HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — An industry report says revenue growth at Indian casinos in the U.S was outpaced in 2012 by commercial casinos, racinos and tribal casinos’ past performance.

Casino City’s Indian Gaming Industry Report, released Wednesday, said the weak economy also slowed tribal gambling revenue.

Still, a 2 percent rise, to $28.1 billion, brought Indian casino revenue to an all-time high.

Revenues for racinos, or race track casinos, have grown faster than Indian casino gambling in 16 of the 19 years in which racinos have operated. Revenue grew by 8 percent in 2012.

It’s been 18 years since revenue at commercial casinos have had a higher annual growth rate than Indian casinos. Commercial casino revenue jumped 4 percent in 2012.

The brighter comparison for commercial casinos is because more have opened and tribal casino markets are aging and locked in tough competition.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri senators have endorsed legislation that could make it cheaper to buy older cars.

The bill given first-round approval Tuesday would exempt decade-old cars with a price under $15,000 from sales taxes on the titling of the motor vehicle. Under the measure, a 2004 model bought in 2014 would be exempt from state and local sales taxes.

The measure is sponsored by Republican Sen. Mike Parson, of Bolivar. Parson says vehicles in service for 10 years have already had taxes paid on them.

The bill needs a second affirmative vote in the Senate before moving to the House.

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 17-year-old girl in suburban St. Louis has been executed in Missouri, marking the state’s fifth execution in as many months.

Jeffrey Ferguson was lethally injected just after midnight Wednesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre.

The 59-year-old was accused of kidnapping Kelli Hall as she finished her shift at a Mobil gas station in St. Charles on Feb. 9, 1989.

Her frozen body was found 13 days later on a St. Louis County farm.

Ferguson had expressed remorse for the crime. Supporters said he’d found religion, counseled other inmates and helped start a prison hospice program.

But St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said Ferguson’s good deeds in prison didn’t make up for the senseless killing of an innocent teenager.

1:30 a.m. Wednesday The U.S. Supreme Court refused late Tuesday to stop the impending execution of a Missouri man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 17-year-old girl in 1989.

The high court released its rulings barely an hour before 59-year-old Jeffrey Ferguson was scheduled for lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre.

Ferguson’s attorneys were challenging, among other things, the state’s refusal to disclose where it gets its execution drugs. Their appeals also were denied by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the governor denied a clemency request.

The execution will mark the state’s fifth execution since November.

Ferguson was accused of kidnapping Kelli Hall shortly before her shift ended at a Mobil gas station in St. Charles on Feb. 9, 1989. Her frozen body was found 13 days later on a St. Louis County farm.

“Kelli Hall was only 17 when she was abducted from her workplace, raped and brutally murdered,” Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Her life, so full of promise, was brutally taken from her and her family.”

“The jury that convicted Jeffrey Ferguson of Kelli’s murder found that the aggravating circumstances for this crime warranted the death penalty,” he said in denying the clemency request. “My decision today upholds that appropriate sentence. ”

Missouri switched to a one-drug execution method late last year. The state obtains the drug, pentobarbital, from a compounding pharmacy it refuses to name.

Ferguson’s attorney, Jennifer Herndon, had asked the 8th Circuit to stay the execution, arguing that the state’s secretive process prohibited the public from knowing exactly how the drug was made and whether it could cause pain and suffering for the inmate.

The drug was used in the state’s four previous executions, and the inmates showed no outward signs of distress during the execution process.

A similar request for a stay, arguing that Ferguson wasn’t given timely notice of the method being used for his execution, was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ferguson’s supporters argue that he has turned his life around behind bars and has been a model prisoner who works with other inmates, helped start a hospice program and performed other good deeds.

Herndon said Ferguson was an alcoholic who blacked out on the night of the murder, but that he became devoutly religious once sent to death row.

Ferguson and a friend, Kenneth Ousley, were at a Shell service station in St. Charles on the night of the murder.

Hall, who worked at the Mobil station across the street, was nearing the end of her eight-hour work shift when she went outside to check the levels of four fuel tanks.

A witness said Ferguson’s Chevrolet Blazer pulled up. The witness saw a man standing close to Hall with a hand in his pocket. Ferguson was carrying a pistol.

About a half-hour later, a co-worker went looking for Hall. When they found out she was not home and her purse was still at the station, they contacted police. Later, some of her clothing was found by a city worker in the St. Louis County town of Chesterfield.

On Feb. 22, Warren Stemme was approaching a machine shed on his farm in Maryland Heights, another St. Louis suburb, when he found Hall’s frozen body, naked except for socks. She had been strangled.

An acquaintance suspicious about Ferguson led police to him, and he was convicted of first-degree murder. Ousley pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1993; he is serving a life term but is eligible for parole.

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) – Authorities in western Missouri say a man found dead inside his submerged car was being investigated for crimes related to child pornography.

A witness called the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office around noon Tuesday after seeing a car speed into Lake Jacomo. Divers from the Lee’s Summit Underwater Recovery team helped pull the vehicle from the water.

The county medical examiner concluded the driver had committed suicide, based on what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. Authorities later learned the man was being investigated by the multi-county Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force in connection with child pornography.

The man was identified as a 40-year-old resident of Lee’s Summit. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office says the investigation has now been closed.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich will be running for re-election without any Democratic or Republican opposition.

Missouri’s candidate filing period ended Tuesday afternoon with Libertarian Sean O’Toole and Constitution Party candidate Rodney Farthing as Schweich’s only challengers.

The Republican auditor is seeking his second four-year term. Schweich’s campaign team said this marks the first time since at least 1878 that Democrats have failed to field a candidate for a statewide office in Missouri.

A total of 429 candidates filed for federal and state offices. That’s the lowest number in at least a couple of decades.

Missouri’s 2014 ballot will include races for half the state Senate and all of Missouri’s U.S. and state House seats. There is no election for U.S. Senate, governor or most other statewide executive offices.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Legislation to give food stamps users an incentive to buy healthy foods at farmers markets has been endorsed from the by the Missouri Senate.

Under the bill advanced Tuesday, the state would create a test program for participating markets where food stamp users could be reimbursed up to $10 per week for buying meat, fruit and vegetables.

Supporters say the reimbursement program would cut down on obesity in low-income households and reduce costs for obesity-related illnesses.

The bill needs one more affirmative vote before moving to the House.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Missouri House is keeping $6 million in the state’s budget to manage a park in southeastern Missouri in case the National Park Service gives up control of it.

The money would go toward operating the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. Some Republicans are unhappy with a federal proposal to revise the park’s management plan, arguing it could limit recreational use of some areas.

House members on Tuesday rejected proposals from Democrats to redirect the money. One effort sought to move $6 million to colleges and universities, and another called for redirecting about $1.2 million to a crime lab.

Lawmakers are reviewing Missouri’s proposed operating budget of more than $26 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1.