June 12 AM Update from the Corridor Business Journal

Today's Headlines

Rockwell Collins selected as contractor for $68 million Australian program

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Coming Events

June 18

Professional Development Academy: How You Present Yourself, how you present yourself in your everyday interactions sends a message about who you are and what you are about. The event is 8-9:30 a.m. at the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance office, 424 First Ave. NE. Angie Bennett, program instructor and business relations contact with Dardis Communications will speak on presentation skills, professional image and presence for the June Professional Development Academy. For more questions, contact DeMaris McKee at (319) 730-1417.

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or (319) 887-2251, ext. 304.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The day's headlines in your inbox by 11 a.m. daily

Involta to build Tucson data center

Involta, a Cedar Rapids data center company that builds facilities to protect mission critical computer systems and associated data, announced Monday that it will build a center in Tucson, Ariz.

The company is awaiting final approvals from local agencies, but design of the 40,000-square foot facility is underway, according to a news release.

The collocation data center will protect systems and data for healthcare organizations, businesses, government and educational institutions within the Tucson area as well as throughout the country.

The company also sees customers coming from the Phoenix and Southern California areas. The $15 million facility will feature a total capacity of 20,000 square feet of conditioned data center space that will include about 600 cabinets of IT equipment. The building is being designed to meet LEED certification standards.

"The ability to share the substantial costs of housing and managing mission critical systems and the option of off-site data storage for disaster preparedness planning is becoming increasingly important to a business," said Involta CEO Bruce Lehrman, in a press release.

Early this year Involta announced that it has acquired the assets of SolutionPro, a data center and managed services provider located in Idaho. The company also has data centers in Duluth, Minn., and Marion.

Involta was founded in 2007 as was ranked No. 40 on the 2010 Inc 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. At the end of last year, Involta had about 50 employees. By the end of 2012, the company will have about 100 employees.

Rockwell Collins selected as contractor for $68 million Australian program

Rockwell Collins has been selected as the prime contractor for the Australian Defence Force Land 17 Digital Terminal Control Systems (DTCS) program. The company will be delivering a total of 152 systems valued at $68 million.

The DTCS allows Special Forces and artillery forward observers to identify targets with greater accuracy through the use of precision targeting software.

Based on the FireStorm solution developed by Rockwell Collins, the DTCS is a mission configurable suite of hardware and software comprised of a tablet PC, laser range finder, laser target designator, real-time video downlink receiver and manpack radio.

The contract is part of the Project Land 17 mission system, which addresses the tactical joint fires artillery command and control systems, indirect fire system delivery platforms and other indirect fire system elements. As part of the contract, Rockwell Collins Australia is also responsible for a comprehensive through-life support program including training and integrated logistics support.

Northey comments on crops, weather

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey yesterday commented on the Iowa Crops and Weather report released by the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service. The report is released weekly from April through October.

"The lack of significant rainfall for much of the state remains a concern," Mr. Northey stated in a press release. "In general, the crop remains in fairly good condition but will need more moisture as it continues to develop."

The weekly report is also available on the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship's website at www.iowaagriculture.gov or on USDA's site at www.nass.usda.gov/ia. The report follows here:

Warm, dry conditions are beginning to stress Iowa row crops. Although crops continue to be rated mostly good to excellent, crop conditions declined slightly for the third straight week. The week's activities included spraying crops and cutting hay, with some farmers starting their second cutting.

There were 6.7 days suitable for fieldwork during the week, compared to 5.2 days the previous week. Topsoil moisture levels dropped to 26 percent very short, 40 percent short, 34 percent adequate, and 0 percent surplus. South Central Iowa is the driest with 97 percent of the topsoil moisture rated short to very short. Subsoil moisture also decreased and is now rated 20 percent very short, 39 percent short, 41 percent adequate, and 0 percent surplus.

There are scattered reports of corn silking, primarily in the eastern part of the state. Corn condition is reported at 2 percent very poor, 6 percent poor, 25 percent fair, 52 percent good, and 15 percent excellent. Ninety-four percent of the soybean crop has emerged, ahead of last year's 88 percent and the five-year average of 84 percent. Soybean condition is rated 2 percent very poor, 8 percent poor, 28 percent fair, 52 percent good, and 10 percent excellent.

The Iowa preliminary weather summary, by Harry Hillaker, the state's climatologist, stated:

It was a warm and dry week across Iowa. Temperatures averaged from near normal over far southeastern Iowa to 6 to 8 degrees above normal across the west. The statewide average temperature was 4.4 degrees above normal which at this time of year results in about 15 to 20 percent more evaporation than normal. The mildest weather came on Wednesday and Thursday with Elkader reporting the lowest temperature at 45 degrees on Thursday morning. Highest temperatures came on the weekend with Dakota City reaching 93 degrees on Saturday and Des Moines, Guthrie Center and Red Oak also reaching 93 on Sunday.

Rainfall was minimal with just a few scattered thunderstorms across the northeast one-third of Iowa on Sunday night into Monday. Isolated storms dropped rain on a few areas in central Iowa on Tuesday and from northwest into central Iowa on Thursday. Many areas, especially in the southwest and south, reported no rain for the week while Lake Park reported the most with 0.86 inch. The statewide average precipitation was 0.07 inch while normal for the week is 1.19 inches. This was Iowa's driest week since in 17 weeks. Thunderstorms brought welcome rain to all but extreme northwest Iowa Sunday (10th) afternoon into Monday morning. However, this rain came too late to be reflected in the crop condition and soil moisture reports and the rain totals will be included in next week's summary. The late weekend rain averaged about one-half inch. Substantial rains of an inch or more from Sunday night were mostly across western Iowa, roughly bounded by Spencer, Creston, Shenandoah and Council Bluffs.

Commercial composting workshop in IC

The Iowa City Landfill takes organics for composting and is putting on a workshop later this month to help get the word out about the program.

The workshop focuses on commercial kitchens and businesses with large amounts of organic kitchen waste.

The free workshop is 2-4 p.m. June 24 at the East Side Recycling Center, 2401 Scott Blvd. SE in Iowa City.

Panel members include representatives from the University of Iowa Food Service at Hillcrest and Burge Halls, Regina Catholic School, New Pioneer Co-op, Blue Bird Diner, GreenRU, Johnson County Refuse, Inc. and the Iowa City Landfill's compost facility.

Sports Clips Haircuts to open in North Liberty

Sport Clips Haircuts opened Saturday at 675 Pacha Parkway in North Liberty. This is the first location in the city, adding to the more than 900 Sport Clips across the country.

Sport Clips in North Liberty will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, visit http://haircutmennorthlibertyia.com/.

KGAN / KFXA HEADLINES CBS-FOX logo

News items provided by KGAN/KFXA

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Congressman Bruce Braley held a meeting at Kirkwood Community College Monday. It comes a little more than three months before the current farm bill expires. Mr. Vilsack and Mr. Braley took questions on the proposed food, farm and jobs bill. It would cut at least 23 billion dollars from the current farm bill. For farmers that will mean an end to direct payments. The current farm bill expires Sept. 30.

A shooting this weekend is starting a conversation on race in Cedar Rapids. Residents say racial tension and years of harassment led to a shooting on 29th Avenue SW Saturday night. 43-year-old Joseph Pham, a Vietnamese immigrant shot his neighbor, Brian Wilson, during an argument. Civil rights workers say the shooting, while tragic, is opening up a much needed discussion on race relations. Civil rights workers say violence is never the answer. They say those who think they're being targeted because of race can file a complaint with the civil rights commission or come in for mediation.

RAGBRAI planners are taking a close look at a pair of weekend concerts in downtown Cedar Rapids. They want to see what worked and what didn't. Rock band Weezer and country singer Allen Jackson attracted big crowds. The same setup will be used for next month's Counting Crows Ragbrai concert. But next month's crowd could be three times as big. Concert goers say they definitely needed more garbage cans and better access to concessions. Early reports show parking for the events were no problem at all.

KGAN WEATHER

CBS 2 FirstWarning Weather -- The cold front that brought us some rain yesterday morning will bring us cooler weather for today. It will be a great day to open the windows up and get some cool, fresh air into the house. We will see mostly sunny skies today with a northwest breeze at 10 to 15 mph. This will keep our highs this afternoon in the lower to mid 70s. Tonight will be mostly clear and cool with temperatures dropping into the upper 40s. Wednesday will be the start of a warming trend that will continue through the weekend. We will see a few more clouds on Wednesday with partly sunny skies and highs in the upper 70s. Thursday will be breezy with highs climbing back into the lower 80s. By the weekend, highs will be back into the upper 80s.