The Iowa Business Council (IBC) has elected its leadership for 2010, its 25th anniversary year. Thomas Aller, president of Interstate Power & Light Co., an Alliant Energy Corp. company in Cedar Rapids, will serve as IBC’s chair. Stan Askren, chairman, president and CEO of HNI Corp. in Muscatine, was elected vice chair. John Sorensen, president and CEO of the Iowa Bankers Association, was re-elected as treasurer.

Central Iowa Works has awarded $76,880 in Workforce Partner Innovation grants to three local organizations to improve workforce skills for disadvantaged workers. The grants are intended to improve workers’ skills in health care, advanced manufacturing, construction, financial services, energy, retail services and information technology. The IT Center of Excellence and Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa received $35,000, which will provide training and certification for 30 people in information technology fields. Drake University’s Adult Literacy Center received $11,880 and plans to increase employment opportunities for 85 people with limited literacy skills. The Drake program is conducted with Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC), Broadlawns Medical Center, Wesley Community Center and Optimae Life Services. DMACC received $30,000 to increase the number of placements at the Workforce Training Academy to self-sustaining employment.

For every $1 spent on Iowa wine, another $30 is cycled through the economy, according to the first analysis of the economic impact of the state’s wine and vineyard industry. California-based MFK Research said that the industry has a $234 million impact on the economy. The study found that Iowa wineries produced 186,700 gallons of wine in 2008, for a total of $7.6 million in retail value of wine sold. The industry supported 1,773 jobs that generated $50 million in wages.

Great Ape Trust of Iowa founder Ted Townsend’s Gishwati Area Conservation Program will manage the Gishwati National Conservation Park – also called the Forest of Hope – in Rwanda under an agreement signed last week with the African republic’s environmental minister. The Gishwati program, called the Forest of Hope because it is located in an area that had been considered beyond hope, has been studying 15 chimpanzees that are isolated in the forest and need more area to travel to avoid inbreeding and possible extinction. The program also aims to improve the social and economic livelihoods of the 350,000 agriculturalists living around Gishwati.

Demolition of the National Sheet Metal Building began this morning as Sherman Associates Inc. continues its build-out of the historic Rumely Building. In addition to 66 affordable-housing units at 104 S.W. Fourth St., the Rumely Lofts LP project will include 4,500 square feet of retail space. Minneapolis-based Sherman is demolishing the 81-year-old National Sheet Metal Building at 101 S.W. Fifth St. to make room for 25 to 30 parking stalls for that development’s commercial tenants. The entire project, with a cost of nearly $17 million, is scheduled to wrap up Sept. 1. Hopkins, Minn.-based Frana Cos. is the project’s general contractor.

Dan Riley, president of Local 1868 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union, has joined the Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino board of directors. He has worked for Polk County since 1989 and is a licensed stationary engineer and power engineer, and he has received certification from the University of Iowa Labor Center in grievance and arbitration proceedings.