The CW network has tapped the talents of two Eastern Iowa natives for its fall lineup.

Ashton Kutcher

 As expected, the CW picked up the pilot for “Melrose Place,”  in which Iowa City native Laura Leighton, 41, will reprise her role of Sydney Andrew from the original Fox series.

Laura Leighton

  “The Beautiful Life,” created and produced by Ashton Kutcher, also was part of the lineup unveiled by the network Thursday.

The drama focuses on beautiful young people as they struggle to make it in modeling. Which is something  that Kutcher, who  was born in Cedar Rapids, knows about.  After winning the Fresh Faces of Iowa  modeling contest 12 years ago, he headed for New York City to pursue a modeling career .

The parallels did not escape the notice of Zap2it news, which described Kutcher’s new show this way:

“Executive producer Ashton Kutcher presents “The Ashton Kutcher Story” — sort of. One of the show’s central characters (Benjamin Hollingsworth) is an Iowa farm boy — like Kutcher once was — who gets discovered by a modeling agent in New York.”

In addition to wracking up more than 1 million followers on Twitter, the 31-year-old actor has produced a string of TV series, including “Punk’d,” “Beauty and the Geek,” “The Real Wedding Crashers,” “Opportunity Knocks” and “True Beauty.” 

As for Leighton, it’s a mystery as to how Sydney is alive, as the character was thought to have died after being hit by a car two years before the original “Melrose Place” went off the air.

Reportedly, something else about her role is shrouded in mystery. If you DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED,  do not read this report from EW.com

By Dave DeWitte
The Gazette

Rick Springsteen, 46, of Lisbon, is one of 257 Sealed Air Cryovac employees who found out at the end of 2008 that the company plans to close its Cedar Rapids packaging material plant in October.

Unemployed veteran worker Rick Springsteen has worked at Sealed Air Cryovac for 23 years. The company has begun a phased shutdown of its Cedar Rapids operation. Photo by Jim Slosiarek.

The news came during a vacation week; a friend called to give him the news. Even though the plant is profitable and has an enviable safety record, Springsteen wasn’t surprised.

“It’s hard to be surprised at anything these days,” said Springsteen, whose job ends in July. “We’re their last union factory. A lot of this stuff is going to Mexico.”

Springsteen has worked at the plant since he left the U.S. Air Force with an honorable discharge as a sergeant almost 24 years ago. He had risen from material handler to a lead person overseeing the plant’s SAP inventory control system. It had been a good ride, he said, a union job with good money and benefits.

The closing decision struck Springsteen as a clear case of placing profits over people. He wishes CEOs could be required to spend time in unemployment offices and job-search clinics so they could understand how their decisions affect lives.

“Watching them close all these factories, it’s like watching an autopsy,” Springsteen said. “Piece by piece, one by one, you’re watching something that used to be so strong be disassembled.”

Since the closing announcement, the father of three has divided his time between Sealed Air Cryovac and his job search. Springsteen worries that his lack of a college degree will hurt him in today’s competitive job environment.
“They look at the education before they look at the work ethic,” Springsteen said.

One advantage for Springsteen is Trade Adjustment Act assistance from the federal government. He’s eligible because the work is going to another country. That assistance should allow Springsteen to receive unemployment benefits until he finishes an approved college degree if necessary.

© Gazette Communications 2009

By Dave DeWitte
The Gazette

Printing has been job security for 52-year-old Phil Sutton of Marion since his high school days in Davenport.

On March 16, the security ended.

Sutton, a job planner, came into work at Cedar Graphics in Hiawatha at 8 a.m. that Monday after three days off. Less than an hour later he was on indefinite leave as the Hiawatha company scaled back to show lenders it was cutting costs to deal with the market downturn.

When the ax fell, Sutton couldn’t say he was entirely surprised. He knew business was down. He knew there were things he could have done to better protect his job.

“It’s incredible to put that much of your life into a place and have it end,” Sutton said.

What Sutton wasn’t prepared for was the deep dive into the job market at a time when everybody in the printing industry is laying off at least 10 percent of the work force.

The grim reality, Sutton says, is that he may have to take a deep pay cut to $13 or $14 an hour to get another job. The five weeks of annual vacation he had accrued by sticking with the company are history — no small thing to a passionate fisherman.

In his years with Cedar Graphics, Sutton had worked as a pressroom manager, traveled to Germany four times to meet with equipment suppliers, helped select millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and worked on efforts to control costs. He’d been with the company so long that many of the people who could attest to his accomplishments are now gone, and he wished he’d gotten involved in more recent initiatives to show his value.

“Everybody says, ‘It’s not your fault,’” Sutton said, “but it is. It was my job to lose, and I lost it.”

An unexpected source of comfort is the part-time job Sutton took 18 months ago at the meat department of SuperTarget to get his retirement savings on track. He likes working with the high school students who make up most of the other employees.

© Gazette Communications 2009

By Dave DeWitte
The Gazette

A doctorate from MIT and a strong background in avionics haven’t meant job security for Ed Wischmeyer of Cedar Rapids, who was laid off unexpectedly from Rockwell Collins in April 2008.

Ed Wischmeyer, who has a Ph.D. from MIT, was unexpectedly terminated from his job at Rockwell Collins in April 2008. Phot by Jim Slosiarek.

Wischmeyer has found that while the overall job market is bad, the job market for a 59-year-old principle systems engineer is even worse. Although it’s hard to prove anything, Wischmeyer suspects that his former employer and other companies are looking to trim payrolls by relying on younger, less experienced and lower-paid workers.

“It’s been frustrating,” Wischmeyer said. “When you’re as experienced and senior as I am, there aren’t as many jobs available at that level.”

A pilot for 35 years, Wischmeyer had worked in a cockpit design group at Boeing for three years and had five years’ experience designing systems to look at data from digital flight data recorders.

Wischmeyer may move back to the Southwest, where he lived before he took the job at Rockwell Collins.

“After the all-time-record low temperatures last winter, the near-all-time-record snowfalls last winter, an F-5 tornado and the all-time-record flood, I feel like I’ve done Iowa,” he said.

© Gazette Communications 2009

By Dave DeWitte
The Gazette

Eric Wolfe had been in the Cedar Rapids directory publishing business that became part of Yellowbook since 1986, the year he graduated from Coe College.

Eric Wolfe was laid off from Yellow Book after 22 years. Photo by Liz Martin.

On Nov. 6, Wolfe and about 25 colleagues were told that their positions would be eliminated to reduce costs. The company was laying off nearly 100 employees in Cedar Rapids.

The job that paid $16.35 an hour with full benefits was gone, leaving Wolfe with six months of severance pay.

“I’ve taken it rather personally, especially when it first happened,” said Wolfe, 47, of Marion.

Through conversations with his father and uncles who’ve endured layoffs, Wolfe eventually accepted that it’s not a reflection on his abilities. He had always gotten good reviews and was so focused on his job that co-workers sometimes thought he was ignoring them.

The layoff was a real shock, Wolfe said. His wife had just gone through back surgery and was scheduled for another. He applied the day of the layoff for unemployment benefits and — just to be careful — food stamps. He received the unemployment but not the food stamps.

Wolfe has cut spending and invested as much as he can from his severance checks.

Over the holidays Wolfe took a retail job at SuperTarget, working checkout and stocking shelves. After that monthlong stint, Wolfe found part-time, minimum-wage employment selling cellular phone service at a kiosk in Sam’s Club.

© Gazette Communications 2009

By Dave DeWitte
The Gazette

Joy Nicholson, 56, of Cedar Rapids, employed 18 years at the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, didn’t expect to spend the first four months of 2009 looking for a new job.

Joy Nicholson spent 18 years with the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce until she was let go in January. Photo by Jim Slosiarek.

Nicholson, executive assistant for public affairs, saw her fortunes change in seconds when she was called into a meeting one Friday in mid-January. The chamber was cutting costs, and Nicholson’s position had to go.

Nicholson had finished her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Coe College one course at a time during her years at the chamber and received a behind-the-scenes education in legislative issues affecting business by assisting the chamber’s lobbyist.

Despite her strong administrative background, Nicholson said jobs are so scarce that she’s considered switching fields.

“Your job is so tied up with your identity that it makes it tough,” said Nicholson, who began her job search in business administration.

Nicholson bought a new laptop and printer to use in her job search on the day after she was laid off. She’s taken an advanced workplace computer certification class and ACT’s WorkKeys assessment, a hiring tool used increasingly by Corridor employers, through Kirkwood Community College.

After five months of applying for at least two targeted jobs per week, Nicholson has gotten only three interviews.

On April 28, Nicholson was hired on a temporary basis as administrative assistant for the construction coordinator of the Community Resource Coalition in Cedar Rapids under the Emergency Public Jobs program. She sees the job as a chance to help the community rebuild from last summer’s flood and expects to find permanent employment before it runs out.

© Gazette Communications 2009

By Dave DeWitte
The Gazette

In 11 years at McLeodUSA (now Paetec), Ed Saunders, 49, of Coralville, survived numerous reorganizations and downsizings. So the senior network implementation analyst wasn’t entirely prepared when he was notified that his job was ending Dec. 9.

Ed Saunders survived numerous reorganizations and downsizings at McLeodUSA (now Paetec) until his job was cut late last year. Photo by Jim Slosiarek.

“I was the only person doing my job,” Saunders said. “I really didn’t think they could let me go.”

Even with a versatile information technology background through employment at IBM, McLeodUSA and the Iowa Communications Network, Saunders isn’t banking on landing another job in telecommunications. He has branched out and applied for positions at the University of Iowa and the Transportation Services Administration.

“Troubleshooting problems gives me a sense of satisfaction,” Saunders said.

With a wife who is employed and a severance package that lasted through April, Saunders is a little more comfortable than some.

Taking his 11-year-old twins to activities, working out and playing basketball with friends regularly give Saunders’ life a sense of normalcy that some unemployed Iowans lack. He is taking a medical terminology class at Kirkwood Community College that will make him eligible for more UI positions and is considering going back to college.

Saunders doesn’t feel the same sense of resentment some recently laid-off workers are feeling.

“Generally, when you are laid off, you’ve done something wrong,” he said. “Nowadays, it doesn’t really matter. There’s not as much of a stigma attached to it anymore.”

© Gazette Communications 2009

Herb-crusted Chilean sea-bass with a compound of heirloom tomatoes, avocados, goat cheese, white truffle oil, fresh garlic and basil, drizzled with orchid oil, created by chef Jayson West at Daniel Arthur's in Cedar Rapids / Photo by Mark Tade

Chef Jayson West

Herb crusted Chilean sea bass w/ heirloom tomato & avocado salad & white truffle oil

By Chef Jayson West, Daniel Arthur’s in Cedar Rapids.

Ingredients

 8oz filet Chilean sea bass
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano

½ avocado

½ heirloom tomato
1 tbsp parmesan
1 tsp basil  
1 tbsp of goat cheese

1 egg white

1 tbsp heavy cream

¼ cup olive oil

Directions

In a mixing bowl, combine rosemary, thyme, oregano and fresh parmesan. Set aside and make an egg wash using the egg white and heavy cream. Brush the egg wash on your filet of sea bass and then dip the filet in the herb mixture. Very lightly pan sear the filet in olive oil. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Meanwhile, take the center out of the heirloom tomato and remove the skin from the avocado. Dice up into medium size pieces and mix in a bowl with goat cheese, fresh basil, olive oil and fresh garlic. Spread the mixture on a plate and place the sea base filet on top of the base. Drizzle with white truffle oil.

French-style "tian", vegetable casserole with gruyere cheese and white wine, created at Redhead restaurant, Kim Zesiger, chef/owner, Solon, Iowa, 3/7/08 for More magazine.

Chef Kim Zesiger

Vegetable Tian

By Chef Kim Zesiger, the Redhead in Solon

Ingredients

4 to 6 medium zucchini, chopped or sliced

1 medium onion chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 large tomatoes, seeded and diced

½ cup white wine

1 cup Gruyere cheese, or any firm, rich cheese will do

Fresh chopped parsley

Olive oil for sautéing

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions

Sautee the onion for about 4 minutes, then add the zucchini. Continue sautéing for about 6 more minutes, or until zucchini is slightly brown, adding the minced garlic about halfway through. Add enough wine to deglaze the pan, but do not drown the zucchini. Then add the chopped tomatoes and parsley and cook for 2 more minutes. Spread the mixture into a casserole dish and stir in the shredded cheese, sprinkling the last of the cheese on top of the casserole. Bake at 325 degrees covered for 15 minutes, then uncover and brown the cheese on top.

By Kaye Ross
The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter discussed these historic sites during a Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau during a recent bus tour of neighborhoods flooded last June:

In 1897, the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway and the Chicago North Western railroad built Union Station, which stretched from Third Avenue to Fifth Avenue SE along the Fourth Street tracks in downtown Cedar Rapids. Photo taken from postcard circa 1915.

Union Station

The 1897 Union Station on the Fourth Street tracks covered two blocks and faced Greene Square Park. Built of brick and Bedford limestone, it had a 102-foot central tower with a 6-foot-diameter clock. The grand interior included two immense fireplaces, marble floors, polished oak paneling and brass rails.

Hunter said it was a victim of what was then called Lindale Plaza. Downtown merchants were worried that the shopping center would take all the business from downtown because the plaza had so much parking, Hunter said. They persuaded city fathers to tear down the station in July 1961 so a parking ramp could be built there. The lesson, Hunter said, is: “Be careful what you tear down.”

First Avenue

First Avenue at First Street became the natural center of town because pioneers had crossed the Cedar River there for years at the site of a large boulder in the center of the river. When the city was platted in 1843, city father George Greene wanted First Avenue to be a wide boulevard like those he had seen in Galena, Ill., and Dubuque, to allow for future growth. Even when there were just a few residents, First Avenue was the width it is today — 120 feet.

Rare color photograph of the Iowa Theatre Building from 1957, complete with the Iowa ear of corn sign. Photo courtesy of Theatre Cedar Rapids.

Downtown theaters

When the Iowa Theater — now Theatre Cedar Rapids – was built in 1928 at 102 Third St. SE, there were 12 downtown movie theaters showing silent films. Most could not afford the switch when talking pictures came in, so all but a half-dozen closed. A man on the bus tour told Hunter he had watched a movie in one of those silent theaters, the Isis on Second Avenue.

Mansion Hill

The rise up from the Fourth Street tracks was known as Mansion Hill because so many early affluent residents built their homes there to be close to downtown. The mansions were later doomed by that same proximity when they were torn down as early as 1910 to accommodate growing businesses.

The 1886 Arthur T. Averill House, 1120 Second Ave. SE, is an example of the homes that lined First Avenue in the late 1800s. It originally had six bedrooms and five fireplaces and a ballroom occupying the entire third floor. “Just imagine 100 more houses like that in this neighborhood,” Hunter said.

The former Peoples Bank, now Wells Fargo, at 101 Third Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids, is shown in this 1911 photo shortly after its completion. Photo by The Gazette.

Old Peoples Bank

The former Peoples Bank, now Wells Fargo at 101 Third Ave. SW, is a little-known gem in Cedar Rapids, Hunter said, that may be threatened by plans to construct a levee around the Cedar River. Famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, who was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, designed the 1911 bank. Floodwaters got as high as the interior murals, Hunter said, but most of the ornate bank held up well. Lore holds that it was built to resemble a steamboat.

Czech area

The east side Czech neighborhood, now Little Bohemia, was the original settlement. The current Czech Village on the west side of the river was a Syrian and Italian neighborhood until after 1900. At 925 Second St. SE is the old Czech School building, one of the oldest private school buildings in the country. Built in 1900, it later was purchased by the Pohlena family for a sausage factory. In front of what is now the Chrome Horse Slophouse and Saloon, l202 Third St. SE, is a sidewalk that was financed by advertising from Czech merchants. Some of the ads in the sidewalk are in Czech.

The Mother Mosque of America in northwest Cedar Rapids. Photo by The Gazette.

NW quadrant

The near NW quadrant was settled in the 1890s by Syrian and Lebanese people, many of whom made their livings running neighborhood stores. As late as 1949, there were 212 mom and pop grocery stores in Cedar Rapids, many of them run by Lebanese residents, Hunter said. That is why the Mother Mosque of America, 1335 Ninth St. NW, was built on this side of town in 1934. The mosque is thought to be the oldest mosque in North America. It was flooded last June and restored.

Time Check

In the 1870s, many residents of the Time Check area worked at the Quaker plant or for the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway across the river. To get to work, they used a walkway beside the rail line. The June floods washed that away — there is only a portion of a gate still attached. Residents were paid in time-delayed paychecks, which became known as time checks. Hunter said, “This is what built Cedar Rapids — hard work.”

© Gazette Communications 2009