The move means the 130 call center employees at Midwest Wireless will be trained for the new function and Alltel will begin hiring additional employees in late July. They say the call center could have from 300 to 500 employees in the future.

The jobs bring decent pay — a base salary of $27,000 to start, plus commissions. Employees slated for layoff can apply for any new jobs.

It’s great news for employees and for the region.

Thumbs up

To Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Bush administration for their willingness to meet with leaders of Syria, a country Democrats and Republicans say we need to meet with to bring diplomatic solutions to Iraq.

For months, the Bush administration has resisted direct high-level talks with Syria, listening to hard-line advisers who said the country harbored terrorists. But many believe Saudi Arabia, a strong U.S. ally, has unwittingly or not, had the same problem.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, former Secretary of State James Baker III and U.S. elected officials from both parties have long argued for opening up talks with Syria. A CIA intelligence briefing on Iraq issued this spring also argued for more diplomatic relations with moderate officials in the government of Syria and Iran.

Let’s hope this sea change of diplomacy will shorten the time for U.S. troops in Iraq.