ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say at least 29 vehicles were involved in a pileup during a rainstorm near St. Louis, sending six people to the hospital and bringing traffic to a standstill.

The crash happened around 5 p.m. Sunday on Interstate 70 in St. Charles, shutting down westbound traffic and causing heavy delays for eastbound travelers. According to the Missouri Department of Transportation, westbound lanes reopened shortly after 9 p.m.

Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman Sergeant Al Nothum tells the Post-Dispatch that he didn’t know the severity of people’s injuries. But he says authorities “don’t anticipate anybody dying from this crash.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A storm system packing strong winds and hail has hit parts of Missouri.

The National Weather Service says lighting struck a tree Sunday afternoon in Christian County, killing 11 of the cattle that had huddled underneath it for shelter. Several trees were downed in Taney County, and penny-size hail was reported in Ripley County.

In east-central Missouri, there were reports Sunday of wind gusts of more than 40 miles per hour.

Meanwhile, a flood warning has been issued through Wednesday for the Osage River near Schell City and through Thursday for the Marmaton River near the town of Nevada.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas will delay a campus wide ban on tobacco for a year, until July 2016.

Human Resources Director Ola Faucher said Thursday the plan was delayed to adjust the draft plan, increase support and spread awareness.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports the current policy bans smoking, including e-cigarettes, in or near buildings. The proposed policy would ban tobacco use everywhere on campus.

Faucher said language has been added to clarify that the ban would not apply to private vehicles.

And the use of tobacco for traditional or sacred use, such as during American Indian ceremonies, also would be allowed with approval from university administrators.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Art Institutes International-Kansas City has laid off a dozen employees due to the closing of its Lenexa campus.

The Kansas City Star reports the layoffs were announced Wednesday. The college, which is owned by Education Management Corp., is one 15 Art Institutes International campuses being phased out over the next two to three years.

The phasing out process will affect about 200 employees and more than 5,400 students worldwide.

According to EDMC spokesman Chris Hardman, the 300 students currently enrolled at the Lenexa campus will be allowed to finish their degrees.

Hardman says EDMC, which owns 51 Art Institutes International campuses, was restructured last month and reduced its debt of $1.5 billion to $400 million.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Sometimes, shipping an 850-pound beast can be a real bear.

The St. Louis Zoo says it has welcomed an orphaned-as-a-cub, 2-year-old male polar bear named Kali donated and transported by FedEx ahead of his scheduled June 6 debut at the zoo’s new Polar Bear Point exhibit.

The zoo says Kali is resting comfortably and for the next month or so will be in quarantine, which is standard.

Kali spent the past two years at the Buffalo zoo after he was orphaned in Alaska when a hunter unknowingly killed his mother, unaware she had a cub.

Kali’s trip to St. Louis included being flown by FedEx from New York to Memphis, Tennessee, before he was loaded into a temperature-controlled truck that completed the trek to Missouri.

FRONTENAC, Mo. (AP) — Money doesn’t grow on trees but rather it rains in Frontenac, where people passing through this week collected cash that landed on their windshields and fell to the street.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports drivers on Wednesday scooped up the money, including $100 bills, after a purse apparently flew off the top of a car.

A woman who retrieved the bag dropped it off at a nearby St. Louis store. The business’ owner says employees tried to contact the purse’s owner but couldn’t find a phone number for her.

They notified Frontenac police Thursday. An officer stopped by to pick up the purse and the money that had been turned in.

A police detective said he couldn’t comment on whether the woman and her purse have been reunited.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Firefighters in the Mark Twain National Forest of southern Missouri say they are making progress in the effort to battle a massive forest fire.

The fire has burned more than 1,300 acres of public and private land near Black, Missouri, 115 miles southwest of St. Louis. The fire was discovered Sunday. The cause is under investigation.

Federal authorities say that about 40 percent of the fire has now been contained. Nearly 150 firefighters from as far away as Iowa and Minnesota are helping.

About 30 homes and other structures are at risk, but no buildings have been damaged no one has been hurt.

The biggest wildfire on record at the Mark Twain National Forest is believed to be a 2011 blaze that burned nearly 5,000 acres.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Senate has approved a bill to stop the state from considering how much money a bidder would return to the state if awarded a contract for a license office.

Senators voted 33-0 Thursday for the measure, which is aimed at addressing what some legislators have called pay-to-play.

The Revenue Department now awards contracts to run offices that issue vehicle and driver’s licenses in part based on how much of the profit bidders promise to pay back to the state.

A 2009 law required that bidding process to end political patronage.

But lawmakers have criticized that as disadvantaging nonprofit groups.

A measure that would exempt from the state’s sunshine laws bids made by St. Louis’ convention center was added to the bill, which now needs House approval.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has approved a measure that would decrease penalties for marijuana possession, allow the limited use of medical marijuana and study the use of industrial hemp.

House members voted 81-36 Thursday to send the bill to the Senate for consideration.

First- and second-time marijuana offenders without serious prior convictions would avoid jail time under the bill. That would decrease prison populations and save more than $1.7 million over the next two fiscal years, according to state estimates.

Two amendments to the bill also would legalize the sale and production of hemp oil for seizure treatments and initiate a state study into industrial hemp.

Opponents say they’re worried that the bill would open the door to wider marijuana legalization.