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EndoGastric Solutions Inc. said Monday it raised $30 million in a new funding round.

The Redwood City company focuses on procedures to treat upper gastrointestinal diseases.

Co-leading the round were Canaan Partners, which has an office in Menlo Park, and New York-based Radius Ventures.

Also participating were Advanced Technology Ventures, MPM Capital, Foundation Medical Partners, Chicago Growth Partners, and De Novo Ventures business card.

Following the investment, Brent Ahrens of Canaan Partners and Kathleen Regan of Radius Ventures joined the company's board of directors.

Click here to read the press release.

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Wyoming transplant Peter Wysocki was picked Tuesday to head Round Rock's planning department.

City Manager Jim Nuse said Wysocki will begin work as planning director in the north of Austin suburb Sept. 15. He's currently working as community development director for the city of Laramie, Wyo. He replaces Jim Stendebach who retires Aug. 31.

“We will dearly miss Jim Stendebach, who has been part of Round Rock’s development successes for more than two decades,” Nuse said. “I can’t imagine a person better suited than Peter Wysocki to replace Jim."

Nurse said the incoming director has worked in a fast-growing region of Wyoming for the last six years and "comes highly recommended by those in the communities where he served.” During his tenure, he successfully facilitated a new master plan, a new unified development code, groundwater protection plan and completely revamped the development review process.

Prior to his current position, he was community development director for the city of Fernley, Nev personal loans for bad credit. from 2001 to 2006. He also worked six years as a planner with the Douglas County, Nev. community development department.

“My family and I are very excited about moving here and becoming members this great community," Wysocki said.

He earned a bachelor’s in urban and regional planning from California Polytechnic University and a certificate of professional development in public management from the University of Nevada, Reno. He is a certified planner by the American Institute of Certified Planners, member of the American Planning Association, a member of the Western Planning Resources and served as the president of the Northern Section of the Nevada Chapter of the American Planning Association.

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The Lockheed Martin team developing the next-generation Global Positioning System satellites — which are to be assembled and tested in the Denver area — completed the "critical design review," or CDR, of its work on Thursday — two months ahead of schedule.

The completion of the CDR means that Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) and its partners — most notably General Dynamics Corp. and ITT Corp. — can begin production work on the two GPS IIIA satellites they are contracted to build for the U.S. Air Force at a cost of $1.46 billion. The team could build as many as 10 more GPS satellites under the contract if all the options on it are exercised.

The last phase of the CDR took four days to complete and was held at the newly constructed Patriot Center at Lockheed Martin’s newly expanded operations in Newtown, Pa. About 350 people participated, including employees of Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co payday loans no teletrack., the Lockheed unit that’s leading the team; General Dynamics; ITT; the Air Force; the Defense Department; the Department of Transportation; and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems has about 300 people in Newtown working on the satellite project. It also has employees working on the project in the Denver suburbs and Colorado Springs as well as in California and Mississippi and at Cape Canaveral, Fla., where the satellites will be launched.

The generation of GPS satellites Lockheed Martin is working on will deliver signals that are three times more accurate than current GPS satellites and three times more powerful for military users. It also will have a new civil signal that is compatible with signals from similar satellites being built by other countries.

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Wright-Patterson Air Force Base provided a more than a $5.1 billion annual boost to the region last year, up $700 million from the previous year, according to a new report prepared by base officials.

The document shows a total of 27,406 military, civilian and contract employees work for the base, up about 1,700 compared to 2008. The addition of 2,400 civilian workers offset a slight drop in military and contract personnel. Annual payroll in 2009 topped $2 billion.

The base also is responsible for more than 33,000 indirect jobs with an annual value of $1.38 billion, which is up from 3,000 jobs and $200 million compared to 2008, according to the report.

Last year, Wright-Patt spent nearly $1.75 billion for construction, services and supplies.

Local companies snagged some of that construction work. Last summer, for example, Wilcon Construction of Dayton, won a $13 million expansion and renovation project at the 88th Security Forces Squadron Operations facility at the base.

In April, 2009, Beavercreek-based Butt Construction Co. captured the final Base Realignment and Closure contract at Wright-Patt, a $36 million design/build project to add and renovate space in the Air Force Research Laboratory sensors complex. Butt Construction snagged at least seven military construction contracts at Wright-Patt during a two year period ending in 2009, totaling more than $300 million in work.

The economic impact of the base was expected to grow over the next several years as new missions complete moves as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Process, or BRAC. However, that is now in doubt because of a directive by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to cut contractor funding 10 percent for each of the next three years (link to Friday’s article?)

The 2009 Economic Impact Analysis from Wright-Patt used data through September, 2009, and included Clark, Greene, Miami, Montgomery and Preble counties.

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Kansas Speedway has gotten NASCAR’s approval to host a second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekend, starting in 2011.

The Kansas City, Kan., speedway and its parent, International Speedway Corp. (Nasdaq: ISCA), said Tuesday that the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event would be June 4-5; the second will be the fourth race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which will be Oct. 8-9.

Requesting another Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway was one of the sweeteners that casino developer Kansas Entertainment LLC offered when pitching its proposal to local and state officials. The first phase of the Hollywood Casino project, which broke ground in April, is expected to cost $386 million and open during the first quarter of 2012. It will overlook the second turn of the speedway track.

“Our fan support for the past 10 years has been tremendous and as a result of that support and the new Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway, we are fortunate enough to gain an additional NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race starting in 2011,” Kansas Speedway President Pat Warren said in a release.

Tickets for the 2011 races will go on sale after the speedway’s 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event in October. The full 2011 Sprint Cup Series schedule will be released later this year.

ISC CEO Lesa France Kennedy said the casino project “will make Kansas Speedway two of the most anticipated stops on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule Payday advance.”

The casino, planned to be a $700 million project when all phases are complete, is being developed by a joint venture of ISC and Penn National Gaming Inc. (Nasdaq: PENN). The first phase is to include a 100,000-square-foot casino floor with enough room for 2,300 slot machines and 86 table games, a lounge and several dining and entertainment concepts.

Later phases are planned to include a hotel, more gambling space, a spa, a convention center and an entertainment retail district. International Speedway also has committed to building a road course at Kansas Speedway and using two free track-side billboards to promote Kansas tourism.

Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway is expected to bring more than 1,700 construction jobs, more than 1,000 full-time jobs and other economic benefits for the Kansas City region.

In 2007, Kansas approved a law that allowed four destination casinos in specific areas of the state, including one in Wyandotte County. Developers competed to be chosen to build and manage the project.

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Hewlett-Packard Co. estimated it will post an 11 percent increase in revenue in the third quarter of its fiscal 2010 compared to the prior year, and it raised guidance for the rest of the year.

Revenue in the third quarter was about $30.7 billion, with preliminary earnings per share of approximately $0.75, the company said.

For its fourth quarter, HP estimates revenue of approximately $32.5 billion to $32.7 billion, and earnings per share of $1.03 to $1.05.

For the full year, HP now expects revenue of $125.3 billion to $125.5 billion, and earnings per share in the range of $3.62 to $3.64.

The announcement came at the same time Palo Alto-based HP announced that CEO Mark Hurd was resigning because of unspecified violations of business conduct standards uncovered by an investigation prompted by sexual harassment allegations by a former contractor. No sexual harassment was found, the company said.

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Williamsville was the busiest location for real estate transactions in July, according to a Business First analysis of newly released data from the Erie County Clerk’s Office.

Fifty-three deals worth $10,000 or more were recorded in Williamsville’s 14221 zip code territory last month, easily the highest number for any zip in Erie County.

The runners-up were 14086 (Lancaster) with 39 deals over the $10,000 threshold and 14226 (Amherst) with 37.

Six other zips had between 30 and 36 transactions each: 14075 (Hamburg), 14150 (Tonawanda), 14224 (West Seneca), 14225 (Cheektowaga), 14072 (Grand Island), and 14127 (Orchard Park).

Click here for a complete database of 1,262 real estate deals filed in July.

And click here for a list of the 1,811 mortgages registered in Erie County last month.

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The University of the Incarnate Word has been named a ‘Great College to Work For’ by a leading newspaper on higher education.

The results were released in the third annual report on The Academic Workplace in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The report is based on a survey of more than 42,000 employees of 277 colleges and universities. The publication worked with ModernThink LLC, a human resources consulting firm, to produce the survey.

The University of the Incarnate Word was only one of 97 institutions to earn the 2010 Great College to Work For designation. UIW is also the only San Antonio school on the list.

UIW also made the 2010 Honor Roll, a list of only 39 schools, for being recognized in the most categories.

UIW was recognized in collaborative governance; professional/career-development programs; teaching environment; job satisfaction and support; confidence in senior leadership; supervisor or department chair relationship; respect and appreciation; and tenure clarity and process.

The Chronicle of Higher Education provides news and information about colleges and universities.

“With the Great Colleges program, The Chronicle can provide even more of the vital information our readers rely on – unbiased reporting on which colleges are being innovative in their workplace practices,” says Jeffrey J. Selingo, The Chronicle’s editor.

UIW is a private liberal arts university that serves more than 7,000 students. UIW is the largest Catholic university in the state and the fourth largest private university in Texas.

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