(AP) – Nixa city officials are considering a proposal to build what would be the state’s largest solar power farm near the southwest Missouri city.

The 7.92-megawatt power plant would be built on 72 acres just west of Nixa city limits.

Solexus Development, based in St.  Louis, and a North Carolina company called Strata Solar are proposing the solar farm. It would be built on land owned by state Sen. Jay Wasson, a land developer.

Solexus president David Bunge explained the project to the Nixa City Council last week. The council will decide on the contract proposal after a cost/benefit economic analysis is completed.

(AP) – Missouri education officials are digging into proposals to help struggling school districts.

Three Missouri districts, including Kansas City, are currently unaccredited, and a 2013 law gave the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education more power to intervene in struggling school systems.

More than a half-dozen improvement plans have been submitted by school districts, education organizations and the Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust, a private school reform group under contract with the state.

The State Board of Education scheduled a work session on the proposals Monday. The education department plans to present its recommendations to the board on Feb. 18.

Slick roads contributed to several Sunday car accidents across the region.
According to the Kansas Highway Patrol 26 year old Stephanie Fieser of Olathe was southbound on I-35 when her vehicle slid on the snow covered road and hit the trailer of a semi truck. Fieser was transported to KU Medical Center.

Gayle Nanette Potter of Liberty was entering I-35 from 7th street in Wyandotte County when she lost control and hit a Chevy HHR. Kenneth Wayne Richardson, age 49, Dorothy C. Richardson, age 42, and Kim L. Lubben age 16 of Osawatomie were transported to KU hospital.

Twenty-year-old Nicole Maira Griffin of Kansas City was driving on U69 at I-35 when she spun out on the snow and hit another vehicle. Griffin was transported to Shawnee Mission Medical Center.

(AP) – More Missouri students could get personal help with filing out college applications this fall.

The Coordinating Board for Higher Education has announced an expansion of “College Application Week.”

More than 2,000 students filled out applications during the inaugural event last October at 26 high schools in St. Louis, Kansas City and parts of rural Missouri. The board says it hopes to double the number of participating high schools this fall.

The program is available to all high school seniors, but the goal is to increase the number of applications from students in low-income families and those who would be the first in their families to attend college.

Members of the Missouri College Advising Corps provide one-on-one help to students when filling out applications.

(AP) — A new study says nearly 3 out of 4 U.S. children and young adults consume at least some caffeine.

For most, it comes from soda, tea and coffee. The rate didn’t budge much over a decade, although soda use declined and energy drinks became an increasingly common source.

That’s according to a government analysis of national health surveys from 1999 through 2010.

The research shows even most preschoolers consume some caffeine-containing products. But their average was the amount found in half a can of soda, and young kids’ overall caffeine intake fell during the decade.

The analysis is the first to examine recent national trends in caffeine among children and young adults.

The results were published online Monday in Pediatrics.

(AP) – A central Missouri county has been told by a federal judge that it must issue a license to inmates without requiring the person to fill out the marriage license application in the presence of the county recorder of deeds or their deputy.

U.S. District Judge Gary Fenner ruled Thursday in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Missouri against Moniteau County on behalf of three women who plan to marry inmates at Tipton Correctional Center later this month.

Fenner said the wedding ceremonies were at risk because the plaintiffs couldn’t get marriage licenses. He called Missouri’s law on license applications unconstitutional when applicants are physically unable to appear because they are incarcerated in the county.

 (AP) – Springfield has exceeded its first fundraising goal for a project commemorating the birthplace of Route 66 with a $1,000 donation from one of its city council members.

Councilman Craig Fishel’s contribution toward the Birthplace of Route 66 Roadside Park raised the funding total to $15,126. The money will be used to re-create the iconic Red’s Giant Hamburg sign, a major landmark around the historic highway.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for April for the initial development of the roadside park, with the Red’s sign likely to be installed in the summer.

The estimated cost of the roadside park project is roughly $1 million. The city will pay for some infrastructure improvements, but private donations and other funding sources will pick up most of the tab for the park’s development.

(AP) – A southwest Missouri prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for a 34-year-old Lockwood man accused of kidnapping, raping and killing a girl who was abducted last summer from a park.

Bobby Bourne Jr. is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and statutory rape in the Aug. 19 abduction of 12-year-old Adriaunna Horton. The girl was abducted from Hazel Park in Golden City and her body found two days later in a wooded area in nearby Dade County.

Barton County prosecutor Steven Kaderly filed notice late last month that he intended to seek the death penalty. Public defenders specializing in capital murder cases have replaced Bourne’s local public defenders since then.

Bourne is scheduled to appear at his arraignment Feb. 19.

 (AP) – Union Station in Kansas City will be turned into Egypt this summer when visitors will re-create the discovery of King Tut’s tomb.

Station officials announced last week that the exhibit, “The Discovery of King Tut,” will run from April 7 to Sept. 7. It is the largest exhibit ever attempted at the station, and will be the first stop for the exhibit in the United States.

The exhibit is “virtual archaeology.” It will recreate Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, and allow visitors to enter the tomb chamber by chamber. In the chambers, they will find treasures placed where they were when King Tut was buried more than 3,300 years ago.

At 20,000 square feet, the Tut exhibit will require five weeks to install.