ROLLA (AP) - The Phelps County Commission has banned smoking within 25 feet of any public entrance to the county courthouse. The move was prompted by concerns about patient health and compliance with federal laws. Jodi Waltman is director of the Phelps/Maries County Health Department. She told commissioners the smokers who congregate near the entrance pose a health risk to pregnant women and children entering the building. She also said the health department must comply with federal rules governing such food programs as Women, Infants and Childrens or WIC.

KENNETT (AP) - The trial for Heather Ellis, whose case has strong racial overtones, has resumed in Kennett and could go to the jury Friday. Ellis is accused of cutting in line at the Wal-Mart in January 2007, then becoming belligerent and refusing to leave after store managers asked her to go. The 24-year-old Louisiana schoolteacher claims she was pushed by a white customer, harassed by store employees and called racial slurs by police officers who arrested her. On Thursday, the jury heard testimony from Wal-Mart employees and Kennett police officers. The defense worked to show they weren't credible witnesses. Ellis could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of assaulting officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. The case has drawn interest both from civil rights groups and organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.

KENNETT (AP) - Prosecution witnesses took the stand Thursday in the trial of Heather Ellis, a 24-year-old Louisiana schoolteacher accused of assaulting police officers at the Kennett Wal-Mart nearly three years ago. Among those to testify was assistant manager Kay McDaniel, who said Ellis called her a stupid, uneducated Wal-Mart employee. Ellis is accused of cutting in line at the Wal-Mart in January 2007, then becoming belligerent and refusing to leave after store managers asked her to go. Ellis claims she was pushed by a white customer, harassed by store employees and called racial slurs by police officers who arrested her. She could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of assaulting officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) - Springfield officials say an explosion that destroyed a home and damaged several others was caused by a natural gas leak. The home of Albert Lee Brown and Deborah Green was reduced to rubble Thursday while the couple was at a restaurant. Springfield city spokeswoman Louise Whall says the couple was replacing a water heater and had not properly turned off the gas. The explosion totally destroyed the home where Green and Brown lived. It left five nearby homes structurally unlivable and city officials say 12 other homes are temporarily unlivable because utilities were shut off. The blast shattered windows for blocks and residents from miles away said they heard or felt it. No serious injuries were reported.

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Scientists have unraveled the DNA of humans and other creatures. Now, a team led by the Genome Center at Washington University in St. Louis has decoded the genetic makeup of a stalk of corn. The team published the completed corn genome in the Nov. 20 journal Science. Washington University officials say it will speed efforts to develop better crop varieties and help feed the growing worldwide demand for food, livestock feed and fuel. Corn is the nation's top crop. The corn genome consists of 32,000 genes in just 10 chromosomes. By comparison, humans have 20,000 genes in 23 chromosomes. The $29.5 million maize sequencing project is funded by the U.S. departments of agriculture and energy and the National Science Foundation. It began in 2005.

FULTON (AP) - A Columbia man has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a former friend in a Columbia park. A Callaway County jury on Thursday found Grady Dortch guilty in the death of 28-year-old Miles Heard in Douglass Park on Nov. 4, 2008. Dortch faces life in prison without parole when he is sentenced Dec. 21. Testimony indicated the two men had fought at a nightclub a few days before the shooting, and Dortch allegedly threatened to kill Heard. But defense witnesses testified that Dortch shot his life was in danger when he shot Heard.

KANSAS CITY (AP) - A Mississippi man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without parole for attempting to have sex with underage prostitutes. Thirty-four-year-old Christopher M. Cockrell of Armory, Miss., was sentenced in Kansas City federal court Thursday. He pleaded guilty in July to attempted commercial sex trafficking of a child. Prosecutors say Cockrell traveled to Kansas City in March after seeing an online advertisement for children who would perform sex acts. The ad was posted by undercover officers and no children were involved. Cockrell was arrested after paying $80 to have sex with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl. He was one of seven people indicted through the sting operation, the first in the nation to charge customers of child prostitution.