JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A new report says Missouri gained about 8,200 jobs in April while the state’s unemployment rate dipped slightly.

The state Department of Economic Development said Tuesday the growth in seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs came partly from increases in construction work, the leisure and hospitality sector and retail trade.

It said Missouri’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell by one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.6 percent in April.

Missouri’s seasonally adjusted civilian labor force of about 3 million people declined by 1,456 people in April. The labor force counts people with jobs and those who are on unemployment but looking for work.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A fad in which people challenge their friends to jump into freezing water in efforts to raise money charity has prompted warnings from state and school officials across the nation.

The phenomenon began last month as a fundraiser for a 6-month-old cancer patient in Missouri. As it spread on social media, the rules about contributing to charity evolved into several variations.

As the so-called cold-water challenges have grown, more divers have reported broken bones, blown-out knees or worse. They might misjudge the water’s depth or land on a submerged object.

High schools in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin have begun alerting parents to the practice. State officials are urging divers to use extreme caution.

However, one Indiana cancer charity says the phenomenon helped it raise $1,500 in a month.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is allowing a massive overhaul of the state’s criminal laws to take effect without his signature.

Nixon faced a Tuesday deadline to act on the legislation that creates new classes of felonies and misdemeanors. The Democratic governor had expressed concern that the measure could contain mistakes and was too ambitious. But he said his concerns were alleviated when supporters agreed to immediately advance a separate bill to correct some drafting errors. The legislative session ends Friday.

The measure reduces possible prison sentences for some nonviolent drug crimes, while imposing stiffer penalties in other areas like sexual assaults and driving while intoxicated.

The bill’s provisions will take effect in January 2017. It’s the first comprehensive rewrite of Missouri’s criminal code since 1979.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man for the slaying of a mobile home park manager in 1991.

The court on Tuesday rejected claims by Walter Barton that he had ineffective attorneys and that his due process rights were violated when he was convicted of killing 81-year-old Gladys Kuehler, of Ozark.

Among other things, Barton’s attorney argued on appeal that prosecutors improperly failed to disclose that the victim’s granddaughter had been convicted of misdemeanor crimes many years after the slaying. The granddaughter was a witness at the trial.

Barton had twice previously had his conviction and death sentence overturned. His most recent conviction came from a re-trial in 2006. The court was unanimous Tuesday in ruling against Barton.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A southwest Missouri man is facing criminal charges after surveillance video shows him running over a goose in a parking lot, then backing up and doing it again.

The Springfield News-Leader reports 35-year-old Kristopher Sonntag of Nixa was charged Monday with two misdemeanor counts of illegally killing wildlife.

He is accused of running over a Canada goose April 13 in the parking lot of Springfield machinery company Grizzly Industrial while driving his girlfriend’s van.

Investigators say Sonntag initially told agents he was not used to driving the vehicle and lost control. They say he later told them he thought the goose would move, and that he accidentally ran over the bird a second time while checking to see if it was dead.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri senators approved legislation Tuesday that would require women to wait three days after seeing a doctor before having an abortion, instead of one day.

The state’s informed consent law currently requires a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion, and that would be extended to 72 hours under the measure. Women are provided information such as the immediate and long-term medical risks, as well as alternatives to an abortion. They also are given an opportunity to view an ultrasound and to hear the heartbeat of the fetus.

Senate Democrats had been stalling a vote on the abortion legislation. But the logjam broke after Senate Republican leaders agreed not to pursue other bills the Democrats opposed. In exchange for allowing votes on the abortion bill and an early voting measure, Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey said Republicans would no longer pursue a constitutional amendment authorizing a photo ID requirement for elections or a measure affecting union fees for public employees.

Supporters of extending the abortion waiting period say it would provide more time to think about the possible consequences of having an abortion. Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, said he sponsored the bill “for the unborn children that I want to preserve.”

Critics of the measure have said it would lead to abortions performed later in a pregnancy, which can increase risks.

Sen. Paul LeVota said the bill puts an unnecessary burden on women.

“It’s embarrassing, it’s political and it’s the wrong thing to do for women,” said LeVota, D-Independence.

Missouri’s only facility currently performing elective abortions is in St. Louis. State figures show there were about 9,000 abortions performed on Missouri residents in 2012 and that the number of abortions for Missourians has declined each year since 2008.

South Dakota and Utah also have a 72-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion. Utah enacted its requirement in 2012, and South Dakota’s measure took effect last year.

WASHINGTON – After launching a massive survey of hundreds of colleges and universities on how they handle campus sexual assaults – the first Congressional inquiry of its kind – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today sent a letter to the American Council on Education following troubling reports that the Council retained a private law firm to hold a webinar cautioning institutions on whether and how they should respond to McCaskill’s survey.

McCaskill is surveying 450 colleges and universities through her Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight to assess how these institutions respond to and address sexual violence and harassment. The survey is part of McCaskill’s ongoing effort to combat sexual assault on college campuses-and she has already collected nearly 200 completed surveys.

“As the recipients of the letters know, I have made a commitment to them that neither a school’s response nor its participation in the survey will be shared outside my office,” McCaskill wrote. “I made this commitment to encourage the selected institutions to participate in the survey and to ensure that I would receive honest answers. Given these efforts, I am extremely troubled by the fact that the American Council on Education provided counsel to its member institutions which may have had the opposite effect.”

In order the assess the damage to the survey the Council may have caused, McCaskill requested the Council provide copies of the webinar and any written and electronic materials that were distributed during the presentation. In addition, to ensure the Subcommittee can provide accurate information to any institution that may have received inaccurate information regarding the survey from the webinar, McCaskill requested the Council provide a list of the institutions that participated in the webinar no later than May 16th.