JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s presidential primaries appear to have set a new high mark for voter turnout.

Nearly 1.6 million of Missouri’s 4 million registered voters cast ballots in the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian primaries Tuesday. That equates to a statewide voter turnout of about 39 percent.

The previous high for a presidential primary was 36 percent, set in the 2008, when more than 1.4 million votes were cast. The 2008 primary also was the last time there were competitive races in both the Republican and Democratic parties.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri says he will not vote for President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court.

Obama on Wednesday nominated appeals court judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court for a vacancy created by the death last month of Antonin Scalia. Scalia was a leading conservative and many Republicans have said the president elected in November, not Obama, should pick the nominee.

Blunt is among those who have said they would not support an Obama nominee. He said in a statement that while the president has the right to nominate someone, the Senate has the “Constitutional responsibility” to decide if that is the right person.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is nominating federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, to fill the seat that was held by the late Antonin Scalia.

In doing so, he’s challenging Republicans to reject a long-time jurist and former prosecutor who’s become known as a consensus builder on what is often dubbed the nation’s second-highest court.

Garland, who is 63, is the chief judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It’s a court whose influence over federal policy and national security matters has made it a proving ground for potential Supreme Court justices.

Obama says Garland would bring integrity, modesty and even-handedness to the Supreme Court.

One Democratic senator says Garland is a “bipartisan choice” for the Supreme Court. And Chuck Schumer of New York asks, “If the Republicans can’t support him, who can they support?”

Republicans who control the Senate say they want to leave the choice of a justice to the next president.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court says the Boy Scouts of America can’t be held liable for alleged sexual abuse by a scoutmaster.

Tuesday’s ruling applies to a lawsuit filed by a 35-year-old man who alleges he was abused starting when he was about 12.

The man, identified only as John Doe, says the Boy Scouts was partly responsible.  The high court said state law allows for lawsuits only against abuse perpetrators, not corporations or associations.

The man’s attorney says that makes it harder to hold organizations responsible.

Doe’s attorney had argued the case was filed within the statute of limitations for child sex abuse, which lawmakers extended in 2004.

But judges found the lawsuit was barred by the statutes of limitations for battery and negligence claims.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Farmers rallied at the Nebraska Capitol to push for property tax relief amid concerns that time is running out in this year’s legislative session.

The Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation’s president and board urged lawmakers on Tuesday to focus on property taxes and cast aside “distractions,” including a proposed “right to farm” constitutional amendment.

Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson says the Legislature needs to take some action this year to ease the burden on producers, but still has a ways to go.

Lawmakers have 19 working days left in the session, yet property tax reforms have not yet advanced out of the Revenue Committee. Committee members are expected to meet again Tuesday afternoon.

Nelson says lawmakers should look at ways to soften the sharp increases in the value of farmland.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A Beatrice man has been accused of punching one child and tossing another down a flight of stairs.

Thirty-six-year-old Christopher Canfield was arrested Monday and faces two counts of child abuse. Online court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could be contacted to comment on Canfield’s behalf.

Canfield’s bond was set at $5,000 during Tuesday’s hearing. His next court date is March 29.

Police were called in after a report was made by a school resource officer. The children are ages 5 and 8. Police say one child was being punished for not properly cleaning a kitchen table. Police say the other child was accused by Canfield of stealing change from him.

LOGAN, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in western Iowa say a pregnant woman and her unborn twins died and her 3-year-old son was injured in the crash of an all-terrain vehicle.

The accident occurred around 1:25 p.m. Monday northwest of Logan in western Iowa’s Harrison County.

The Iowa State Patrol says 27-year-old Jordan Muxfeldt was driving with her son when she made an abrupt right turn. The four-wheel ATV rolled, throwing off Muxfeldt and her son, Wade.

The patrol says Muxfeldt was pronounced dead after being flown to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Her son was taken to a Missouri Valley hospital and then flown to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where he was listed in good condition Tuesday.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a woman who did not tell her sexual partner that she was HIV-positive.

The court on Tuesday unanimously dismissed the woman’s challenge to Missouri’s law requiring people who are HIV-positive to inform others before sex or other activities that could expose people to their disease.

The defendant argued the law infringes on her right to privacy and her right to free speech because it forces her to reveal something about herself that she doesn’t want to.

But Judge Mary Russell wrote that the law controls conduct rather than speech. She said any regulation of speech was incidental, and people would not be compelled to disclose anything about themselves unless they want to do something that could endanger someone else.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a Kansas man convicted of killing three relatives in Missouri.

The court on Tuesday rejected appeals for Robert Blurton, who sought to have his convictions and sentence overturned. Blurton, of Garnett, Kansas, was sentenced to death in June 2013 for the deaths of his aunt and uncle, Donnie and Sharon Luetjen and the couple’s 15-year-old granddaughter, Taron Luetjen. Prosecutors said Blurton killed his victims in June 2009 at the couple’s Cole Camp home during a robbery.

Blurton’s attorneys argued the trial judge made errors in allowing certain testimony and evidence, not instructing the jury on a possible second-degree murder conviction and not declaring a mistrial because some crime scene photographs were inadvertently displayed before the verdict.