The Associated Press

 Recent rains have caused rivers to rise across Missouri and Kansas, and with more rain in the forecast, the National Weather Service is predicting minor flooding in several locations.

Hydrologists expect flooding along the Mississippi River starting in the next few days at Missouri towns that include Hannibal, Clarksville and Cape Girardeau. Minimal damage is expected but the concern is that the water will remain high into late March, so additional rainfall could be problematic.

Forecasts call for more rain Tuesday and Wednesday.

Missouri's largest utility company plans to spend $6.3 billion on grid improvements over the next five years.

Ameren Missouri filed its plan with the Missouri Public Service Commission on Thursday. The highlights include installing 800,000 "smart meters" through 2023 as part of an effort to give customers more control over electrical costs, and a $1 billion expenditure on wind energy in 2020.

Sen. Josh Hawley has been subpoenaed to answer questions about his handling of Missouri's open records law while he was the state's attorney general. 

The Cole County Circuit Court issued the subpoena Monday as part of a lawsuit against Gov. Mike Parson's office.

Gov. Mike Parson is scheduled to announce who will replace Josh Hawley as Missouri's attorney general.

Parson is planning a news conference at around 9:45 this morning to fill the attorney general's post, which Hawley held after being elected in 2016.

Hawley will be moving to the U.S. Senate, after defeating Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill in last week's election.

It is the second statewide office that Parson will fill since taking over as governor June 1.

CHESTERFIELD — The former chief financial officer at Columbia Public Schools has admitted to stealing thousands of dollars from band boosters at a suburban St. Louis high school.

The Columbia Daily-Tribune reports that Anna Munson pleaded guilty Thursday in St. Louis County District Court to receiving stolen property.

EDINA  — Three junior high school football players have been charged in juvenile court with felony harassment and their coach has resigned in a case of alleged escalating hazing involving members of a younger football team. Knox County R-1 School District Superintendent Andy Turgeon says he followed board policy in disciplining the students but provided no details, citing student privacy laws. He says the coach's resignation happened last month after an investigation.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A defense lawyer says three Nebraska farmers charged in an organic grain fraud scheme were working under a Missouri businessman who marketed ordinary corn and soybeans as organic. Tom Brennan, James Brennan and Michael Potter are expected to appear Friday afternoon in federal court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to plead guilty to wire fraud. Prosecutors say each received $2.5 million from 2010 to 2017 from sales of corn and soybeans falsely marketed as certified organic.

CARTHAGE — A city in southwestern Missouri that was recently left without a hometown newspaper will soon have two.

The Carthage Chronicle launched shortly after The Carthage Press closed without warning in August after more than 130 years in business, the Joplin Globe reported. The Chronicle is published by Sarcoxie Publishing Co. and offers subscriptions as well as free limited mailings.

ST. LOUIS — Missouri supporters of medical marijuana will have their say in the November election. The only question: Do they cast a yes vote once, twice or three times?

Thanks to successful petition drives for three competing proposals, all three are on the ballot. Two would amend the Missouri Constitution; the other would simply change state law.

What happens if more than one passes? That's where things get sticky.

ST. LOUIS — An Arkansas man who killed himself during a 1999 police standoff at a Missouri motel was a killer and rapist who strangled a South Carolina woman in 1990 and gunned down a Missouri mother and daughter eight years later, authorities said Friday.

ST. LOUIS — Missouri's Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley opposes a federal provision that bars religious organizations from political endorsements, and his upcoming appearance at a Baptist university may provide a test case for the future of the measure.

Hawley, the state's attorney general, is scheduled to speak Wednesday during chapel at Hannibal-LaGrange University, a 900-student college in Hannibal, 115 miles north of St. Louis.

KANSAS CITY — A coalition of nonprofit groups that has registered more than 87,000 new Missouri voters — most of them black residents — says it is not working for Sen. Claire McCaskill, but its effort could help her campaign against Republican challenger Josh Hawley.

JEFFERSON CITY — A Missouri appeals court panel cleared the way Friday for voters to decide a November ballot initiative that could shake up of the state Legislature by requiring districts to be drawn to achieve "partisan fairness" and imposing new lobbying limits.

The ruling overturned a decision issued a week ago by a state judge who said the so-called Clean Missouri initiative violated the state constitution by addressing multiple topics.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will urge the defeat of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill during a campaign rally next week in her Missouri home state.

Trump's campaign says he will rally supporters Sept. 13 in Cape Girardeau and urge them to replace McCaskill with Republican Josh Hawley, the state attorney general who has Trump's endorsement. Trump won Missouri by 18 percentage points in 2016. McCaskill is a top target for Republicans seeking to expand the party's slim 51-49 edge in the U.S. Senate.

A Missouri judge says he will rule soon on whether to block a November ballot measure seeking to change the way House and Senate districts are drawn and limit lobbyist gifts.

Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green heard arguments Friday from attorneys for a Republican voter and the head of Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. They claim the so-called Clean Missouri initiative violates the state constitution by addressing multiple subjects.

Lawyers for the attorney general's office and initiative sponsors say it deals with only one topic — the state Legislature.

The Missouri Legislature has approved a bill banning "revenge porn."

House lawmakers gave the measure final approval in a 138-0 vote Thursday. It passed the Senate 33-0 on Wednesday.

The Missouri House's top budgeter on Thursday said there should be "no loophole" in a state spending plan that would allow Planned Parenthood to continue to receive state funding.

People with negative impressions of Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens are being weeded out of his potential juror pool for a felony invasion-of-privacy trial alleging Greitens took a compromising photo of a woman with whom he had an affair as he was preparing to run for governor.

Authorities are investigating a deadly Columbia shooting.

A pancake restaurant chain has fired a black server at a suburban Kansas City restaurant after she printed a racial slur on a black customer's receipt.

A lawyer for Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens argued Thursday that Attorney General Josh Hawley should be barred from investigating the governor because of critical comments that he suggested were partly motivated by Hawley's candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

During a court hearing, Greitens' attorney Jim Bennett said Hawley displayed a "personal interest" when he called upon Greitens to resign following the release of a House investigatory report this month detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by Greitens. Bennett said that should disqualify Hawley's entire office from investigating separate allegations that Greitens' wrongfully accessed a donor list from a veterans' charity for his political campaign.

The Missouri House speaker says most Republicans in his chamber have signed a petition calling for a special session during which lawmakers could consider impeaching Republican Gov. Eric Greitens.

House Speaker Todd Richardson did not provide specific numbers Thursday but said "well over a majority" of Republicans are on board. He also anticipates overwhelming support from Democrats.