JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A new report shows Missouri revenues were up slightly as the state heads toward the last few months of its fiscal year.

State figures released Wednesday show the state’s net general revenue increased 1.7 percent through March compared with the same point last year.

State Budget Director Linda Luebbering says the revenue numbers show Missouri is on pace to meet this year’s budget projections set by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration. But she added that sales tax receipts are currently coming in below projections.

Missouri also borrowed $200 million this month. Luebbering says the state routinely borrows cash this time of year because of increased tax refunds, which are up 4.4 percent from last year.

The state’s current budget year began last July and runs through June 30.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Kansas City remains in the running to host the 2016 Republican National Convention.

The Republican National Committee said Wednesday that the list of competing cities had been narrowed from eight to six.

Besides Kansas City, those still in the running are Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver and Las Vegas.

Republican staff members now will visit each of the six cities for a more in-depth look at the financing, convention site, media work space and hotels. They are to present their findings to a site selection committee in May. The panel then will determine which sites will get official visits from the full delegation of Republican National Committee members.

The two applicants eliminated Wednesday were Phoenix and Columbus, Ohio.

Kansas City last hosted the Republican National Convention in 1976.

 

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A bill revamping the management of Missouri’s Medicaid program has been set aside after debate turned tense between two Republican senators.

Sens. Ryan Silvey and John Lamping engaged in a sometimes pointed discussion Wednesday during which they questioned each other’s conservative ideology and rhetoric.

Silvey wants to expand health care coverage to thousands of low-income adults by tapping into an influx of federal Medicaid dollars available under President Barack Obama’s health care law. The Republican from Kansas City says it can be done without busting the budget.

Lamping remains opposed to taking the new federal Medicaid money for expanded coverage. The Republican from St. Louis County says lawmakers need to stand firm against anything stemming from Obama’s health care law.

The Senate legislation does not currently include Medicaid expansion.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first tablet for gradually reducing hay fever allergy symptoms, an alternative to uncomfortable allergy-desensitizing shots.

Oralair, a tablet that dissolves quickly under the tongue, is approved for patients aged 10 through 65. It’s to be taken daily starting four months before grass pollen season to reduce allergic reactions to five grass types.

In patient testing, it reduced symptoms and need for medications by up to 30 percent, compared with dummy pills. Common side effects include throat irritation, mouth swelling and the possibility of severe allergic reactions.

Oralair is made by France’s Stallergenes SA.

Meanwhile, drugmaker Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, N.J., expects an FDA ruling by midyear on two immunotherapy tablets, one for ragweed and one for grass pollen allergies.

 

KANSAS CITY— A Wednesday semi truck crash in Wyandotte County has sent one man to the hospital.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reports a semi-truck driven by James P. Vroman was on I-70 westbound just west of the I-670 split in Kansas City. Vroman was driving to fast for conditions, lost control of the truck and struck the left barrier wall.

Vroman was transported to the University of Kansas Medical Center.

The KHP reported he was not properly restrained.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today joined with fellow women Senators, working women affected by pay disparities, and advocates to urge passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act-legislation which will help close the wage gap between women and men working equivalent jobs, costing women and their families $434,000 over their careers.

“Ensuring women get equal pay for equal work is a battle my mom had to fight,” McCaskill said. “When a working woman-who is often the sole breadwinner or a significant contributor to her household-can still be paid less than her male colleagues for the same work, it does a great disservice to all those families working hard to make ends meet. I refuse to accept that in 2014 this should still be the status quo, and I’m determined not to leave this fight for my daughters to finish.”

McCaskill’s support for the Paycheck Fairness Act follows her vote for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which provided access to courts for women able to document cases of past pay discrimination, and continues a long career of advocacy on equality and discrimination issues which began as a prosecutor in Kansas City, Mo.

Women make up nearly half of Missouri’s workforce, but earn only 74 cents for every dollar paid to men in the state.

The Paycheck Fairness Act builds on the promise of the Equal Pay Act, passed more than 50 years ago on June 10, 1963. It helps close the pay gap by empowering women to negotiate for equal pay, closing loopholes courts have created in the law, creating strong incentives for employers to obey the laws and strengthening federal outreach and enforcement efforts. The bill shifts the burden of proof from a woman to her employer, and protects employees from retaliation when they share with each other how much they make.

EWING, Mo. (AP) — More than two dozen students were injured when their school bus overturned along a rural road in northeast Missouri.

The Missouri Highway Patrol says the bus rolled into a ditch along a two-lane road Tuesday afternoon near Ewing, which is about 125 miles northwest of St. Louis. No other vehicles were involved.

The Lewis County C-1 School District says 26 of the 30 students on the bus were injured.

Steve Felde, a spokesman at Blessing Hospital in Quincy, Ill., said Wednesday that all but six of the injured children were treated and released, as was the bus driver. Five of the students still in the hospital are listed in good condition. The sixth is being treated at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

The students attend Highland Elementary and Highland High schools.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has said a Minnesota rabbi who complained about an airline’s frequent flier program is out of luck.

The justices on Wednesday unanimously sided with Northwest Airlines and dismissed a lawsuit from Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg that alleged he was stripped of his top-level frequent flier status because he complained too much.

Ginsberg said Northwest, since absorbed by Delta Air Lines Inc., did not act in good faith when it cut him off. But the justices ruled that the federal deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 prohibits most lawsuits like the one filed by Ginsberg.