(AP) Two people are dead following a head-on collision in southeastern Kansas.

The Kansas Highway Patrol says the crash happened just before midnight on U.S. 166 in Chautauqua County, about two miles south of Sedan.

Both drivers were killed.

(AP)  A Jefferson City boy and the man charged with kidnapping him have been found dead in southeastern Missouri, in what police are investigating as a homicide-suicide.
The Jefferson City News Tribune reports ( http://bit.ly/K3BDxt) the bodies of 6-year-old Markell Beasley and 40-year-old St. Louis resident Demetrius Beasley were found Tuesday night at a home in Cape Girardeau. Police said both had been shot.
Demetrius Beasley, who was not Markell’s biological father, was charged earlier Tuesday with kidnapping.
Markell’s mother told police she had allowed her son to travel to St. Louis from Jefferson City on Saturday for a Christmas gathering with Demetrius Beasley’s family. But the mother said she later learned there was no gathering and that Beasley did not intend to return Markell.
The mother and Beasley had a previous relationship.

6 p.m. (AP) — The two children killed in a south-central Kansas house fire have been identified as 23-month-old twin boys.

The Pratt Police Department said in release Tuesday the twins were inside the burning home when firefighters arrived Monday afternoon.

The twins were identified as Jayce and Jasper Ibarra, who would have turned 2 years old in January.

Their mother, 24-year-old Destry Ibarra, escaped from the house. She was reported to be in good condition Tuesday in the burn unit at Via Christ-St. Francis hospital in Wichita. Police say the children’s father was not home when the fire broke out.

The Kansas Fire Marshal is working with police to determine the cause of the blaze.

4 a.m. PRATT, Kan. (AP) — Infant twins have died in a house fire in south-central Kansas.

Police in Pratt say the infants died Monday afternoon in the fire at their home. Emergency crews called to the home found the twin’s mother outside covered in smoke and soot. She’s been hospitalized with fire-related injuries.

Pratt police say the two babies were pronounced dead at the scene. The father of the twins was not at home at the time of the fire.

The names of the victims haven’t been released.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

(AP) The Missouri Supreme Court says three men can be prosecuted under a law barring convicted sex offenders from being within 500 feet of public parks that have swimming pools or playground equipment.

At issue was whether the law violated a ban against retrospective laws. Each man had been convicted of a sexual offense before the statute was adopted.

Two cases were sent back to trial courts where judges had dismissed the charges. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the third man who was appealing.

6 p.m.  (AP) — A northeast Kansas sheriff says a hunter who drowned while trying to retrieve a duck at an icy lake was a member of the military.

Authorities initially believed the victim and a fellow serviceman fell into Milford Lake on Tuesday morning after their boat capsized.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf later said the victim went out alone on a makeshift boat to retrieve a duck shot by his hunting partner from shore. Wolf says the victim stepped onto an ice sheet when the boat began taking on water, then fell through the ice.

A search for the body was suspended Tuesday. The victim’s name has not been released, and it’s not clear if the two men were stationed at the nearby Fort Riley Army post.

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas sheriff says a man has drowned at Milford Lake after his boat capsized while duck hunting.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf declined to identify the man who drowned Tuesday other than to say he was a member of the military.

A second man on the boat was able to make it safely to shore.

The incident happened on the southwest side of Milford Lake, which is north of Junction City.

Tuesday p.m. (AP) A man crushed by a car while apparently trying to steal a catalytic converter in Springfield has been identified as a parolee with numerous criminal convictions.

Springfield police on Tuesday identified the man as 42-year-old Vincent Marco. He was found dead Monday morning under a car parked in a west Springfield lot.

Marco had served prison terms for a variety of offenses including assault, forgery, drugs, tampering with vehicles and utility services and unlawful use of a weapon. He had lived and worked in several southwest Missouri communities.

Monday    (AP) – Springfield police say a man found dead under a car was apparently trying to steal a catalytic converter when the car fell on him.

The Springfield News-Leader reports the man was found dead Monday morning outside an auto-related business.

Sgt. Todd Revell says the car fell on the man, crushed him and killed him overnight.

The body was first noticed by the owner of Rooster’s Paint and Speed Shop. The man’s body was found under a white Saturn vehicle in the parking lot.

The victim’s name hasn’t been released.

 (AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has released $40.1 million that he previously froze from the current year’s state budget.

The largest amount is $18 million for repair work at the Missouri Capitol. The money will be used for sealing and waterproofing the exterior of the Capitol’s south side that faces away from the Missouri River toward the state Supreme Court building. Nixon also is releasing $7 million for state facilities maintenance and repair and $5 million for projects at state parks.

Nixon announced Tuesday that $10 million would be released for various state programs. That includes $750,000 for small business programs through the Missouri Department of Economic Development and $500,000 for dental programs at rural health clinics.

2 p.m. UPDATE  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — It’s a wrap for NASA’s Christmas Eve spacewalk.

Two astronauts are safely back inside the International Space Station after replacing a pump in a crippled cooling line on Tuesday. Preliminary testing shows the new pump to be working well. NASA expects to have the station’s cooling system restored by this weekend, with all equipment running again.

Astronauts Rick Mastracchio (muh-STRACK-ee-oh) and Michael Hopkins braved a mini-blizzard of noxious ammonia as they hooked up the new pump. But in the end, they triumphed in their second spacewalk in four days.

It was only the second Christmas Eve spacewalk ever. Mission Control says it’s the best Christmas ever

Expedition 38 Flight Engineers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins are conducting the second in a series of spacewalks to replace a degraded ammonia pump module on the International Space Station’s starboard truss. The spacewalk officially began at 6:53 a.m. EST and is scheduled to run about 6 hours and 30 minutes.

Live streaming video by Ustream

(AP) A Smithfield Foods subsidiary has announced a joint venture to turn hog manure into energy at its farms in northern Missouri.
Murphy-Brown of Missouri is providing the manure to produce biogas, a fuel similar to natural gas. Roeslein Alternative Energy will manage the project and secure financing for the $100-million project. Murphy-Brown, the world’s largest pork producer, was formerly called Premium Standards Farm.
The deal will have Murphy-Brown scraping the manure into lagoons where the waste will decompose and produce gas.
Roeslein will manage the biogas operation and sell the fuel. The company claims among other things that the biogas project will produce fewer greenhouse gases and reduce Murphy-Brown’s carbon footprint.
Murphy-Brown’s Missouri operation is based in Princeton and has 1,070 employees.

ENGLEWOOD, Fla. (AP) — A lawyer from Kansas is dead after the water scooter he was operating collided with a motorboat in southwest Florida.

The crash happened Sunday afternoon in Charlotte County.

Charlotte County Fire and EMS spokeswoman Dee Hawkins told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that 54-year-old Lee Hollis of Leawood, Kan., died Monday. Doctors amputated one of his legs on Sunday afternoon.

Investigators say all four occupants of the boat were ejected during the crash. A 38-year-old woman suffered a traumatic chest injury and was airlifted to a Fort Myers hospital. The 43-year-old man who was operating the boat, a 40-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy suffered minor injuries.

People on a nearby sailboat helped rescue the injured.

Fish and Wildlife spokesman Gary Morse says the cause of the crash is under investigation.