(AP) – A man already charged with suffocating a teen during sex and dumping her body in Truman Lake has been charged with another death.

Forty-eight-year-old Anthony Balbirnie was charged last month in the September 2012 killing of 15-year-old Khighla Parks of Willard. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced Wednesday that Balbirnie now faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of Theresa Mohler.

A Polk County indictment alleges that Balbirnie forcibly injected Mohler with methamphetamine in August 2008, leading to an infection that killed her. Balbirnie also is charged with rape, sodomy and assault in the case.

Balbirnie is incarcerated at the state prison in Bowling Green, where he is serving time for violating parole. The Missouri State Public Defender Office didn’t immediately return a message from The Associated Press.

 (AP) – Springfield police say a woman is jailed on suspicion of being involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed a 23-year-old man.

The 31-year-old woman from Buffalo was arrested Tuesday. She has not been formally charged.

Zachary S. Gibson was killed Sunday night when his bicycle was hit by a car near the Missouri State University campus.

Police located the white sedan they believe was involved in the accident on Monday. The Buffalo Police Department and the Missouri Highway Patrol helped with the arrest.

The investigation is continuing.

11 a.m. UPDATE   (AP) — A Kansas man suspected of stealing donation jars for the Children’s Miracle Network from several Kansas City-area businesses has turned himself in to police.

Lee’s Summit police say the man from Overland Park is jailed but has not been formally charged. They say in a news release that the man surrendered to police after learning he was the focus of the investigation.

Police allege he has stolen a total of six donation jars from businesses in Excelsior Springs and Lee’s Summit in Missouri and in Leavenworth, Kan. The jars are about 4 feet tall and can contain up to $6,000.

The money is used to help provide medical care for children.

 

(AP) — Authorities in the Kansas City region are looking for a man who is stealing donation jars intended for the Children’s Miracle Network.

Lee’s Summit police say the suspect is a white man in his late 40s who is wearing an Olathe East Hawks hooded sweatshirt in videos of recent thefts. He drives a four-door, dark colored Saturn with no license plates.

The man has stolen a total of six donation jars from businesses in Excelsior Springs and Lee’s Summit in Missouri and in Leavenworth, Kan. The jars are about 4 feet tall and can contain up to $6,000.

The money is used to help provide medical care for children.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lee’s Summit Police Department’s TIPS Hotline at 816-969-1752.

(AP) — Arkansas State University says a member of the school’s track and field team has died in his Missouri hometown.

The university says Thomas Ligon died Tuesday morning in Ozark, Mo. Christian County Coroner Brad Cole said Ligon was found unconscious and unresponsive at a friend’s home.

An autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death.

According to ASU, Ligon was a senior nursing major. He placed ninth in the heptathlon at the Sun Belt Conference championships last year.

The university says Ligon was also involved in Student Government Association and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

(AP) – A southwest Missouri man who was 13 years old when he fired shots at a Joplin middle school has been released from prison.

Jasper County Circuit Judge David Mouton on Tuesday ordered Thomas White to be released on probation.

In October 2006, White fired an assault rifle inside Memorial Middle School in Joplin, where he was a seventh-grader. He also pointed the gun at Principal Steve Gilbreth but the gun jammed.

White has been held under a dual-jurisdiction program of the Division of Youth Services of the Missouri Department of Social Services. The Joplin Globe reports state law requires youths committed to that program to be released when they turn 21 or to serve the rest of their sentence in state prisons. White will be 21 next month.

(AP) A U.S. Army veteran from St. Louis who lost a leg and suffered severe brain damage when a routine surgical procedure at the John Cochran VA Medical Center went bad has been awarded $8.3 million in a medical negligence lawsuit
Postal worker Dirk Askew had a cardiac stent inserted at the veterans’ hospital in February 2009 after complaining of chest pain. He returned one week later after developing an infection in his right leg, which was later amputated. His lawyers said surgeons improperly used infected tissue to repair the damage.
The  settlement will pay $6.8 million to the 43-year-old Askew and $1.5 million to his wife.
The case marks the latest negligence claim at Cochran after years of problems with staffing and sterilization.

“It’s very important that we not lose sight that this isn’t about a bumper sticker, it isn’t about one side versus the other. This is about doing the very best job we can on the policy so that we can protect victims, prosecute offenders and get them out of our military. That’s what this is about, and with every fiber of my being, I believe we are going to accomplish that with the reforms that we’re embracing.” – Claire on historic military sexual assault reforms.

(AP) – Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones has announced membership for a committee tasked with investigating allegations of a hostile work environment in the Department of Agriculture.

The 16-member committee will have 10 Republicans and six Democrats. It is led by Republican Casey Guernsey, of Bethany, and the vice chairman will be Stanley Cox, of Sedalia.

The Republican members are Bill Reibolt, of Neosho; Sonya Anderson, of Springfield; Shelley Keeney, of Marble Hill; Sue Entlicher, of Bolivar; Sandy Crawford, of Buffalo; Joe Don McGaugh, of Carrollton; Diane Franklin, of Camdenton; and Kathy Swan, of Cape Girardeau.

Democrats are Minority Leader Jacob Hummel, of St. Louis; Reps. Kim Gardner, of St. Louis; Jeremy LaFaver, of Kansas City; Stacey Newman, of St. Louis; Clem Smith, of St. Louis; and Stephen Webber, of Columbia.

Governor Jay Nixon cancelled a meeting scheduled for next week with state lawmakers about the state’s Medicaid plans.

Two weeks ago, Nixon invited lawmakers on the Interim Committee on Medicaid Transformation and Reform to a meeting in an office building across the street from the governor’s mansion to talk about the plans for Medicaid.

But prior to the announcement Tuesday, lawmakers asked the governor to reconsider holding the meeting in a public hearing in the state Capitol.

“If there is going to be a meeting, and we hope there is, that’s why we accepted the governor’s offer. The appropriate place is in the Capitol building following the procedures that we normally use and have in place,” Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, said.

Barnes said he was hopeful the governor would be receptive to their plans.

“It would be my hope that he’s very receptive, he said he wanted to have a conversation about, we accepted that offer, and so it would be my hope that he would say yes,” Barnes said.

The governor cancelled the planned meeting in a statement to lawmakers.

“Given the assurances my office received in good faith from you on the form and content of the meeting, I can only conclude that this last-minute change of heart demonstrates that, as we saw last session, you and your leadership have chosen to give politics precedence over the substance of the discussion,” Nixon wrote.

Special committees have been meeting for months now to discuss plans for the state’s Medicaid.