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The Daily Dose: Good Weather, Good Neighbors and Goodsmiths

Here's your daily dose of random thoughts for Wednesday, May 16.

Good morning, Waukee. Looks like it's going to be a warm one. Don't forget, if you have school age kids, today is the last early dismissal day of the 2011-12 school year. Enjoy it while you can. Summer break will be here before you know it.

Speaking of summer, has anyone noticed how ridiculously dry everything is right now? I broke down and turned the sprinklers on yesterday just to give the lawn a hose down. I'd prefer the grass stay green for at least another month.

I hope you read the about Waukee's own Levi Rosol and the website he and his business partner, James Eliason, created called Goodsmiths. I love it for the fact that it's sort of a David and Goliath story with these two, regular guys taking on a project that could really make a big difference to the small business person. I can totally get behind that.

Also this morning, we told you about the mother/daughter duo who won $250 in our tribute to moms contest. Mandy and Jeanne McWherter's touching story had me tearing up. Read their story .

Speaking of contests, we have a couple you should really consider entering. and you could win $500 toward the charity of your choice. Also, if you know someone who deserves to be recognized for their volunteer efforts or someone who's truly a good neighbor, enter them for a shot at winning .

Oh, and if you haven't already, go and vote for your favorite dentist in Patch's . Walnut Hills Pediatric Dentistry is currently in the lead.

One last thing, are you having a garage sale this weekend? There's still time to get your sale in our garage sale listings. They post Thursday morning at 6 a.m. If you're having a sale and you want it included, send me your address, dates and times of your sale and a couple items you're selling to jody.gifford@patch.com.

With that, I say good morning to you and have a great day, Waukee!

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Julia Ziesman June 12, 2013 at 10:28 pm
Could one of the reasons for the population loss in rural Iowa be the lack of decent paying jobs?Read More There are large portions of rural Iowa where there are minimum wage jobs without benefits. Wal-Mart has replaced many small businesses in rural counties. Many of their workers need welfare to survive. The welfare programs that Wal-Mart workers rely on include Medicaid, subsidized housing and food assistance. Meanwhile Wal-Mart and other corporations are setting records for corporate profits. A May 2013 report “The Low-Wage Drag on Our Economy: Wal-Mart’s Low Wages and Their Effect on Taxpayers and Economic Growth” shows how their business model exerts downward pressure on wages. Should we continue to support a created taxpayer-funded social welfare program by corporations? Raising the minimum wage could help alleviate those programs.
Maria Houser Conzemius June 13, 2013 at 11:14 am
Julia Ziesman, I boycott Walmart for the reasons you listed. American taxpayers subsidize Walmart'sRead More low wages and poor benefits with $2.1 billion a year. Collectively, Sam Walton's heirs contributed a whole $6,000 to charity. I looked up the three class-action lawsuits against Walmart that I knew about and found 71. Many lawsuits against Walmart are to try to make courts enforce their many rulings against Walmart. I was really upset when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to allow Walmart women workers' lawsuit against Walmart to proceed as a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit that shocked me the most was that of a 33-year-old handicapped woman in a wheelchair who wouldn't believe that Walmart had shaved her time card hours in order to pay her less than the pitiful hourly wage she should have earned. Her lawyers had to produce documents to prove to her that Walmart was really that unethical.