Living History Farms’ interim director, MD Isley, will become Bravo Greater Des Moines’ first executive director. In his new role, he will manage grant-making activities and strategic planning for the nonprofit organization focused on strengthening Greater Des Moines’ arts and cultural community. Prior to joining Living History Farms, Isley was the founding executive director of the Des Moines Higher Education Collaborative, where he took the organization from concept to an operation with a $750,000 budget and a $7.5 million capital campaign.

Because of the declining value of its United States and United Kingdom operations, Gannett Co. Inc. will write down its assets by around $2.5 billion to $3 billion this quarter, the Associated Press reported. The nation’s largest newspaper chain’s stock has declined by about half its value in the past year as the newspaper industry has faced declining revenues and circulation. Gannett’s chief financial officer said at an investor conference in New York yesterday that most of the write-downs reflect the declining value of its U.K.-based Newsquest, which Gannett acquired in 1999. Still, company Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow said the company is in the middle of a transition that will allow it to do a better job of helping advertisers target consumers. Excluding the write-down, Gannett expects second quarter earnings of between $1.01 and $1.03 a share.

Lehman Brothers analyst Jason Goldberg cut his second-quarter earnings estimates for 22 national and regional banks, the Associated Press reported. He predicts that weakening mortgage, home equity and residential construction markets will further cut into banks’ financial results. Among the large- and midcap banks his company covers, he expects net charge-offs to be about 1.6 percent of all loans, compared with 0.8 percent in third-quarter 2007. His biggest cut was to Bank of America Corp., which he expects to earn 65 cents per share, 17 cents below what he previously predicted. But, based on historical data from previous downturns, Goldberg noted that current conditions could mean a rally for bank stocks.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that the U.S. corn harvest will be 10 percent smaller than last year due to Midwest rains, Bloomberg reported. Inventories could fall to a 13-year low of 11.735 billion bushels, compared with last year’s 13.074 billion. The USDA cut its projected average yield to 148.9 bushels an acre, down 3.2 percent from the 153.9 bushels predicted last month. Yesterday corn futures for July delivery rose 6.5 cents to $6.5725 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, trading at near record levels.

As crude oil prices soar to an all-time high, the U.S. trade deficit jumped 7.8 percent to $60.9 billion in April, the largest trade gap since March 2007. April’s deficit was $4.4 billion higher than the March imbalance. Crude oil imports rose $4.3 billion to a record $29.3 billion in April as the average price-per-barrel rose to an all-time high of $96.81. This led to a record $216.4 billion in imports, which also was boosted by gains in imports of automobiles and consumer goods. U.S. exports were up 3.3 percent to a record $155.5 billion as a result of gains in sales of commercial aircraft, farm machinery, medical equipment and computers.

In the past two months, more than 50 percent of workers and retirees have cut back on spending due to challenging economic conditions, up from about one-third in fourth-quarter 2007, according to the latest Principal Financial Well-Being Index. Harris Interactive conducted the survey of American workers and retirees between April 30 and May 7. Other findings showed that more than 50 percent of workers and retirees are worried that rising fuel costs will affect their summer vacation plans. More than half are driving less, while 36 percent of workers and 27 percent of retirees are spending less on basic necessities. Sixty-one percent of workers and 49 percent of retirees are also dining out less to offset the increasing grocery prices.

Heartland Express Inc.‘s board of directors has declared a regular quarterly dividend of 2 cents per share, payable on July 2 to shareholders of record on June 20. About $1.9 million will be paid on the company’s 96.2 million outstanding shares of common stock.