JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Arms up! Legs out!

The jumping jack is about to become Missouri’s official state exercise.

Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation Thursday adding the jumping jack to a list of more than two dozen official symbols and things.

The jumping jack was championed as the official state exercise by students from Pershing Elementary School in St. Joseph. They lobbied for it as a way to honor Gen. John J. Pershing.

The Missouri-born general led U.S. forces in World War I. He’s credited with inventing the jumping jack as a training drill for cadets when he taught at West Point in the late 1800s.

Nixon’s signature means the measure becomes state law on Aug. 28.

DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — In the nation’s agricultural heartland, farming is more than a multibillion-dollar industry that feeds the world. It could be on track to become a right, written into law alongside the freedom of speech and religion.

Some powerful agriculture interests want to declare farming a right at the state level as part of a wider campaign to fortify the ag industry against crusades by animal-welfare activists and opponents of genetically modified crops.

The right to farm has already won approval in North Dakota and Indiana. It goes next to Missouri voters in an Aug. 5 election. Similar measures passed both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature earlier this year before dying in a conference committee.

It’s not clear how much protection the right would offer because it’s never been tested in court.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Legislation re-writing Missouri’s payday loan laws has been vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon because he says it falls short of “true reform.”

Borrowers in Missouri currently can renew a payday loan up to six times and can face interest rates as high as 75 percent of the loan’s original amount.

 The bill vetoed Thursday would have ended loan renewals and capped fees and interest rates at 35 percent.

Supporters said the bill would provide greater protections to consumers.

But Nixon said it still would have allowed unreasonable interest rates and that people still could have been offered multiple loans by multiple lenders at the same time. He said the bill “appears to be part of a coordinated effort by the payday loan industry to avoid more meaningful reform.”

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former Missouri Republican congressman whose “legitimate rape” comments during the 2012 U.S. Senate campaign were roundly criticized now says he was wrong to apologize.

Todd Akin says in a new book that his remarks on whether abortion should be legal in cases of rape were taken out of context and led to his “political assassination” and betrayal by GOP allies. Akin lost to Democrat Claire McCaskill.

“Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom” will be released next week, but The Associated Press obtained a copy from the publisher.

Akin writes he believes stress affects conception, and asks “what could be more stressful than a rape?” He also says a “library of research on the subject” can be found on Google.

OSAGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Osage County Sheriff’s Office says a 78-year-old man died when his tractor overturned.

The victim of Wednesday’s accident was identified as Wilford D. Croucher from rural Osage City.

The sheriff’s office says it received a call Wednesday afternoon that a tractor had rolled over and the driver was trapped beneath it. Emergency responders found Croucher dead when they arrived.

An investigation into the accident is continuing.

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism

Over the long holiday weekend, game wardens with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism were out in force patrolling Kansas waters in an effort to keep people safe while they enjoyed their holiday weekend.

Warm weather over the weekend provided favorable conditions for increased boat traffic at Kansas lakes and reservoirs. The three-day holiday reporting period ran from 7 p.m. July 3 to 11:59 p.m. July 6.

During that period, game wardens arrested 13 people for boating under the influence of alcohol on Kansas reservoirs. Game wardens are now certified in standardized field sobriety testing that can be conducted with suspected impaired boaters while still on the water. This sobriety testing skill has resulted in an increase in BUI arrests in Kansas over the past few years keeping more people safe while they enjoy their time at the lake. New this summer for the KDWPT Law Enforcement division is their own mobile breath alcohol unit complete with an Intoxilyzer 8000, which is being used this summer to aid game wardens with BUI interdiction.

Of these 13 BUI arrests, three were made at each Perry and Kanopolis reservoirs, and two were made at both Wilson and Cedar Bluff reservoirs. Other BUI arrests were made by game wardens at Eldorado, Glen Elder and Cheney reservoirs.

Other enforcement activity reported during the holiday weekend includes game wardens recovering the body of an 18-year-old drowning victim in Montgomery County, two boat accidents investigations — one at Kanopolis where a boat sank and a boat fire/explosion at Clinton. No injuries were reported with either of those accidents.

A game warden canine unit was used over the weekend to locate a person in need of assistance in Sumner County. The person was found safe.

LEBANON (AP) – Investigators say a southwest Missouri man shot and killed a man and injured a teenager because he was waiting for the man’s wife to leave him.

Sixty-five-year-old Matthew Mitchell Rumbaugh of Mountain Grove pleaded not guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action.

He is being held in the Laclede County jail with no bond, charged with shooting of Chad Gerber in Grovespring at Gerber’s home early Tuesday. Gerber’s 15-year-old son is hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head

The Springfield News-Leader reports a probable cause statement says Rumbaugh told an investigator he shot Gerber because he was tired of waiting for Jennifer Gerber to leave her husband.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas businessman running for the U.S. Senate as an independent candidate has launched a statewide radio and television ad campaign even before he’s secured his spot on the ballot.

Greg Orman, of Olathe, began radio, cable and broadcast television ads Thursday. His campaign also said he’s raised about $600,000 in cash contributions in less than two months for his Senate bid.

His campaign unveiled three television ads Thursday, one 60-second and two 30-second spots that emphasize Orman’s message that Washington has become too partisan.

Orman said in an interview that he’s launching the ads now because the Nov. 4 general election is less than four months away.

To get on the ballot, his supporters must gather the signatures of 5,000 registered voters on petitions by Aug. 4.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Republican state Sen. Will Kraus says he plans to run for Missouri secretary of state in 2016.

Kraus announced his candidacy Thursday, making him the first to formally launch a challenge to Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander.

Kraus must first win re-election this fall, but that shouldn’t be difficult, because he has no opponents.

The Lee’s Summit lawmaker has served in the Senate since 2011 and previously served for six years in the House.

Kraus may be best known for sponsoring an income tax cut that legislators enacted this year by overriding a veto by Gov. Jay Nixon.

But he also had sponsored various election-related bills, including a proposed constitutional amendment that would authorize a photo identification requirement for voters. That photo ID measure did not pass this year.