ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis police are investigating the shooting death of a pregnant teacher.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 30-year-old Jocelyn Peters was found fatally shot Thursday in her apartment. Detectives on Friday confirmed the case as a homicide.

Peters was a third-grade teacher at Mann Elementary School. Her unborn child was a girl due in about two months.

Police say Peters’ boyfriend found her lying in bed, unconscious. She suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene. There was no sign of forced entry.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Streetcars remain on track to open to the public in May in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Star reports that the bus drivers’ union had sought a temporary delay while a labor dispute is resolved. But Jackson County Judge W. Brent Powell denied their request on Thursday.

Powell found that the union had failed to establish “irreparable harm” if the streetcar project opens to the public.

The $100 million downtown streetcar system got $37 million in federal grants. The union argued that as a condition of those grants, the city must ensure the existing bus drivers aren’t adversely affected by the new transit system.

The streetcar will run 2.2 miles from the River Market area through downtown to near Union Station.

BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) — A Girl Scout and two adult troop leaders have been hurt after a sport utility vehicle plowed into their cookie sales booth in southeast Kansas.

The Joplin Globe reports that the crash happened Sunday in Baxter Springs after an 81-year-old driver lost control of the SUV. The girl who was hit was flown to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, with serious injuries.

Police said in a written statement that the troop leaders were treated for minor injuries. One of the leaders had tried to pull the girl out of harm’s way when she saw the SUV coming but was struck herself before she could reach the child.

No other information was immediately available.

BENTON, Mo. (AP) — A man has been charged with unlawful use of a weapon and child endangerment after police say he used a handgun as a hammer while working on a project at a southeast Missouri elementary school.

A probable cause statement from the Scott County Sheriff’s Department said 45-year-old Jeffrey Grubbs was a volunteer at a 4-H event Monday at Kelly Elementary School in Benton when he gripped the handgun’s barrel and used the butt of the weapon to drive a thumbtack into a wood plaque.

The Southeast Missourian reports Grubbs was arrested and released Tuesday. Police say Grubbs has a concealed-carry permit, but it’s illegal to bring a gun onto school property without consent from a school official.

OZARK, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who used the light from a headlamp to methodically shoot and kill a pregnant woman and two other people in a mobile home has been sentenced to life in prison after admitting his role in the slayings.

Brian D. Williams pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts each of murder and armed criminal action. He also pleaded guilty to vehicle tampering and theft of a firearm.

A judge in Christian County immediately sentenced Williams to four consecutive life terms, with no possibility of parole.

Authorities say Williams shot and killed Christina Winden, James Marsh, Casey Maples and Maples’ unborn daughter in February of last year.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Cats are dying mysteriously in a southwestern Missouri city, and the local Crime Stoppers group hopes a $1,000 reward cracks the case.

The Greater Springfield Area Crime Stoppers says several cats have turned up dead near the city’s Phelps Grove Park between Feb. 16 and March 19. Another cat is missing, and one managed to return home severely injured.

The group says the attacks appear to happen between 9 p.m. and midnight. Police say the suspect may be a man 6-foot to 6-foot-4 tall, with an average build and weighing about 200 pounds.

Crime Stoppers says several residents have seen the man cradling cats while sitting on porches of homes in the area.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former custodian who disagreed with the secular content of a flower festival at Omaha’s St. Cecilia Cathedral has been fined for damaging it. The Omaha World-Herald reports that 59-year-old Mark Kenney was sentenced Thursday.

He’d pleaded guilty to criminal mischief. Kenney has said he was upset by the secular festival theme of “A Night at the Movies.”

He admitted that on Jan. 29 he cut a cable holding a suspended Mary Poppins figure, and it crashed to the cathedral floor. He then removed a cardboard Buddha figure from a chapel and tossed it and several costumed mannequins outside.

Kenney told the newspaper earlier this month that movie character images are inappropriate in the Roman Catholic cathedral because they amount to sacrilege and idolatry.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have sent Gov. Sam Brownback an education funding plan designed to meet a state Supreme Court order to help poor districts and prevent the justices from shutting down public schools in July.

The House approved the bill Thursday on a 93-31 vote. The Senate approved the bill hours earlier on a 32-5 vote.

The bill redistributes $83 million of the state’s $4 billion-plus in annual aid to its 286 school districts. Total spending on schools would not increase, but no district would lose any of the aid it was promised for the next school year.

The court ruled last month that poor districts weren’t getting their fair share of the aid. The justices gave lawmakers until June 30 to fix the problems or face having schools shut down.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — An eastern Missouri man has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges that he conspired with a former deputy in a series of assaults on women.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 47-year-old Jonathan Pohlmann of Owensville waived indictment Monday and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate civil rights.

Authorities say Pohlmann conspired with former Gasconade County deputy Marty Rainey to “injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate” women with whom Rainey came in contact as a law enforcement officer. In addition to his role as a deputy, Rainey worked as a police officer in Hermann and Rosebud.

Rainey faces both state and federal charges. He is accused of sexually abusing women and enticing a minor into prostitution.

Attorneys for both men have declined comment.

OZARK, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who used the light from a headlamp to methodically shoot and kill a pregnant woman and two other people in a mobile home has been sentenced to life in prison after admitting his role in the slayings.

Brian Williams pleaded guilty Wednesday in Christian County to four counts each of murder and armed criminal action. He also pleaded guilty to vehicle tampering and theft of a firearm.

A judge immediately sentenced Williams to four consecutive life terms, with no possibility of parole.

Authorities say Williams shot and killed Christina Winden, James Marsh, Casey Maples and Maples’ unborn daughter in February of last year.