(AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback’s office has awarded grants totaling more than $1 million to 22 groups that help victims of domestic violence.

The governor’s office said Wednesday that the grants come from federal funds and are designed to ensure that victims can receive free services around the clock. The programs provide shelter, support groups, crisis intervention and help in obtaining court orders against abusers.

The grants went to groups in 21 counties.

The largest grant of almost $106,000 went to Safehome in Johnson County.

Atchison County’s Domestic Violence Emergency Services received $33,950

(AP) – A former correctional officer at a Springfield medical center for federal inmates has pleaded guilty to paying someone to kill his wife’s ex-husband.

U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson says 43-year-old Springfield resident Robert Jones pleaded guilty Wednesday in Springfield and could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Jones was a correctional officer at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners when he asked an inmate to find someone to kill the victim, identified in court documents as John Doe.

Instead, the inmate cooperated with investigators and met with Jones for 10 to 15 private conversations in March and April 2012.

Jones was arrested that summer after giving an undercover FBI agent posing as a hit man named Chuey $1,500 to kill the man.

(AP) Police said Wednesday that they will look into any new leads into the 2001 slaying of a Missouri newspaper sports editor after one of the two men originally convicted of murder had his case overturned and was freed.

The pronouncement by the Columbia Police Department came a day after Ryan Ferguson was released after serving almost a decade behind bars for the death of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt.

Ferguson has consistently maintained his innocence. After his release Tuesday night, he insisted that the high-school classmate who originally implicated him was innocent too, although Chuck Erickson is still serving a 25-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to Heitholt’s slaying.

Ferguson’s case gained national attention because Erickson claimed to have recalled through dreams years after the fact that he and Ferguson killed Heitholt in a late-night robbery while partying for Halloween. Erickson has since recanted his testimony.

Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton issued a written statement Wednesday saying the department was reviewing “how or whether or not to proceed with additional investigation and/or a review of the case.”

“As always, we will continue to accept new information from anyone who is willing to come forward,” the police statement said.

Heitholt’s widow, Deborah Evangelista, did not respond to a telephone message Wednesday seeking comment about Ferguson’s release. In a message to Tribune managing editor Jim Robertson last week, she said it hurt to hear about Ferguson’s conviction being overturned. Robertson said Evangelista gave him permission to share the message.

“It is painful. You just want to let go and lead your life,” Evangelista said. “I have to keep reminding myself that whatever happens, God is in control and justice will ultimately be served by him.”

Ferguson had expressed sympathy Tuesday night for Heitholt’s family, saying “they’ve been lied to” by law enforcement authorities who pursued the case against him.

Ferguson’s appeal was handled by Chicago attorney Kathleen Zellner, who specializes in cases in which she believes someone was wrongfully convicted. His quest for freedom was aided by an intense social media campaign.

The Free Ryan Ferguson Facebook page was changed Wednesday to “Freed Ryan Ferguson” and had 82,000 “Likes,” including almost 8,000 in the past day. It included a new fundraising appeal to help Ferguson as he begins his life outside prison.

(AP) Members of a special Senate committee looking at ways to “transform and reform” Missouri’s Medicaid program demonstrated Wednesday that little has changed in the partisan battle over the government-funded health care plan for the poor.

Democrats sought to include expanded eligibility for the program in a list of recommendations being considered by the committee and walked out of the room when Republicans didn’t want to make it their first topic of discussion.

The outcome mirrored numerous other votes taken earlier this year, when the Republican-led Legislature repeatedly defeated efforts by Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Jay Nixon to expand adult Medicaid eligibility.

“Until we reform and transform the current Medicaid program, no one’s in a position where they feel comfortable expanding anything,” said committee chairman Sen. Gary Romine, R-Farmington.

Democrats argued that expanding Medicaid eligibility to low-income adults lacking health insurance is an integral part of transforming the program. They wanted to add wording to the report saying the Legislature should consider seeking federal approval for a Medicaid expansion plan.

After the committee voted down the Democratic recommendation, Sen. Paul LeVota, D-Independence, acknowledged that the prospects of expanding Medicaid in 2014 appear slim.

“They’re just stuck in their dogma,” LeVota said of Republicans on the committee.

LeVota and the two other Democratic members of the committee _ Sens. Jamilah Nasheed and Joe Keaveny, both of St. Louis _ left the room as the committee discussed more than a dozen other recommendations included in a draft report.

Missouri could get additional federal money under the new federal health care law if it expands Medicaid to adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, about $32,500 for a family of four. Missouri’s Medicaid program currently covers custodial parents earning up to 19 percent of the poverty level, or about $4,475 annually, and doesn’t cover adults without children in their homes.

The first recommendation in the Senate panel’s draft report is to expand managed care statewide for parents, pregnant women and children in the Medicaid program. Managed care policies currently are used for those groups in a fewer than half of Missouri’s counties. The committee also recommended that elderly and disabled Medicaid enrollees be covered through regional “accountable care organizations” and have a primary care physician who is part of that organization.

But those recommendations faced opposition from Republican Sen. Rob Schaaf, a physician from St. Joseph. He questioned whether managed care plans actually would have a 3 percent cost savings, as cited in the draft report.

“I’m not convinced that it would save us any money,” Schaaf said.

Some of the committee’s other recommendations include providing dental coverage to adult Medicaid recipients, finding ways to reduce emergency room visits and doubling the amount of assets that elderly and disabled residents can have before exceeding Medicaid eligibility thresholds.

A special House committee also is developing recommendations for Medicaid legislation. The committee chairman, Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, has outlined a package of potential changes that include managed care plans, expanded eligibility for adults, reduced eligibility for children and financial incentives for Medicaid recipients to avoid emergency room visits. His analysis shows that the changes could save Missouri money in the long-run.

(AP) — A northeast Kansas woman is accused of making and selling hundreds of counterfeit driver’s licenses, resident alien cards and other identity documents over a three-year period.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 29-year-old Lluvia Fernanda Salinas-Rodriguez was indicted Wednesday on charges of trafficking in identity documents and fraud. The indictment replaces a criminal complaint filed last week against the Kansas City, Kan., resident.

Investigators allege Salinas-Rodriguez used a computer and printer to scan photos and produce counterfeit identity documents, which also included Social Security cards. The charges allege she sold two sets of documents a week for roughly three years, at $80 to $100 apiece.

Salinas-Rodriguez did not have a lawyer Wednesday, and a phone number for her could not be found.

(AP) – Crews are beginning to lay rail for a two-mile streetcar route through downtown Kansas City.

The contractor is giving the media a chance to view the work Thursday afternoon. Mayor Sly James, city council members and streetcar advocates will be on hand.

Streetcars are expected to begin running in 2015 from near Union Station to the River Market area.

The project has an estimated cost of about $100 million. Supporters hope it will be the first leg of a more extensive public rail system.

During the Senate Republican Stakeout on Wednesday, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt discussed how Missourians in the high risk pool are losing their health care coverage due to ObamaCare.

(AP) — A northeast Missouri community has agreed to pay $95,000 to end its involvement in a lawsuit filed by investors in a failed artificial sweetener plant.

Moberly and the Moberly Industrial Development Authority have settled a lawsuit filed by Shelter Insurance Cos. and other Mamtek investors.

The city filed notice of the deal with the Missouri Supreme Court this week and asked it to dismiss a pending case to determine whether the city could be forced to take part in the suit.

Mamtek defaulted in August 2011, a year after persuading Moberly leaders to issue $39 million in bonds with the promise of more than 600 jobs. Mamtek’s claims also prompted state leaders to authorize up to $17.6 million in tax credits and incentives.

(AP) — A man with a long criminal history was sentenced to almost 32 years in prison for a failed bank robbery and shootout in a Kansas City suburb.

Thirty-four-year-old Eric L. Smith was sentenced Wednesday to 31 years and 10 months for the June 2012 attempted robbery at the Blue Ridge Bank and Trust in Raytown.

Prosecutors say when Smith demanded a security guard’s gun, the guard responded by firing three shots and Smith fled. The guard and an off-duty Drug Enforcement Administration special agent ran after Smith, who fired back and escaped.

Smith had been out of prison only a month when the robbery occurred. His criminal history included assault and two aggravated robberies.