KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A transgender soldier imprisoned for releasing classified military information has released her first statement since being granted clemency, saying she hopes to use lessons she’s learned in prison to help others.

Chelsea Manning issued the statement Tuesday ahead of her release next week, expressing gratitude to her supporters and to former President Barack Obama.

Manning served nearly seven years of her 35-year sentence at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, before Obama granted her clemency in the final days of his presidency.

Manning was convicted in 2013 of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents and battlefield video to WikiLeaks. An intelligence analyst in Iraq, she was known as Bradley Manning before transitioning.

Her attorneys say she’ll be released from a military prison on May 17.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A law firm says radioactive material has been found at additional homes near a contaminated St. Louis County landfill.

A Bridgeton, Missouri, couple filed suit last year over contamination in their home. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the law firm handling their case said Monday that samples from four more homes also show contamination.

The Environmental Protection Agency conducted its own test of two homes in December. Results are pending but the EPA said in a statement that preliminary results indicate no cause for concern.

A bill sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal seeks a program to buyout homes in the Bridgeton area determined to be contaminated. The measure must pass before Friday, the end of the 2017 legislative session.

lanning to convert Chuck Berry’s one-time home into a museum and to create a cultural district around it honoring the rock ‘n’ roll legend and other prominent African-Americans who have lived in that part of the city.

The city on Monday solicited bids for the project. It will be centered around the north St. Louis home where Berry lived for eight years in the 1950s. During that time, he wrote many of his biggest hits, including “Maybelline,” ”Roll Over Beethoven,” ”Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Johnny B. Goode.”

The museum would anchor a “Chuck Berry Cultural District,” to honor Berry, who died in March at age 90, and the area’s African-American heritage.

“The Greater Ville” neighborhood was among the few areas where blacks could own property in the early to mid-1950s. It was home to many other famous African-Americans, including singers Josephine Baker and Tina Turner, comedian Dick Gregory and tennis star Arthur Ashe.

CHARLESTON, Mo. (AP) — A wrongful-death lawsuit filed against a detention center in southeastern Missouri says jailers did not offer proper medical care for a woman during an overdose and let her die in her cell.

The Southeast Missourian reports the suit was filed on behalf of the woman’s two children by their father, Devin Arnold, in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau on May 2 and amended May 5.

It alleges jailers at the Mississippi County Detention Center failed to provide adequate medical care to 21-year-old Somer Nunnally. Coroner Terry Parker rules Nunnally died from mixed-drug intoxication.

Then-detention officer and current jail administrator Sally Gammons Yanez, who was listed in the suit, said Monday she hasn’t been served papers about the suit yet.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has been sentenced to life in prison for the killing of his 7-year-old son, whose remains were found in the family’s pig sty after what authorities described as systematic abuse.

Forty-six-year-old Michael Jones declined the judge’s offer to address the court during his Wyandotte County sentencing hearing Monday related to the 2015 death of Adrian Jones. He pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder.

The boy’s stepmother, Heather Jones, pleaded guilty to the same charge in November and is serving a life term.

Authorities say Adrian died in September or October 2015, but his death wasn’t reported. His remains were found that November after authorities responding to a domestic disturbance learned he was missing.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — State police are investigating the hanging of a noose at Kansas State University — another apparent racist attack on campus.

The Manhattan Mercury reports the university’s Office of Institutional Equity was notified Friday that the noose was hanging from a tree near King Hall on the Manhattan campus. The department fosters inclusiveness and equal opportunity.

University spokesman Jeff Morris says he doesn’t know what motivated the hanging of the noose.

The Kansas State Police Department has removed the noose.

An anti-Semitic sign was posted on campus in April during Holocaust Remembrance Day. University President Richard Myers said the school also found signs denouncing black people.

Kansas State University last year distanced itself from a photo tagged to the school’s website showing two women in blackface, saying neither was enrolled as a student.

NEW YORK (AP) — Coach will spend $2.4 billion for Kate Spade, tying together two premier brands in the luxury goods sector that have fought to snare younger shoppers.

Noting that crucial demographic, Coach Inc. CEO Victor Luis said in a company release Monday that Kate Spade has a “strong awareness among consumers, especially millennials.”

Coach will pay $18.50 per share of Kate Spade & Company. That’s a 9 percent premium to its Friday closing price of $16.97.

The boards of both New York companies have approved the deal, which is targeted to close in the third quarter.

Kate Spade’s stock surged more than 8 percent before the opening bell.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Department of Human Services is facing scrutiny from legislators as it tries to implement rules for the state foster care system that it says will better protect children.

As the agency strives to make changes it says are necessary, lawmakers are pushing back against the efforts and criticizing the agency for focusing on small fixes. The criticism follows high-profile child abuse cases last year, which led some lawmakers to say the agency is no longer credible.

The newly proposed foster care rules change guidelines for child placement agencies and alter rules for hazard protections, bedrooms and such details as pet waste disposal.

The process for those rules to be enacted requires a public notice period until May 16, during which lawmakers and citizens can voice opinions.