Members of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 308 on Tuesday voted to reject a proposed one-year contract with local contractors. Dave Hogan, business agent of Local 308, said the members voted to strike at midnight Tuesday. Hogan said pickets will be set up at construction sites on Wednesday morning. The union has [...]

Cooler temperatures and rain forecast to arrive Wednesday are expected to further delay corn planting in Iowa. The U.S. Department of Agriculture‘s weekly crop progress report indicated that farmers planted a small amount of corn over the weekend as temperatures warmed into the 70s. Planting of oats advanced but is still running well behind normal. [...]

A new program in Iowa City is aiming to make downtown a more inviting place for residents and visitors. Monday marked the first day of the city’s Downtown Ambassador Program, which has turned a handful of city workers into area ambassadors. “We’ve just sort of re-created their position to add that friendliness or service with [...]

The Coralville city council passed a resolution Tuesday night that will allow Coral Ridge Mall and the City of Coralville to reduce the required parking ratio at the mall in order to make room for a new, larger tenant. Though John Bergstrom, senior vice president for mall owner General Growth Properties, declined to share which [...]

Coralville’s Iowa River Landing is on its way to getting another residential development, after the city council voted to approve an $8 million land lease agreement in a 4-1 vote Tuesday night. Construction on the multi-story residential development, which will include 60 condos on Ninth Street and 13 townhouses above retail space on the Landing’s [...]

UPDATE: Coral Ridge Mall’s corporate owner is in negotiations to add what would be the biggest store at the mall, but no one is saying who that retailer may be. The store would go in the spot recently vacated by Sears. The interested tenant believes that one-story space, at 98,596 square feet, is undersized and [...]

Clay Jones plans to retire as chief executive officer of Rockwell Collins on July 31, ending nearly 34 years with the avionics and communications company. Jones will continue on the Cedar Rapids company’s board of directors as non-executive chairman. Dubuque native Kelly Ortberg, president of Rockwell Collins, is expected to succeed Jones as CEO of [...]

Even before the heaviest rains this week, drought conditions had already subsided in eastern Iowa. Western Iowa has also improved, but is still dealing with dry soil as planting season arrives. A new USDA drought monitor released Thursday shows the eastern third of the state, 34.7% of Iowa, is now in normal moisture levels. That’s [...]

The financially strapped U.S. Postal Service will keep delivering first-class mail on Saturday because Congress has left it no choice but to continue, the service’s board of governors said on Wednesday. The Postal Service, which lost $16 billion last year, said in February it wanted to switch to five-day mail delivery to save $2 billion [...]

Bicyclists on the popular Cedar River Trail will have a watering hole and deli designed to cater to them when they get to Cedar Lake just north of downtown Cedar Rapids. The new eatery, which will be called Sag Wagon Deli & Brew, is the brainchild of Marty Hoeger, who saw the hard-to-see commercial possibilities [...]