Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) announced it will reduce its tuition increase for the upcoming 2009-10 academic year by $7.50 per credit hour. The DMACC board of directors had previously increased tuition by $15.50 a credit hour to $122.50, based on earlier projections. The new rate will be $115 per credit hour. Gov. Chet Culver and state legislators were able to backfill many of the community college cuts discussed earlier in the session with dollars from President Barack Obama’s stimulus program, allowing the DMACC board to roll back the tuition increase.

HNI Corp.’s board of directors today declared a quarterly dividend of 21.5 cents per share. The dividend will be payable June 1 to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 22.

The European Commission today fined Intel Corp. a record 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 billion) and ordered it to halt illegal rebates and other practices used to squeeze out its rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Reuters reported. The commission is accusing Intel of paying computer makers to postpone or cancel plans to launch products that used AMD chips so computer makers would use mostly or entirely Intel chips. Intel is also being accused of paying a major retailer to stock only computers with its chips. The commission ordered Intel to “cease the illegal practices immediately to the extent that they are still ongoing.” The antitrust fine is the biggest imposed on an individual company.

West Des Moines-based Schillinger Genetics, a specialty seed company, has opened a new southern Illinois research station. Schillinger has research stations in Iowa, Maryland and Argentina. The new Illinois research station will focus primarily on developing unique soybean products targeted for food and feed.

Good Housekeeping magazine will increase its trim size by 10 percent to 8 1/4 by 10 7/8 inches and will lower its rate base from 4.6 million to 4.3 million, Media Week reported. Beginning with the January 2010 issue, the cover price will increase from $2.50 to $3.49. Hearst Corp., the publisher of the magazine, disclosed last month that it had been testing a larger format and higher cover price in an effort to update consumers’ perceptions of the 124-year-old title. Good Housekeeping will have the second-biggest rate base among women’s service and lifestyle books after Meredith Corp.’s Better Homes and Gardens.

Blank Park Zoo will break ground on Thursday at 11 a.m. for a new outdoor red panda exhibit, which marks the start of the zoo’s multiphase expansion. The event also marks the official opening of the indoor red panda exhibit. Invited speakers include state Sen. Matt McCoy; Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie; Mike Hubbell, interim CEO of Blank Park Zoo; Loretta Sieman, co-chair of the zoo’s capital campaign; and Chad Comer, the animal curator.