(AP) – The former director of Missouri’s unemployment benefits agency is alleging discrimination in her firing by Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration.

Gracia Backer was replaced in March as director of the Division of Employment Security in Missouri’s labor department. Her ouster came at the same time that Nixon appointed labor department director Larry Rebman to a different job.

Documents provided Monday to The Associated Press show Backer has filed a discrimination complaint with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. The complaint claims Backer was fired after raising concerns that Rebman was discriminating against her and other older and female employees.

Rebman told the Associated Press on Monday that he didn’t discriminate against Backer.

The governor’s office never announced why Backer was replaced as division director.

(AP) – A 24-year-old St. Charles man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection with a heroin overdose death, the same sentence his girlfriend also received.

Thomas Lucas Jr. was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in August to involuntary manslaughter, forgery and drug distribution connected to Jemil Francis Ely’s September 2012 overdose death.

Lucas told police he knew that Ely had overdosed at least twice before and was with him one of those times. Ely was a married father of three.

Whitney Michelle Patrick was also sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this month for Ely’s death.

(AP) — A western Missouri man who coached youth tennis has been sentenced to 6 ½ years in federal prison for soliciting nude photos from a Kansas teenager he was coaching.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 56-year-old Rex Haultain, of Parkville, must also pay $15,000 in restitution under the sentence he received Monday in federal court in Kansas City, Kan.

Haultain pleaded guilty in July to one count of soliciting child pornography.

He admitted telling the girl in 2009 that that he found her sexually attractive. He also admitted showing her a pornographic picture of himself in 2010 and asking her for nude photos of herself.

The victim, now 18, read a statement at the sentencing saying Haultain took advantage of her hopes of becoming an outstanding tennis player.

(AP) – A 54-year-old retired Missouri police officer will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing a Harrisonville woman whose body was found in her bathtub five years ago.

Jeffrey Moreland was sentenced in Cass County to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder in the death of 30-year-old Cara Jo Roberts. He was sentenced to an additional 50 years for armed criminal action and will serve that sentence after he completes the life term.

The former Grandview police officer was convicted in September of killing Roberts. DNA evidence from a 2011 rape in Harrisonville and the October 2010 stabbing and strangulation death of a 75-year-old in southern Kansas City led to his arrest.

He has been charged in both cases but trial dates have not been set.

Two foreign military officers attending training at Fort Leonard Wood have pleaded not guilty to charges in an attempted child abduction case.

Court records show that Mohammed Mahmoud Omar Mefleh, of Jordan, and Antoine Chela, of Lebanon, are charged with enticement of a child and harassment and are being held in the Pulaski County Jail on $200,000 bail each.

A lawyer listed for Mefleh didn’t return a call seeking comment Monday. An attorney wasn’t listed yet for Chela.

Installation spokeswoman Tiffany Wood said the men were part of the International Military Student Office and were at the base temporarily to learn how to be better commanders.

(AP) – Authorities have identified the two Park Hills volunteer firefighters charged with a string of arsons in St. Francois County.

Twenty-nine-year-old Bradley J. Easter and 22-year-old Dale R. Hamor are accused of intentionally setting six fires earlier this year. They remain at the county jail on $100,000 bonds.

Easter told police he drove Hamor to the scene of six house fires, and then picked up his colleague. The two then joined other firefighters to fight the blazes they allegedly set.

(AP) – The University of Missouri is again turning to its top lawyer as a temporary campus leader, this time as acting Columbia campus chancellor while the search for Brady Deaton’s successor continues.

University System President Tim Wolfe on Monday named general counsel Steve Owens as interim chancellor of the flagship campus. Owens was previously the interim system president before Wolfe’s hiring.

Deaton is stepping down on Nov. 15 after nine years as chancellor. He will remain in Columbia as executive director of a new international development research center bearing his name.

Wolfe also appointed Deputy Chancellor Mike Middleton as transition executive to help ease the next chancellor into the job. The president says that neither Owens nor Middleton is a candidate for the permanent position.

(AP) — Springfield public school officials say at least 551 homeless students are attending schools in the city this year.

The district reported 517 homeless students by December of last year. The number has grown from 378 homeless students were reported in 2009-10.

Lawrence Anderson, the district’s homeless liaison, says homeless students were found at all of the district’s 55 sites.

Of the 551 identified students, 330 are in elementary school, 111 in high school, 95 in middle school and 15 in other areas, such as preschool.

(AP) — The family of a missing 22-year-old Olathe man is mystified by his disappearance a week ago.

Brad Cook left home in Olathe on Oct. 20 without taking his cellphone or wallet. Shortly afterward, someone — possibly Cook — parked his motorcycle at a strip mall in De Soto. Cook hasn’t been seen since and his bank shows no financial activity.

Cook worked for a construction cleanup company and took business classes at Johnson County Community College.

His father, Jeff Cook, says his son seemed fine in the hours before he disappeared. He says Brad Cook wasn’t depressed and none of his guns is missing.

Searchers used a helicopter, horses, a kayak and trained dogs but found no clues to Cook’s whereabouts.