Thursday, August 6, 2015
N/Warren Town and County News
Page Eleven
MORE JAZZ IN JULY
Elly Hofmaier, a 215 Norwalk graduate, sang the National Anthem before the
concert She is pictured with Mayor Tom Phillips (right).
Crwd
Senate NeWs
By State Senator Julian B. Garret
Julian.Garrett@legis.iowa.gov
% Civilian Labor Force Working
I am interested and concerned to see US. Labor Department statistics
showing
that the percent of the working age population in the US. actially wOrking
has been
going down. According to Chart 4 of the Bureau of Labor Staistics, Current
Popula-
tion Survey, July 2, 2015, that number went from just over 63"» in
1990, to nearly 65%
in 2000 to 59.3% in June 2015. This seems to me to be a more inportant
number than
the unemployment figure that we hear about all the time. People who
"are not look-
ing for work” are not counted in the unemployment figure. This is much
better than
Greece at around 50%, but not as good as Germany and the Lnited Kingdom at
over
70%. This seems to me to call into question the claims that we are hearing
about how
much the US. economy is improving.
No Special Session
As I reported three weeks ago, there will be no special session. Senator
Gronstal’s
deadline of July 29 came and went with nowhere near two— thirds of the
Senate or
House asking for the special session.
As always, feel free to contact me with your ideas or concerns at Julian.
Garrett@legis.iowa. gov.
Legislative Newsletter
Stan Gustafson
Iowa House Representative
District 25
Rep. Stan Gustafson (R-Cumming) recently released information regarding the
annual Iowa Sales Tax Holiday. This year beginning at 12:0 a.m., August 7,
2015
through midnight August 8, 2015, no sales tax will be collected on select
clothing or
footwear having a selling price of less than $100 per item. ,
All businesses open on August 7th and 8th are required to aarticipate,
though the
holiday does not extend to Sunday.
"As the family budget- is stretched thin, hopefully the taxfree
weekend relieves
some burden on the hardworking taxpayers of Iowa,” said Rep. Gustafson.
For more information, Rep. Gustafson says to visit
httpsl/tax.iowa.gov/iowas-
annual—sales-tax-holiday.
Thursday, Aug. 30 Norwalk City Park
Vendors. Staff photos by Lori Ford.
Athletic Booster
Club Golf
Registration is now
open for the 8th annual
Norwalk Athletic Booster
Club Golf outing being
held Saturday, Aug. 22, at
Warrior Run Golf Course.
All proceeds from the out-
ing will go to the Athletic
Booster Club General
Fund that benefits the kids
in all athletic programs.
The format of the tour-
nament will be the same as
last year, with two tee
times - 7:30 am. or 1 p.m.,
with everyone playing the
9-hole course two times.
When registering to
golf for your team, it is
important that you please
specify which time you
would like to play. Times
will be assigned "first
come first serve.” There
will be lunch for everyone
at 12 noon (after the 7:30
group and before the 1
pm. group). There will be
some fun giveaways, 50/50
split and raffle prizes.
Registering is easy: Go
to the Booster Club
website at www.be-a-
warriorcom to register OR
register by completing the
flyer and returning it to
either Stacy Rosonke at
srosmkediholmesmmphyoom
or Matt Leek at leekmattr@
johndeerecom.
MidAmerican Energy Joins
Climate Pledge
Berkshire Hathaway Energy, parent company of
MidAmerican Energy Company, joins some of the larg-
est companies in the nation at a White House meeting
to launch the American Business Act on Climate Pledge,
a demonstration of the US. private sector’s commitment
to taking on the global challenge of climate change.
Bill Fehrman, president and CEO of MidAmerican
Energy, said Berkshire Hathaway Energy chairman,
president and CEO Greg Abel and Cathy Woollums,
senior vice president, environmental services and chief
environmental counsel, are representing the business
v at the White House meeting, which is being led by US.
Secretary of State John Kerry Other businesses expected
to participate include Alcoa, Apple, Google, Microsoft,
Walmart, UPS and Coca-Cola, among others. Through
participation in today’s White House event, Berkshire
Hathaway Energy and the other businesses are voicing
support for a strong outcome in the international cli-
mate negotiations taking place in Paris late this year.
“MidAmerican Energy is proud to be part of a com-
pany that is committed to environmental responsibility
and willing to play a leading role in developing sus-
tainable, climate—friendly solutions to meet customers’
energy needs,” Fehrman said. “Over the past decade,
we have invested billions to reduce the impact of our
operations on the environment, including $6 billion in
wind energy, and we have plans to do even more."
MidAmerican Energy owns more wind-powered
generation capacity than any regulated, investor-owned
utility in the nation. Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s
American Business Act on Climate Pledge includes
MidAmerican Energy’s plan to pursue construction of
552 megawatts of additional wind generation in Iowa,
which would increase the utility’s generating portfolio
by 2017 to more than 4,000 megawatts of renewable gen-
eration capacity, which, for comparison purposes, could
serve up to 57 percent of its retail energy load.
MidAmerican Energy also has embarked on major
projects to upgrade transmission infrastructure to sup-
port the integration of more renewable energy onto the
electric grid and has made changes and improvements
to reduce power plant emissions. -
"We have installed emissions reduction technology
on our coal-fueled fleet where it made economic sense
to do so and have retired other coal-fueled units or con-
verted them to natural gas when that was the better
option,” Fehrman said.
He noted that conducting business in an environmen—
tally responsible manner complements MidAmerican
Energy’s focus on delivering reliable, reasonably priced
energy and exceptional service to customers.
"Our environmental efforts align with what is im—
portant to our customers,” Fehrman said. "Several of
our large industrial customers are among the businesses
at the White House today pledging their support to cli—
mate action. As in all our business decisions, we’ll keep
the needs of our customers in the forefront as we pur-
sue projects that help us meet important environmen-
tal goals.”
Insects outnumber humans 100,000,000 to 1.
