The Des Moines Register du lieu suivant : Des Moines, Iowa • Page 27

8C ST SATURDAY September 24, 2005 E1)C Acs Hloincs Register LYNN HICKS, Executive Business Editor, 51 5-284-8290e-mail: lhicksdmreg.com MARKETS Magazine puts Iowa 50th for business start-ups ---i-J jAiii Si'. 't -5. i tf-Mtwtr -niif-- vV urn i --Ai SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER on the track at the site of the $70 million Iowa Speedway, south of Interstate Highway 80, at Newton. L-r-o itik't in n-iT" rr-- Construction: Work has begun Work on wmm mm track is welcome sight in troubled city S8 sr 4 DOW BONDS 30 Industrials 10-yr. Treasuries 10,419.59 4.25 0.07 NASDAQ Composite 500 2,116.84 1,215.29 6.06 0.67 NEWS OF NOTE USDA considers closing offices The U.S.

Agriculture Department is looking at closing 22 of its 100 county offices in Iowa that process farm subsidies and loans. The 22 offices are among 71 3 nationwide that the Farm Service Agency is considering closing, according to details given to Congress and made public Friday by the Senate Agriculture Committee. Counties were not named. An earlier version of the list suggested closing 665 offices nationwide. Agriculture Department officials have said that many offices have outdated computer equipment and inadequate staff to properly help farmers.

However, the Senate added an amendment to an Agriculture Department spending bill this week that would require the department to do a cost-benefit analysis of the closures before proceeding. An Agriculture Department spokeswoman said the plan is a "starting point." But Sen. Charles Grassley, said the plan is dead. When commodity prices drop, as they have this year, farmers make regular trips to county offices to obtain subsidies and loans, he said. Sen.

Tom Harkin, said "it's hard to believe the objective is better service" when closing a quarter of Iowa's offices would force farmers to drive farther. Pork expansion: Smithfield Foods Inc. will spend $213.5 million to expand its meat packing plants in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Two Iowa plants are included: an $81 million expansion at the Farmland Foods' pork plant in Denison that will add 21 9 jobs, and a previously announced, $13.5 million project at the Patrick Cudahy plant in Sioux Center that will add 140 jobs. Smithfield also plans to add 120 jobs in Crete, and 200 jobs in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Food prize grant? The Des Moines-based organization that awards the annual World Food Prize would get a $700,000 federal grant to expand its educational programs under a spending bill passed by the U.S. Senate. The organization's annual budget is $1.5 million. The final amount of the grant will have to be worked out by congressional negotiators. Crude oil: The price of crude for November delivery fell $2.31 to settle at $64.19 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Fuel gauge: The AAA Fuel Gauge Report said the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in Iowa was $2.61 1 Friday, up from Thursday's $2,607. The average a year ago was $1,790. An article Friday about energy efficiency misstated how much natural gas Atliant Energy will have secured for this winter. The utility expects to have 50 percent to 60 percent of expected winter natural gas demand in storage or under contract by October. State development leaders say the climate for entrepreneurship has been improving.

By WILLIAM RYBERG REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER Iowa ranks last among the 50 states when it comes to being a good place for entrepreneurs to start small businesses, according to the October issue of Entrepreneur magazine. Arizona was No. 1 and New Jersey was No. 2, according to the magazine. Other Midwest states did only slightly better than Iowa.

Nebraska was No. 44; South Dakota was No. 45; Minnesota was No. 46. In Iowa, business development leaders said the state has made progress in improving its entrepreneurial climate in the past few years, but the state still faces challenges, such as slow population growth and the out-migration of well-educated young people.

Leaders in Iowa downplayed the magazine's assessment and said that such rankings of business climate vary from study to study. "Those studies go back and forth," said Tina Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Economic Development. "What we're trying to do is keep up the momentum and build an environment where enterprises can succeed. And we think we've done that." Criteria in the Entrepreneur magazine study included: The number of companies in an area that started four to 14 years ago and have at least five employees. Company job growth.

Iowa ranked last in both. The study was completed by the magazine and the National Policy Research Center, a Washington, D.C., research group. Justine Walden, a policy center researcher, told Entrepreneur that the best-rated cities tended to have pleasant climates, good universities and big airports. Jon Ryan, state director of Iowa Small Business Development Centers, said state and federal budget cuts a few years ago reduced from 16 to 12 the number of Iowa centers that help people launch and build small businesses. Funding has improved, but it has not caught up, he said.

Iowans win free tankers of gasoline Two Iowans were among four Kum Go customers chosen Friday to each receive enough gasoline to fill an tanker truck. The Iowa winners in the West Des Moines convenience store chain's promotion were Lloyd Reeder, 59, of Atlantic and Shirley Reekers, 47, of Fort Dodge. Also winning were Jeanette Chance, 47, of Fordland, and Ida Gerber, 44, of Omaha. Nearly 2 million entries were received by the chain at 425 Kum Go stores in 13 states. "When we envisioned this promotion, we never imagined gas would reach $3 per gallon," Kum Go chief executive Kyle Krause said.

For most people, Krause said, a tanker of gas should last five years. Based on Friday's average pump prices in Iowa, the retail value of a tanker of gas would be about $23,000. By DONNELLE ELLER REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER Newton, la. Right now, the proposed Newton race track "is a beautiful hole in the ground Newton real estate agent Dennis Combs says. By next year, developers say that hole, the $70 million Iowa Speedway, will hold an asphalt track, up to 40,000 fans and 54 race-car drivers.

The track site, just south of Interstate Highway 80, also holds a battered town's hope that its future will be better. "Having grown up here, I feel the community has changed," said Michelle Stalzer, a mother of two. "The atmosphere used to be friendly and happy. Now, everyone is on edge, stressed." The reason is clear: Whirlpool $1.7 billion takeover of Maytag the city's largest employer, has many wondering whether the Maytag factory and corporate jobs will still be there in a year. Already, about 1,500 Maytag employees have lost their jobs the past three years.

"The track is a good thing," said Stalzer, as she shopped at Wal-Mart on Friday afternoon with her daughter, Morgan, 1. "It could help the community and the economy." City leaders agree. Newton Mayor Chaz Allen said retail, hotel and other commercial developers have contacted the city about building projects near the track. "This isn't pie-in-the-sky kind of stuff," Allen said. "Developers say we could have Ankeny-like growth coming our way." SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER Site drawing: The Iowa Speedway will have an asphalt track and hold up to 40,000 fans and 54 race-car drivers, developers say.

All but seven of the track's 26 suites have been reserved. The suites cost $30,000 annually. Commitments for the suites last three years. back-end banking and legal requirements to complete the financing closure and disbursement for the US. Motorsport Corp.

project in Newton." "Very close" is not done, said Allen, who believed the financing deal will be completed. The question is when, he said. The answer will determine whether the city will have $12 See TRACK, Page 6C One issue clouds the future of the track the developers' financing. Allen and David Schornack, the city administrator, say developer U.S. Motorsport Corp.

has failed to prove it has $57 million in financing to complete the project. They point to a July letter, the most recent the city has received, from the group's financier, UBG Financial Corp. of Atlanta. It say the group is "very close to finalizing the necessary Next sound for phone: Mobile music player? iiiij ii ji ly ii. i lb i j.JJ I III fV I I Mill ill States now, but full-track downloads and sideloading are the future, said Thomas Hesse of Sony-BMG Entertainment.

Still, there's some doubt about whether U.S. music fans will fully embrace the phone as their music device of choice, said Charles Golvin, an analyst for Forrester Research in Los Angeles. Balecha has purchased about 15 ringtones in the past three months but isn't sold yet on full-length songs. "It would depend a lot on how much it costs and how easy it was to use," she said. "The sound quality on my cell phone when it plays the song is not like listening to my stereo." Sprint Nextel Corp.

will likely be the first carrier to offer downloads of full songs on its wireless network. It plans to launch the service in the United States this year. Separately, Sprint recently struck a deal with RealNetworks Inc. to offer music videos, news and music streamed over its network. Verizon Wireless, affiliated with a British carrier that already offers full-song downloads in Britain, is planning a similar U.S.

service. Wireless carriers and record labels hope cell-phone users will find full-song downloads as cool as ringtones. By ALEX VEIGA ASSOCIATED PRESS Los Angeles, Calif. When someone dials Leah Balecha's mobile phone, it doesn't ring. It jams with the sounds of 50 Cent, OutKast, Gwen Stefani and Kelly Clarkson.

Like a growing number of mobile phone users, the videographer and student, 30, has taken to customizing her handset, sometimes paying more than $3 for just a snippet of a single song to turn it into an audible fashion accessory. "I love the reaction I get when people hear my phone ringing," Ba-lecha said. "All of my girlfriends have a different ring." With U.S. mobile phone users like Balecha already spending hundreds of millions a year on ringtones, wireless carriers and the music industry are banking on taking music lovers to the next step: using the phone as a portable music player. Music to her ears: Calif ornian Leah Balecha, 30, has purchased about 15 ringtones for her cell phone in the past three months.

Mobile phone users pay sometimes more than $2 for a single song snippet. MARK J. TERRILLASSOCIATED PRESS ferring songs directly from their computers to their phones, a practice known as sideloading, or downloading full-length tracks over their mobile networks. Ringtones may be big in the United They're taking advantage of the fact that mobile handsets and the data networks that feed them are becoming more sophisticated. Consumers in Great Britain, Japan and South Korea are already trans.