Some downtown streets will close at various times Wednesday for the Des Moines Arts Festival. Here is a schedule of closings: at 9 a.m., Locust Street from 10th to 16th streets and two lanes on the south side of Grand Avenue between 11th and 16th streets will close; at 6 p.m., all lanes of Grand will close along with 15th Street from Ingersoll Avenue to Walnut Street and 12th and 13th streets from Grand to Walnut. All streets will reopen at 5:30 a.m. Monday, June 29.

Ankeny Mayor Steve Van Oort and other city officials will cut the ribbon and officially reopen the city’s redesigned Otter Creek Golf Course at 11 a.m. on July 1. The course has been transformed to a semi links-style course, increasing in size to 300 acres from 160 and in back-tee yardage to 6,895 yards from 6,600. In addition, the course has a new clubhouse.

A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that climate-change legislation would cost the average household $175 a year by 2020, The Washington Post reported. The report, released Monday, said that the poorest 20 percent of American households would actually receive a $40 benefit in 2020 from the legislation, which would establish a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions, while the richest 20 percent of households would see a net cost of $245 a year. The costs would result from higher prices for carbon-based fuels, offset by a complex series of tax breaks and free allowances, new technologies and behavioral changes, and impacts on corporations and their profits.

In May, employers took 2,933 mass layoff actions involving 312,880 workers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said today. Mass layoffs and initial claims rose to their highest levels on record. Over the year, job cuts in manufacturing and initial claims more than doubled. In Iowa, there were 31 mass layoffs last month, 30 in April and 12 in May 2008. Initial claims for unemployment benefits jumped to 4,379 in May from 2,638 in April. There were 3,033 initial claims for benefits in May 2008.

Americans’ confidence in President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan is waning, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll found, even as his overall approval rating remains high, MarketWatch reported. Fifty-two percent of respondents said that the stimulus package has succeeded or will succeed in restoring the economy, down from 59 percent two months ago, the poll found. The poll was taken June 18-21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.