JIM SALTER, Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Seizures of homemade methamphetamine labs are down by nearly half in many high-use meth states.

But use of the drug remains high, because of imported Mexican meth.

Data compiled by The Associated Press shows that meth lab busts are down 40 percent this year in Tennessee, 34 percent in Missouri and nearly 50 percent in Oklahoma.

Enforcement actions and tougher laws are partly responsible, but experts say meth made by Mexican cartels has become so cheap and pure that it is finally supplanting meth made in home labs or inside cars.

The cartel’s reach has even expanded to in small towns and rural areas.

JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — As Ebola-related quarantine policies have arisen around the United States, some health workers are reassessing whether they can be among the hundreds that officials say are needed.

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) – One of the men accused of alcohol-related violations in connection with the fatal fall of an Arizona State University student has pleaded guilty.

Court documents show 20-year-old David Siegal pleaded guilty this week to one count of minor in possession of liquor with a second count dismissed.

Siegal and 20-year-old Matthew Farberovh were indicted in the case along with a third man who had charges later dropped.

Farberovh is facing charges of minor possession of liquor and failing to require identification.

Naomi McClendon plunged 10 floors to her death March 30 from an apartment complex near ASU’s campus.

Tempe police say the 18-year-old woman from Manhattan, Kansas initially attended an “all-you-can-drink” party thrown by ASU fraternity members.

Surveillance video showed her stumbling and intoxicated when she entered the residential building.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved commercial planting of a potato that is genetically modified to resist bruising and to produce less of a chemical that has caused cancer in animals.

Boise, Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Co. developed the potato, and it was approved by the USDA Friday.

Simplot is a major supplier of french fries, hash browns and other potato products for restaurant chains like McDonald’s Corp.

The company altered the potato’s DNA so it produces less acrylamide (ah-KRIL’-ah-myd), which is suspected to be a human carcinogen. Potatoes naturally produce the chemical when they’re cooked at high temperatures.

The potato is also engineered to resist bruising, which can cause black spots in the potatoes, making them less desirable to buyers.

The USDA has approved genetically modified forms of many other crops, including corn and soybeans.

MARSHFIELD (AP) – A former southwest Missouri teacher faces up to 15 years in prison when he’s sentenced for a drunken-driving collision that killed an 84-year-old man.

KYTV reports 33-year-old Chad Bybee, of Rogersville, pleaded guilty this week to involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence. He’ll be sentenced Jan. 5 in Webster County Circuit Court.

The crash happened the night of Oct. 25, 2013. Investigators said Bybee was driving in the wrong lanes of U.S. when his pickup truck collided head-on with a car driven by William Hughes, of Seymour. Hughes was killed and Bybee’s two daughters were injured.

Authorities said a breath test showed Bybee’s blood-alcohol level at .192, more than twice Missouri’s legal limit.

Bybee was an agriculture teacher at Logan-Rogersville High School at the time.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Republicans in the Missouri House have unanimously chosen Rep. Todd Richardson as the new majority leader and affirmed their support for Rep. John Diehl as the next House speaker.

Wednesday’s decisions came the day after Republicans won the greatest number of seats they’ve ever had in Missouri’s House.

Diehl’s role as speaker must be approved by the full chamber in January, but Republicans easily can vote the Town and Country lawmaker in without support from Democrats.

Richardson, of Poplar Bluff, needed only Republican approval to become majority leader.

Diehl says the party’s plans for 2015 include an economic development proposal to help small businesses. Additional support for the state’s agricultural industry and a measure to incorporate more workforce preparedness into education also could come up.

Nov. 11 this nation will once again celebrate Veteran’s Day. While I’m a veteran myself, the first person I think about when it comes to veterans is my Grandpa Bert Becker. Not only was he an early hero of mine, he was one handsome, smiling young farm boy from Phillips County when he marched away to war during the summer of 1917. He returned to the family farm shortly after the war ended. The next year, he married my grandmother, Rose Zink. They raised a family of four children including my mother, Florence, or Mother to me. Here’s a small tribute to my grandparents on Veteran’s Day as I fondly recall Grandpa Bert and thank him again this year for his service.

My Grandma and Grandpa Becker were more people of action than words. Not that they didn’t have much to say. They just chose their words well and needed only a few to convey much.

As their oldest grandson, I visited them during the summer when I was growing up in the late 1950s. I always talked Grandma into letting me sleep in the screened in porch on the east side of their home.

Shaded by tall elm trees on the east side of their home, this was the coolest place to sleep on those warm summer nights before air conditioning. The porch was located right next to my grandparent’s room where I felt safe and slept like a log each and every night.

Their morning activities would always wake me and  their longest conversations  of the day took place over black coffee with bacon and eggs long before I crawled out of my comfortable bed each morning. A large, black Zenith AM radio provided the news and weather of the upcoming day.

I’d just lie there comfortably in my bed soaking up the sounds. I knew Grandma would make me my own special breakfast at a more kid-visiting-his-grandparents hour.

My Grandpa Bert was a tall slender man with kind eyes and a rich baritone voice that invited attention and respect. During those early-morning conversations with Grandma Rose, he spoke with a gentleness that was unlike any other setting.

While I didn’t really think of it back then, I just remember I loved listening to them visit and appreciated how my Grandpa talked to my Grandma like no one else.

Today I understand that what I was listening to were conversations between a woman and a man who had truly become one.

Grandpa always respected and took care of Grandma’s every need. She cheerfully and willingly gave back all that she received.

My Grandpa Bert was a veteran of World War I, saw action in France. He died nearly 25 years before Grandma Rose. His later years were difficult and he suffered from Parkinson’s disease. I also believe ghosts from those brothers in arms who didn’t return home with him weighed heavy on his soul.

Still, I never heard him complain. Grandma and my mother loved and cared for him when he couldn’t do so for himself.

I have always considered myself a lucky man to have inherited some of the wonderful attributes of the Becker family – cheerfulness, perseverance, a willingness to think and work smart and the ability to enjoy and appreciate others.

Having Becker blood also means you have family and some good friends willing to stand by your side during the best and worst of times. And while your living may be hard-earned – your life will be nothing less than rich.

Happy Veteran’s Day, Grandpa Bert.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that Kansas and Arizona residents can register to vote using a federal form without providing proof of citizenship.

Most residents in the two states register using a separate state form requiring them to show a birth certificate, a U.S. passport or naturalization papers. Kansas and Arizona had asked the U.S. government to also impose that same requirement on voters who register using the simpler federal form, which only requires a sworn statement.

But the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found Friday that the states have no authority to demand the federal government apply the citizenship proof requirements to the federal form.

The ruling effectively gives potential voters a simpler way to register without providing citizenship documentation in order to vote in federal races.