From the Wire

ST. PETERS, Mo. (AP) -- An eastern Missouri man is accused of holding his pregnant girlfriend captive, punching her and forcing her to drink toilet water and bleach.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- State insurance officials say Jefferson City residents made more than $170 million in insurance claims after a tornado hit the city on May 22.

NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Police are investigating after a human skull was found in a wooded area just south of North Kansas City Hospital.

ROXANA, Ill. (AP) -- Relatives say a mother and her 7-year-old son had been returning from an autism therapy session when their minivan ended up in a suburban St. Louis retention pond.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A convicted killer has been charged in a shooting that left one man dead and another wounded in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- St. Louis is poised to add 14 new electric buses to a heavily traveled route.

EL DORADO SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) -- Authorities say a 79-year-old man was killed when his all-terrain vehicle landed in a river in western Missouri.

Facing thousands of cases of clergy sex abuse, U.S. Catholic leaders addressed their greatest crisis in the modern era with a promised reform: Mandatory review boards.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Authorities say a 42-year-old Chinese national who worked at Monsanto in St. Louis stole important proprietary property and tried to take it to China.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Latest on federal executions (all times local):

OZARK, Mo. (AP) -- A southwest Missouri sheriff’s office is investigating after four deputies were sickened by a suspicious substance at a courthouse.

The U.S. Catholic Church pushed what it called a key reform to address its exploding clergy sex abuse scandal almost two decades ago: Mandatory review boards with lay people in each diocese to review the claims of victims fairly and kindly.

PRINCETON, Mo. (AP) -- Authorities say an inmate who escaped twice from a Missouri jail was captured more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) away in Delaware where he was living in a makeshift hut in a wooded area.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Latest on a lawsuit alleging Missouri violated federal voter laws (all times local):

SWEDESBORO, N.J. (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture says thousands of pounds of salad products are being recalled due to a possible E. coli contamination.

BERKELEY, Mo. (AP) -- St. Louis County police have determined that a 13-month-old boy’s death was due to natural causes.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- In a story Nov. 20 about the Missouri rape kit backlog, The Associated Press reported erroneously that a review found that nearly 90% of Missouri’s rape kits had not been tested. It was nearly 90% of the state’s backlogged rape kits that had not been tested.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Utah woman charged with a crime after her stepchildren saw her topless in her own home is fighting the case that could force her to register as a sex offender, pointing to a court ruling that overturned a topless ban in Colorado and helped fuel a movement.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Fire officials say a fire that damaged a housing unit at the former Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City apparently was caused by embers from a nearby prescribed burn.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Federal prosecutors say a man has admitted he tried to burn down a Planned Parenthood clinic in Missouri because it provides reproductive services.

HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba has publicly laid out the rules governing the extensive, longstanding surveillance and undercover investigation of the island’s 11 million people.

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -- Auburn University is retiring its 20-year-old golden eagle mascot two years after it was grounded from flying at football games because of heart disease.

STOWE, Vt. (AP) -- Snowboarders are taking turns down a Vermont mountain on the opening day of the season as a tribute to a pioneer in the sport who died this week.

Stock indexes edged higher on Wall Street in afternoon trading Friday as a week dominated by the progress in U.S.-China trade talks -- or lack thereof -- comes to a close.

SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) -- An RV stopped on the tracks was hit by a commuter train and burst into flames near Los Angeles, causing widespread rail delays at rush hour Friday, officials said.

SEATTLE (AP) -- Washington state has dealt a setback to efforts to build one of the world’s biggest methanol plants on the Columbia River.

MILAN (AP) -- A Milan hospital is exhibiting X-rays of women attacked by men to highlight what one doctor calls the “daily horror” of violence against women.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Utah elementary school teacher charged with felony kidnapping after leaving school property with a 6-year-old student said she was trying to help the upset girl get home.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Minnesota officials say they will do a state environmental impact statement for a proposed copper-nickel mine upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

An Iowa law allowing people to use lethal force to defend themselves doesn’t apply to defendants who engaged in criminal activity prior to the perceived threat, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The much-hyped unveiling of Tesla’s electric pickup truck went off script Thursday night when supposedly unbreakable window glass splintered twice when hit with a large metal ball.

OLYMPIC VALLEY, Calif. (AP) -- Conservationists trying to block expansion of the Lake Tahoe ski resort that hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics say the developer is trying to hide the impacts of the project on the pristine mountain environment.

U.S. communications regulators have cut off government funding for equipment from two Chinese companies, citing security threats.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- He was accused of using his high office to advance his personal political interests. He derided the investigation as a “witch hunt” fueled by “fake news” -- an “attempted coup.” He counted on his right-wing base, his hand-picked attorney general and his media savvy to weather the crisis.

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Police in North Carolina say a tow truck operator shot and wounded a driver who argued with his attempt to haul away the person’s vehicle.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico’s lower house of Congress approved the 2020 federal budget Friday in an all-night meeting at a convention center after protests and blockades by farm groups surrounding the Congress building.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday his administration will spend $3 million on a pair of studies to explore the potential health effects of the natural gas industry, taking action after months of impassioned pleas by the families of pediatric cancer patients who live in the most heavily drilled region of the state.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Boeing has settled about half of the lawsuits filed in federal court over the October 2018 crash of a 737 Max jet off the coast of Indonesia.

POCAHONTAS, Ark. (AP) -- A judge has set a fall 2020 trial date for a woman charged with killing a former Arkansas state lawmaker who was found dead outside her home.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Colombian officials say three people have died in what they describe as violent clashes with police during looting after a day of mostly peaceful protest.