FRANKLIN COUNTY — Four people died in an accident just before 1:30p.m. Friday in Franklin County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Chevy Cobalt driven by Michael T. Declue, 58, Desoto, was southbound on Highway 47 at North Neade Farm Road. The vehicle traveled left of center and struck a northbound 2010 Kenworth semi head-on.

The Cobalt spun and struck the left side of a 2012 Chevy Cruz driven by Adriah L. Weston, 25, Marthasville.

Declue and passengers in the Cobalt Catherine A. Mesey, 78; Alayah L. Pratt, 4 and Isaac D. Pratt, 5, all of Descloge, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Union Ambulance transported the semi driver Derek A. Eoff, 46, Belle, to Mercy Hospital.

The children in the Cobalt were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A woman has been convicted of helping to kill her cousin’s ex-boyfriend whose body was found inside a burning home near Lawrence.

38-year-old Christina Towell, of Leavenworth, pleaded no contest Thursday to felony first-degree murder in the November 2017 death of 34-year-old Joel Wales. Other charges, including burglary and arson, were dropped as part of the plea. Her cousin, Tria Evans, was convicted earlier of murder and other charges.

Evans and Wales had a child together and a history of domestic disputes. Prosecutors say text messages show that Towell and Evans plotted the death for more than a month and that Towell drove Evans to the scene.

Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson described the killing in a statement as “heinous and calculated.”

HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City area hospital has passed a follow-up inspection after Missouri inspectors found that its staff failed to properly respond to an 83-year-old woman who died one day after undergoing a routine colonoscopy.

Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville came under scrutiny after Martha Wright of Pleasant Hill died in August of internal bleeding. In November, inspectors found that the hospital hadn’t recognized the seriousness of the incident or done a proper review to determine how it happened.

Hospital officials said in an email that the designation was lifted after a follow-up inspection in February but also acknowledged new infractions for cleanliness that the hospital had to address.

NASA Expedition 59 Flight Engineers Nick Hague of Hoxie, Kansas and Anne McClain concluded their spacewalk at 1:40 p.m. CDT Friday.

During the six-hour, 39-minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts successfully replaced nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries for the power channel on one pair of the station’s solar arrays.

Astronauts were also able to accomplish several get-ahead tasks including removing debris from outside of the station, securing a tieback for restraints on the Solar Array Blanket Box, and photographing a bag of tools for contingency repairs and the airlock thermal cover that is opened and closed for spacewalks.

These new batteries provide an improved power capacity for operations with a lighter mass and a smaller volume than the nickel-hydrogen batteries. Next week, McClain and flight engineer Christina Koch are scheduled to venture outside on the March 29 spacewalk to work on a second set of battery replacements on a different power channel in the same area of the station. This would be the first-ever spacewalk with all-female spacewalkers.

Hague and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency are scheduled to conduct a third spacewalk April 8 to lay out jumper cables between the Unity module and the S0 truss, at the midpoint of the station’s backbone. This work will establish a redundant path of power to the Canadian-built robotic arm, known as Canadarm2. They also will install cables to provide for more expansive wireless communications coverage outside the orbital complex, as well as for enhanced hardwired computer network capability.

Space station crew members have conducted 214 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. This was the first spacewalk for both McClain and Hague. Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 55 days, 21 hours and 39 minutes working outside the station.

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NASA Expedition 59 Flight Engineers Nick Hague of Hoxie, Kansas and Anne McClain will begin a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station at about 7 a.m. CDT Friday, March 22. NASA Television coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 5:30 a.m., according to a media release from the space agency.

Watch the spacewalk on NASA TV and on the agency’s website.

This will be the 214th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance. McClain will be designated extravehicular crewmember 1 (EV 1), wearing the suit with red stripes. Hague will be designated extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2), wearing the suit with no stripes.

This is the first of two battery replacement spacewalks this month. McClain and Hague will replace nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries for the power channel on one pair of the station’s solar arrays. The batteries were transported to the station in September aboard the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle. The spacewalking work continues the overall upgrade of the station’s power system that began with similar battery replacement during spacewalks in January 2017.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A gas stop in Missouri paid off handsomely for a Shawnee, Kansas, man, to the tune of $50 million.

The Missouri Lottery said Thursday that Hira Singh claimed a $50 million Mega Millions jackpot at the agency’s office in Jefferson City.

Singh stopped at a Kansas City, Missouri, QuikTrip store for gas earlier this month. While there, he bought a Mega Millions ticket for the March 12 drawing.

Good choice. It matched all of the numbers: 10, 12, 16, 49 and 57, with a Mega Ball of 18.

Singh didn’t initially realize he won. He found out while using a Check-A-Ticket machine. Just to be sure, he checked three times.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State University is becoming cheaper for good students from five more states.

The Kansas Board of Regents agreed this week to allow new students from Arkansas, California, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas to begin paying less in fall 2020. To qualify, they must have at least a 3.25 overall high school GPA and scores of either 22 on the ACT or 1100 on the SAT. President Richard Myers says it will help with recruitment.

Under the reduced rate, they would have paid $6,562.50 this fall for 14 credit hours. Regular out-of-state students spent $11,610, and in-state students shelled out $4,375.

Qualifying students from nine other states already can receive out-of-state tuition at the same reduced rate, which is 150 percent of the in-state tuition cost.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Missouri man accused of trying to burn down a Planned Parenthood clinic in February now faces new charges.

Wesley Brian Kaster was originally charged March 4 with maliciously damaging a building owned by  Planned Parenthood Great Plains that also provides services in Wichita and Overland Park and receives federal financial assistance.

A grand jury indictment on Wednesday replaced that charge with two new counts — using explosive material to maliciously damage federal property and malicious use of explosive materials.

An attorney for Kaster didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

The clinic in the central Missouri city of Columbia was empty when the pre-dawn fire broke out Feb. 10 . Authorities allege that the 42-year-old man broke the glass front door and threw in a “Molotov cocktail-type device.”