New owners scoop up Dairy Queens

Someone else will be in charge of making the vanilla cones and other treats at the DQ.

After 25 years in business, Tom and Beth Rutske are selling their two Dairy Queens -- one in Brainerd on Washington Street and the other in Baxter in the Westgate Mall. The change in ownership came this week.

Minnesota unemployment rates edged up slightly for July. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 2.5 percent in July and 2.3 percent in June. One year ago the jobless rate was 3 percent. The national unemployment average was 4 percent for July. Updated numbers, with jobless rates by county, are expected by Tuesday.

M.G. Carlson Construction offices are in Baxter even though I listed them in another city a week ago by mistake.

In the Midwest, employer costs for employee compensation of private industry averaged $19.22 per hour worked in March 2000. The numbers were recently released from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wages and salaries averaged $13.91 per hour in the Midwest and accounted for 72.4 percent of employer costs. Benefits averaged $5.32 or the remaining 27.7 percent of total compensation costs.

Legally required benefits averaged $1.60 per hour and represented the largest non-wage employer cost. Employer costs for insurance benefits averaged $1.23 per hour worked; paid leave averaged $1.19; and retirement and savings benefits averaged 61 cents.

Employer costs for employee compensation is a measure of the average cost per hour worked to employers for wages and salaries and benefits. Employer costs for employee compensation covers all occupations in private industry, excluding farms and households. Benefits are considered paid leave, vacations, sick leave and other leave, supplemental pay for overtime, weekends, bonuses, insurance benefits, retirement and savings benefits and legally required benefits such as Social Security and unemployment insurance.

Strategic planning and legal issues were listed as top concerns for area non profits, according to a task force that surveyed 300 organizations representing the nonprofit community in Crow Wing County. The task force, through the Initiative Foundation, set a main goal to increase the effectiveness of non profit organizations by providing targeted training opportunities.