GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City area authorities are investigating after a life-size dummy with a President Obama mask was found hanging from an interstate bridge.

Jackson County Sheriff spokeswoman Sgt. Ronda Montgomery says authorities were notified early Monday by several motorists who saw the dummy with the Obama mask hanging from a bridge over U.S. Interstate 70 near Grain Valley, which is about 20 miles east of Kansas City.

Montgomery says authorities closed the highway in the area for a few minutes to remove the dummy. She says authorities also found an item attached to the dummy that prompted them to call an area bomb and arson squad, but no explosives were found on the dummy.
Montgomery says the department is working with federal authorities in the investigation.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 70-year-old Kansas City man has pleaded guilty to charges involving a hoax threat to contaminate water supplies in Kansas and Missouri.

The U.S. Attorney for western Missouri says Manuel Garcia pleaded guilty Monday. He admitted making three telephone calls to authorities in October 2013 about the fake plot to contaminate water supplies in Kansas City, St. Louis, Wichita and Topeka.

An FBI agent recognized Garcia’s voice from a 2010 case in which he was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to making a phone call threatening to bomb the U.S. courthouse in downtown Kansas City.

Garcia faces up to five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says a proposed sales tax increase is “neither a fair nor a fiscally responsible” solution to pay for transportation needs.

State lawmakers approved a three-quarters-of-a-cent sales tax increase for transportation. It would require voter approval, and Nixon last month referred it to the August ballot. The ballot measure says the tax is projected to raise $534 million annually for 10 years starting in 2015.

On Monday, Nixon criticized the tax proposal and said it would fall disproportionately on working families and seniors. He contrasted it with other tax cuts passed by the 2014 Legislature, including several sales tax breaks that Nixon estimates could cost state and local governments $776 million.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Missouri State Highway Patrol is investigating the weekend drowning of a 20-year-old Iowa man who was handcuffed and being transported on suspicion of boating while intoxicated at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Highway Patrol Sgt. Paul Reinsch said Monday that Brandon Ellingson was taken into a Water Patrol boat, handcuffed and placed in a life vest. Reinsch says officials are investigating whether Ellingson fell into the lake or jumped in and that it’s unclear why his life vest came off.

Reinsch says the trooper involved has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure. He says the investigation likely would take at least a week.

Ellingson was from Clive, Iowa, and had been attending Arizona State University.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Attorneys for condemned Missouri inmate John Winfield are asking a federal appeals court to halt his execution.

Winfield is scheduled to die June 18 for killing two women in St. Louis County in 1996. His attorneys on Monday asked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant a stay, claiming that Missouri’s lethal injection process violates his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment.

It would be Missouri’s first execution since another convicted killer, Russell Bucklew, was spared on May 21, when the U.S. Supreme Court sent his case back to the appeals court.

Lethal injection has come under increased scrutiny since a botched execution in April in Oklahoma. Winfield’s attorneys also cite concerns about Missouri’s secretive method of obtaining execution drugs from an unknown compounding pharmacy.

MANSFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man and two women from Kentucky were killed and four other people were injured in a head-on collision in southern Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the accident occurred late Sunday on U.S. 60 about 3 miles east of Mansfield.

Branham, Hays and a passenger in her van, 76-year-old Shirley Phillips, of Bardwell, Kentucky, died in the accident.

Four other passengers in Hays’ van suffered serious injuries and were airlifted to a Springfield hospital.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) blasted President Barack Obama’s announcement today regarding his job-destroying Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on coal-fired power plants, which could cost American businesses more than $50 billion a year.

“There’s no doubt the president’s energy policies will destroy jobs and hurt the very people who can’t afford to pay more at the pump or to heat and cool their homes. Yet once again, President Obama and his administration proved they’re more concerned about appealing to the far left of the president’s party than helping low and middle-income families who are struggling to find jobs and pay their bills,” said Blunt.

“I will fight the president and his administration every step of the way to stop this unprecedented power grab and protect Missourians, who rely on coal for 80 percent of our state’s energy,” Blunt concluded.

Missouri relies on coal for more than 80 percent of the state’s electricity needs, and Blunt has long-fought against the Obama Administration’s burdensome energy policies. Last month, Blunt introduced an amendment to protect families from skyrocketing energy costs that would result from a carbon tax. He introduced similar amendments to prevent a carbon tax in April 2014 to the unemployment insurance bill, and in March 2013 to the FY14 budget.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently released a new study warning that the Obama Administration’s EPA proposal could reach $50 billion in annual costs through 2030, and diminish the nation’s coal-fired energy capabilities by a third. The study reveals that U.S. consumers would pay almost $290 billion more for electricity between 2014 – 2030, an average of $17 billion more per year. Missouri consumers would pay on average $65.4 billion more between 2014-2030, up to $11 billion more per year.

A 2012 Consumer Expenditure Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that more than 40 million American households earning less than $30,000 per year spend an average of 20 percent or more of their family budget on utility bills. A 2013 study by NAM found the overall impact of a carbon tax on American jobs would be staggering, with a loss of worker income equivalent to between 1.3 million and 1.5 million jobs in 2013 and between 3.8 million and 21 million by 2053.

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety regulators are investigating whether a recall to fix air bags on nearly 745,000 Chrysler SUVs is working.

The company recalled older-model Jeep Grand Cherokees and Libertys in 2012 because the air bags could inflate without a crash, causing injuries.

Chrysler installed an electrical filter to eliminate electrical spikes on air bag circuits.

But since the recall, the company has received six reports of air bags inflating without a crash on SUVs that had the recall repairs.

No crashes were reported, but owners said there were some cuts and burns.

The National Traffic Safety Administration says it is investigating whether the recall is effective. Chrysler says it’s cooperating and investigating as well.

The investigation affects Libertys from the 2002 and 2003 model years and Grand Cherokees from 2002 to 2004.