6:45 p.m. LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Authorities have found a missing East Texas teenager who had been the subject of a multistate Amber Alert.

Lubbock police say 15-year-old Nomei “Mimi” Valazquez has been found unharmed. Police Sgt. Jason Lewis said the Nacogdoches, Texas, girl was found at a Lubbock residence on Wednesday. A 28-year-old construction worker has been taken into custody. There was no word on if he had been charged Wednesday.

Velazquez has been missing from Nacogdoches since Monday.

Investigators had said a ping of the girl’s cellphone indicated she and the man were in Kansas, then later in Lubbock.

UPDATE  As of 9:24 a.m. Wednesday, a Kansas Amber Alert for 15-year-old Nomei Velazquez has been canceled.   The teenager is still missing.Recent information indicates that the victim and suspect are not in Kansas. –

A Kansas amber alert has been issued for 15-year-old Nomei Velazquez.

She is described as 4 feet, 11 inches and 120 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Her cellphone was last pinged on near Kansas City, Kan.
She was last seen wearing white shirt, blue jeans, black tennis shoes, carrying brown purse and wearing glasses. He nickname is Mimi.

The possible suspect is Juan Fabian Arenas Delacruz. He is 5 feet, 11 inches and 170 pounds with some facial hair. They are possibly in a silver 2004 Volkswagon Passat with Texas plate DF7T507.

The suspect and victim are possibly traveling north along the Interstate 35 corridor in the Kansas City metro area, and information indicates that they might be in the area currently.

Anyone with information about the case should contact local law enforcement or call (800) KS CRIME.

 (AP) — Several U.S. senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would curb electronic cigarette marketing while the fast-growing industry awaits federal regulation.

The bill introduced Wednesday by California Sen. Barbara Boxer, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and others would ban marketing to children based on standards set by the Federal Trade Commission.

Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution and create vapor that’s inhaled.

Harkin says e-cigarette makers are attempting to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.

A 2009 law gave the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products, including restricting marketing.

The agency first said it planned to assert authority over e-cigarettes in 2011 but has yet to do so.

The proposed FDA regulation was submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review in October.

(AP) — A Missouri lawmaker with a seriously ill daughter is encouraging colleagues to pass legislation that could make it easier for patients to gain access to experimental medications.

A House committee heard testimony Wednesday on legislation by Rep. Jim Neely that would let drug manufacturers give or sell medicines still in the investigational stages to patients. Neely says many terminally ill patients are willing to try medicines that don’t have approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration. But he says access is limited to those medications.

Several parents whose children have had serious illnesses testified for the bill.

JOPLIN (AP) – A 53-year-old man has died after a tree he was cutting down fell on him in southwest Missouri.

The Joplin Globe reports the accident happened Saturday on a rural property southwest of Joplin.

The Newton County Sheriff’s office says Mitch “Cobb” Wade was taken by ambulance to a Joplin hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) led a letter co-signed by all of his Republican Senate colleagues calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to explain it’s inappropriate attempts to impact the editorial decisions in newsrooms nationwide.

In recent weeks, Americans learned that the FCC was attempting to move forward with a Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs (CIN Study), which posed highly inappropriate questions of news editors about how they select stories, station bias, and even about their “news philosophy.” After the study received national condemnation, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler suspended the study last Friday and indicated that the survey would be subsequently “revised.”

“It is impossible to imagine a rationale for the Commission to consider using the CIN Study under any circumstance given its flagrantly unconstitutional implications,” the Senators wrote. “We demand an explanation of how the Commission internally justified the CIN Study as fulfilling its statutory requirement to report on market barriers to entry, as well as the costs incurred by the Commission on this blatantly inappropriate study. We also insist all commissioners be involved in future statutorily required studies in order to guard against the clear potential for abuse.”

 (AP) – A former police officer in northern Missouri has been arrested on a charge of child pornography possession.

23-year-old Clinton Montalbetti was arrested Tuesday in Linn County on an outstanding warrant from Putnam County. The warrant was issued from after suspected pornographic images were found on a flash drive used by Montalbetti while he worked as a Unionville officer in late 2013.

Montalbetti was jailed on a $10,000 cash bond. Kirksville police say additional charges may be filed pending a review of items retrieved from a search of his home near Brookfield.