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St. Louis Business & Technology News
"When you think Saint Louis, think Saint Louis Front Page," a weekly publication covering the news and events in the greater St. Louis area. 
How To Reach Us:St. Louis Front Page P.O. Box 1354 St. Louis, MO 63188 Voice: 314-771-0200 Fax: 314-771-0300 To submit news, contact: editor@slfp.com To advertise, contact: advertising@slfp.com |
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Missouri to Expand Broadband Access with Federal Funds JEFFERSON CITY, MO, (SLFP.com), March 31, 2010 - Missouri is partnering with 11 different businesses and agencies to expand broadband through MoBroadbandNow, a five-year initiative launched by Governor Jay Nixon last summer. The initiative coordinates efforts to obtain funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Commerce specifically set aside for broadband expansion. MoBrandbandNow seeks to expand broadband accessibility to 95 percent of the total population, a significant increase from current projected accessibility of 79.7 percent. Five of the applications supported by the State of Missouri are for developing middle-mile infrastructure for broadband; five are for developing last-mile projects; and one is for developing public computing centers, which will provide broadband access in public locations, often targeting a specific vulnerable population such as low-income, minority, disabled or unemployed Missourians. In a statement announcing his support, Governor Nixon said, "These proposals were closely reviewed, and we identified the ones we believe are most likely to receive federal funding and most closely aligned with the vision of MissouriBroadbandNow." "This public/private cooperation will carry lasting benefits in bringing high-speed communication to Missourians across the state, including giving doctors better and quicker resources to treat their patients; allowing teachers and students to access the power of educational tools that other schools have; and putting small businesses on a level playing field with their competitors from around the world," said the Governor. The public computing center proposal supported by the Governor is being submitted by YourTel America, which would create eight public computing centers at retail centers, including five in the Kansas City area, two in the St. Louis area, and one in St. Joseph. These public computing centers also will focus on bringing broadband access to vulnerable populations of Missourians. In addition to these applications, the Governor said Missourians also would benefit from a proposal filed by the Missouri Department of Higher Education to create 23 public computing centers with 736 workstations at seven community colleges - Jefferson College, Metropolitan Community College, Mineral Area Community College, Moberly Area Community College, Ozarks Technical College, St. Louis Community College and Three Rivers Community College. The centers will provide public access with knowledgeable staff and with courses in basic digital literacy and technology careers. The centers at the colleges also will function as technology centers for launching new careers, with a focus on unemployed and underemployed Missourians. These project applications now will be submitted to the federal government for funding as part of the second round of grants. In the first round, Ralls County Electric Cooperative in New London, a MoBroadbandNow parter, received a $19.1 million competitive award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in January to expand broadband Internet to thousands of residential and commercial customers in northeast Missouri. AgraForm Receives Mayor's Spirit Award ST. LOUIS, MO, (SLFP.com), March 21, 2010 - Mayor Francis G. Slay has presented the Mayor's Spirit of St. Louis Award to AgraForm chemical processing and packaging plant (formerly Bayer CropScience). The Mayor's Spirit of St. Louis Award recognizes businesses that make major expansions or improvements to their existing locations, open or relocate to the City, and certain major City projects. When Bayer CropScience decided to close its south St. Louis manufacturing plant last year, a former Bayer employee and his business partners bought out the operations and started a new company, AgraForm LLC. AgraForm now counts Bayer as its largest customer and retained 12 jobs along with seven contract positions at the plant, located at 133 E. Krauss St. in the Carondelet neighborhood. The company hopes to add employees as the business grows with new clients and additional products. The company's public/private financing package included assistance from the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC), the City's economic development agency, in the forms of revolving loan funds and a Small Business Association 504 loan for start-up costs, inventory, equipment, working capital and other needs. Southern Commercial, a local community bank, secured the private financing. Additional working capital assistance came from the St. Louis Minority Business Council. World Wide Technology Awarded $27 Million Defense Contract ST. LOUIS, MO, (SLFP.com), March 21, 2010 - World Wide Technology, Inc. (WWT), a market-leading systems integrator that provides innovative technology and supply chain solutions, has said that it has been awarded a two-year, $27 million contract by the Department of Defense (DoD) to meet the technology and supply chain needs of the Tri-Service Medical Education and Training Campus (METC) at Ft. Sam Houston. Through this contract, WWT will support the largest consolidation of military medical training in DoD history with the design, procurement, installation and integration of advanced technology solutions. Products, services and solutions to be delivered by WWT under this contract include but are not limited to servers, storage, networking, wireless, unified communications, call center, audio visual, teleconferencing, virtualization, staging, configuration, software imaging, integration, warehousing and logistics. "We are pleased that the Department of Defense has chosen World Wide Technology to provide IT products and services to the METC," said Bill McKeon, vice president federal for WWT. "Our strong vendor relationships, experience implementing and managing advanced technology solutions and suite of supply chain services will provide the DoD a trusted partner as it builds a world-class medical training and development campus for our Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen." WWT currently offers technology products from more than 3,000 manufacturers and maintains over 1,000 certifications to ensure it provides the latest in IT solutions and services to solve business problems for its customers. The company is one of Cisco's largest Gold partners and the number one supplier of Cisco products to the U.S. federal government. In addition to its strong Cisco expertise, the company has strategic partnerships with Citrix, HP, EMC, NetApp, Sun Microsystems, and VMware. World Wide also offers a complete array of configuration and integration services and a full suite of advanced logistics, inventory management and supply chain services. When completed, the METC will be the world's largest medical education and training institution. The average daily student load is expected to be 9,000, with an annual throughput of 47,000 students. The 11 facilities under construction include three 1,200-student dormitories, a dining facility, five medical instruction facilities, a Navy and Air Force command building and a field training site located off Ft. Sam Houston at Camp Bullis just outside of San Antonio.  
The Saint Louis Front Page is owned and maintained by the Moore Design Group for the sole purpose of disseminating news and information about the Metropolitan Saint Louis area. Text or graphics may not be copied, rewritten or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission. For more information, contact editor@slfp.com All rights reserved world wide © 1996 - 2010 Moore Design Group. |
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