KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A western Missouri man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after admitting in court that he drunkenly caused an Interstate 70 wreck that killed two children and left their father paralyzed.

Sixty-one-year-old James L. Green was sentenced Thursday in Jackson County after pleading guilty to two counts each of second-degree murder and assault. The Odessa man also pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated.

Prosecutors say Green was intoxicated and driving with a suspended driver’s license when his sport utility vehicle hit another vehicle from behind on the freeway in Blue Springs. Three other vehicles later were involved in the wreck.

The crash killed 7-year-old Chloe Beaird and 13-year-old Gavin Beaird, both of Warrenton. Two injured adults included the children’s father, who was left paralyzed from the chest down.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A jury has convicted a prison inmate in the beating of a correctional officer in central Kansas.

The Hutchinson News reports that 29-year-old Eddie Nunez was convicted by a Reno County jury on Tuesday of felony battery of a correctional officer.

County District Judge Tim Chambers says Nunez was serving time for a 2005 second-degree intentional murder conviction when he attacked Officer Holly Seaver on his prison cellblock in January 2015.

Seaver suffered a black eye and numerous bruises during the attack in Hutchinson Correctional Facility.

Before Tuesday’s conviction, Nunez was set to be potentially released on July 28. He now faces at least another 52 months in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for May 26.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A former Hastings police detective has been sentenced to 10 days in jail and two years’ probation for running a fraudulent fundraiser.

The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office says 46-year-old Jerry Esch was sentenced Wednesday in Adams County District Court. Esch also was ordered to serve 120 days of home confinement and pay $7,500 in restitution. He pleaded guilty in January to one misdemeanor count of theft.

Prosecutors say that in November 2015, Esch was an officer with the Hastings Police Department when he created a GoFundMe page, asking for money to cover medical expenses for cancer treatment.

Officials say Esch did have cancer, but did not have the medical bills he claimed to have incurred.

He is no longer a Hastings police officer.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The National Football League says there is “no legitimate basis” for a lawsuit filed over the Rams’ 2016 relocation from St. Louis to Los Angeles.

The city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and the region’s sports authority filed suit Wednesday, naming the NFL and all 32 teams as defendants. The suit, filed in St. Louis, seeks unspecified but “extensive” damages and restitution.

The lawsuit alleges the Rams failed to meet league relocation rules when leaving for Los Angeles before last season, constituting a contractual breach with St. Louis.

But NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy says the league worked diligently with local and state officials in a process he calls “honest and fair.”

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri House and Senate budgeters want to spend $100,000 on the state’s Amber Alert system.

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday locked in a House plan to replace and expand the alert system for missing children.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Dan Brown says the company providing the program went bankrupt, so the state needs to pay for another system.

Money budgeted for next fiscal year also would cover an expansion of the program.

Bills pending in the Legislature would call for another alert for people accused of killing or seriously injuring law enforcement officers.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two sisters injured in a Kansas waterslide accident that killed a state lawmaker’s 10-year-old son have reached a settlement with the water park’s owner.

Attorney Lynn Johnson on Wednesday confirmed the out-of-court deal with the Schlitterbahn park over the “Verruckt” slide accident last summer.

Johnson wouldn’t reveal details of the settlement. The sisters’ names haven’t been publicly released.

Authorities said Caleb Schwab was killed and the sisters injured last Aug. 7 while riding the Verruckt, which was billed as the world’s tallest waterslide. That ride has since been closed, and a Schlitterbahn spokeswoman says it will be demolished as soon as a court rules it’s no longer needed for evidentiary purposes.

Schwab’s family reached a settlement in January with Schlitterbahn and the raft’s manufacturer.

Caleb was Rep. Scott Schwab’s son.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Missouri man has to been sentenced to four years in federal prison for helping lead a $2.25 million conspiracy to sell steroids over the internet.

Thirty-two-year-old Aaron Vincent Schweidler was sentenced Wednesday for participating in the steroids conspiracy and to conspiracy to commit money laundering. As part of his sentence, he must forfeit $2.25 million to the government.

The former Weston, Missouri, man admitted that he and co-conspirators ran an internet-based company, called Power Trip. It manufactured and sold anabolic steroids to customers throughout the United States, including athletes and minors.

Prosecutors say the business started in late 2011 in Utah. It was moved to North Carolina, then to the Kansas City, Missouri, area and then back to North Carolina. Three others have pleaded guilty.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House has defeated a proposal to allow voters to decide in 2018 whether to raise gas taxes by nearly 6 cents per gallon to fund improvements to thousands of miles of state highways and hundreds of bridges.

Legislators struck down the proposal 51-103 on Wednesday. Supporters say it would have put to voters a ballot initiative to help mitigate the effects of aging roadways throughout the state.

Missouri has the seventh largest road system in the country but ranks 47th in revenue per mile. Lawmakers have long floated proposals to generate more revenue for roads and bridges, but so far none have stuck.

The proposed fuel tax increase was an amendment to a bill that taxes propane used for vehicles. That bill was given initial approval Wednesday.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An employee who died during an explosion at an ammunition plant near Kansas City has been identified as a 55-year-old Missouri man.

The U.S. Army said Lawrence Bass, from Blue Springs, died Tuesday after the blast at the Lake City Ammunition Plant in Independence. The Army did not say how long Bass worked at the plant or in what capacity.

Four other employees were treated at the scene after the explosion in a building where chemicals are mixed.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is leading the investigation.

The plant makes and tests small-caliber ammunition for the military. It also operates the NATO test center. The plant is operated by contractor Orbital ATK, the biggest maker of small-caliber ammunition for the U.S. Department of Defense.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s Education Department says the state’s high school graduation rate has increased for the fifth year straight, even as dropout rates increased slightly for the first time since the 2009-10 school year.

In a news release Tuesday, the department said 91.3 percent of students in the 2016 graduating class graduated within four years, up from 90.8 percent from the previous year. Iowa’s annual dropout rate was 2.8 percent last year, up from 2.5 percent the previous year. The latest dropout rate represents 4,154 students in grades 9-12.

Officials say graduation and dropout rates can increase simultaneously because they measure different groups. The graduation rate follows one class for four years, while annual dropout rates represent the number of students who dropped out of grades 9-12 during one school year.