ST. LOUIS (AP) — A 73-year-old man has been charged with murder after he admitted to beating his roommate to death at a Missouri nursing home.

Police were called to The Estates of Spanish Lake Nursing and Rehabilitation facility in St. Louis County just after 7 a.m. Wednesday. Officers found 69-year-old Larry Harris dead.

Prosecutors charged 73-year-old Willie Clemons with second-degree murder. He is jailed on $250,000 bond.

A probable cause statement says the men were roommates. A nurse found Harris in his bed and not breathing. The statement says Clemons admitted to the nursing staff that he punched Harris several times. It wasn’t immediately clear what led to the attack.

With the U.S. government closed for business for the 21^st time since 1976, this time with a partial shutdown, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the States Most & Least Affected by the 2019 Government Shutdown to add some hard data to all the rhetoric.

According to the study, Missouri is the 26th and Kansas is the seventh least affected state by the partial shutdown.

WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of five key metrics, ranging from each state’s share of federal jobs to federal contract dollars per capita to the share of families receiving food stamps.

Impact of the Government Shutdown on Kansas (1=Most Affected, 25=Avg.):

• 26^th – Share of Federal Jobs
• 42^nd – Federal Contract Dollars Per Capita
• 33^rd – Real Estate as a Percentage of GSP
• 46^th – % of Families Receiving SNAP (Food Stamps)

To view the full report, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/government-shutdown-report/1111/

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LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors say text messages show that a woman plotted her ex-boyfriend’s death with a friend for more than a month before his body was found inside a burning home near Lawrence.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that prosecutors want to present the texts at the upcoming trial of 39-year-old Tria Evans. But the defense says allowing them wouldn’t be fair.

Evans and 38-year-old Christina Towell are charged with first-degree murder in the November 2017 killing of 34-year-old Joel Wales. Evans and Wales had a child together and a history of domestic disputes. Towell is accused of driving Evans to the scene.

One text between the women reads: “This needs done this week.” Evans also called Wales a “psycho” in a text and said she hates being “scared all the time.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ new Democratic congresswoman is preparing to vote for legislation drafted by her party’s leaders for reopening parts of the federal government, and she hopes President Donald Trump will accept the package.

Rep.-elect Sharice Davids said during an Associated Press interview Wednesday that the wall Trump wants to build on the U.S.-Mexico border is “not a good use of taxpayer resources.” Parts of the federal government have been shut down since Dec. 22 because the dispute over the wall has prevented passage of funding bills for several departments.

The legislation Davids supports would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8, with $1.3 billion for border security. Trump wants $5.6 billion for the wall.

Democrats take control of the House when the new session begins Thursday, but it’s not clear whether the GOP-controlled Senate would consider the Democratic package. Davids said the proposals have had bipartisan support in the past.

“Hopefully, we’ll see the House and the Senate send over a bill to get the government back up and going and that the president will see that it is not good for our country for the government to continue to be shut down,” she said.

Davids, who will represent the 3rd Congressional District in the Kansas City area, will be the only Democrat in the state’s delegation and the first since 2010. She is to be sworn into office Thursday, along with Republican Rep.-elect Steve Watkins from the 2nd District in eastern Kansas.

Watkins’ office did not immediately reply to messages Wednesday seeking comment about the dispute over border security. But he said repeatedly during his campaign that he supports building the border wall.

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TOPEKA—Fiscal year tax collections have exceeded previous year’s totals by $195.73 million according to data from the latest revenue report released Wednesday, according to a media release from the Kansas Department of Revenue.

Fiscal year 2019 tax collections so far total $3.39 billion, exceeding current estimates by $13.06 million.

December tax collections were down $24.24 million, or 3.41 percent below last December. December’s tax collections exceeded expectations for the month by $10.59 million.

Individual income tax collections in December totaled $291.52 million which is $43.85 million or 13.07 percent below the same time last year. Corporation income tax collections in December totaled $69.61 million which is $22.61 million above current expectations and $29.47 million above the same time last year. December sales tax collections fell short of last December’s collections by $1.97 million.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Kansas Gov.-elect Laura Kelly says she’s aware the state may need to help higher education institutions but has more pressing issues she needs to focus on during her first legislative session.

“We’re going to have to deal with situations in the state in a sort of triage approach, where we go after the critical issues first,” Kelly said, listing K-12 education funding, Medicaid expansion, infrastructure and the state’s foster care program as the main issues. “I’m fully aware of the needs for higher education and we will be reviewing those and doing what we can.”

Under Republican former Gov. Sam Brownback, higher education saw its budget slashed by $30.7 million. Lawmakers restored $6 million of that in 2017 and another $15 million in May. But despite the partial restoration of funding, the University of Kansas announced it would need to make a $20 million cut from its own budget.

Kelly, who will be inaugurated on Jan. 14, said she’s aware morale seems to be low at the university because of the proposed budget cuts and ensuing layoffs.

“Higher education has not been immune to the damage that has been done over the past several years,” Kelly said, referring to the state’s budget crisis during Brownback’s tenure.

She said government can help by passing a balanced budget and reinstating an executive order that provides state workers with protections from job discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity, she said.

“I think that will send a message to other states that Kansas is open and we are friendly and this is a place you’ll want to consider,” she said of the LGBT protection order. “Those are the types of things that can help the university and its morale.”

She said that increasing enrollment also would help and noted that foreign student enrollment is down.

“I think that’s a lot because families in other countries see the United States as an unfriendly place at the moment, so they are sending their kids to Canada or London.”

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a drunken driver crashed into a sheriff’s deputy’s home in southwest Missouri on New Year’s Eve.

The Greene County Sheriff’s Office says that no one was seriously hurt when the driver went off the side of a road and smashed into the corner of the home. The driver was under the age of 21.

Pictures posted online show a crumpled garage door and debris strewn across the driveway. The post says the deputy’s personal motorcycle and patrol car were damaged.