COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A 20-year-old Columbia man is accused of trying to escape from the Boone County jail by climbing through the ceiling.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports a corrections officer heard noises coming from one of the jail’s housing units around 10:45 a.m. Thursday and saw ceiling damage above a shower.

Detective Tom O’Sullivan says corrections officers found Timothy Midgyett Jr. hiding in a crawl space. He was treated at a hospital for minor injuries and returned to the jail Thursday afternoon.

Midgyett was arrested Tuesday morning on several warrants and suspicion of numerous other crimes, including endangering the welfare of a child and domestic assault. He could face additional charges of attempted escape and felony property damage.

Online court records did indicate whether he had obtained an attorney.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A proposed tax break for large laundry and dry cleaning businesses has been vetoed by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon for the second straight year.

Nixon announced the veto Friday while criticizing the projected $4 million loss of state and local revenues that would have occurred under the bill.

The legislation would have waived sales taxes on equipment, soap, chemicals, electricity and other items used to clean clothes, but only for businesses that handle at least 500 pounds of clothes per hour and 60,000 pounds per week.

The Democratic governor said the bill passed by the Republican-led Legislature was an unfair expansion of existing sales tax breaks for manufacturers. He noted that smaller laundries wouldn’t have benefited. And he said cleaning clothes is not the same thing as manufacturing a product.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says hackers stole Social Security numbers from more than 21 million people and took other sensitive information when government computer systems were compromised.

The Office of Personnel Management says more than 19 million who had applied for background investigations were affected. The government also said nearly 2 million people were also affected who weren’t applicants, but rather their spouses or other family members.

The number affected by the breach is higher than the 14 million figure that investigators gave The Associated Press last month. They said the government was increasingly confident that China’s government, and not criminal hackers, was responsible for the extraordinary theft of personal information.

China has publicly denied involvement in the break-in.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The NAACP will introduce an emergency resolution at its national convention this weekend to lift its 15-year economic boycott of South Carolina, following the state legislature’s decision to remove the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds.

NAACP president Cornell William Brooks said Thursday that the church massacre last month and the “brutality of this moment spoke to the country in ways that a boycott alone would not do.

“But be clear, the prospect of a bigger boycott, more economic sanctions, were effective,” he said.

The NAACP announced its statewide boycott when the flag was in front of the Statehouse in 2000. The boycott was observed by the NCAA, United Auto Workers and others.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s governor has signed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds, more than 50 years after it was raised in protest of the civil rights movement.

Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill Thursday on the second floor of the Statehouse, where through a window the secessionist battle flag was visible outside. She was surrounded by the family members of those killed in the church shooting last month.

The law requires the flag to be removed and placed in the state’s Confederate Relic Room. Haley says it will come down at 10 a.m. Friday.

The push to bring down the flag began after state Sen. Clementa (kleh-MEN’-taye) Pinckney and eight other people were gunned down during their Bible study inside a historic black church. Police said it was racially motivated, and photographs emerged showing the suspect posing with Confederate flags.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has signed into law the first significant measure state lawmakers have taken to address concerns raised after last summer’s fatal police shooting of a black, unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson.

Nixon announced the bill signing Thursday in St. Louis, near the suburb where a white police officer fatally shot Michael Brown in August.

The legislation caps fines for minor traffic violations and reduces revenue most cities can collect from traffic fines and fees.

Supporters say the legislation will address the predatory revenue-generating practices detailed in a U.S. Justice Department report on Ferguson.

Some residents and legal advocates said the use of police to collect revenue through traffic fines and court fees added to the predominantly black community’s distrust of a generally white police force.

 

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A 26-year-old Wisconsin man accused in the death of his girlfriend’s mother in Springfield has been brought back to Greene County.

The Springfield News-Leader reports Nicholas Godejohn was booked into the Greene County jail on Wednesday. He had been held in Wisconsin since he and Gypsy Blancharde were arrested there last month.

They’re both being held on $1 million bond on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of 48-year-old Clauddinnea “Dee Dee” Blancharde.

Authorities have also accused Gypsy Blancharde of faking the need for a wheelchair and pretending to be a Hurricane Katrina victim so she and her mother could collect donations.

Godejohn’s next court appearance is Monday. His public defender didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (AP) — Missouri officials say Fort Leonard Wood is scheduled to lose 774 active-duty troops by the end of fiscal year 2017.

The reductions were announced Thursday in a joint statement from U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt, with Rep. Vicki Hartzler.

The cuts at the south-central Missouri fort are part of a federal move to reduce the number of the country’s active-duty soldiers to 450,000 from 490,000 across 28 Army installations.

The Congressional representatives said the reductions are challenge for Fort Leonard Wood but lower than those imposed on some other Army posts. They said the announcement confirms that Fort Leonard Wood will continue to play a critical role in the training and development of troops.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri says she supports efforts to have President Barack Obama revoke Bill Cosby’s Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment advocacy group launched the campaign Wednesday, saying it is working with women who have accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them.

In newly unsealed documents, Cosby testified in 2005 he obtained quaaludes with the intent of giving them to women before sex.

President George W. Bush presented the nation’s highest civilian honor to Cosby in 2002, citing his revolutionary portrayal of blacks on television and his interest and dedication to education.

McCaskill, a Democrat, says she doesn’t believe that somebody who has admitted to doing what he said he did merits a medal, and that “he probably deserves to go to prison.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is working with neighboring states to promote and market the region to film producers looking for movie locations.

The film offices in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska along with Kansas City, Missouri, are collaborating to entice the film industry to the area.

Peter Jasso is executive director for the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission. He said Wednesday in a news release that in the absence of tax credits and other financial incentives, the partnership is a way for the states to come together to make larger-scale film projects possible in the region.

The partnership has already helped with the production of the film “American Honey,” which is slated for release next year. It was filmed in the four-state area, including Mission Hills, Kansas.