HOUSTON (AP) — The Canadian company that proposed the Keystone XL oil pipeline has filed a lawsuit over the U.S. government’s rejection of the project and says it plans a second legal challenge.

TransCanada on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit in Houston alleging President Barack Obama’s decision in November to kill the pipeline exceeded his power under the U.S. Constitution.

The company also announced it will submit a separate petition seeking more than $15 billion in damages, alleging the U.S. breached its obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The energy industry had argued the pipeline would create thousands of jobs and inject billions into the economy. Environmental activists spent years denouncing the pipeline.

The White House and the State Department both declined to comment on the lawsuit or the NAFTA challenge.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Freight railroads hauled 2.5 percent fewer carloads last year as demand for coal continued to erode and shipments of most other goods also slowed.

The numbers released by the Association of American Railroads Tuesday limited railroad profits in 2015 and forced them to cut costs.

The major railroads will begin releasing their fourth-quarter financial reports next week.

Railroads hauled just under 28 million carloads of freight in the United States last year. That was down from last year’s 28.7 million carloads.

Coal shipments fell 12 percent in 2015 because of weak demand from U.S. utilities and export markets.

Crude oil shipments also fell, but the year-end numbers don’t break out that commodity individually. Through September, crude oil shipments were down 10 percent.

Shipments of intermodal containers grew 1.6 percent.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri legislative leaders say providing resources to help with flood recovery efforts is a top priority.

At the start of the session Wednesday, GOP House Speaker Todd Richardson says the plan is to work with the administration to ensure needed resources are provided.

Missouri Department of Transportation spokesman Matt Hiebert says the agency still is assessing the extent of damage from the rare winter flood.  But Hiebert says the agency so far has identified three or four locations where pavement has been affected by the floods.

Ways to pay to fix roads and bridges and changes to ethics polices also were named by Republican leaders as top goals.

Legislative leaders in both parties say they want changes to ethics policies as well. Speaker Richardson said in an address to the chamber that ethics was one of his main goals. Democrats also say changes to state ethics laws are needed.

The push follows the resignations in 2015 of two former lawmakers accused of inappropriate behavior toward interns.

While Richardson cited spending on Medicaid health care as a problem, House Minority Leader Jake Hummel says Democrats want to expand eligibility for the program. Hummel also says it’s important to ensure communities have resources to deal with recent flood damage.

Three new Missouri House members are serving in the Legislature in the session that kicked off Wednesday. House Speaker Richardson swore in two Democrats and a Republican on the first day of session. They were picked in special elections held because of vacancies.

Democrat Rory Rowland is serving in the suburban Kansas City seat vacated when Republican Rep. Noel Torpey resigned before the start of the 2015 session.

Democrat Daron McGee succeeds former Democratic Representative Kevin McManus of Kansas City.

Republican Dean Plocher took the suburban St. Louis seat previously held by former GOP Representative John Diehl. Diehl served as House speaker last session but resigned after admitting to exchanging sexually suggestive texts with a Capitol intern.

Republicans hold veto-proof majorities in both the House and Senate.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska law enforcement could pull over drivers who are not wearing their seat belts under a measure proposed in the Legislature.

Senator Bob Krist of Omaha introduced a bill Wednesday that would change not wearing a seat belt from a secondary to a primary offense.

Current Nebraska law allows police to ticket drivers who aren’t buckled up, but only if they have first been pulled over for another infraction. The law applies to front seat drivers and young children.

Krist’s bill would expand the seat belt requirement to every occupant in the vehicle.

Former Senator John Harms of Scottsbluff sponsored a similar measure that died during debate in 2014.

The bill is LB669.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A senator from rural Nebraska has proposed a ballot measure to guarantee farming and ranching rights in the state constitution.

Senator John Kuehn of Heartwell introduced an amendment Wednesday to prevent state officials from passing restrictions on agricultural technology and livestock production without a compelling state interest.

Missouri and North Dakota passed similar “Right to Farm” measures after rural lawmakers argued that farming needed to be protected from environmental groups and animal rights activists.

Critics in those states argued that the proposals would prevent regulators from passing rules to ensure that animals are treated humanely and the environment is protected.

The constitutional amendment would require voter approval if lawmakers pass it. Voters in 2012 adopted an amendment that guarantees the right to hunt and fish.

The measure is LR378CA.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The McClatchy Co. has promoted Tony Berg to president and publisher of The Kansas City Star.

The company announced the 38-year-old Berg’s appointment on Wednesday.

Berg joined the Star in April 2015 as vice president for advertising after holding a similar job at the Wichita Eagle since 2012. Under his leadership, both newspapers restructured their sales forces, launched new products and services and posted double-digit growth in digital sales.

Berg has spent 15 years in the news industry in sales and leadership roles. Before moving to Wichita, Berg worked at the Arizona Republic and the Lawrence Journal-World. He is a native of Emporia, Kansas, and graduated from the University of Kansas.

He replaces Mi-Ai Parrish, who became president and publisher of the Arizona Republic last September.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A man wounded by police during a domestic disturbance call is a fugitive after leaving a Joplin hospital against medical advice.

Joplin police Capt. Bob Higginbotham says 49-year-old Jeffrey Hill was in serious, if not critical, medical condition when a friend helped him leave Freeman Hospital West in a wheelchair on Dec. 21. Police said officers shot Hill, who is white, on Nov. 30 when he attempted to run over an officer with a vehicle.

The Joplin Globe reports that Hill was not under guard at the hospital at the time because he hadn’t been arrested in the incident. But a warrant has been issued charging him with violating his parole.

Higginbotham says the friend who helped Hill leave the hospital didn’t violate any laws.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a Columbia man who’s accused of impersonating a Louisiana sheriff’s deputy to avoid arrest.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that 29-year-old William Broadus is charged in Boone County with possession of a controlled substance. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

The probable cause statement says Broadus caught the attention of a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper by driving a car without a license Sunday afternoon. Broadus says he hadn’t registered the car after buying it a few months earlier and that he was on his way to buy drugs.

The statement says Broadus told the trooper he was a law enforcement officer and showed him a Louisiana parish sheriff’s badge. But the statement says he couldn’t explain what agency he worked for.

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas prosecutor says a Missouri man has been sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for a scheme involving the sale of vintage automobiles.

Acting U.S. Attorney Kenneth Elser says 57-year-old Travis Allen Blount Jr. of Kirbyville, Missouri, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Fort Smith to 175 months in prison. Blount must also pay more than $900,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors say Blount operated car lots in Malvern, Hot Springs and Harrison, Arkansas, and in Kirbyville in which he solicited owners of classic and vintage vehicles to allow him to sell them, but did not pay the owners after the sales and failed to deliver the vehicles or their titles to the buyers.

Blount pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal last May.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ top prosecutor wants to know why the state’s concealed carry firearm licenses aren’t being honored in Virginia.  Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt requested an explanation Tuesday of Virginia’s legal reasoning.

Last month, Virginia announced it was dropped reciprocity agreements with 25 states, including Kansas.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, said the concealed weapons laws in the dropped states don’t meet Virginia’s standards.  Schmidt said in a news release that Virginia’s decision was a “surprise and a tremendous disappointment to many law-abiding Kansans who hold concealed carry licenses.”

Schmidt says Virginia first recognized Kansas licenses in February 2014 after six years of periodic discussions between the two states. He says he is unaware of any changes in Virginia law since then that would have explained the reconsideration.