect the state budget for services Iowans depend upon. The show also previews a story from an upcoming Iowa Public Television series, “Iowa’s Simple Pleasures”. We’ll head to Hancock County and a story on Pilot Knob State Park.

But, its tax credits are again the topic of the Iowa Journal tonight.

Before you hit delete, hear me out.

That is actually our first question tonight in the program. Or is it?

As taxpayers, we all want to know where our money is going and if it is being used wisely and for the greater good for our state.

We bring back the topic to a new panel. The first one aired in November. You can watch that one here.

Today we look at exact points and potential overhauls offered by Governor Culver.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom from Iowa City is chair of the Senate Ways and Means committee. Ed Wallace is the president of the Iowa Taxpayers Association and Victor Elias is with the Iowa Fiscal Partnership and the Child and Family Policy Center.

We looked at the specific goals laid out by the governor and how realistic those are to get done by the end of the session.

What is the biggest issue under discussion tonight? It involves the research tax credit. The discussion did get going on that during our broadcast tonight at 8p. You can see it then and Friday at 630p on Iowa Public Television. The show will be posted by the afternoon on Friday, so you can watch then and offer points.

How are we doing on the program? Let us know by sending a note to IowaJournal@iptv.org. You can follow us on Twitter as well at @IowaJournal

Next week we talk about the unemployed in Iowa and what’s being done to help get them back into the workforce. We head to Fairfield and Des Moines for a look at two stories of networking at a different levels and stories of unemployment. If you’ve got stories we need to hear about or questions to ask, or even what services will help you most in getting back to employment, send us a note to IowaJournal@iptv.org

We’ve already had our trip blogged about here. Unemployed in Iowa wrote about our visit with them on Wednesday. We also are featuring the efforts of UnemployedinDesMoines. You can read those posts here.

The Journal Monkey got excited when he saw very little snow south of Oskaloosa.

Thank you so much for the time.

Iowa Journal to look at Unemployment in Iowa

We are working to make the February 11th Iowa Journal a program about unemployment here in Iowa.

We have done a couple of shows close to this same topic before. One was back in May with Rob Denson of DMACC, Elisabeth Buck of Iowa Workforce Development, Adam Carroll, personal financial consultant and Jim Adams from Lutheran Church of Hope and their Hope at work program.

That show was more about coping with financial difficulties.

Now we need to focus on unemployment. This show will hopefully help people find a job or help those skills to get a job.

I’m looking for someone who is looking for a job in Iowa. What are you doing to find work? What resources have been helpful? Not so helpful? What has frustrated you in the job search? This would be someone we could feature in our set up piece to our discussion. I would need about 3-4 hours of someone’s time this week, preferably Wednesday, February 3rd.

We’re also looking for panelists on the program. What state-run departments have been most helpful? Which programs are helping people find work? Who is helping people find jobs in Iowa?

What areas of the state are not struggling as much? Who has lower unemployment levels?

Have you seen this video before?

Please send me your information in an email to paul.yeager@iptv.org

If you’ve got resources to help others, post them in the comments so all can utilize the services.

Here’s an update on our efforts.

Tax Credits get more attention

Certain topics need revisiting on The Iowa Journal. Tax credits is one of those. We looked at them back in November.

We will be looking at the issue as the Iowa Legislature gets into it as well. This goes beyond the Iowa Film Tax credit that is again making the news again this week.

This show will air Thursday at 8p in HD and then again on Friday at 630p.

Here’s the official release.

Tax Credits
On the Thursday, February 4 edition
of The Iowa Journal

(Johnston, Iowa) –Thursday’s episode of The Iowa Journal will take a look at how a call for reforms in tax credits may affect Iowa’s business climate as well as affect the state budget for services Iowans depend upon. This program airs Thursday, February 4 at 8 p.m. It will be rebroadcast Friday, February 5 at 6:30 p.m. on statewide Iowa Public Television and Saturday, February 6 at 8:30 a.m. on IPTV World. It will also be available online at iptv.org/iowajournal.
In the wake of last year’s alleged abuses of tax credits by the film and movie industry, Governor Chet Culver has called for reforms of a variety of tax credits designed to grow business and create jobs in Iowa. Before delving into a discussion of the pros and cons of tax credits, The Iowa Journal will present a short primer on how many tax credits actually work.
Host Paul Yeager will discuss the economics of tax credit policy in the studio with Senator Joe Bolkcom, a democrat from Iowa City and chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee; Ed Wallace, president of the Iowa Taxpayers Association which represents more than 150 businesses in the state, and Victor Elias, a senior associate with the Child and Family Policy Center and also with the Iowa Fiscal Partnership advocating for tax credit reform.
For more information about The Iowa Journal, visit http://www.iptv.org/iowajournal or call (515) 242-3146. For information on how to watch IPTV WORLD in your area, visit Iptv.org.