5min Ltd., a New York City-based syndicator of broadband instructional, knowledge and lifestyle videos, announced that it has closed syndication deals with the Style Network and G4 cable networks; For Dummies; and Meredith Corp., in a move to extend online exposure and create new advertising opportunities for each partner. 5min will extend online viewership while opening up new advertising opportunities for each partner by intelligently matching the videos to targeted audiences, the company said. Des Moines-based Meredith will provide lifestyle content from Better.TV and Parents.TV, commencing with 500 videos and adding up to 225 videos each month. Meredith produces online videos covering a range of topics and experts from its magazine brands, among them Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle and American Baby.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. Chairman Dean Oestreich will retire effective Dec. 31, parent company E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. announced Tuesday. Oestreich, also a DuPont vice president, was named Pioneer’s chairman in November 2007. A date for announcing his successor has not yet been decided, a company spokeswoman said. Oestreich plans to remain active in business following his retirement, working with Pioneer and others to further increase agriculture productivity. He joined Pioneer in 1974 as a corn breeder and quickly moved up the ranks to leadership positions in information management, production operations, international sales operations and North America business management. Oestreich was named a Pioneer vice president in 1999 and became the 10th president of Pioneer in January 2004.

The Iowa Department of Transportation has let five projects worth more than $7.9 million, Gov. Chet Culver announced Tuesday. The projects include two freight rails, five local roads and one trail, and will be funded in total or in part through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In Polk County, $1.61 million will be used to widen and resurface Army Post Road from Southwest Ninth Street east to Southeast Fifth Street. The other projects are located in Bremer, Dubuque, Fayette, Guthrie, Harrison, Jefferson and Pottawattamie counties.

Iowa had the lowest automobile insurance premiums in the nation in 2007, according to new data released by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. According to the report, Iowa had the lowest combined average auto premium at $620, followed by Wisconsin, $642; North Dakota, $658; South Dakota, $669; and Nebraska, $689. Throughout the United States, rates continued to fall from levels seen earlier this decade. The combined average premium nationally was $912, down from $936 the previous year, $954 in 2005 and $967 in 2004.

Wells Fargo & Co. said Tuesday that it will close 122 California bank branches as a result of its takeover of Wachovia Corp. last year, mostly Wachovia offices that are smaller and less prominently located than nearby Wells Fargo branches. The closures are scheduled to occur in April as San Francisco-based Wells Fargo puts its name on the Wachovia locations that are to remain open. California was the only state in which the two banks had significantly overlapping retail franchises. Even after the downsizing, Wells Fargo will have more than 1,000 branches in California.