AP) — The Fish and Wildlife Service says it is reopening 3 million acres in wildlife refuges to allow hunting of pheasants and waterfowl.

The sites, in 10 states, have been closed since Oct. 1 because of the partial government shutdown.

The agency said Friday that despite limited staffing, allowing public access to Waterfowl Production Areas on wildlife refuges will not cost any money or jeopardize public safety.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple had threatened to sue unless lands in his state were opened.

Dalrymple says pheasant hunting should begin as scheduled this month. He says a government shutdown is not legal justification to close unstaffed, public lands.

The decision opens hunting areas in 10 states: North and South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, Idaho and Maine.

Gov. Jay Nixon on Friday stopped plans for the Oct. 23 execution of a death row inmate, citing controversy around the state’s planned use of propofol for the lethal injection and ordered prison officials to find a different drug. Missouri’s intentions for propofol, a popular anesthetic used at hospitals nationwide, have been criticized nearly from the start.

Here are five things to know about propofol and its role in the Missouri controversy:

Known as “milk of amnesia” for its white appearance, propofol is a general anesthetic that produces a quick and deep sleep for patients just before surgery. It’s among the most widely used anesthetics in U.S. hospitals and clinics. In recent years, it also has earned notoriety outside of medicine; propofol was found in pop star Michael Jackson’s system after his overdose death in 2009.

A DRUG FOR SANCTIONED DEATH

Amid questions in multiple death-penalty states about the constitutionality of various lethal drug combinations, Missouri changed its protocol from a three-drug blend to the single drug of propofol. Administered in high levels, the drug produces unconsciousness and stops a person’s breathing. But it has never been used in Missouri or any other U.S. state for an execution.

EUROPE’S WORRY

Roughly 90 percent of the U.S. supply of propofol comes from a single source: Germany-based Fresenius Kabi. But the anti-death penalty European Union recently threatened to add the drug to its export control list, which would jeopardize U.S. supply. The threat prompted the drug maker to implore Missouri to move away from propofol. But until Friday, Missouri’s governor seemed to be holding fast, saying earlier this week that courts generally had long upheld capital punishment and suggested this wasn’t the first time foreign countries had objected to products made, or actions taken, in his home state.

NIXON RELENTS, BUT …

Nixon’s apparent reversal Friday _ “As governor, my interest is in making sure justice is served and public health is protected” _ was cheered by death penalty opponents and eased worries that a vital component of surgical workflows in the U.S. would go untouched. But Nixon, a former Missouri attorney general who has long supported the death penalty, is not ending plans for Missouri to carry out executions. He’s ordering Department of Corrections officials to explore lethal injection alternatives.

WHAT’S NEXT:

While the state explores the options, the planned Oct. 23 execution of Alan Nicklasson is off and Nixon said the state would “immediately request” a new execution date. It’s unclear what that means for the planned Nov. 20 execution for another convicted killer, Joseph Franklin.

4 p.m. (AP) — A longtime zookeeper in southwest Missouri has been killed by an elephant.

City spokeswoman Cora Scott says 62-year-old John Bradford died Friday after an elephant at the Dickinson Park Zoo made a sudden movement and hit him. No other zoo employees were injured.

Scott initially said the elephant charged Bradford, based on early reports from the scene. But she later changed that account based on new information.

Bradford worked at the zoo for 30 years and had been the zoo’s elephant manager for 25 years.

The elephant, a 41-year-old female named Patience, had been at the zoo since 1990. Zoo officials said Patience won’t be euthanized. The zoo opened as usual on Friday, although the elephants weren’t on exhibit.

(AP) — Springfield officials say a longtime zookeeper was killed by an elephant at the city’s Dickerson Park Zoo.

City spokeswoman Cora Scott says senior zookeeper John Bradford died Friday when a female elephant charged him.

Zoo officials say Bradford worked at the zoo at least 25 years and was a senior zookeeper.

Police continue to investigate the death and further details were not immediately available.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Friday halted what was to have been the first U.S. execution to use the popular anesthetic propofol, following threats from the European

Union to limit the drug’s export if it were used for that purpose.

Nixon also ordered the Missouri Department of Corrections to come up with a different way to perform lethal injections without propofol, the leading anesthetic used in America’s hospitals and clinics. Nearly 90 percent of the nation’s propofol is imported from Europe.

Nixon, a Democrat and staunch supporter of the death penalty, did not specifically mention the EU threat in his brief statement. Nixon was Missouri’s longtime attorney general before he was first elected governor in 2008. During his 16 years as attorney general, 59 men were executed.

The leading propofol maker, Germany-based Fresenius Kabi, and anesthesiologists had warned of a possible propofol shortage that could impact millions of Americans if any executions took place.

In a statement, Fresenius Kabi applauded Nixon’s move.

“This is a decision that will be welcomed by the medical community and patients nationwide who were deeply concerned about the potential of a drug shortage,” said John Ducker, CEO of Fresenius Kabi USA. The company said propofol is administered about 50 million times annually in the U.S.

A spokeswoman for the European Union declined comment.

Drug makers in recent years have stopped selling potentially lethal pharmaceuticals to prisons and corrections departments because they don’t want them used in executions. That has left the nearly three dozen death penalty states, including Missouri, scrambling for alternatives.

Missouri altered its execution protocol in April 2012 to use propofol. The drug gained some level of infamy in 2009 when pop star Michael Jackson died of a propofol overdose.

Nixon’s decision also leaves uncertain the execution scheduled for next month for another convicted killer, Joseph Franklin.

Soon after Nixon’s announcement, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed a motion with the Missouri Supreme Court to vacate the Oct. 23 execution date for Nicklasson and to set a new date “soon after” Franklin’s execution date of Nov. 20. A spokeswoman for Koster declined comment.

In addition to concerns raised about how the EU would respond to the execution, Missouri’s decision to use propofol prompted a lawsuit filed on behalf of nearly two dozen death row inmates claiming use of the unproven execution drug could result in pain and suffering for the condemned man.

Koster, a Democrat, and Republican Missouri state Sen. Kurt Schaefer have suggested that if the state can’t execute by lethal injection it consider going back to the gas chamber, something that hasn’t been used since the 1960s. Missouri no longer has a gas chamber but Schaefer recently wrote to Nixon, urging him to consider funding construction of a new one in his next fiscal year budget.

The corrections department on Wednesday agreed to return a shipment of propofol to Louisiana-based distributor Morris & Dickson Co. The company distributes propofol made in Europe by Fresenius Kabi and told the corrections department in November that its shipment was a mistake.

Corrections spokesman David Owen said Wednesday that Missouri had a remaining supply of propofol, all of it domestically made. But Fresenius Kabi spokesman Matt Kuhn said even the use of domestically produced propofol in an execution could prompt the EU to impose export controls.

Nicklasson was convicted of the 1994 killing of Excelsior Springs businessman Richard Drummond, who stopped to help when a car used by Nicklasson and two others broke down on Interstate 70 in central Missouri. Another man in the car, Dennis Skillicorn, was executed in 2009.

Nicklasson’s attorney, Jennifer Herndon, said she was pleased with the delay, but expects the state to move quickly to revise its execution protocol.

“They’re pretty anxious to execute people so I would think that the state would put something forward sooner rather than later,” Herndon said.

Franklin, a drifter from Alabama, was convicted in the 1977 sniper shooting of Gerald Gordon as a crowd dispersed from a bar mitzvah in suburban St. Louis. Two others were wounded. He has said he tried to start a race war by traveling the country shooting people. When he confessed in 1994 to the shooting, he was serving several life sentences in a federal prison for killing two black joggers in Salt Lake City and an interracial couple in Madison, Wis., and the bombing of a synagogue in Chattanooga, Tenn.

(AP) — Four more potential victims have come forward after a Lindenwood University wrestler was charged with a reckless sex felony after police say he knowingly transmitted the virus that causes AIDS by having unprotected sex.

St. Charles County prosecutors charged 22-year-old Michael L. “Tiger” Johnson Thursday with potentially exposing a 19-year-old Lindenwood student whom he met online. Johnson was kicked out of school the same day criminal charges were filed.

Four people who said they also had unprotected sex with Johnson have since contacted St. Charles police. Their medical status is not yet known.

Police say Johnson and the male victim had unprotected sex at least twice in the wrestler’s Lindenwood dorm room earlier this year after Johnson was diagnosed as HIV-positive.

(AP) — Gov. Jay Nixon has replaced the director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

Nixon announced Friday that department director Jon Hagler had been replaced effective immediately. But the governor’s announcement did not provide any explanation for the change.

Nixon said that Harry Bozoian will serve as acting director of the Department of Agriculture. Bozoian had been serving as the deputy director of the Department of Natural Resources.

Hagler had been agriculture director since Nixon became governor in 2009. The governor’s office said Hagler will remain with the department through Oct. 31 to assist in the transition.

As Congress inches toward resolution of a five-year farm bill, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Board voted to oppose conservation compliance linked

to crop insurance. House Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) welcomed the support as some environmental groups have advocated linking the programs in the Farm Bill.

“Conservation compliance measures tied to crop insurance would be a misguided and redundant regulatory burden imposed on farmers and their property rights,” Lucas wrote in a statement this week. “I am philosophically opposed to this linkage and applaud AFBF’s decision to support this position. “

“Conservation compliance is already the law of the land,” Lucas adds. He says all farmers who receive assistance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) commodity, conservation, and credit programs are required to protect our nation’s wetlands and environmentally-sensitive croplands. “I am a firm believer in these conservation compliance standards, as well as voluntary, incentive-based conservation practices. And, I share the concerns of AFBF regarding the inconsistency with which conservation compliance provisions could be implemented on a state-by-state and county-by-county basis.”

Lucas points out that crop insurance is not a traditional benefit to producers. A grower must purchase a crop insurance policy and suffer a verifiable loss, sometimes up to 50 percent of a crop before collecting a payment. He says tying conservation compliance to crop insurance would create another layer of bureaucratic, red tape potentially endangering a farmer’s livelihood.

–John Maday, Managing Editor, Drovers CattleNetwork

(AP) — An anti-government advocate and blogger known as Bulletinman has been convicted of assaulting Missouri state troopers during a skirmish at a gas station last year.

Jurors recommended a 63-year sentence Thursday after finding 47-year-old Jeffrey Weinhaus of Franklin County guilty of assault on a law enforcement officer and armed criminal action. Formal sentencing is Nov. 25.

Weinhaus was accused of trying to draw a gun on trooper Henry J. Folsom on Sept. 11, 2012, at an MFA gas station in St. Clair. Folsom and another trooper, Scott Mertens, shot Weinhaus, who was critically injured with bullet wounds to the chest and head.

Jurors also found Weinhaus guilty of possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana.

The Ozark National Scenic Riverways says people can float rivers that flow through federal park property in southwest Missouri but they can’t set foot in closed parks until the partial government shutdown is over.

When the parks were closed Oct. 1, officials indicated rivers in the area would be closed to floating. On Thursday, Riverways Superintendent Bill Black clarified that people can float the Current and Jacks Fork rivers, but they must stay off federal park land, including gravel bars in the rivers.

All park facilities are closed and boats can’t be launched from park property. But Black says there are some places at Eminence and Van Buren, and some county roads, where boats can be put in.

(AP) — Charges have been filed against a 27-year-old man in connection with a drive-by shooting that injured an 8-year-old Overland Park boy.

Phillip Ricardo Bennett, of Kansas City, Kan., is charged with aggravated battery in the Sept. 30 shooting.

The child was in a house with his mother and two other children when someone fired shots into the house from a vehicle. The woman and the other children were not injured.

Overland Park police say the boy is expected to make a full recovery.

Online court records don’t list a lawyer for Bennett.