Iowa, a state never much known for millionaires, is suddenly showing up in the media as a place where the very rich are hatched. “Millionaire farmers” is a catch phrase used with growing frequency up to depict farmers whose personal wealth and incomes have risen with skyrocketing land values and improved farm incomes due to the [...]

Vinton mushroom grower Josh Osborn offers hope for morel mushroom lovers frustrated by last year’s short supplies and high prices. Osborn and his wife, Nikki, began selling home morel growing kits at his Blues Best Mushrooms booth in the New Bo Farmers Market. The Osborns make the kit themselves using the same ingredients they’d been [...]

Iowa City Area Development Group will open its new IC CoLab at 316 E. Court St. to the public on Thursday, beginning with a daylong Jelly/cowork event. The new IC CoLab provides members with work space, learning sessions, collaboration and basic office functions. Thursday’s Jelly event is part of #JELLYWEEK 2013, which is being observed at over [...]

U.S. Cellular said Tuesday that it has launched a 4G LTE data network in Buchanan and Delaware counties. The 4G LTE network provides higher data speeds that enhance the experience of high-bandwidth applications such as watching movies and video chatting. The network was developed in conjunction with King Street Wireless . It covers Manchester, Independence, Jesup, Hopkinton and [...]

GPS navigation could be appearing in a new generation of tiny devices such as hummingbird-sized unmanned aerial vehicles, Rockwell Collins said Tuesday. The prediction is based on the findings of Rockwell Collins research with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). A DARPA project has created tiny electronic oscillators, which function as miniature clocks. Rockwell Collins has [...]

  A state law that could decide what water users face shut-offs or restrictions as the drought continues into 2013 may be in need of updating as the odds of using it increase, observers say. The 1985 law allows the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to implement a priority water allocation system. The system would specify [...]

Its been through some changes, but a  Cedar Rapids tech startup hatched in 2011 is getting positive signals as it plans its first big marketing push this year. On Monday RecBob was named one of 10 startup concepts to watch in 2013 by Social Driver, a Washington, D.C.-based digital agency. It’s aggressively competing to be [...]

The drive to create a maker space in Cedar Rapids will gain some inspiration from an appearance by a founder of Minneapolis’ Mill Maker Space Jan. 20 at CSPS. Brian Boyle, creator and founder of the Mill Maker Space, will talk with interested local makers and supporters from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, [...]

Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy crews who worked to help restore power after Super Storm Sandy are getting national and state level recognition. The Edison Electric Institute recently presented Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy Company with its annual EEI 2012 Emergency Assistance Award for their work in the Super Storm Sandy recovery. Alliant Energy sent 215 employees and [...]

If you go: clusterFlunk Launch Party When: 7 p.m., Jan. 24 What: Music, door prizes, t-shirt giveaways, drink specials and the introduction of clusterFlunk, a web-based social learning environment for University of Iowa students. Where: The Summit, 10 S. Clinton St., Iowa City Cost: Free A University of Iowa student startup company has hijacked the old concept of the student [...]

Rockwell Collins said Wednesday that it recently completed the first installation of a next-generation ARC-210 Gen5 radio on an HH-60G Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) helicopter for the U.S. Air Force Air National Guard. The work, performed at The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, is a key milestone in the HH60G Avionics Communications Suite Upgrade [...]

KCRG-TV9 made another offer Monday to DISH Network to settle a retransmission contract dispute that’s left DISH subscribers without KCRG’s programming for nearly three weeks. DISH Network subscribers in Eastern Iowa have been without access to KCRG since the last retransmission agreement extension expired at noon Dec. 18. “Obviously, for our viewers we’d like to get [...]

A lucky startup company soon will be winning up to two years of free rent, utilities included, in Lisbon’s most thoroughly renovated Main Street building. The rent deal will be the prize in a sort of business plan competition aiming to attract more long-term businesses to fill underused and vacant downtown buildings in Mount Vernon and [...]

One of Grant Wood’s most famous paintings brought author David Wood back to his Iowa roots to provide a setting for his latest children’s gardening book. Author David Wood’s new book will feature a “quarry garden” set in the Jones County valley hamlet of Stone City in the 1930s. Wood (who is no relation to [...]

Less than seven hours after the last guest stayed in this fifth-floor Holiday Inn Express room, it has been stripped down to an empty white shell. Three days later the same room will be welcoming its next guest, looking to the untrained eye like a room in a freshly built hotel. Renovating a 80-room hotel , [...]

MopedU, the scooter rental company started by University of Iowa graduates in 2011, has secured financing for an expansion that includes a new out-of-state location. MopedU reported revenue growth of 300 percent in 2012. The company announced Friday that it has obtained financing from MidWestOne Bank of Belle Plaine for the expansion. MopedU is owned by [...]

Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield ‘s request for a 13.3 percent overall increase in individual health insurance premiums will be up for discussion at a statewide public hearing today. Wellmark’s Nov. 7 request would affect roughly 150,000 of Wellmark’s 1.8 million Iowa members under age 65 who have individual policies rather than policies issued through an employer. [...]

After completing the acquisition of Westdale Mall Jan. 1, the company intent on redeveloping the long-struggling 72-acre retail area plans to give existing mall tenants an idea of where they fit in next week. The mall was transferred Dec. 31 to A. Shapiro LLC, an investor group represented by Scott Byers of Cedar Rapids and leased [...]

Iowans filed 1,590 fewer bankruptcies in 2012, a drop that some bankruptcy attorneys are reluctant to credit to the slow economic recovery. The total number of bankruptcy cases filed in Iowa’s bankruptcy courts fell 20.2 percent from 7,861 in 2011 to 6,277 in 2012. Bankruptcy forgives repayment of certain debts and can often help a [...]

The new Brothers Market that opened Monday in Lisbon would be enough to please many small towns struggling to keep a retail base. Lisbon’s new grocery store came with a bonus, however. It’s the first in the growing Brothers Market chain to have a in-store coffee cafe and coffee roaster. Brothers Markets partnered with Cabin Coffee [...]