JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The rideshare company Lyft says it will start providing services in Springfield, Missouri.

The announcement comes Tuesday after the Missouri House gave initial approval to statewide regulations for app-based transportation companies. Uber and Lyft say statewide regulations could enable them to expand throughout the state.

Lawmakers showed support in a voice vote for a bill requiring rideshare companies to pay a $5,000 licensing fee, conduct driver background checks and vehicle inspections, and exempt such companies from paying local or municipal taxes.

There was little opposition to the proposal.

Springfield will be the first city in Missouri to welcome Lyft after a 2014 lawsuit by the St. Louis Taxi Commission pushed it out of the city. Uber currently operates in Springfield, Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that Ameren Missouri’s coal-fired power plant near St. Louis violates the Clean Air Act and has created “significantly more pollution” since modifications were made.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel’s ruling Monday could require St. Louis-based Ameren to install additional pollution control equipment at the Rush Island power plant in Jefferson County. Ameren Missouri calls the ruling disappointing and says an appeal is planned.

Ameren Missouri modified the plant in 2007 and 2010. The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency in 2011, alleging that upgrades to boilers significantly increased emissions of sulfur dioxide.

The EPA’s website says short-term exposure to sulfur dioxide can harm the respiratory system and make breathing difficult, and can contribute to acid rain.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s new Republican attorney general says he doesn’t intend to live in Jefferson City, despite a state law that appears to require him to “reside” there.

Josh Hawley took office Jan. 9 after a campaign that touted his experience as a constitutional lawyer.

A state law says the attorney general “shall reside in the seat of government,” which the Missouri Constitution says is Jefferson City. Hawley lives about 20 miles north Jefferson City near Ashland.

A legal analysis provided Tuesday by a deputy attorney general says Hawley is following the law because his home is within “ordinary commuting distance” of Jefferson City.

However, Assistant House Minority Leader Gina Mitten, a Democrat from St. Louis, says Hawley can either live in Columbia or be attorney general, but he can’t do both.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A federal judge has ruled that a Missouri steel-erection company’s workplace safety violations caused the 2014 death of an ironworker at a job site.

U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays concluded last week that evidence presented during a trial last August shows DNRB Inc. of Pacific, Missouri, ignored safety violations. A sentencing date wasn’t immediately set.

DNRB, doing business as Fastrack Erectors, in 2014 was a subcontractor in the construction of a Kansas City, Missouri, distribution warehouse.

A worker, 22-year-old Eric Roach of Raymore, wasn’t using fall-prevention equipment as required by federal statutes when he fell 36 feet to the ground. He died the next day.

A message left Tuesday by The Associated Press with DNRB was not immediately returned.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Relatives searching for a missing woman have found the decomposed body of man in a Kansas City creek bed.

The Kansas City Star reports that 21-year-old Brandon Herring had been missing since November when relatives of Jessica Runions discovered his remains Saturday. The Raytown man’s death has been ruled a homicide.

Runions’ father, John Michael Runions, says “somebody else’s family is going to get some answers.”

His daughter was last seen leaving a party in September. Kylr Yust was arrested and charged with burning the 21-year-old Raymore woman’s SUV. A judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Police say Yust also is a person of interest in the 2007 disappearance of an ex-girlfriend, Kara Kopetsky. Yust has not been charged in the disappearance of Runions or Kopetsky.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A St. Louis County man who hit himself in the head with frying pans has died after police had to use stun guns to subdue him.

Police on Tuesday identified the victim as 57-year-old Tereance Klein. The death remains under investigation.

A relative called police Monday night to report that Klein, possibly under the influence of drugs, was destroying the home and harming himself. The relative barricaded Klein in the basement. Police say that’s when he began striking his own head with frying pans.

Officers tried to handcuff Klein but police say he was so combative that officers had to use their stun guns. Officers and ambulance crews saw that he was not breathing and tried unsuccessfully to revive him. Klein was pronounced dead at the scene.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Supporters of a right-to-work measure to ban mandatory union dues in Missouri are challenging ballot proposals that would undermine that policy.

The National Right to Work Foundation announced Monday it’s helping three workers sue against ballot initiatives that would ask voters to amend the constitution to ensure union negotiating rights.

The lawsuits come as the Republican-led Legislature is moving quickly to send a right-to-work bill to Republican Gov. Eric Greitens. The new governor supports right to work.

Missouri AFL-CIO President Mike Louis in anticipation of such a bill passing filed several versions of ballot proposals to reverse those policies.

Opponents argue in the lawsuits that ballot summaries written under former Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander are too vague and misleading. Summaries are meant to help voters understand ballot initiatives.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska state senator who had cybersex with a woman on a state computer is facing criticism again for a retweet suggesting that demonstrators at a women’s march weren’t attractive enough to be sexually assaulted.

Republican state Sen. Bill Kintner of Papillion on Sunday retweeted a comment by conservative personality Larry Elder that mocked three women pictured with signs protesting Donald Trump’s comments about touching women inappropriately. Above the photo, Elder wrote: “Ladies, I think you’re safe.”

Kintner’s retweet drew immediate criticism online and from the Nebraska Democratic Party. The blunt-spoken lawmaker paid a $1,000 fine last year after he admitted to engaging in mutual masturbation on Skype with a woman who tried to blackmail him.

Kintner declined to comment Monday but suggested he would issue a statement later.