(AP) — Gov. Jay Nixon is urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop work on a Missouri River project designed to help an endangered fish.

In a letter to a top corps official, Nixon says more research is needed to ensure that improving shallow-water habitat at Jameson Island will help the pallid sturgeon and won’t cause harm.

Concerns stem from plans to put excavated soil in the river. Last month, the Missouri Farm Bureau and nine other groups asked Nixon to weigh in on the central Missouri project.

Farm groups fear putting soil in the river will contribute to a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. Because those low-oxygen conditions are blamed on farm-fertilizer runoff, they fear they’ll get the blame. The corps says there isn’t a problem.

(AP) — Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones is planning a statewide tour that will focus on agricultural issues.

The Eureka Republican will make about a half-dozen stops Oct. 15-17 with visits to farms, agricultural products plants and bioenergy facilities. Jones wants to talk with farmers and gather information for the 2014 legislative session.

Communities on the schedule include Laddonia, California, Sedalia and Kansas City.

Jones visited several communities south of Interstate 70 shortly after the legislative session ended in mid-May. He also visited 20 Missouri cities before the legislative session started in January.

Things are back to normal this afternoon at a Walmart in Gladstone.  The store, at 7207 North M1 Highway, was evacuated after someone called in a bomb threat.  An employee with the store’s customer service department told St. Jo Post that the entire store was evacuated including the Tire and Lube express area.

Employees and shoppers were out of the store just over an hour. Nobody was injured and no explosive device was found.

(AP) — A Joplin man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for helping a 13-year-old Arkansas girl run away from home.

Thirty-four-year-old James A. Morey was sentenced Monday for kidnapping under a plea agreement he entered in July that limited his prison time to no more than 10 years.

Morey was arrested Nov. 2 after Joplin police found the girl from Pea Ridge, Ark., at his apartment in Joplin. Police say Morey picked her up at her school in Arkansas that day and brought her back to Joplin. Her mother called police when the girl didn’t come home.

The Joplin Globe reports (http://bit.ly/14D6nwi ) Morey told police he and the girl met on Twitter and had been communicating for about three months before she decided to run away from home.

 

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) released the following statement today regarding the House-passed continuing resolution (CR):

“In the House and Senate, I’ve repeatedly voted to defund, repeal, and delay President Obama’s health care law. I believe there is growing evidence that it will not work.

“This week, I’ll continue that fight by supporting the House-passed continuing resolution, which defunds ObamaCare and keeps the government open without increasing federal spending. I will vote to begin debate on this bill and move to final passage on the House-passed CR. I will also vote against any attempts by the Majority Leader to restore funding for ObamaCare.

“My colleagues on the other side of the aisle face an important decision this week: They can stand with the overwhelming majority of Americans who have rejected ObamaCare, or they can stand with Leader Reid and President Obama. I hope Senate Democrats will work with Republicans to defund this flawed law and replace it with common-sense health care solutions.”

While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, Blunt voted against the passage of ObamaCare and led Republican efforts to develop common-sense alternatives.

Since being elected to the U.S. Senate, Blunt has taken at least 29 votes to defund, repeal, and delay the president’s health care overhaul – including votes on the floor and in the Appropriations Committee.

(AP) — Former U.S. Attorney and Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway is considering a run for governor in 2016.

Hanaway said Tuesday that she has been getting a lot of encouragement to run from people she trusts and respects, but she has no timetable for making a decision.

Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon is barred by term limits from seeking re-election.

Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster already is planning a gubernatorial campaign.

Hanaway is a Republican from suburban St. Louis who is working as an attorney in private practice. She served as the U.S. attorney in eastern Missouri from 2005 to 2009.

As a state lawmaker, Hanaway led the Republican takeover of the Missouri House in the 2002 elections and subsequently was chosen as House speaker.

(AP) — High schools across the Kansas City region are working to get students excited about science and engineering.

Steve Case, the director of the Center of Science Education at the University of Kansas, says the effort is important because science education needs students to tap their creative energy. He says schools need to immerse students in projects that involve interesting work and teach flexible and adaptive thinking.

The goal was the reason why about 50 high schools students from around Kansas City recently attended a lecture by J. Craig Venter about the future possibilities of fusing biology and engineering. Venter led the first team to sequence the human genome, and he also helped create the first cell with a synthetic genome.

(AP) — Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is discouraging Missouri residents from signing up for health insurance under a new online marketplace.

People can begin enrolling for insurance Oct. 1 under several options that will be offered by a federally run health insurance exchange. The online shopping site is a key part of the 2010 federal health care law signed by President Barack Obama.

Kinder, a Republican, has fought against the federal health care law. He said Monday that Missouri residents should actively resist it by refusing to sign up for coverage through the insurance exchange.

Specific insurance policy options and prices aren’t known yet in Missouri, although they are in some other states. That’s partly because a Missouri law prohibits state officials from taking steps to implement an insurance exchange.

 

(AP) — Police say thieves are using aluminum foil to block satellites and run up big credit card bills.

Thieves used the scheme at least three times in Kansas City since the weekend.

The process works at businesses that use satellite dishes to transmit credit card information to card companies, banks or processing centers. Police say the thieves stop those transmissions by covering satellite dishes with aluminum foil. That allows thieves to use counterfeit, maxed-out or stolen credit card without being detected.

Police Sgt. Rob Rickett said the scam has been reported elsewhere in the country but has only recently been found in Kansas City. Rickett says small businesses are especially vulnerable because larger businesses are more likely to discover the problem sooner.

(AP) — Overland Park police have arrested a Kansas City, Kan., man on suspicion of first-degree murder in a shooting death in Overland Park.

Officer Gary Mason, a spokesman for Overland Park police says that the 21-year-old suspect is being held in the Johnson County Jail in connection with the shooting death of Brandon L. Holmes.

The suspect was arrested Monday.

Holmes was found shot to death at his home Friday afternoon. Police say he died from a gunshot wound to his chest.