ST. LOUIS (AP) — A man accused of selling old prosthetic legs to customers as new legs has been sentenced to more than a year in prison.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 53-year-old Theodore Deininger was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison and ordered to repay $150,000. He had pleaded guilty to four counts of health care fraud as part of a plea agreement.

Prosecutors say Deininger bought prosthetic legs online from 2007 to 2014 and then modified them and sold them to customers as if they were new through his company First Choice Orthotics & Prosthetics. According to the plea agreement, Medicare and Medicaid paid between $23,000 and $44,000 for each prosthetic leg.

First Choice Orthotics and Prosthetics has offices in Kirksville, Hannibal, Trenton and Moberly in Missouri and Bloomfield and Keokuk in Iowa.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas House member who was stripped of his committee chairmanship has changed his mind about resigning from the Legislature.

Republican Rep. John Rubin of Shawnee said Wednesday that he had intended to step down as of midnight Tuesday, but, “Cooler heads prevailed.” Rubin told The Topeka Capital-Journal that he would resign immediately after House Speaker and Stilwell Republican Ray Merrick removed him as chairman of the Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee.

Merrick made the move after Rubin sought to force a House debate on gambling legislation that Merrick said could damage state-owned casinos.

Rubin said his wife, the committee’s secretary and other lawmakers urged him to remain in the Legislature. He said he intends to continue working on legislation to overhaul the state’s juvenile justice system.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri says two residence halls already scheduled for demolition will not be used this fall because of declining enrollment.

University spokesman Christian Basi says closing Laws Hall and Lathrop Hall will save the university about $200,000 a year in utility costs. The halls, part of the Dobbs Group constructed in 1959, each have 340 beds.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports Laws was scheduled to close for demolition in January 2017. Basi says closing the halls this fall could move up construction and demolition work.

He says the campus will gain 220 beds when the halls are replaced.

The university estimates freshman enrollment will decline by 900 or more in the fall, after the Columbia campus was roiled by student protests last November over racial issues.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — National front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will share some of Missouri’s delegates with their challengers in the presidential primaries.  

Despite Clinton winning the statewide vote totals, so far it appears Senator Bernie Sanders will collect more delegates. Democratic delegates are divided proportionally based on statewide and congressional district votes.

So far, Sanders has 32 delegates and Clinton 31, with eight delegates remaining to be allocated.

Mr. Trump narrowly led Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the Republican statewide tally.  Republicans will award 12 delegates to the top statewide vote-getter and five to the winners in each congressional district. Trump so far has 25 congressional district delegates and Cruz five, with two districts still to be determined.

The delegate allocation is complicated because of close races and districts that split county voting jurisdictions.

CIMARRON, Kan. (AP) — Federal investigators say a feed truck from a nearby lot where cattle are fattened hit the track and shifted it before an Amtrak train derailed in southwest Kansas.

 

Frontal view of the Agricultural vehicle that damaged the rails involved in the Kansas Amtrak derailment. pic.twitter.com/niXGn7Lmgi

— NTSB (@NTSB) March 15, 2016

 

National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener did not say on Tuesday if this was the cause of the Amtrak Southwest Chief’s accident Monday.

But he says the impact of the truck from the Cimarron Crossing Feeders shifted the train track 12 to 14 inches.

The feed company declined comment Tuesday.

The derailment injured at least 32 people although most were treated and released from the hospital. Two patients remained hospitalized in Kansas, one after undergoing surgery. The condition of two people flown to an Amarillo, Texas, hospital wasn’t immediately known.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A retired Missouri teacher has pleaded guilty to a federal charge after placing an online ad for a couple who “would like to include their kids in sexual fun.”

The Kansas City Star reports that 71-year-old Paul Robert Cannon, of Sedalia, entered the plea Tuesday. He described himself as a grandpa and retired teacher in the advertisement he placed on Craigslist in January.

Federal prosecutors say a Boone County deputy responded to the ad, posing as the mother of a 14-year-old daughter. He was arrested after going to a restaurant in Columbia to meet with the woman and child.

The charge of attempting to induce a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison. A sentencing date hasn’t been set.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A former Branson emergency medical technician has been sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for making child pornography at a fire station.

The U.S. attorney’s office says the sentence was imposed Tuesday against 31-year-old Nicholas James Dickerson. He had worked for the Western Taney County Fire Protection District as an EMT and was a volunteer firefighter.

Court documents say that after Dickerson sold his iPhone to a Nixa business in February 2015, an employee noticed that the “deleted pictures folder” was still present on the screen. The employee saw an image of child pornography and alerted the store owner, who contacted law enforcement.

Dickerson told investigators that he took the photo while sexually abusing a 9-year-old child in his living quarters at a Branson fire station.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers in both chambers say passing statewide regulations for app-based car services will lead to thousands of new jobs.

Uber’s general manager for Missouri Sagar Shah said Wedensday that regulations making their way through the Legislature would allow the company to expand to Springfield, Jefferson City, St. Charles and St. Joseph.

The company currently operates in Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia.

The House has already passed insurance regulations for ride-hailing companies, and a Senate panel amended the measure to make it easier for taxi companies to opt into the new regulatory system. Taxi companies in the past have objected to creating different rules for businesses that offer essentially the same service.