Freddie Mac said today it plans to sell $3 billion in new five-year reference notes due Sept. 27, 2013, on Tuesday, with settlement scheduled for Wednesday. Including this offering, Freddie Mac will have issued $39 billion of reference notes so far during 2008 and have about $260 billion in reference notes and bonds outstanding.

Iowa State University’s Office of Biotechnology has received a $306,000 grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, based in Muscatine, that will allow for the purchase of a state-of-the-art confocal microscope to be used in biotechnology research.

U.K. house prices posted the biggest annual decline since at least 2002 as banks choked off mortgage lending, deepening London’s property slump, Rightmove Plc said. The average asking price for a home fell 4.8 percent in August from a year earlier to 229,816 pounds ($426,929).

Ford Motor Co. will sell up to $500 million of common stock to enable it to buy back debt from its Ford Motor Credit Co. LLC subsidiary, the automaker said in a filing last Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the filing, Goldman, Sachs & Co. will act as the sales agent, and the move is viewed as a way for the struggling automaker to improve its balance sheet.

The Greater Des Moines Partnership will host Sen. Charles Grassley, Sen. Tom Harkin, Congressman Leonard Boswell and Congressman Tom Latham at a breakfast on Thursday from 7:30 until 9 a.m. at the Polk County Convention Complex. The Partnership’s chairman, Steve Lacy of Meredith Corp., will host the event, which is intended to replicate the Congressional Delegation Breakfast held during the Partnership’s annual advocacy trip to Washington, D.C. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from the Congressional delegation on issues that are currently under way and will be given the chance to ask questions. The cost for the event is $15, which includes breakfast, and registration can be done online at www.desmoinesmetro.com/events.

The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed $7.1 million in civil penalties against American Airlines Inc. over the passenger carrier’s failure to meet federal requirements related to drug and alcohol testing, the handling of maintenance issues on two aircraft and over the airline’s failure to make timely inspections on emergency escape lighting systems.

Correction:

dsm magazine’s Restaurant Week insert should have stated that Le Jardin, a participating restaurant in Restaurant Week, is open Wednesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. and Sam & Gabe’s Italian Bistro, also a participating restaurant, opens at 5 p.m. for dinner Monday through Saturday.