KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Zoo will soon have a saltwater tank allowing visitors to pet sharks and stingrays.

The Kansas City Star reports construction of $1.5 million exhibit at the zoo will begin in October. The attraction is expected to open by May 2018.

The tank will hold as much as 30,000 gallons of saltwater and be home to cownose rays and bamboo sharks.

Todd LaSala is chairman of the Friends of the Zoo building committee. He says the zoo hopes the exhibit maintains its momentum after attracting a record 1 million visitors last year.

Over half of the rays in the zoo’s 2002 petting exhibit died because of water quality problems. Zoo official Sean Putney says the facility is working to ensure the aquatic environment is safe.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Legislature approved a medical marijuana oil program in the final hours of the session, but advocates remain skeptical the expansion of an existing program will have a large impact.

The Republican-controlled chambers approved a bill that would allow the oil to treat nine conditions, including cancer and multiple sclerosis. The expansion builds off an existing program for epilepsy patients.

Some medical marijuana advocates say a cap on the strength of the oil used is arbitrary and limits the benefit. Rep. Jared Klein, the bill’s manager, says lawmakers may consider broadening the program in future sessions if medical professionals advise it.

The program would continue to prohibit smoking, vaporizing or eating food containing marijuana.

Despite questions raised about the program, some argue that small steps are better than none.

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — Emporia State University’s Center for Early Childhood Education is being investigated for alleged child abuse.

Emporia State spokeswoman Gwen Larson, tells the Emporia Gazette the Kansas Department for Children and Families is investigating reported child abuse at the center.

The center provides an early childhood environment for children of university students, faculty and community members. It also serves as a practicum and observation site for students training to be early childhood teachers.

Parents and staff at the center received an email Monday from center director Keely Persinger informing them of her resignation in the midst of the investigation.

Children and Families Department spokeswoman Theresa Freed says the agency cannot currently comment on the case.

Parents say the agency has told them the investigation will likely finish mid-May.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Kansas City, Missouri, postal carrier has been ordered to spend three years in federal prison for her role in distributing PCP.

Sixty-five-year-old Carol Barfield was sentenced Thursday in Kansas City, where she pleaded guilty last November to conspiring to distribute the drug. A co-defendant, 57-year-old Michael Garrett of Victorville, California, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to the drug-trafficking conspiracy and using the mail to distribute PCP.

Authorities say that as part of the plot from November 2015 to March of last year, Garrett mailed bottles of the drug to addresses on Barfield’s postal route and then had her deliver them to others in the area.

In exchange, Barfield said Garrett bought her clothes, fixed her car and gave her money.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state judge has ruled that the Iowa Department of Transportation has the authority to order cities to remove automated traffic-enforcement cameras from highways and interstates.

The ruling Thursday is in response to a request for judicial review filed by Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Muscatine in 2015. The cities made the request after the DOT ordered some speed cameras turned off because they did not make interstate highways safer.

The three cities had argued that the DOT was infringing on cities’ ability to self-govern. But Judge Scott Rosenberg wrote that the DOT has the power to apply safety regulations on primary highways, and that the right doesn’t interfere with cities’ ability to enforce speed regulations.

A Des Moines official says the city will appeal.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Senate has passed a school choice bill that would create education savings accounts for students with disabilities, foster children and children with parents in the military.

The bill passed Thursday by a 20-12 vote. It now moves to the House.

The legislation would create a tax credit program that parents of children with special needs could use to pay for educational expenses such as private school tuition, online classes and home schooling.

It also changes how students may transfer from unaccredited districts and allows individual schools to be unaccredited.

If a school or district is unaccredited, students could first transfer to an accredited school in their district. They could then move to an adjoining district or transfer to a charter or online school.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man serving a 27-year sentence in federal prison isn’t having much luck persuading judges that his prosecution violated his supposed religious right to traffic heroin.

The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected Timothy Anderson’s appeal of his St. Louis convictions last year of conspiracy and of possessing heroin with plans to deal it.

Anderson had pressed that the trial judge erred in spiking his request to have the case thrown out. While admitting he dealt heroin, Anderson pressed that he did so as part of a religious nonprofit he created to distribute the drug to “the sick, lost, blind, lame, deaf and dead members of God’s Kingdom.”

Anderson insisted his prosecution was an illegal infringement of his “sincerely held religious belief.”

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri local governments no longer would be able to mandate union working conditions for construction projects under a bill passed by the Legislature.

House members voted 104-52 Thursday to send the measure to Republican Gov. Eric Greitens, who’s called for the policy change.

Counties, cities and other local governments currently have the option to issue bid requirements mandating union working conditions for contractors if the projects are less than half funded by the state.

The measure passed Thursday would prohibit that. Governments that violate the law would lose state funding and tax credits for two years.

Supporters say the bill will give more opportunities to non-union contractors. Primarily Democratic opponents argued it limits local choice and will lead to low-quality workmanship on public buildings.

FULTON, Mo. (AP) — A central Missouri woman says she once called an abuse hotline because she suspected a man whose body authorities believe was found in a dumpster this week was being abused at a group home.

Mary Martin, of Fulton, told The Columbia Daily Tribune she wasn’t allowed to have contact with the man, Carl DeBrodie, after she called the hotline.

Fulton police believe a body found Monday in a container encased in concrete inside a dumpster was DeBrodie, although the body hasn’t been positively identified. He was reported missing April 17 from a home for the developmentally disabled.

Martin says she cared for DeBrodie for years and tried unsuccessfully to be appointed his guardian or adopt him.

Myers says investigators are talking to several people of interest in the case.