JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Students at most University of Missouri System schools will see tuition rates increase next year by less than 1 percent.

The Missouri Board of Curators voted Thursday to increase residents’ tuition by 0.8 percent, in line with inflation.

Some students will see bigger increases, including nonresidents and graduate students at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla.

Nonresident tuition will increase 3 percent at most campuses.

Residents getting an undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri in St. Louis will pay 6.2 percent more because of a recreation center fee added to the tuition following a student body vote.

The increases do not require any further approval and go into effect during the 2015 summer session.

INDEPENDENCE – An Independence man was sentenced to life in prison without parole for shooting and killing a man who was asleep in a vehicle.

20-year-old Chad Terry was sentenced Wednesday for first-degree murder in the death of 33-year-old Erik Schwartz, of Raytown. Terry was convicted in December of killing Schwartz in October 2013.

The Independence Examiner reports a second man, Charles T. Carr III, previously was sentenced to 10 years in prison for second-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Witnesses told police a woman and two men were looking for cars to steal from when they came across Schwartz sleeping in his vehicle in Independence. The thieves reportedly took only his cigarettes.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Two Springfield, Mo., residents pleaded guilty in federal court today to their roles in a conspiracy that distributed thousands of pounds of marijuana in southwest Missouri according to  Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri/

Brian D. Hanson, 30, and Brenda Swearingin, 56, both of Springfield, pleaded guilty in separate appearances before U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to the charges contained in a Nov. 6, 2013, federal indictment.

By pleading guilty today, Hanson and Swearingin admitted that they and co-defendant Sean Bond, 39, of Republic, Mo., and others participated in a conspiracy to distribute marijuana in Greene County, Mo., and elsewhere from April 1, 2010, to June 19, 2013.

Hanson admitted that he was responsible for transporting between 1,000 kilograms and 3,000 kilograms of marijuana into southwest Missouri. Swearingin pleaded guilty to distributing less than 50 kilograms of marijuana in the conspiracy and to illegally possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. Bond pleaded guilty on Oct. 16, 2014.

Bond arranged for Hanson and others to pick up marijuana from individuals outside of Springfield, then transport the marijuana to Springfield for Bond to distribute to other persons. Hanson and Bond also traveled together to Texas to obtain marijuana that had been smuggled into the United States from Mexico.

Swearingin admitted that she purchased marijuana from Bond and distributed it to others. Swearingin admitted that she purchased pound amounts of marijuana from Bond each month for about two years. She received approximately 10.872 kilograms of marijuana from Bond during her involvement in the conspiracy. When law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Swearingin’s residence, they discovered a Hefty Freezer bag that contained approximately 173 grams of marijuana under a mattress in the guest bedroom. They also found a loaded Taurus .22-caliber handgun in Swearingin’s purse.

In addition to the drug-trafficking conspiracy, Hanson and Bond each pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to launder the proceeds of marijuana sales. For example, Hanson gave Bond a 2002 BMW 745i and a 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle to pay a drug debt. Hanson purchased a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria at an auto auction, using proceeds from the sale of marijuana. Hanson then used this vehicle to transport marijuana from Houston and Kansas City, Mo., to Springfield.

Bond also admitted that he purchased a Wellcraft 3200 Martinique boat (which he registered in his father’s name), in part with drug proceeds, and a 2007 Cadillac Escalade that he used to distribute marijuana to customers in the Springfield area. Bond also used drug proceeds to purchase a 2002 BMW 725i, a 2002 Firebird pro-mod race car, a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro, three go karts, a 2006 Haulmark trailer and a 2004 Ford F350. That property has been seized by law enforcement officers and is subject to be forfeited to the government.

Under federal statutes, Hanson and Bond are each subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole. Swearingin is subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole for the drug-trafficking conspiracy and a mandatory minimum consecutive sentence of five years in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall D. Eggert. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Springfield, Mo., Police Department and COMET (the Combined Ozark Multi-jurisdictional Enforcement Team).

LENEXA- A Missouri man was injured in an accident just after 1 p.m. on Thursday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1993 Dodge passenger vehicle driven by Albert Eugene Moses, 52, Harrisonville, Mo., was eastbound on Interstate 435 in Lenexa.

The driver failed to maintain the vehicle to the right. It struck the concrete jersey barriers on the right disabling the vehicle.

Moses was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center.
The KHP reported he was not wearing a seat belt.

JEFFERSON CITY – At least seven of the nine members of the University of Missouri Board of Curators will be attorneys.

Senators on Thursday confirmed Maurice Graham and former Sen. Phillip Snowden, despite concerns from some that their appointments, will mean even more lawyers will serve on the board.

Gov. Jay Nixon had nominated three lawyers for the board, which would have meant eight of nine curators would be lawyers who graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law.

But a Senate panel on Wednesday rejected the nomination of Mary Nelson, general counsel and chief legal officer for the St. Louis Community College District.
Although lawmakers say many of Nixon’s appointees were qualified, some questioned whether having a majority of lawyers on the board would represent the university system well.

ALBQUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico congresswoman is pushing legislation that would urge governors to appoint special prosecutors to investigate police shootings.

The office for Democratic U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Wednesday she would push for the new measure amid high-profile police shootings in Albuquerque, Denver, and Ferguson, Missouri.

Under the proposal, special prosecutors would present the findings to a judge during a probable cause hearing.

Grisham says there’s public suspicion that police officers currently receive preferential consideration during investigations by prosecutors and grand juries into police shootings.

Albuquerque police and the U.S. Justice Department recently signed an agreement to overhaul the city’s troubled police department following more than 40 police shootings since 2010.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The wife of a state representative from Wichita died after being struck and dragged by a vehicle in a supermarket parking lot.

Rachel Whitten, spokeswoman for House Speaker Ray Merrick, confirmed the victim of Thursday’s accident was 60-year-old Annette Hedke, wife of Republican Dennis Hedke, a three-term state representative from Wichita.

Police say she fell near her car in a Dillons parking lot as an SUV next to her pulled out and hit her. Hedke was dragged 15 feet and pinned beneath the SUV, whose driver did not see her because she had fallen.

Lt. James Espinoza says the driver and witnesses stopped and helped her. He says it was too soon to determine what caused Hedke to fall.

Whitten says Dennis Hedke has returned to Wichita.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 61-year-old woman is dead after being struck by a vehicle in the parking lot of a Wichita supermarket.

The Wichita Eagle reports the woman was struck just after 8:15 a.m. Thursday and taken to a local hospital with numerous injuries.

Police say the woman fell near her car and an SUV next to her pulled out and hit her. A police spokesman says the woman was dragged 15 feet and pinned beneath the SUV, whose driver did not see the her because she had fallen.

NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is condemning those who seek to “highjack religion for their own murderous ends.”

Watch Thursday’s replay of the National Prayer Breakfast here

Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual gathering of politicians, faith leaders and dignitaries in Washington. The president called on people of faith to push back on those who seek to distort religion.

Among those attending the breakfast is the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Obama says the Dalai Lama serves as a “powerful example of what it means to practice compassion.”

The president’s meetings with the Dalai Lama have consistently been criticized by China. Beijing sees the Dalai Lama as an anti-Chinese separatist because of his quest for greater Tibetan autonomy.