JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by a Guatemalan woman seeking to overturn the adoption of her biological child by a Carthage couple.

Encarnacion Romero sought to challenge a Missouri Court of Appeals decision terminating her parental rights to the child who was adopted by Seth and Melinda Moser. The Mosers have raised the child, who is now 7, since he was 1 year old. Legal battles have gone on since 2008.

The Joplin Globe reports (http://bit.ly/1hJ65c0 ) that a lawyer for Romero says there’s no decision yet on how to respond to the Tuesday ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court.

Joe Hensley, the Mosers’ lawyer, says the the Missouri Supreme Court ruling means there are no more options for Romero in Missouri courts.

(AP) — People magazine has named an 81-year-old northwest Missouri man one of its “Heroes Among Us” for his work building dollhouses for underprivileged children.

Retired steel fabricator and woodworking enthusiast Earl Hurshman, of Excelsior Springs, began building elaborate dollhouses last year after visiting his wife’s grave on her birthday.

Bernadette Hurshman died in 2011. Her husband says he was at her gravesite last year when he asked what he should do with his life, and he could almost hear her telling him to get up and ” do something.”

Besides the dollhouses, he also builds barns or fire stations for little boys.

Hurshman told the magazine no amount of money can buy the joy he feels when getting hugged by a happy dollhouse recipient.

(AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has made two appointments to a state council focused on young children with disabilities.

The governor named University of Central Missouri assistant professor Carlotta Kimble and Missouri Governor’s Mansion executive director Lesley Bickel to the State Interagency Coordinating Council. Their terms would end at Nixon’s discretion.

The council advises the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in assisting infants and toddlers through age three who have developmental delays and disabilities.

Also on Thursday, Nixon announced the appointment of Daniel Brouillet to an interim committee studying the disparity in patient co-payments for chemotherapies delivered orally and intravenously.

Brouillet lives in Brentwood and is the senior director for product development, specialty benefit services for Express Scripts Inc.

(AP) — A drive is underway to raise $5 million to honor the late founder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine with an endowed faculty position.

Cardiologist E. Grey Dimond died in November at the age of 94. The university says that graduates of the school and longtime friends of Dimond are leading the fundraising effort.

They’ve received a $500,000 gift from Jerald and Patricia Burton to kick off the drive. The committee hopes to raise the rest of the money by Dec. 8, 2014, which would have been Dimond’s 96th birthday.

(AP) A Columbia police officer who was fired for pushing an inmate won’t be rehired even though a judge found him not guilty of assaulting the prisoner.

City Manager Mike Matthes announced Thursday he will not reinstate former officer Rob Sanders.
Surveillance video showed Sanders shoving the unruly inmate in a holding cell in August 2011 before other officers handcuffed him to a railing. The inmate, Kevin Baker, suffered a fractured vertebra and later reached a $250,000 settlement with the city.
Sanders was fired when Police Chief Ken Burton disagreed with an internal affairs report that said the officer acted in line with department policy. Sanders was acquitted of third-degree assault in October of this year.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — President Barack Obama’s announcement that people could keep insurance policies slated for cancellation under the federal health overhaul has gotten a mixed response from insurers, state regulators and consumers.

Consumers complained in October and November after insurers notified them that their plans were being canceled. Plans that met the minimum requirements of the law by covering pre-existing conditions, prescription drugs or eight other basic benefits would be much more expensive. Obama had promised people who liked their policies could keep them.

Obama responded last month that companies could continue existing policies

Officials in 27 states responded by allowing insurance companies to extend the non-compliant plans for another year. Some have declined, others agreed to add another year to policies at higher premiums.

(AP)  A Springfield man faces charges accusing him of defrauding immigrants by promising them permanent residency in exchange for money.

Prosecutors say 43-year-old Di Va Ly led several foreigners to believe he was an employee of the FBI and he could help them obtain proper immigration papers for a fee. In one incident, court documents say, Ly persuaded a man to hand over $11,500.

According to Greene County court documents filed Monday, police believe the crimes occurred between February and November 2011.

(AP) — Nearly 200 acres has been added to a wildlife area in southwest Missouri.

The Missouri Department of Conservation bought 199 acres next to the 2,502-acre Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area from the Missouri Department of Transportation for $183,000.

Frances Main, MDC resource forester, says the newly acquired property is south of the popular shooting range, and there are no plans to open any trails to it. Main says there’s no way to get people there safely because of its location downrange from the shooting area.

Instead of new hiking paths, the land will be held as buffer ground for wildlife, giving animals a place where they won’t be disturbed by constant human contact. The area is about 20 miles south of Springfield.