KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases on LGBT rights.

One case transferred Tuesday involves a transgender teen who wasn’t allowed to use the boy’s locker rooms and restrooms in his Blue Springs school. An appellate court upheld the dismissal of his case.

The other case involves two former employees of the state’s Department of Social Services. One of the workers, a gay man, claimed he was discriminated against for not meeting his bosses’ stereotypes of how males should act. A co-worker claimed she was retaliated against for associating with him. An appellate panel found that discrimination based on sexual stereotypes can be the basis for legal action.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that it’s “pleased” the high court will hear the cases.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man suspected of robbing a Kansas bank has been arrested at a Missouri casino.

Timothy Karpovich, 39, Kansas City, Missouri, was charged in federal court Tuesday. Prosecutors say he fled Monday from KCB Bank in Bonner Springs, Kansas, with about $1,050 in cash after handing a teller a handwritten robbery note. Police later received a tip that he gambled regularly at Harrah’s Casino in North Kansas City, Missouri, where an employee identified him from a surveillance image. Investigators found that serial numbers from bills used at the casino matched those of bills from the bank heist.

Court records say Karpovich admitted to the robbery. The FBI says no weapon was shown during the robbery and no injuries were reported.

NEW YORK (AP) — Toys R Us, squeezed by Amazon.com and huge chains like Walmart, will close 180 stores, or about 20 percent of its U.S. locations, within months.

Hobbled by $5 billion in debt, the company that once dominated toy sales in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy protection in September.

Chairman and CEO Dave Brandon said in a letter Wednesday that tough decisions are required to save Toys R Us.

The list of stores closing includes locations in, Columbia, Cape Girardeau, Bridgeton and Chesterfield in Missouri and the Wichita and Overland Park locations in Kansas. Toys R Us operates about 900 stores in the U.S.

The store closings will begin in February and the majority of the targeted locations will go dark by mid-April. At some other locations, the retailer is combining its Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores.

Toys R Us, based in Wayne, New Jersey, has struggled with debt since private-equity firms Bain Capital, KKR & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust took it private in a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout in 2005. The plan had been to take the company public again, but weak sales have prevented that from happening.

While its numbers have been shrinking, Toys R Us still sells about 20 percent of the toys bought in the U.S. according to Stephanie Wissink, an analyst at Jefferies LLC.

Competitive pressures will force the company to take a close look at all of its stores, and more will likely be shuttered over the next year or two, Wissink said.

Toys R Us reigned supreme in the 1980s and early 1990s, when it was one of the first of the “category killers” — a store totally devoted to one thing: toys. Its scale gave it leverage with toy sellers and it disrupted general merchandise stores and mom-and-pop shops.

Now Toys R Us and other category killers like the now-defunct Sports Authority, Borders and Circuit City, are being upended by a new force: Amazon.com.

GlobalData Retail estimates that about 13.7 percent of toy sales were made online in 2016, up from 6.5 percent five years ago.

Toys R Us has been hurt by a shift to mobile devices as well, which take up more and more play time.

About three dozen retailers sought bankruptcy protection last year due in large part to a radical shift in consumer behavior, both in where they shop, and what they buy.

Toys R Us closed its flagship store in Manhattan’s Times Square, a huge tourist destination, about two years ago.

The struggles of Toys R Us have rippled outward and rumors continue to swirl around the possibility of a merger between Mattel and Hasbro, the nation’s largest toy makers.

Wissink estimates that Toys R Us accounts for about 11 percent of Mattel’s annual sales and about 9 percent of Hasbro’s annual volume. Shares of both Mattel Inc. and Hasbro Inc. slipped in early trading.

Brandon said Wednesday that the company made some missteps during the critical holiday shopping season.

“As the leader of this company, I want you to know that we can and will address the gaps in the experience that you may have had when shopping this holiday,” Brandon said. “My team is already hard at work to make the improvements necessary to ensure that we have the products you want, when, where and how you want them.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Relatives of a 9-year-old boy fatally shot in an exchange of gunfire in Kansas City, Missouri, are calling for an end to the violence and help finding his killer.

KMBC-TV reports that Dominic Young Jr.’s father told police he was driving with his son over the weekend when people in two other vehicles began shooting at each other. The father didn’t initially realize that his child had been caught in the crossfire and he continued driving to suburban Grandview. When his wounds were discovered, the boy was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The boy’s aunt, Tiara Parker, says, “Nobody should have to live like this.” Parker says Dominic had “so much life” and made your day “full of joy.”

Police are asking for tips in the case.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say a 9-year-old has been fatally shot in an exchange of gunfire in Kansas City.

WDAF-TV reports that police in suburban Grandview responded to the shooting just after midnight on Sunday and found the child wounded. The child was rushed to a hospital and died.

The child’s father told police he was driving earlier in the evening when he saw people in two other vehicles shooting at each other. The father didn’t initially realize that the child had been shot. Police say the father and child are presumed to be innocent bystanders.

The name of the child wasn’t immediately released. Police say a driver fled while going through the crime scene and was arrested after crashing. It’s not clear if the driver had a role in the shooting.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Some Missouri lawmakers are raising concerns about Gov. Eric Greitens’ plan to continue cuts to school transportation funding.

Public schools were originally budgeted to get $105 million in state transportation aid in the 2018 fiscal year. Greitens cut that to $90 million when he signed the budget last summer.

On Monday, Greitens unveiled a 2019 budget plan that would provide $92 million in school transportation aid – essentially continuing most of this year’s cuts.

Members of the House subcommittee for education appropriations raised concerns Tuesday that the governor’s plan could hurt the finance of districts, particularly those that span large geographic areas.

The House panel serves as the starting point for state budget bills and could change or ignore the governor’s recommendation for school busing.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Investigators say it is too dangerous and would be too expensive to determine the cause of a fire that destroyed a Lawrence hotel.

The city announced the cause of the Jan. 15 fire at the Americas Best Value Inn was officially undetermined. No one was injured.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Marshal James King said Monday extensive excavation would be needed before investigators could go inside the three-story building, which largely collapsed after the fire.

He says investigators so far found no evidence of arson, so officials decided the expense of the excavation wouldn’t be justified.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports King said investigators would have pursued the excavation if they strongly suspected criminal activity.

The building is a total loss but investigators had not yet calculated a dollar figure for the damages.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The father of one of five people allegedly killed by a Mexican national who was in the country illegally is suing federal immigration authorities.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Kansas City, Kansas, claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had two chances to detain and deport 42-year-old Pablo Serrano-Vitorino before March 2016, when four men were killed in Kansas and one in Missouri.

Serrano-Vitorino is charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the deaths. The lawsuit was filed by the father of Austin Harter, one of the men killed.

The lawsuit says ICE didn’t follow proper procedures, allowing Serrano-Vitorino to be released from jail twice before March 2016.

A spokesman for ICE said Tuesday the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.