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DES MOINES — Gov. Chet Culver on Thursday announced the opening of an Iowa trade office in Beijing, saying it's important that the state carve out a presence in the rapidly growing nation.

Culver, in the midst of a nine-day trade trip to China, said Iowans should think of China more as a trading partner than an economic competitor.

As an agricultural state that relies heavily on exporting commodities, it's essential for Iowa to build relationships that can help the state compete with producers in South America and elsewhere that want to trade with China, Culver said.

VENICE — Bicyclists and pedestrians soon will have another option when crossing the Mississippi between St. Louis, Mo., and its Illinois suburbs.

Officials say a bicycle-and-walking path on the newly restored McKinley Bridge will open on June 7.

The 98-year-old McKinley opened to vehicle traffic in December after a six-year shutdown for $52 million in repairs.

Community leaders hope the bridge draws more visitors to Illinois communities such as Granite City, Venice and Madison.

EVANSVILLE — The century-old Evansville Museum will undergo a $12 million expansion and remodeling project that will see the construction of a new planetarium and a theater under plans announced Friday.

The project will expand the current 55,000-square-foot building by about 9,000 square feet and include a new science and history space, an expanded and renamed Rivertown USA exhibit, and climate-controlled storage.

Museum Director John Streetman said workers could break ground on the expansion within a year, with a completion target of November 2010. Plans call for a new plaza with a water feature, a 2 1/2-story glassed entry pavilion, a new museum shop and a commercial art display area.

LAWRENCE — One of the two westbound exits from Lawrence onto the Kansas Turnpike will close next month as work begins on a three-year, $140 million project to replace bridges over the Kansas River.

The work is supposed to start on June 16. The existing two-lane bridges, built in the 1950s, will be replaced with three-lane bridges designed to handle heavier traffic.

Michael Johnston, the Turnpike Authority's chief executive officer, called it "the mother of all projects." It should be complete by mid-2011.

Turnpike officials said the work should have a minimal effect on traffic. The new bridges will be built just north of the existing bridges, so that the existing ones can remain open.

LANSING — Bars, restaurants and workplaces in Michigan will not be forced to go smoke-free anytime soon unless lawmakers can resolve whether to excuse casinos and other businesses from the proposed statewide ban.

The conflict over exemptions could prove insurmountable and keep any smoking ban from becoming law.

It has been two weeks since the Republican-led Senate surprisingly voted to prohibit smoking inside all workplaces, including bars and restaurants. The vote energized health advocates and members of the public who want a smoking ban.

But the Democrat-controlled House has yet to send the legislation to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who supports it.

House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford, sympathizes with Detroit casino and cigar-bar owners who argue that not having smoking in their facilities would hurt business. Tribal casinos could continue allowing smoking because state laws don't apply due to tribal sovereignty.

MINNEAPOLIS — A popular motivational speaker from rural Cambridge who used his life story as a morality tale to warn kids about the dangers of drugs is in jail, facing nine felony charges for allegedly going on an alcohol- and methamphetamine-fueled shooting spree.

KMSP-TV reported Thursday that Russell Simon Jr., 45, was arrested on May 15 and is now being held in the Isanti County Jail with bail set at a high $1 million due to allegedly threatening phone calls he had made to his family from jail.

The charges include first-degree premeditated attempted murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, assault with a dangerous weapon, and violating the terms of his earlier prison release by using a firearm. He could be facing 30 years in prison.

ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Zoo is planning ahead — way ahead.

Zoo President Jeffrey Bonner on Friday announced major initiatives for the next 25 years for the free zoo in Forest Park.

Bonner announced plans for several upgrades over the next quarter of a century. They include building new exhibits for animals ranging from polar bears to sea lions; improving the facility's 100-year-old infrastructure; expanding the elephant exhibit; and expanding in areas such as research, conservation and education.

Zoo officials don't yet have an estimate on the cost of the improvements.

LINCOLN — Nebraska water officials are moving ahead with a detailed study of a pipeline that would dump groundwater into the Republican River for use by Kansas.

The state and natural resources districts in the Republican basin together may spend roughly $950,000 on the second phase of a study to design the pipeline, which could be built between Harlan County Lake and Guide Rock, near the Kansas border.

Supporters say the pipeline could help Nebraska get into compliance with the three-state river compact that dictates how much Republican River water Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado can use.

Nebraska has overused its allotment of river water in recent years, and Kansas officials have demanded more than $72 million in damages and a shutdown of wells that irrigate nearly half of the 1.2 million acres in Nebraska's portion of the river basin. The two sides have been unable to resolve their dispute, and the issue is likely headed to arbitration.

FARGO — The chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota says the health insurer is facing an estimated $22 million difference between premiums it collected and claims expenses paid.

Blues CEO Mike Unhjem said the projected underwriting loss is "not a crisis . . . but it's serious."

Unhjem said the state's largest private insurer had budgeted for an underwriting loss of $15 million for its fiscal year ending Dec. 31. Claims have been rising faster than projected.

Insurance companies have other sources of income, primarily from investments, that keep them in the black financially. But Blues officials warned that the insurer might be forced to trim reimbursements to health-care providers.

CINCINNATI — Water utilities would get earlier warnings of viruses, bacteria or chemicals that could be introduced into drinking-water systems by terrorists under a test monitoring program set for expansion beyond Cincinnati.

The pilot program, ordered by the Department of Homeland Security in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, uses continuous monitoring of public water for contaminants that could sicken or kill millions of people. Some utilities do only spot checks now for such germs, pesticides or radioactive materials.

Some utilities might find that they need additional video cameras and alarms to warn of intruders at water tanks or other sites. Once the pilot program is complete, the Environmental Protection Agency hopes to have a national water security model that utilities could adopt at their own expense.

The monitoring also could detect unintentional contamination and could help utilities improve their overall water quality, said Dan Schmelling, project coordinator for the EPA's Water Security Initiative. Such contamination could include pollution from chemicals spills in lakes or rivers.

The AAA predicts fewer South Dakotans will be on the road this holiday weekend because of higher gasoline prices.

"Triple A is predicting about 93,000 South Dakotans are going to travel this weekend, and of those, just a little over 79,000 by vehicle," said Mark Medeja, a spokesman in Sioux Falls.

Weekend travel expectations nationwide and in South Dakota are down about 1 percent from last year, he said.

"So we, I believe, have finally hit that place in time to where the price of a gallon of gasoline does now affect what somebody is going to do for summer vacation," Medeja said.

The travel club said the average price of gas in the state is $3.82 for a gallon for regular.

MILWAUKEE — The numerous potholes dotting Wisconsin roads are a lingering reminder of last winter's record snowfalls and sign of potential problems next winter.

"This is clearly the worst year we've had," said George Dreckmann, a spokesman for Madison's streets division.

The capital city, which got a record 101.4 inches of snow during winter, has created the Pothole Patrol program, with a Web site residents can use to report holes that need to be fixed.

Crews have worked on more than 65,000 Madison potholes already this year, compared with 89,000 for all of last year and 22,109 in 2004, Dreckmann said. The work is expected to continue through June and then resume in August.

Some crews may be diverted from other duties, such a weed cutting and street sweeping, to work on the potholes, Dreckmann said. The division's overtime budget has been badly depleted, and it may need more money to get through the year, he said.

Local officials around the state said the pothole repairs done earlier this year were only temporary, and they've just begun doing more permanent ones since temperatures have risen.

Regular plowing tore up many of the temporary fixes, and a repeated freeze-and-thaw cycle created more potholes, adding to the work that must be done now, said Daniel Fedderly, the Wisconsin County Highway Association's executive director.

OTTAWA — With the credit crisis showing signs of easing, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney used his first major address in New York to call for new regulations that would avert a repeat of the financial catastrophe.

The rookie central bank governor did not declare the global credit crisis brought on by last summer's subprime meltdown over, but he told a business audience that market turbulence had eased "in recent weeks."

Carney delivered a stern message to the community whose lax lending practices over the past several years had led to last summer's subprime-mortgage meltdown.

Carney said a repeat cycle of easy money and risky financing must not be allowed to recur, and that ways should be found to ensure that central banks or governments have the means to rein in the private banks and market players.