The Greater Des Moines Community Foundation has established the 2008 Flood Relief & Recovery Fund for Iowans wanting to support local relief efforts related to the recent flooding. The foundation and United Way of Central Iowa will form an advisory group to assess needs and recommend distributions from the fund to community-based organizations in Greater Des Moines; 100 percent of donations will go to those in need. Make a donation online by visiting www.desmoinesfoundation.org. To find other opportunities to help Iowans in need, click here.

Twenty-one additional Iowa counties have been added to Black Hawk, Buchanan and Butler counties as being eligible for Disaster Unemployment Assistance, Iowa Workforce Development announced today. Those who have lost their jobs due to severe storms, tornadoes and flooding that occurred on or after May 25 are eligible. Claims need to be filed by July 17 and must include proof of past earnings. The benefits will cover self-employed workers, including farmers. For more information, visit www.iowaworkforce.org.

The 2008 Conservation and Natural Resource Issues Conference will take place on June 25 at the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation auditorium, 5400 University Ave., West Des Moines. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey will discuss conservation initiatives within agriculture and new technologies that better monitor water quality and evaluate the effectiveness of different practices. Other speakers will include Bill Belden, manager of Prairie Lands Bio-Products Inc., who will discuss biomass production agriculture realities and challenges, and Jeremy Singer, a research agronomist at the National Soil Tilth Laboratory, who will discuss cover crops for water quality protection. For more information, go to www.iowafarmbureau.com.

U.S. housing starts fell 3.3 percent to a 975,000 annual pace in May from a revised 1.008 million in April, the slowest pace in 17 years, Bloomberg reported. The Commerce Department said building permits, a sign of future activity, fell 1.3 percent to a 969,000 rate. Housing starts were down 32 percent compared with the year-ago period. The Midwest had the biggest decrease of 25 percent, while construction fell 10 percent in the West and 4.4 percent in the South. It increased 62 percent in the Northeast, led by a rise in multifamily projects.

The Labor Department’s producer price index, which measures the cost of goods before they reach stores, soared 1.4 percent in May, up from a 0.2 percent rise in April and the biggest increase since November, the Associated Press reported. Excluding energy and food prices, the “core” rate of inflation was 0.2 percent last month, a slight improvement from April’s 0.4 percent rate. Energy prices jumped 4.9 percent and food prices rose 0.8 percent, led by an 8 percent increase in the price of pork. Businesses are only passing some of the higher costs for goods to consumers, with consumer prices rising 0.6 percent in May.