Associated Press

The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded contracts to three firms for work to repair the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri, a levee intentionally breached by the corps at the height of spring flooding in 2011.

Missouri conservation officials are holding a public meeting Saturday to discuss a disease affecting deer in the northern part of the state.

Officials of Missouri colleges and universities will gather next week for a day-long conference on issues including finances and academic quality.

The state Coordinating Board for Higher Educations is sponsoring the June 7 meeting in Columbia. It's expected to draw about 100 top administrators and members of governing boards, along with leaders of national organizations.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is in Missouri hoping to help a man with a similar background score a similar victory.

Johnson was attending a fundraiser and campaign event Wednesday for John Brunner, one of three prominent Republicans seeking to challenge Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill in November.

A Brunner spokesman said the campaign hopes to raise $50,000 from the fundraiser in suburban St. Louis.

Missouri's annual legislative session has officially come to a close.

Lawmakers stopped debating and passing legislation on May 18 in compliance with a constitutional deadline.

But the session officially ended Wednesday, when leaders of the House and Senate signed the bills that passed, delivered them to the governor and banged the gavel for the final time.

A total of 114 bills and proposed constitutional amendments passed the Legislature during its 2012 session.

Gov. Jay Nixon has 45 days to sign or veto legislation.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has signed legislation redirecting casino fees to nursing homes for military veterans.

The legislation signed into law Wednesday provides a dedicated funding stream for the state's seven nursing homes that serve about 1,300 veterans.

Casinos already pay a per-person fee to the state. Most of that money has gone to early childhood programs. But the new law redirects the bulk of those fees to veterans homes.

A city of Columbia's effort to classify certain neighborhoods as blighted to help businesses secure tax credits continues to draw fire from local activists.

The "blight" label is required by the state Department of Economic Development to create Enhanced Enterprise Zones. The zones are distinct areas where businesses can receive tax breaks in return for adding new facilities or jobs.

Opponents say the label will lower property values and could make it easier for local government to seize property under eminent domain laws.

Kansas City police say the use of PCP is increasing, particularly in the city's urban core.

Officers are concerned because they say PCP users often are violent and unpredictable. The drug induces hallucinations and makes many users combative and unable to feel pain.

Police Capt. Todd Paulson calls PCP the scariest drug on the streets. He was one of six officers who were needed to subdue a PCP user in January.

The Kansas City Star reports officers used to see a brief increase in PCP arrests after a shipment came in but would then go weeks without any arrests.

The Missouri Supreme Court has struck down part of a state harassment law enacted after the suicide of a St. Charles County teenager who was teased over the Internet.

The high court on Tuesday invalidated a 2008 state law defining harassment to cover anyone who "knowingly makes repeated unwanted communication to another person."

Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt and North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven plan to make their own inspections of dams and levees along the Missouri River.