OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal regulators say Archer Daniels Midland Co. has agreed to settle allegations that it violated Clean Water Act rules at facilities where it stored fuels and oil in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska.

The Environmental Protection Agency says Decatur, Illinois-based Archer Daniels will pay a civil penalty of $430,000.

An Archer Daniels spokeswoman said Wednesday that she couldn’t immediately comment.

The EPA says the company violations involved large storage facilities for denatured ethanol, fuels and lubricants in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa; Deerfield and Mexico, Missouri; and Columbus, Nebraska.

The EPA says violations included a lack of EPA-required spill response plans and violations of industrial stormwater requirements for Clean Water Act operating permits.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — About 300 people stood outside the theater where President Obama spoke in Kansas City, Missouri.

Protesters and supporters mingled Wednesday outside the Uptown Theater, monitored by nearby police.

Protesters carried several signs, some of which read “Arrest Obama,” and “Obama, Israel is a democracy? Define democracy.”

There were a few arguments among the protesters, whose chants included “liberate Palestine.”

Among the protesters was John Brown, a 41-year-old autoworker from Kansas City, Missouri, who said he hasn’t had a raise in 13 years and is looking forward to Obama leaving office.

Sharon Donahue, a 52-year-old Kansas City resident, carried an album of magazine photos she keeps of Obama and his family and says she feels Obama “stands up for a lot of good things.”

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A southwest Missouri woman accused of fatally poisoning two family members with antifreeze and nearly killing another in the same way could have two separate trials after a Greene County judge severed two murder counts from charges of assault and armed criminal action.

The Springfield News-Leader reports an attorney for 52-year-old Diane Staudte argued Tuesday that all four charges could be tried together if the state were willing to waive the death penalty. Prosecutors already have said they intend to pursue a death sentence.

Prosecutors say Staudte and her daughter Rachel Staudte poisoned their family members by putting antifreeze in their drinks.

Diane Staudte’s husband, Mark, died in 2012 and their son was found dead five months later. A daughter later suddenly became ill but survived.

NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — President Barack Obama says the House GOP’s vote to file a lawsuit against him is taking away from time they could be spending on issues that are important to the American people.

ROLLA (AP) – A Rolla rock quarry is requiring young children to wear life jackets after a Fenton boy’s recent drowning death.

Six-year-old Noah Cook drowned at Fugitive Beach on July 25 while with family members at the private swimming area in Phelps County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Noah was using a flotation device when he drowned.

The swimming area at an abandoned quarry is now requiring all children 10 and younger to wear life jackets. The owners are also banning outside alcohol, but say the change is required by liquor license laws and is unrelated to the boy’s death.

The resort is also aiding an online effort to raise money for Noah’s funeral.

Pettis County Sheriff’

Deputies captured  29 year old Brandon McGee Wednesday morning at a residence in east Sedalia.  McGee had been on the run since late Thursday evening after successfully escaping from the Pettis County Jail.

Jail staff discovered a control insert removed from a shower stall shortly before 10pm Thursday, and found McGee missing from the cell area.  He was able to fit through the insert opening, which led to a service corridor and escaped through the exterior service door entrance.

On Friday, charges were filed against McGee for escape with no bond. Deputies have been diligently pursuing McGee since his escape and that hard work helped lead to his capture.

ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The acting U.S. surgeon general is asking Americans to give up their love of sunbathing and indoor tanning beds, citing an alarming 200 percent jump in the number of deadly melanoma cases diagnosed since 1973.

Rear Adm. Boris Lushniak says in a new report that nearly 5 million people in the U.S. are treated for all forms of skin cancer each year at a cost of $8 billion. He says that state and local officials should do more to help people cover up, such as providing more shade at parks, and that colleges should discourage indoor tanning beds on their campuses, much as they would tobacco use.

Lushniak says skin cancer rates won’t change until American attitudes do. Tanned skin, he warns, is damaged skin.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former northeast Kansas city clerk has pleaded guilty to a federal embezzlement charge on the same day her former employer filed a separate civil suit.

The Topeka Capital-Journal  reports 61-year-old Alice Riley entered her plea Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary Sebelius. The former Auburn clerk admitted embezzling at least $186,000 from the city, where she managed payroll and other accounts.

Riley resigned in February after 31 years in the position amid questions from the City Council and multiple-year audits into the city’s finances.

Prosecutors say she issued duplicate payroll checks to herself and deposited other authorized checks into her personal accounts, then tried to cover it up by creating false entries in the city’s books and bank statements.

Prosecutors say Riley gambled away most of the money.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas man has pleaded guilty for his role in a Missouri home invasion robbery during which three people were killed.

The Kansas City Star reports 23-year-old Raul Soto of Kansas City, Kansas, admitted in federal court Tuesday that he and several co-conspirators went to an Independence, Missouri, home in November 2012 to rob a man they believed had a large amount of methamphetamine.

The home’s residents denied having any drugs. Three of the occupants — Maria Hernandez, her boyfriend Thomas Dominguez-Gregorio and her son, Antonio Hernandez — where fatally shot.

Soto admitted in his plea that he was armed with a handgun and killed Antonio Hernandez. Under terms of the plea deal, attorneys will recommend a 27-year prison sentence.

Four others already have pleaded guilty in the case.