Happening Now: Bicyclists hospitalized for heat exhaustion while on Greene County trail KY3's Jehan Sheikh reports from a trail in northern Greene County where two bikers were hospitalized for heat exhaustion Tuesday afternoon.  This report was filed at 5 p.m. Tuesday. ...

Prosecutor says ex-sheriff treated 'evidence room like his personal tool shed' A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted a former sheriff of St. Clair County for stealing property recovered in criminal cases and for selling a stolen firearm.  Ron Snodgrass served three terms as sheriff from 2001 to 2012 before losing his bid for a fourth term. “Today’s indictment alleges that the former sheriff treated the county’s evidence room like his personal tool shed, cheating the taxpayers ...

Missouri governor tours Iowa ethanol plant; raises curosity about a 2016 presidential run JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon traveled to Iowa to get a personal look at the latest methods in ethanol production. Nixon took the state plane Tuesday to tour a cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. He was accompanied by the Missouri agriculture and economic development directors. The plant is a joint venture of Poet and Royal DSM and will use corncobs, leaves, husks ...

Humane Society rescues dogs from owner who may have planned to abandon them More than three dozen small-breed dogs were removed from a property in southern Missouri after an investigator says he learned the owner planned to dump them along the side of a highway.  The removal was Monday night at a property in Carter County. The Humane Society of Missouri announced the rescue Tuesday.  The dogs include 39 Chihuahua and mixed-breed dogs, some of them puppies. The Humane Society ...

Broadway?s Kim Crosby will play Mary Poppins at Springfield Little Theatre Disney's Mary Poppins, the opening show of Springfield Little Theatre's 80th season, will premiere on Sept. 12 and run through Oct. 5 at Landers Theatre.  The title role will be performed by Springfield native and Broadway star Kim Crosby, whose career began at Springfield Little Theatre when she was a student at Kickapoo High School. Crosby was a member of the original cast of the Broadway ...

Study says raising beef creates more pollution than pork, poultry or dairy A new study says raising beef for the American dinner table does far more damage to the environment than producing pork, poultry, eggs or dairy.   The study says that compared with the other animal proteins, beef produces five times more heat-trapping gases per calorie. It spews six times as much water-polluting nitrogen. And it uses 11 times more water for irrigation and 28 times more land. The ...

Ex-BP engineer's retrial postponed
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The August retrial of a former BP engineer accused of obstructing justice in an investigation of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been postponed while an appeals court decides whether a judge was right to throw out his earlier conviction.

Senate, House on collision course on border money
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats prepared Tuesday to whack $1 billion from President Barack Obama's emergency spending request for the border, while leaving out policy changes Republicans have demanded as their price for agreeing to any money. The developments pointed to a hardening stalemate over the crisis in South Texas with lawmakers preparing to leave Washington for their annual summer recess at the end of next week.

MH17 black boxes handed to Dutch investigators
Malaysian officials have handed over the black boxes from flight MH17 to Dutch lead investigators of the crash in rebel-held Ukraine, the Netherlands government said. "The black boxes from flight MH17 have been handed over by Malaysian experts to the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) that is leading the international investigation," the foreign ministry said in a statement. The black box data recorders from the flight, allegedly brought down by a missile fired by pro-Russian separatists on Thursday, were handed over in Kiev and will be sent to Farnborough in Britain for the data to be downloaded. "Experts from several countries, including the OVV, will travel with the black boxes to Farnborough to help with the investigation," the ministry said.

Kerry urges Hamas to end conflict, has 'constructive' Egypt talks
By Arshad Mohammed and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Hamas on Tuesday to pursue a negotiated end to its conflict with Israel after what he said were constructive talks with Egyptian officials about their ceasefire proposal. After meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country has some leverage over Hamas through its control of a border crossing from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, Kerry said there was still "work to do" to resolve the conflict.

US: No link to Russian gov't in plane downing
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for "creating the conditions" that led to the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, but they offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement.