Archer-Daniels-Midland To Close Le Mars Feed Mill
(Le Mars) — Archer-Daniels-Midland has announced it intends to close the A-D-M Alliance Nutrition Incorporated feed manufacturing facility located in Le Mars. In a statement issued by the company, the closure will be permanent and will occur in September. The facility has 15 employees. A-D-M says the employees will receive a severance package and they will have the opportunity to apply for other positions with A-D-M. The company statement says the closure of the this facility will not affect Alliance Nutrition, Incorporated’s customers. Customers impacted by this change will be contacted by their sales representative to discuss options going forward.
School Begins Today
(Le Mars) — Today is the first day back to school for Le Mars Community and Gehlen Catholic. Many parents were seen escorting their small children to school, taking photographs, and finding both the locker and the classrooms. Students of all ages were carrying backpacks ready for their first day. Floyd Athey serves as the principal for both Franklin and Clark elementary schools. He says the first day back ususally serves as an orientation.
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At Gehlen Catholic, the day started with announcements and a prayer. Principal Jeff Alesch read the announcements to start the first day of school.
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Alesch says Wednesday served as orientation for the students as they met their teachers and were handed their class schedules. For today, well…the homework begins.
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The Gehlen junior high and high school principal says students are usually ready to begin school, and he adds, it doesn’t take too long for the students to be get adjusted to the daily routine.
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Workforce Development Sends Out Benefits To Wrong People
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Internal emails show Iowa’s workforce agency provided unemployment benefits earlier this year to people who didn’t seek them and that staff was urged to stay quiet about what had happened.
Iowa Workforce Development spokeswoman Kerry Koonce confirmed Wednesday that 85 people received excess unemployment payments in early March. Officials issued benefits to everyone who got them the previous week after a system malfunction meant they couldn’t process updated information from recipients. Koonce stressed that about 30,000 received accurate payments.
Agency emails provided to the Iowa Senate Government Oversight Committee show that after the malfunction, a manager emailed some staffers instructing them to provide no information about what happened and to blame “technical difficulties.”
The Oversight Committee is set to review what happened at hearings next week.
Consulting Firm Fired
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A consulting firm hired to review academic programs at Iowa’s three public universities has been fired.
The Des Moines Register reports an Iowa Board of Regents member confirmed Wednesday that KH Consulting, a Los Angeles-based company, had been fired by Deloitte Consulting.
KH Consulting was working on a three-phase academic review. It recently collected massive amounts of data on programs at Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa.
Deloitte is overseeing a wide-ranging study on the three schools as part of a major cost-cutting review. The newspaper reports the New York-based company halted collaboration with KH Consulting because of a time conflict. The company did not elaborate. They are now searching for another firm to finish the work.
