Several quiet Iowa communities are suddenly much busier because of the closure of the northbound lanes of Interstate 35 in Warren County south of Des Moines.

The Iowa State Patrol began rerouting northbound traffic Monday night after a truck hauling construction equipment hit and severely damaged a bridge that passed above I-35.

Until it’s repaired, the bridge is too precarious to drive beneath.

That meant on Tuesday, residents in Martensdale, Prole and Norwalk dealt with big changes in their communities.

For elementary principal Tom Wood, Martensdale has changed from a place where the only noise was children playing or birds singing to “semis humming by every few seconds.”

The detour veers onto Highway 92, then Highway 28 and north to Highway 5, where traffic returns to I-35 near West Des Moines.

A small patch of prairie sits largely unnoticed off a desolate road in southwestern South Dakota. Nearby are hundreds of grave sites — many belonging to Native Americans massacred more than a century earlier.

James Czywczynski is trying to sell the 40-acre fraction of the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark and another 40-acre parcel for a total of $4.9 million.

The assessed value of the properties is less than $14,000.

Wounded Knee is where 300 Native Americans were killed by the 7th Cavalry in 1890.

Czywczynski has given the Oglala Sioux Tribe until Wednesday to agree to the price or he will open it up to outside investors.

But tribal members say he is trying to profit off their suffering.

A Kansas City attorney once convicted of killing his law partner has his law license back.

The Missouri Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it has reinstated the law license of Richard Buchli II.

He was convicted of killing his law partner, Richard Armitage, in 2002. A court set aside Buchli’s conviction six years ago after finding evidence was withheld at his trial.

Prosecutors dismissed the case last year, after a judge threw out all the state’s evidence.

Buchli will be on probation for three years. He is required to report quarterly to a probation “monitor” on the status of his law practice, and about any criminal or civil actions against him.

He also must undergo a mental health evaluation within 60 days.

A new audit takes issue with the way Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has billed aircraft flights to the State Emergency Management Agency.

State Auditor Tom Schweich says SEMA paid about $55,000 during the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years for Nixon to fly disaster sites and promote recovery efforts. The audit says there is no record of SEMA personnel accompanying Nixon on any of the flights.

Officials from the Department of Public Safety did sometimes fly with the governor.

The Missouri budget allows Nixon to bill the cost of flights to the Department of Public Safety, which includes the State Emergency Management Agency.

Schweichs’ audit recommends that SEMA stop paying for Nixon’s flight costs.

The agency gave no indication in a written response that it would halt the practice.

Missouri House members have approved legislation that would make changes to the sex offender registry.

Sex offenders would be grouped into three tiers with each considered to have a different risk of committing another offense.

Eventually, people could file a petition in court and ask to be removed from the registry. How long they would need to wait before filing a petition would vary depending on their tier.

Part of the legislation also seeks to increase the penalty for incest, child rape and child abuse resulting in death. Another portion adjusts the definition of rape to include instances in which a woman has become incapacitated because of the actions of a third person.

The legislation approved 101-52 on Monday now goes to the Senate.

Former game show host Bob Barker is giving several of the awards he’s received throughout his career to Drury University.

Barker will make the donation during a May 9 visit to his Springfield alma mater.

Barker got his start at Springfield radio station KTTS before graduating from Drury in 1947. He continued his radio career with “The Bob Barker Show” before moving to television.

He hosted “Truth or Consequences” and later “The Price is Right.”

The animal rights supporter donated $1 million to Drury in 2008 to establish the Bob Barker Endowment Fund for the Study of Animal Rights. In 2009, he donated another $1 million to establish the Dorothy Jo Barker Endowed Professorship of Animal Rights, named in honor of his late wife.

The flooding Mississippi River is going down at the last of the big trouble spots, but it will likely be months before the full scope of the damage is known.

Information from the National Weather Service showed that the river crested at 10.1 feet above flood stage early Friday at Cape Girardeau, Mo., and had dropped by one-tenth of a foot by late-morning. Cape Girardeau was the final river gauge point facing what the weather service characterizes as “major” flooding.

Sandbagging was successfully hold river water at bay at nearby Dutchtown, Mo.

Heavy rain last week spurred a sudden rise in the Mississippi and other Midwestern rivers. While the water level is dropping, the river is expected to remain above flood stage at many towns well into next month.