JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri health advocates are trying to encourage more minorities and rural residents to sign up for insurance through a federally run website.

An open enrollment period begins Saturday for 2015 insurance policies offered on HealthCare.gov, the online insurance marketplace established under the federal health care law.

About 150,000 Missouri residents already are covered by insurance policies available through the site. They will automatically be re-enrolled but can change policies if they want.

The nonprofit Missouri Foundation for Health has distributed $4.5 million in grants this year for regional organizations to promote the website and help people sign up. The foundation says it increased the money flowing to groups working with minority residents in urban areas and to organizations based in some rural areas such as the Bootheel.

ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press
ERICA WERNER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is poised to unveil a series of executive actions on immigration that will shield possibly around 5 million immigrants living in the country illegally from deportation, according to advocates in touch with the White House.

The estimate includes extending deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for some years. The president is also likely to expand his 2-year-old program that protects young immigrants from deportation.

Timing of the announcement is unclear, though it’s expected before the end of the year.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are strongly opposed, and some conservatives are pushing to include language in must-pass spending bills to block the president from acting.

The advocates spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a public announcement.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A newspaper is reporting that the Justice Department is collecting data from thousands of cellphones through high tech gear deployed on airplanes that mimics communications towers.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the hunt for information about criminal suspects is also collecting data from many innocent Americans.

The newspaper, citing sources familiar with the operations, says the U.S. Marshal’s Service program, which became fully operational in 2007, operates Cessna aircraft from at least five metropolitan-area airports to collect the data.

The planes are equipped with devices that mimic cell towers of large telecommunications firms and trick cellphones into reporting unique registration information.

By Alex Smith
Heartland Health Monitor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cerner Corp., the Kansas City-based health care information technology giant, broke ground Wednesday on its massive Three Trails Campus in south Kansas City, Mo., a project that’s eventually expected to house as many as 16,000 workers.

Cerner officials, along with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Kansas City Mayor Sly James, took part in the ceremony at the site of the now-demolished Bannister Mall, once one of the area’s biggest shopping centers. The mall was torn down in 2009.

Cerner’s plans call for a 4.7 million-square-foot office complex consisting of 16 buildings on 290 acres to be built in 16 phases. The complex will dwarf the company’s current 1.4 million-square-foot headquarters in North Kansas City. By comparison, Sprint Corp.’s campus in Overland Park includes 3.9 million square feet.

Completion of the entire project could take up to a decade, although Cerner hopes to fill several thousand jobs there by 2017.

The company says the project, not far from the former Marion Labs complex that now serves as Cerner’s Innovation Campus, eventually will include shops, restaurants and a hotel.

The project is estimated to cost nearly $4.5 billion. About $1.75 billion, the largest public subsidy ever given to a private company in Kansas City, will come from local and state tax increment financing.

Cerner, one of the area’s fastest growing companies, says it expects to add 16,000 jobs at the campus between 2017 and 2025 with an average annual salary of $75,000.

The complex was initially approved by the Kansas City Council in October 2013.

Company officials anticipate the first Three Trails jobs will be filled in early 2017.

Alex Smith is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A Springfield driver who killed one of his passengers and paralyzed another while speeding over hills in an attempt to make his car become airborne has been sentenced to probation.

The Springfield News-Leader reports 21-year-old Matthew Hogue received a suspended imposition of sentence on Thursday. His first-degree involuntary manslaughter conviction will fall off his record after five years if he follows the terms of his probation.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says Hogue was driving more than 70 mph in May 2013 on a county road east of Springfield to attempt the maneuver known as “hilltopping.” Twenty-nine-year-old Kendi Highland was killed and 21-year-old Joseph Sims was paralyzed after Hogue lost control and flipped the vehicle.

Hogue’s attorney says he hopes his client uses the opportunity to give back to the community.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri residents buying health insurance through a federal website could face significantly different prices depending on where they live and what type of policy they want.

An analysis released Thursday by Saint Louis University law school professor Sidney Watson looks at the premium prices people can expect to pay when open enrollment begins Saturday for 2015 policies offered through HealthCare.gov.

Premium prices for the lowest-cost “bronze” policy are rising an average of 9 percent, without subsidies, in the 10 different cities analyzed throughout Missouri.

But the analysis found an average 2 percent decrease in the cost to consumers after federal subsidies are applied to the second-lowest cost plan in the “silver” tier, which is considered a benchmark plan.

MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say high schools students’ use of electronic cigarettes tripled over three years.

In a large national survey last year, 4.5 percent of high school students said they had used an e-cigarette at least one day the previous month. That’s up from 1.5 percent in 2011 and 2.8 percent in 2012.

It’s not known how many only tried it once that month and didn’t do it again.

E-cigarettes heat liquid nicotine into a vapor. Experts say nicotine is especially harmful to children. Dozens of states outlaw the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, and federal officials have proposed a nationwide ban on such sales.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report Thursday also found 13 percent of high school students recently smoked regular cigarettes.

By Andy Marso
KHI News Service

KIMBERLY HEFLING, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Time to stock up on the ramen noodles. The average cost of attending college crept up again this year, the College Board said Thursday.

The average sticker price, with room and board included, for undergraduate students attending a four-year college or university in their home state was $18,943. Out-of-state students at those schools paid, on average, $32,762. At two-year public schools, in-state students paid an average $11,052.

The cost to attend a private, four-year nonprofit college: $42,419, on average, including housing and meal plan.

For-profit schools cost about $15,230, but housing figures weren’t available.

Books and transportation costs can add more than $2,000 to the cost of attending college, and that rises even more for commuters.

The highest rate of increase of 3.7 percent was among private, nonprofit colleges. And even though the increases across higher education outpaced inflation, the rates of increase were lower than those students saw five, 10 or 30 years ago, the College Board said.

When adjusted for inflation, students are paying more than triple what students paid 30 years ago to attend a public, four-year institution and about 2.5 times more to attend a private nonprofit or two-year public one.

“The price increases are actually quite moderate this year, but still, what people are paying, and this is before financial aid, is the accumulation of many years of price increases,” said Sandy Baum, a co-author of the nonprofit College Board’s annual college pricing report. “So, if the price goes up just a little bit this year, people aren’t really going to breathe a sigh of relief because the price is already high from their perspective.”

Baum said during tough economic times, college costs tend to go up because public institutions receive less in state dollars and private ones see a decrease in endowments and in giving. Other contributing factors are wide ranging from the increasing costs of technology to health insurance for university employees.

Only the wealthiest of Americans are seeing their incomes rise, so most students feel the tuition upticks more, Baum said.

The number of full–time undergraduate students increased by 16 percent in the three years leading up to fall 2010 to 13.7 million, but then declined to 13 million in fall 2013. The number of students taking out student loans and the amount taken out, on average, by students has been declining, the College Board said. It said about 60 percent of students who earned a bachelor’s degree in 2012-2013 from public or private, nonprofit schools from which they began their studies graduated with debt, borrowing an average of $27,300.

The breakdown in pricing:

—Sticker prices, on average, for in-state tuition and fees at public four-year schools increased to $9,139 this school year — a 2.9 percent increase over the 2013-2014 school year. The average out-of-state price tag was $22,958, an increase of 3.3 percent increase. Room and board was $9,804.

—Public two-year schools had a $3,347 published price on average for tuition and fees— an increase of 3.3 percent. Room and board was $7,705.

—Tuition and fees at private, nonprofit schools rose 3.7 percent to an average of $31,231. Room and board was $11,188.

—For-profit schools saw a 1.3 percent increase in tuition and fees.

Published prices don’t necessarily reflect what students actually pay because they don’t include grant dollars provided by institutions or government aid such as Pell Grants, the GI Bill and tax credits. This school year, full-time students received an average of about $6,110 in aid at public four-year schools, $5,090 at public two-year ones, and $18,870 at private colleges.

The average in-state prices at four-year schools ranged from $4,646 in Wyoming to $14,712 in New Hampshire.

For out-of-state students, the most affordable tuition of $9,910 was in South Dakota. On the other end, the most expensive was $34,331 in Vermont.