JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A state board has approved a $2 million grant to help fund Missouri job-training efforts that have been scaled back because of a state budget freeze.

The money approved Tuesday by the Missouri Development Finance Board will go to a state program that helps pay for customized training for businesses.

The Missouri Works jobs training program was budgeted to get $14 million this year. Gov. Jay Nixon froze all but $2 million of that because of concerns about the state’s finances.

The Department of Economic Development cut its average training assistance in half to less than $20,000 per project, and it’s funding just 112 of the 437 companies that applied.

The additional $2 million grant could provide funding for at least some of those other companies.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence police have identified a 19-year-old woman found dead in her apartment last week.

Officers found Justina Mosso at the Cedarwood Apartments on Nov. 9 while conducting a welfare check. Police are treating the death as a homicide but haven’t said how she died.

Police are trying to contact people who were in touch with Mosso before her death. They haven’t released other information about the investigation.

No arrests have been reported.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas man has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison in a case in which three people were killed during a home invasion in Independence.

The Kansas City Star reports  23-year-old Raul Soto received the sentence after pleading guilty in July to using a firearm during a drug trafficking conspiracy and conspiring to possess methamphetamine. He admitted in his plea that he was armed with a handgun and killed Antonio Hernandez in November 2012.

Soto says he and several co-conspirators went to the Independence home to rob a man they believed had a large amount of meth. Three people in the home were fatally shot after they denied having drugs.

Four others have pleaded guilty in the case.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A 34-year-old Kansas City man has been sentenced to life in federal prison without parole for his role in a drug trafficking conspiracy that led to one man’s death.

Timothy L. Kirlin was sentenced Tuesday and ordered to pay $17,000 in restitution for funeral costs. Prosecutors say he and 48-year-old co-defendant Matthew Davis of Kansas City were found guilty in April of participating in a conspiracy to distribute 1,000 grams or more of heroin and cocaine.

Prosecutors say Kirlin traveled to Dallas to pick up wholesale amounts of heroin and other drugs to resell in the Kansas City area. Davis was among the conspirators who received heroin and cocaine from Kirlin to distribute.

Joshua Webb bought some of Kirlin’s heroin in March 2002 and died from it.

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A man who killed a suburban Kansas City gas station attendant in front of the worker’s young stepdaughter in 1994 was put to death early Wednesday — the ninth execution in Missouri this year.

Leon Taylor, 56, was pronounced dead at 12:22 a.m. at the state prison in Bonne Terre, minutes after receiving a lethal injection. With Taylor’s death, 2014 ties 1999 for having the most executions in a year in Missouri.

Taylor shot worker Robert Newton to death in front of Newton’s 8-year-old stepdaughter during a gas station robbery in Independence, Missouri. Taylor tried to kill the girl, too, but the gun jammed.
Taylor’s fate was sealed Tuesday when Gov. Jay Nixon declined to grant clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his appeal.

Taylor, his body covered by a white sheet, could be seen in the execution chamber talking to family members through the glass in an adjacent room. Once the state started injecting 5 grams of pentobarbital, Taylor’s chest heaved for several seconds then stopped. His jaw went slack and he displayed no other movement for the rest of the process.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri is conducting tests after mold was found at Ellis Library on the Columbia campus.

University officials say the mold was found last week in a heating and cooling vent on the library’s fourth floor.
Environmental Health and Safety Director Todd Houts says the discovery doesn’t mean the library has a widespread mold problem. He says mold is present nearly everywhere and is a danger only if large quantities are found. Workers are collecting samples and will examine any captured mold soon.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports the mold in the library presents no immediate threat and the building has no history of mold problems.

Last fall, mold damaged about 600,000 books kept in off-campus storage. Most the books were cleaned and saved..

BRETT BARROUQUERE, Associated Press

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a bid by Missouri inmate Leon Taylor to halt his execution just hours before the he was scheduled to be put to death.

The court rejected two appeals without comment, although justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan would have voted to take the case.

Taylor, 56, is scheduled to die early Wednesday for killing gas station attendant Robert Newton in suburban Kansas City in 1994 in front of Newton’s 8-year-old stepdaughter. Taylor would be the ninth man put to death in Missouri this year and the 11th since November 2013.

The appeal notes Taylor’s original jury deadlocked and a judge sentenced him to death. When that was thrown out, an all-white jury condemned Taylor, who is black, to death.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new study shows Kansas is among 14 states with a big decline in the number of immigrants who are living illegally in the United States.

A Pew Research Center report released Tuesday estimates 20,000 unauthorized immigrants left Kansas between 2009 and 2012. The group estimates that 75,000 immigrants were living unlawfully in Kansas in 2012.

The report attributes the immigrant population decreases in states like Kansas to a decline in the number of Mexican-born immigrants.

Pew estimates unauthorized immigrants account 3.5 percent of the Kansas labor force and 2.6 percent of the state’s population. About 7 percent of elementary and secondary school children in Kansas have a parent who is unlawfully in the United States.

The undocumented immigrant population rose in seven states and leveled off nationally.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A state commission is recommending pay raises for Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, state lawmakers and other statewide officials.

The state Citizens’ Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials on Tuesday recommended two 8 percent raises for the governor and other statewide officials over two years.

That will eventually bump up the governor’s salary to about $156,000 a year from the current $133,821.

The panel also approved a $4,000 raise over two years for state lawmakers and about $9,500 more for the lieutenant governor.

The recommendations include raising the daily expense compensation and mileage reimbursement for those positions, as well as for judges, to match federal rates.

The panel’s suggestions take effect automatically unless two-thirds of the General Assembly votes against them.