KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas woman has pleaded guilty to trying to drown her two young daughters in a bathtub.

24-year-old Johnna Green, of Kansas City, Kan., entered the pleas Thursday to two counts of attempted second-degree murder. Wyandotte County prosecutors initially charged her with attempted first-degree murder.

Green called 911 last April 2 saying she had just killed her daughters, ages 1 and 4, by drowning them because they were sick. The dispatcher told her to take the girls out of the bathtub, and a police officer who found them unconscious on the floor began resuscitation efforts until an ambulance arrived.

Attorneys in court Thursday did not discuss the girls’ current conditions.

Green’s plea agreement calls for a sentence of nine years and 10 months.

 (AP) — A northwest Missouri woman was sentenced to eight years in prison for beating her husband to death with a hammer.

Catherine Ashworth did not speak during sentencing Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court. He pleaded guilty in November to manslaughter for killing her husband, 64-year-old Ronnie Ashworth Sr., in August of 2010.

She said that she hit her husband several times in the head with a hammer after they argued about infidelity.

Ashworth was charged with second-degree murder before accepting a plea deal.

 (AP) – Gov. Jay Nixon says his appointment of a Missouri lawmaker to the state parole board was based on merit and not politics.

Several Republican senators have said they intend to block the confirmation of former House member Dennis Fowler to the parole board because Fowler helped sustain Nixon’s veto of an income tax bill last year. Some senators said the appointment looks like a political reward from Nixon.

Nixon said Thursday that such accusations are “blatantly false.” He said Fowler had a long law enforcement career and the appointment had nothing to do with any votes Fowler cast as a lawmaker.

Fowler resigned from the House to accept Nixon’s appointment last month. That left Republicans with 108 House seats – one shy of the two-thirds majority needed for veto overrides.

(AP) – A man convicted of raping and murdering a 9-year-old southwest Missouri girl is asking the Missouri Supreme Court to reduce his death penalty sentence to life without parole.

The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on 38-year-old Christopher Collings’ appeal of his first-degree murder conviction and death sentence in the 2007 slaying of 9-year-old Rowan Ford. She was raped and killed after being taken from her home in Stella.

Collings’ attorney argued that that videotaped confessions Collings made to investigators should have been suppressed. They also contend Collings did not plan the girl’s death, a condition required for imposition of the death penalty.

Prosecutors contend Collings was read his rights before he confessed and evidence showed he planned to rape and kill Rowena.

(AP) – Prosecutors have dropped the main charge against two Saudi Arabian men accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in Springfield, prompting a judge to significantly reduce their combined $2 million bond.

Prosecutors dropped a charge of forcible sodomy against 21-year-old Rayan Mohammed A Alqabbaa, and 27-year-old Ahmed Ayed A Alanaz. The men are still charged with kidnapping and deviate sexual behavior after a woman reported they kidnapped her from a nightclub in June and took her to an apartment, where she says she was assaulted.

The men’s bail is now $100,000 each. The Saudi Arabian government paid the $2 million bail, and will receive a $1.8 million refund. The court also ruled the men ar

Kansas ranked third in the nation in fiscal year 2013 in the number of federal firearms cases prosecuted, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Justice Department statistics show that among the 94 judicial districts nationwide only the District of Puerto Rico and the Western District of Missouri filed more federal firearms cases in FY 2013.

“Fighting gun violence and protecting the safety of our law enforcement officers are two of our top priorities,” Grissom said.

In FY 2013, Grissom’s office filed 298 firearms cases, compared to 291 cases in FY 2012, when the District of Kansas also ranked third in the nation. In FY 2011, the District of Kansas ranked first in the nation with 279 firearms cases filed.

Justice Department statistics show that in FY 2013 the District of Puerto Rico filed 349 firearms cases and the Western District of Missouri filed 299 firearms cases.

The totals include charges filed under federal statutes 18 U.S.C. 922 and 924, which prohibit convicted felons from possessing firearms and make it a federal crime to possess firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking or crimes of violence.

(AP)  The federal government has fined the owners of a Kansas City apartment complex $20,000 for refusing to allow a disabled tenant to have a live-in caretaker.

The Department of Housing and Urban Affairs announced Wednesday that the refusal by Brentwood Manor Apartments violated the Fair Housing Act.

The department also said the apartment owner and managers must have a reasonable accommodation policy and train employees about fair housing.

(AP) – A top Senate Republican says an overhaul of Missouri’s criminal code will be high on the priority list for this year’s legislative session.

President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, of St. Charles, says he would like the bill to pass the Senate within the first part of the annual session that began Wednesday.

The measure is sponsored by the Senate’s top Democrat, Jolie Justus, of Kansas City.

It would create new classes of felonies and misdemeanors and give judges some more flexibility in sentencing.

The massive revision passed the House in the final weeks of the 2013 session but did not receive a vote in the Senate.