COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Two women are charged in central Missouri with second-degree murder in connection with a crash along Interstate 70 that killed one of the women’s children and injured two others.

Boone County prosecutors filed the murder count this week against 31-year-old Demetres Washington and 22-year-old Mackenzie Quiovers. Each woman also faces three kidnapping counts. Washington was arrested Friday.

Authorities allege Washington and her friend, Quiovers, lured three of Washington’s children from their home on March 7 as part of a custody dispute and later crashed a car with the children inside.

Washington’s 13-year-old daughter, Shianna Mays, died from her injuries. The two other children are recovering.

A message left Friday with Quiovers’ public defender was not immediately returned. Online court records don’t list an attorney for Washington.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House has passed a bill that would repeal the state’s “prevailing wage” law for public construction projects.

The proposal, which passed Thursday with an 89-60 vote, would reverse a state law requiring cities, school districts and other government entities to pay more than the state’s minimum wage for public construction and maintenance projects. It now moves to the Senate.

Supporters of the bill say it would save the state money. Opponents argue that repealing the wages, which are calculated by a county-by-county basis, would allow the state to undercut Missouri union workers.

Gov. Eric Greitens has pledged to support the bill. He recently signed another, labor-related “right to work” law prohibiting mandatory union fees.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A coalition of environmental groups is challenging the federal permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline in court because they say additional environmental scrutiny is needed.

The Sierra Club joined with several other environmental groups to file the federal lawsuit Thursday in Montana.

The proposed pipeline that TransCanada wants to build would carry crude oil through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska where it would connect with an existing Keystone pipeline network that moves crude to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.

The environmental groups say the initial environmental review completed in 2014 is inadequate and outdated.

The U.S. State Department issued a permit for the project earlier this month, although Nebraska regulators still must review the proposed route there.

Officials with the State Department and TransCanada declined to comment on the lawsuit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, evidence that the U.S. job market remains healthy.

The Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment aid dropped 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 258,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose to 254,250.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs and have remained below 300,000, a historically low level, for 108 weeks. That’s the longest stretch since 1970. The figure was reported as 80 weeks last week but was corrected by the Labor Department.

Such a low level of applications suggests companies are cutting few jobs. It also indicates that those who are laid off may not be seeking unemployment aid as often as in the past. That could be a good sign that they are quickly finding jobs.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for a second straight week, slipping further from their highest levels of the year reached two weeks ago.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the rate on 30-year fixed-rate home loans declined to 4.14 percent from 4.23 percent last week. The benchmark rate stood at 3.71 percent a year ago and averaged 3.65 percent in 2016, the lowest level in records dating to 1971.

The rate on 15-year mortgages eased to 3.39 percent from 3.44 percent.

NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter has found more creative ways to ease its 140-character limit without officially raising it.

Now, the company says that when you reply to someone — or to a group — usernames will no longer count toward those 140 characters. This will be especially helpful with group conversations, where replying to two, three or more users at a time could be especially difficult with the character constraints.

Last fall, Twitter said it would stop counting photos, videos, quote tweets, polls and GIF animations toward the character limit.

Twitter, which has been struggling to attract new users, has been trying to appeal to both proponents and opponents by sticking to the current limit while allowing more freedom to express thoughts, or rants, through images and other media.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s Republican-led House has squashed an attempt by Democrats to expand Medicaid eligibility.

Members voted 102-41 against a proposal by Columbia Democratic Rep. Kip Kendrick to broaden eligibility under former President Barack Obama’s federal health care law.

Kendrick tried to add the proposal to a Republican-sponsored bill that’s advancing to create a taskforce on how the state can revamp health care in order to get a waiver from the law.

While neighboring Kansas and other Republican-led states have taken steps toward expanding Medicaid eligibility, the House vote is another act of opposition in Missouri.

Missouri Republican Gov. Eric Greitens also this week told reporters he still opposes the law and wants an overhaul by Congress.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The mayor of Wichita, Kansas, says he hopes a planned $7.2-million wetlands park spanning 56 acres will become a tourism draw in the southern Kansas city.

Mayor Jeff Longwell tells the Wichita Eagle he expects the Pracht Wetlands Park to be “a wonderful, unique” site at Cadillac Lake and “certainly special for the city.”

The Wichita City Council this week reviewed plans for the park, which will include flood-proof, galvanized steel boardwalks and wildlife observation stations.

Slawson Co. donated the wetlands to the city and is planning a hotel and restaurant development nearby.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are accelerating work on stricter regulations for amusement park rides following the death last summer of a lawmaker’s 10-year-old son on a giant waterslide.

The House Federal and State Affairs Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would require owners of permanent amusement rides to have them inspected annually by a professional engineer. Ride operators and patrons would be required to report serious injuries to the state.

The committee’s voice vote sends the bill to the House for debate on a track possibly allowing both chambers to approve it next week.

The state’s requirement for parks to self-inspect rides annually came under scrutiny after Rep. Scott Schwab’s 10-year-old son, Caleb, was killed on Schlitterbahn Waterpark’s Verruckt waterslide in Kansas City, Kansas. It was billed as the world’s tallest.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Lawmakers are advancing a proposal to ban Missouri cities and counties from using red-light cameras.

House members in a voice vote Wednesday gave initial approval to the ban, which would prohibit the cameras used to catch traffic violations such as speeding and running red lights.

The proposal follows a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that struck down red-light camera laws in some Missouri cities.

Supporters say it should be up to law enforcement to hand out tickets for running red lights and that the cameras are used to generate revenue, rather than control traffic.

Opponents say municipalities should be able to decide whether to use the cameras, which some argue can free police to do other work.

The proposal needs another vote of approval to move to the Senate.