Most of the CEOs of Iowa’s largest companies are expecting improved sales and steady or slightly higher employment levels over the next six months. The Iowa Business Council (IBC) has released its first quarter Economic Outlook Survey and executive director Elliott Smith says it’s not much different than the surveys conducted in 2014. “That’s a good thing. Our numbers have been fairly steady now for the last two, three, almost four quarters…not moving significantly up or down and we’re in solid, positive sentiment territory,” Smith says.

The IBC’s first quarter Overall Economic Outlook Survey Index was 65 – the same as last quarter and three points ahead of this time last year. The index uses a 100 point scale, with a score over 50 considered “positive sentiment.” Around 80-percent of the CEOs surveyed expect higher sales over the next six months. They’re also optimistic about adding workers.  “From our responses this quarter, we had 95-percent of our employers either indicating they’re going to maintain existing employment levels or add to (their workforces) with new hires. Only five-percent (expect) lower employment activity,” Smith says.

Specifically, 55-percent of the CEOs anticipate hiring more employees over the next six months, while 40-percent expect “no change” in employment levels.

(Radio Iowa)

One of the largest-ever disaster drills organized by the American Red Cross in Iowa will take place this week, starting this (Tuesday) morning. Dan Cataldi, the agency’s regional disaster officer, says about 90 volunteers and staff members from all across Iowa are converging on Des Moines as a sort of dress rehearsal. “We all know that in Iowa, we will have tornadoes this year, for instance, we just don’t know where and when,” Cataldi says. “It’s critical that we are able to challenge our teams. Most of our workers are volunteers. On an operation, we would expect 90% of our team to be volunteers, so we need to make sure they have the opportunity to practice before they’re involved in a real operation.”

The drill will serve as a crucial training exercise to prepare volunteers for what they may face in the aftermath of an actual tornado, flood or other natural disaster.  “This event allows us to bring everybody together and work on everything from service delivery and setting up shelters — we’ll actually set up cots and feed people — to our back office things,” Cataldi says. “We set up our own IT networks and we have a staff services team to make sure all the teams that are working get all the things they need.”

This disaster drill will run three days, today through Thursday, which is much longer than usual and it will be much larger in scale. “Typically, we exercise for about a day and we go through what we call tabletops, where we just work through scenarios,” Cataldi says. “Bringing in all of these people together and going through the process of setting up a shelter and things like that over three days is really a large endeavor and certainly one of the biggest we’ve ever attempted.”

(Radio Iowa)

A traffic stop early this (Tuesday) morning in Fremont County resulted in the arrest of two people on drug charges. Sheriff’s officials say 35-year old Thomas Lee Knipe, of Glenwood, and 43-year old Christopher Lynn Mosier, of Essex, were arrested for Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Marijuana and Possession of numerous pieces of drug paraphernalia.

The men were taken into custody at around 2:15-a.m. in the 2300 block of Wabounsie Avenue. Knipe was being held in the Fremont County Jail on $2,000 cash bond, while Mosier’s bond was set at $1,000. Deputies in Fremont County were assisted at the scene by the Mills County K9 Unit.