The development of a half-a-billion-dollar-plus Google data center in Council Bluffs has been rumored for some time.

Now The Des Moines Register reports that an announcement in this western Iowa city is slated for Tuesday for a $600 million Google data center. Lawmakers and the governor earlier this year had put together a raft iof incentives intended to help lure a dominant Web company to Council Bluffs.

 The announcement is another major step in the mercurial rise of Council Bluffs — which until only recently was derided as "Counciltucky" and something of a red-headed step sister to Omaha, Neb. With the arrival of casinos in the 1990s Council Bluffs moved into "Vegas of the Plains" mode. With Google coming to town can comparisons to the tech-savvy coffee-gulping Seattle be far behind?