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CHICAGO — Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Thursday he's ready for a fight to get lawmakers to pass a health-care and education spending plan that relies on the biggest tax increase in Illinois history.

The Chicago Democrat signaled that he's willing to tinker with the plan to gain support. Blagojevich said he is working with influential state Sen. James Meeks to come up with a plan to use some of the new revenue to provide local property-tax relief.

It won't be easy, though. There's been a mixed response from lawmakers, and business groups have criticized the governor's plan as a surefire way to drive up prices for consumers and push companies out of state.

DES MOINES — A House committee has endorsed a measure that would raise to 18 the mandatory school-attendance age.

State education officials predict that the move to increase the age from 16 to 18 would mean an additional 200 Iowa students would stay in school each year.

Currently, students can drop out at the age of 16 so long as they have their parents' permission.

Democrats, who now have control of both chambers of the Legislature, have been trying to make the change for three years.

NEW CASTLE — A Japanese company plans to start construction next month on a $32 million factory that will employ 300 people and churn out about 800 car seats a day for the new Honda Motor Corp. plant being built in Greensburg.

The 200,000-square-foot factory operated by TS Tech also will make interior trim pieces for Honda automobiles, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corp., which said the seats will be used for Honda Civics.

Honda spokesman Ed Miller said the seats will be used in Greensburg, about 40 miles south of New Castle in eastern Indiana.

But Miller declined to confirm whether Civics will be made there.

Honda has said only that the new factory will make a car powered by a four-cylinder engine made in Ohio. Construction has already started on the plant, which will employ about 2,000 people when it opens in the fall of 2008.

TOPEKA — Stung by Demo-crats' criticism that they were putting off too many important spending decisions, Republicans restored pay raises and money for universities to a proposed state budget before a committee endorsed it Friday.

The House Appropriations Committee finished its work on three bills providing a total of $12.2 billion to state government for the fiscal year beginning July 1. On a single voice vote, the committee forwarded all three to the House, which expects to debate them next week.

The committee restored more than $86 million for raises and one-time bonuses for state workers, though the GOP plan is different from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' plan to give workers a 4 percent raise.

It also voted to restore additional funding Sebelius had proposed for state universities' general operations and social services. In all, the committee put back $199 million in spending it previously had deleted.

LANSING — Gov. Jennifer Granholm was to have left for Europe Saturdayaiming to entice international companies to expand and invest in Michigan, as the fight over her proposed tax increase heats up at home.

A big stop will be in Germany with DaimlerChrysler AG and its chairman, Dieter Zetsche. Private equity firms this week were examining the Chrysler Group's books and considering making offers to buy the U.S.-based unit of DaimlerChrysler.

''Clearly, we want to make sure that Michigan is the beneficiary of whatever decision is made at DaimlerChrysler,'' Granholm told reporters Friday.

Also Friday, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Association of Realtors said they will start airing TV ads Monday against Granholm's proposed 2 percent tax on services.

ST. PAUL — Four years after they rescinded health benefits for partners of gay and lesbian state employees, Minnesota lawmakers took the first step Friday on a long road toward restoring them.

A Senate committee approved a bill that would make labor contracts extend similar health insurance to same-sex partners of state workers as the spouses of married employees get. It passed on a divided voice vote and now heads to another committee.

The bill faces an uphill fight, primarily because Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty opposes the benefit offering. He signed a bill in 2003 that revoked domestic-partner benefits negotiated under the administration of Gov. Jesse Ventura.

ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Department of Transportation awarded two emergency contracts Friday to repair pedestrian bridges across the state after one of the bridges collapsed in St. Louis.

MoDOT found that 60 bridges shared the same design of a concrete walkway that collapsed recently onto Interstate 55 in St. Louis, said Paul Kelly, the agency's assistant state bridge engineer.

The emergency contracts — worth a total of $812,000 — will pay to retrofit 45 of the 1960s-era bridges in the St. Louis area. That also will redo 12 bridges in Kansas City and three in St. Joseph.

The pedestrian walkway collapsed in St. Louis because steel reinforcement bars connecting the walkway to a highway overpass gradually decayed over the years from water and road salt, Kelly said.

One motorist was injured when her car hit concrete chunks from the walkway.

A company specializing in renewable energy plans to build a wind farm in north-central Nebraska that would be the state's largest wind-power operation.

Mike Donahue, executive vice president of Midwest Wind Energy LLC, confirmed Friday that a 100-megawatt wind farm is in the works for Holt County. The project would cost $160 million.

One megawatt of electricity is roughly enough to power 250 to 300 American homes for a day. The planned wind farm would generate enough power for 40,000 Nebraskans, according to Midwest.

BISMARCK — Organizers of North Dakota's attempt to retake the snow angel world record say even more people showed up at the state Capitol mall than first thought.

Marilyn Snyder, curator of education for the State Historical Society of North Dakota, said 8,962 names will be submitted to Guinness World Records officials — 50 more than the initial tally after the Feb. 17 attempt.

''We discovered names on the backs of some of the sign-in sheets not previously counted,'' Snyder said.

The Guinness category was created in 2002 when 1,791 people flapped their arms and legs in the snow to make angel imprints on the North Dakota Capitol grounds. Students at Michigan Technological University set a new mark about a year ago, with 3,784.

DAYTON — A building the military used as a top-secret code-breaking lab during World War II will be demolished, the University of Dayton announced Friday.

The university, which owns the property, said the decision was made after a study showed the building had lost its historical integrity because it had been extensively remodeled and is not eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

From 1942 to 1945, the Navy used the building as a lab for designing and building sophisticated code-breaking machines, including the NCR Bombe, credited with helping crack German U-boat codes.

The university plans to memorialize the building's history in some way, possibly with public art, a plaza or a museum-type display.

RAPID CITY — State wildlife officials say the availability of some fish and game species could change for western South Dakota hunters and anglers if warmer, drier conditions continue over time.

Tony Leif, game program administrator for the state Game, Fish and Parks Department, said a climate change could have dramatic effects.

Western South Dakota's upland game-bird population could suffer from long-term drier and warmer weather, Leif said, listing birds such as prairie chickens, sharp-tailed grouse and pheasants.

He said big-game hunting also could change, but the effect could be harder to quantify. Milder winters make survival easier — but less moisture means less foliage to eat.

MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee-based pizza maker has sued discount gourmet grocer Trader Joe's for violating its trademark with production of Trader Giotto's Pizza Palermo.

Palermo Villa Inc., which makes frozen Palermo's Pizza, sued Trader Joe's for trademark infringement, unfair competition and false advertising. It claims in its suit that shoppers confuse the two brands.

"Because of Trader Joe's use of Palermo's mark, Palermo's customers believed that the products advertised by Trader Joe's were actually Palermo's products," the suit says.

Brian Berliner, an attorney for Trader Joe's, said Palermo is city in Italy where a distinct style of pepperoni pizza is produced. Trader Joe's uses the term to describe its pizza, not identify its maker, he said.

CALGARY, Alberta — Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach says the province will pay the entire tab for a new hospital in south Calgary, despite a $350 million cost overrun.

Stelmach says taxpayers will foot the entire bill for the hospital, now estimated to cost about $900 million.

The premier says he ruled out alternative funding arrangements, such as partnerships with private firms, because it would only delay the much-needed hospital in the city's sprawling south.

Even though Alberta committed to fund the project two years ago, speculation has swirled over its fate since the Calgary Health Region announced the 60 percent cost overrun.