Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 6.9 percent in April as discouraged workers started to look for work again, Iowa Workforce Development reported. The state’s jobless rate was 6.8 percent in March, and 5.5 percent for the same month one year ago. The U.S. unemployment rate inched up to 9.9 percent in April from 9.7 percent in March, and 8.9 percent in April 2009. Iowa’s pool of unemployed persons grew to 116,800 in April from 114,200 in March. The current estimate is 24,500 higher than the April 2009 level of 92,300.

Des Moines business leader William C. Knapp, founder of Knapp Properties, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year program in the Central Midwest region. Knapp will accept the honor at a gala on June 2 at the Sheraton Overland Park Hotel near Kansas City. Knapp was recognized as an Entrepreneur of the Year finalist in 1993 and has earned several awards and significant recognition for his business leadership and dedication to the community. Knapp founded Iowa Realty in 1952 and gradually built the company into Iowa’s premier real estate company. He later formed Knapp Properties Inc., which now owns more than 7,000 acres of real estate and manages 2.5 million square feet of commercial property and more than 350 multifamily units.

Townsend Industries, an Altoona-based printing equipment manufacturer, will end operations on June 17 after more than 50 years in business, the company announced this morning. Townsend’s employees were notified of the closing in a meeting on Thursday. The company was founded in 1957 by Bob Townsend, who invented and manufactured the T-51, or “T-Head,” to allow two-pass, two-color printing on small-format offset presses, a product which was sold worldwide. Townsend, who supported numerous charitable causes, among them development of the Altoona Campus gym and exercise center, Southeast Polk Dollars for Scholars and the Altoona Food Bank, passed away Feb. 22.

A vote earlier this week by the Polk County Board of Supervisors to approve an agreement with Broadlawns Medical Center assures the hospital of a gift valued at $1 million to fund four new mental health crisis beds in the hospital’s new emergency department, Broadlawns officials said today. The details of the agreement include the county forgiving the final three payments on an outstanding Broadlawns bond. The supervisors also agreed to a 25-year commitment for the Polk County Medical Examiner to maintain an onsite office at Broadlawns, have access to the morgue, and use laboratory and x-ray technologies as needed to perform autopsies. In exchange for the gift, Broadlawns committed to remodeling existing hospital space for the medical examiner’s office and building an enclosed and secured entrance for the examiner and staff by the end of 2011.

WHO-HD Channel 13 has completed its final $2 million transition to total high-definition broadcasts, the station announced. The final transition occurred yesterday at noon and makes Channel 13 the first commercial television station in Iowa to broadcast in total high-definition, the company said. “We realize Iowans have made a huge investment in new televisions, converters and antennas with 58 percent of households now owning at least one high-definition television,” WHO-HD President and General Manager Dale Woods said in a press release. “Now they’ll see the full benefit of that investment.”

The Iowa Economic Development Board yesterday elected Nancy Dunkel of Dyersville to serve as its chairperson and John Lisle of Clarinda to serve as vice chairperson. New board members include David Bernstein, Rebecca “Becky” Greenwald, Dr. Sue Jarboe, Dr. Andrea “Andy” McGuire and Daniel White. Visit the Iowa Department of Economic Development website for a full listing of Iowa Economic Development Board members.