KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge has rejected conspiracy allegations against Missouri State Highway Patrol commanders named in a federal civil lawsuit over the 2014 drowning of a 20-year-old handcuffed Iowa man at Lake of the Ozarks.

U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey said Wednesday lawyers for Brandon Ellingson’s family hadn’t proved that commanders and patrol officials conspired to cover up the cause of Ellingson’s death at the lake. Ellingson drowned after he fell from a patrol boat.

The decision means counts against individual commanders have been dismissed.

One count against the state of Missouri and the patrol is still active. Also still active and headed for trial in October in Jefferson City are several counts against Trooper Anthony Piercy, who says his training was inadequate.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is suing federal regulators for approving permits for a $3.8 billion pipeline that will move oil from North Dakota to Illinois.

Tribal officials filed the lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps issued permits for the project on Tuesday.

The Standing Rock tribe opposes the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is planned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners. The tribe says it fears a spill could contaminate drinking water on its reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

The tribe also says in court documents that the project threatens sacred sites and violates federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act.

Corps spokeswoman Eileen Williamson says the agency’s review of the pipeline found “no significant impacts to the environment or historic properties.”

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a St. Louis woman with arranging the deaths of two 16-year-old boys who were potential witnesses in a murder case against her teenage son — a case that initially fell apart because other witnesses then refused to testify.

Latashia Mopkins faces two counts each of first-degree murder and murder conspiracy, among other charges made public Wednesday.

Her brother, nephew and a third man also face murder charges in the deaths of one or both of the two teenage witnesses, and prosecutors reinstated the original murder charge against her son, Tyrell Davidson.

All five are jailed without bond.

Investigators allege that Davidson fatally shot 16-year-old Chauncey Brown in September 2013. Two other 16-year-olds who were witnesses were later killed. Mopkins is accused of offering money for the killings.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Eagle Picher Technologies is laying off 135 workers in Joplin.

Sean Parker, vice president of human resources told The Joplin Globe Thursday that this round of layoffs is in addition to 90 layoffs the company announced in late May.

That is a total of about 225 layoffs, or nearly one-fourth of the company’s workforce this spring.

He says 130 people were laid off Thursday from the company’s headquarters, with the other five coming from another location in Joplin.

Parker says layoffs are needed to allow the company to meet its goals have now been completed.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge will consider blocking election officials from tossing out potentially thousands of votes in state and local races from people who’ve registered without providing citizenship documents.

Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks was expected Friday to hear a request from the American Civil Liberties Union to block a rule from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

The hearing comes four days before Tuesday’s primary election.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit earlier this month after a state board allowed Kobach to impose the rule. It applies to people who register to vote at state motor vehicle offices without providing proof of their U.S. citizenship as required by a 2013 state law.

They’ll receive full ballots, but only their votes for federal offices are to be counted.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Children who fled from their mother several months after they were taken to sing for occupiers during the armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge will remain in the custody of Kansas child welfare officials.

The Kansas City Star reports that a judge cited abuse in ruling Wednesday that Odalis Sharp couldn’t get her children back. Sharp has 10 children, but several are over 18. The younger children were ordered to remain in state custody.

Several of the children testified that their mother hit them with rods. They said she yelled and screamed Bible verses during the punishment.

Sharp, of Auburn, said she was a woman of God and loved her children. Sharp has 30 days to appeal but said she hasn’t decided if she will do so.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A civil rights group says the transgender soldier imprisoned in Kansas for sending classified information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks now faces possible punishment for offenses stemming from a suicide attempt. The ACLU says Chelsea Manning received a document from Army officials Thursday saying she’s being investigated for “administrative offenses,” including “conduct which threatens,” related to her July 5 suicide attempt.

The ACLU says if the 28-year-old transgender soldier is convicted of the offenses she could be placed in indefinite solitary confinement. An Army spokesman didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Manning, arrested as Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 in military court for leaking more than 700,000 secret military and federal documents when she was an intelligence analyst in Iraq.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The head of the Missouri Veterans Commission has been placed on paid leave after jurors awarded nearly $3 million in damages to a former employee who claimed discrimination and harassment over her dismissal.

The Jefferson City News-Tribune reports that the commission is offering no details on executive director Larry Kay’s status. Commission spokesman Daniel Bell described the situation Wednesday as a personnel matter. Bell said that Deputy Director Bryan Hunt is the acting executive director until further notice.

Last week, jurors awarded Pat Rowe Kerr $1.3 million in actual damages and $1.6 million in punitive damages. Kerr’s attorneys argued that she was dismissed because Kay has a problem with older, successful women.

Kay and the commission had said her dismissal was due to budget cuts at the time.