(AP) – Prosecutors say a man chasing his ex-girlfriend in her car caused her to hit and kill a bicyclist in Springfield.

On Tuesday, prosecutors charged the man with second-degree murder, even though it was the ex-girlfriend who hit the cyclist in November near Missouri State University.

Prosecutors charged 24-year-old Blake Basten under a statute that says someone can be charged with murder if he or she is committing a felony that leads to a death.

Court documents say 31-year-old Shannon Smith was speeding through Springfield to get away from Basten when she hit 23-year-old bicyclist Zachary Gibson.

Smith has been charged with leaving the scene of the crash.

An early morning call to Basten’s public defender was not immediately returned.

(AP) – A group that is trying to force a public vote on proposed changes to Kansas City International Airport has not yet collected enough signatures to get the question on the April ballot.

The group, Friends of KCI, turned in petitions to the city clerk last week. City spokesman Dan Coffey said Tuesday the petitions had 2,990 valid signatures, short of the 3,573 signatures needed. The Kansas City Star reports the group has 10 days to collect 583 more valid signatures.

Friends of KCI wants to prohibit Kansas City from demolishing or replacing any passenger terminal at KCI without voter approval.

A citizens advisory group is studying the best options for the airport, including renovating the existing three terminals or building a new single terminal.

(AP) – The College of the Ozarks plans to open an elementary school in August, with plans to eventually add a middle school.

The evangelical Christian school says its new kindergarten through 5th grade school will at first have about 15 to 20 students per grade.

The college south of Branson restarted its high school two years ago. Students at the college and high school do not pay tuition but work to pay off their school debts.

Sue Head, dean of character education, says that philosophy will also be used in the younger grades, with chores such as cleaning their desks and maintaining common spaces.

Head says the K-12 program will be “intentionally low-tech,” with a heavy emphasis on grammar, logic and rhetoric.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lottery officials say winning ticket tickets have been sold in California and Georgia for the $636 million Mega Millions jackpot, the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history.

The winning numbers were: 8, 14, 17, 20, 39; Mega Ball: 7.

Paula Otto, the Virginia Lottery’s executive director and the lead director of Mega Millions, said that $336 million in tickets were sold for Tuesday’s drawing — they had projected $319 million.

California Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso said Tuesday night that one ticket was sold at Jennifer’s Gift Shop in San Jose, Calif.

Otto didn’t know yet where in Georgia the ticket had been sold.

The jackpot resets to $15 million for the next drawing, which is on Friday night.

 (AP) — The University of Kansas is using a $1.2 million federal grant to train speech-language pathologists to work with American Indian children.

The university announced receipt of the five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday. The money will help pay for the Culturally Responsive Early Literacy Instruction program.

Assistant professor Matthew Gillispie says clinicians will be trained on the benefits of using culturally relevant materials in treating young children with some form of speech-language impairment.

Graduate students participating in the program also will get assistance with tuition, books, supplies and mentoring.

 (AP) — A livestock specialist at Iowa State University says falling corn prices are generating some optimism that cattle farmers can again make money.

Historically high corn prices during the last several years drove up the cost of feed and many producers cut herd numbers as drought intensified.

Lee Schulz, a livestock specialist and assistant professor of economics, says producers have been in survival mode but are beginning to talk about expansion. There’s interest in building new facilities and growing herds.

Feedlots made money on cattle sold in October, breaking a long streak of monthly losses.

He says it will take several years to build the herd with increased calf crops and increasing cattle supplies because of the time it takes for calves to mature.

 

A mother and 2 children were injured in a Tuesday rollover crash in Linn County. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol twenty-three year old Amie Marie King of La Cygne was driving a 2003 Olds Alero west bound on 2200 road 2 miles west of Parker.

 

For unknown reason the car went into the north ditch, over turning twice, coming to a rest on its top. King was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected. She was transported to Research Medical Center in Kansas City.  Joseph King age 5 and Kaleb King age 2, passengers in the car were transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center.

(AP) – Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich says he will have reports coming out soon on some of Missouri’s biggest tax credit programs.

Schweich says he hopes to release audits early in the 2014 legislative session on tax credits for developers who build low-income housing, renovate historic buildings and clean up contaminated old business sites.

Missouri waived $144 million of taxes during its last budget year because of the low-income housing credits. Developers redeemed nearly $79 million in historic preservation tax credits and more than $6 million in Brownfield remediation tax credits for work on contaminated sites.

Lawmakers are to consider new limits on some of those tax credit programs during their session that starts Jan. 8.

Schweich said he wants the audits out early enough that lawmakers can use the information.

U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)-the Chairman and ranking Republican member of the Senate Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight-today released the following joint statement after Charles K. Edwards, the Homeland Security Department’s Deputy Inspector General who is under investigation by the senators’ subcommittee, stepped down from his post:

“Inspectors general are supposed to serve as the eyes and ears of taxpayers within our agencies, guarding against waste, fraud, and abuse of power, and we expect them to abide by the same high standards of behavior they apply to agency officials. We hope that Mr. Edwards’ departure will pave the way for a new level of accountability and transparency within the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, and we plan to continue rigorous oversight to achieve that goal.”

Edwards was scheduled to face questioning later this week from the oversight panel over allegations of misconduct. That hearing has been canceled following Edwards’ reassignment.