OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A clerk at a suburban Kansas City phone store will not be charged in the fatal shooting of a man identified as Deshawn Brim who police say was trying to rob the store.

The Johnson County District Attorney’s office announced Monday that the June 10 shooting at a Boost Mobile store in Overland Park was self-defense.

Police say Brim, of Raytown, Missouri, was armed with a handgun when he tried to rob the store.

The store clerk pulled out a handgun and shot Brim as he jumped over the counter toward the employee.

Prosecutors say the employee feared for his life and the life of a co-worker when he shot Brim.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Two Dallas men who helped steal 654 firearms in Springfield, Missouri, have been sentenced to federal prison.

Federal prosecutors say 36-year-old Raynord Hunt was sentenced Friday to eight years and four months in prison without parole. And 29-year-old Keith Lowe was sentenced to six years without parole. Both men were charged with aiding and abetting.

They were among six men charged with stealing handguns and shotguns from United Parcel Service trailers in October 2017. The weapons were being shipped from Beretta Firearms in Maryland to Bass Pro Shops in Springfield.

Four other Texas men were sentenced in late May for their roles in the theft.

The men also must pay more than $206,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors said in May that only 73 of the guns have been recovered.

JACKSON COUNTY —One person died in an accident just before 9:30p.m. Monday in Jackson County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Cadillac driven by Desiree C. Smith, 37, Blue Springs was westbound in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 just west of Adams Dairy Parkway.

The Cadillac struck a 2003 Ford passenger vehicle driven by Heather R. Blackman, 44, Blue Springs, head-on.

Blackman was pronounced dead at the scene. Jackson County EMS transported Smith and a passenger in the Ford Chloe D. Atkinson, 18, Blue Springs, to Centerpoint Medical Center. The occupants of the Ford were properly restrained at the time of the crash, according to the MSHP.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on a dispute between the Missouri state health department and a St. Louis clinic over the clinic’s license to perform abortions (all times local):

2:10 p.m.

A St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic is taking a battle over its abortion license to a state panel.

Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Colleen McNicholas in a Monday statement said the St. Louis clinic will continue its fight through the Administrative Hearing Commission.

A St. Louis judge on Monday had ruled that the clinic had not yet exhausted its options outside of court.

McNicholas says abortion access in Missouri will be gone if the commission doesn’t act by Friday.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s spokesman Steele Shippy says the judge’s ruling affirms the state’s contention that the licensing dispute should be heard by the state commission.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge on Monday ruled that the state’s lone abortion clinic can continue performing abortions through Friday but kicked the clinic’s lawsuit out of court.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer extended a preliminary injunction he previously issued in order to give a Planned Parenthood affiliate in St. Louis time to take a licensing fight before an administrative panel.

Stelzer ruled the clinic has not yet exhausted its options outside of court to handle the dispute over its license to perform abortions. The state health department on Friday declined to renew the clinic’s abortion license.

The judge directed Planned Parenthood to take the issue up with the Administrative Hearing Commission, a panel that typically handles disputes between state agencies and businesses or individuals.

Requests for comment Monday to Planned Parenthood were not immediately returned.

The fate of the clinic has drawn national attention because Missouri would become the first state since 1974, the year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide, without a functioning abortion clinic if it closes. The battle also comes as abortion rights supporters raise concerns that conservative-led states are attempting to end abortion through tough new laws and tighter regulation.

The state has said concerns about the clinic arose from inspections in March. Among the problems Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services investigators have cited were three “failed abortions” requiring additional surgeries and another that led to life-threatening complications for the mother, The Associated Press reported last week, citing a now-sealed court filing.

Planned Parenthood has said Missouri is using the licensing process as a weapon aimed at halting abortions.

Missouri is among several conservative states, emboldened by new conservative justices on the Supreme Court, to pass new restrictions on abortions in the hope that the high court will eventually overturn Roe v. Wade.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation on May 24 to ban abortions at or beyond eight weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest.

The number of abortions performed in Missouri has declined every year for the past decade, reaching a low of 2,910 last year. Of those, an estimated 1,210 occurred at eight weeks or less of pregnancy, according to health department data.

More Missouri women are getting abortions in Kansas than in Missouri. Information from the state of Kansas shows that about 3,300 of the 7,000 abortions performed there last year involved Missouri residents.

Kansas has an abortion clinic in Overland Park, a Kansas City suburb just 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the state line.

The nearest clinic to St. Louis is in Granite City, Illinois, less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. Illinois does not track the home states of women seeking abortions so it’s unknown how many Missouri residents have been treated there.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will allow transgender residents to change their birth certificates so that the documents reflect their gender identities under a legal settlement ending a federal lawsuit.

LGBTQ-right advocates said Monday that Kansas now will have a policy on birth certificates in line with most other states’ policies.

It’s time for KS to move past its discriminatory anti-transgender policy. This decision acknowledges that transgender Kansans have the same rights as anyone else, including the right to easily obtain a birth certificate that reflects who they are. #ksleg https://t.co/VHe1AAZjHL

— Governor Laura Kelly (@GovLauraKelly) June 24, 2019

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree signed an order Friday to make the agreement binding on Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials. The department issues birth certificates.

Four transgender Kansas residents and the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project sued last year over the health department’s policy of not allowing transgender residents to change the sex listed on their birth certificates after changing their names legally.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly applauded the agreement and called the old policy “outdated.” She took office in January.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A man who authorities say had a violent criminal history in North Carolina is charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the shooting death of a Missouri police officer.

Officer Michael Langsdorf of the North County Police Cooperative was killed Sunday afternoon in the St. Louis suburb of Wellston after responding to a call about someone trying to pass a bad check at a small market. Langsdorf was a 40-year-old father of two.

Authorities on Monday announced that 26-year-old Bonette Kymbrelle Meeks has been charged in the officer’s death. Meeks is jailed without bond.

ST. LOUIS  —  Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal  shooting that killed a Missouri police officer at a food market near St. Louis.

Officer Michael Langsdorf responded to a call Sunday afternoon about a bad check at a food market in Wellston, according to a media release from the North County Police Cooperative.

Just after arriving, the person attempting to cash the check shot Langsdorf. He was later pronounced dead. The suspect is in custody and a  firearm was recovered.

Langsdorf, 40, had been employed by the North County Police Cooperative since April 2019, according to the release.  He had 17 years of prior police experience with the St. Louis Police Department.

Langsdorf leaves behind two children, a fiancé, parents and an enormous amount of friends and family.

The North County Police Cooperative serves seven communities in the northern St. Louis county.

By BRIAN GRIMMETT

The terms for handing off the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas, have been settled — even as the billion-dollar-plus research site remains under construction.

In the agreement signed this week, the Department of Homeland Security remains responsible for completing construction of the state-of-the-art research facility. But it will hand over the job of running the place to the U.S. Department of Agriculture when construction wraps up. That’s expected at the end of 2020.

Now the USDA won’t be a tenant, it’ll be the landlord.

“The roles of the research people does not change,” DHS NBAF Coordinator Tim Barr said. “The security setting does not change. The relationships that exist with the FBI and other entities, that does not change at all.”

NBAF is intended to be a world-class animal disease research facility and will ultimately be the only location in the U.S. where scientists will study live foot-and-mouth disease in livestock.

Once finished, the building will house more than 500,000 square feet of laboratory space, including the nation’s first biosafety Level 4 large animal research laboratory.

The BSL-4 laboratory will allow researchers to study deadly zoonotic diseases — those that are highly contagious and can spread between humans and animals — that don’t have any known vaccinations or treatments.

NBAF will be replacing the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York.

The USDA recently opened up an office in Manhattan to begin recruiting potential employees.

“A facility like this allows us to bring those people in, do the work that we need to do and be more prepared to stand-up operationally when we move into the NBAF facility,” said Ken Burton, USDA’s NBAF coordinator.

He said the agency would like to have 80% of the workforce needed for NBAF hired by the end of 2020.

The USDA expects to need as many as 400 employees once the facility is completely up and running at the end of 2022.

Brian Grimmett reports on the environment, energy and natural resources for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @briangrimmett or email grimmett (at) kmuw (dot) org.