COLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) — The Cherokee County Commission has approved a resolution to support the Kansas attorney general’s attempt to bar the Quapaw Tribe from extending a casino from Oklahoma into Kansas.

The Joplin Globe reports that the Cherokee County Commission approved the resolution on Monday. The attorney general wants to bar the expansion of the Downstream Casino after the National Indian Gaming Commission granted the Quapaw Tribe permission to expand onto its former reservation land. In 2012, that particular piece of land was placed into a trust stating that it would only be used for parking and agriculture, not gaming.

In late 2013, Downstream Casino applied to operate Class 3 gaming, which includes roulette and craps, on the land in Kansas. Class 3 gaming is unconstitutional in Oklahoma.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Used car dealership chain CarMax says it plans to hire more than 2,500 workers across the U.S.

The Richmond-based company said in a news release Tuesday that the positions include sales, service operations, purchasing and the business office. Both full-time and part-time positions will be filled.

Some of the areas with a large number of opportunities include Atlanta, Denver, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City and Miami.

CarMax has more than 20,000 employees and operates more than140 used car superstores.

Applications will only be accepted online at www.carmax.com/careers.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri inmate just hours away from execution is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in, arguing that lethal drug could cause unconstitutional pain and suffering.

The appeal was filed Tuesday on behalf of Walter Timothy Storey. He is scheduled for lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for killing a female neighbor in 1990.

Missouri prison officials refuse to disclose details about how or if its execution drug, pentobarbital, is tested. Storey’s attorneys argue that the secrecy makes it impossible to know if the drug will quickly work or cause an unconstitutionally painful death.

The Missouri Attorney General’s office says 12 executions performed with the same drug have been “rapid and painless.”

If the court doesn’t step in, Storey’s execution will be the state’s first in 2015.

JOPLIN (AP) – A man already imprisoned for leading a drug distribution ring has been sentenced to another 22 years in prison for a Joplin man’s death.

Jose D. Cazares was sentenced Monday after entering an Alford plea to second-degree murder and armed criminal action. He got the same sentence last week for leading the drug conspiracy.

The Joplin Globe reported 30-year-old Joshua Olson was shot in the head in 2006 after confronting Cazares and his brother about stolen wheel rims.

Cazares fled and lived for several years along the U.S.-Mexico border, crossing between Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico. He was captured in 2011.

In 2013, Cazares and his parents were indicted along with 15 others in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in the Jasper County area.

WASHINGTON – Following pressure from U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it has crafted more affordable, achievable heating rules for rural families as it implements its new emission standards for wood-burning heaters and furnaces.

“This announcement is a positive step for rural families and folks who rely on wood-burning furnaces to heat their homes and businesses,” McCaskill said. “We’ve been able to help move the EPA so their new emissions standards are more responsible and achievable, and most importantly, that Missouri families who depend on these stoves aren’t burned by their high cost. And I’ll be keeping a close eye on affordability for families and businesses as the EPA works with small manufacturers to implement these standards.”

The EPA rule updates 1988 pollution limits for newly manufactured wood heaters and furnaces, making several changes from the initial proposal that will give manufactures greater time to sell their existing inventory, reduce certification red-tape, and implement the new standards over the next five years. The changes will ensure an orderly phase-in that reduces soot and pollution emissions by nearly two-thirds to protect the public’s health.

Last year, McCaskill sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in response to the EPA’s proposed rule for new wood heaters and furnaces, which currently account for 13 percent of nationwide soot pollution. McCaskill urged the EPA to work with small independent manufactures to craft affordable, achievable heating rules as it implements its new emission standards.

Several public and private voluntary programs, such as the Wood Stove Changeout and EPA’s own BurnWise program, have already successfully minimized fine particulate matter and other hazardous air pollutants from wood heaters and furnaces. McCaskill in the letter expressed concern that for the EPA’s programs to be successful, consumers must have access to newer wood heaters and furnaces that are affordable.

McCaskill is also a co-sponsor of the Reliable Home Heating Act, which would help protect the roughly 212,000 Missouri families who rely on propane for heating from propane price spikes and shortages during the winter.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A man is being held without bond after being charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of four people at a Springfield motel in November.

Greene County prosecutors said 47-year-old Scott A. Goodwin-Bey was charged Monday in the Nov. 15 shooting deaths at an Economy Inn.

The Springfield News-Leader reported court documents say Goodwin-Bey was arrested on Nov. 30 after he began acted strangely and handed over a gun to a convenience store clerk. A witness at the hotel during the shootings said they occurred because the suspect believed the victims were telling police about his drug use.

The murder charges were delayed until lab test results were returned to prosecutors Feb. 4.

It was not immediately clear if Goodwin-Bey has an attorney.

CARTHAGE- Law enforcement authorities in Jasper County are investigating an accident that killed a woman just before 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a vehicle was southbound on Interstate 49 at Carthage and struck Micaela A. Abernathy, 31, Leesburg, FL., The vehicle left the scene.

Abernathy was transported to Chappel Crematory in Webb City.

Few additional details on the vehicle involved in the accident are available.

COLUMBIA -A Missouri woman was injured in an accident just before 6 p.m. on Sunday in Boone County

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Harley Davidson driven by Laura L. Bradshaw-Straub, 44, Columbia, was northbound on Route B just north of Ketterer Road. The motorcycle hit a deer.

Bradshaw-Straub was transported to University Hospital in serious condition.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Paul Reinsch told the Associated Press Bradshaw-Straub isn’t suspected of speeding or driving carelessly. He says she hasn’t been arrested or issued any citations.

Reinsch says authorities had to kill the deer after the accident.

 

-The Associated Press contributed to this report

By Elle Moxley 

About two dozen women and children protested outside Research Medical Center on Monday afternoon in support of an obstetrician who was let go last month.

Lisa Cohen, a midwife from Lee’s Summit, Mo., started a petition to reinstate Dr. Howard Schwartz that so far has drawn more than 1,300 signatures.

“I am here for this protest in the capacity of a mother and a patient that Dr. Schwartz really helped when I was in a bind,” Cohen says.

Cohen says Schwartz often accepted patients with high-risk pregnancies that other doctors wouldn’t treat, including women who wanted to have home births but ultimately had to deliver in a hospital.

“He treated them with a lot of respect and tried to help them get the birth they wanted even though it wasn’t a home birth anymore,” Cohen says.

Cohen says Schwartz has many third-trimester patients who had hoped to have a vaginal birth after undergoing a Caesarean section, commonly called a “VBAC.” She says most physicians won’t accept new patients late in their pregnancies, so they’ll have to deliver with a different doctor in Schwartz’s practice.

“Other physicians in that group do not provide VBAC services,” Cohen says. “So they’re afraid the birth plans they have carefully developed with Dr. Schwartz over the course of their pregnancy will no longer be honored.”

In a statement, a spokesman said Research Medical Center leadership met with the protestors this morning.

“We requested this meeting as we want to work collaboratively with these women to ensure them that our birthing program remains dedicated to personalized birth plans,” the statement says.

Even women whose babies Schwartz did not deliver joined the protest Monday. One of those women, Olathe, Kan., resident Heather Weber, gave birth to her three kids at home.

“People say as long as the baby’s healthy, it doesn’t matter what happens,” Weber says. “There is such a thing as birth trauma. It happens every day to women all over the world.”

Attempts to reach Schwartz were unsuccessful.

 

Elle Moxley is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas

KANSAS CITY (AP) – The chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City is apologizing after the Princeton Review last week stripped the college of its rankings for falsifying data.

The Kansas City Star reported Chancellor Leo Morton said Monday on KCUR-FM’s program “Up to Date” that he’s taking the issue seriously. He also has apologized to students, staff, alumni and the city in a letter to the school’s campus.

The Princeton Review announced last Monday it was pulling the school’s top-25 ranking for graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship programs for 2014. It later announced it also would remove the rankings for 2011, 2012 and 2013 at the university’s request.

The move came after a report finding the college’s business school knowingly submitted false data when applying for rankings and awards from national organizations.