(AP) – With more money in their pockets thanks to lower gas prices and an improved job market, AAA expects more than 37 million Americans to travel for Memorial Day, the most since 2005.

AAA says the number of Americans taking a trip of 50 miles or more will rise 4.7 percent to 37.2 million. Nearly nine of 10 travelers, or 33 million, will drive to their destination, making for crowded highways.

Gasoline should be around $1 cheaper this Memorial Day. The average price for a gallon of gas Friday was $2.66. Last year on the holiday it was $3.66.

AAA says the number of people flying should rise 2.5 percent. A thriving stock market has boosted the net worth of wealthier Americans, who more easily can afford to fly for vacation.

KNOB NOSTER, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri sheriff says there’s a “huge amount of relief” in the community, after authorities shot and killed a man who’d been accused in the shooting death of his former girlfriend and her teenage son.

James Horn was killed at a state wildlife area in western Missouri — two days after Sandra Kay Sutton and her 17-year-old son were found dead at a relative’s home.

Horn had been charged last month with kidnapping the woman — after she told police he had kept her in a wooden crate, off-and-on, for months at their home. But police didn’t have him in custody.

Horn had past convictions for kidnapping and abductions.

OAK BROOK, Ill. (AP) — McDonald’s says a key sales metric edged lower in April, with weakness across most regions.

The world’s biggest hamburger chain, which is in the midst of a turnaround plan, said Friday that sales at established locations open at least 13 months fell 0.6 percent in April.

By region, the biggest drop was in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, which fell 3.8 percent. In the U.S., the metric declined 2.3 percent. Europe was a bright spot, up 1 percent.

On Monday CEO Steve Easterbrook said that he will strip away the bureaucracy at McDonald’s Corp. so the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company can move more nimbly to keep up with changing tastes. McDonald’s profit dropped 15 percent last year.

Its shares edged up 62 cents to $97.40 in premarket trading.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 52-year-old Missouri man is sentenced to more than 55 years for bludgeoning to death a well-known Kansas dog breeder whose body was found several days after he was killed.

Darrell Lee Broxton of Kansas City, Missouri, was sentenced in Wyandotte County District Court on Friday to 667 months for the December 2012 slaying of Peter Belmont.

The 69-year-old victim was killed in his Kansas City, Kansas, home. The retired high school art teacher was nationally known for breeding, raising and showing Afghan hound dogs.

Broxton was convicted in February of intentional second-degree murder, burglary and two counts of theft. Jurors were shown evidence that Broxton was investigated for a similar homicide in 1996 in Ocala, Florida.

Broxton had been paroled in May 2012 after serving time for burglary.

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — Police are focusing on the hometown of a man being sought in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her son, weeks after he was charged with restricting the woman to a crate in their western Missouri home.

Sandra Kay Sutton and her 17-year-old son, Zachary Wade Sutton, were found dead Thursday in a relative’s home in Clinton. Both appear to have been shot.

Authorities have been searching for James Barton Horn Jr. since he was charged with kidnapping Sandra Sutton three weeks ago. Investigators allege he kept her in a wooden box off-and-on for four months at their home in Sedalia, about 45 miles from Clinton.

Clinton police Lt. Sonny Lynch says authorities believe Horn may still be in the Sedalia area and that someone may be helping him.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A company hired by Moolah Shriners to stage a circus in suburban St. Louis is accused in a federal complaint of mishandling elephants during two shows in Missouri and Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture alleges in the April 28 complaint that during a March 2014 show in St. Charles near St. Louis, Florida-based Royal Hanneford Circus ginned up crowd noise that spooked three elephants. Those animals briefly got loose on the arena’s parking lot, though no one was injured.

The USDA also alleges that three weeks later in Altoona, Pennsylvania, handlers of those elephants wrongly watered the animals in a publicly accessible area.

Messages left Friday with Royal Hanneford and fellow respondent Oklahoma-based Carson & Barnes Circus, which leased the elephants to Royal Hanneford, weren’t immediately returned.

BURIEN, Wash. (AP) — A campaign is underway in places around the U.S. to “demilitarize” the police and produce officers who think of themselves as protectors of their communities, not members of an occupying force.

That philosophy is already at work at Washington state’s police academy, where instructors are using a curriculum known as “Blue Courage.” It aims to produce cops who have a strong moral compass and the ability to use their wits instead of their weapons whenever possible.

Calls for demilitarizing law enforcement began a few years ago but gained urgency after the violent protests over the deadly shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer.

As part of that change in thinking, President Barack Obama has curtailed the government’s practice of supplying armored vehicles, heavy weapons and other military-style equipment to police departments.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court says aviation officials acted within their authority in clearing passengers to use cellphone and other electronics during takeoffs and landings.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Friday the government has always had discretion on how to handle issues such as portable electronics.

The nation’s largest flight attendants union said it wanted airline passengers to return to stowing cellphones and other electronics during takeoffs and landings.

The union argued that such devices can distract passengers from safety announcements and become dangerous projectiles. The union also said the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision in 2013 changed an agency regulation without steps required by law.

But the appeals court said the FAA was free to change its interpretation of the rules.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has approved a bill aimed at allowing the state to enforce a ban on what critics call “webcam” abortions.

The Senate’s 39-0 vote sends the measure to the House.

The bill makes technical changes in a provision in a 2011 law enacting health and safety regulations specifically for abortion providers. The state hasn’t been able to enforce the law because two providers filed a lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court against it.

The measure addresses legal issues in the lawsuit. There has been no opposition to the bill.

The measure modifies a provision of the law requiring a doctor who provides an abortion-inducing drug to be in the same room when a patient takes it. Among other things, the bill creates an exception for medical emergencies.