Construction spending unexpectedly increased 0.3 percent in March after five straight monthly declines, the Commerce Department announced today. According to the Associated Press, economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected construction spending to decrease 1.5 percent.

Principal Financial Group Inc. will release its first-quarter financial and operating results today at 3 p.m. Iowa time. The company will host a conference call to discuss the results tomorrow at 9 a.m. For more information, visit www.principal.com/investor.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. announced that it will eliminate about 100 positions in its Northeast Florida mortgage operations, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The jobs are in a division that handled Wachovia Corp.’s pick-a-pay and option-adjustable-rate mortgages, which the bank no longer writes, said Kathy Harrison, the company’s regional spokeswoman. Harrison said the job cuts are also “part of the overall efficiency planning and modeling related to the integration” of Wachovia into Wells Fargo. The 100 jobs represent “just about” the entire department, which will be consolidated into Wells Fargo’s mortgage-refinance operations in San Antonio.

A new community campaign called “I believe,” which is aimed at celebrating Greater Des Moines, will kick off tonight at 4:30 p.m. at Principal Park. The event will go until 6:30 p.m. and will feature live music from She Swings She Sways and Bonne Finken. One thousand free tickets will be given away for tonight’s Iowa Cubs game, and all other tickets are priced at $1.

Today is the last day to register for Iowa State University’s Nutrition and Wellness Research Center’s third annual symposium, “Vaccines, Immunity and Well-Being,” which will be held May 17-19 at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center in Ames. The symposium will explore the role of biotechnology in vaccine design, the effect of nutrition on immunity and how physical exercise and psychosocial behaviors affect vaccine effectiveness. Marian Kohut, an associate professor of kinesiology who is also the co-chair of the symposium committee, expects influenza to be a popular topic during the symposium due to the current H1N1 flu outbreak. For more information or to register for the symposium, go to www.nwrc.iastate.edu/symposia.php, or contact Kohut at (515) 294-8364, or mkohut@iastate.edu.