WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) met this week with the 2013-2014 “Missouri Teacher of the Year,” Jamie Manker from Rockwood Summit High School in Fenton, Mo.

Manker currently teaches social studies and serves as the department chair. She has taught at Rockwood Summit for the past 13 years. Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recognized Manker as the top educator in the state on August 22, 2013.

“As a former educator, I understand the important role teachers have in providing a quality education to prepare every child for success in school and in life,” Blunt said. “I enjoyed meeting with Jamie, and I congratulate her on achieving this award for her exceptional dedication, leadership, and skill in the classroom.”

Before serving in Congress, Blunt was a high school and college history teacher, and he served for four years as the president of his alma mater, Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A Missouri woman has died in prison while serving a life sentence for the 1989 slaying of her teenage daughter who apparently resisted the family’s Islamic traditions.

The Missouri Department of Corrections said 70-year-old Maria Isa died early Wednesday at a prison in Vandalia. A written statement from the department said she died “of apparent natural causes” but provided no further details.

Isa originally was sentenced to death along with her husband, Zein Isa, for the 1989 stabbing of their 16-year-old daughter Palestina Isa. The killing was caught on a surveillance tape by the FBI, which had suspected Zein Isa of being involved with the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

Maria Isa was re-sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder after her initial sentence was overturned.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A renegade Republican has teamed up with minority party Democrats to deliver the first affirmative vote of the year for a plan to expand Medicaid eligibility.

House Health Insurance Committee Chairman Chris Molendorp voted with four Democratic members Wednesday to endorse a Medicaid expansion bill.

The other Republican committee members either voted “no” or left the room before the vote occurred.

Molendorp acknowledged the vote was symbolic and that Republican leaders are unlikely to allow the bill to be debated by the full House. But Moldendorp said he wanted to make a point that he believes Republicans should drop their opposition to Medicaid expansion.

Other Republicans have raised concerns about the long-term costs of expanding adult Medicaid coverage under the terms of President Barack Obama’s health care law.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A mid-Missouri alligator handler has pleaded guilty to seven counts of keeping dangerous animals without proper registration.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports 70-year-old Kenneth R. Henderson, known as the “gator educator,” was charged in 2011 with 19 misdemeanors after animal control officers found two leashed alligators in his daughter’s yard in Columbia. Henderson lives in Warren County with his animals.

Henderson was sentenced Monday to two years’ unsupervised probation. He cannot have any animals in Boone County other than his service dog, except under certain conditions.

COLUMBIA (AP) – Six of 13 defendants want some counts dismissed in a civil lawsuit filed by a Missouri man whose murder conviction was vacated after he served nearly a decade behind bars.

Ryan Ferguson, convicted in 2005 of killing Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt before his conviction was vacated, sued the city of Columbia, Boone County and several law enforcement officers.

Attorneys for ex-Columbia police Chief Randy Boehm’s sought last week to have three of the eight claims against him dismissed. Ex-Sgt. Stephen Monticelli asked that a malicious prosecution charge be dropped. Boone County, the city of Columbia, investigator Ben White and current Boone County Circuit Judge Kevin Crane asked that all counts against them be dismissed.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports a judge hasn’t ruled on the motions.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Funding for the Missouri agency that investigates allegations of child abuse and neglect figures to be a point of contention as House and Senate members negotiate the next state budget.

The Senate completed work Tuesday on its version of the $26.8 billion operating budget for 2015.

Part of that funding would go toward pay raises and a student loan forgiveness program for staff. Nixon also had sought money to equip 1,500 staff with iPads and to ensure wireless Internet access in 124 offices.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday urged the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee to restore that funding during negotiations.

Washington DC – U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Congressman Cleaver (Mo.) jointly introduced legislation today that will make Kansas City the only city in the nation with the distinction of having the National World War I Museum and Memorial.

The bill will designate the Liberty Memorial at the National World War I Museum — as the “National World War I Museum and Memorial.”

“Missourians are deeply proud of our World War I heroes, and last year, I worked with my colleagues to help create an important Centennial Commission based at America’s National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Mo.,” said Blunt. “This bill will designate the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City as the ‘National World War I Museum and Memorial’ and allow the Commission to continue Kansas City’s tradition as a focal point in the study of World War I while also redesignating a national World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C.”

“This is great news for Kansas City and for the Liberty Memorial, where folks have worked tirelessly to commemorate the lives of our men and women who sacrificed so much during the ‘Great War,’” said McCaskill, the daughter of a World War II veteran and senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Dedicating this site is an important way to ensure that our kids and grandkids, and all future generations can appreciate the impact this war had on our nation and the freedoms we enjoy today.”

“This legislation is meant to ensure Kansas City is known as the one and only home in this great country to the National World War I Museum and Memorial,” said Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II. “And it gives us the opportunity to lead the nation in marking the centennial anniversary. I am hopeful this legislation will assist in honoring the great sacrifices made, and lessons learned, during World War I.”

Blunt, McCaskill, and Cleaver also successfully passed legislation last year that established Liberty Memorial as the host of a new World War I Centennial Commission. That Commission is in the process of planning, developing, and executing programs, projects, and activities to commemorate the centennial of World War I. Kansas City will have the honor of hosting the inaugural event in the nation, to mark this solemn day.

Pershing Park, located along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, would be redesignated as the National World War I Memorial.

On July 28th of this year, our country will mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. This is the day Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. On April 6th, 1917, the United States entered the war by declaring against Germany. Almost five million U.S. service members served during the war. Frank Buckles was the last American veteran from the war, but died in February of 2011. He was the last direct American link to the “war to end all wars”.