(AP)  Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon wants to continue a prescription drug program that is due to expire later this year.

Nixon traveled to Springfield on Wednesday to announce that his budget proposal will include nearly $24 million to continue providing prescription drug coverage for some low-income seniors and the disabled.

The state program pays half of the out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses for people covered through the federal government’s Medicare Part D plan. To qualify, individuals must have an annual income of less than $21,660, or $29,140 for married couples.

More than 227,000 people are enrolled in the program.

(AP)  Republican senators plan to block the gubernatorial appointment of a former Missouri GOP lawmaker to the state parole board because he voted against an income tax cut that had been a Republican priority.

As Missouri’s Legislature opened its session Wednesday, several Republican senators told The Associated Press that they won’t allow the chamber to confirm the appointment of former Rep. Dennis Fowler to the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole.

Nixon appointed Fowler to the parole board in December. As a result, Republicans now hold 108 House seats _ one shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override gubernatorial vetoes.

Fowler resigned from the House upon his gubernatorial appointment and already is working in the new, higher-paying position. But he cannot remain in the job without Senate confirmation.

Sen. Brad Lager said Wednesday that he believes the appointment was “a political payoff for Rep. Fowler voting against the veto override.”

“I don’t want to say that he’s getting bought off, but that’s sure what it looks like,” said Lager, a Republican from Savannah. “I just don’t think there’s a place for that, and I intend on stopping it.”

Fowler did not immediately return telephone messages left Wednesday by the AP.

Fowler, 65, is a Navy veteran who spent 38 years working in law enforcement before becoming a lawmaker in January 2013. He told the AP in December that he accepted the parole board appointment because it provided an opportunity “to get back into the business I know.” The job also significantly boosts his salary and pension benefits during a six-year appointment that could carry him through to retirement.

Nixon’s spokesman, Scott Holste, said in an email Wednesday that “Dennis Fowler is eminently qualified to serve on the Board of Probation and Parole.”

Like other nominees for state boards, Fowler must win the support of the Senate Gubernatorial Appointments Committee before his appointment can be considered by the full Senate. Lager is a member of that Senate committee and plans to halt Fowler’s nomination there.

Two other committee members _ Senate Majority Leader Ron Richard, R-Joplin, and Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph _ also told the AP they would oppose Fowler’s confirmation to the parole board because of his vote on the income tax legislation.

“Republicans need to act like Republicans, and I’m tired of rewarding Republicans who don’t act like Republicans,” Richard said.

Schaaf said he had told several House members before the veto session that anyone voting against the income tax cut legislation should not expect to later win confirmation for a gubernatorial appointment. But Schaaf said he had not talked specifically to Fowler.

“We can’t be allowing our own members to be cherry picked off and destroy our supermajority in this manner,” Schaaf said Wednesday. He added: “This is just us policing our own.”

Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, who is chairman of the Gubernatorial Appointments Committee, said has not decided whether to join colleagues in blocking Fowler’s confirmation and first wants to talk with the former lawmaker.

Missouri lawmakers receive a salary of $35,915 annually, plus daily expense allowances when they are at the Capitol. Probation and Parole Board members make about $83,000 annually.

(AP) Developers of a renewable biogas project in remote north-central Missouri are hoping to turn hog manure into energy.

Murphy-Brown of Missouri LLC is teaming up with Roeslein Alternative Energy LLC on the project near Princeton, Mo., a small town in one of the most sparsely populated areas of the state. Plans, announced Wednesday, call for construction of the $100 million project to begin in April.

“Not only does it demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the environment and to our neighbors, but it also allows us to make facility upgrades that are good for our employees, our animals and the continuous improvement of our business in northern Missouri,” Murphy-Brown of Missouri General Manager Michael Rainwater said in a statement.

Murphy-Brown operates hog farms in 12 states. It is already among the biggest employers in north-central Missouri, with about 1,100 workers. The company did not say how many additional jobs could be created by the biogas project.

Biogas, also called renewable natural gas, is created when organic matter decomposes without oxygen present. Developers of the project will harvest biogas from Murphy-Brown finishing farms, using technology developed and installed by Roeslein Alternative Energy.

The process, organizers say, will work like this: Murphy-Brown will scrape manure into existing lagoons that will be covered to reduce odors and control water flow into them. There, the waste will decompose and produce gas. Alternative fuel equipment will harvest and commercialize the biogas.

“We expect to achieve reduced greenhouse gas emissions, shrink MBM’s carbon footprint, eliminate rainfall effects on treatment systems, all while capturing a valuable and renewable biogas energy resource,” Roeslein Alternative Energy President Rudi Roeslein said in a statement.

Stern Brothers & Co. is underwriting financing for project, but officials may also seek funding through a Missouri clean energy program, Murphy-Brown said in a news release. Smithfield Foods and Murphy-Brown are not providing funding for the project.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) co-sponsored U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte’s (N.H.) legislation today, “Keeping Our Promise to Our Military Heroes Act” (S. 1869), as part of his continued efforts to protect military retirement pay for America’s servicemen and women.

Ayotte’s bill would repeal the harmful Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) reduction for military retirees that was included in the recent budget agreement, which Blunt voted against. The bill would repeal and replace the military retiree benefit cuts by making a simple fix to the U.S. tax code to require filers to have Social Security Numbers in order to qualify for the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC).

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Treasury reported that individuals who were not authorized to work in the U.S. received $4.2 billion by claiming the ACTC. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimates that this change will save approximately $20 billion over 10 years.

“This bill would easily replace these unfair cuts and help keep our promise to the men and women who bravely serve to protect America in the Armed Forces,” said Blunt, who is one of three U.S. Senators to serve on the defense authorizing and appropriating committees. “I voted against the budget because it hurts our men and women in uniform. This bill is a common-sense solution to help keep our promise to them and to their families.”

In December 2013, Blunt also co-sponsored a “sense of the Senate” resolution that was introduced last month by U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) and stated that Armed Forces retirees should not unfairly bear the burden of excessive government spending, and the Senate should seek alternatives to the current military retirement provisions in the budget legislation currently being considered. With this resolution, the Senate agrees to address the reduction of military retirement pension before it goes into effect in December 2015.

(AP) Monsanto reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings Wednesday on higher sales of the company’s biotech soybean seeds and its signature herbicide Roundup.

Its earnings rose 8 percent, and its shares rose more than 2 percent in morning trading.

Revenue climbed 7 percent to $3.1 billion, driven by sales of its Intacta soybean seeds to farmers in Argentina and Brazil. The biotech engineered soybean, which is the company’s first product designed for a non-U.S. market, repels caterpillars and withstands Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. Soybean sales grew 16 percent to $267 million for the quarter.

The company’s performance beat the average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet. The consensus estimate was for earnings of 64 cents per share on sales of $3.069 billion in revenue for the quarter.

Its shares rose $2.93, or 2.5 percent, to $116.12 in morning trading.

Monsanto reiterated previous expectations of earnings between $5 and $5.20 per share for fiscal 2014. Analysts expected earnings of $5.25

(AP) — The Obama administration is issuing new recommendations on classroom discipline that seek to end the apparent disparities in how students of different races are disciplined for breaking school rules.

Government civil rights data show that black students without disabilities are more than three times as likely as whites to be expelled or suspended. Critics say that creates a “school-to-prison” pipeline because many students enter the criminal justice system for violations.

The recommendations being released Wednesday encourage schools to ensure that all school personnel are trained in classroom management, conflict resolution and approaches to de-escalating classroom disruptions.

They also suggest that school employees understand they are responsible for administering routine student discipline instead of security or police officers and that clear distinctions be drawn about the responsibilities of school security personnel.

(AP) Columbia police have arrested one man and are seeking two others in connection with a shooting death of a 23-year-old man.

Martrell T. Smith was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder in the death of Dontay Tolston last week in north-central Columbia.

Tolston died Thursday after being shot in what police say was a drug deal gone bad.