SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge has approved a $350,000 settlement in a lawsuit alleging a teacher repeatedly slapped an autistic boy at a Springfield school.

The boy’s father said in the lawsuit that teacher Janet Carrie Williams slapped and insulted the boy at Greene Valley State school.

The Springfield News-Leader reported Tuesday a federal judge signed a settlement giving the boy’s family $232,000 and two law firms a total of $118,000.

Williams, who is no longer working at the school, has pleaded not guilty to third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child, both misdemeanors.

Greene Valley director Peggy Robinson, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri Board of Education also were named in the lawsuit. The settlement noted the defendants disputed the allegations.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new government report shows a surge in the use by authorities of wiretaps last year in Kansas for drug investigations.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts issued its annual report to Congress Wednesday. It reports that the number of wiretaps nationwide decreased slightly in 2014 compared to the previous year. But in Kansas, federal judges last year authorized 29 wiretaps, compared to just five a year earlier.

The Kansas number is also higher when compared against previous reports dating at least as far back as 2009.

All the wiretaps approved last year in Kansas involved narcotics cases.

In addition to the 29 wiretaps approved by federal judges here, the report shows that three other wiretaps were authorized last year by state judges in Finney and Saline counties.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge is weighing whether to allow the governor to sign off on plans to build a new stadium for the St. Louis Rams. A state lawmaker argued Tuesday in Cole County Circuit Court that Gov. Jay Nixon and officials who oversee the current Rams stadium are overstepping their authority.

The governor and others want to keep the Rams in St. Louis or attract another team if owner Stan Kroenke moves the franchise to Los Angeles, which could happen as early as 2016.

A group of Missouri lawmakers sued. They say Nixon is misusing taxpayer money to plan and promote a new stadium.

Lawyers for Nixon want the case dismissed. Judge Jon Beetem didn’t say when he will rule on the case.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has put on hold a lower court’s order for the state to immediately increase aid to public schools by roughly $50 million.

The high court issued a one-page order Tuesday, a day after a request from Attorney General Derek Schmidt. A three-judge panel in Shawnee County District Court last week invalidated key parts of a school funding law enacted by the Republican-dominated Legislature this year.

The lower-court judges ordered Kansas to provide more money to districts using the state’s previous school funding formula.

The new school funding law scrapped the old per-student formula for distributing aid in favor of predictable grants for each districts. The lower-court panel said the changes violated the state constitution by not providing equal educational opportunities for all students.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Same-sex couples can get marriage licenses in all 105 Kansas counties.

But the state on Tuesday wasn’t yet allowing gay and lesbian spouses to change their last names on driver’s licenses or file joint income tax returns.

Several officials said Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration is still studying the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared same-sex marriage legal across the nation.

The Republican governor supports Kansas’ ban on gay marriage. He has noted repeatedly that voters in 2005 overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to reinforce it.

Before the latest U.S. Supreme Court ruling, same-sex marriage licenses were being issued in 21 of 31 judicial districts covering 61 counties.

As of Tuesday, all 31 districts said they were issuing same-sex marriage licenses or were prepared to do so.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials are considering new warnings and child-resistant packaging on liquid nicotine packets used with e-cigarettes and other next-generation tobacco products.

The Food and Drug Administration says it is responding to an uptick in nicotine poisonings reported by emergency rooms and poison centers nationwide. Liquid nicotine is primarily used to refill e-cigarettes, a fast-growing market encompassing hundreds of products and an estimated $2.1 billion in sales. The agency will seek public comment on a number of questions surrounding the proposed warnings and safe guards, according to a government memo posted online.

Under a 2009 law, the FDA gained authority to regulate some aspects of cigarettes and other traditional tobacco products.

A year ago, the FDA released a proposal bringing e-cigarettes under its authority. That rule has not been finalized.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has collected about $22 million less in revenues than anticipated this month.

The state Department of Revenue reported Tuesday that the state took in a little more than $529 million in taxes in June. The state’s official fiscal forecast predicted more than $551 million.

The shortfall for the month was 4.1 percent.

June was the last month of the 2015 fiscal year. For the entire fiscal year, the department reported tax collections of $5.5 billion that were $33 million short of expectations, or about 0.6 percent short.

The lower-than-anticipated tax collections complicate the budget picture. Legislators raised sales and cigarette taxes to avert a deficit in the new fiscal year but didn’t expect to leave much of a cushion of cash reserves at the end of June 2016.

SUGAR CREEK, Mo. (AP) — Crews from the Missouri State Highway Patrol have pulled a body from the Missouri River near Sugar Creek.

The Kansas City Star reports a person noticed what appeared to be a body and reported it to authorities early Tuesday.

Patrol spokesman Sgt. Bill Lowe says water patrol officers found the body and pulled it from the water. He says the body is being sent to the Jackson County medical examiner’s office to determine the person’s identity and cause of death.

Sugar Creek has about 3,300 residents and is located about 8 miles east of Kansas City.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s Supreme Court has upheld two constitutional amendments guaranteeing the right to farm and the right to bear arms.

The judges on Tuesday issued an opinion saying that summaries of the proposals on ballots last year were fair.

Critics complained that the measures misled voters and would have unintended consequences. For example, some said they could be interpreted to allow convicted felons to own weapons or grant more rights to foreign agriculture companies.

The judges also said that ballot language can be challenged even after an election is over, setting precedent in Missouri.

Attorneys representing the state of Missouri had argued that opponents of the measures brought them to court too late.

Voters approved both measures in August.