WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general says the Obama administration has failed to study as legally required the impact of requiring ethanol in gasoline.

The IG says the government also failed to investigate whether new regulations intended to address one problem actually make other problems worse.

The audit published Thursday confirms an Associated Press investigation in November 2013. The AP said the administration never conducted studies to determine whether air and water quality benefits from adding corn-based ethanol to gasoline. Such reports to Congress were required every three years under a 2007 law.

The AP investigation described ethanol as more damaging to the environment than the government predicted. Farmers who rushed to find new places to plant corn wiped out millions of acres of conservation land and polluted water supplies.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — The father of a southwest Missouri man charged in weekend shootings that left six people and two dogs wounded says he believes his son was suffering a psychotic episode.

The Joplin Globe reports that Tom Mourning Sr. says his son, 26-year-old Tom Mourning II, has had mental health issues. The younger Mourning is jailed, unable to post $1 million bail.

He faces multiple counts of armed criminal action, first-degree felony assault and unlawful use of a weapon. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

Tom Mourning Sr. called police Saturday to report shots had been fired in the duplex where they lived. He told the Globe his son was having “a schizophrenic- or bipolar-type event” and that his son had recently broken up with his girlfriend.

WEST PLAINS, Mo. (AP) — Authorities have identified a woman whose remains were found earlier this week in southwest Missouri. West Plains Police Department spokesman Ron Redfield told the Ozark Radio Network that the victim has been identified as 35-year-old Terri Jean Wright. She was reported missing on August 9.

A 63-year-old man, Walter Stewart, is jailed without bond in Howell County and charged with first-degree murder in her death. The charges were filed Tuesday. Officials said Stewart led authorities to her remains the day before.

Online court records don’t list a lawyer for Stewart.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge has ruled there’s enough evidence to try former Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle on charges from two different cases.

KSN-TV reports that Judge John Kisner said after a preliminary hearing Thursday in Sedgwick County that there’s enough evidence to bind Randle over for trial in an aggravated battery case for allegedly backing his car into three people while leaving a party.

The judge also bound Randle over for trial on one count of interfering with law enforcement for allegedly dodging a warrant.

Court dates weren’t set.

Kisner did not rule on whether Randle will stand trial in a third case involving a criminal threat against a Sedgwick County detention deputy.

The Cowboys released Randle last year.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A statue has been unveiled in Topeka of native son Charles Curtis, who served as vice president under Herbert Hoover.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that a small crowd turned out Wednesday as the statue was dedicated on Kansas Avenue. It joins statues of four other significant Topekans, including Washburn University’s namesake, Ichabod Washburn.

Curtis’s mother was a member of the Kaw Nation.

Historian Deb Goodrich says that when he ran for vice president, much was made of the fact that he was descended of both pilgrims and Indians.

Curtis was born in Topeka and spent many of his childhood years either there or with his grandparents on the Kaw Reservation. He attended Topeka High School and went on to become a lawyer, eventually opening his own practice in Topeka.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — There will be no jail time for 22 religious leaders convicted of trespassing for a 2014 protest in the Missouri Senate.

Jurors on Thursday recommended the religious leaders be fined instead of sent to jail.

The amount of the fine will be determined by Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green at a later date. It can be no higher than $500.

The religious leaders were convicted Wednesday of the trespassing charges but acquitted of charges of disrupting government operations.

Those on trial were among hundreds of activists who sang hymns and chanted during a May 2014 protest over lawmakers’ refusal to expand Medicaid eligibility. Republican Senate leaders paused work as Capitol Police cleared the galleries.

Police arrested 23 clergy members who stayed; 22 of them were on trial this week.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Efforts have been made to avoid the closure of some Girl Scout camps in Missouri.

The Kansas City Star reports that five camps in the Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland council were scheduled to close, but three have been rescued by local volunteers.

Girl Scouts of America has lost more than a million members in the past decade, and has reduced its councils from 312 to 112.

The Missouri Heartland council has ended leases on two properties and sold two other camps. The council allowed three camps to stay open on a provisional basis, with orders to raise money, increase participation and repair the properties.

Groups like the Friends of Camp Mintahama have been fighting to keep the camps open by getting support from school and investments from businesses.

GOODLAND, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Transportation says a worker has been killed in a mowing accident in western Kansas.

KDOT says in a release that 39-year-old Darren Way died Thursday when the riding mower he was operating overturned and he was pinned underneath.

The accident occurred as Way was mowing along Interstate 70 in Sherman County. KDOT says Way had worked with the department since 2014.

FENTON, Mo. (AP) — Police in suburban St. Louis are searching for a carjacking suspect after the victim successfully fought him off with a face full of coffee.

A man was inside a convenience store in Fenton last week, paying for coffee at the counter, when he looked out the window and saw the suspect breaking into his car.

The man ran outside, coffee in hand, and threw the hot java on the thief, then jumped through the window of his own vehicle to fight with the suspect.

The suspect got away, but police say he went to a nearby Walmart parking lot and demanded keys from another victim, getting away with that car.

Police say they have several leads and a suspect in mind.

FARMINGTON, Mo. (AP) — A county commissioner race in eastern Missouri is getting a do-over after the contest ended in a tie.

Initial results showed that incumbent St. Francois County District 1 Associate Commissioner Gay Wilkinson defeated challenger Linda Black by a single vote in the Republican primary, 1,588 to 1,587.

Black requested a recount. The Daily Journal newspaper in Park Hills reports that three ballots weren’t marked clearly in the box, but the recount team determined the choices of those voters were clear. Two of those votes went to Black and one to Wilkinson, creating a tie.

A special election will be Sept. 8. The winner will have a clear road to victory — there are no Democratic or third-party challengers in the November general election.