Associated Press

A Columbia lawyer says Boone County sheriff's deputies patrolling within city limits isn't following local ordinance that treats marijuana possession as a municipal violation.

In 2004, Columbia residents voted to amend a city ordinance and treat possession of up to 35 grams of marijuana as a misdemeanor. Violators are usually released with a summons to appear in court rather than placed under arrest.

But the Columbia-based Missouri Civil Liberties Association says the sheriff and the county prosecutor are disregarding the intent of city voters.

Civil engineers say Missouri's infrastructure gets only a C-minus.

The regional chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers released the letter grade Wednesday. It is part of a report card that evaluated the state's aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, energy, inland waterways, levees, railroads, roads, schools and wastewater. Each sub-category also received a grade.

Legislation awaiting action by Gov. Jay Nixon seeks to comply with federal mandates for Missouri's unemployment benefits system.

The measure also could make it more difficult for workers to receive jobless benefits if they are let go after an unapproved absence or if they knowingly violate a company rule.

Walmart says it is pledging $1 million in cash and materials toward the recovery from the tornado that devastated Moore, Okla. And the company said Tuesday that it’s sending workers from Missouri, and Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas to the affected areas so members of Oklahoma crews can be with their families.

Walmart is also sending truckloads of food, water and other basic items to serve as immediate aid.

The Missouri Department of Conservation is preparing to introduce popular sport fish into southwest Missouri's Bull Shoals Reservoir.

Striped bass were stocked on the Arkansas side of the sprawling lake in 1998. Now, MDC plans to do the same in the lake's northern reaches.

The agency says it will produce 16,000 striped bass fingerlings and stock the Missouri side of Bull Shoals with the fish every other year.

Striped bass are primarily an ocean fish native to the Atlantic coastal region and do not spawn naturally in Bull Shoals.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is considering whether to sign legislation that would let state regulators intervene in federal utility cases.

Officials in Joplin, Mo., have brought together a team of public safety employees that they are sending to tornado-stricken Moore.

Joplin  - devastated by a tornado two years ago - yesterday organized a team of about a dozen police and firefighters to assist in Moore.

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr says his community remembers the assistance it received in 2011 and feels an obligation to lend a hand in Moore.

Missouri's legislative session is over, but the work may continue for some lawmakers.

Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey says he is considering appointing at least three committees to study issues before the 2014 session.

A joint panel of Senate and House members could look into potential changes to the Medicaid health care program for the poor.

Another committee could study potential projects to be included in a bonding proposal that would be put before voters.

Missouri lawmakers have passed legislation consolidating four of the state's business incentives.

The newly created Missouri Works program would be modeled after the current Quality Jobs program, which would come to an end.

A proposed 1-cent sales tax for transportation has stalled in the Missouri Legislature.

The sales tax proposal was projected to generate nearly $8 billion over a decade for state highways, local roads and other modes of transportation such as railroads, airports, mass transit and river ports. Cities and counties would each get 5 percent of the revenues, with the rest going to state projects. Voters would have had to approve the tax in 2014 to enact the proposal.