// a href = ./ //

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, Sandra, will appear in federal court today to answer criminal charges in an alleged scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items.

Both have agreed to plead guilty in deals with federal prosecutors. Jackson is charged with conspiracy and his wife with one count of filing false joint federal income tax returns for the years 2006 through 2011 that knowingly understated the income the couple received.

Police are searching for a shoplifting suspect who may have abducted a woman from a Cool Valley grocery store.

Normandy Police, which patrols Cool Valley, report that the suspect ran out of the Schnucks Supermarket on South Florissant Tuesday evening. The man got into the passenger side of a late-model, red, Ford Expedition, which drove away.

Police aren't sure if the woman driving was a getaway driver or a hostage.

A surveillance image of the suspect is posted on our website, KTRS.com. Anyone with information is asked to call 911.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri first-graders could see an addition to their curriculum under a bill given first-round approval in the Missouri Senate.

The measure endorsed Tuesday would give school districts the option to teach a National Rifle Association-sponsored gun safety program to students in first grade. SB75 would also allow schools to implement a training program for teachers and other personnel on responding to intruders.

The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Dan Brown, of Rolla, originally would have required schools to adopt both programs. But opposition from Democratic senators caused Brown to make the training and gun safety course optional.

The measure needs one more affirmative vote before moving to the House.