(AP) – Missouri senators are taking their first look at the latest round of Republican tax-cut proposals.

A Senate committee scheduled a public hearing Thursday on three different tax-cutting bills.

One would cut taxes only for business income. Another would reduce Missouri’s individual income tax rate. A third bill would phase in tax cuts for both businesses and individuals.

Republican legislative leaders have made an income tax cut a priority for the 2014 session. This year marks their second attempt at a tax cut. Last year, majority party Republicans failed to override a veto of a tax-cut bill by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.

(AP) – The constitutionality of Missouri’s flag desecration law is on the docket for a federal appeals court panel.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday will hear the case of Cape Girardeau resident Frank Snider III.

Snider was arrested in 2009 for cutting up an American flag, throwing it into the street and trying to set it on fire. When that failed he used a knife to shred it.

Police arrested Snider, citing Missouri’s flag desecration statute. Prosecutors dismissed the charge after learning of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that deemed a similar law in Texas unconstitutional.

In 2012, a federal judge in St. Louis ruled Missouri’s law was unconstitutional. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster appealed to the 8th Circuit.

(AP) — The Missouri auditor’s office will review how state education officials awarded a contract to a consulting firm to suggest ways to improve schools in Kansas City and other unaccredited districts.

The Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust was hired last year and presented its proposal this week to the State Board of Education.

Some legislators and community groups leveled criticism after emails raised questions about the bidding process. One complaint was that CEE-Trust’s bid was nearly three times higher than that of a competitor.

Deputy State Auditor Harry Otto said Wednesday the office decided a limited review was warranted based on documentation provided by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The auditor requested documents in December.

Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro says the department welcomes an objective review and will cooperate fully.

(AP) — A 68-year-old former southwest Missouri school board member has pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing child pornography.

U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson says John Lewis of Sarcoxie pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge from Feb. 28 and will be sentenced to two years in prison without parole.

Prosecutors say Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers were investigating claims that Lewis had exposed himself to a group of high school students who were working for him on his farm when they served a search warrant at his home.

Investigators found 19 multimedia files of child pornography, including images of children as young as 5 years old, and 113 images of suspected child porn.

The former Sarcoxie School Board member will be on 10 years of supervised release after his prison term ends.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) released the following statement today regarding a new bipartisan report that found the deadly attacks in Benghazi could have been prevented. Blunt currently serves on both the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services as well as the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. He previously served on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees.

“I’m deeply troubled by the findings in this report. The fact that the administration knew it was unprepared to protect those serving in Benghazi from terrorist attacks is highly disturbing. Unfortunately, we still don’t know why the administration failed to increase embassy security in the weeks leading up to the attack, even when it knew the situation on the ground was getting worse.

“I will continue working with my colleagues to uncover the facts surrounding these attacks and to ensure the military, the intelligence community, and the State Department follow through with the intelligence committee’s recommendations to improve the security of U.S. officials serving overseas.”

(AP) — Gov. Jay Nixon is expected to propose a $6 million increase for the agency overseeing Missouri’s foster care system.

A document from Children’s Division Director Tim Decker reportedly says Nixon will propose “significant resources” for the division in his 2015 budget.

The document cites a proposal for $1 million to hire 23 investigators and case workers for the division, $1.5 million for computer upgrades and $2.3 million for staff to advance in their pay scales. More than $1 million also would go toward a combination of training and loan forgiveness programs to prevent staff turnover.

Published reports have indicate that some Children’s Division offices have been plagued by high staff turnover.

(AP) – A group of Missouri lawmakers joined health care advocates to outline a plan aimed at reducing the cost of pill-form chemotherapy.

The proposed legislation would require insurance companies to levy the same out-of-pocket costs for oral chemotherapy as they do for the traditional intravenous treatment.

The American Cancer Society said Wednesday that insurance companies can charge higher co-payments and deductibles for chemotherapy pills.

The proposed measure would impact only health plans that provide coverage for both types of treatments.

Rep. Sheila Solon, a Republican from Blue Springs, says the legislation would not increase premiums for cancer patients.

Twenty-seven other states and the District of Columbia have passed similar measures seeking to reduce the cost of the chemotherapy pills.

Following one of the nation’s largest breaches of consumers’ personal data in history, the Chairmen of the Senate Commerce Committee and the Consumer Protection Subcommittee are asking the President and CEO of Target for the latest findings on the circumstances that permitted unauthorized access to the financial and personally identifying information of as many as 110 million Americans during the busiest shopping time of the year.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, along with Senator Jay Rockefeller, (D-W.V.), Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, wrote to Target asking for answers from the company’s information security officials, and advocating the need for greater protection for consumers.

“It has been three weeks since the data breach was discovered, and new information continues to come out,” the Senators wrote. “We expect that your security experts have had time to fully examine the cause and impact of the breach and will be able to provide the Committee with detailed information.”

Last month, it was reported that some 40 million Target customers’ financial information, including credit card numbers, were compromised between November 27, 2013, and December 15, 2013. Last week, Target announced that the breach was much larger than previously known-that personally identifying information on an additional 70 million consumers was also stolen in this breach. As many as 110 million consumers who shopped at Target’s U.S. stores, including the company’s 36 locations in Missouri, could have been impacted by the breach.