FESTUS, Mo. (AP) — The bills were unpaid, the phones shut off, trash piled up and eventually, food ran out. The problems at the Benchmark Healthcare nursing home in Festus forced the state to take the unusual step of shutting it down earlier this month.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that by the time the nursing home closed amid its parent company’s financial problems, employees were spending their own money to help feed residents.

The home’s owner is Legacy Health Systems, a Chesterfield, Missouri-based firm that once had 27 facilities in Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Legacy sold most of its assets in recent years, or had them seized by creditors. About 200 people live in the remaining facilities in Sikeston, Missouri, and Puryear, Tennessee.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Stockholders have approved the $12.2 billion sale of Topeka-based electric company Westar Energy to Missouri-based Great Plains Energy.

Both companies reported Monday that participating shareholders overwhelmingly approved the deal. Westar had a special meeting in Topeka and Great Plains had one in Kansas City, Missouri, to finish the voting.

Each firm said the holders of more than 60 percent of their shares participated. They said the owners of 95 percent or more of that stock approved the sale.

Federal and state regulators also must sign off on the deal. The companies hope to complete the sale next spring.

The companies have said combining would create efficiencies and keep consumers’ rates in check. Westar stockholders would receive $51 in cash and $9 in Great Plains stock for each share.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s chief archaeologist says in a memo leaked to a conservative blogger that an inspection found no American Indian artifacts or human remains at a Dakota Access pipeline construction site.

Paul Picha says in the memo published Monday by Say Anything blogger Rob Port that seven state archeologists inspected the 1.3-mile section along the route of the $3.8 billion pipeline in southern North Dakota.

The memo says only some animal teeth and bone fragments were found.

Officials say the memo is only a draft and is part of an on-going investigation.

Standing Rock Sioux officials said crews earlier this month bulldozed the site, which they say has “significant cultural and historic value.” It led to a clash between protesters and security guards hired by pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say an inmate has been listed as escaped from the state work release facility in Sioux City.

The Iowa Corrections Department says 21-year-old Vicente Manzo-Hernandez didn’t return as scheduled Sunday from an authorized program meeting.

The department says Manzo-Hernandez was put on work release on Aug. 11 following parole revocation.

He’d been given a 10-year sentence in May 2013 after his conviction in Woodbury County on a charge of intimidation with a dangerous weapon.

IRON MOUNTAIN LAKE, Mo. (AP) — The body of an eastern Missouri man who went missing while fishing has been recovered.

The Daily Journal newspaper in Park Hills, Missouri reports that Bill Simmons had been missing since early Saturday.

His body was recovered around 7:30 a.m. Monday in Iron Mountain Lake.

Simmons’ boat was found floating upside down Saturday morning, prompting a search. The body was found floating near the boat.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Residents of Cedar Rapids, Iowa’s second-largest city, hope a temporary floodwall that is protecting thousands of homes and downtown buildings from the rain-swollen Cedar River will hold as the rain-swollen Cedar River crests. The river is expected to reach its peak Tuesday morning at 23 feet before slowly falling through the week.

Residents fear a devastating flood like the one that hit the eastern Iowa city of 130,000 in 2008.

City crews and residents have been stacking sandbags and building larger barriers for days in anticipation of the high water, which followed days of heavy rain in northern Iowa.

Schools have been cancelled through Thursday and the city’s downtown and some neighborhoods are like ghost towns as resident abide by a request to evacuate.

The Cedar Rapids Animal Care and Control shelter is providing a safe haven for pets as flooding looms.

The Des Moines Register reports that officials hope the offer of shelter will help persuade people to leave their flood-prone homes. The officials say some people might remain in their homes because they can’t find places to stay that will allow pets.

More than 50 pets have already been taken to the shelter for temporary refuge.

The shelter also has compiled a list of hotels and other places that will accept pets.

Shelter manager Diane Webber says the shelter handled more than 1,000 dogs, cats and other stranded animals during the record 2008 flooding.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Topeka police say a 2-year-old girl has been found dead from an apparent animal attack, and that two dogs have been seized.

Police said in a release Sunday that officers responded to a report of a missing child Saturday night. When they arrived at the residence, officers found the child dead in the yard of the home.

Police said the child had been the “victim of an animal attack” and that officers also seized two dogs from the fenced yard.

Officers interviewed people involved and have sent the case to the Shawnee County district attorney’s office for review.

The child’s name hasn’t been released.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A state report says Missouri businesses saw a net growth of more than 8,700 private-sector employers in 2015.

The report from the Missouri Department of Economic Development says that’s a 5 percent gain over the previous year. The report was released last week.

The Jefferson City News Tribune reports that the report also says small businesses with 10 employees or fewer accounted for 77 percent of Missouri’s roughly 182,000 private-sector employers in 2015. Businesses with between one and 49 employees accounted for 95 percent.

The the report was produced by the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center using state unemployment insurance data, as well as the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, a cooperative program between the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the state labor market information centers.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback’s economic advisory council has discontinued a quarterly report that had been developed to ensure a timely analysis of the administration’s economic policies. The Council of Economic Advisors, which is chaired by Brownback, will no longer compile and distribute a review of economic markers picked and championed as an accountability test of the administration’s economic vision.

The May edition was the last publication of “Indicators of the Kansas Economy.”

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the group instead intends to focus on a U.S. Federal Reserve report that includes data on state, regional and national economic statistics that impact Kansas.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A high school football player remains in a medically induced coma after an injury in Friday night’s game.

The Omaha World-Herald reports Papillion-La Vista football player Brandon Steburg was taken to the hospital by ambulance Friday after collapsing on the sidelines.

Steburg’s grandfather, Steve Sheridan, said the cause of Steburg’s injury is somewhat of a mystery.

Steberg had made a tackle and told his coach that someone landed on his head awkwardly. Then he lost consciousness.

School district spokeswoman Annette Eyman says Steburg appeared to have a concussion and had surgery Friday night to relieve pressure on his brain.