FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The St. Louis suburb of Ferguson says it’s received a copy of the Justice Department report on its investigation into the police force.

The city issued a statement Tuesday saying it would wait to comment about the investigation that law enforcement officials say found sweeping patterns of racial bias.

The report culminates a probe into a police department that commanded national attention after an officer shot and killed an unarmed black 18-year-old, Michael Brown, last summer.

The city says Justice Department officials supplied a copy of the report to the mayor, city manager, police chief and city attorney during a meeting Tuesday in downtown St. Louis.

The city’s statement offered no details. The city says it’s reviewing the report and will comment Wednesday after the Justice Department makes it public.

TALI ARBEL, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the Federal Communications Commission is taking the defense of new Internet regulations on the road.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Tuesday that “there needs to be a referee” for the Internet. He’s a keynote speaker at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain.

The FCC’s vote last week approved “net neutrality” rules that prevent Internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon from slowing or blocking Web traffic or from creating Internet fast lanes that content providers must pay for.

Verizon says the FCC turned to a 1934 law to regulate the Internet. AT&T says the rules politicize the Internet.

Wheeler says the rules won’t hurt network operators’ “revenue streams” from consumer services and that the agency “modernized” the old law, leaving out many parts.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri unemployment rate increased slightly in January to 5.5 percent while the state’s nonfarm employment went up 14,300 jobs.
The state Department of Economic Development on Tuesday released data showing the seasonally adjusted jobless rate increased from 5.4 percent in December.
Unemployment had been dropping slightly in recent months and reached its lowest rate since April 2008 in December.
The increase in unemployment matches a national growth in January, taking the country’s unemployment up to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent in December.
The report also shows Missouri’s nonfarm employment has grown by 43,200 jobs in the past year.

DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has announced a new government-wide initiative to help millions of girls around the world attend and stay school.

His wife, Michelle, will also visit Japan and Cambodia in a few weeks to promote it.

Obama says more than 60 million girls worldwide do not attend school.

He says every girl has value and that not getting an education limits their advancement opportunities and makes them more vulnerable to societal ills.

Under what’s being called “Let Girls Learn,” a range of existing government programs will be tied together under a single, coordinated strategy.

Separately, the Peace Corps and Mrs. Obama’s office will work together on a new program to highlight community-based solutions to help girls attend and finish school.

ERICA WERNER, Associated Press
DAVID ESPO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is sending President Barack Obama a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through the end of the budget year, without overturning the president’s immigration policies.

The House on Tuesday voted 257-167 for the measure that Obama is expected to sign. Without action, funding for the department would have expired Friday at midnight.

The outcome was a victory for Obama and Democrats, and a defeat for the GOP strategy of trying to overturn Obama’s executive actions on immigration by linking them to funding for Homeland.

Republicans were unable to overcome united opposition from Senate Democrats to their strategy. They also suffered embarrassing internal divisions that left the country within hours of a partial agency shutdown last week.

ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that a Justice Department investigation has found patterns of racial bias in the Ferguson, Missouri, police department and at the municipal jail and court.

The official says the investigation found that officers disproportionately used excessive force against blacks and too often charged them with petty offenses. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak on the record before the full report was released.

The official says the report will allege direct evidence of racial bias among police officers and court workers and a system that prioritizes generating revenue from fines over public safety.

The full report could be released as soon as Wednesday.

The Justice Department began the civil rights investigation following the August shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white police officer.

HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated Press

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A judge has ruled that a white supremacist will go to trial for capital murder in the shooting deaths of three people at Jewish sites in Kansas.

The Johnson County judge found Tuesday that sufficient evidence exists to try Frazier Glenn Miller in the 2014 deaths. Besides capital murder, he is charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of aggravated assault and one count of criminal discharge of a weapon at a structure.

The 74-year-old Miller, of Aurora, Missouri, did not visibly react when the judge ruled.

The defense asked to delay the arraignment and the judge said he would take up the request after a break.

Miller is accused of killing 69-year-old Dr. William Lewis Corporon, his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffen Underwood, and 53-year-old Terri LaManno.

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OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A preliminary hearing for a man accused of killing three people at Jewish sites in Kansas enters its second day, with more testimony scheduled from those who witnessed the shootings.

Frazier Glenn Miller, 74, an avowed white supremacist, is charged with capital murder in the April 13, 2014, shootings at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City in Overland Park, Kansas, and at a nearby Jewish retirement home. He has told The Associated Press and other media that said he was afraid he was dying and felt a patriotic duty to kill Jews. None of the victims was Jewish.

Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

Witnesses on Monday testified they saw Miller shooting at the sites and described the aftermath.

By DAN MARGOLIES
Kansas City-based health IT giant Cerner Corp. has won a $170 million, 10-year contract to provide its medications management system to hospitals in New South Wales, Australia.

The winning bid was first reported last week by Pulse+IT magazine, a health IT publication in Australia.

The magazine said that, while the value of the contract was not disclosed, the New South Wales government had allocated $170 million for the program. It said the aim was to improve medication safety from supply through prescribing and administration.

The winning bid comes atop news that Cerner remains in contention for a 10-year contract, estimated to be worth $11 billion, to update the U.S. Defense Department’s electronic health record system.

A team led by Cerner is among three still in the running for the contract, which is expected to be awarded this summer. One of the teams is led by Cerner arch-rival Epic Systems Corp.

Last month Cerner completed its $1.3 billion acquisition of Siemens Health Services, the health information technology unit of German conglomerate Siemens AG.

Cerner said it expects to post 2015 revenue of $4.8 billion to $5 billion. With the Siemens acquisition, the company now has 21,000 employees and an overseas presence in some 30 countries.

Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team