Archive for May 2006

A dog prances far ahead of three family members, his ears perked, tail curled. A stocky beagle tackles a blond English Labrador retriever and they wrestle in the dirt. A black shepherd-boxer mix takes off …

Our newest reporter, Sarah Bzdega, writes this week about a trend toward improving or eliminating cubicles. I would say that idea is worth a shot. In my experience, you want an office arrangement that provides …

Ahhh, summertime, the chance to sleep with the windows open and feel the tickle of a fresh breeze, only to be awakened abruptly by the “boom-thump-boom-thump-boom” announcing a vehicle’s approach from several blocks away.

Few …

1. Have passion for what you do: Having passion makes you do it better and makes you feel better while you’re doing it. Consider something as unexpected as making Cookies BBQ sauce in Wall Lake, …

Efforts by Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. to use premium discounts to increase its share of the crop insurance market are being plowed under by lobbyists for insurance industry groups that oppose the program.

Farm …

Today, as technicians begin production at Lincolnway Energy LLC’s newly built ethanol plant west of Nevada, the company is already planning for an addition that would double the plant’s capacity to 100 million gallons per …

Farmers aren’t the only Iowans who have big hopes for ethanol and biodiesel. In a survey of Central Iowa business leaders, 90 percent called the fledgling industry “important” or even “vital” to the state’s economic …

It’s only been six weeks since Jody Jenner took the reins as CEO of Broadlawns Medical Center, and he already has big goals for the future. He said making health care more accessible to Iowans, …

Assemble a dream parcel of land: a nine-hole golf course plus 35 acres of farmland, situated between an interstate highway and a huge shopping mall. Suspend a few zoning laws. Now turn loose a planning …

Chris Vernon’s family founded Vernon Co. in Newton in 1902 with the help of seed money from Maytag Corp. founder Fred Maytag, and over the past century they never imagined Vernon would outlast the home …