A television deal that offers the University of Texas $20 million to $25 million will likely save the Big 12 Conference. The deal created by Dan Beebe, commissioner of the Big 12, will keep the four schools that considered leaving the conference to join the Pac-10 Conference. State officials in Iowa worried that the breakup of the Big 12 would have left Iowa State University without a conference or in a new conference. Read more.

Ankeny-based Casey’s General Stores Inc. announced Tuesday that the convenience store chain’s earnings per share were up 12 cents for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010, which ended April 30, from the same time point last year. Casey’s has been battling a takeover by Canadian chain Alimentation Couche-Tard and filed a lawsuit against the company on Monday. Read more.

State regulators retreated from a proposal that would have sharply increased the amount of capital that life insurers must set aside to back up commercial mortgage loans held as investments, The Wall Street Journal reported. Yesterday a task force of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners voted in favor of a proposal that would increase capital requirements about 12 percent, or $622 million, from 2009 levels. Under the original proposal, insurers with a loan-portfolio default rate equal to the average insurer would set aside 4 percent of the book value of their outstanding commercial mortgages, a 53 percent increase from the current average of 2.6 percent. With the revision adopted Monday, insurers would set as aside as little as 2.1 percent, while those with worse-than-average experience would set aside as much as 4.6 percent. Mortgage loans represented about 7 percent of life insurers’ total assets in 2008.

The 2010 NASCO Conference, which will highlight opportunities to reignite cross-border trade and to streamline secure freight transportation between businesses and consumers in the United States, Canada and Mexico, begins today in Des Moines. NASCO stands for The North American SuperCorridor Coalition Inc., a multi-modal transportation network that connects 71 million people and supports a major part of the $1 trillion in commerce between the nations. The event will be held primarily at the Polk County Convention Complex. For more information about NASCO and the conference, including a list of speakers, click here. To read a full story about the event, click here.

Peter Haeffner, national director of MapWide.com, has been named the next associate publisher of advertising for Meredith Corp.’s Family Circle magazine. Haeffner has also worked for Better Homes and Gardens and TV Guide. “We are thrilled to welcome Pete to the Family Circle team. His enthusiasm, dedication to excellence and hands-on attitude make him the perfect fit to help continue Family Circle’s strong forward momentum,” said Diane Papazian, publisher of Family Circle, in a statement.

Clay McClure will serve as the next director of the Iowa office of state-federal relations, Gov. Chet Culver’s office announced Monday. McClure, currently an adviser for the Culver administration on federal relations, will serve in the position while the former director, Jon Murphy, campaigns for the position of state auditor.

Health-care costs for employers are expected to rise 9 percent in 2011, according to a report released Monday by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Michael Thompson, principal of human resource services, said in a statement that health-care costs will continue to rise through 2014, when health care shifts from a “voluntary benefit to an individual mandate, enforced by new tax levies.”

The six-month ban on offshore drilling will hurt the economy and lead to more job losses, according to statements that Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. officials prepared for their testimony in front of Congress today. The CEOs of the oil companies said BP plc’s practices were not the industry standard and that offshore drilling is safe if done properly. Read more.

Experts are predicting that a housing shortage is on the way after new-home starts in April took place at an annual rate of 672,000, CNN Money reported. Analysts fear that when more jobs are created, more people will look to buy homes but will find that not enough have been built to meet demand. Read more.

Statistics from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. show that banks’ profits are on the rise, but an independent investigation by the Investigative Reporting Workshop shows that troubled assets are also on the rise, a sign of bank stress. Read more.