KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — H&R Block says it’s laying off 250 workers, citing a disappointing tax season.

The downsizing announced Tuesday by the Kansas City, Missouri-based company amounts to 12.6 percent of its workforce.

H&R Block said it handled roughly 19.6 million tax returns in the just-completed tax season. That’s more than 4 percent less than last year.

The company says it expects a revenue decline this year and will release a full report June 9.

H&R Block’s CEO, Bill Cobb, is vowing to be aggressive in attracting business next tax season.

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — About 100 Kansas City-area worshippers have participated in a Catholic prayer service to seek spiritual healing over sexual abuse within the local archdiocese.

The Kansas City Star reports that the service at St. James Catholic Church in Liberty was the eighth in a series called “Healing Our Parishes Through Empathy.”

Participants carried small stones in a somber procession to the altar, where they placed the pebbles at the base of a wooden cross to symbolize letting go of a burden they’ve carried. They then washed their hands in basins of water.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A contested Missouri measure to protect businesses that deny services for same-sex weddings has been voted down.

The measure failed to advance Wednesday on a 6-6 vote in a House committee. It had previously passed the Senate.

The legislation drew opposition from LGBT-rights activists and some business leaders, who cited economic backlash in other states with laws perceived as discriminatory toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

If the measure passed the Legislature, it would have gone to voters to decide whether to amend the Missouri Constitution to bar government penalties against businesses that cite religion while denying some services for same-sex weddings.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A bill moving through the Missouri Legislature would limit public access to police body camera footage.

Senators voted 30-0 on Tuesday to seal body camera footage until police investigations become inactive. The bill would also exempt footage from body cameras and dashboard cameras from open records laws if they depict a nonpublic location.

People who are depicted in that footage, their family members or their lawyers could access the video, but anyone else would need a court’s permission.

Republican Sen. Bob Dixon said creating the guidelines would encourage more departments to use body cameras. Still, the Senate rejected a proposal to require police in St. Louis to wear them.

The bill goes to the House for consideration, where similar legislation also is awaiting a vote.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The nation’s midsection is facing another day of foul weather after a series of storms brought huge hail and high winds, but not as many tornadoes as had been feared.

The Nation Weather Service Storm Prediction Center said 60 million people from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest east to North Carolina and Virginia should be alert for strong storms on Wednesday. The nastiest weather was predicted for an area from Houston north into part of Iowa.

A day earlier, hail as big as grapefruit fell in northern Kansas, while winds approaching hurricane force raked communities from Nebraska and Missouri to Texas.

Uprooted trees, downed power lines and roof damage were reported in parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Flooding and power outages were reported across parts of Missouri. No deaths or injuries were reported.

CHICAGO (AP) — The widow of a motorist who was killed when a speeding truck slammed into his car while he was stopped in a construction zone has been awarded $22.7 million.

Theresa Swenson sued Missouri-based Hussmann Corp. for the May 2012 death of her husband, Aaron.

The truck driver allegedly had drugs in his system when he slammed into Swenson’s car on Interstate 294. A Cook County jury of five men and seven women deliberated just three hours before reaching the verdict late Monday.

Attorney Colin Dunn said Tuesday the settlement sends the message that Hussmann must do a better job of monitoring its drivers. A telephone call to Hussmann for comment wasn’t returned.

Theresa Swenson says she lost “a lifetime of memories, happiness and family moments together” because of the accident.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The congregation at Zion Presbyterian Church in southern Lincoln is reeling from its second fire in less than 10 years.

Firefighters were sent to battle the blaze just before 10 a.m. Tuesday. No injuries have been reported.

The church’s senior pastor, Stu Kerns, told the Lincoln Journal Star that it seemed “ridiculously surreal” to him when he heard about the fire. He says the fire started in the kitchen and says the office manager called 911 and got out safely. The fire was declared under control a little before noon.

The congregation used to meet at Ninth and D streets and had planned to expand there. But on June 9, 2007, one day before a groundbreaking, its 80-year-old building was destroyed by fire.

Tuesday’s fire cause is being investigated.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A group seeking changes to mandatory minimum sentences in drug cases is pointing to the case of a Nebraska man who will begin a 10-year prison term that even a judge calls “absolutely ridiculous.”

Leo Guthmiller, of Lincoln, will begin his drug conspiracy term Wednesday at a federal prison in Springfield, Missouri.

Federal prosecutors say Guthmiller played a significant role in dealing drugs and pointed to his criminal history. Guthmiller’s public defenders say he simply introduced people looking for drugs to those who were selling and that his history amounted to petty crimes all committed to feed his addiction.

Guthmiller’s supporters note he has been clean since his last arrest in 2013.

The judge who sentenced Guthmiller wants Congress to enact sentencing reforms, calling the mandatory 10-year sentence “absolutely ridiculous.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A homeless man has pleaded guilty to criminal use of explosives after he went to apply for a job a Wichita abortion clinic with a small bottle of gunpowder and a wick in his backpack.

The Wichita Eagle reports that 20-year-old Moises R. Trevizo Jr. admitted Monday to the charge and is scheduled to be sentenced June 24 in Sedgwick County District Court.

Police have said he didn’t mean any harm and carried everything he owned in the backpack when he showed up to the South Wind Women’s Center in August. Police said the device was too small to damage the clinic.

The clinic operates in the building once owned by slain abortion provider George Tiller.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Another patient has filed a lawsuit accusing a former physician assistant at Leavenworth’s Veteran’s Administration hospital in Kansas of sexual abuse.

The complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court of Kansas brings to at least four the number of civil lawsuits filed against Mark E. Wisner, and the federal government.

Wisner also faces criminal charges of aggravated criminal sodomy, solicitation and sexual battery. The hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas, reiterated that once accusations were brought to the attention of its leadership, Wisner was immediately removed from patient care and an investigation was initiated.

An Iraq war veteran alleges that Wisner conducted improper genital examinations and comments. He contends Wisner suggested he would withhold pain medications if the patient did not allow the examinations.