TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press
POLK CITY, Fla. (AP) — The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is ending its iconic elephant acts.

The circus’ parent company, Feld Entertainment, told The Associated Press exclusively that the acts will be phased out by 2018. Growing public concern about how the animals are treated led to the decision.

The circus plans to phase out elephant acts by 2018. Feld’s 43 elephants will live at the company’s 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida. Twenty-nine animals are already there, and the other 14 will arrive as they are phased out from the circus.

Elephant acts have been showcased by Ringling for more than a century and have often been featured in its posters.

The decision is being announced Thursday.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo.- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 10 p.m. on Wednesday in Jackson County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1993 Honda driven by Anthony S. Jacobs, 27, Leavenworth, was eastbound on U.S. 50 at Smart Road. The vehicle ran off the right side of the road, struck a culvert, traveled across the road and hit the ground.

Jacobs was transported to Centerpoint Hospital.

The MSHP reported he was not wearing a seat belt.

REPUBLIC, Mo. (AP) – A southwestern Missouri man has been ordered to spend at least nine years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he shot a woman twice in the face during a domestic dispute last December.

Springfield’s KOLR-TV reports that 25-year-old Matthew D. Roberts of Springfield was sentenced Tuesday on charges of felony assault, first-degree child endangerment and armed criminal action.

Police said that Rogers and the victim were arguing before Roberts shot the victim with a handgun at close range in front of her 8-year-old child.

The victim was hospitalized and survived.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A measure that would waive penalties if Missourians agree to pay back taxes has initial approval from the state House.

House members in a voice vote on Wednesday gave support to the tax amnesty proposal by lead budget writer Rep. Tom Flanigan of Carthage. The measure needs a second vote before it can head to the Senate.

Delinquent taxpayers would need to pay their bills between July 1 and Sept. 30 to qualify. They also would need to comply with state tax laws for the next eight years.

Unpaid taxes dating before Dec. 31 would be eligible for pardon.

The Legislative Research Committee estimates the proposal could mean nearly $20 million or more in additional revenue next fiscal year.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — University of Missouri-Kansas City students say they’re ultimately satisfied with answers over questions regarding the college’s business school, which an audit found it knowingly submitted false data in applying for rankings and awards.

The Kansas City Star reports the university’s chancellor met with about 40 students Wednesday in the Student Government Association meeting chambers.

Students questioned whether a lack of transparency and communication among school officials and students were partly to blame for the problems at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management. Chancellor Leo Morton assured students the issues at the business school weren’t representative of a bigger problem on campus.
Following the audit, the Princeton Review announced in February that it was pulling the school’s 2011 through 2014 top 25 rankings for graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship programs.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri Senate panel is considering tightening state law on what justifies the use of deadly force among police, months after a fatal police shooting in Ferguson.

Democratic Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal of University City presented her bill Tuesday to a Senate panel. She did so just hours after the U.S. Justice Department released a report concluding that former Ferguson officer Darren Wilson acted in self-defense when he shot 18-year-old Michael Brown last August.

Chappelle-Nadal’s bill would overhaul a law currently allowing deadly force when an officer believes a suspect has attempted to commit a felony, is escaping with a deadly weapon or poses a serious danger to others.

The senator’s bill would require an “objective” reasonable belief and require the felony offense to involve a serious physical injury.

LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — A provocative study in mice suggests something as simple as breathing in extra oxygen might give immune cells a boost in fighting cancer.

Tumors put up defenses to block immune system attacks. One way: Low oxygen levels inside the tumor can spur production of a molecule that blocks tumor fighters called T cells. Researchers at Northeastern University wondered if adding oxygen to tumors could strip away that defense. So they put mice with lung tumors in chambers that let them breathe oxygen doses similar to what hospitals deliver through masks.

Tumors shrank more in the high-oxygen group, especially when researchers also injected the mice with doses of extra T cells.

They caution the approach must be tested in people to see if it really makes a difference.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Groups advocating for health care access say a bill blocking federal subsidies that help pay for health insurance premiums would cause thousands of Missouri residents to lose coverage.

A Republican senator presented the measure to a committee Wednesday as the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that challenges whether the Affordable Care Act allows those subsidies in states using the federal government’s health care website.

The bill bars insurers in Missouri from accepting subsidies from the federal government.

Advocates say the measure will cause about 152,000 Missouri residents to be unable to afford health care insurance.

Bill sponsor Sen. Bob Onder, of Lake St. Louis, says Congressional action will be needed to fully dismantle the Affordable Care Act but the bill would be a first step.