June 13 AM Update from the Corridor Business Journal

Today's Headlines

Veterans Affairs Medical Center to expand mental health staff

Corbett declares immunity Fridays to support RAGBRAI in CR

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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.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

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

Veterans Affairs Medical Center to expand mental health staff

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki recently announced the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City would add about 1,600 mental health clinicians, as well as nearly 300 support staff to its existing workforce.

VA estimates that 10 clinicians and one support personnel will be hired to support mental health operations at the Iowa City VA Health Care System. Funding has now been distributed to the Iowa City VA Health Care System and recruitment is underway.

VA has an existing workforce of 20,696 mental health staff that includes nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. Currently, 123 mental health clinicians and support staff work locally supporting Veterans in the Iowa City VA coverage area of eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

With each additional mental health care provider, a facility could potentially reach hundreds more Veterans battling mental illness. New providers will join a team that is already actively treating Veterans through individualized care, readjustment counseling, and immediate crisis services. Additional staff members also afford opportunities to look long-term and expand into cutting edge Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) research and to explore alternative therapies.

VA anticipates the majority of mental health clinicians and support staff will be hired locally within approximately six months and the most hard-to-fill positions filled by the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2013. To speed the hiring process, VA developed the Mental Health Hiring Initiative to improve marketing, recruitment, and hiring efforts for mental health professionals so that the new 1,600 mental health providers can be hired as quickly as possible. The initiative is an aggressive, multi-faceted, sustained national marketing and outreach campaign that includes targeted recruitment of mental health providers willing to take positions in rural and highly rural markets, as well as throughout the nation to serve all VA medical centers and community clinics.

"Mental health services must be closely aligned with veterans' needs and fully integrated with health care facility operations," VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Robert Petzel stated in a press release. "Improving access to mental health services will help support the current and future Veterans who depend on VA for these vital services."

Last year, VA provided quality, specialty mental health services to 1.3 million veterans. Since 2009, VA has increased the mental health care budget by 39 percent. Since 2007, VA has seen a 35 percent increase in the number of veterans receiving mental health services, and a 41 percent increase in mental health staff.

Interested mental health care providers can find additional information about VA careers online at www.va.careers.va.gov. Open positions will be announced online at USA Jobs (www.usajobs.gov).

To locate the nearest VA facility or Vet Center for enrollment and to get scheduled for care, Veterans can visit VA's website at www.va.gov. Immediate help is available at www.VeteransCrisisLine.net or by calling the Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 (push 1) or texting 838255.

Corbett declares immunity Fridays to support RAGBRAI in CR

Mayor Ron Corbett is declaring June 22 and July 13 as RAGBRAI Immunity Fridays in Cedar Rapids. On these two Fridays the mayor is declaring that residents and businesses have RAGBRAI immunity, meaning they are encouraged to wear Cedar Rapids "Survivin' the Ride" RAGBRAI t-shirts or bandanas to begin the celebration of thousands of bicycle riders traveling through our city on July 26 and 27.

"Cedar Rapids is the best place to hold the 40^th celebration of RAGBRAI," Mayor Corbett stated in a press release. "We need support from local residents and businesses to make this big event a success."

Cedar Rapids RAGBRAI t-shirts and commemorative bandanas are available for purchase online, over the phone and at the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau office.

Several area businesses are offering special discounts to customers wearing RAGBRAI apparel. Learn more at www.CedarRapidsRAGBRAI.com.

Iowa transportation funding announced

The Iowa Transportation Commission has approved the fiscal year 2013-2017 Iowa Transportation Improvement Program. The program reflects Iowa's multimodal transportation system through inclusion of investments in aviation, transit, railroads, trails and highways. The commission and Iowa Department of Transportation remain committed to providing modern, safe and efficient transportation services to the public.

A major component of the program is the highway section, which documents programmed investments in the primary highway system for the next five years. For fiscal year 2013-2017, about $2.6 billion is forecast to be available for highway right of way and construction.

The highway section was developed to achieve several objectives. The commission's main investment objective is the modernization of Iowa's existing highway system. Funding exceeding $1.3 billion is directly targeted for modernizing and maintaining the existing infrastructure. This includes increased investments targeted to improve bridge conditions statewide. This program includes almost $800 million of investments in Iowa's state owned bridges.

The highway section also includes significant interstate investments on Interstate 29 in Sioux City and I-29/80/480 in Council Bluffs. While significant funds remain programmed for I-74 in Bettendorf/Davenport and development work on the project is continuing, the programming of funds for construction on the central section of I-74 has been delayed to coordinate schedules with the Illinois DOT.

Another highway programming objective is to add capacity and make system enhancements. Projects added to the Program include the following.

- U.S. 20 Woodbury County in Correctionville

- U.S. 20 Delaware County interchange at Dyersville

- U.S. 30 Linn County, Mount Vernon and Lisbon bypass

- U.S. 52 Jackson County Mississippi River bridge replacement at Sabula

- Iowa 58 Black Hawk County Viking Road interchange in Cedar Falls

- U.S. 75 Sioux County in Sioux Center

- Iowa 100 Linn County from U.S. 30 to Covington Road

- U.S. 169 Kossuth County

- Iowa 196 Sac County

- U.S. 218 Black Hawk County interchange at County Road C57

Projects advancing in the program to an earlier year than originally programmed are listed below.

- U.S. 20 Woodbury County from east of Moville to Correctionville

- U.S. 30 Benton County from Iowa 21 to U.S. 218

- U.S. 61 Louisa County from south of Iowa 92 to Muscatine County

- Iowa 100 Linn County from Covington Road to Edgewood Road

A sizable part of funding available for highway programming comes from the federal government. Accurately estimating future federal-funding levels is dependent on having a current, enacted multiyear federal transportation authorization. The most recent authorization expired Sept. 30, 2009; and to date it has been extended nine times.

The current extension will expire June 30, 2012. According to the commission, this leads to significant uncertainty in federal funding; however, the commission and Iowa DOT remain cautiously optimistic that federal funding will remain at or near current funding levels. The Iowa DOT and commission will continue to monitor federal revenues and adjust future investments as needed to maintain a fiscally responsible Program.

As part of initiatives to assess road funding needs and potential revenue sources, Gov. Terry Branstad directed the Iowa DOT to identify $50 million of efficiencies from Iowa's Road Use Tax Fund. With this program, the commission implemented $33 million of the efficiencies identified. Further legislative and Iowa DOT action is required to implement the remaining efficiencies. The complete program is posted at www.iowadot.gov/program_management/five_year.html.

KGAN / KFXA HEADLINES CBS-FOX logo

News items provided by KGAN/KFXA

U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack is being honored by a trade association for his support for the wind energy industry. The Iowa Democrat is expected to visit two Iowa wind energy companies on Wednesday to be presented the USA Wind Champion Award from the American Wind Energy Association. Mr. Loebsack's office says the award recognizes his ongoing support of the growing industry in Iowa and his work to extend a federal tax credit for wind energy production. Wednesday's events will be at Acciona Energy in West Branch and Siemens in Fort Madison. They come as Mr. Loebsack begins to campaign for re-election in a newly redrawn district that covers most of southeastern Iowa.

Gov. Terry Branstad says he'll propose during union negotiations that state employees pay 20 percent of their health care costs. Mr. Branstad said on Tuesday that, "Everybody ought to have some skin in the game and ought to pay something toward health insurance." Iowa legislators and most state employees don't share the cost of the insurance premiums. Officials calculate that Mr. Branstad's initiative could save the state almost $111 million a year. State union leaders have said that not having to pay health care premiums is the employees' trade-off for the lower pay in government jobs.

The Iowa Transportation Department has decided to seek paid sponsors for the state's interstate rest areas. DOT Director Paul Trombino says the sponsorship will help defray some expenses. He says, "Every little bit helps." The Des Moines Register reports that on Tuesday the state transportation commission approved regulations to permit the corporate sponsorships. Mr. Trombino says he doesn't know how much money the sponsorships might generate for Iowa.

KGAN WEATHER

CBS 2 FirstWarning Weather -- The area of high pressure that brought us the spectacular weather yesterday will slide off to our east today. This will bring in a few more clouds this afternoon and switch the winds around to the southeast. This will warm us up a few more degrees today with highs in the mid 70s. We will have one more night with comfortable conditions so you can sleep with your windows open. Lows tonight will be in the mid to upper 50s with partly cloudy skies. Breezy south winds on Thursday will bring the heat and humidity back into the state for the weekend. Thursday will be partly cloudy with highs in the lower to mid 80s. A few scattered showers and thunderstorms will develop Thursday night out in Nebraska and South Dakota. These will move east-northeast and we could see some areas of rain by Friday morning.