Long-term care field shrinking

Advisers were left with one fewer long-term care insurer (LTCI) when Prudential Financial Inc. backed away from the individual LTCI business this week, InvestmentNews reported. Though the carrier will continue selling group LTCI coverage, its …

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Kirkwood plans ‘Sustainability Village’

Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids is seeking a $2 million National Science Foundation grant to construct an educational and research facility near its energy management training center in Jones Hall and a recently installed …

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Dice to buy back more shares

Dice Holdings Inc.’s board of directors has authorized as much as $65 million in additional stock buybacks, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The company owns Urbandale-based Dice.com, a professional career website. The new authorization takes …

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West Bancorporation income rises

West Bancorporation Inc. reported this week that 2011 net income available to common shareholders was $12.9 million, compared with $11.1 million in 2010, or slightly more than a 16 percent increase. In 2011, West Bancorporation …

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Greece dodges default for now

Greece averted the immediate threat of an uncontrolled default today, Reuters reported, winning strong acceptance from its private creditors for a bond swap deal that will eat into its mountainous public debt and clear the …

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Strong increase in employment

Employers in the United States boosted payrolls more than forecast in February, Bloomberg reported, indicating that companies are growing more optimistic about the economic expansion. The jobless rate held at 8.3 percent.

The 227,000 increase …

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OUR VIEW: Addressing the wrong problem


Cruelty to animals is an important topic in a farm state such as ours. However, when the Iowa Legislature passed House File 589, criminalizing undercover investigations on farms, it was not acting to deal with …

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