Missouri first-graders could see an addition to their curriculum under a bill given first-round approval in the Missouri Senate.

The measure endorsed Tuesday would give school districts the option to teach a National Rifle Association-sponsored gun safety program to students in first grade.

It would also allow schools to implement a training program for teachers and other personnel on responding to intruders.

The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Dan Brown, of Rolla, originally would have required schools to adopt both programs. But opposition from Democratic senators caused Brown to make the training and gun safety course optional.

The measure needs one more affirmative vote before moving to the House.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has filled a vacant trial court judgeship in the Kansas City area.

Brownback announced Tuesday that he appointed Leawood attorney Paul Gurney as a district court judge in Johnson County. He was one of three attorneys named as finalists for the vacancy by a local nominating commission.

Gurney is the senior trial counsel for an Overland Park law firm, where he’s worked since 1999.

He’ll replace District Judge Thomas Bornholdt, who announced his retirement late last year. Bornholdt had served as a judge since October 1993.

Iowa Supreme Court justices have been told that some apartment tenants’ experiences with bedbugs are too varied to let a lawsuit proceed as a class action.

Attorney Kevin Driscoll told the justices during oral arguments on Tuesday that “one tenant’s experience with bedbugs is not indicative of every tenant experience.”

The lawsuit was filed in March 2010 and certified as a class action on Nov. 11, 2011.

Driscoll is appealing that certification for his client, which is the company that manages Elsie Mason Manor and Ligutti Towers, two low-income apartment buildings in downtown Des Moines.

The lawsuit alleges that managers knew about the infestation for more than two years but didn’t warn tenants or properly treat it until the lawsuit was filed.

A bill introduced in the Kansas House would require the state’s schools to provide evidence in classrooms questioning the existence of climate change.

The bill, introduced last week, says instruction about scientific controversies should include evidence for and against the theory.

The only controversy identified in the bill is “climate science.”

No hearings have been scheduled for the bill before the House Education Committee.

The bill comes at the same time the Kansas State Board of Education is preparing to vote on new science standards, which are still being developed.

Another bill currently in the Education Committee would require the State Board of Education to replace English standards that it adopted in 2010.

The iconic Budweiser sign at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis is about to be lit again.

A ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the brewery.

The event is not open to the public.

The 150-foot-long sign was taken down about a month ago for the first time since it was installed in 1979.

 

The brewery spent more than $500,000 to make the sign shine more brightly, using LED technology that will better stand up to the elements.

Officials say the revitalized sign is 60 percent more energy-efficient than the old one.

The Kansas Senate is taking up a bill that would prohibit doctors from terminating a pregnancy solely because a woman doesn’t want a baby of a certain gender.

Senators are scheduled to debate the measure Tuesday afternoon.

The bill would make it a misdemeanor the first time a doctor is convicted of performing a sex-selection abortion and a felony each time afterward.

A woman’s husband could sue a doctor over such a procedure, as could a parent or guardian of a girl under 18 who had one.

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee endorsed it last week.

Meanwhile, a House committee plans to have a hearing Wednesday on a bill designed to prevent the state from subsidizing abortions even indirectly through tax exemptions or credits.

As Republicans look to implement a voter photo identification requirement, Democrats in Jefferson City are pushing back with a proposal to allow early voting.

A Missouri Senate committee considered two bills Monday that would allow people to vote at least two weeks prior to election day.

Missouri voters already can vote in-person prior to election day, but are required to sign an affidavit saying they will not be in their home county on Election Day.

Missouri would become the 33rd state to adopt early voting if the proposal passes.

Last week, the Missouri House sent a photo ID bill to the Senate.

The Senate committee took no action on the early voting bills.

A bill aimed at preventing children from seeing obscene or harmful images while using the Internet in schools and public libraries is coming up for debate in the Kansas Senate.

Senators planned to discuss the measure Tuesday, only a day after their Education Committee endorsed it.

The bill initially would have required schools and libraries to have technology installed on computers.

That would include filters or content blockers, to prevent children from viewing child pornography or other obscene or harmful material.

The committee amended the bill so that in addition to technology, schools and libraries can have a process for filtering Internet content. Committee members said the change gives local officials more flexibility in meeting the bill’s goal without facing additional costs.

A jury has found a 44-year-old southwest Missouri man guilty of attempted rape in a case involving twin sisters who lived as his wives at a ranch inhabited by Morman fundamentalists.

Charles Laub was found guilty of one count in Cedar County.

The women say they were not legally married to Laub but had participated in a religious ceremony in Utah in 2001.

The women and their combined eight children fled their shared husband nearly two years ago.

The 27-year-olds told authorities Laub had isolated them from family and friends and did not allow them to refuse sex.

Online court records indicate Laub was taken into custody after the trial and was being held on $25,000 bond. He is to be sentenced March 11.

St. Louis-area police say a revised law is encouraging thieves to steal older cars and sell them for scrap, causing a big rise in auto thefts.

The law, which took effect last August, made it legal to sell a non-functioning vehicle 10 years or older without a title.

St. Louis County police Sgt. Tom Naughton says thieves can make $200 to $500 for each car.

This comes at a time when other laws have made it harder to sell stolen wire or gutters for scrap.

The lawmaker who proposed the change, Rep. Kevin Engler of Farmington, rejects the police complaints. He says the law was intended to help rural landowners get rid of junk cars that are abandoned on their property.