(AP) — A three-story Branson condominium building burned to the ground, leaving 10 families homeless.

No injuries were reported from the fire Wednesday at The Woodlands Condos. All but two of the 12 condos were occupied. The three-story building is a complete loss.

Fire officials say everyone had evacuated safely before firefighters arrived. More than 50 firefighters worked the scene. Fire Chief Chris Berndt, of the Western Taney County Fire District, said tanker trucks were used to bring water to the scene because of water pressure problems at nearby fire hydrants.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.

 (AP) — A rural Leavenworth man will stand trial for second-degree murder in the shooting death of another man at his home.

Forty-eight-year-old Jeffery Sifford on Wednesday was found competent to stand trial for the death of 58-year-old Richard E. Luse, of rural Easton.

Luse was shot last December in a travel trailer at Sifford’s home. He died later at a hospital.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 7.

Sifford remains jailed in Leavenworth County on $250,000 bail.

At the first State of Missouri Agriculture event held in Jefferson City, State Senator Brian Munzlinger, Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, spoke of the importance of Missouri agriculture to our state’s economy, identified challenges for the future and reminded Missourians of the affordable and safe food Missouri farmers and ranchers provide.

“We appreciate the leadership of Senator Munzlinger for organizing an event to spotlight Missouri agriculture,” said Blake Hurst, president of Missouri Farm Bureau.

“As we consider the state of agriculture in Missouri, many issues come to the minds of our members.  Passage this week by the U.S. Congress of a Farm Bill is the most pressing issue.  As a general farm organization, we have looked at the Farm Bill’s impact on all sectors.  We contend the conference report before Congress is a net positive. While the bill isn’t perfect, it will provide certainty–something farmers and ranchers haven’t had for a year and a half,” said Hurst.

“Missouri farmers and ranchers are always faced with challenges, such as the current shortage and spike in price of propane.  Many poultry, hog, horticulture and other farming facilities depend upon propane as their heating source during the winter months,” said Hurst.  “Agriculture also has to continually deal with a growing number of burdensome and many times needless governmental regulations that harm farmers and ranchers financially and can actually put them out of business.

Hurst continued, “This fall Missouri voters will have the opportunity to vote for Constitutional Amendment #1 which will help provide Missouri farmers and ranchers a level of protection from harmful and needless restrictions that would increase food costs and limit consumer choices.  The Keep Missouri Farming amendment is the top priority of Missouri agriculture in 2014, and Missouri Farm Bureau will do everything possible to seek its passage.”

– See more at: http://www.mofb.org/NewsMedia/News.aspx?articleID=455&articleYear=2014#sthash.5uc4bvPf.dpuf

 Following a week in which thousands of Missourians saw their propane costs nearly double, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill has called on one of the nation’s top consumer protection agencies to investigate the recent spike in propane prices.

McCaskill, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, demanded that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-a federal agency designed to protect consumers from fraud and abusive practices associated with market speculation and manipulation-examine whether normal market forces are causing the dramatic spike in propane prices, or if opportunistic trading and price manipulation are at play.

“Millions of Americans are being forced to wonder how they will heat their homes while making the mortgage payment and putting groceries on the table,” McCaskill said. “Given the CFTC’s prior findings of manipulation in the propane market, it is critical that the government continue to ensure rural Americans that they not being harmed by opportunistic trading and price manipulation. As such, I request the CFTC investigate the propane market in the Midwest and ensure that any supply shortages or price increases are not due to harmful manipulation.”

(AP) – Missouri women would have to wait 72 hours to have an abortion after initially seeing a doctor under legislation endorsed by a state House committee.

The bill endorsed by the House Health Care Policy Committee on Wednesday would align Missouri with Utah and South Dakota as the only states with 3-day waiting periods.

Missouri’s current waiting period is 24 hours. Supporters of the bill say a woman needs more time to make such a substantive decision. Opponents argue extending the waiting period poses a logistical barrier designed to push a woman further into pregnancy before an abortion and increases the risks.

The bill now heads to the House Rules Committee for further consideration. It is sponsored by Republican Rep. Kevin Elmer, of Nixa.

In 1991, Herbert Smulls called jeweler Stephen Honickman and set up an appointment to meet at his store in suburban St. Louis. He said he wanted to buy a diamond for his fiancee.

It was a set up. Smulls wanted to rob the store and took along a 15-year-old friend to help commit what became a far worse crime: Honickman was shot to death. Honickman’s wife, Florence, was also shot, but survived by faking death in a pool of her own blood until the assailants left.

Smulls, 56, did not have any final words. The process was brief, Smulls mouthed a few words to his two witnesses, who were not identified, then breathed heavily twice and shut his eyes for good. He was pronounced dead at 10:20 p.m.

Florence Honickman spoke to the media after the execution, flanked by her adult son and daughter. She questioned why it took 22 years of appeals before Smulls was put to death.

“Make no mistake, the long, winding and painful road leading up to this day has been a travesty of justice,” she said.

His attorneys spent the days leading up to the execution filing appeals that questioned the secretive nature of how Missouri obtains the lethal drug, saying that if the drug was inadequate, the inmate could suffer during the execution process. The U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay late Tuesday before clearing numerous appeals Wednesday _ including the final one that was filed less than 30 minutes before Smulls was pronounced dead, though the denial came about 30 minutes after his death.

When asked about the time between the appeal and the execution, Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman Mike O’Connell said, “I’m not familiar with that.”

Like Joseph Paul Franklin in November and Allen Nicklasson in December, Smulls showed no outward signs of distress in an execution process that took about nine minutes.

Missouri had used a three-drug protocol for executions since 1989, but makers stopped selling those drugs for executions. Missouri ultimately switched late last year to a form of pentobarbital made by a compounding pharmacy. The state claims that since the compounding pharmacy is part of the execution team, it is not required to disclose its name.

Smulls had a troubled life from the start. Born in St. Louis to an unwed 15-year-old, he was passed along to two other caregivers while still a toddler. As a young man he turned to crime and spent time in prison for robbery.

In the summer of 1991, he decided to rob again.

Honickman’s F&M Crown Jewels in the tony St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield was open by appointment only. Honickman agreed to meet with Smulls on the pretense that Smulls was buying a gift for his fiancee.

The encounter quickly turned violent. Honickman, shot and dying on the floor, pleaded with Smulls to stop.

“Enough already, take what you want,” Honickman said according to his wife’s testimony. The robbers took rings and watches, including the ones Florence Honickman was wearing. They apparently thought she was dead, as she’d been shot in the side and the arm, lying motionless in her own blood.

“I felt pain and terror while I lay on the floor playing dead while the murderers ransacked our office,” Florence Honickman said Wednesday night.

When police stopped Smulls 15 minutes later, they found stolen jewelry and weapons in his car, St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said. Florence Honickman identified the assailants.

Smulls’ legal case was protracted over several appeals and over several years, finally ending in 2009 with the death sentence. His accomplice, Norman Brown, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“It was a horrific crime,” McCulloch said. “With all the other arguments that the opponents of the death penalty are making, it’s simply to try to divert the attention from what this guy did, and why he deserves to be executed.”

Compounding pharmacies custom-mix drugs for individual clients and are not subject to oversight by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, though they are regulated by states.

Smulls’ attorney, Cheryl Pilate, contended the state’s secrecy regarding where the pentobarbital is made makes it impossible to know whether the drug could cause pain and suffering during the execution process.

Pilate also said she and her defense team used information obtained through open records requests and publicly available documents to determine that the compounding pharmacy is The Apothecary Shoppe, based in Tulsa, Okla. In a statement, The Apothecary Shoppe would neither confirm nor deny that it makes the Missouri drug.

Pilate said the possibility that something could go wrong persists, citing recent trouble with execution drugs in Ohio and Oklahoma. She also said that previous testimony from a prison official indicates Missouri stores the drug at room temperatures, which experts believe could taint the drug, Pilate said, and potentially cause it to lose effectiveness.

Some Missouri lawmakers have expressed reservations about the state’s execution procedure. On Tuesday, Missouri Senate Democratic Leader Jolie Justus introduced legislation that would create an 11-member commission responsible for setting the state’s execution procedure. She said ongoing lawsuits and secrecy about the state’s current lethal injection method should drive a change in protocol.

9:30 p.m.  (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared an appeals court stay that had been delayed the Wednesday execution of a Missouri death-row inmate.

The court’s ruling, however, left Missouri less than three hours to meet an 11:59 p.m. deadline to execute Herbert Smulls.

Smulls, 56, was sentenced to death for killing a suburban St. Louis jeweler and badly injuring his wife during a 1991 robbery.

Smulls’ attorneys filed several appeals, mostly challenging the state’s refusal to disclose the name of the company that supplies its execution drug.

 7:55 p.m.  (AP) – The execution of a death-row inmate in Missouri is still on hold pending a court fight.

Missouri’s attorney general asked the U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday to clear an appeals court stay that is delaying the Wednesday execution of Herbert Smulls.

The high court had issued a temporary stay shortly before Smulls was scheduled for execution at 12:01 a.m. The Supreme Court lifted that stay around 5 p.m., but another appeal is still pending.

Under stay law, the state has until the end of the day to carry out the execution.

Smulls’ attorneys filed several appeals, mostly challenging the state’s refusal to disclose the name of the company that supplies its execution drug.

Smulls was sentenced to death for killing jewelry store owner Stephen Honickman during a 1991 robbery.

5:30 p.m.  (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied last-minute requests to halt the execution of a Missouri man convicted of killing a local jeweler two decades ago.

The high court issued a temporary stay less than three hours before Herbert Smulls was scheduled to be executed at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

But the court lifted the stay without explanation late Wednesday afternoon, meaning the execution can move forward.

Smulls’ attorneys were challenging among other things the state’s refusal to disclose where it obtained its lethal injection drug. The state says the name of the compounding pharmacy isn’t public record, because it’s considered part of the execution team.

The 56-year-old Smulls was sentenced to death for killing Stephen Honickman and badly injuring his wife during a 1991 robbery of their suburban St. Louis store.

(AP) — A group opposed to marijuana legalization is concerned about this year’s Super Bowl between teams from the two states that have legalized pot.

Project SAM, for Smart Approaches to Marijuana, says it’s running ads on billboards near MetLife Stadium, where the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos will play on Sunday.

The game has been hyped in some quarters as the “Stoner Bowl,” and legalization advocates have paid for five nearby billboards, urging the NFL to allow players to use medical marijuana.

Project SAM responded Wednesday by announcing three billboard or digital reader board ads, two along Interstate 80 near the George Washington bridge, and one between I-78 and state route 22 for traffic heading toward Newark Airport.

The ads show a football player with the words, “motivation, perseverance, determination,” and then a marijuana leaf with the words, “None of the above.”

A group of Kansas City religious leaders asked federal officials Wednesday to release a 41-year-old father of two who is being held for immigration violations and could face deportation from the U.S., where he has lived for more than a decade.

Josue Noe Sandoval-Perez was arrested earlier this month and has been held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Jan. 22.

“Basically this comes down to: Are the interests of the U.S. served by breaking up this family?” Kling said. He said CCO is asking ICE to reconsider Sandoval-Perez’s case and release him to his family.

“The kids are one bad traffic stop away from becoming orphans,” he said.

In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, President Barack Obama renewed his pitch for legislation to overhaul U.S. immigration laws. But many Republicans oppose Obama’s plan for creating a pathway to citizenship for people like Sandoval-Perez and the 11 million other people already in the U.S. illegally. Bipartisan legislation has passed the Senate, but the House prefers a piecemeal approach. House Republicans are expected to outline their principles for an immigration overhaul this week.

ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer said the immigrations agency is considering a formal request from Sandoval-Perez’s lawyer to stay his deportation. But he said Sandoval-Perez, who came into ICE custody after he was arrested by Kansas City police on Jan. 16 for alleged theft, is an ICE “enforcement priority,” because he was deported once in 1998 to Mexico and came back to the U.S. illegally.

“ICE is focused on sensible, effective immigration enforcement by implementing the following removal priorities: convicted criminals, those who re-entered the United States after having been previously removed, and those who have outstanding deportation orders,” Neudauer said in an email.

Several members of local churches, including Deacon Tom Powell of St. Anthony Parish, where the Sandoval-Perez family attends mass, on Wednesday presented a letter at the ICE office asking that Sandoval-Perez be released.

“Exemplary parents like Josue, who have been long-term members of our community and who enrich and contribute to our lives are not intended to be high priority of deported by ICE,” said the letter, which was signed by more than a dozen Kansas City area religious leaders.