Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Chapter 15, “Cotton Club”

From “A Perfectly Logical Explanation,” published by the Kalamazoo, Mich., Gazette, 2002

Goldonna, Louisiana, 2019 (Michael Chevy Castranova)

My father-in-law has put his hands to many chores in the past 76 years of his life.


He tells me when he was a young boy during the Great Depression he picked cotton by hand, in fields not far from where he lives today — in north central Louisiana. He and my wife’s mother work their subsistence farm of potatoes and peas and other vegetables not near any main roads with traffic lights, but out in the woods.


For most of his adult years Audrey worked for the federal government, marking trees so the timber companies would know whether they legally could be cut.


Timber still is one of the few occupations here in Winn Parish, in some form or another. The Stone Container Company, the major employer, supplies shopping bags to the Wal-Mart in Winnfield and elsewhere in the region. You often can hear the eighteen-wheelers barreling along out on the road, carrying their cut trees to the paper mill.


Tonight my father-in-law, long retired from the tree-marking business, is putting his hands to another chore. Once a week for the past fifteen or so years or so he climbs into his pickup truck and drives over to the Backwoods Inn.

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Stinger, Javelin were the ‘co-MVPs’ early in the war, Raytheon CEO says

 For The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Ending the war in Ukraine could come down to speed — how quickly the White House and Congress can authorize spending on weapons and how fast manufacturers can build them and get them to where they are needed.

The last contract signed with Raytheon Technologies — parent company of Cedar Rapids’ largest employer, Collins Aerospace — from the U.S. Department of Defense for Stinger missiles, for example, was in 2002, according to Greg Hayes, Raytheon CEO and chairman.

Hayes referred to the Stinger and Javelin missile systems — both built by Raytheon — as the “co-MVPs” during the early part of the Ukraine war.

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Corn in, and many products back out at ADM

For The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa



During the busiest times, an average of 500 trucks a day go in and out of the ADM facility in Cedar Rapids, plant manager Brian Mullins says. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Brian Mullins slowed his pickup truck and waved to allow a hauler to go ahead.

Trucks will line up to have their corn graded. Then they’ll circle around to a scale for weighing.

The drivers then are told by sign where to take their load for drop off.

Mullins explained the strategic traffic flow this past, crisp Tuesday afternoon as he gave an exterior tour of Archer Daniels Midland’s largest corn-grinding facility — 450 acres all told.

During its busiest times, an average of upward of 500 trucks a day go in and out of the southwest Cedar Rapids facility, located just south of Route 30 and west of where the highway meets Interstate 380.

Sunday, October 9, 2022

Iowa Ideas magazine 2022 edition

 Starting in 2017, The Gazette's Iowa Ideas inititative — along with its annual two-day conference in the autumn — included a glossy, statewide magazine I edit. With the pandemic in 2020, and in keeping with the conference going online only, we decided to publish one, larger edition a year rather than the traditional five. But 2022 presented new challenges that included massive price hikes for paper, in addition to zero guarantee by any printer it'd even have paper for the magazine come August. 

So at the beginning of the year, I had an idea: We'd move the 2022 edition of Iowa Ideas magazine online, too — the same quality, long-form reporting and excellent photos and design but without paper, ink or trucks, and with a wider reach. Here is a link to the flip book format of that publication:

https://online.fliphtml5.com/kvud/mkge/index.html?1662555223048



Saturday, July 23, 2022

Lip balm maker moved to include room for growth, and it’s already filling up its footprint

 For The Gazette of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa, Nov. 18, 2021


(Savannah Blake photo/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — “What’s up, boss?” an employee out on the production floor greeted Steve Shriver as the Eco Lips owner led a tour of the manufacturing company’s new-ish facility on a recent Wednesday afternoon.

Shriver waved back.

“How are you doing?” he replied.

The company that produces and packages organic lip balm and other products sold in more than 10,000 retail venues began its move from its previous Marion building — where it had been for only about three years — to 6000 Huntington Ct. NE this spring.

Navigating Cedar Rapids commercial real estate

 For The Gazette of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa March 04, 2022


(Jim Slosiarek photo/The Gazette)


The state of things for the Cedar Rapids’ metro area’s commercial real estate for 2022 likely will look a lot as they did in 2021, according to a new report from GLD Commercial.

“Throughout the pandemic, the local office market has remained relatively stable,” David Drown, GLD principal and founding member, noted in the report.

“Many small employers are now back in the office while the metro’s largest employers continue to be slow to return to pre-pandemic occupancy levels. Expect a continued hybrid of remote and in-office work as we navigate further into 2022.”

Balance, branding key for small businesses, Almost Famous Popcorn CEO says

For The Gazette of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa

(Jimmy Centers photo/Cornerstone Public Affairs)

Sydney Rieckhoff, CEO and co-owner of Cedar Rapids-based Almost Famous Popcorn, took away a long list of “action items” she gathered during the 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in Washington, D.C.

But chiefly, she said by phone Wednesday during a break in sessions, “At a high level, I feel really renewed. We’ve all been through a lot lately,” citing the pandemic, hiring challenges, inflation and supply chain issues affecting all small business owners.

Rieckhoff and 27 other Iowa-based small business leaders were among the 2,500 10,000 Small Businesses alumni who attended the Goldman Sachs-sponsored two-day event this past Tuesday and Wednesday, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center and at Nationals Park.