A privately funded group continues work on a fast-track plan to stop invasive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes. The group hopes to release its plan in January. The Detroit Free Press reports one of the options includes a series of barriers in the Illinois River to stop the destructive species from traveling from the Mississippi River through Chicago to Lake Michigan. Minnesota is part of a suit to force federal officials to speed up the effort to halt the fish before they spread further.

State officials on the lookout for Asian carp have been monitoring the Mississippi River. But there are new fears that the invasive species may use another gateway to Minnesota. Anglers in northwestern Iowa have caught dozens of the carp in waters that connect through streams and lakes to southern Minnesota.

Initial reports suggested the drought and a low water level on the Mississippi River might have contributed to the barge running aground. But the Coast Guard says sediment has built up on the river bottom. Traffic will resume after it's dredged.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it will come up with a short list of options for blocking the spread of the invasive fish by the end of next year. The Corps had earlier said the process would take until 2015. Asian carp have already invaded the Mississippi River watershed. Officials hope to keep them from migrating into the Great Lakes.

Researchers are taking water samples from nearly 300 different spots in the Minnesota, Mississippi and St. Croix rivers to determine whether the invasive carp have spread this far upstream.

The Obama administration's point man in the fight against invasive Asian carp says his agency is focused on protecting the Great Lakes. But he doubts the plan Sen. Amy Klobuchar is pushing is a viable way to keep the fish out of the upper Mississippi River.

State and federal officials are pushing a bill in Congress that would close the lock and dam at St. Anthony Falls if the invasive fish is found nearby. They say if Asian carp get any farther up the Mississippi River, they would threaten Minnesota's $11 billion tourism industry.

A risk analysis by U.S. and Canadian researchers finds the food supply and breeding areas in the Great Lakes would allow Asian carp to spread rapidly. The report says just ten breeding females and a few males would be enough of a foothold for the invasive fish to populate all five of the Great Lakes.