Iowa

Farmers are enjoying high corn prices and may not even have noticed the end of the subsidy on Dec. 31 according to the agricultural economist interviewed on NPR.

As crop prices rise, Iowa land formerly thought useless for farming is being tilled and planted.

"Carjacked" author Anne Lutz Fernandez says Time's tearful coverage of the traffic deaths of a 72-year-married Iowa couple fails to recognize the true problem: that Americans are persuaded that driving = living.

Sounding very much like the new OH and WI Republican governors, a key state Republican legislator wants to avoid the ongoing state subsidy for Iowa City to Chicago trains. At stake is $230 million in a Federal rail grant to build 110 mph trains.

While new Wisconsin and Ohio Republican governors are not supportive of high speed rail and my try to steer their state's high speed rail awards for road purposes, the new Republican governors of Iowa and Michigan appear to be Amtrak supporters.

Aaron M. Renn says that Iowa has weathered the recession well, and migration patterns have boosted cities and agribusiness.

This 4-page summary report (PDF) is a summary of a technical paper attempting to show differences in the reduction in road crashes that result from road diets.

This piece from The Architect's Newspaper takes a look at three midwestern cities that have recently benefited from outside investments in their urban centers.

Des Moines, Iowa, is undergoing a rapid and thorough urban revival -- at least when compared to other cities. By Des Moines standards, the city's pace is par for the course.

This post from IBM's A Smarter Planet blog looks at how advanced monitoring techniques and analytics are helping to improve the management of sewage and wastewater in cities like Sacramento and Dubuque.

A Des Moines venture capitalist and his wife have donated a reported $40 million worth of large public sculptures for a sculpture park, part of a significant redevelopment effort by the city.

Rural areas have been losing population for decades, creating what some are calling a "rural brain drain". According to this article, the hollowing out of these rural areas will have negative impacts beyond the borders of those small towns.

Despite opposition from businesses and neighborhood groups, the city of Des Moines, Iowa is intent on implementing a program to make local streets friendly to non-drivers.

At the Midwest High Speed Rail Summit today in Chicago, an agreement was struck between eight states to work cooperatively to achieve Recovery Act funding to develop the Chicago Hub High Speed Rail Corridor - also called the Midwest corridor.

When an immigration raid brought down the dominant employer in tiny Postville, Iowa, last year, nearly half of the town's population were either deported or lost their jobs. As the town struggles to regain its feet, its learned some tough lessons.

Iowa City's planning commission says yes, and is considering mandating that future bars and liquor stores be more spread out to stop a recent rash of violence in the area.

Des Moines, IA is one of 28 metropolitan areas that have seen home prices go up in the third quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors.