JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Missouri House has given first-round approval to legislation that would impose an additional requirement on minors who seek abortions.

Missouri currently requires girls younger than 18 to get consent from one parent before terminating a pregnancy. The measure endorsed with a 117-37 vote Monday would require minors to notify the second parent within five days of having the procedure.

Supporters say the bill would allow divorced parents to both be involved in a minor’s decision about an abortion. Opponents say the measure would be hinder minors who don’t have healthy relationships with both parents.

The bill would only apply if the non-consenting parent had custody of the child and has not been convicted of child or sexual abuse.

The legislation needs another vote before moving to the Senate.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Most Missouri adults would be able to buy and use recreational marijuana under a bill being considered by a state House panel.

The measure would let people older than 21 produce, sell, distribute and use pot. The legislation would allow the state to adopt regulations on marijuana distribution and to levy an excise tax up to 25 percent of the drug’s cost.

The Democratic proposal faces an uphill battle in Missouri’s Republican-dominated Legislature.

Washington and Colorado are currently the only states to legalize recreational marijuana use.

 

KENNETT (AP) – A southeast Missouri man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for abducting and killing a 3-year-old neighbor girl in 2011.

Shawn Morgan of Senath pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree murder, armed criminal action and child kidnapping. He had been scheduled to go to trial in August.

Three-year-old Breeann Rodriguez went missing on Aug. 6, 2011, while riding a small pink bicycle with training wheels near her home.

Her disappearance set off a frantic search in Senath. Her remains were found 10 days later about eight miles outside of the small community.

Authorities say Morgan confessed to killing the child after finding her on the ladder of his above-ground bac

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge has denied a new trial for a young Missouri woman who pleaded guilty to murder for the slaying of a 9-year-old neighbor girl.

Alyssa Bustamante was 15 years old in 2009 when she killed Elizabeth Olten and buried her in a wooded area near Jefferson City. Bustamante wrote in her diary that it was an “ahmazing” and “pretty enjoyable” experience.

Bustamante originally was charged with first-degree murder. That would have carried a mandatory life sentence without parole. She pleaded guilty to a second degree murder and was sentenced to life with the chance of parole.

Several months after her plea, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled juveniles cannot face automatic life sentences.

Bustamante claimed she would not have pleaded guilty if she had known that case was pending.

 

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Jackson County prosecutors charged a Kansas City woman with involuntary manslaughter after a fatal wrong-way accident on Interstate 70.

Thirty-two-year-old Lanelle D. Griffin was also charged Monday with driving with a revoked license in the February crash that killed 35-year-old Karl Silvey.

Police say Silvey was a passenger in Griffin’s car when she drove west in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 in Kansas City and collided head-on with a semi-trailer truck.

Court records indicate Griffin’s blood contained high levels of cocaine and her blood-alcohol reading was .206 at the time of the crash.

Griffin remained in jail Monday in lieu of a $100,000 bond. Online records do not indicate that she has a lawyer.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A new audit says Missouri’s low-income housing program is inefficient and among the costliest in the nation.

The report Monday by State Auditor Tom Schweich says Missouri awards more low-income-housing tax credits per capita than any other state.

But the audit says the program is inefficient because only 42 cents of every $1 in tax credits goes toward the actual construction of housing. The report says the rest goes to investors, syndication firms and federal taxes.

Special committees that have analyzed the program have reached similar conclusions in the past. But lawmakers have been at loggerheads over whether to pare back the program because some say it has a laudable goal.

The audit says the tax credits helped finance about 47,000 housing units since 1998.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Weather experts in Kansas say people should not trust in myths to keep them safe during severe weather.

A legend called the Tonganoxie Split, for example, purports the hills divert severe weather away from the Kansas City metropolitan area, Lawrence and Tonganoxie. But in fact, a tornado hit Tonganoxie in 2000, causing $2.1 million in damage to more than 200 homes and nine businesses.

The Lawrence Journal-World (http://bit.ly/1i1bJYq ) reports other area weather myths officials say shouldn’t be believed are that tornadoes can’t jump Burnett’s Mound, a high point in the southwest part of Topeka, and that tornadoes can’t cross rivers or form at high altitudes.

National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Barjenbruch warns against having a false sense of security based on myths, and says residents should always have safety plans.

JOPLIN (AP) – Costs of rebuilding and repairs since the May 2011 tornado that hit Joplin and Duquesne have topped $1 billion.

The Joplin Globe reports the city of Joplin recorded just over $991 million in repairs and new construction since the tornado, with another $46 million for two school projects just outside city limits and an estimated $5 million in Duquesne.

The May 22, 2011 tornado did millions of dollars in damage and killed 161 people in Joplin and Duquesne, a village about just east of Joplin.

Joplin officials say the rebuilding signified that most people decided to stay, rather than leave the devastated area. The city of Joplin reported a population decline of only 4 to 4.5 percent from its pre-tornado census of 50,150.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Kansas City school district officials say only 12 families have asked to transfer out of the district next year to nearby accredited districts.

Officials with the district, and surrounding suburban districts, had raised concerns that a flood of students would seek to transfer out of Kansas City, which is one of three unaccredited districts in the state.

In two unaccredited St. Louis-area districts, more than 2,000 students left. A state law requires unaccredited districts to pay tuition and transportation for students to transfer to a nearby accredited school.

Several of the districts in suburban Kansas City had tried unsuccessfully to have the state courts declare the transfer law unconstitutional.

The Kansas City Star reports the 12 families seeking to transfer have a total of 23 students in the district.