February 4, 2012

Funeral services for Ralston Fire Chief

Fellow Ralston firefighters, law enforcement, city officials and friends and family will say goodbye to Fire Chief Kyle Ienn on Saturday. Funeral services will be held at 10 am at the Ralston High School. Fire Department spokesman Tom Negley says firefighters are a very tight community and when a tragedy happens they have no problem traveling long distances to pay respects. He says people from across the country will be traveling to Omaha to attend the service.

Negley says Ienn was very well known in the circle of firefighters nationwide and served on the board of the National Council on Fireworks Safety and on several other committees. He says many knew Ienn personally and want to show their support.

Saturday would have been Ienn’s 41st birthday. He died earlier this week in what authorities are calling a suicide.

Schedule of recruiting announcements for Nebraska football

National Signing Day is Feb. 1 and the Husker football team has 14 commitments coming into the day with the potential of four of five more. Bo Pelini is holding a press conference at 2:30 today where he’ll talk about the 2012 signing class. Here is a schedule of when other potential top recruits will make their announcement. Check back here for the latest or follow us on Twitter at Nebraskasports. (All times listed are central time)

[Read more...]

Drive-through job fair could be a first

There are drive-through restaurants, banks, flu shot clinics and now a drive-through job fair. Clay Seaman is the Delivery Director for “omahajobs.com” and is organizing Wednesday’s event. Seaman says they are spending the day putting informational material from over a dozen companies into bags. That information includes marketing materials, job postings and contact information.

Seaman says all potential employees have to do is drive up, get a bag and review the material at a later time. He says this is especially helpful for those currently employed but looking for a different position and can’t take time off work to attend a traditional job fair.

Seaman has been asked over and over again if job fairs work and if people do get hired. He says all those participating in Wednesday’s Drive-Thru Job Fair are hiring and yes, job fairs are a success.

Seaman says there are hundreds of open full-time and part time openings. Some of the fields are for sales representatives, finance, accounting, legal services, management, marketing, IT, customer service and more.

The Drive-Thru Job Fair is Wednesday, February 1st at the Comfort Inn at 70th and Grover in Omaha from 8am to 3 pm.

Can’t find toothpicks at the grocery store? There’s an app for that…

A grocery store chain is launching a mobile application for Nebraska’s smart phone users so they can be smarter shoppers.

Most of us have been at the supermarket and discovered there’s a product on our list that we can’t seem to find in the store — but they must have it, right?

Hy-Vee’s Ruth Comer says the new app features a product locater function.

Comer says, “If you’re shopping and you want to know where to find the toothpicks or the cake mixes, you can either speak the product into your phone or you can type it and the app will come back and tell you it’s in aisle 6 on the left side or aisle 14 on the right side, so you can go right to that section and find that product.”

Comer says, “The majority of our stores now are mapped to coincide with the app and it will pull up a map of the store and show you, right on the map, where the product’s located.”

If you arrive at that aisle and find the shelf empty, never fear.

“You can even send a Tweet to Hy-Vee and let them know if a product’s out of stock,” she says. “They’ll get that message right away and can look to see if there’s more in stock.”

You can also browse the weekly ads, search for recipes and build an online shopping list. The app is free. Find it at www.hy-vee.com.

Based in West Des Moines, Iowa, Hy-Vee has 25 stores in eight Nebraska cities: Columbus, Fremont, Grand Island, Lincoln, Norfolk, Omaha, Papillion and South Sioux City.

Mark Kelly says Giffords’ recovery shows power of human spirit (AUDIO)

Mark Kelly signs books at the UNL bookstore prior to speech

Former NASA Astronaut Mark Kelly talked about combat missions as a Navy pilot and space flight, but the audience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln came to hear about his wife’s remarkable recovery from a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head.

Kelly told about the dangers of flying 40 combat missions in Desert Storm. He talked about the dangers inherent in space shuttle flight.

“But, I didn’t ever contemplate that she would be the one who would come very close to losing her life serving her country,” Kelly stated.

She, of course, is Kelly’s wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, shot in the head during a meeting with constituents in Tucson January 8th of last year. The shooting rampage killed six and wounded 13, including Giffords.

The day of the shooting, Kelly was at his home in Houston. He received a call from Giffords’ chief of staff. Kelly arranged for a plane to take him and family members to Tucson. On the way, he watched television news reports that Giffords had died, only to be relieved later that the reports proved false.

“But, it was certainly the worst 30 minutes of my life,” Kelly told the audience.

Kelly said he and the family understood the odds, not just of recovery, but of survival. Giffords beat the odds, not only surviving the head wound, but recovering faster than any of the many specialists attending her expected. She can walk without aid. Regaining her speech has been the hardest part of recovery, according to Kelly.

Kelly said he has been amazed at the power of the human spirit embodied in his wife’s grim determination to recover.

“She reminds me every single day to deny the acceptance of failure.”

AUDIO: Brent Martin reports [:60]

 AUDIO: Mark Kelly’s speech at UNL [41:00]

AUDIO: Mark Kelly answers questions at UNL [16:55]