No Iowa-based companies made Fortune magazine’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies list of 2009. Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry phone, was ranked as the fastest-growing company by the magazine. Fortune’s lists from the past five years are kept on its Web site; no Iowa-based company was on the list in any of those years.

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Contracts for three projects totaling $3.08 million and matching funds of $1.7 million were approved by the Iowa Power Fund Board. Most of that money, $4.5 million, will go to Iowa Alliance For Wind Innovation and Novel Development at the University of Iowa to help it implement research and training that will help continue growth of turbine manufacturing. The Biodiesel Education Program of the Iowa Biodiesel Board will receive $145,000 to help it develop a curriculum to educate diesel mechanics on biodiesel, reinforce its function in diesel engines and troubleshooting protocol. The Iowa Renewable Energy Association will get $140,000 to help finance the Energy & Sustainability Expo.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is among 24 attorneys general who are urging Congress to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). In a letter sent Monday to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, the attorneys general voiced strong support for the proposed agency, saying it “promises to be an effective check on the recent excesses of the financial industry,” especially in collaboration with state consumer protection efforts. The letter also underscored the attorney generals’ conviction that legislation creating the CFPA should explicitly preserve the states’ authority and ability to fight unfair and deceptive practices, and also should foster the states’ role in collaborating with the new federal agency.

A Federal Reserve survey of senior loan officers showed that domestic banks pointed to decreased loan demand and deteriorating credit quality as the main reasons for a decline in commercial and industrial lending. Demand for loans continued to weaken, according to the report, across all major categories except for prime residential mortgages. Banks also continued to tighten standards during the past three months on all major types of loans.

Read the full report here.

Humana Inc. will partner with Iowa-based Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care to administer its Medication Therapy Management programs offered nationwide. The programs provide members the opportunity to have a comprehensive medication review with a health professional that could improve therapeutic outcomes and health literacy.

MSNBC.com bought EveryBlock, a Chicago-based local news business, Monday, according to the San Francisco Business Times. EveryBlock runs “hyperlocal” news Web sites that closely cover community news in major cities across the country. All of the EveryBlock workers were retained, and the money from MSNBC means EveryBlock will have a chance to expand according to Adrian Holovaty, who started the site in 2007.