JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft are hoping to expand services to Missouri customers under proposed statewide regulations for the app-based companies.

The proposal requires background checks for drivers, vehicle inspections and includes a rider nondiscrimination policy.

The bill has largely drawn bipartisan support, but some are concerned that the statewide regulations don’t go far enough to ensure safety. The proposal also includes a provision saying drivers don’t have to pay local taxes.

Two House committees have approved the bill. A similar measure proposed last year stalled when it reached the Senate.

Uber currently operates in St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and Springfield.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A winter storm that brought sleet and freezing rain to parts of the central U.S. has left more than 11,000 electric customers without power in Oklahoma, nearly all in northwest Oklahoma.

Woodward County Emergency Management Director Matt Lehenbauer said Sunday that the county is likely the hardest hit and thousands of residents remain without electricity.

Combined numbers from Oklahoma Gas and Electric and Northwestern Electric Cooperative show about 3,600 customers in Woodward County, nearly 1,900 in Harper County and about 1,400 in Ellis County had no electricity. Electric co-ops across the state reported more than 9,000 outages. OG&E reported more than 2,600.

Lehenbauer said as some power is restored, the ice that’s bent tree limbs begins to melt and the limbs snap back into place, sometimes knocking down additional power lines.

GRANBY, Mo. (AP) — Another Missouri school district is considering whether to join 18 others that have adopted a four-day school week.

East Newton Superintendent Todd McCrackin says the district is considering the change because of an expected drop of about $350,000 in next year’s budget. He says the decrease would come from less state funding and declining enrollment.

The Joplin Globe reports that nine of the 18 districts using a four-day week adopted it for this year, when the state saw a $398 million gap between what a school funding formula called for and the money allocated to schools.

McCrackin said the plan would eliminate Monday classes and add 30 minutes to an hour of classes to each school day. After gathering public response, the district hopes to decide by February.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Internal Revenue Service employee is accused in a 15-count federal indictment of filing false tax returns.

Grand jurors in Kansas City, Missouri, indicted 48-year-old Carla Lachelle Mitchell of Kansas City, Kansas, on Friday on 10 counts of filing false tax returns and five counts of aggravated identity theft.

The indictment alleges Mitchell was working as a contact representative at the IRS from 2006 to 2015 when she prepared false federal income tax returns for 2011, 2012 and 2013 for 13 of her friends and family, as well as herself.

Mitchell allegedly included several false entries to lower the individual tax liability or to increase the refunds on the questioned returns.

Online court records do not show whether Mitchell has an attorney.

PLATTE CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri authorities say one of 13 occupants of a van was killed when the vehicle crashed north of Kansas City.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says 35-year-old Maung Hnin of Kansas City, Kansas, was ejected from the van during the crash early Saturday on Interstate 29 in Platte County and was hit by another vehicle. He died at the scene.

The patrol says three other occupants of the van were taken to a hospital with moderate injuries. Others in the van declined treatment.

YODER, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a man accidentally was shot while trying to help kill a buffalo at a south-central Kansas meat-processing business.

The Reno County Sheriff’s Department says Duane Helms of Moundridge was wounded in the leg shortly before 12:30 p.m. Friday at Yoder Meats in Yoder.

Authorities say Helms was assisting a Yoder Meats employee in trying to shoot a buffalo so the animal could be butchered.

The sheriff’s department says a Yoder Meats employee with a rifle was atop a ladder, trying to shoot a buffalo confined in a trailer, when the animal turned, jarring the ladder and knocking the employee off balance. That’s when the rifle discharged, shooting Helms.

The department did not immediately disclose Helms’ medical status Saturday.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas election officials threw out thousands of ballots cast in November, mostly because the state had no record those residents were registered voters.

Some local officials are now voicing concerns about numerous documented instances of lost voter registrations from people who had filled out applications on the state’s online site and at motor vehicle offices. Those names never showed up on any poll books despite the fact these voters had date-stamped, computer screenshot confirmations.

The secretary of state’s office says there was a technical problem with the motor vehicle department computer system that handles online registrations that was corrected days after being discovered.

Numbers obtained from county election offices and the League of Women Voters for 11 largest counties show that 8,864 ballots cast were not counted. The reasons vary.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Freezing rain is causing numerous accidents in Missouri, including one fatal wreck.

Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman Al Nothum says a sport utility vehicle veered off of Interstate 55 near Festus, south of St. Louis, on Friday morning. The SUV struck a tree, killing the driver. No other information has been released, but Nothum says a slick roadway is the suspected cause.

Nothum says several accidents have been reported as a result of freezing rain that began falling in southern Missouri early Friday. The rain later moved into St. Louis, where more than 100 flights were cancelled at Lambert Airport because of ice.

Forecasters are predicting the worst ice storm in at least a decade in St. Louis, with a half-inch or more of accumulation.

Freezing rain also moved into Oklahoma and Kansas early Friday, with forecasters warning of ice accumulations across the region. Icy weather also is expected in parts of Illinois, Texas and Arkansas.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A state official says Kansas should no longer be considered a “low-debt” state.

Kansas Development Finance Authority Senior Vice President Jim MacMurray made the comment Thursday in presenting a report on state debt to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The report from the bond-issuing agency showed that since July 2010, the amount of debt to be paid off with state tax dollars has increased 40 percent to nearly $4.5 billion.

A May 2016 report by the credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said Kansas has tax-supported debt of $1,534 per person and ranks 17th in the nation.

Kansas issued $1 billion in bonds in 2015 to bolster its public pension system and has issued nearly $1.2 billion in bonds for highway projects since July 2010.