State digest 06/19/04

State unemployment rate increases in May

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A month after Democratic Gov. Bob Holden and Republican President Bush lauded Missouri's job growth as among the best in the nation, the picture for May was not quite as bright. Missouri's unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent in May, an increase from the 4.7 percent rate in April but still below the 5.8 percent rate of May 2003, according to the federal Labor Department. The nation's overall unemployment rate remained higher than Missouri's at 5.6 percent.

Teens get prison terms in drag-racing death

CLAYTON, Mo. -- Two teenagers accused of street racing and convicted of involuntary manslaughter after one's car crossed the centerline, fatally colliding with the car of a high school student on the way home from the library, will spend time in prison. Judge David Lee Vincent III sentenced Christopher Smithson, 17, to three years, and Jeremy Ketchum, 18, to 120 days on Thursday. Ketchum said he was racing his Ford Mustang against Smithson's Chevrolet Camaro on Feb. 10, 2003, when the Camaro crossed the center line and crashed into an oncoming car driven by Megan Landholt, 17.

-- From wire reports