tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19052105844372758882024-02-21T08:31:09.798-05:00Michael Chevy CastranovaMichael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-21731748065183791382023-10-31T11:05:00.003-04:002023-10-31T11:07:58.706-04:00Chapter 15, “Cotton Club”<p><b><span>From “A Perfectly Logical Explanation,” published by the Kalamazoo, Mich., Gazette, 2002</span></b></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YH6Tn1lpFsF6MAa0ODi9IVRi4hKCwljAhEF1MiZIEHoV8cbyDER_dtrVCt0VlsbdcMw3L4VwvjwQm1G57KOwZDxhK6I2rU8jxqMT0kRpkrYHH4cDdjo-Z24rSl44nG8lTLdCLKG9dXrLbP8cEOPbukDtzEw-LOgrZ22oTEEeN0SpWtV2sQ1nVz05qG13/s1632/IMG_1637.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1632" data-original-width="1224" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YH6Tn1lpFsF6MAa0ODi9IVRi4hKCwljAhEF1MiZIEHoV8cbyDER_dtrVCt0VlsbdcMw3L4VwvjwQm1G57KOwZDxhK6I2rU8jxqMT0kRpkrYHH4cDdjo-Z24rSl44nG8lTLdCLKG9dXrLbP8cEOPbukDtzEw-LOgrZ22oTEEeN0SpWtV2sQ1nVz05qG13/w480-h640/IMG_1637.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Goldonna, Louisiana, 2019 (Michael Chevy Castranova)</i></div></span><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>My father-in-law has put his hands to many chores in the past 76 years of his life.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>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.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>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.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>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.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>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.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>There he joins anywhere from four to eight other men and women from the community to provide entertainment — he plays the fiddle, many of the men play guitar, one woman sings, another man strums the steel guitar ….</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>The musicians perform free. Music ranges from Bob Wills and Hank Williams tunes to — once in a while — songs my Yankee ears recognize.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>The Backwoods Inn has been under the same ownership since it was built in 1980, some nineteen years ago, by Sybil Womack, who tonight perches near a cash register that separates the dance floor from the dining area.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>The inn is spare, a modest-sized room, with long tables in the restaurant section — featuring a salad buffet, cake and coffee — and a mix of chairs (and one well-used couch) more or less circling the dance floor. Admission price to the dance area seems to be whatever you can afford to pay.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>••••</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>This Saturday evening, nine male musicians and one female singer crowd the front area of the dance floor, and some two dozen hopeful dancers occupy chairs, waiting.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>Many of the patrons are in their 70s and 80s — widder wimmin, as they are called, outnumber the men three-to-one. Except for one notably well-dressed couple — the man is wearing white cowboy boots and a bright red shirt with gold tips on his collars, the woman has matching gold shoes — customers at the inn tonight aren’t in couples.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>A dance begins with one of the men crossing the dance floor, then stopping — as if to his own surprise — in front of one of the women. The man then does a sort of abbreviated hoedown kind of step, and the woman, face beaming, stands and does a reply hop step — it resembles a mating dance, and it is, in a way. The pair then links arms and moves out onto the floor.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>The men rarely last more than one dance before they need to sit down, puffing and sweating heavily — the temperature this spring night is in the 80s, after all, and there is much talk of recent heart surgeries and farm accidents — and the women return to their chairs to wait to be chosen again.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>Audrey takes a break — the other musicians are playing songs he says he doesn’t know that well — and chats with Sybil. My mother-in-law has been schmoozing in the restaurant area all evening. They’ll be here for only a few hours, but it is the social event of the week.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>The well-dressed dancing couple left — together — about an hour ago. Everyone noticed.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>When I tell people we’re going to Louisiana, most ask if we’ll be sampling any of that great Cajun food. They assume all Louisiana is New Orleans.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>But Winn Parish is many hours and many miles from the <i>laissez les bon temps rouler</i> of the southern part of the state. This is a place of hard work and simpler pleasures, enjoyment the people who live here have to work for and harvest — just as they work the soil of their land.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span>It is not difficult to come to this conclusion. Just look at my father-in-law’s hands.</span></p>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-2358023675908366152023-01-25T10:25:00.006-05:002023-01-25T10:25:50.441-05:00Stinger, Javelin were the ‘co-MVPs’ early in the war, Raytheon CEO says<p><b> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa</span></b></p><p class="articlebody" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a>However, he noted the first 10 months of the war used up 13 years of Stingers and five years of Javelins.<o:p></o:p><p></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Javelin, first used combat in 1996, has “been in continuous production” by Raytheon, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, and currently is being built at a rate of 400 a month, Hayes added.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Hayes spoke during a panel Dec. 3 focused on the Ukraine war and livestreamed from the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It was one of a series of in-person panels and speakers featuring current and former Administration officials, members of Congress, military and business leaders, and national security policy experts held by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Dec. 2 and 3, called “Protecting Peace, Projecting Strength.”</span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Hayes and another panelist, U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, both highlighted the Biden Administration’s decision to “cut through the bureaucracy” to put National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, commonly referred to as NASAMS, “in country” within 30 days — traditionally a six-month process.</span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Wormuth added the Administration in the past 10 months has “pushed out $6 billion” in contracts for replenishment of defense systems such as for NASAMS and Excalibur satellite-guided artillery.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6KCygXZ1kcaWdGK6XZtQUupeaukb_309ZnWqqUyS7HsFIWfT7uMuJ4LRBTEP7Jvld6lJ7Tvo5rY3_2ntrsfOHinr9F7C4xOpoBurrH-8dGWPYKp6wbiab0cWrstURWBsUwk7YhoTuT3JL7_Fca2iADkbQyvj7jMU6-1BnOeVxjIK6mxRMVb8cefYCxA/s1000/imengine.public.prod.cdr.navigacloud.com.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="722" data-original-width="1000" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6KCygXZ1kcaWdGK6XZtQUupeaukb_309ZnWqqUyS7HsFIWfT7uMuJ4LRBTEP7Jvld6lJ7Tvo5rY3_2ntrsfOHinr9F7C4xOpoBurrH-8dGWPYKp6wbiab0cWrstURWBsUwk7YhoTuT3JL7_Fca2iADkbQyvj7jMU6-1BnOeVxjIK6mxRMVb8cefYCxA/w400-h289/imengine.public.prod.cdr.navigacloud.com.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">Raytheon CEO Gregg Hayes. (Screen grab from Regan National Defense Forum)</span></i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Iowa’s U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Ukraine, the United States and its allies are at “a tipping point” in defending democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Ernst argued for a stronger response, saying, “We should be pounding the bloody hell out of (the Russian army through Ukraine) so they don’t pop up again.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“We need to avoid being penny-wise and pound-foolish” in spending to aid Ukraine’s efforts to push Russia back, Wormuth said.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Army Secretary added that training on the systems the United States and allies have sent to Ukraine also has been moving faster, shrunken now to a month.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Ernst during the Saturday morning panel urged supplying Ukraine with more advanced weapons, such as General Atomics’ Gray Eagle extended-range unmanned aircraft.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“We can employ this now,” she said. “Why would we not do this?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Hayes followed up by noting high-energy lasers could be sent to Ukraine to shoot down drones supplied by Iran to Russia, cautioning these would be “political decisions, not military decisions.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">All the panelists — which also included Gen. B. Chance “Salty” Saltzman, chief of Space Operations within the U.S. Space Force — supported multi-year, rather than annual, procurements in the National Defense Authorization Act, to better support U.S. defense efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Wormuth added that change in length of procurements was included in the latest NDAA, which has yet to be approved.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“We need depth in our supply chain,” Hayes said, “get it out to our theater.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-26415483958254460982022-10-29T16:21:00.004-04:002022-10-29T16:29:07.510-04:00Corn in, and many products back out at ADM<p><b>For The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa</b></p><p class="articlebody" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXPMWXGkHScGpwX__xkL0bv0qOclbWD57YeNupmlCK2d33AJ7t4b2hBx4SBKF_l7RRs2w96zYIEi6Fpumwz1ZyhNHkjDU1el02wWrrT__M_UJiVs58w93FLC3N2t4BE-P5kEpcRtjm31Gv8BwwV50rHILLqJE6h_gfCuB3PVXirCCbdCJnSMUYsRelOQ/s3000/oOtCzthyBD8mLfoIN2l21pocRgY.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="3000" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXPMWXGkHScGpwX__xkL0bv0qOclbWD57YeNupmlCK2d33AJ7t4b2hBx4SBKF_l7RRs2w96zYIEi6Fpumwz1ZyhNHkjDU1el02wWrrT__M_UJiVs58w93FLC3N2t4BE-P5kEpcRtjm31Gv8BwwV50rHILLqJE6h_gfCuB3PVXirCCbdCJnSMUYsRelOQ/s320/oOtCzthyBD8mLfoIN2l21pocRgY.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="articlebody" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">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)</span></i></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">CEDAR RAPIDS — Brian Mullins slowed his pickup truck and waved to allow a hauler to go ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Trucks will line up to have their corn graded. Then they’ll circle around to a scale for weighing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The drivers then are told by sign where to take their load for drop off.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">How much time does it take? Mullins estimated it’s about 200 hours from unloading to moving product “back out the door.“<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And then there are the six and a half miles of rail that weave though the massive site. In fact, most of the product that departs here goes by train, Mullins added.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It’s then on its way to out to the Mississippi River, to the Midwest and Southwest, to cattle feed lots and other customers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It’s a lot of traffic.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The heavy-volume facility, with its tall towers and heavy cranes, operates a wet mill and a dry mill, as well as a co-generation plant that during the 2008 flood — even though the ADM facility itself was closed — sent power back to Alliant Energy, Mullins said. (The site was down after the August 2020 derecho, too, but for only four days.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">That co-gen station does double duty — its steam is pumped through big overhead pipes, snake-like, along the site to help dry the corn for the wet mill operation, Mullins explained.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Signs along the road mark orange, red, green and blue routes — to aid emergency personnel in case they need to make their way through the sprawling complex.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Back in the main building, Mullins said he “grew up around farms” in northwest Iowa. He developed a “passion for science” and became an engineer through Iowa State University’s agriculture and biosystems engineering program.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">He’s been with ADM for 19 years and has been manager of the complex for the past three years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The facility employs 450 workers — Mullins and the company refer to them as “colleagues.” There also are between 200 and 300 skilled-trade contractors on site.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Their output — starches and sweeteners, animal feed and ethanol — goes to a range of well-known companies, including General Mills, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Hershey and MillerCoors.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">This ADM site has been producing ethanol since 1980, Mullins said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“If you eat it, drink it or fuel it, it comes from ADM,” added Christopher Riley, ADM director of state government relations. Riley is based in Decatur, Ill., and he was in Cedar Rapids for the tour.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Riley has been with ADM for 27 years, he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; break-after: avoid; color: #1f3763; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.5rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">ADM Day<o:p></o:p></span></h3><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">ADM itself marked its 50th year in Cedar Rapids in 2022 — Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell declared Sept. 30 as ADM Day — and its 120th year since its founding.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Headquartered in Chicago, the multinational food processor now boasts 120 ingredient manufacturing facilities and some 40,000 employees across 170 counties.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In the beginning, Riley and Mullins explained, local investors developed a wet corn mill in southwest Cedar Rapids in the early 1970s, then sold it to ADM in 1974.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Afterward came a series of expansions for the site, with the Cedar Rapids facility alone going from processing some 20,000 bushels of corn a day to approximately 800,000 bushels today.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The most recent big expansion at the Cedar Rapids site was in 2010, for its dry mill.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Over time, this ADM facility has developed joint ventures with some of its neighbors, such as Saf-Pro Ingredients and Red Star Yeast, both brands of French yeast manufacturer Lesaffre.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">ADM in Cedar Rapids also maintains ADM Cares, which has contributed $25,000 to Feed Iowa First, Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, Mission of Hope, and Boys and Girls Club of Cedar Rapids each, Riley said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articlebody" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And then there’s the garden on site, tended by volunteer employees, which has produced up to 1,500 pounds of cucumbers, chili peppers and other vegetables for Feed Iowa First.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-31644935114683928002022-10-09T14:10:00.005-04:002022-10-09T14:18:56.747-04:00Iowa Ideas magazine 2022 edition<p> Starting in 2017, The Gazette's <u>Iowa Ideas</u> 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. </p><p>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:</p><p><a href="https://online.fliphtml5.com/kvud/mkge/index.html?1662555223048">https://online.fliphtml5.com/kvud/mkge/index.html?1662555223048</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNBl7fAz2w8p-MbqfSFW6zG3QkiOP8jYkhPxYqvJxpYVihLePW7pRsKn3XNBGya7M7hfP32EErLAYMSIl8_xonnHJrZWo8Gz8OWTFs9uKCzUt7twcpaSAiDeEld5eziJeVWwojrVZI4C3JxVrRKV1g38pFEOnTFqKfXQtUPjvms2yr_6Rl66F2zdX9w/s1080/IMG_1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="827" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNBl7fAz2w8p-MbqfSFW6zG3QkiOP8jYkhPxYqvJxpYVihLePW7pRsKn3XNBGya7M7hfP32EErLAYMSIl8_xonnHJrZWo8Gz8OWTFs9uKCzUt7twcpaSAiDeEld5eziJeVWwojrVZI4C3JxVrRKV1g38pFEOnTFqKfXQtUPjvms2yr_6Rl66F2zdX9w/w306-h400/IMG_1915.jpg" width="306" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-50721323043569068612022-07-23T12:49:00.002-04:002022-07-23T12:52:07.427-04:00Lip balm maker moved to include room for growth, and it’s already filling up its footprint<p><span> <b style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">For The Gazette of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa, Nov. 18, 2021</span></b></span></p><p><span><b style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAAHSV1HDv0hGEiKnn2DfEdqrqVrbLNXLPviqWIXxO4-DVtN1fRsMSrd-v5OByrGb6byj1fKjIkOY9RILNHpTO1AqfqE2geWM7AyRj-cd7W5xS7xadWzL9OzsVYDs8oUyny-0zecywLbAuDeN54T3UmZXS623w8NGT1N2N3Ia_yyugg8EB1cmf_TQO-Q/s3564/20211116_eco_lips_walk_t12.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2856" data-original-width="3564" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAAHSV1HDv0hGEiKnn2DfEdqrqVrbLNXLPviqWIXxO4-DVtN1fRsMSrd-v5OByrGb6byj1fKjIkOY9RILNHpTO1AqfqE2geWM7AyRj-cd7W5xS7xadWzL9OzsVYDs8oUyny-0zecywLbAuDeN54T3UmZXS623w8NGT1N2N3Ia_yyugg8EB1cmf_TQO-Q/w400-h320/20211116_eco_lips_walk_t12.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Savannah Blake photo/The Gazette)</span><span style="font-size: small;"><u></u><u></u></span></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Shriver waved back.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">“How are you doing?” he replied.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a>Tax credits and incentives were provided by the city of Cedar Rapids and the Iowa Economic Development Authority.<u></u><u></u><p></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">About 100 people now work in <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thegazette.com/business/eco-lips-to-relocate-to-cedar-rapids-getting-230000-in-tax-credits-from-state/&source=gmail&ust=1658680784053000&usg=AOvVaw1oNxFNaYYrJzSemcWr3J5c" href="https://www.thegazette.com/business/eco-lips-to-relocate-to-cedar-rapids-getting-230000-in-tax-credits-from-state/" id="m_-2440886522674258776link-63be6efa8cbb3199b9ca01cde87b604a" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #499dfa;">the 78,750-square-foot site, which previously housed Hunter Specialties,</span></b></a> a hunting accessories manufacturer and supplier. The building had sat vacant for some four years, Shriver estimated.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Eco Lips’s employee count will expand by 50 temporary workers come its “busy season” this winter, Shriver added.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The site houses Eco Lips administrative offices as well as product development, production and warehousing.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Its assembly lines, when up and running at full clip, can produce 40,000 to 50,000 units of lip-care products an hour.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The facility also contains — tucked neatly in its own corner of the factory floor — Si<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thegazette.com/business/eco-lips-acquires-manufacturer-of-bug-soother-insect-repellent/&source=gmail&ust=1658680784053000&usg=AOvVaw2QWliiqlEAMZEQra_VrWKq" href="https://www.thegazette.com/business/eco-lips-acquires-manufacturer-of-bug-soother-insect-repellent/" id="m_-2440886522674258776link-d768062a3f6e886b4fbab682660200b1" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #499dfa;">mply Soothing, maker of Bug Soother i</span></b></a>nsect repellent.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Eco Lips bought the Columbus Junction business this past spring. Before the acquisition, all Eco Lips products were made without water; with Simply Soother, the company included “water capability” with its new home’s production area.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Overall, Shriver said, Eco Lips makes some “300 products on a regular basis,” under its own label and for other brands. Those products — along with its well-known organic lip balm — include “personal-care products” such as oils, moisturizers, creams and ointments, he said.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Two of its machines on the production, assembly and packaging floor are brand-new, Shriver pointed out.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The company has grown as quick pace. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thegazette.com/business/eco-lips-to-relocate-to-cedar-rapids-getting-230000-in-tax-credits-from-state/&source=gmail&ust=1658680784053000&usg=AOvVaw1oNxFNaYYrJzSemcWr3J5c" href="https://www.thegazette.com/business/eco-lips-to-relocate-to-cedar-rapids-getting-230000-in-tax-credits-from-state/" id="m_-2440886522674258776link-2597bac34a42addc2949a522e618a068" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #499dfa;">It began in 2003 in a 12,000-square-foot venue on 10th Avenue SE </span></b></a>in Cedar Rapids before moving to its most-previous home, the 36,000-square-foot space in Marion.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Why relocate to northeast Cedar Rapids? Frankly, Shriver admitted, it was “one of the few warehouses within a 60-mile radius” that offered the space for current and future needs. Production floor space alone in this Huntington Court building is approximately 70,000 square feet.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">“We couldn’t have designed a better venue,” he nodded.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">But as for that room to grow: A peek inside the massive warehouse room reveals shelves already filling up.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Shriver cited global supply chain issues — including a paper shortage, which Eco Lips needs for packaging and labeling, among other uses — as reasons for stocking up.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-2440886522674258776articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">And, he said, his 18-year-old business quite simply is “growing faster than anticipated.”</span></p>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-22888036743656770622022-07-23T12:45:00.005-04:002022-07-23T12:51:56.326-04:00Navigating Cedar Rapids commercial real estate<p><span> <b style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span>For The Gazette of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa March 04, 2022</span></b></span></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRR9GJCuTnQoYnaZX5PANt714bi93RxFX4Z87mgnaWdXLDhwViIczoMOeAKfTOb2joOavUJ-09WHSWPTzcGFoUCYTHwpWNVE6RTVNOZ4JofQRtgi_Y9qe2aQJO8CP6r8Aq1Qkx6E3Uqro_3NyartUXLy8G8yF-mCxyDLFlHntdJ8_Afe0-NJK9fkAcTA/s3900/gld_commercial_report1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2600" data-original-width="3900" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRR9GJCuTnQoYnaZX5PANt714bi93RxFX4Z87mgnaWdXLDhwViIczoMOeAKfTOb2joOavUJ-09WHSWPTzcGFoUCYTHwpWNVE6RTVNOZ4JofQRtgi_Y9qe2aQJO8CP6r8Aq1Qkx6E3Uqro_3NyartUXLy8G8yF-mCxyDLFlHntdJ8_Afe0-NJK9fkAcTA/w400-h266/gld_commercial_report1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Jim Slosiarek photo/The Gazette)</span><span style="font-size: small;"><u></u><u></u></span></span></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><div><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">“Throughout the pandemic, the local office market has remained relatively stable,” David Drown, GLD principal and founding member, noted in the report.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">“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.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt;">The report, released Thursday, was compiled using data from the Cedar Rapids Association of Realtors MLS, the Cedar Rapids City Assessor and the Linn County Assessor.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">It tracks 2021 occupancy and rents for Cedar Rapids’ central business office district, or CBD; its suburban offices; the industrial market; retail and service properties; and multifamily and mixed-used buildings.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Adam Gibbs, GLD vice president, in discussing the report with The Gazette said the metro area overall is “a strong and stable market.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">But he added “inflation and rising interest rates will have an impact” going forward.<u></u><u></u></span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; break-after: avoid; color: #1f4d78; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Central business district: Hybrid work continues<u></u><u></u></span></h3><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The CBD, with some 3 million square feet of office space — not including hospitals — saw a vacancy rate of 12.08 percent at the beginning of 2021 and “remained relatively consistent throughout the year,” the report found.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Fourth-quarter figures showed vacancy at 12.65 percent.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Hybrid work schedules and employees working from home “will continue to affect the daytime population” downtown. That will “ripple” through downtown bars, restaurants and retail. However, events at entertainment venues such as the Paramount Theatre and Theatre Cedar Rapids will help business at evening dining establishments.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The report did cite a pair of anticipated shifts downtown — continued conversions of now mostly vacant Class B and Class C office space to multifamily residences, and more empty office space as businesses “continue to evaluate their future workplace needs.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; break-after: avoid; color: #1f4d78; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Industrial: Supply chain stresses<u></u><u></u></span></span></h3><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">This market, the GLD report said, has stayed “robust” during the past 36 months. Numbers suggest activity will continue to be active “well into” this year.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">“The demand for larger distribution and logistics buildings is largely being driven by the focus on current and future supply chain demands,” the report determined.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The Cedar Rapids industrial market category counted existing and under-construction industrial buildings such as warehouses, flex, commercial and small shop properties. Owner-occupied, special-purpose manufacturing sites weren’t included in the figures.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">It consists of approximately 11 million square feet. Last year started out with a 5.5 percent vacancy rate but concluded at 0.71 percent. Average rents went from $5.25 per square fo ot in the first quarter to $6.21 in Q4, according to the report.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">A second-quarter jump was attributed mostly to Color Web Printers on Bowling Street SW coming onto the sales market. Lip balm manufacturer <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thegazette.com/business/raining-rose-purchases-color-web-printers-facility/&source=gmail&ust=1658680784003000&usg=AOvVaw3fj-Ljqb07W0WRIwzMYanR" href="https://www.thegazette.com/business/raining-rose-purchases-color-web-printers-facility/" id="m_-8012208612180926261link-357087113adf2b19c12739f036ab5e84" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #499dfa;">Raining Rose agreed to the buy t</span></b></a>he 198,884-square-foot warehouse in January of this year.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Drown noted in the report that, “… our market has seen a rush to lease warehouse space as well as an influx of new construction industrial space. The rise of e-commerce, couple with the immense strain on the supply chain, have forced retailers and manufacturers to seek additional space to store consumer goods and assembly materials.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; break-after: avoid; color: #1f4d78; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.5rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Suburban offices: Stabilization in 2022?<u></u><u></u></span></span></h3><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The sector has about 6 million square feet. Vacancy was at 4.67 percent in the first quarter, but climbed to 6.24 percent by Q3 and to 8.06 percent in Q4.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Net average rents followed suit, dropping from $12.10 per square foot at the beginning of 2021 and ending the year at $11.81.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The Toyota Financial building, at 5055 N. River Boulevard NE and with more than 107,000 square feet, is expected to be on the market by the end of this year, the report said. This is close to the land formerly occupied by the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thegazette.com/real-estate-development/former-transamerica-buildings-on-edgewood-road-to-be-demolished/&source=gmail&ust=1658680784003000&usg=AOvVaw3S8sannNLAF57S1S8wFg0m" href="https://www.thegazette.com/real-estate-development/former-transamerica-buildings-on-edgewood-road-to-be-demolished/" id="m_-8012208612180926261link-be3c047167ec89c2e70efbe2ebe2e017" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #499dfa;">Transamerica buildings t</span></b></a>hat were razed in 2021, near Highway 100 along Edgewood Road NE.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">However, the report anticipates this market will stabilize this year, even though suburban office sites are less likely to see conversion to multifamily residences.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">It noted most metro suburban office locations are for employers occupying fewer than 10,000 square feet, and the coronavirus pandemic has had less effect on them.<u></u><u></u></span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; break-after: avoid; color: #1f4d78; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.5rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Retail and services: Sears, Younkers remain empty<u></u><u></u></span></span></h3><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Neighborhood centers boasting a mix of retail and service and food businesses will be fine going forward, the report said.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Empty box-box spaces will continue to be converted, such as the one-time Gordmans clothing store on First Avenue SE being redeveloped into a Spare Time Entertainment facility featuring arcade games, a bowling alley and laser tag.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">In addition, the now-closed Staples, Toys “R” Us and EconoFoods buildings near Westdale Town Center on Edgewood Road SW remade into small climate-controlled storage sites.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Still be determined are the fates of the metro area’s biggest big-box vacancies — Sears and Younkers at Lindale Mall in the city’s northeast quadrant, and the adjacent Hy-Vee grocery store, which was closed in early January.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">GLD’s Gibbs, in discussing the report, suggested the Hy-Vee building would be suited to being broken up for three or four retail businesses, all with exterior entrances.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The nearby Sears and Younkers structures would be better for non-retail or less-conventional retail use, Gibbs said. He pointed to the conversions of vacated sites at Westdale as examples — such as U-Haul’s branch store in a former Younkers anchor site.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The Cedar Rapids metro’s retail and service market consists of some 9 million square feet, according to the GLD report.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The average rent rate has stayed fairly stable, with $13.85 per square foot in the first quarter 2021 and $13.90 in the fourth. Vacancies fell only slightly — from 4.82 percent to 4.72 percent by year’s end.<u></u><u></u></span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; break-after: avoid; color: #1f4d78; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Multifamily and mixed use: More multifamily sites<u></u><u></u></span></span></h3><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">As occurred nationwide, the boom in sales of housing in the Cedar Rapids metro pushed more people to rent, which in turn escalated rental prices.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">But the reports indicated the increase of multifamily residences in the area should pull down rents.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The average vacancy rate in 2021 was 5.89 percent, the report said.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Average monthly rental rates were $524.50 for a one-bedroom apartment, $656.83 for a two-bedroom and $725 for a three-bedroom.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;">GLD aims to publish a commercial real estate report for the metro area annually, Marketing </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">Manager Amanda Proper said.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-8012208612180926261articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">The 2021 report can be viewed at <b style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="color: #499dfa;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gldcommercial.com/&source=gmail&ust=1658680784003000&usg=AOvVaw0vqYutLrXA23dt7cDU-lMu" href="https://gldcommercial.com/" id="m_-8012208612180926261link-445f47d124f32cc932bf2c9cb90efad2" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">gldcommercial.com</a> or via the QR Code above.</span></b></span></p></div>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-56729809692620455142022-07-23T12:05:00.003-04:002022-07-23T12:51:44.317-04:00Balance, branding key for small businesses, Almost Famous Popcorn CEO says<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;"><span><b>For The Gazette of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa</b></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCeN86qkbniN4R75pZOvBFvhXJ88stRcWYfVLu2DEGkeaTYyUyWzvb7lP7_3JwSbfe5xKl4U2jNlfGw4mt2nEmWvJ0ZXn1VDPQrByR1-txOpXStgrFjdgp8sXJhkJgfp-muksf3qOnuV0mYyef7Hv7qTlWVXhL_xrFN_uLTPmPbUlYDTYtHTeAC8B1Q/s4032/SR%20at%20confn1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCeN86qkbniN4R75pZOvBFvhXJ88stRcWYfVLu2DEGkeaTYyUyWzvb7lP7_3JwSbfe5xKl4U2jNlfGw4mt2nEmWvJ0ZXn1VDPQrByR1-txOpXStgrFjdgp8sXJhkJgfp-muksf3qOnuV0mYyef7Hv7qTlWVXhL_xrFN_uLTPmPbUlYDTYtHTeAC8B1Q/w400-h300/SR%20at%20confn1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Jimmy Centers photo/Cornerstone Public Affairs)<br /></span><p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a>Among the large slate of business leaders, politicians and academics who addressed the conference were former President George W. Bush, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, former New York City mayor and Bloomberg Philanthropies founder Michael Bloomberg, GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani, NBA player Chris Paul, chef and author Marcus Samuelsson, and actor and Goop CEO Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as U.S. Sens. Krysten Sinema, Marco Rubio and Tim Scott.<u></u><u></u><p></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">In addition, some 400 government officials were expected to be on hand during the conference, according to Goldman Sachs in a news release shared by government consulting group Cornerstone Public Affairs of Washington, D.C.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Iowa small business leaders also met with U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Ashley Hinson, and with a representative from Sen. Joni Ernst’s office.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Among other highlights of the conference for Rieckhoff:<u></u><u></u></span></p><ul style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Bloomberg on Tuesday spoke to the group about “a willingness to bet on yourself … as a badge of honor,” Rieckhoff said. The one-time presidential candidate encouraged entrepreneurs as well as elected officials to “think boldly.”<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Bush related some of his own experiences in business — he helped start Arbusto Energy and was one of the owners of the Texas Rangers baseball franchise. He emphasized the importance for small business owners to maintain a “positive attitude and an optimistic outlook,” Rieckhoff said.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Sens. Sinema and Scott, who presented together, talked about working collaboratively and significance of being motivated by something other than yourself, Rieckhoff said.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Alli Webb, fashion consultant founder of Drybar, a blowout-only hair salon chain, detailed the importance to a business’ brand of how, “from the logo (out front) to the bathroom, everything should feel like you,” Rieckhoff said, vowing to do an audit of her own customer-facing operations upon her return to Iowa.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Chef Samuelsson and fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff — who also presented jointly — encouraged the attendees to work toward giving back through their businesses.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The importance of an exit strategy for leaders of small businesses was mentioned by several speakers, including Webb; Melissa Bradley, Ureeka co-founder and small business development program 1863 Ventures managing partner; and actor Ryan Reynolds, who sold his Aviation American Gin company in 2020 for $610 million. “It’s kind of funny at the start (of a business) to think about the end,” Rieckhoff said, but it is crucial.<u></u><u></u></span></li></ul><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">One of the key messages Rieckhoff said she took away from the conference was that, “You don’t have to strive for balance for everything.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Small business leaders — especially women business leaders — need to “focus on quality time” rather than trying to achieve balance in every task every day.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Sometimes, Rieckhoff said, “some things </span><em id="m_-5832919293453415692emphasis-ee2498c1a98ef253ce2c57d2dca891e0"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">are </span></em><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">out of balance.” And that’s OK.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">A family-run gourmet popcorn and ice cream business, Almost Famous Popcorn was started in 2012 by Bill and Robyn Rieckhoff — Sydney Rieckhoff then was 14 years old — and it was named in 2017 by Orbitz as one of the “Top Five Popcorn Shops in the Country.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Almost Famous today has storefronts in Cedar Rapids’ NewBo District and Des Moines’ East Village and a factory in Cedar Rapids. The company bought Noble Popcorn in Sac City this past March.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Almost Famous today has storefronts in Cedar Rapids’ NewBo District and Des Moines’ East Village and a factory in Cedar Rapids. The company <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thegazette.com/business/almost-famous-buys-sac-city-popcorn-operations/&source=gmail&ust=1658678341928000&usg=AOvVaw2yyTA5PWmJVSyg33dQpvYv" href="https://www.thegazette.com/business/almost-famous-buys-sac-city-popcorn-operations/" id="m_-5832919293453415692link-e60c3b966b1cfd3940f4a99762fc0772" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #499dfa;">bought Noble Popcorn in Sac City</span></b></a> this past March.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Rieckhoff, a 2020 Stanford University graduate with a bachelor’s in international relations, also is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, which was launched in 2018 and which Rieckhoff described as akin to “an accelerated MBA” program.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Des Moines Area Community College is the host site in Iowa for the program’s educational sessions during the year. The seventh class of Iowa businesses began earlier this year.<u></u><u></u></span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; break-after: avoid; color: #1f4d78; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.5rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><b><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Small businesses hindered by hiring, inflation<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></h3><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">The summit came a week after investment bank Goldman Sachs released its annual “10,000 Small Businesses Voices” survey, which can be <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000-small-businesses/US/infographics/small-businesses-fear-looming-recession/index.html&source=gmail&ust=1658678341929000&usg=AOvVaw19FvqSu1D-9Me3XQk1aadI" href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000-small-businesses/US/infographics/small-businesses-fear-looming-recession/index.html" id="m_-5832919293453415692link-3e983ec7f0030ebac245d3c878434a9b" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #499dfa;">viewed at https://bit.ly/3zbzImb</span></b></a>.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Much of that survey — conducted June 20 through 23 among 1,533 respondents, all 10,000 Small Businesses participants from 48 states and two U.S. territories, according to Goldman Sachs — highlighted business concerns being heard nationwide, with hiring challenges and inflation called out as the chiefs headaches.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">A majority of respondents — 93 percent — said a possible coming recession with the next 12 months was among their worries. Seventy-eight percent believed the economy had gotten worse over the previous quarter.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Among the survey’s highlights on hiring:<u></u><u></u></span></p><ul style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">84 percent said hiring challenges have gotten worse or stayed the same over the previous three months.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">97 percent of those who said they had difficulty hiring reported that it in turn affected their bottom line.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">55 percent said it takes on average more than two months to fill an open position with a qualified employee.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">78 percent reported competition with larger employers on pay and benefits.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">68 percent noted “high labor costs.”<u></u><u></u></span></li></ul><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">When it came to inflation and ongoing supply chain issues:<u></u><u></u></span></p><ul style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">97 percent said inflationary pressures have increased or stayed the same compared to the previous three months.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">2 percent, however, responded they’d seen a drop in inflation’s effects over the previous three months, and 7 percent said they expect inflationary constraints to fade in the coming half-year.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">65 percent said they raised the prices of their goods or services to offset the impact of these broader trends.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">38 percent responded that supply chain tangles had gotten worse compared to the thee months before.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The same number, 38 percent, said claimed to have seen a decline in customer demand as a result of price increases.<u></u><u></u></span></li></ul><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">And on top of those challenges:<u></u><u></u></span></p><ul style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">80 percent said higher gasoline prices hurt their business.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">78 percent contended supply chain issues became worse or stayed the same compared to the previous quarter.<u></u><u></u></span></li></ul><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">And yet, the Goldman Sachs survey found, nearly two-thirds — 65 percent — of small business owners expressed optimism for the financial health of their own business for this year.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;">Goldman Sachs Asset Management, a business unit of Goldman Sachs <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thegazette.com/business/goldman-sachs-acquisition-of-imon-closes/&source=gmail&ust=1658678341929000&usg=AOvVaw15jI0NwrUN_y2ixlTn21MG" href="https://www.thegazette.com/business/goldman-sachs-acquisition-of-imon-closes/" id="m_-5832919293453415692link-56bcdf40fbd4a3a43dc95cf467c79a87" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #499dfa;">acquired Cedar Rapids-based ImOn Communications</span></b></a> this past April.</span></p><p class="m_-5832919293453415692articlebody" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin: 0in 0in 1rem; outline-color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><em id="m_-5832919293453415692emphasis-d0cf50c55b9f4d1c1dd0c76011c04915"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: black;"></span></em></p>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-85973025874482922252021-09-27T20:58:00.086-04:002021-11-13T13:29:49.587-05:00Video interviews and panels<p><b> For The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa</b></p><p>Beginning in 2020 and in earnest in 2021, The Gazette's Business Awards and Business Breakfast events as well as the annual Iowa Ideas Conference moved online. Here is a chat I had with <b>Dr. Kathryn Anne Edwards</b>, an economist wth Rand Corporation, as our keynote interview for the 2021 Business Awards: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWUCMecGKG0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWUCMecGKG0</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkccT1R0jhE2AvmfgEyYsSgUre_1-laenNgavSoX1YX7wYWxZW64jHpJ73UCDmQoMTXfp3Gc-d7oQrlGSd4-iy_cFqa6VXEE_QmMRVUDFAWQm-7DJD4-bG71_Co0d1NGk9Y-QRMPM8S70O/s640/IMG_1238-2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="640" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkccT1R0jhE2AvmfgEyYsSgUre_1-laenNgavSoX1YX7wYWxZW64jHpJ73UCDmQoMTXfp3Gc-d7oQrlGSd4-iy_cFqa6VXEE_QmMRVUDFAWQm-7DJD4-bG71_Co0d1NGk9Y-QRMPM8S70O/s320/IMG_1238-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>For our In-Depth Week focus on workforce issues, ahead of our big Iowa Ideas Conference, I spoke with <b>Andy Challenger </b>of Challenger, Gray and Christmas for his observations on hiring and retention nationwide: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sBTQ9yRYzQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sBTQ9yRYzQ</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisSlMl02yLQRe1xWGaAxbsqnc3unnPYiJWq_Wqc3g48zyrb0zv22_9m_u0LbVySL4egX937q9Sc_RkoZzLVDBiOTNZzCQ2XuY5r504eR3PoHFW9RRWfmXc4QKpUthQ_TDz5vK52vZfhiXU/s640/IMG_1286-2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="640" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisSlMl02yLQRe1xWGaAxbsqnc3unnPYiJWq_Wqc3g48zyrb0zv22_9m_u0LbVySL4egX937q9Sc_RkoZzLVDBiOTNZzCQ2XuY5r504eR3PoHFW9RRWfmXc4QKpUthQ_TDz5vK52vZfhiXU/s320/IMG_1286-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I’ve moderated quite a few business-specific panels, and this is one from November 2021 on workplace issues — in the office and on the factory floor —looking ahead to 2022. It turned into a pretty lively discussion: <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/special-events/business-breakfast-series-november/">https://www.thegazette.com/special-events/business-breakfast-series-november/</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk6QDaAq3tTPW0utNousVICQTX4bsjiOgIXPOTJ3APveK2KbEk5up8v4Ae6S7aEKYs-8g-sQD3SuQIMIWdlOzTJMrQ-OHOnJjk2NGFCZ_M6FeWLVo7HLnk1RCGgujKtGRnbf6RLfnbxGy0/s640/IMG_1382.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk6QDaAq3tTPW0utNousVICQTX4bsjiOgIXPOTJ3APveK2KbEk5up8v4Ae6S7aEKYs-8g-sQD3SuQIMIWdlOzTJMrQ-OHOnJjk2NGFCZ_M6FeWLVo7HLnk1RCGgujKtGRnbf6RLfnbxGy0/s320/IMG_1382.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here are a couple of the panels I moderated for that 2021 In-Depth Week, on barriers to employment: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DjQpXq3RwzGI&source=gmail&ust=1632875590322000&usg=AFQjCNECJECgywNxiJZiLaYa4PCe5kkGFg" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQpXq3RwzGI" id="m_-6803879719756552591LPlnk" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=jQpXq3RwzGI</a></p><p>And on hiring during the pandemic: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8BfoF-_p1E">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8BfoF-_p1E</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6SMe5kd9UKim_AJJJw4YGuxfh20BPkkwOzaNQlbCFrqSMs6JI5URhhWlkyUY9q26VCjMt90556nAofaHjzDIjf7pEsFNZvhzyWQMjzqRSHQlWh6aSu1kFAlq8uoyxQjR1xX1IXOQd29Ld/s640/0.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="640" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6SMe5kd9UKim_AJJJw4YGuxfh20BPkkwOzaNQlbCFrqSMs6JI5URhhWlkyUY9q26VCjMt90556nAofaHjzDIjf7pEsFNZvhzyWQMjzqRSHQlWh6aSu1kFAlq8uoyxQjR1xX1IXOQd29Ld/w400-h271/0.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-82317092355970401802019-06-22T10:57:00.003-04:002019-06-22T10:59:21.437-04:00Opinion: Editorial cartoon — “And here with a rebuttal …”<div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white;"><b>From Business Direct Weekly, Oct. 12, 2006</b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i>Kent County leads the state in car-deer crashes. Stressing passenger safety, AAA Michigan touts the slogan, “Don’t veer for deer.”</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgan26koUqTCn1SiQrsOBRT0XTlKfuWBDNX-h6VCCn4shPgSDL4qsmrfx114UHVfrdPOmjq0n6-4bJ3jLmb9pWjptv5qxwL1et1QYnTChK17YLTQledHD16niyBLF31jzDx6CplC9s8mC9t/s1600/Cartoon+2006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="566" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgan26koUqTCn1SiQrsOBRT0XTlKfuWBDNX-h6VCCn4shPgSDL4qsmrfx114UHVfrdPOmjq0n6-4bJ3jLmb9pWjptv5qxwL1et1QYnTChK17YLTQledHD16niyBLF31jzDx6CplC9s8mC9t/s400/Cartoon+2006.jpg" width="353" /></a></div>
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Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-39065033508791154652019-06-15T11:56:00.002-04:002019-06-15T12:03:07.383-04:00New Raytheon Technologies sees ‘no significant’ job cuts after merger; senators to meet with officials<div style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>For the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Gazette June 11, 2019</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><i>[This article was one of a half-dozen stories I reported and/or curated over several days beginning on a Saturday evening, ahead of and directly following the announcement of a proposed merger involving Cedar Rapids’s largest employer.]</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">While Raytheon Technologies — the new aerospace and defense technology giant to be birthed from the proposed merger of United Technologies Corp. and Raytheon Co. — would retain “corporate presence” in their respective existing communities, what that will look like for UTC’s Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids and other Iowa cities remains to be spelled out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The two businesses <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/raytheon-to-merge-with-united-technologies-create-military-industrial-behemoth-20190609"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">announced Sunday</span></a> they intend to merge in an all-stock deal. The merger would be completed by mid-2020, they said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The combined corporation — Farmington, Conn.-based UTC develops avionics and communications systems and Waltham, Mass.-headquartered Raytheon Co. is a U.S. defense contractor best known for manufacturing the Patriot missile defense system — would be the second-largest U.S. aerospace company, just behind Boeing Co.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">It would be valued at more than $100 billion after UTC’s planned spinoff of Otis elevator company and Carrier air-conditioner business, according to Wall Street Journal estimates. Corporate headquarters would be in Boston.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">During an early morning conference call, the heads of the two businesses — UTC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Greg Hayes, Raytheon Co. Chairman and CEO Thomas Kennedy, along with their respective chief financial officers — said, more than once, operations would not be affected by the actual process of the two entities coming together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">“We’re not going to take out a lot of employees,” Hayes said during the call. “In fact, we’re going to add jobs.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">In echoing comments from Raytheon Co.’s Kennedy, Hayes noted UTC “is on track to hire 10,000 (employees) this year.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">On Sunday, the officials had stated the merger would see reduction of about $1 billion in annual costs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">When asked by The Gazette for more specifics, a spokesperson later on Monday said no “significant impact” in employment was expected locally or for UTC as a whole.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The fact sheet accompanying the conference call listed a greater focus on research and development among increased career opportunities in the combined corporation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Also, more information would be forthcoming during next week’s Paris Air Show, the aerospace industry’s massive annual event, Hayes said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">REACTION</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Iowa-connected officials had varying responses to the news.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The offices of Iowa’s U.S. Senators both expressed concern.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office said Monday Iowa’s senior senator has been in touch with UTC and Raytheon Co. and plans to “express his concern about potential layoffs and to urge the companies to consider the impact on UTC employees in Iowa in an in-person meeting this week.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Sen. Joni Ernst’s office said she already had discussed the deal with Collins Aerospace representatives over the weekend and will be speaking more with this week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">“UTC is an important institution that provides good jobs to Iowans across Iowa’s 1st District,” U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer said in an emailed statement. “I have asked UTC for information about what the impact of this will be and will be monitoring it closely, advocating every day for working families across Iowa.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Rep. Dave Loebsack also has been in contact with the two companies and said he was told there would be “no significant loss of jobs.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">In Cedar Rapids, officials said on Monday they believe this could be a “long term positive” but acknowledge it’s based on what’s been publicly reported and they may not know what the tickled down will be for the next six to nine months as the deal develops.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">“We see this as a long-term positive, but we don’t know that yet,” said Jeff Pomeranz, Cedar Rapids city manager. “Greg Hayes is a very strategic individual who has great respect for Collins Aerospace. We see this as being a centerpiece of the new company.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Pomeranz plans to meet with Phil Jasper, head of the Collins Aerospace’s mission systems unit, next week to discuss this and other matters. His goal is to listen and concedes he may not learn much more at that point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">“We are not laying back,” Pomeranz said. “But this is newly announced and details are still developing. We want them to know how much we value Collins Aerospace and UTC in Cedar Rapids. They’ve been highly open with us and we’ve had a great relationship.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Cedar Rapids Mayor Brad Hart also expressed some optimism for the new deal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">“My initial reaction is not one of concern,” Hart said. “The companies don’t have much overlap from what I understand, and the statement said they are going to invest billions in (research and development). That is remarkable and should bode well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">“I don’t know enough about it to say it’s a positive, but from what we know, I don’t see anything where it would have a negative impact on the Cedar Rapids location.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">A spokeswoman for Debi Durham, head of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the Iowa Finance Authority, said by email that Durham has been “closely connected” with Collins Aerospace leaders “and has no indication operations in Iowa will be impacted. In fact, she believes this only further solidifies their leadership and offers increased opportunity for employees and innovation.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump also offered an opinion, saying on Monday in a CNBC interview that he was a “little concerned” about the proposed merger but gave a mixed message as to whether he believed the $121 billion deal should go forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">“I want to see that we don’t hurt our competition,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC. “I hope the Raytheon deal, I hope it can happen. But I don’t want to see where we have one less person that can compete for an order.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Trump’s acting Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, previously was a Boeing senior vice president.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">HYPERSONICS</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The executives during the call said they had begun working in earnest on a potential merger in January. Kennedy said, once Otis and Carrier are stripped away, an examination of what UTC would bring to the deal was “looking at Raytheon in the mirror” in terms of complimentary functions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">One area of big growth for the combined corporation: hypersonics. The U.S. Department of Defense spending has slowed in recent years, and the DOD has put an emphasis on modernization of technology, Kennedy said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Raytheon brings to the table a competency in weapon-system integration as well as advanced guidance and control, among other aspects, according to information provided as part of the conference call. UTC has developed, along with other competencies, high-temperature materials and advanced thermal management.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Together, these specialized areas would help with reducing heat buildup — one of hypersonics key challenges — for missile development, Kennedy noted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">“One plus one equals three,” he added.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">UTC purchased the former Rockwell Collins in late November for $30 billion including debt. It combined Rockwell with UTC Aerospace Systems to form Collins Aerospace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Two units — avionics and mission systems — are based in Cedar Rapids.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">All told, some 9,350 employees based in Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Decorah, Bellevue and Manchester were reported for Collins Aerospace operations in 2018’s fourth quarter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The companies said Raytheon Technologies would consolidate business units comprised of intelligence, space and airborne systems, and integrated defense and missile systems. The new businesses would join UTC’s Collins Aerospace and Pratt and Whitney to form the four business units of the merged corporation.</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Collins Aerospace, Cedar Rapids’s biggest employer, would see about $22 billion sales under Raytheon Technologies, according to a 2019 fact sheet from UTC and Raytheon Co.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><i>Gazette reporters James Q. Lynch and B.A. Morelli, as well as Reuters, contributed to this report.</i></span></div>
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Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-17407327701471508412019-04-10T00:13:00.001-04:002019-04-10T00:13:39.122-04:00'When it comes to raising children, nothing beats bribery,' and other words of advice<b>For the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Gazette April 07, 2019</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roz Chast (Bill Hayes photo)</td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">This Tuesday won’t be the first time New Yorker magazine cartoonist Roz Chast has been to Iowa, actually.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Her husband’s family has a farm in Story County, and she recalled that visit as having been very pleasant and, she said, “very mysterious.” She noted the unfamiliar flat land and distant horizons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“I remember seeing a tractor — how bit it was!” Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Chast said with a chuckle during a recent phone interview from her home in Connecticut. “It was very strange.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Chast will return to Iowa this Tuesday April 9 for a stop at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City with New Yorker contributing writer Patricia Marx to talk about their new book, “Why Don’t You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The book is filled with hilariously loopy comments Marx’s mother, Janice, made over the years, accompanied by Chast’s equally just-ever-so-off-kilter illustrations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“When traveling,” Marx’s mom advises in one example, “call the hotel from the airport to say there aren’t enough towels in your room and, by the way, you’d like a room with a better view.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This guidance is accompanied by a Chast cartoon of a woman looking out her hotel window to view an abundance of colorful, blooming flowers, not-very mountain peaks and, of course, a bright rainbow. “Now that’s a view!” the hotel guest observes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In another panel, after learning of plans for a surprise wedding-anniversary party for her and her husband, an emphatic Janice declares, “The only word that should follow ‘surprise’ is ‘ATTACK.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“Humming is hostile,” Janice once advised, along with, “Plan every detail of your dinner party months in advance. The table should be set days ahead of the event” — which is accompanied by a Chast cartoon of Janice with a chalkboard and pointer specifying the precise locations on the table where to position appetizers, peas, potatoes, napkins, wine and brisket.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Some of the instant axioms actually seem reasonable, sort of. Such as, “Never wear red and black together or you will look like a drum majorette.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Chast’s favorite? Either “Girls named Susan are full of confidence” — which Chast said she definitely has found to be true — or “You don’t need to spend much time in San Francisco. It’s all frosting and no cake” … which, of course, has an accompanying cartoon of a cross-section of a large chocolate cake.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Chast began her long association with the legendary New Yorker in 1978, when she dropped off her samples for the magazine’s weekly review day. When she went back to the magazine offices to collect her samples, she discovered art editor Lee Lorenz — himself a legend in the cartoon world — had left her a note: “Come back and see me.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In that meeting, he asked the over-the-moon young cartoonist for “a cartoon a week.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“I was really, really lucky,” she said. “I thought I would wind up at the Village Voice … .”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“I never had a back-up plan” other than being a cartoonist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Does she remember that first cartoon the New Yorker published? And does she still think it’s funny?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Most definitely, Chast replied.“Little Things” was a single panel of “odd, made-up shapes with made-up names." It was “the kind of doodle I’d do for myself to make myself laugh,” she said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">By way of example, she reflected on one typical cartoon by fellow New Yorker alum Jack Ziegler that shows a seal balancing a ball on its nose. While she agrees Ziegler’s cartoons could be quite funny, Chast herself does not draw seals balancing balls on their noses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“I hate sit-coms and most jolly things,” she noted. “I was <i>not</i> a jolly child.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">That first cartoon set her path for more the 40 years of sometimes wacky and frequently insightful work in magazines and books, such as 2014’s autobiographical “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant,” which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as children’s titles — some of those in partnership with Patricia Marx.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Chast acknowledged she and Marx possess “a lot of shared humor territory.” The pair first collaborated when Chast was approached to illustrate an article Marx had written for Atlantic magazine, in 1979 — a wryly humorous story on, of all topics, shipping fake grain to the USSR.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">After the publication of that story, Janice Marx told her daughter, “You should call her!” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“She tried to set us up on a play date,” Chast recalled with a chuckle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Other collaborations followed. The two found they could offer suggestions on the other’s contributions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Marx had been sharing with Chast many of her mother’s wacky observations, and at some stage Chast advised her friend, “You could put these together and make a book.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Is the humor of “Why Don’t You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?” to everyone’s taste?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Consider Janice’s advice on making decisions: “If you feel guilty about throwing away leftovers, put them in the back of your refrigerator for five days and then throw them out.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Makes perfect sense, right?</span></div>
Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-48029387033099005062019-03-18T21:36:00.003-04:002019-03-18T21:38:04.657-04:00Arts: Friends and Family: The Wyeths’ at Kalamazoo Institute of Arts host breathtaking works<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>For the Kalamazoo Gazette 01-31-11</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum, Museum Purchase, 1989.</b>Portrait of a place: The exhibition "The Wyeths: America's Artists" includes this N.C. Wyeth painting "Bright and Fair - Eight Bells,"1936, oil on canvas; 42 3/8 by 52 inches, which is from the Collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">KALAMAZOO — In “Turkey Pond,” a white-haired man strides through thigh-high sage-colored grass. His back is straight, his head up, as he moves away from us and, determinedly, toward a dark stream in the distance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Andrew Wyeth’s 1944 tempura painting may be the first of the larger images that catches your eye as you enter the Kalamazoo Institute of Art’s incredible “The Wyeths: America’s Artists.” But it certainly is not the only striking piece here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Among the 90-some works are paintings and drawings by N.C. Wyeth the patriarch; three of his children, Henriette, Carolyn and Andrew; and Andrew’s son, Jamie. On view are farm buildings, trees, neighbors and animals — roosters, horses, dogs and lots of cats. There is much to admire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">N.C.’s muted, Impressionistic oil painting of “Henriette in the Orchard” (1909-1910), for example, reveals his daughter as a young girl sitting between two gnarled trees. The subtle flecks he’s daubed almost make you think you’re watching cotton-candy-colored snow falling, until you see the trees bear leaves. That soft color is light.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Contrast that invocation of contemplative mood with the bold colors used in his storybook illustrations. “The Siege of the Round House” (1913) depicts a red-vested, fierce soldier, teeth-bared, stabbing angry attacking pirates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Then look again at N.C.’s calming landscapes — “Bright and Fair — Eight Bells” (1936) or “Wharf at Eight Bells” (1937), the latter with its darkening sky.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Then for something completely different, examine Carolyn’s decidedly odd “Betsy’s Pumpkin” (1935). A blue-and-white covered table is angled almost vertically, and you have to wonder how that pumpkin manages not to cascade onto the floor with a satisfying kersmash.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And, yes, there are “Helga” paintings. From 1971 to 1985 Andrew created pictures of his Chadds Ford, Pa., neighbor Helga Testorf.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the examples here, we see the German immigrant in a heavy military coat; in confident profile (and naked), her ponytail flipping up to one side and mirroring the upturn of her breasts; and two of her next to a dark tree — one in which she faces us, another with her back turned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">No question, these are powerful and justifiably famous.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All the images in this show tell us something about what the painter saw, and about the mood he or she was attempting to convey — the mood of the subject and of the artist’s state of mind. And some of them are truly breathtaking, in technique and message.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One of my favorites on my initial visit was N.C.’s “Portrait of Henriette as a Child’ (1912). This oil on canvas shows a young, apple-cheeked girl, with ringlets topped by a very large brown bow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The child is unblinking, obediently looking directly at us. She appears neither sad nor happy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As with the white-haired man in “Turkey Pond” and, indeed, the rest of her family, she looks proud.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“The Wyeths: America’s Artists” runs at the KIA through April 17.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>If You Go</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“The Wyeths: America’s Artists”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Kalamazoo Institute of Arts show featuring some 90 drawings and paintings by five members of America’s most celebrated artist family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Through April 17 Where: Kalamazoo Institute of Arts</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Cost:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">$8 general, $6 students, $4 KIA members, free 5-8 p.m. Thursdays. Group rates available.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Contact: 269-349-7775, kiarts.org</span></div>
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Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-2430464007213282842017-02-13T22:36:00.001-05:002017-02-13T22:36:19.613-05:00News in the real world<div class="date-posts" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
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<b>Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Gazette “On Topic” column from Feb. 12, 2017</b></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Dear Mr. Sorkin:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">First, let me say I’m a big fan. I loved the writing in “Sports Night.” I often recite the “storm clouds are gathering” speech when talking to reporters here at The Gazette about getting to the point sooner in their stories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And not that long ago I lifted a whole chunk from your baseball movie, “Moneyball,” when I was talking to a seasoned reporter about how he could help staffers coming up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“West Wing” I liked, too. But 155 episodes over seven seasons? Forgive me, but I may never catch up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But where are you now, Obi-Wan? You may be our only hope.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a>Yeah, I noticed you’ve been hawking a TV scriptwriting course. It pops up on Facebook all the time. But where are you? Where’s your voice?<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">You’ve surely noticed all this meshugas over “alternative facts” and “fake news.” We hear it from both sides now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The term fake news initially had to do with click bait on the internet. FBI agent murdered to cover up Hillary Clinton’s emails — that sort of tomfoolery that you’d think any child could see was a lure intended not to uncover any actual, this-really-happened revelation but to get eyeballs to advertisements. It was founded in profit motive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The concept then evolved to slightly rejiggered or wholly made up “information” to sway opinions, both domestic and abroad. (It’s still not clear how much Russia and Vladimir Putin, former KGB officer, had their hands in such goings-on before the November elections.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But now the label has morphed to apply to something more than made-up stuff. It appears, as best as I can tell, to refer to anything to which someone disagrees or doesn’t want the news media to report. Here’s one down-home example.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">On Sunday, Jan. 29, lots of people turned up at lots of airports to protest an executive order by President Donald Trump that was intended to do several things, including to ban refugees from entering the United States for a period of time. More than 100 people also showed up at The Eastern Iowa Airport to demonstrate their displeasure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All those things — the executive order being signed by a newly installed commander-in-chief, large numbers of people convening at airports to object to the order, and more than 100 here in Cedar Rapids — are facts. Those things really happened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We sent a reporter to the airport, who took photos and shot video, then wrote a news story that very day. I edited the story, and we posted <a href="http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/more-than-100-protesters-turn-out-at-eastern-iowa-airport-in-support-of-refugees-20170129"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 96, 169); color: #0060a9;">that story, a photo and the video to our website</span></a> that day, and published the story and photo in the print edition of The Gazette on Monday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We later received an email from a reader who accused The Gazette of taking part in “fake news.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Say what?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I don’t mean that “say what” in a political reactive sense. right or left. It’s about facts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So I think, Aaron — if I may be so bold to call you by first name — we in the business of the free press, and those who rely on these news outlets to tell the facts and nothing but the unvarnished facts, could use your help now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We could use “The Newsroom.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Heck, I hardly ever watch TV news, and I adored your signature circular dialogue and the smart yet fallible characters who worked for Atlantis Cable News. It was a “fake” news channel that talked about real events. (The HBO-produced series is available on streaming services.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I realize it was set in a mythical world, where a news channel could present the facts without always having to find a second side when the facts — the unarguable facts — clearly demonstrated there is only one “side.” Such as gravity exists, the Holocaust really happened and 9/11 was not a plot on the part of the Bush Administration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A world in a time and place in which policy statements and opinions could be questioned, and a conversation about such views could be discussed rationally and respectfully among reasonable humans beings, with all feet firmly on the ground.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We’re not taking sides, your characters said; we’re relaying what we’ve learned and presenting the discussion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the mists of a yearning of more reasonable times, we recall everyone believed every word uttered by Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. They alone put a halt to McCarthyism and the Vietnam War, didn’t they?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Well, no, it’s certainly more likely many people at the time thought Murrow and Cronkite, too, were making up stuff — to push their own agendas or to gain viewers. Again, there is that profit motive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Of course, you’d think we should be able to do this — present the news as it happens, without spin, and be believed — in the real world, without a TV show about a fictional newsgathering organization to set the example.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Maybe we could, taking our cue from the title of premier episode of “The Newsroom” — because “We just decided to.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But we all — news gatherers and news consumers — would have decide to. What do you think?</span></div>
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Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-36011272918097573622016-09-18T12:07:00.003-04:002016-09-18T12:07:56.997-04:00Seeing is believing<b>Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Gazette “On Topic” column from Aug. 14, 2016</b><br />
<br />
Gov. Terry Branstad calls them haters — those who see a very
different picture in the current state affairs of Iowa’s Medicaid
managed-care situation.<br />
“Democrats don’t like it, and the Des
Moines Register hates it. We’re not going to be deterred by that,” he
told the Westside Conservative Club in Des Moines late last month.<br />
“These great so-called progressives are the ones that are the most against progress. They’re stuck in the past.”<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Bear
in mind, I intend to maintain both my feet rooted on my side of The
Gazette fence, where I write about business while Todd Dorman and Lynda
Waddington weigh in on politics on theirs. <br />
But, gee willikers, I
continue to marvel at the governor’s seeming myopic lack of concern not
only for Iowa’s 560,000 Medicaid recipients and their families, but also
— again, keeping to my business side of the fence — his disregard for
health care providers, large and especially small.<br />
He told the Westside Conservative Club that the providers who are kvetching are doing so “because we’re checking on them now.” <br />
Is
Branstad suggesting these providers — many of them fairly small
operations with extremely thin profit margins even before the
managed-care rollout, small businesses that help the elderly and
disabled — had been cashing in big time on Medicaid payments during the
state-run fee-for-service program?<br />
“They want to keep doing it the
expensive, old-fashioned way that doesn’t work as effectively and
efficiently as what we’re doing today <span class="Elipses">…</span>,” Branstad went on to say.<br />
But, listen, “effective” and “efficient” are words that come to few minds when viewing today’s managed-care landscape in Iowa. <br />
Reports
have continued to come in since the April 1 launch of managed care — to
members of the state Senate Human Resources Committee, to The Gazette
and to other news media in Iowa — that detail incomplete, inaccurate,
delayed and simply MIA payments to not-for-profit agencies, nursing
homes and individual home health providers.<br />
Many of them have had to cut back on the services they offer Medicaid
patients to keep their doors open. Some have needed to extend their
credit line. Some are firing employees.<br />
As Sen. Joe Bolkcom,
D-Iowa City, noted during a July 26 Senate hearing, “I don’t think any
of you three companies” — meaning the MCOs — “are borrowing money to
make your payroll.”<br />
The current managed-care system is, in effect,
standing with its feet on the garden hose of cash flow for many of
these businesses.<br />
And in particular that would bode poorly the
smallest of Iowa’s providers — those without the wherewithal to hire
lawyers, accountants or other staff to show up at Senate sessions or try
to make their way by phone to getting their payment issues resolved by
the MCOs.<br />
Everyone, including representatives of the three
managed-care organizations, has admitted there have been challenges thus
far. But the governor doesn’t see it that way.<br />
To be clear,
Medicaid privatization — turning over the operation of insurance
business to insurance carriers — is not a bad thing. Many states do it.
Some — raise your hand, Kansas — have done it very badly.<br />
But
here’s the deal: To deny the current state of affairs is anything other
than “rugged,” to use Human Resources Chairwoman Liz Mathis’s words,
isn’t good business.<br />
Sen. Mathis, D-Cedar Rapids, has expressed
concern in particular for smaller providers in Iowa’s rural areas. She
and others have called for more oversight and accountability.<br />
And accountability in business, any CFO worth her salt will tell you, always is a smart, farsighted idea.<br />
Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-1328854123227463062016-09-18T12:06:00.000-04:002016-09-18T12:06:01.300-04:00Too quick for our own good?<b>Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Gazette “On Topic” column from March 13, 2016</b><br />
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Gov. Terry Branstad always and forever, it seems, has branded himself as pro-business.<br />
Back in 2010 when he campaigned to retake Terrace Hill from then-Gov.
Chet Culver, Branstad won the endorsement of the Iowa Association of
Business and Industry’s political action committee. The organization at
the time represented 1,400 businesses in the state.<br />
When he got that nod from the PAC, Branstad vowed to be a
“pro-business, pro-growth governor who will reduce taxes and not
increase debt.” He resolved, in a Gazette story reported by James Q.
Lynch at the time, to “make government more efficient and work day in
and day out to encourage job creation.”<br />
So you have to wonder what thought Gov. Branstad gave, with that
pro-business mindset, to the many health care providers, large and
small, when he set in motion his lickety-split rush to managed care.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>The difficulty, uncertainty, turmoil — use what word you like — that
was set loose by this hurried push is hard for an objective observer —
as well as the governor’s political adversaries — to deny.<br />
The tsunami-like effect has been felt not only by Iowa’s large
hospitals and small clinics, case workers, nurses and other
professionals. Also affected are the three private, out-of-state
managed-care organizations that began to set up shop here last year —
all on the promise that Iowa would be ready for the transition by Jan.
1. Which it wasn’t.<br />
They’ve lost time and they’ve lost money. In the meantime, they’ve disconcerted their client base — Iowa’s Medicaid recipients.<br />
None of this makes for good business.<br />
To recap: Iowa’s Medicaid price tag soared from $2.4 billion in
fiscal year 2004 to $4.9 billion in FY 2015, according to the state’s
Department of Human Services<br />
In an understandable effort to want to get a grip on these mounting
costs, Gov. Branstad announced in February 2015 a shift from a program
in which providers are reimbursed by the state for services to a
managed-care system. (The DHS has claimed Iowa would save some $51
million in six months alone.) Start date: New Year’s Day 2016.<br />
Three — well, four at first, but that’s a long story — managed-care
companies signed contracts to take over the approximately $5 billion
program that works with 560,000 enrollees. They began to take on nurses,
case workers and other professionals — some hired away from existing
agencies and hospitals in the state.<br />
In early November, the Iowa Hospital Association and 11 hospitals called for a delay. Things were moving too fast, they said.<br />
And in mid-December, after on-site reviews and expressing ongoing
concerns over 16 separate issues relating to the provider network, the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — aka, the feds — agreed, and
pressed the pause button. The start got pushed back to March 1.<br />
During all this, some Medicaid beneficiaries continued to protest
that they’d yet to even get their hands on an information packet from
their state-selected managed-care organization, let alone try to figure
out what they wanted to do. They also worried — and still do — that
insurance coverage and services would be cut back under the private,
for-profit companies.<br />
They repeatedly said they couldn’t get straight answers from the managed-care organizations or from the state.<br />
Frustration reigned. As Jeff Edberg of Iowa City, father of two
Medicaid beneficiaries, told Gazette health care reporter Chelsea Keenan
last month, he’s spent roughly 10 hours a week on the phone with the
DHS and elected officials trying to obtain information.<br />
“I’d love to be wrong, to come back in three, four, seven months and
say, ‘Gee, I was being an overprotective dad and the governor really had
my son’s best interests at heart,’” Edberg said.<br />
The managed-care organizations, meanwhile, weren’t — and still aren’t
— making back any their financial outlay. Anthem, parent of Amerigroup,
one of the three companies picked for Iowa, offered an example of how
much money we’re talking about, during its 2015 fourth-quarter investors
conference call in late January, and as reported by TheStreet.com, the
Des Moines Register and others:<br />
Anthem’s CFO, Wayne DeVeydt, said that the company anticipated a “few
hundred-million-dollar headwind” in various states’ managed-care
programs where the company was involved, and that about 25 percent of
that potential loss could be tied to the “delay of two months” in Iowa
in 2016. So if that “few” hundred million dollars is, let’s say, $200
million, at minimum, a quarter of that would be $50 million. (You can
listen to that conference call at http://smgs.us/3k7p.)<br />
Not to be left out, Senate Democrats put together a bill to ensure
oversight and, they said, to better protect both the beneficiaries and
the health care providers. Culver reappeared on the public scene,
calling for accountability.<br />
Branstad responded by suggesting Culver and the hospitals were
attempting to “scare” patients — that’s the word the governor used on
Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press.”<br />
All along the governor said everything has been moving along quite
well, by golly, and the state was ready, providers were ready and he was
ready.<br />
On Feb. 23, the CMS finally OK’d the managed-care handover — but again slid back its debut, to April 1.<br />
Messy, right?<br />
More important, though, this has been more than partisan politics as
usual, as Branstad has suggested. This dash also seems to have given
little concern to the providers, companies and enrollees.<br />
Which brings the big question: What’s the rush?<br />
Sure, it’s true 39 other states have gone to managed care. But most
made their transition with bigger windows — some up to 18 months.
Remember, Iowa’s DHS didn’t sign contracts with the managed-care
organizations until October 2015 — just two months before the initially
planned start date.<br />
Also, only about five states have moved as many Medicaid recipients
to managed care as Iowa wants to slide over. The significant majority of
states shifted much smaller amounts of their population to managed
care.<br />
State Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Robins, pointed out to The Gazette in
mid-October that Kansas moved toward managed care with a similarly short
time frame, and that was a “disaster.”<br />
Indeed, according to the KHI News Service, part of the Kansas Health
Institute, the three companies that handled Medicaid for that state lost
$110 million in 2013, the first year of managed care there.<br />
As Mathis said, Iowa’s unnecessary haste “is not good for patients, and it’s not good” for the managed-care organizations.<br />
Time will tell how managed care unfolds in Iowa in the months and
years to come, assuming the transition does go through in a few weeks.<br />
But surely a little more time to work things out wouldn’t have hurt. That’s just good business.<br />
Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-90666373834511308842016-07-17T18:31:00.004-04:002016-07-17T18:31:55.791-04:00Shifting views<b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 07-03-16</b><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I am going to resist the urge to say
something potentially cheesy and cheap and manipulative by pointing out that
tomorrow, the Fourth of July, is not only a day to commemorate freedom in this
country but also a time to remember that a basic tenant of freedom is to speak
out. To inform and, sometimes, to encourage consideration of other viewpoints —
whether that be from a newspaper, such as this one, or from an individual.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But it is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Of course, listening to other opinions
doesn’t always result in a road-to-Damascus change of hearts and minds.
Sometimes, though, it can layer our thinking — on a single argument or for a
whole new outlook.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a>Within a few weeks of each other, a pair of
Americans died who had altered a great many minds — Muhammad Ali, on June 3 at
age 74, and Michael Herr, on June 23 at 76.<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Long after Ali’s boxing career had packed
up, he used to turn up on occasion at a pizza place in a small southwest
Michigan town where I lived, a couple jobs before this one. The restaurant was
operated by a couple guys who, as policy, hired young people in need of
patience and guidance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The pizza was excellent: I still can smell
the biting fragrance — that’s surely the best word — that filled my car from the
garlic pizza, with its sloshing-everywhere sauce, that I’d pick up on a snowy
winter’s night, then drive back home up a hill so steep the city would block it
off at least twice between November and February every year, declaring it
insurmountable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Ali must have loved the pizza, too. In his
retirement, he had purchased a house along Lake Michigan, as have many of the
well-to-do who want to be close to the big city of Chicago, but not that close.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">He would turn up, unannounced, and devote a
good chunk of his time signing autographs and talking to children — and adults
— lucky enough to be on the premises at the time, or who had got word his was
there and dashed over.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Photos of him with adoring children,
documenting several visits, were pinned to the restaurant’s walls. I assume
they still are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The Champ wasn’t always so agreeable.
Certainly not in the ring — he didn’t get to be a three-time world heavyweight
title holder by being passive. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Many who might have admired his “float like
a butterfly” athletic skill or his acerbic-silly humor were caught off guard by
his persona as a poetry-spouting boaster; by his shunning his birth name of
Cassius Clay — a “slave name,” he deemed it — after aligning himself with
Malcolm X; by flinging his 1960 Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But mostly it was his refusal to be drafted
in 1967. His reason? He couldn’t fight the North Vietnamese because, he said,
they never called him names, “they never lynched me, they never put no dogs on
me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, raped nor killed my mother and father
… . Just take me to jail.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Right there — bam! — Ali cast a different
avenue on the debate. It wasn’t about whether he agreed with the purpose of the
war in Southeast Asia. He meant something else: He was questioning why he
should take up arms to side with a powerful nation that, even in his lifetime,
had treated people of color – his people — atrociously.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">He was banned from the ring for three prime
years, and he began to change minds across the nation. Not everyone’s, of
course.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Michael Herr’s name, too, is connected to
the Vietnam War, but his by design.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">His book, “Dispatches,” was ground-breaking
— and I use that cliché with eyes wide open. I came late to the slim book,
picking up a battered copy at a library sale, some years after its publication
in 1977.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">That was about eight years after magazine
writer Herr had been embedded with troops in Vietnam, and two years after
America decided to get out of that mess. That is, still well within our
country’s contentious internal and external debate over the whole thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">What was gripping about “Dispatches” was it
presented not tales of heroic valor and duty, but of chaos and fear. The New
York Times, in his obituary, proclaimed “Dispatches” demonstrated Herr’s
“unimpeachable credentials as a witness” to that war’s “fury and … (and) the
crippling apprehension that precedes it.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You could be in the most protected space in Vietnam and
still know that your safety was provisional,” Herr wrote.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mostly what
Herr had to tell us was that, frankly, none of us back home had the slightest
clue as to what had gone on over there. Early in the book, he recounts this
report from a soldier: “‘Patrol went up the mountain. One man came back. He
died before he could tell us what happened.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“I waited
for the rest, but it seemed not to be that kind of story; when I asked him what
had happened he just looked like he felt sorry for me, ****** if he'd waste
time telling stories to anyone dumb</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">as
I was.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Herr’s harsh narrative solidified some views, but it also redirected many others. After all, he had been to hell and back, and we had not. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span>
Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-55245771096198351892015-06-21T18:51:00.002-04:002016-07-17T18:22:03.769-04:00Why millennials matter<b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 05-24-15</b><br />
I considered starting out like this:<br />
How many millennials does it take to screw in a light bulb?<br />
Who knows — none of them stick around long enough to finish the job … .<br />
But lately, after spending most of my working day with those frequently maligned millennials, I’ve concluded it’s probably past time for managers to rethink the validity of that view.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
For the sake of this discussion, I mean those born generally between the early 1980s, when Ronald Reagan took his first oath of office, and the beginning of the 2000s, after the numbers “9/11” became part of all our collective consciousness.<br />
For one thing, it’s in our best interests as supervisors, mentors and, frankly, sensible human beings to reconsider our attitude and approach to this group of folk who now make up the majority of today’s work force — 34 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal.<br />
But not just because they’re in the majority and might kick us out of our close-in parking spots. More so we don’t miss an important opportunity.<br />
Here in the combined newsroom of The Gazette and KCRG-TV9, we have a true multigenerational base. We have reporters who’ve been covering the Corridor, well, longer than it’s been called the Corridor, and certainly longer than I’ve worked at any one place.<br />
We also have a lot of millennials. They’re smart and eager, and more than one of them, when discussing the pop-culture-obsessed, here-today-out-the-door-tomorrow stereotype, has proclaimed sternly, “That’s not me.” And I’ve come to believe they are right.<br />
Mostly.<br />
When we look at how they got this reputation — and how managers have responded to it — we can be more inclined to reconsider our outlook.<br />
They don’t want to put down roots? Keep in mind they graduated with an education debt far in excess of that their parents had to shoulder.<br />
Remember, too, take-home pay isn’t what it used to be. A Pew Research Center study from this past autumn noted that for most American workers, “real wages — that is, after inflation is taken into account — have been flat or even falling for decades, regardless of whether the economy has been adding or subtracting jobs.”<br />
So you bet they are reluctant to buy a house or start a family. Their American dream might look somewhat less rosy than it did for baby boomers who grew up during a more stable economy and having been reassured that all you need is love.<br />
Millennials keep looking for other jobs and seem to show little loyalty to your company? Well, don’t take it personally, but they witnessed — or certainly were told about — their parents during the Great Recession being chucked out of careers into which they’d sunk their hearts and souls.<br />
The WSJ earlier this month cited 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics calculations in noting the median job stint was less than 16 months for those 20 to 24. It was only three years for 25- to 34-years-old. <br />
Scary numbers, to be sure. But come to that, what are you doing to reassure these young employees?<br />
Do you invest in training and seminars? Sure, maybe they will to put those newly learned skills — skills you paid for them to learn and improve — to the benefit of some other employer.<br />
But maybe they’ll also take to heart that investment you’ve made in them and stick around a tad longer. In that meantime, you’ll see some return.<br />
You also might consider, when it makes sense, to include them in some of the decision-making process, too. You hired them so we should assume they’re smart and bring a certain talent to the table, right?<br />
Leading isn’t always about being at the front of the charge up San Juan Hill, waving a broadsword above our heads. Often it’s about partnering — leading but with a bit of humility grounded in the genuine acceptance that we don’t know everything.<br />
It’s not really us versus them.<br />
Last week, Iowa Public Television broadcast a program highlighting American Ballet Theatre’s 75th anniversary. In it, one of the dancers talked about how ballet as an institution passes on its tradition and knowledge: You learn “Swan Lake,” he explained by way of example, from someone who learned it from someone else who learned it from someone else — down through the years, from the very first “Swan Lake” production in Moscow in 1877.<br />
And that, I think, is how we should view our own roles as supervisors and mentors. <br />
Take into account what our younger partners possess and help them build on that, to do their jobs better, to help grow our companies — where we’re all standing right here and right now — and to develop their own careers.<br />
I also think that’s our job.Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-84962613212755589842014-09-13T15:43:00.002-04:002015-06-21T18:57:37.860-04:00Difficult calls<b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 08-31-14</b><br />
Thirteen years ago, we worked our way through the same contentious debate in newsrooms of newspapers, magazines, TV stations and websites across this business of journalism.<br />
On Sept. 11, 2001, and on the days that followed — even though we, too, wanted to share our outrage and declare sides, we wanted to hunt down every scrap of information, we wanted to debate the bigger picture of global consequences — news editors, art directors and photo chiefs talked about how to best present what we were learning.<br />
We argued a lot about one photo in particular. You’ll remember it: a man plummeting from the World Trade Center’s north tower.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
What made this dramatic Associated Press image in particular a difficult piece in the puzzle of what to pass along to readers was that the man had one knee bent. As if he were out for a stroll rather than tumbling through the air, cream-colored jacket billowing.<br />
Some editors argued that our duty was to show what had occurred, to hold back little. And besides, one daily newspaper editor said to me at the time, our readers already had seen this very picture, if not on television but surely online.<br />
Other editors dissented. That specific image crossed the line, and we could tell the story of the day’s tragedy and its unfolding narrative without such a heartrending picture, they said.<br />
Some media outlets ran the shot, some print publications pushed it to an inside page, while some skipped it entirely. Today, the picture still turns up near the top of Internet searches of 9/11 images, and has come to be known as “The Falling Man.”<br />
These same points were debated two weeks ago with the release of a photo and video of freelance journalist James Foley, who was beheaded somewhere in the faraway Middle East by thugs who want to be called the Islamic State.<br />
The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip took two New York City tabloids to task for running the still photo of Foley, knife held to his throat — the New York Post carried it on its front page. (The Gazette decided not to publish that photo.)<br />
“There’s no definitive book on journalistic ethics that instructs the media what to do at moments like this,” she wrote last week. “Those decisions are often made on a case-by-case basis in American newsrooms.”<br />
Phillip pointed out that none of the larger American newspapers published that particular photo. It is, however, all over the Internet. Twitter officials noted the image as well as the video of the gruesome beheading itself carry warnings.<br />
Phillip also asked the questions that most editors contemplate in regard to which words and images to present to readers whenever there are tragic stories, on a national scale or in our community: What do you, the readers and viewers, really want to know, what do you need to know, to understand what’s happened?<br />
Does seeing a shocking image or reading or hearing about graphic details help or hurt?<br />
But Alain de Botton gives the impression in much of his new book, “The News: A User’s Manual,” that editors don’t clutter their minds a great deal with such troublesome dilemmas.<br />
In fact, de Botton, a philosopher and TV commentator, states that the news media’s primary goal is to scare you, as he contends in a section titled “Fear and Anger.”<br />
In discussing how, after all, floods eventually recede and many illnesses sooner or later will be cured or at least contained, the author notes, “But we shouldn’t be surprised if this kind of stoicism is of no interest whatsoever to the news, for it has sound commercial incentives for overemphasizing our vulnerability. Naturally the news badly needs its audiences to feel agitated, frightened and bothered a lot of the time … .”<br />
To which I say, well, no.<br />
Our responsibility as news-gatherers is to find out what’s happening, at home and on distant shores, and then communicate to you the most significant chunks of information we can fit into our newspaper or broadcast — and by “significant” I mean vital or interesting or entertaining, depending on the context.<br />
De Botton does make a truly valid argument that news coverage should put more effort into conveying the meaning of events — to explain the “why” of stories and relate how complicated some of these issues truly are, not simply highlight the flyover view.<br />
The news needs to show that tragic occurrences in particular belong to “a coherent narrative cycle,” he urges.<br />
He might be overreaching, however, when he proposes that news reports “should gather all its varied tales of horror under the unified heading of ‘Tragedy’ and then narrate them in such a way that we can more easily recognize our own smoldering tendencies … .” If I understand his recommendation correctly, that would make for phenomenally long and unremittingly sad stories.<br />
“The noblest promise of news is that it will be able to alleviate ignorance, overcome prejudice and raise the intelligence of individuals and nations,” he writes.<br />
And to that I say, ahem.<br />
I can’t speak for every editor in every medium of journalism. But for many of us, that is what we try to achieve.<br />
Some days we succeed more than on others. <style><!--
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-45008176231055528262013-05-27T12:37:00.000-04:002013-05-27T12:37:57.228-04:00Opinion: ‘Gatsby? What Gatsby?’<b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 05-26-13</b><br />
As we were coming out of a showing of the Baz Luhrmann-directed movie “The Great Gatsby” — the latest in a line of movie versions of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel — we passed a clutch of older-than-middle-aged women, and one of them sighed to her friend, “I was hoping for a happy ending.”<br />Really? Did you not read the book in high school? You didn’t see that tragic conclusion coming a mile off?<br />But it occurred to me that maybe she was disappointed by this latest cinematic “Gatsby” — just as a number of movie critics, too, have been, well, critical — because they’re missing the point.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />“The Great Gatsby” is a love story. But not just between the title character and the waffling Daisy. It’s a love story about capitalism.<br />Every character in “Gatsby,” the book and the movie, is rich or wants to be. There are the Old Money types, represented by Daisy’s brutish husband, Tom Buchanan, as well as the New Money upstarts, emblemized by Jay Gatsby.<br />The Old Money folk are suspicious of how the New Moneyed came by their wealth. And it appears our hero came by his fabulous riches as a front for Meyer Wolfsheim, a gambler.<br />“He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919,” Gatsby confides to the story’s narrator, Nick Carraway.<br />Even the less well-off try to imitate their “betters.” In scenes that parallel the opulent parties held at Gatsby’s mansion, Nick and Tom spend time with Nick’s mistress, the wife of a garage owner, and her friends as behave not any differently than the rich: They drink, dance, smooch and fight until they pass out.<br />And there’s Nick himself, who reflects Fitzgerald’s conflicted view of the well-fixed and gorgeous: He joins in on their carousing and boozing. But he also has a clear view of them.<br />When Fitzgerald wrote elsewhere, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me,” he didn’t mean that as a total compliment.<br />As Nick notes at the end of the sad tale:<br /><i>They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast careless, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made.</i><br />Luhrmann, I suspect, also saw this story as a debate about capitalism. His movie reminds me of “Citizen Kane,” another famous cautionary fable about how big money can do bad things to good people. (That 1941 movie initially was to be titled “American.”)<br />In “Gatsby” Leonardo DiCaprio more than once looks directly into the camera’s eye and shares with us that charming, melancholy smile — as if to say, “I understand you, old sport” — for all the world like Kane’s creator, Orson Welles, as tries to seduce us. <br />Look, Gatsby and Kane tell us, all this money can gain us that one thing we truly want above all else, and it can save you, too.<br />Except, as with so many love stories going back to Romeo and Juliet, it so often doesn’t.<br />Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-55269487874632491122013-05-27T12:30:00.003-04:002013-05-27T12:33:53.977-04:00Opinion: Stewart, Steinem, Abramson, et al.<b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 05-05-13</b><br />
The photo is a surprise. The black-and-white print itself, part of a collection of photos my mother has begun sorting, is still in pristine condition despite its age, and it shows my maternal grandmother standing up behind the wheel of an industrial-strength tractor.<br />
She’s smiling broadly, for all the world like Gene Autry astride his beloved horse, Champion, and waving to the camera in that World War II we-women-can-do-it-all pose so identified with the period when this shot likely was taken. <br />
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That’s about when my grandparents operated a farm in western Pennsylvania, and just before they moved back to the city where my grandmother drove a bakery truck and grandfather repaired airplanes for the burgeoning war effort.<br />
Though Betty Miller would not have cottoned to the term “feminist,” surely that’s what she was. Isn’t that what we mean, in the broadest sense of that word, when people make decisions for themselves, regardless of gender expectations?<br />
Yet that word, and the whole concept of feminism, is still tricky for us, even though its been in popular use for more than a generation. Toward the end of a lunch meeting just a couple years ago, after I’d made some passing remark about a national figure — I honestly cannot recall who — one 30-something business owner in attendance angrily denounced the person as “that feminist.”<br />
And she proceeded to make it quite clear that, in her eyes, a feminist was below the social misfit who steals Bingo money from the local church.<br />
I asked if she didn’t agree that the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s had helped make it easier for more women — herself included — to own businesses today. But, given her even-more-heated response in which she painted feminists as shrill troublemakers, you’d have thought I’d accused her of being a liberal … .<br />
“Feminist,” for her, clearly was a dirty word.<br />
So I was mildly surprised to hear Gloria Steinem at the standing-room-only Iowa Womens Leadership Conference in Coralville two weeks ago contend that more than half of American women today (and 30 percent of men) consider themselves feminists, in some form or other.<br />
Moreover, Steinem said in the conference’s closing keynote, “Young women are more likely to call themselves feminists than older women.”<br />
Afterward I asked the co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, as well as of “New York” and “Ms.” magazines, about this notion of women making headway in business today, if such a large number of its participants — men, too, remember — view themselves as feminists.<br />
Steinem replied that women today no longer have to prove that they deserve equal pay, that all employees should be paid for their comparable worth.<br />
But she conceded the equality argument hasn’t been completely won. In her speech, she cited the value in unity: Women, Steinem said, still “need to support each other. We need to work on where it hurts. … We need to listen to each other.”<br />
And for good reason: Catalyst, the not-for-profit research organization, notes that in 2012 the median weekly earnings for full-time working women was $691. For men, it was $854. <br />
For female managers last year, it was $951, while for male managers the figure was $1,328. Fresh numbers, same tune.<br />
So what’s an unappreciated, under-valued employee — be that person a supervisor or client-facing worker, female or male — supposed to do?<br />
“Think very carefully,” advised Martha Stewart, who’s founded more than a handful of companies and remade her career through a series of roles — starting out as a stockbroker then becoming, in succession, a gourmet cook, corporate caterer, author, magazine publisher, newspaper columnist and a TV, radio and Internet star.<br />
“It’s hard to be in a job you don’t like,” she said when we spoke just before her IWLC address, “and it’s not always possible to change. But being happy in your job is very important.”<br />
One first step might be to take a look where you are now.<br />
“Get help from the company,” Stewart said, as many businesses are open to internal mobility. Another position might be a better fit.<br />
But still, it ain’t easy, no matter where you stand on the corporate ladder. The same week as IWLC brought business professionals together at the Coralville Marriott, a Politico website columnist sparked another debate about the roles of women at the top.<br />
In this case, Jill Abramson, New York Times executive editor since September 2011, was described in an April 23 post as condescending and stubborn, when she wasn’t too busy being “uncaring” and disengaged. Her manner of speaking is “in a slow drawl.”<br />
“Jill is very, very unpopular,” the writer, Dylan Byers, quoted an unnamed NYT staffer.<br />
To which we have to ask: Are we talking about the head of one of the planet’s largest, most-respected and most-awarded news-gathering organizations — in April the paper won four more Pulitzers — or a high-school prom queen candidate? Abramson is “unpopular”? Seriously?<br />
The staff’s preferred leader, the story implies, is a guy, Managing Editor Dean Baquet, who admits he punches his fist through walls when things don’t go his way.<br />
Subsequent website posts have taken Byers to task. (One Huffington Post response, in an Onion-esque hat tip, carried the headline, “Anonymous sources are mad at New York Times Editor Jill Abramson for trying to be their boss and stuff!”)<br />
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn,” Steinem wrote way back in 1970, in a Washington Post guest column. That was the year, she declared, of “women’s liberation.”<br />
It seems we still have things to learn about how to work together, regardless of age, color, religion and, yes — still — gender. Whether we all think we’re feminists or not.Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-15394001066241324822012-08-04T14:35:00.004-04:002012-08-04T14:35:44.438-04:00Opinion: When telling the truth conflicts with the bottom line<b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 07-22-12</b><br />The past few weeks have seen a whirlwind of complex shenanigans in the financial world, enough to make even Ben Bernanke’s head swim — interest-rate manipulation, hidden losses in derivatives trades, discriminatory lending practices, hundreds of millions of dollars in “misappropriated” funds and even a nationally reported attempted suicide right here in Iowa.<br />All of these goings-on will total in the billions of dollars.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />But, really, it’s not that complicated. It doesn’t require a degree in economic theory from Harvard to figure out.<br />They lied.<br />The JPMorgan Chase incident, for example, went like this: Americans deposited money with this country’s biggest bank. The bank moved that money to London. <br />The traders in London gambled it away. Then they lied about it.<br />And speaking of London, Barclays Bank — and allegedly a dozen or so other financial institutions — reported lower-than-actually-true interest rates to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), the big number to which much of our globe’s financial deals are determined.<br />They did so because that made their own financial positions look rosier. And, gosh, presumably so they could pay less to states and cities with whom they have contracts.<br />Wells Fargo, this nation’s largest mortgage lender, lied to some 34,000 creditworthy black and Hispanic borrowers by tying them to more-expensive subprime loans and charging them higher fees.<br />And about 70 miles northwest of metro Cedar Rapids, Peregrine Financial Group founder Russell Wasendorf Sr. admitted in his suicide note that he stole $200 million from customers over a couple decades. <br />In some sense, justice has been seen to be served: Wells Fargo will pay $125 million and establish a $50 million fund to settle claims by discriminated customers. Wasendorf has been charged with making false statements and Peregrine is now kaput.<br />Barclays took out huge ads in the Times of London and other UK newspapers saying bank officials were “truly sorry.” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Diamond, in an early morning conference call with analysts and the media a week ago Friday, referred to his bank’s billions of dollars in trading losses as an “accident.”<br />An “accident’ as in, oops, I just spilled a glass of milk, or Junior dented the bumper of the family SUV again.<br />And, for a touch of irony— and in case we’ve forgot what reality we’re really living in — on the same day as that conference call, JPMorgan Chase announced $5 billion in quarterly earnings. Its stock then soared six percent and, as rising water lifts all boats, the Dow ended the day up 204 points, its best day so far this month.<br />What are we to make of all this? Several questions rear their ugly heads. Again.<br />Among them is why, since 2008 and all the subsequent financial regulations, this stuff keeps happening. Why can’t big bank big shots tell the truth about other people’s money, and keep their hands in their own pockets?<br />And here’s another question: Why aren’t we more upset? Why aren’t we outraged?<br />We should be shaking-our-fists, shouting-from-the-rooftops angry. Instead, we shrug our shoulders and sigh.<br />We need Hunter S. Thompson. He’d channel what should be national rage provoked by these financial money-changers and boom it across the land.<br />It was 40 years ago that Thompson wrote his classic of fury and indignation, “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72.” In the intro to Simon & Schuster’s new, anniversary edition, Slate.com’s Matt Taibbi called the book “a kind of bible of political reporting.”<br />In first-person reporting by turns disgracefully funny and on occasion shocking, Thompson bellowed insults, he counterfeited events, he mislead readers — and he also told the truth as he saw it.<br />Few could portray outrage the way he did. Here’s just one example from that marvelous book about the raucous 1972 presidential campaign:<br />If the current polls are reliable... (Richard) Nixon will be re-elected by a huge majority of Americans who feel he is not only more honest and more trustworthy than George McGovern, but also more likely to end the war in Vietnam. The polls also indicate that Nixon will get a comfortable majority of the Youth Vote. <br />And that he might carry all 50 states …. This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.<br />You didn’t always agree with Thompson, who died in 2005. Heck, there are rambling chapters in which you didn’t even know what he was talking about.<br />But if we wanted someone to express our collective frustrations and demand accountability, by golly, he was our guy.<br />We need someone like that today.<br />Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-15935203184563496502012-01-23T22:31:00.000-05:002012-01-23T22:31:13.436-05:00Opinion: Say ahhh …<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 01-15-12</b><br />
We keep hearing there is a shortage of doctors. I suspect that means not so much a shortage of all doctors, and not everywhere — in larger metro areas names of radiologists and anesthesiologists seem to crowd the directory boards of office complexes.<br />
But in less-populated regions, fewer doctors of all kinds are practicing.</div><a name='more'></a>And no matter where you are, family physicians and, in particular, general practitioners — GPs — are thin on the ground.<br />
When I took a job in Chicago a few years ago, I spent several days trying to locate a GP on my company plan who’d sign me up as a new patient. There was no room at just about every inn I telephoned.<br />
This, mind you, in the third-largest city in America.<br />
That challenge multiplies, or rather, intensifies, as the MSA shrinks — an inverse ratio. Open slots for doctors are projected to outnumber applicants in rural and low-income areas for the next several years, the College Board notes.<br />
The GP is supposed to see the big picture. In movies and television, from Marcus Welby to Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, it’s the care giver to whom we want to take all our problems. (In pop culture, it’s more often a man than a woman — don’t ask me why.)<br />
On the screen, they can advise on birth, death and every catastrophe in between, including depression, family relationships and the odd bullet wound from a Colt 45.<br />
In the real world, GPs do attempt to fulfill that Catcher-in-the-Rye function. They know when to prescribe and treat, and they’re smart enough to know when to refer a patient on to a specialist. <br />
The need for these first-point-of-contact folk with such vast knowledge is simple: No matter how much time a patient spends consulting the oracle known as the Internet, you can’t always diagnose yourself. (“Honey, do these spots look reddish to you?”)<br />
And, hey, I’ve heard rumors that some of the information found on the Internet might not be 100 percent reliable.<br />
With GPs, it’s a matter of experience, breadth and objectivity.<br />
And yet more health care professionals choose to specialize rather than be seen as that kind, lovable and resourceful stalwart of the community.<br />
One reason is likely prestige. A heart specialist knows a lot more about that specific topic than any GP or family practitioner, right?<br />
Plus, they needn’t be bothered with a waiting room stuffed with all sorts of coughing and sneezing patients bearing all manner of who-knows-what unidentified illnesses and aches.<br />
GPs work a lot, too. The College Board contends 43 percent of such doctors work 50 hours or more a week.<br />
And, of course, it is about money. An anesthesiologist, counting salary, bonuses and profit-sharing from a practice, can pull in some $372,000, according to PayScale.com.<br />
A GP? Somewhere around $209,000 … and that assumes a big, healthy practice in a decent-sized metro area.<br />
I for one have tended to have good luck with GPs. For the first couple decades of my life I saw the very same doctor who attended my delivery.<br />
Dr. Sam, as he insisted he be called, had a deep, loud voice and a forceful presence. And always, always a cigar — unlit when making hospital rounds or house calls, but puffing thick, dark smoke in his office. (It was his office, after all.)<br />
As a teenager, I’d walk into his inner-city office to find a waiting room as often as not jam-packed with patients, many of whom I later learned never paid. Sam Goldberg saw them gratis, and he’d zoom through their appointments faster than his receptionist/nurse could keep up.<br />
He’d fling open the door to his examining rooms with a crash and shout the name of the next patient, starting his cross-examination before that person left her or his chair: “Come on, get in here. What’s wrong now?”<br />
Every visit, whether for flu-like symptoms or an annual check-up, ended with a slap across the cheek, at least for me.<br />
“There’s nothing wrong with you. Go on, get out of here. All right, who’s next, come on, come on!”<br />
His faux-grumpiness fooled me for only the first 15 years of my life.<br />
In eighth grade when I’d broken an ankle and landed in the emergency room, Dr. Sam got called in apparently right after a round of golf. As I sat on a hospital gurney out in the hallway, I could hear him coming from way off along the corridor — his booming voice as he greeted and/or yelled at hospital staff and, as he got closer, the clacking of his golf shoes, which he’d refused to remove.<br />
“What’s wrong with you now?” he demanded, a recently ground-out cigar clamped between his back teeth. As he manhandled my ankle: “This is nothing, it’s just broken.”<br />
After X-rays and then wrapping my ankle — which he did himself — he shouted: “OK, now get out of here.”<br />
He stormed back out of the hospital, possibly to squeeze in another round.<br />
Or possibly to make a house call.<br />
The question I’d have for all health care professionals is this: Why wouldn’t you want to be this guy?Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-27524253499718165052012-01-07T14:38:00.000-05:002012-01-07T14:38:34.471-05:00Opinion: When waters run high<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 01-01-12</b><br />
To a newcomer, it appears Cedar Rapids has gone from debating a once-popular television program to arguing about a popular brand of toothpaste.<br />
Both discussions, as it turns out, are about levees.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><a name='more'></a>So I was intrigued with this past May’s Popular Mechanics magazine, which presented instructions on how to build a levee in your own front yard.<br />
Step 1: This undertaking begins pretty much as you’d expect — gather gloves, shovels, sand bags and a wheelbarrow. And lots of plastic sheets.<br />
When I stopped by Harrison Elementary for an April 21 forum sponsored by The Gazette and KCRG, just before the LOST vote, I was struck by how much the atmosphere reminded me of the autoworkers union meetings I’d been to back when I was reporting on a massive General Motors strike in Ohio.<br />
Lots of buzzing among attendees in the gym, nodding of heads in agreement and “Uh-huh.” Consensus was being built.<br />
Step 2: A successful levee can’t spring up just any old way, Popular Mechanics contends. So it advises banishing all vegetation and “organic debris” — this is to avoid creating “a seepage plain.”<br />
At that April forum, lots of folk came with speeches, documents and long questions. Attendees were resolved, by golly, that Mayor Ron Corbett and others on the panel were going to listen to what was on the minds of those who lived west of the Cedar River.<br />
Step 3: OK, this next bit gave me pause. “Dig a trench,” it said.<br />
A trench? To stop a rampaging flood of water? Isn’t that like jumping from a 20-story building to cure vertigo? (“See, nothing to worry about — you’ll be perfectly calm in just a moment.”)<br />
But the instructions note this is where you lay foundation. Concrete is good. But in case you’re in a hurry — let’s say maybe there’s a big wall of water barreling at you — you might want to try particle board ….<br />
The mayor apparently had believed he’d laid a good foundation for passage of the sales tax. But a number of people in the audience were clearly angry.<br />
One man demanded to know why the budget for this project was being kept secret. I could see the mayor struggling to remain civil while trying to tell the questioner — again — that the budget was on view to one and all on the Internet.<br />
These folk were not here to be comforted.<br />
Step 4: Now, build a mound using clay, soil or what have you. (Speed, after all, might be critical if you’ve left your personal levee building a little late.)<br />
The magazine, which points out it gathered its recipe from “the levee masters at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers” — there’s irony for you — adds you should make certain the top of your levee is higher than you expect the flood waters to reach. Just in case, I suppose, you’d not thought of that yourself.<br />
Words heard most often at that forum, along with “levee” and “LOST,” were “fancy” and “Taj Mahal” — as in, City Hall wants to build something fancy with our money, more Taj Mahals downtown, rather than on trying to protect the west side of Cedar Rapids.<br />
And I realized, this issue is not about levees or floods. This is about trust. These folk would rather take their chances with the Cedar River than with City Hall.<br />
Step 5: Here’s where all that plastic comes in: Use the sheets to spread over your levee on the river-facing side.<br />
This is to create impermeability.<br />
Impermeability is like trust. If done right, it doesn’t erode easily.<br />
But here were citizens who lived smack in the danger zone who were saying no to city government. And they said no in the voting booth in May when they rejected the LOST proposal.<br />
For the newer iteration, the CREST initiative — Cedar Rapids Extended Sales Tax — there’s no reason to think they’ve had a change of heart.<br />
I’ve no idea how this distrust has come to be. As I said, I’m a relative newcomer.<br />
But there’s this: There was a Gazette story this past July in which City Council member Don Karr asked how the cost for renovation of the old federal courthouse to become the new City Hall grew to $10 million.<br />
City Manager Jeff Pomeranz replied at the time that the price tag bulked up when the building’s requirements increased. More of the city’s operations would now be housed there than initially envisioned.<br />
And really, the final cost would be closer to $9 million city officials added.<br />
A fair answer.<br />
In September, the Gazette reported higher-than-expected bids for work on the $75.6 million Convention Complex would mean less than 10 percent would remain in the city’s $3 million contingency fund.<br />
It was noted the project remains within budget. The Frew Nations Group said it would keep an eye out for ways to rebuild that contingency fund as purchasing decisions were made.<br />
Still ….<br />
As the mayor and others work to erect levees to protect both sides of the Cedar River, it does seem they need to find a way to build trust, too — before the next vote and the next big advance of water.Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-77466002040302163642012-01-07T14:34:00.000-05:002012-01-07T14:34:27.834-05:00Opinion: Look, up in the sky — it’s a bird …<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 11-20-11</b><br />
Everyone wants a piece of Wilbur and Orville Wright, even Cedar Rapids.<br />
You might recall a squabble a few years back over automobile license plates. North Carolina’s otherwise innocuous 1983 plates carried the slogan, “First in Flight.”</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><a name='more'></a>State sloganeers believed they could make that claim because, after all, Kitty Hawk, where the brothers made their world-famous initial public flight in 1903, could be found on any decent map by any reasonably bright six-year-old.<br />
License-plate slogan writers in Ohio, however, were not pleased. The Wrights lived in Dayton, Ohio, when they did their planning and experimenting — heck, Orville was even born there.<br />
So the Ohio license-plate people shot back with their own tagline that declared the Buckeye state as the “Birthplace of Aviation.”<br />
The U.S. House of Representatives in 2003 came down on the side of Ohio by officially decreeing it, not North Carolina, was “the birthplace of aviation.”<br />
The vote was 378 to 3. I’ll bet you can guess from where those three lonely votes came.<br />
Yet the rivalry continues.<br />
As a youngster struggling to remain awake during Ohio history classes, I remember bits of the story of the Wright family (though I admit to occasionally confusing some of the stuff about Wilbur and Orville with that of William Procter and James Gamble of Cincinnati, who dated twins or something).<br />
So imagine my surprise when, within my first 10 minutes in Cedar Rapids this past January, I saw that the main drag along the Eastern Iowa Airport is called Wright Brothers Boulevard.<br />
Did the teachers back in Ohio lie to us innocent children about the Wrights? Was the whole Ohio-North Carolina kerfuffle merely a convoluted smokescreen to steal the thunder from the rightful home of flight — Iowa?<br />
Maybe Procter & Gamble really started in Kentucky …?<br />
So I did some research. And it seems there might be enough credit to spread around to all claimants.<br />
It is true Wilbur (born in Indiana in 1867) and Orville (see above, 1871) ran a printing shop in Dayton, where they published a newspaper. It’s all detailed in Larry E. Tise’s “Conquering the Sky: The Secret Flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk” (Palgrave MacMillan, 2009).<br />
It’s in Dayton where they fixed bicycles. In Dayton, the brothers also tried to fly.<br />
They’d heard tales of adventurers elsewhere around the world who were having degrees of success staying aloft with balloons and gliders, writes Russell Freedman in “The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane” (Holiday House, 1991).<br />
In the workroom of the bicycle shop, they built a biplane glider with a five-foot wingspan, designed to be flown as a kite. The kite’s controls could be worked from the ground by means of cords running from the wingtips to sticks held upright in either hand ….<br />
Their test, on a Dayton field where they’d played as children, went well. Or, well enough for Wilbur and Orville to contemplate their real master plan — a glider big enough to carry a man.<br />
But what they really needed for their work, Freedman explains, was “a suitable testing ground, a place with strong steady winds and plenty of open space.”<br />
Then they got word of Kitty Hawk, along North Carolina’s Outer Banks. And it from here we can begin our Ohio-North Carolina-Iowa tug of war over Wright Brothers claimage.<br />
Iowa’s stake? For one thing, yes, just like Grant Wood, William Shirer, that actor in the “Lord of the Rings” movies and Ashton Kutcher, the Wrights indeed did reside in Cedar Rapids for a spell.<br />
The patriarch of the family, Milton Wright, was a minister in the United Brethren Church, and he moved his family often as he followed his calling, hopscotching across the Midwest. <br />
While in Cedar Rapids, they lived on what is now Third Street SE, according to the Eastern Iowa Airport’s website.<br />
And it is here the story of the toy helicopter — the alleged inspiration for all that came later — is rooted.<br />
One day in 1878, their father brought home the tiny contraption for his sons, when Wilbur was about 11 and Orville 7. It was made of cork and bamboo and powered by a single rubber band.<br />
The brothers played with the toy until it broke, Freedman writes. (Note: The airport’s website suggests this occurred in Cedar Rapids; Freedman is vague as to location.)<br />
Wilbur and Orville built several copies of the toy. But a larger version wouldn’t stay up, Freedman notes.<br />
“The reason for this was not understood by us at the time, so we finally abandoned the experiments,” Orville recalled later.<br />
The good news is the brothers never forgot the thrill of watching that small helicopter soar about their home in Cedar Rapids.<br />
“Iowa: First in Inspiration”? I like it.Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905210584437275888.post-26673010930253411982011-09-04T17:54:00.000-04:002011-09-04T17:54:44.963-04:00Opinion: Case of the Clandestine Cartoonist<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette weekly column, “On Topic,” from 09-04-11</b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This column, intended to be about careers and identity, almost became a detective story. My search to find a missing friend ran into false leads, misdirection, a doppelganger, hidden identities, foreign intrigue and even foul play, if you can count a tick bite as foul play.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><a name='more'></a>The notion was to look at professionals who had followed the less-obvious path. One self-created person I wanted to write about was Douglas Michael, though I’d not had contact with him in, I hate to say it, maybe 15 years.<br />
But, heck, how challenging could be to find <i>anyone</i> in this age of Google-as-oracle, right?<br />
I first met Doug when we both were freelancing cartoons for a glossy entertainment magazine called “Living Single.” (Typical topics included romantic getaways, fitness and “Oh, why doesn’t he call?”)<br />
My contribution to this fluffy enterprise was a one-panel cartoon that often featured a bulbous-nosed character who favored wide-collared shirts as he tried to crack “the dating scene.” (What can I say? It was the 1980s.)<br />
But Doug’s work, titled “Rupert’s Travel Companion,” would run across a couple pages and depicted such bizarre travel highlights as glacial ice surfing and the first American team of female impersonators to reach the North.<br />
We hit it off, possibly because we both were poking fun at the very publication that was paying us. Later, I coerced Doug to create cartoons for an arts quarterly I edited. <br />
One installment of “My Life in Art” told how a painter couldn’t sell his bricks-as-canvas art. So the man became a performance artist who’d receive money to toss his bricks at buildings, parked cars and even the people who commissioned him.<br />
I loved Doug’s work, with its seemingly simple line drawings but subtle facial expressions and body movements.<br />
Doug moved to New York City, where he wrote and drew, among other things, a series of semi-serious-instructional books under the title “A Cartoonist’s Guide.”<br />
He also wrangled a deal with big-time Fantagraphics Books to publish his comic books, “Tales From the Outer Boroughs.” It was there he introduced a disconcerting old man named Mister Seebring.<br />
Letters from New York dwindled over time and I moved, more than once.<br />
But a few weeks ago when I began my hunt, the only online references I could locate were sales of used copies of his “A Cartoonist’s Guide” and some 1990s writers’ group website with ancient email addresses.<br />
I did uncover a Doug Michael who drew cartoons for “The Baptist News,” but he pretty quickly turned out to be a red herring.<br />
The next day, Rollo May-like, I suddenly remembered “Tales From the Outer Boroughs.” A flurry of research revealed a one-line reference to William Seebring, “reclusive New York playwright.”<br />
So I searched for “William Seebring playwright,” and up popped a couple plays by him. One was “The Last Wish Baby.”<br />
Then it all came back to me — Seebring, the character from Doug’s comic books. “The Last Wish Baby,” another of Doug’s absurd storylines, this one about a baby born without a heart and the media circus that followed its every napping moment.<br />
I then unearthed a bevy of productions of “Last Wish Baby” by Indian theater groups in the United States and Bangalore — an adaptation by an Indian-American student. “The <i>Original</i> Last Wish Baby,” credited to William Seebring, was staged all over the place.<br />
One production was done at Cornell College in Mount Vernon during its 1999-2000 season.<br />
Had the cartoonist been swallowed up by his fictional creation, who in turn had evolved into a published playwright?<br />
At a dead end, I turned back to that old email address and sent a message.<br />
Within an hour, to my shock, came a reply. And the good news is it was from Doug, not a cartoon character.<br />
As it transpires, Doug had remade himself, but not into a facsimile of his own imagination. <br />
A few years ago, after being bitten by a tick, he’d contracted Lyme disease. As part of his recovery, he discovered the doctrine of Weston Price, the influential nutritionist. <br />
A big part of that system includes sprouted bread. So, in 2008 in a small town in Pennsylvania, Doug began baking bread. <br />
He started selling his loaves at a farmers’ market. His business, Columbia County Bread and Granola, received mention in More Magazine, he started blogging about it, and today it’s “morphed from a manageable sideline into a huge, demanding business,” he told me.<br />
“I desperately need to find some new ovens, and I’ve suddenly got three employees.”<br />
Doug still does cartoons on occasion for Salon.com and once a week for his former hometown newspaper, the Bedford (New York) Record Review.<br />
The cartoonist is now a happy, full-time baker. And, on occasion, he’s still lobbing bricks. <br />
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</div>Michael Chevy Castranovahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04450704511363719396noreply@blogger.com0