As Gov. Mike Johanns awaits U.S. Senate approval of his nomination by President George W. Bush for the position of agriculture secretary, his home state of Nebraska is doing just fine in its non-ag pursuits.
      Union Pacific has had a long run in Omaha, most recently highlighted by its 2003 $260-million, 1,000-job expansion announcement that includes moving 300 technology jobs from another state. Now there's another Pacific in the mix: Pacific Life, which in July 2004 announced it would create approximately 250 jobs at a new regional business center in the city that will house internal wholesaling, operations, technology, and support staff for the company's life insurance and annuities and mutual funds divisions. The company chose Omaha because of the breadth and diversity of its work force and its availability of workers with financial services backgrounds.
      In November 2004, Pacific Life followed up with the real estate details: 57,879 sq. ft. (5,377 sq. m.) on three floors in downtown Omaha, and expectation of 30 employees in place by mid-December, with the full remodel to be complete by the end of January 2005.
      Streck Laboratories is building a 51,000-sq.-ft (4,738-sq.-m.) R&D facility in order to keep up with the demand for its blood testing products. The company already employed 288 at a 144,000-sq.-ft. (13,378-sq.-m.) complex, and expects to add 15 to the payroll with the expansion.
      One old industrial name will inhabit the former offices of another in downtown Omaha, as Bemis Company's paper packaging division will relocate its headquarters from Terre Haute, Ind., to the Falstaff brewery warehouse and office it's been redeveloping since 1998. Bemis' original Omaha plant was built in the 1800s, and now houses the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Its most recent plant, built in 1978, employs 283 in the manufacture of pet product packaging.
      In September 2004, Oregon-based Daitron, Inc., subsidiary of Japanese electronic and semiconductor equipment maker Daitron, announced it would open a new 50-person plant in Lincoln, Neb. Located near the Lincoln airport, the facility will help the firm serve major Lincoln customer Kawasaki, among others.
      Nebraska will always be associated with agriculture, however, and in fact Gov. Johann's success with ethanol-related business was one of his strong points in his federal-level nomination. Now the state, courtesy of Nebraska Public Power District, has a Web site listing sites ready for ethanol producers to set up shop: www.ethanolsites.com.