Leaders of Iowa’s largest employers are predicting economic growth over the next six months, but they’re also concerned about an ongoing shortage of qualified workers. A new survey from the Iowa Business Council (IBC) shows 80-percent of its members expect higher sales through summer. IBC executive director Georgia Van Gundy says those employers are struggling to attract and retain a quality workforce “We have our 2.8 percent unemployment rate and Iowa ranks fourth as far as the number of people already employed in the workforce,” Van Gundy said. “We just don’t have a lot of people to draw from.”

The IBC recently formed a Business Education Alliance to get at the root of the problem. “Our first meeting was great in February. Our members had the opportunity to talk about what their challenges are and we had a great conversation about how we start moving forward,” Van Gundy said.

According to the survey, half of the IBC members say they will increase capital spending and nearly half forecast hiring more workers over the next six months.
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link to survey:
https://www.iowabusinesscouncil.org/news/eos_q1_2018/
(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Rob Dillard, Iowa Public Radio)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has ruled that former Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett won’t appear as a candidate for Iowa governor on Republican primary ballots. The decision Thursday clears the way for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who will be the only GOP candidate in the June 5 contest. Six Democrats and two Libertarians are also running for governor. A state elections panel voted 2-1 last week to reject Corbett’s ballot petition because he fell eight names short of the 4,005 required. Corbett had filed a lawsuit in Polk County district court challenging the decision.

District Judge David May said the panel was correct to not count signatures that had been crossed-through by the campaign. Corbett had told reporters he’d “grab my gym bag and head for the locker room” if he lost.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A group working to elect Democrats to Congress is targeting Rep. Rod Blum with an ad claiming the congressman is “swimming in his own ethics violations.” The House Majority PAC is launching the ad Thursday on digital platforms such as Facebook in Iowa’s 1st District. The ad cites an investigation by The Associated Press that found Blum violated ethics rules by failing disclose his ownership in a questionable internet marketing company.

Tin Moon has promised to help companies cited by the Food and Drug Administration bury their warning letters below positive search results. Blum has called the lack of disclosure an oversight and distanced himself from Tin Moon, which is run by his longtime business partner. The ad shows Blum saying that he’s interested in “draining the swamp” but asserts he’s actually “swimming in his own ethics violations.”
Democrats are hoping to unseat Blum in November.

(Updated 10:11-a.m.) DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Mexican official says autopsies show the gas that killed an Iowa family was propane that leaked from a faulty water heater at their rented condominium in Mexico. Investigator Christopher Martinez with the attorney general’s office for the state of Quintana Roo told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday that the water heater had rusted in the humid climate.

Services were held Saturday in Creston for 41-year-old Kevin Sharp and his wife, 38-year-old Amy Sharp, and their children, 12-year-old Sterling and 7-year-old Adrianna. Their bodies were found March 23 inside the condo in the resort town of Tulum. Amy Sharp’s cousin Jana Weland said Wednesday that relatives know the water heater was the suspected source but that U.S. and Mexican officials hadn’t yet said what type of gas the Sharps inhaled.

The condo association has said owners are responsible for maintenance. The water heater was bought in 2012, Martinez said, and its warranty ran out last year. He wouldn’t say who owns the condo. The family’s rented car was full of sand the day bodies were found, leading police to believe the Sharps had been at the beach the day they died. Investigators think the family returned to the condo to bathe and rest.

A Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputy on patrol at around 3:15-p.m., Wednesday, stopped a vehicle heading south on 385th Street, near Tamarack Road. The driver of the 2005 Kia Spectra, 24-year old Dylan Zornes, of Shelby, was subsequently arrested for Driving While Revoked.

Sheriff’s officials in Taylor County report 23-year old Bryan Adam Garcia, of Lenox was arrested Wednesday. Garcia was arrested on a probation violation warrant and was being held without bond, at the Taylor County Jail.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A man arrested on drug and weapons charges after a Sioux City slaying now faces federal charges. A U.S. District Court record filed Tuesday says 60-year-old Liborio Martinez-Rubio is charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and with a firearms crime. The Iowa charges have been dropped.

He was arrested Jan. 11, hours after 26-year-old Javier Cheron was fatally shot. Police say Martinez-Rubio acknowledged ownership of some guns found at the home where investigators think Cheron was shot.  Authorities say one of the guns was among the 79 stolen in 2007 from a Scheels store in Lincoln, Nebraska.