Missouri elections: 2 black candidates elected to Ferguson City Council

FERGUSON, Mo. -- Two black candidates are among three people elected to the Ferguson City Council, substantially in- creasing African-American representation in the St. Louis suburb at the center of a national debate about how police interact with minority residents.

Unofficial results Tuesday showed Wesley Bell, a black man, won in the 3rd Ward, and Ella Jones, a black woman, won in the 1st Ward.

Brian Fletcher, a former mayor who is white, won a 2nd Ward race against another white candidate.

Until Tuesday, the mayor and five of six city council members were white. Mayor James Knowles III and three council members, including Dwayne James, who is black, were not up for election this year.

Springfield rolls back protection for gays

Voters in Missouri's third-largest city of Springfield voted Tuesday to repeal an ordinance that provided protection against discrimination in housing and hiring based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Unofficial final results showed repeal of the ordinance passed with 51.4 percent of the vote.

The Springfield City Council passed the law in October, but opponents quickly began a petition drive to repeal it, forcing the public vote. Springfield has about 165,000 residents.

Town re-elects mayor who died last month

Voters in the eastern Missouri town of Hills-boro have re-elected Frank Roland Jr. as mayor, even though he died last month.

Roland had been under hospice care when he died at age 81 on March 9, too late to remove his name from the ballot.

He had been mayor since 1995 and was unopposed.

Roland received 87 votes. Write-in candidates received a total of 81 votes, according to unofficial results.

The Hillsboro Board of Aldermen will decide whether aldermanic president Jim Gowan will continue as interim mayor or whether to appoint someone else to fill out Roland's term.