The Associated Press

Severe Weather Hits Missouri

Tornados swept through eastern Missouri yesterday, damaging homes and yanking down power lines. No injuries were reported.

The Pike County Sheriff's Department says the storm hit the Bowling Green area late yesterday afternoon, and that three tornadoes were seen in the county in a 45-minute period. Some homes in the Clarksville area had roof damage, and barns and outbuildings in rural Pike County also were damaged.

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan says brokerage firm A.G. Edwards has reached a $755,000 settlement with the state of Missouri.

Carnahan said Tuesday in a release that the settlement ends an investigation that resulted from a complaint by an 81-year-old southwest Missouri investor. Carnahan said the consent order stemmed from her investigation that found the firm sold annuities to elderly customers without proper documentation.

The Illinois High School Association has approved a new policy requiring high school athletes who leave a game with head injuries to be cleared in the days that follow by a doctor or an athletic trainer working with a physician.

The IHSA board approved the new policy Tuesday. Previously the organization's concussion policy didn't require medical checks after the day the injury occurred.

The policy change follows months of reports on long-term damage athletes suffer from concussions in both pro sports and in college and high school.

The latest update in the Coleman trial announces that a jury has been seated.

The 12-member panel selected Tuesday includes 10 women and two men, along with four male alternates. Starting next week, they'll hear opening statements and testimony in the case against Christopher Coleman.

Jurors were chosen in Perry County and will be brought to Monroe County, where Coleman has pleaded not guilty in the May 2009 killings at the family's Columbia home.

Peabody Energy Corp. says its profit rose in the first quarter due to higher prices for Australian coal used in steelmaking and increased demand in the U.S.

The world's biggest private-sector coal company says its net income attributable to common shareholders was $176.5 million, or 65 cents per share, in the January-March period. That's up from $133.7 million, or 50 cents, a year earlier.

St. Louis-based Peabody says first-quarter revenue rose 15 percent to $1.74 billion from $1.51 billion the previous year.