News

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's order that Missouri taxpayers pay more than $156,000 to cover Planned Parenthood's legal bills tied to a legal dispute over a clinic's abortion license.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday affirmed U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey's August 2016 decision that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services must pay the attorneys' fees and expenses incurred by what now is Planned Parenthood Great Plains.

Laughrey also blocked the state from revoking the Columbia clinic's abortion license.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Law enforcement officials are suing more than a dozen businesses in southwest Missouri suspected of being involved in human trafficking and prostitution under the guise of offering massages.

Attorney General Josh Hawley announced Thursday that his office and Greene County Prosecutor Daniel Patterson filed a lawsuit naming 16 businesses or individuals in Springfield.

Hawley says 18 businesses were raided in Springfield by law enforcement agencies and similar raids were being conducted in Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens says he'll stop funding cuts for foster-care families that he approved earlier this year.

Greitens in a Thursday Facebook post said cutting aid to families who care for foster children was not his intention.

Greitens last month signed a budget that included an across-the-board 1.5 percent cut in reimbursements for doctors and other providers who care for people on Medicaid. That meant cuts to foster-care families.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri appellate court says a judge's blocking an ethics panel from requiring a conservative activist to register to lobby the Legislature was premature.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports a Missouri Court of Appeals ruling Tuesday allows the Missouri Ethics Commission to again begin a hearing over whether Ron Calzone can appear before the House and Senate without formally registering.

Calzone heads the Missouri First group that promotes limited government.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal agency is conducting three Title IX investigations at Washington University in St. Louis — two related to allegations of sexual assault and the third a complaint about sexual harassment.

Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Jill Friedman said Wednesday that the investigations are being conducted by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. All three cases were considered and resolved through the university's Title IX process, but claimants filed for additional review.

COLUMBIA — Boone County will receive more than $600,000 in federal reimbursement for public infrastructure repairs resulting from flooding in the spring.

President Donald Trump declared a major disaster in Missouri due to flooding that lasted from April 28 to May 11, according to previous Missourian reporting. Boone County wasn’t included at that time, but a preliminary assessment showed $750,000 in damage to public infrastructure, according to a news release from Boone County Emergency Management.

Republican Gov. Eric Greitens' nonprofit has donated $250,000 to a political action committee created to help stave off efforts by labor unions to repeal Missouri's right-to-work law.

The Kansas City Star reports that the source of the money given Monday to Missourians for Worker Freedom is unknown. That's because nonprofits, such as Greitens' A New Missouri Inc., aren't required to disclose donors.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri's unemployment rate has dropped slightly.

The state's Economic Development Department announced Tuesday that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate went down from 3.9 percent in May to 3.8 percent in June.

Unemployment had been holding steady at 3.9 percent from March through May.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri state lawmaker from suburban St. Louis says he'll appeal the more than $114,000 in fines he has been assessed for allegedly violating campaign finance laws, blaming the supposed misconduct on the theft of his debit card and campaign computer.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the Missouri Ethics Commission concluded Democratic state Rep. Courtney Curtis of Berkeley kept at least 11 bank accounts for his re-election fund, potentially allowing him to use some donations for personal use.

COLUMBIA — At the command of the governor, a statewide prescription drug monitoring program is in the works — but local officials say they are concerned about how it may mesh with an established local monitoring program.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A dispute over a common weed killer is turning neighbor against neighbor across much of farm country.

The furor surrounding the herbicide dicamba has quickly become the biggest controversy of its kind in U.S. agriculture. And it is even suspected as a factor in the death of a farmer who was allegedly shot by a worker from a nearby farm where the chemical had been sprayed.

Crops near many treated soybean fields have turned up with leaves that were cupped and crinkled.

COLUMBIA — The MU International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine was closed June 30 as part of the UM System's cost-cutting measures.

The institute, at 1514 Research Park Drive off Providence Road, has been on campus since 2009. The decision to close the institute was made last month, MU spokesman Christian Basi wrote in an email.

MU broke ground on the $10 million institute in 2008. The future of the building is still to be determined, but it is likely to be used as a research facility, Basi wrote.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — City leaders in Missouri's capital are hoping that new legislation will help rejuvenate the state's former prison and the largely dilapidated area around it.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Gov. Eric Greitens signed a measure last week turning over 32 acres of state-owned land to Jefferson City. The city plans to build roads, hotels and new housing in the shadow of the old Missouri State Penitentiary, which closed in 2004.