The state will seek to put a Lockwood man to death if he is found guilty of kidnapping, raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl in Golden City girl last year.

The building of new homes in Joplin continues at an average pace of 16 to 18 per month, according to a building permit report released for December by the city of Joplin. Eighteen building permits for new homes were issued in both November and December. In fiscal year 2013, permits for new homes averaged more than 16 per month.

A Baxter Springs man was removed from his position as president of the Cherokee County Ambulance Board after he was arrested at his home Thursday by the Kansas Bureau of Investigations on charges of indecent liberties with a child, criminal sodomy and criminal threat. Stanley Pickering, 79, who until Thursday also was a school crossing guard, is being held without bail at the county jail in Columbus. He also is serving as an appointed member of the Baxter Springs City Council.

An application for a federally designated foreign trade zone in Neosho is nearly complete. “We are putting the final touches on the application,” Neosho businessman Howard Birdsong said last week. He is working with the Neosho Area Business and Industrial Foundation on the project.

One room was nearly silent as pairs of students crafted a tall structure out of paper and straws that would support several golf balls. The adjacent room was filled with cries and cheers as other student teams battled the robots they had built and programmed to chase colored balls.

Southwest Missouri lawmakers introduced a bill in the House this week that could block a power company from building a 340,000-volt transmission line through two Missouri counties. It likely won’t get any further than committee, one lawmaker said, but it made a statement and “began an important discussion.”