(AP) — A southwest Missouri sheriff is investigating the fatal shooting of a homeowner during an apparent burglary attempt.

The  victim has been identified as 58-year-old Jeffrey Slama, who was killed at 8:20 a.m. Wednesday in his rural home southeast of Joplin.

Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said Slama was talking to a 911 dispatcher when he was shot and could be heard saying, “Please, don’t shoot me.” He still had the phone in his hand when his body was found just inside the front door of his house.

The sheriff said the intruder had broken some glass in the door and reached inside to unlock it.

A construction crew working nearby reported seeing a man speeding from the area in a small, black car.

(AP)  The bipartisan compromise on Wednesday to avoid a financial default and end a 16-day partial government shutdown cast a spotlight on Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah.

The two lawmakers had precipitated the crises with their demand that President Barack Obama gut his 3-year-old health care law.

Senate Republicans warned the two about their quixotic move, but they’re taking little pleasure in saying ‘I-told-you-so.’

The final deal hardly nicked the health care law while the shutdown and near default left the GOP reeling.

Cruz and Lee are being wildly cheered by outside conservative groups that have made money on the months-long dispute.

The far right flank is hailing Cruz and Lee for what they’re calling a principled and courageous stand.

(AP) — Ameren Missouri has become the state’s second large utility to seek an early halt to a solar rebate program that rewards consumers for using alternative energy sources.

reports that the state’s largest utility is asking the Missouri Public Service Commission for permission to curtail payment of millions of dollars in solar rebates before the year’s end.

The company says it has received more than $35 million in solar rebate requests, creating financial strain.

Missouri voters approved a 2008 ballot measure that that requires investor-owned utilities to derive a certain percentage of their electric generation from renewable resources. The law caps rate increases derived from that measure at 1 percent.

Kansas City Power & Light made a similar request in July.

The Kauffman Foundation says it has pledged $5 million to a product development center.

The pledge will support the Free Enterprise Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, which will be for entrepreneurs, businesses and students who are trying to develop new products. It also will work to help business startups, and will be used by other university programs.

The $14.8 million center will work with Kansas City area partners, including MRIGlobal and Metropolitan Community College.

The Missouri-Kansas City plans to seek matching state funds for construction of the building.

(AP) — Some additional Missouri employees could face furloughs if the federal government doesn’t resolve a budget stalemate this week.

State budget director Linda Luebbering  says Missouri has enough money to continue paying its federally funded employees through October. But she says that if Congress and President Barack Obama don’t agree this week on a plan to end a partial shutdown of the federal government, Missouri will have to start firming up its next round of employee furloughs.

So far, about 200 employees at the Missouri National Guard have been furloughed.

Luebbering said the next round of furloughs probably would affect fewer than 100 employees.

Thousands in Missouri and Kansans are among 5.2 million poor, uninsured adults who will fall into the “coverage gap,” created by 26 states choosing not to expand

Medicaid under the federal health reform law next year, according to a study released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

These people are projected to have incomes too high to qualify for their state’s existing Medicaid programs, but below the federal poverty level (nearly $11,500 for an individual) required to be eligible for tax subsidies to buy private coverage on the new insurance marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. Medicaid is the state-federal health insurance program for the poor.

“Millions of adults will remain outside the reach of the ACA and continue to have limited, if any, options for health coverage,” the study concludes.

The law provides full federal funding for three years to states that expand Medicaid to cover residents under 138 percent of the poverty level (or just under $15,900 for an individual).

But the Supreme Court made that requirement effectively optional for states, and most Republican led-states have opted against expanding the program.

There is no deadline by which states must opt to expand Medicaid, and a few states are still considering it.

A herd of bison in northwest Missouri could be video stars, if a pilot project from National Geographic is successful.

Two bison in a herd in northern Harrison County were outfitted with “Crittercams” Tuesday by a National Geographic photographer and videographer.

Greg Marshall of National Geographic says he will retrieve the cameras in two weeks to see if the cameras operated correctly.

The  project was part of the annual roundup to check on the bisons’ health. There are currently 57 bison in the herd on the Dunn Ranch Prairie in Harrison County.

A federal lawsuit accuses the Jefferson City school district and two administrators of not doing enough to prevent a band teacher from having an affair with a student.

The band teacher, Christopher Knehans, pleaded guilty in 2012 to two felony counts of sexual contact with a student.

Knehans is also named in the lawsuit.

The district’s attorney, Chris Rackers, said district officials would not comment on the lawsuit, which was filed earlier this year but amended this month.