RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — New statistics show that the sale of tobacco to minors in the U.S. were held near all-time lows last year under a federal-state inspection program intended to curb underage usage.

A federal report issued Tuesday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration says that the rate of retail tobacco sales to underage users nationwide has fallen from about 40 percent in 1997, to 9.1 percent in the last fiscal year.

A U.S. Surgeon General’s report issued last year found that more needs to be done to prevent young Americans from using tobacco, including stricter smoking bans and higher taxes on tobacco products.

According to that report, almost one in five high school-aged teens smokes. That’s down from earlier decades, but the rate of decline has slowed.

Meanwhile, the report suggested mixed news in the area of retailers who sell tobacco products to minors.

In the fiscal year 2012, the nationwide average retailer violation rate increased from the previous year. But, despite that increase, the rate still is the second lowest average weighted rate in the history of the Synar program.

The state of Missouri reported a 10.2% dip in retailer violations. In Kansas, retailer violations were down 7.6%.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Cosmosphere has launched a website with a live webcam where viewers can track conservation work on the engines that powered NASA’s Apollo moon mission.

The Hutchinson museum said Monday it recently got confirmation that a serial number on a thrust chamber recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean shows the F-1 engine came from the Apollo 11 mission.  That was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the moon.

Most of the more than 25,000 pounds of engine pieces are in tanks to remove corrosion. Some pieces are cleaned by hand.

The Apollo F-1 conservation project was commissioned by Bezos Expeditions

To watch the project live, click the link and select “watch live.”

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Plans for a wingsuit flight over downtown St. Louis have been called off over security concerns.

Alexander Polli, a 28-year-old wingsuit flyer with a huge following on YouTube, had planned to jump from a plane about 4,000 feet above downtown about an hour before Friday night’s Cardinals game against Atlanta. Plans called for him to do stunts during a three-minute flight in the aerodynamic wingsuit.

But spokeswoman Meghan Spork said Friday that “new security concerns” were raised in conversations with local government and the Federal Aviation Administration, forcing cancellation of the event. Messages seeking details of those concerns were not returned.

Spork says Polli may try again in St. Louis in the future.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A conservative Missouri political committee says it may recruit candidates to run in primary elections against Republican legislators who vote against an income tax cut.

Bev Randles chairs The Missouri Club for Growth, which is part of a coalition urging lawmakers to override Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of the tax-cut legislation.

Randles said Friday her group won’t support the re-election bid of anyone who votes against the veto override and likely would look for a challenger to set up a 2014 primary.

The head of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry also said the tax-cut legislation would be a high priority as it rates lawmakers.

The Legislature is to convene September 11th to consider overriding bills vetoed by Nixon. Republicans hold supermajorities in both the House and Senate.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The federal agency overseeing air travel has temporarily grounded drone use by a pair of Midwest journalism schools.

Researchers at the University of Missouri in Columbia and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln were testing the flying robots as aerial photographers and video recorders from difficult-to-reach news scenes.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the universities to stop flying until they obtain government authorization.

Radio journalist Schott Pham says Missouri will limit its news-gathering drone test to indoor flights.

The crackdown comes as unmanned drones move from the battlefield to civilian and commercial use. Missouri was relying on rules for amateur use of remote-controlled model airplanes. The FAA instead considers the university a public operator.

(AP) — Officers are still searching for an inmate who escaped from the Thurston County Jail in the northeast Nebraska city of Pender.

A sheriff’s office worker said 39-year-old Mark Kuehn was still on the loose Thursday morning.

Jailers discovered that he was missing Wednesday morning. How he got out hasn’t been disclosed.

The jail is just blocks from Pender schools, so they were locked down. Schools in nearby Wayne were locked down, too.

Kuehn has been in jail since his conviction on two counts of theft. He’s also a sex offender who was convicted in Stanton County.

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Bradley Manning wants you to call him Chelsea Manning. A day after being sentenced to 35 years for leaking military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks, the former Army intelligence analyst says he wants to live as a woman named Chelsea, and hopes to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. He made the announcement in a written statement to NBC’s “Today” show:

“I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood.

“I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible.”

“Starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility).”

Manning’s struggle with gender identity disorder — the sense of being a woman trapped in a man’s body — was key to the defense. Attorneys had presented evidence of Manning’s struggle with gender identity, including a photo of the soldier in a blond wig and lipstick sent to a therapist.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A judge says a northeast Missouri man accused of stabbing and dismembering an elderly neighbor is not competent to stand trial.

Adair County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Wilson says a judge found 49-year-old Paul R. Potter of Kirksville incompetent for trial after he underwent a psychiatric evaluation.

Potter faces first-degree murder and other charges in the January death of 74-year-old Willis Edward Meredith. Prosecutors say Potter stabbed Meredith, chopped up his body and started fires to try to conceal the crimes.

He is also accused of throwing the victim’s arms at witnesses before his arrest.

Potter’s status will be reviewed in six months.

Online court records indicate Potter was evaluated at Fulton State Hospital. He pleaded not guilty in April.