UBS AG has agreed to pay $780 million and immediately disclose the names of about 250 secret account holders to avoid U.S. prosecution on a charge that Switzerland’s largest bank helped thousands of wealthy Americans evade taxes, Bloomberg reported. The Justice Department has accused UBS of helping 17,000 Americans hide accounts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It will drop the charge in 18 months if the bank reforms its practices, helps prosecutors and makes its $780 million payment. The IRS has sought the names of the U.S. account holders since July.

Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, as part of a select group of U.S. mayors, will meet with President Barack Obama and members of his Cabinet tomorrow morning in Washington, D.C. The focus of the discussion will be on implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Center on Sustainable Communities will host an advanced green building training workshop on Feb. 25 from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Raccoon River Park Nature Lodge, 2500 Grand Ave., West Des Moines. For more information or to register, go to www.icosc.com.

Des Moines landlords are eligible to receive rehabilitation funds for any rental properties damaged by last year’s flooding. The maximum someone can receive is $24,999 per unit for repairs in the form of a five-year forgivable loan. The Rental Rehabilitation program is funded by Community Development Block Grant funds. Landlords receiving assistance must agree to rent the units to families below 80 percent of median income. For more information, go to www.rio.iowa.gov/resources/assitance.html.

In a regulatory filing this week, Casey’s General Stores Inc. reported that its January same-store gasoline gallons sold declined 0.2 percent compared with January 2008, but the profit margin was above its goal of 10.8 cents per gallon. The average retail price of gasoline sold was $1.74 per gallon. Same-store sales of grocery and other merchandise rose 7.2 percent and prepared food and fountain sales rose 8.6 percent.

Muscatine-based Iowa First Bancshares Corp. reported that net income for 2008 totaled $2.86 million, down 29 percent from the prior year. Its return on average assets was 0.7 percent and its return on average equity was 9.8 percent. “While these results clearly are below our company’s normal expectations, they do compare somewhat more favorably with our industry in a year when there was a dramatic decline in overall bank earnings,” Chairman Scott Ingstad said in a release. Net income last year was affected by a deterioration of certain loans, with a $1.67 million increase in non-accrual loans to $5.59 million, or 1.72 percent of gross loans outstanding. Net loans charged off totaled $1.4 million, compared with $188,000 in the previous year. To cover bad loans, the bank incurred a loan loss provision cost of $2.4 million.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a scam alert yesterday to small businesses, warning them not to respond to letters falsely claiming to have been sent by the SBA asking for bank account information in order to qualify them for federal tax rebates. The letters appear to have been sent on SBA letterhead to small businesses across the country. However, they were not sent or authorized by SBA and small businesses are strongly advised not to respond to them. The organization is working with the SBA Office of Inspector General to investigate this matter. People who receive such a letter are asked to report it by calling (800) 767-0385 or e-mailing OIGHotline@sba.gov.