SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — The co-owner of a Northern California slaughterhouse at the center of a nationwide meat recall two years ago has been sentenced to a year in federal prison.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat newspaper reports (http://bit.ly/1PF1lDG ) that 78-year-old Jesse “Babe” Amaral Jr. of Rancho Feeding Corp. pleaded guilty last year to distributing adulterated, misbranded and uninspected meat.

Amaral was spared a long sentence because of poor health.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer called Amaral’s actions a betrayal of the trust of hundreds of millions of Americans.

He was the last of four defendants to plead guilty in what prosecutors say was a scheme to process cattle that U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture veterinarians rejected for having cancerous eyes.

COLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) — A former southeast Kansas high school coach has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for having sex with a 15-year-old girl and getting her pregnant.

Forty-seven-year-old Larry “Scott” Madden faces lifetime court supervision upon his release under the sentence imposed this week in Cherokee County District Court. The Joplin Globe reports that he also will be required to register as a sex offender.

The former coach and physical education teacher at Baxter Springs High School pleaded no contest in November to three criminal counts.

Court documents say he began having sex with the girl in 2013 after helping her with softball hitting at a sports training business he operated. DNA testing gave a high probability of him being the father of the baby the girl delivered.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a motorist has died after driving into the path of an Amtrak train in Topeka.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the collision happened early Friday when the motorist drove around a crossing gate. The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release that the train then hit the motorist’s car.

The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer says a coroner is working identity the body.

No one on the train was injured. The crash is under investigation.

GRANBY, Mo. (AP) — Environmental officials say mine waste removal efforts are gearing up in southwest Missouri.

Liz Hagenmaier, of the Environmental Protection Agency, says the waste removal should begin this spring at subsites in the Granby area of Newton County. The Joplin Globe reports that a contractor has started clearing vegetation where the waste will be deposited.

The waste includes lead, zinc and cadmium left over from mining operations around the county dating back to the 1850s.

The EPA has plans to clean up multiple sites around the county. A later phase of the project will include locations in the Spring City and Spurgeon area.

After that, the EPA will turn to a phase that includes locations around Diamond, Stark City and Wentworth.

The work is expected to cost $30 million countywide.

O’ FALLON, Mo. (AP) — Police in the St. Louis suburb of O’Fallon are searching for a man who stabbed a boy that was part of a group playing touch football in the street.

The attack happened Thursday night in a mobile home park. Authorities say the 13-year-old victim was approached by a stranger who suddenly stabbed him in the neck, then ran away.

The boy is hospitalized in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.

Authorities don’t know what may have motivated the attack.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Officials are trying to hammer out a deal to address competing water needs of south-central Kansas irrigators and a national wildlife refuge that’s lost considerable water to them.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, has been asking Kansas for years to address the fact that hundreds of area farmers have been using water for irrigation that the refuge has prevailing rights to use.

An area water manager says reducing access for farmers who are already dealing with limited water raises considerable concern about the economic impact on families and communities.

Federal, state and local stakeholders say they’re hopeful a solution can be reached that would work for the refuge and irrigators.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s K-12 public schools would get about a $76 million increase in basic funding under the budget proposed by a House panel.

A House committee on Thursday scaled back a recommendation by Gov. Jay Nixon to increase funding by about $85 million.

Recommendations from both Nixon and the House panel still would leave schools underfunded in the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The Legislature would need to ramp up funding by more than $500 million to fully fund K-12 schools.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers are considering several measures to combat what they call a heroin epidemic.

The House voted 154-2 Thursday to allow pharmacists to sell naloxone, which temporarily counteracts the effects of opiates and is used to treat overdoses. The bill now heads to the Senate.

Republican Representative Holly Rehder has proposed creating a database to monitor prescriptions in order to flag potential drug abuse. Missouri is the only state without such a program.

Her bill has passed two committees and was put on this week’s debate calendar. But debate was delayed after some Republicans called it an invasion of privacy.

Majority Leader Representative Mike Cierpiot (SEER’-poy) said Republicans are working to smooth over differences off the House floor. He expects to eventually bring the bill up for debate.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Energy companies behind the Atlantic Coast Pipeline have carved a new proposed route through national forests in West Virginia and Virginia.

The alternate released Friday is in response to federal concerns about the national gas pipeline’s initial path through sensitive areas.

Dominion Resources Inc. says the new route would reduce by one-third the pipeline’s path through the George Washington and Monongahela national forests, but add 30 miles to the project. The alternate route would also affect 249 new landowners.

Dominion said it worked extensively with the U.S. Forest Service to select the new route after foresters rejected the initial plan. The Forest Service feared, in part, the pipeline would harm a salamander that lives in high elevations in the Shenandoah Mountains and is found nowhere else in the world.