JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – A businessman has been acquitted of defrauding the federal government out of $3 million in disaster recovery money after a massive tornado ripped through Joplin in 2011.

Raul Gonzales was found not guilty Friday. Prosecutors say his company, Intelligent Investments Inc., was recruited by an out-of-state company to bid on a tornado-cleanup contract that was to go to a small business owned by a veteran with a service disability. Under the contract, at least half the workers were to live in two southern Missouri counties.

But the indictment says the out-of-state company and its subcontractors did most of the work, with no local resources or contractors.

The defense argued that Gonzeles relied more heavily on subcontractors after the government wanted the work done faster.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri appeals court has sided with a former county jail inmate over the way a court process was used to try and collect payment for his room and board while behind bars.

A panel of the Missouri Appeals Court’s Western District ruled Tuesday in favor of John Wright of Higginsville. The ruling follows extensive coverage of so-called “debtor’s prison” issues by St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger .

Wright pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of stealing and resisting arrest in Lafayette County on July 27, 2016, and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Like many rural Missouri counties, Lafayette County requires inmates to repay jail-related costs. He was ordered to pay about $1,300, and required to appear in court monthly to review how he was repaying the money.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A divided Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that police can rely exclusively on their sense of smell to provide probable cause for a preliminary search of a home for marijuana without a warrant.

The 4-3 ruling extends to residences already established practice in Kansas that allows police to search vehicles for marijuana based only on smells.

The ruling issued Friday came in a case in which Lawrence police entered a man’s apartment without a warrant because they said they detected a strong smell of raw marijuana.

The justices rejected arguments by Lawrence Hubbard’s attorney that sought to suppress evidence of drugs because the initial warrantless search by Lawrence Police Officer Kimberly Nicholson and another officer violated his constitutional rights. The lawyer also argued Nicholson’s testimony that she smelled raw marijuana coming from the apartment was inadmissible expert testimony and questioned whether the officer could detect the smell of raw marijuana inside the apartment while standing outside the front door.

The majority opinion written by Justice Dan Biles that upheld Hubbard’s convictions said officers didn’t have to perform a sophisticated sensory task before performing the warrantless search.

“We are not dealing with sommeliers trying to identify a white wine as a Loire Valley Chenin Blanc,” he wrote in the decision.

The officers entered Hubbard’s apartment in November 2013. After later obtaining a search warrant, they found 25 grams of unsmoked marijuana in a closed Tupperware container locked inside a safe in a bedroom closet. A small amount of weed was detected on a partially burnt cigarillo in the living room.

The closet holding the marijuana was an estimated 30 feet from where Nicholson said she first smelled unsmoked marijuana, said Jim Rumsey, Hubbard’s attorney.

“From 30 feet away we’re supposed to believe she can smell raw marijuana?” Rumsey said. “I’d suggest no reasonable person could do that.”

Kate Butler, an assistant district attorney in Douglas County who argued the state’s case before the Supreme Court, said the officers properly established probable cause and the initial security sweep prevented someone inside apartment from destroying possible evidence of a crime.

“What we do have is two officers very familiar with the smell of marijuana testify using words such as ‘overwhelming, potent and very strong,’ ” Butler said.

A dissenting opinion authored by Justice Carol Beier said Hubbard’s convictions should be reversed and his sentence vacated.

Beier said a lower court ruling failed to demonstrate the lawfulness of the search warrant and determine whether police officers should have been qualified as expert witnesses.

BOURBON COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just before 5a.m. Tuesday in Bourbon County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a pedestrian identified as Dale Bernard Campbell, 62, Kansas City, was in the left lane of northbound U.S. 69 just north of 12^th Street trying to wave down a vehicle.

A northbound 2017 Nissan Sentra driven by Rita R. Doherty, 56, Fort Scott, was in the left lane. The driver deviated to the right in attempt to miss the pedestrian.

However, the driver side front corner of the Nissan struck Campbell.  The driver then pulled to the right shoulder and stopped. Campbell was transported to KU Medical Center.

Doherty and a passenger in the Nissan were not injured.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Both U.S. senators from Missouri are demanding answers about the death of a veteran after an apparent altercation at the Kansas City VA Medical Center.

The Kansas City Star reports that Sens. Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt sent a joint letter to U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie last week. They urged him to release any information that can be made public about the death in May of Dale Farhner of Kingston, Missouri.

The Kansas City VA Medical Center’s spokesman said then that he couldn’t release any information “due to privacy restrictions.”

The Star responded by filing a records request, but the VA records manager said in July that the documents were being withheld because a VA law enforcement review was underway. The Star’s appeal of the denial is pending.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz has serenaded a Kansas high school senior who is hospitalized in St. Louis while awaiting a second double-lung transplant.

The Grammy Award winner stopped by the bedside of 18-year-old Madison Taliaferro, of Holton, on Sunday while he was in Missouri for a concert.  Mraz performed his hit songs “I’m Yours” and “Have It All.”

Taliaferro’s mother, Desiree Taliaferro, shared videos on Facebook. She wrote in a post that nurses schemed to get Mraz to sing to her daughter because they “know she loves musicals and just overly enjoys singing.”

Madison Taliaferro was born with cystic fibrosis and received a pair of lungs six years ago. The operation went well, but then her lung function fell suddenly from 48 percent to 22.5 percent.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The remains of a 19-year-old Kansas man who was killed during the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor have been identified.

Camillus O’Grady was killed on the battleship USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941. The Defense Department announced Monday that it had accounted for him, although the identification was made two years ago, using DNA and a dental analysis. The Navy seaman was from the Washington County town of Greenleaf.

The Department of Defense in 2015 ordered the disinterment of unknown victims from the Oklahoma, and began exhuming those remains for analysis. That resulted in the identification of O’Grady.