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Belleville is getting a new grocery store, but only after a contentious city council meeting.

Fox 2 reports Mayor Mark Eckert cast the deciding vote at the meeting to approve 200,000 dollars in tax-increment financing for the Ruler Foods. Ruler Foods is a discount store owned by Kroger's. The TIF money will be used to tear down the vacant building on the lot. Eckert says demolition should begin in March and the store could open by September.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri House committee has adopted a measure requiring voters to show photo identification before casting ballots.

The House Elections Committee approved a state constitutional amendment that would ask voters whether to allow the photo ID requirement. The committee also approved a separate bill that would implement the photo identification requirement.

The vote was along party lines, with Republicans saying the photo ID requirement would increases transparency and reduce voter fraud. Democrats said there are no reports of voter impersonation and that the plan could disenfranchise voters.

Currently when Missourians vote, they can show a photo ID or other means of identification such as utility bills or bank statements.

Both measures head to the House Rules Committee for further consideration.

The last person involved in what authorities describe as the worst case of child abuse in St. Charles County history has been sentenced.

John Scott Thomas III will spend 30 years in his prison for his role in the June 2011 abuse case. Thomas, along with his girlfriend and another man, sexually assaulted three young girls, ages 7 months, 3 years, and 5-years-old. The abuse took place at Tee Kay Mobile Home Manor in an unincorporated area of the county near O'Fallon.