KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A recent city audit is critical of Kansas City’s master bicycle transportation plan, saying that it doesn’t connect popular destinations and mostly hasn’t been constructed because of the plan’s many flaws.

The 22-page report says the Bike KC plan doesn’t have most of the recommended elements of a bicycle master plan. The audit says the master plan lacks design guidelines, goals and deadlines, meaning city planners cannot rely on Bike KC to incorporate bike lanes and other infrastructure into road projects.

The Kansas City Star reports city manager Troy Schulte agrees with the report’s conclusions and is calling for a complete rewrite of the 2002 bicycle plan.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Prosecutors say a teenager fatally shot one man and wounded another during a Kansas City drug deal.

The Kansas City Star reports that 17-year-old Jewell Jones Jr., of Kansas City, was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in the death of Warren Banks. Jones also faces one count each of first-degree robbery and first-degree assault and three counts of armed criminal action. No attorney is listed for Jones in online court records.

Court records say Jones agreed to purchase marijuana from Banks last week. The victim who survived the shooting told police that gunfire erupted after Jones got into a vehicle with him and Banks and announced a robbery.

Court records say Jones fled and later told a witness he had shot at two men in a vehicle.

ST. LOUIS (AP) A 144-mile stretch of a former railroad line is expected to be transferred to the state of Missouri by the end of next year for use as a hiking and biking trail.

Gov. Jay Nixon was at Ameren headquarters in St. Louis Wednesday to announce details of plans to develop the former Rock Island rail line from Windsor, in western Missouri, to Beaufort, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Nixon says the new trail will strengthen economies along its path and bolster the state’s image as a leading hiking and biking destination.

Ameren purchased the rail line in 1999. It has not been used for railroad purposes for more than two decades.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Child-care providers in Kansas say a state proposal to increase by several hours the training they must receive could mean parents they serve will have to pay more.

The providers made that argument Tuesday during a hearing over the proposed Kansas Department of Health and Environment regulations.

The department’s plan would raise to 16 the number of hours of annual in-service training for primary care providers, who directly supervise and interact with children. Administrators of preschools and child care centers would have to complete 24 hours of training annually.

The department says it is working to ensure that various training opportunities are available at little or no cost.

Lawrence Child Development Center director Kenneth Prost says the move could drive some parents to home day care he called under-regulated.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say two suspects in a deadly pawn shop robbery in Mississippi have been arrested in Kansas.

Authorities say 35-year-old Jamison Townsend and 37-year-old Joshua Garcia were arrested Wednesday in Geary County, Kansas, after a chase.

Both suspects are charged in arrest warrants in Mississippi with three counts of capital murder in a triple homicide Saturday at a pawn shop in Jackson.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf says when deputies on Interstate 70 tried to stop a Dodge Charger with no displayed registration, the car sped away and crashed. Wolf says the woman was arrested in the car and the man was found hours later hiding in a vehicle a mile from the crash site.

It’s not immediately clear whether Townsend and Garcia have attorneys who could comment on the allegations.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s population has topped 1.9 million for the first time ever, and the state’s growth rate exceeded neighboring Iowa and matched the national rate.

New U.S. Census estimates released Tuesday show that Nebraska grew 0.7 percent to reach 1,907,116 on July 1. Iowa’s population grew 0.41 percent to hit 3,134,693.

Nebraska’s growth rate matched the national rate between last July and this July.

David Drozd of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Center for Public Affairs Research says the latest figures suggest Nebraska has a decent chance to keep all three of its U.S. House seats after the 2020 Census.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A backlog of autopsies at the Iowa Medical Examiner’s Office has been delaying the return of remains to family members.

It usually takes the office a day or two to complete an autopsy. But a spokeswoman for the office told The Des Moines Register that in the past month, a 12 percent surge in cases coupled with an understaffed office has caused delays.

Polly Carver-Kimm, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Public Health, says that at one point in the past month, the office had 32 bodies awaiting autopsy and it took up to two weeks to release remains to funeral homes. She says the situation is “not typical.”

The office is budgeted for 11 full-time positions, but one position is open. It is expected to be filled.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — State analysts say Westar Energy is putting shareholder enrichment ahead of reasonable electric rates for customers with its proposed sale to Kansas City Power & Light.

The Wichita Eagle reports that analysts representing the staff of the Kansas Corporation Commission and the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board raised the concerns in hundreds of pages of testimony filed late last week. Also expressing concerns were several consumer intervenors in the case.

A Westar spokeswoman says the company remains confident of completing the merger next spring.

KCP&L’s parent company, Missouri-based Great Plains Energy, is seeking to buy Westar. The $12.2 billion transaction would involve taking on $3.6 billion in Westar debt.

If the merger’s approved, Westar and KCP&L will become a single electric company straddling the Kansas/Missouri border, with 1.5 million customers.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Federal regulators say movie-theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. can buy smaller rival Carmike Cinemas Inc. for $1.2 billion if it sells some theaters.

The deal will make AMC the biggest U.S. movie theater operator.

The U.S. Department of Justice says its approval hinges on AMC selling theaters in 15 markets where it competes with Carmike. The Leawood, Kansas, company also has to sell most of its holdings in National Cinemedia, a cinema advertising company, and transfer 24 theaters to a rival theater ad company, Screenvision LLC.

The Justice Department says the deal would lead to higher prices for moviegoers without those conditions.

JONESBURG, Mo. (AP) — Missouri authorities say a man clung to the hood of tractor-trailer for miles on a St. Louis-area freeway before being hit by another semi rig while running in and out of traffic.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says it’s unclear why 20-year-old Darryl Boyle of O’Fallon, Missouri, was walking on Interstate 70 west of St. Louis on Tuesday evening or why he climbed onto the tractor-trailer.

Doyle died at a hospital shortly after being hit in a westbound lane near Jonesburg.

Patrol Sgt. Al Nothum says that after slowing traffic to a crawl, Boyle grabbed the side mirror of an eastbound tractor-trailer, climbed onto the hood. Doyle rode atop for miles before jumping off and was fatally hit by another semi rig as authorities converged on him.