JIM SALTER, Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri man convicted of breaking into his neighbor’s home and slitting her throat 25 years ago has been executed.

Walter Timothy Storey was put to death early Wednesday for killing 36-year-old special education teacher Jill Frey in February 1990 in a St. Louis suburb. It was Missouri’s first execution this year after a state-record 10 in 2014.

Storey lived in a St. Charles apartment with his mother and was drinking beer and angry about a pending divorce. When he ran out of beer, he broke into Frey’s apartment to steal money for more beer.

Storey beat Frey and slit her throat so deeply that her spine was damaged.

Storey twice had convictions thrown out due to court errors. He was sentenced to death a third time in 1999.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — Target has agreed to pay nearly $4 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Northern California prosecutors that alleged the retailer charged higher prices than advertised, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The lawsuit also alleges the Minneapolis-based company misrepresented the weights of products and failed to ensure that price scanners at checkout stands were accurate.

Target Corp. was ordered to pay $3.9 million to settle the lawsuit filed in Marin County, the San Francisco Chronicle reported

Marin County District Attorney Ed Berberian said his office filed the lawsuit in conjunction with counterparts in Contra Costa, Fresno, Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties, and the San Diego city attorney’s office.

“A fundamental consumer right is to be charged no more than the lowest advertised price. Consumers should always notify retailers immediately when they are being overcharged and demand to be charged only the lowest advertised price,” Berberian said.

Target spokesman Evan Lapiska said some of the problems stemmed from promotional signs not being removed immediately after a promotion ended and the company has taken steps to fix that and other problems.

Target, the second-largest discount retailer in the U.S., also agreed to increase the number and frequency of price-accuracy audits at California stores, train its employees to make sure prices are accurate and hire an outside auditor to make sure weights are accurate in Target-branded products.

“Any guest who feels she or he was overcharged for an item should bring their receipt to the guest service desk, where any pricing inaccuracies will be resolved,” Lapiska said.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A decision by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback to narrow an anti-discrimination policy for Kansas government workers has prompted a Democratic lawmaker to introduce a bill aimed at protecting gays and lesbians.

Democratic state Rep. John Carmichael of Wichita on Tuesday asked the Kansas House Judiciary Committee to sponsor a measure to bar discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The committee agreed to do so.

Carmichael’s bill would expand the state’s existing anti-discrimination act, which does not specifically cover gays, lesbians and transgendered residents.

He said he acted in response to Brownback’s decision to rescind a previous Democratic governor’s executive order barring such discrimination in state government hiring and employment.

House Minority Leader and Kansas City Democrat Tom Burroughs also condemned Brownback’s action.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A flight from Phoenix to Chicago was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Kansas City after a passenger went into labor.

Kansas City International Airport spokesman Joe McBride says the Spirit Airlines flight landed in Kansas City Tuesday morning so the woman could be taken off the plane and transported to an area hospital.

McBride said he didn’t have any additional information about her condition or whether she delivered the baby.

According to FlightAware.com, the flight departed from Phoenix at 1:34 a.m. Tuesday and landed in Kansas City at 4:34 a.m. The plane departed from Kansas City at 5:31 a.m. and landed in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport an hour later.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri’s governor has turned down a clemency request from a man who killed his neighbor 25 years ago, clearing the way for his execution.

Gov. Jay Nixon rejected Walter Timothy Storey’s request shortly after 8 p.m. CST Tuesday. Storey is set to die by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier rejected an appeal arguing the lethal drug could cause a painful death.

Storey was convicted of killing Jill Frey in 1990 inside her apartment in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles. Prosecutors said he attacked the neighbor in search of more money for beer.

After a record 10 executions in 2014 in Missouri, Storey would be the first inmate executed in the state this year.———————

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JIM SALTER, Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a stay of execution for a Missouri inmate who is scheduled to die just after midnight for killing a suburban St. Louis woman 25 years ago.

Walter Timothy Storey’s application for a stay was rejected Tuesday evening. It was presented to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The court says four justices would have granted the application.

Missouri executed a state record 10 people last year, and Storey would be the first execution this year.

The 47-year-old was sentenced to death three separate times in the same case. He killed his 36-year-old neighbor, special education teacher Jill Frey, on Feb. 2, 1990, after a night of drinking.

Storey is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

By DAN MARGOLIES

An Oklahoma City-based hospice with offices in Kansas City, Mo., and in Kansas will pay $4 million to settle allegations that it improperly admitted patients to increase its Medicare reimbursements.

Good Shepherd Hospice Inc. and four affiliates agreed to the settlement with the federal government on Friday. The government had intervened in a False Claims Act case originally brought by two whistleblowers, both former employees of Good Shepherd.

The employees, Kathi Cordingley and Tracy Jones, sued Good Shepherd in federal court in Kansas City, Mo., in 2011, alleging it admitted patients who didn’t qualify for hospice care under Medicare rules.

According to the lawsuit, Cordingley was executive director of Good Shepherd’s Kansas City office from Nov. 2010 until she resigned in April 2011. Jones was a registered nurse in the same facility until she was terminated in April 2011.

Both women claimed they were asked to fraudulently certify patients for enrollment in Good Shepherd’s hospice care programs.

In March 2014, the government intervened in the false-claims portion of the lawsuit, which had been sealed. It declined to intervene in other parts of the action that alleged Good Shepherd had paid kickbacks to medical directors, nursing homes and hospice consultants in exchange for hospice referrals.

Cordingley and Jones will receive a portion of the settlement, or about $680,000, according to the Justice Department.

Good Shepherd operates 15 offices in Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and Kansas. Besides the one in Kansas City, it also has offices in Springfield and Branson, Mo., and in Wichita, Lenexa and Newton, Kan.

A call to the company seeking comment was not immediately returned.

In a statement, Tammy Dickinson, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said, “Health care fraud puts profits above patients, and steals from taxpayers. In this case, company whistleblowers alleged that patients received unnecessary hospice care while Good Shepherd engaged in illicit business practices to enrich itself at the public’s expense.”

Dickinson said the settlement placed measures in place to prevent similar conduct in the future.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court says a St. Louis County circuit court judge should not have dismissed a same-sex couple’s request for a divorce.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent the divorce case back but didn’t rule on whether judges can grant divorces for same-sex marriages, which are banned in the state constitution.
The case centers on a man identified in court documents as M.S., who married his partner D.S. in Iowa in December 2012 and separated in August 2013.

A judge later denied M.S.’s petition for a divorce in January 2014, citing a statutory ban on same-sex marriages and a ban in the state constitution.
The Supreme Court doesn’t address whether that couple should be allowed to divorce, but says a judge should at least consider the case.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Net income for U.S. farmers is expected to fall by nearly 32 percent this year because of low crop prices and increasing expenses, placing many farmers in an unprofitable situation.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released estimates on Tuesday that show 2015 is expected to be the second year in a row that farmers will see their income fall. Income was down 16 percent from 2013 to 2014.

The report estimates net farm income will be $73.6 billion in 2015, down from $108 billion in 2014. It was at a record $129 billion in 2013.

The report also anticipates that as income falls, expenses will increase by one-half percent.

Government programs that pay farmers when commodity prices are low are expected to increase 15 percent this year.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A measure to limit how much revenue a Missouri city can collect from traffic fines has gained initial Senate approval.

The state Senate by a voice vote on Tuesday approved legislation to reduce the amount of general revenue Missouri cities and towns can collect from citations from 30 percent to 10 percent.

Changing how traffic fines are handled is one of the demands from protesters following the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson.

Brown was walking before he was shot by a police officer, but his death raised concerns about police harassment in the predominantly black community.

Lawmakers also have said unpaid fines can mean low-income offenders are unfairly jailed.

The bill needs a second full Senate vote before it can move to the House.