The Associated Press

Missouri is lagging in its use of federal stimulus money intended to make homes more energy efficient for low-income residents.

Missouri received nearly $129 million in home weatherization funds for low-income residents under the 2009 federal stimulus bill. As of the end of January, just $47 million of that had been spent. That amounts to 37 percent of the total.

Updated 3:29 p.m. March 15, 2011 with information from committee meeting.

A Missouri House committee has opted not to try to increase funding for school busing and the state's A+ scholarship program.

Some lawmakers had distributed amendments Tuesday that would have provided about $35 million of additional money for public school transportation. But the committee did not vote on any of those amendments Tuesday.

Missouri lawmakers have proposed legislation aimed at preventing Missouri courts from applying laws from foreign countries and those based on Sharia, the Islamic religious law.

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The child known as Baby Joseph is now receiving care at a Catholic hospital in the U.S. after doctors in Canada sought to remove the breathing tube keeping him alive.

Joseph Maraachli is 13 months old and suffers from a neurodegenerative disease. The child had been hospitalized since October at London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario.

A judge has issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the Illinois State Police from releasing the names of registered gun owners in the state - something the agency doesn't want to do anyway.

The order was handed down Friday in Peoria. It is the latest chapter in a battle between the state's attorney general and police force over the release of names of the state's Firearm Owners Identification cardholders.