(AP) – Someone is holding a very valuable lottery ticket purchased in Missouri.

The Missouri Lottery said Thursday that one Powerball ticket sold in Missouri matched all six numbers drawn Christmas night to win the $71.5 million jackpot. The winning numbers are 23, 28, 38, 39, 56 and the Powerball number is 32. Lottery officials did not say specifically where the ticket was purchased.

The winner can either collect the full jackpot in 30 annuity payments, or take the one-lump payment of $39.8 million before taxes. The winner has 180 days to claim the prize – or until June 23, 2014. He or she is encouraged to sign the back of the ticket and put it in a safe place before taking it to the Missouri Lottery headquarters in Jefferson City.

(AP) — A federal judge has ruled against the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas in its longstanding lawsuit against a water district.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia in Kansas City, Kan., further jeopardizes a reservoir project leaders of the northeast Kansas tribe say is critical for the tribe.

The  tribe has lobbied for years to move the reservoir project forward and asked Gov. Sam Brownback to intervene. The tribe wants the local watershed district to use eminent domain to move the reservoir project forward, but the board has refused.

The tribe filed a lawsuit in federal court June 14, 2006.

Murguia wrote in favor of the water district, saying the agreement only stated that eminent domain could be used, not that it must be.

(AP) — A 19-year-old from Kansas City is dead after a crash in southeastern Colorado.

Britney Ackerman was ejected from a 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier that went off U.S. Highway 50 near La  Junta Wednesday and crashed into a traffic sign. The Colorado State Patrol says she wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the car wasn’t injured and another passenger suffered minor injuries.

Troopers believe drugs may have contributed to the crash but it is still under investigation.

The annual defense bill approved by the U.S. Senate includes a measure by Senator Claire McCaskill that gives the Pentagon a six-month deadline to address systemic mismanagement in its efforts to recover and identify personnel that are prisoners of war or missing in action (POW/MIA).

McCaskill, who led the effort to reform management of Arlington National Cemetery during her first Senate term, successfully added her amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“This plan will set in motion a much needed self-assessment by the Pentagon and ensure that there is a plan to fix this management mess going forward,” said McCaskill, the daughter of a World War II veteran and senior member of the Armed Services Committee. “Recovering our POW and MIA personnel is a sacred obligation, and the families of our missing heroes deserve nothing less than full honesty and transparency from their government.”

After an investigation by the Government Accountability Office revealed that POW/MIA recovery efforts were woefully mismanaged and that the Pentagon was not likely to meet the goal of identifying 200 POW/MIA per year by 2015, McCaskill led a Senate hearing in August aimed at rooting out extensive problems plaguing the program. Following the Senate hearing, McCaskill introduced an amendment for the NDAA which would require the Defense Department to develop a plan for reforms and submit that plan to Congress, and that amendment was included in the annual bill.

Under McCaskill’s plan, within six months, the Defense Department will be required to submit a formal plan for reorganizing and boosting accountability within the POW/MIA recovery program. That plan would include: an analysis of whether different segments of the recovery effort should be combined, such as the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Person Personnel Office (DPMO); a determination as to which of these components should have direct responsibility for accounting activities; and an analysis of how other countries conduct POW/MIA accounting to identify best practices that could be adopted in the United States.

McCaskill’s amendment would also require the Pentagon to report on the actual number of POW/MIA, including:

The total current number of POW/MIA, including a break-out of these numbers by conflict, and specifically how many are believed to be located in North Korea,
The number of POW/MIA believed to be lost at sea or in a geographically inaccessible location by each conflict,
The number of remains in the custody of the Defense Department that are waiting identification, and the number of remains that have been interred without identification, and
The number of cases in which next of kin have refused to provide DNA samples.
McCaskill, who also serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight, has also demanded answers from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel after a recent report suggested that phony “arrival” ceremonies were being staged using military props and remains that had sometimes been returned to the U.S. months prior.

(AP) — A Kansas City law firm has committed to representing victims of human trafficking referred by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in western Missouri.

The federal prosecutor’s office in Kansas City has had to work hard to find outside lawyers willing to work for free to help victims sort out their legal issues.

The law firm, Husch Blackwell, which has about 600 lawyers in Kansas City and elsewhere, has now committed to representing the victims.

More than 30 lawyers in the firm’s offices in Kansas City, Springfield, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., have volunteered to join its Human Trafficking Legal Clinic.

The leader of the law firm’s effort is one of the firm’s newest partners, Cynthia Cordes, a former U.S. attorney who specialized in trafficking.

 (AP) — Missouri is preparing to start screening every newborn baby for a heart disease that can cause developmental delays or death if left untreated.

The screenings for critical congenital heart disease are required under a new state law that takes effect Jan. 1.

The state Department of Health and Senior Services says an estimated 140 babies are born in Missouri each year with the disease. The noninvasive screenings measure oxygen in the blood and show if a newborn needs treatment with a catheter or surgery.

More than 30 other states have added critical congenital heart disease to the list of disorders for which newborns are screened. The Missouri agency says the tests will prevent babies from being sent home with the risk of developing serious complications in the first few weeks of life.

(AP) — More than 1,300 students who’ve been attending classes in temporary quarters since Joplin’s May 2011 tornado will head to newly built schools in January.

Ten schools in the Joplin district were destroyed or heavily damaged by the EF-5 tornado that devastated parts of the city and the neighboring town of Duquesne.

The new Irving Elementary School will open Jan. 6 when classes resume after the holiday break. The school will serve students from the old Irving Elementary as well as Emerson Elementary, which was also destroyed.

Joplin school district students from the towns of Duquesne and Duenweg will attend Joplin’s new Soaring Heights Elementary. The school will share a kitchen and auditorium with the new East Middle School, which was only 2 years old when the old building was destroyed.

(AP) – Target says it has learned of some incidents of scam emails related to its recent data breach and is setting up a section of its corporate website to post copies of all official communication.
The company says it is aware of “limited instances” of scam emails. Spokeswoman Molly Snyder says the company doesn’t have any other specifics to provide about the fake emails.
The Minneapolis retailer says it is creating a section of its website to contain copies of Target’s official communication to customers so customers can be sure they are really hearing from Target when they get emails from the retailer.
Target said last week that data connected to about 40 million credit and debit card accounts was stolen between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.

(AP) A Columbia woman is recovering after being by struck by a bullet fired into a home on Christmas Eve.

Police say several adults and children were in the house when the woman was wounded around 10 p.m. Tuesday. Several rounds were fired into the home, but only the 41-year-old woman was hit by a bullet that came through a wall.

The investigation continued Wednesday.