KANSAS CITY (AP) – A Jackson County judge has ruled that Kansas City’s proposal for a new tax district to extend streetcar lines is legal.

The Kansas City Star reports Jackson County Circuit Judge Marco Roldan ruled Thursday that the city’s petition for the new streetcar district can be put to the voters.

Roldan determined the district is not legally defective or unconstitutional and the proposed funding methods don’t pose an undue burden on specific property owners.

The ruling is a step toward expanding the streetcar system, which now is limited to a downtown line that will run from River Market to near Union Station. The limited line is expected to open late next year.

Unless there’s an appeal, the ruling appears to clear the way for an election Aug. 5.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – People convicted of drug felonies could potentially qualify for food stamps under a bill passed by the Missouri Legislature.

Drug felons are currently banned for life from the aid program. But the bill would allow them to receive the benefit if they have completed or been determined by the state not to need a substance abuse program. It would not apply to people with three or more felony drug convictions.

The bill would also restrict welfare spending out-of-state and at casinos, liquor stores and strip clubs. Recipients could lose their benefits if they don’t make a purchase within Missouri every 90 days. They could also be penalized for spending public assistance on tobacco, alcohol or lottery tickets.

The House and Senate both passed the measure Thursday.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Republican-led Missouri Legislature has passed legislation that would task groups of parents and educators with writing new benchmarks for student achievement.

The measure sent to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon on Thursday could pave the way for Missouri to become the second state to ditch the Common Core Standards, which have been adopted by more than 40 states. Missouri’s State Board of Education adopted Common Core in 2010.

Under the bill, state officials would pick teams to develop new school standards for English, math, science and history to be implemented during the 2016 academic year.

Until then, Missouri schools could continue using Common Core in the classroom and for tests that are scheduled to be taken this fall.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback says phasing out the Kansas mortgage registration fee will help the state’s economy grow, but counties fear they’ll be forced to boost property taxes to make up the lost revenue.

Brownback said Thursday that a home is the biggest purchase most people make and phasing out the fee will help borrowers a little bit. He signed legislation Wednesday to phase the fee out by 2019.

The state imposes a fee of $2.60 for every $1,000 borrowed to register mortgages, and most of the money goes to the 105 counties.

The new law will increase other fees, but the Legislature’s staff projects that counties still will lose $53 million over the next five years.

And some county officials believe those estimates understate the potential losses.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Two men are facing drug trafficking charges after members of the Jackson County Drug Task Force found 22 pounds of methamphetamine hidden inside a car.

The value of the cache of packaged meth found inside a car parked in a Kansas City garage is estimated at $1 million to $2 million. The Kansas City Star reports the drugs were found when the task force served a search warrant following a three-month investigation.

Investigators towed the car to a nearby police station where the front end was taken apart and the drugs were found behind the front fenders.

Prosecutors on Wednesday charged 20-year-old Valdemar Rivera-Madrigal of Kansas City and 23-year-old Cesar Omar Rivera-Valencia of Montebello, California, with drug trafficking.

Neither man had obtained an attorney Friday.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon is raising concerns about a bill that would triple the amount of time Missouri women must wait for an abortion.

Nixon called it in “extreme proposal” in a written statement Thursday, just one day after the Republican-led Legislature gave final approval to the legislation.

Nixon criticized lawmakers for not including a rape and incest exemption to the 72-hour timeframe between a woman’s doctor visit and the procedure.

Missouri’s current 24-hour waiting period includes only an exemption for medical emergencies, which would remain under the legislation. Utah and South Dakota also have three-day waiting periods, but Utah’s bill exempts cases of rape or incest.

The bill would need a two-thirds majority vote in the House and Senate for lawmakers to override a veto.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), sent a letter to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week regarding “an alarming report that hundreds of employees of Serco, a company awarded up to $1.25 billion in federal taxpayer dollars to process paper applications for health insurance through the federal Obamacare exchange, are being paid to do nothing.”

KMOV-TV in St. Louis, Mo. originally broke the story regarding serious allegations from workers at a Serco health insurance application processing center located in Wenztville, Mo. who claim they are wasting taxpayer dollars by being paid to do nothing. The facility is responsible for processing paper applications for Americans attempting to sign up for health care plans under ObamaCare.

“We are concerned Serco may have much less work than was expected when CMS awarded the contract, and may not be successfully completing the applications it has received,” the Senators wrote. Blunt and Alexander posed a number of specific questions to the administration and requested a reply on or before May 30, 2014.

Serco is a private government contracting firm hired by the Obama Administration under a reported $1.25 billion contract in July 2013. The Wentzville facility, which is one of several sites that process ObamaCare applications, reportedly employs 600 people.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – The death of a 70-year-old man whose body was found in a south Kansas City backyard swimming pool has been ruled a homicide.

Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snap says a person of interest is in custody in the death of Hal Cornell III, whose wife says she returned from out of town Tuesday and found him in the pool.

Police were called to the home around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday on a reported drowning. They found Cornell’s body and said it appeared he had been in the pool for at least a couple days.

The Kansas City Star reports a relative who lives in the house told police the victim went into the pool Saturday and that he had not seen him since.

The victim’s wife lives next door.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri lawmakers have passed a measure intended to block business arrangements in which public employees sign over their future pension rights to get quick cash.

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel says the bill would make Missouri the first state to prohibit pension advances targeting public employees.

Under the arrangements, retired employees receive an upfront lump sum of money from a business, which then gets the rights to all or part of the future pension payments. The deals often carry consumer fees.

A bill given final approval Wednesday would prohibit the transfer of the pension rights to other entities. It gives the attorney general power to investigate and take legal action against such businesses.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) joined his colleagues on the Senate floor today for a bipartisan colloquy marking “National Police Week,” in which he thanked policemen and women for their service and discussed his support for the “National Blue Alert Act.” Blunt serves as Co-Chair of the bipartisan U.S. Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, which focuses on strengthening support and communication between state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Blunt also met this week with the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), which honored the Senator with an award for his efforts in support of the law enforcement community. FLEOA represents more than 26,000 federal law enforcement officers from more than 65 different agencies nationwide. Please click here for a high resolution photo of the meeting.

“America’s policemen and women work tirelessly to keep our communities safe while putting their own lives on the line,” Blunt said. “I’m glad to co-sponsor the National Blue Alert Act, which would create a nationwide alert system to apprehend violent criminals who have seriously injured or killed police officers. I’m also grateful for this award from the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, and I’ll continue to advocate for the policies and resources law enforcement agencies need to carry out their missions.”