Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek has named Norwalk one of the Best Affordable Suburbs in America for 2010. To identify towns that offered both affordability and good quality of life, BusinessWeek evaluated 863 communities with the help of New York-based real estate data company Onboard Informatics. With a population drawing close to 8,000, a median family income of $79,106, and a median family home price of $136,250, Norwalk is becoming more attractive to young Iowa families. “We’re honored that BusinessWeek is drawing national attention to a quality of life that Norwalk residents already know,” says Chris Nosbisch, Norwalk’s development services director. “Norwalk is a rare gem compared to other suburbs. We’re proud to receive this recognition.”

Terra Industries Inc. of Sioux City and Deerfield, Ill.-based CF Industries Holdings Inc. have struck a deal to merge the two companies. The Chicago Tribune reported that Terra stockholders will receive $37.15 in cash and 0.0953 of a share of CF Industries common stock for each share of Terra common stock. The total value of the transaction is about $4.7 billion. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the transaction, which is being financed by Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc. and The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. Upon completion of the merger, Terra will become an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of CF Industries and trading of Terra stock on the New York Stock Exchange will cease.



Following Wisconsin, Iowa has become the second state in the country to be federally authorized to administer and enforce the federal Lead-based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting (RPP) program. Effective April 22, anyone performing renovations or repairs for compensation must be trained and certified, and follow lead-safe work practices. Lead-based paint in the home is a major cause of childhood lead poisoning and the RRP rule places new requirements on property management companies, landlords, contractors, renovators and painters for lead-safe work practices to reduce the lead exposure of children. Before it was banned for residential use in 1978, lead-based paint was used in more than 38 million homes.



Ames-based Web development firm Global Reach Internet Productions LLC announced Thursday a new alliance with Dell Inc. as part of the Dell Registered Partner program. The program is expected to give customers more comprehensive customer service in products and solutions, including servers, storage, virtualization, computing flexibility and energy efficiency. “Global Reach’s network support services have always been a strong factor in our market position,” said Ken Uhlenkamp, the company’s of network operations. “By partnering with Dell, we will now be able to provide even greater value to our clients, as well as additional expertise that people will be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.”



On March 16, the Technology Association of Iowa will host a clinic, “Employee Dishonesty in Times of Recession: Safeguards and Proper Handling,” from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Chris Fereday, a partner at PDCM Insurance, and Becky Knutson, an attorney at the Davis Brown law firm, will co-present on this topic. For more information or to register, visit www.technologyiowa.org. Individuals may participate in person or via webinar.



U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $130.96 million in January, according to the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Consumption (USMTC) report compiled by the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association and the Association for Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 40.3 percent from December, but up 26.2 percent from the total of $103.8 million reported for January 2009. In the Midwest region, consumption in January totaled $37.4 million, which was down 39.9 percent from December’s $62.2 million but up 31.2 percent on a year-over year basis. The report provides regional and national U.S. consumption data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment.