JASPER, Mo. (AP) — A southwestern Missouri man is taking recycling to the extreme by building a house made from everything from old tires to cardboard and wood scraps from dilapidated barns.

The Joplin Globe reports that 36-year-old Jimmy Carter expects to complete his 3,500-square-foot house near Jasper in about four years.

The home, at least now, consists of hundreds of earth-packed tires. It eventually will feature more than 1,000, each weighing 300 pounds.

Carter says the house will have minimal reliance on electricity and gas. Solar energy will come from sun-facing windows. Rainwater will be collected through gutters into cisterns.

Three sides of the house will be tucked into the earth, with the roof sitting just a foot or so above level ground.

Carter figures he already has spent about $4,000 on the home, mostly for gravel and the use of a bulldozer. He expects the project’s price tag to be about $25,000.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a 4-year-old girl who survived a stabbing that left her 6-year-old sister dead and the girls’ mother injured spent seven to eight hours alone in the cold before she was rescued near Wichita.

The 4-year-old was able to run away when the mother cut their attacker in the throat and briefly interrupted the assault.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett is sharing the girl’s escape story, dating back to November, because the case against the attacker has been resolved. The man has waived his right to appeal after entering a plea and agreeing to spend 50 years in prison. The Associated Press is withholding his name to prevent potentially identifying a sexual assault victim. Police said the girls’ mother was sexually assaulted.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — This year’s annual bike ride across Iowa will feature an easier northern route across the state.

The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa — known as RAGBRAI — will start in Orange City on July 23 and continue to Lansing on July 29. The route covers 411 miles and climbs 13,078 feet.

Organizers say this year’s course should be the third-easiest one in the event’s 45-year history.

RAGBRAI director T.J. Juskiewicz joked that he’s not sorry that many riders thought last year’s southern route was difficult, but this year’s ride should be fun.

The route will take riders through the towns of Spencer, Algona, Clear Lake, Charles City and Waukon.

NEWTON, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas prosecutor says the death penalty “is on the table” in the case of two people who investigators say fled to Mexico as suspects in a triple homicide last October.

Harvey County prosecutors have charged 35-year-old Jereme Nelson and 31-year-old Myrta Rangel each with one count of capital murder and three counts of first-degree murder.

Nelson and Rangel were arrested earlier this month in Mexico and were returned to the U.S., where they remain jailed in California and await extradition to Kansas.

Authorities have said the bodies of 33-year-old Travis Street and 37-year-old Angela May Graevs, both of Moundridge, and 52-year-old Richard Prouty of Newton, were found Oct. 30 outside a rural home near Moundridge. An 18-month-old child was found unharmed.

It’s unclear if Nelson and Rangel have attorneys.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A major tax cut several years ago on commercial buildings and other properties has sliced hundreds of millions of dollars from the state budget.

It helps explain why Iowa is in the position today of struggling to pay its bills despite a relatively strong economy.

Signed into law in 2013 by Gov. Terry Branstad, the largest tax cut in state history has gradually cost Iowa more than $400 million over several years. A separate $300 million will hit Iowa’s main spending fund this budget year, and that cost will be permanent for the years to come.

The law’s effect on state spending is coming into sharper focus in 2017 as a new GOP-controlled Legislature works privately to cover a roughly $110 million shortfall in the $7.2 billion budget that began last July.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is making a school choice measure called education savings accounts a priority this legislative session.

The accounts, which transfer state dollars to parents through a bank account, can be used for educational costs including private school tuition, textbooks, online classes and therapy. Greitens’ proposal is that parents of special needs students have access to the accounts.

Proponents say this legislation could open the door for more widespread school choice measures, but opponents argue the law would take money away from already underfunded public schools.

Sen. Ed Emery of Lamar has filed legislation to create the accounts.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas higher education leaders say Gov. Sam Brownback’s challenge to create a $15,000 bachelor’s degree is a stretch but they’re willing to try.

Brownback wants to make it easier for students to attend college. He says under the proposal, students would likely amass a combination of high school, community college, university and online credits.

The Board of Regents and universities have the task of creating the program. The governor says the first school to do it would get $1 million for scholarships.

Some officials and higher education experts say it will be doable but difficult. Others question the wisdom of asking the colleges and universities to forego more tuition revenue at a time when state aid is being cut.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawmakers are considering a bill aimed at increasing access to mental health services in rural areas.

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee heard testimony on the bill Thursday. It would approve loans for medical students who agree to practice psychiatry in counties other than Douglas, Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee or Wyandotte. The state already provides loans for students who agree to practice primary care. Students who fail to uphold the agreement have to repay the loan.

Testimony from the Kansas Psychiatric Society says all but five counties have mental health professional shortages. Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Secretary Tim Keck says the bill could help address staffing shortages at the state’s mental health hospitals, Larned and Osawatomie.

Osawatomie State Hospital lost its federal certification in December 2015.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas risks losing federal money if it doesn’t improve its privatized Medicaid program.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a letter dated last Friday that the program, known as KanCare, is “substantively out of compliance.” Issues cited include a failure to adequately oversee the companies that the state contracts to provide managed care for the health care program that covers the poor.

The letter gave the state until Feb. 17 to submit a corrective plan for the program, which has an annual cost of about $3.4 billion. The letter said that failing to address the issues could lead to “financial sanctions.”

Lt. Governor Jeff Colyer said in a statement Thursday that the federal agency’s letter was a politically-motivated “parting shot” from the outgoing Obama administration.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who died of a gunshot wound during a traffic stop in Columbia was accused of exchanging gunfire with a state trooper days earlier.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified the man killed Wednesday as 35-year-old Troy Bateman, of Marshall. Patrol spokesman Sgt. Collin Strosberg said Thursday an autopsy determined Bateman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The patrol says the confrontation began when Columbia police pulled over a car. Two women got out of the vehicle, and police fired at the car after they heard a gunshot. The officers weren’t hurt.

The patrol says Bateman was suspected of exchanging gunfire Friday with a state trooper in Saline County. The trooper wasn’t hit. Bateman also was being sought on a parole violation stemming from a burglary case.