SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is planning to sell wireless phone service directly to customers using the networks of Sprint and T-Mobile.

That’s according to reports Wednesday in the technology news site The Information and The Wall Street Journal. They cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Representatives from Google Inc., Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. declined to comment on the reports.

According to the Journal, Google will resell service on the Sprint and T-Mobile networks. It said it wasn’t clear how widely Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, plans to offer the service, what it will cost or when it will launch.

Google is looking for ways to get more people online to do searches and watch YouTube videos, which could be accomplished by offering more affordable wireless data plans.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is heading to conservative-leaning Idaho to sell the economic proposals he outlined in his State of the Union address.

It’s the first time Obama has visited Idaho as president, though he did headline a rally in the state during his 2008 White House campaign.

From Boise, Obama heads to Kansas, another state that typically backs Republicans.

White House officials say Obama deliberately chose conservative states for his first stops following his annual address to Congress.

Among the economic proposals that he outlined was a tax increase on the wealthy to pay for programs for the middle class.

Obama’s plans have been panned by the Republicans who now control Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic among military veterans has cleared a Senate committee, and lawmakers say they hope the measure will soon be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill named for Clay Hunt, a 26-year-old veteran who killed himself in 2011. The bill is aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic that claims the lives of 22 military veterans every day.

The House-passed measure would require the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department to submit to independent reviews of their suicide prevention programs and make information on suicide prevention more easily available to veterans. It also would offer financial incentives to psychiatrists who agree to work for the VA and assist military members leaving active duty.

HOLIDAY, Fla. (AP) — A daycare worker on Florida’s Gulf Coast faces child abuse charges after authorities say video captured her kicking a 16-month-old girl several times.

The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office reports 49-year-old Linda Klemm was supervising children Saturday at Kids Stop-N-Play in Holiday when surveillance video captured Klemm kicking the top of a sleeping child’s head and then dragging the bottom of her foot across the left side of the child’s face. About 10 minutes later, after the child falls back asleep, Klemm is seen forcefully kicking the child.

The child’s mother reportedly noticed abrasions when she picked the girl up later and called authorities. Deputies responded and reviewed the surveillance video.

Klemm was jailed Saturday and then released Sunday on a $5,000 bail. It wasn’t clear if she had an attorney.

DALLAS (AP) — Additional charges have been filed against the owners of a Fort Worth mortuary business where authorities last summer found several decaying bodies left unattended.

Tarrant County prosecutors announced Tuesday that Dondre Johnson and Rachel Hardy have each been indicted on felony theft charges. Prosecutors allege the couple accepted payments for services they never provided.

Johnson and Hardy previously were charged with multiple counts of abuse of a corpse. Hardy also is accused in an unrelated matter of theft of public money for fraudulently receiving public assistance.

They have denied wrongdoing.

Johnson Family Mortuary closed in July due to nonpayment of rent.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office said seven of the eight bodies found there were in advanced stages of decomposition, though none showed signs of trauma or foul play.

ELMO, Mo. (AP) — A 9-month-old northwestern Missouri boy is dead after his 5-year-old brother playing with a handgun accidentally shot him in the head.

Nodaway County Sheriff Darren White says the baby was pronounced dead at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City just before noon on Monday.

Emergency responders were called to a home in Elmo around 9 a.m. Monday after a 5-year-old found a loaded .22 caliber handgun and apparently was handling it when it fired.

White says the bullet struck the 9-month-old, who was in a playpen.

The sheriff says there is no reason to believe the shooting was anything other than an accident.

Elmo is located 120 miles north of Kansas City, Missouri.

GLENDIVE, Mont. (AP) — Ice is hampering crews working to clean up crude oil that spilled in and near the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana over the weekend.

Bridger Pipeline says it’s confident that no more than 1,200 barrels — or 50,000 gallons — of oil leaked during the hour-long breach Saturday about 9 miles upstream from the city of Glendive. A company spokesman says oil has made it into the river, but it’s unclear how much.

The Environmental Protection Agency says an oil sheen has been seen some 60 miles downstream from Glendive.

Booms are being placed in two areas of open water to try and trap oil with another collection site about 30 miles downstream from the spill site.

The EPA’s on-site coordinator says some of the oil is trapped under ice that’s covering the river and locating it could prove difficult.

(AP)–One of the two teenage sweethearts from Kentucky suspected in a crime spree of stolen vehicles and pilfered checks around the South awaited a first court appearance Monday in Florida, where they were captured over the weekend.

Eighteen-year-old Dalton Hayes and his 13-year-old girlfriend, Cheyenne Phillips, were arrested without incident before dawn Sunday in Panama City Beach. The two had eluded police in several states while raising alarm.

Norman Chaffins, the sheriff of Grayson County, Kentucky, where the teens live, says the teens should be extradited back to Kentucky by the end of the week.

On Monday, Hayes is scheduled to make an 8:30 a.m. court appearance via video hookup, according to the Bay County jail records in the Panama City area. Hayes was being held Sunday on a charge of custodial interference.

 

CINCINNATI (AP) — Law enforcement officials in southwest Ohio say two people attempted to smuggle a heroin-laced Bible into the county justice center.

Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Mike Robison says an officer examined the Bible following a standard sweep of deliveries using a K-9 in December. The book was sent to the coroner’s office for testing after the officer noticed a coffee-like stain.

The coroner’s office confirmed the substance was heroin. A regional narcotics unit determined the stain contained about 30 to 40 hits of the narcotic.

Officials say 39-year-old Tehani Teepe sent the Bible to 28-year-old inmate Timothy King. Both have been charged with illegal conveyance of contraband into a correction facility.

No attorneys were listed for Teepe or King.

NEW YORK (AP) — A best-selling account of a 6-year-old boy’s journey to heaven and back has been pulled after the boy retracted his story.

Spokesman Todd Starowitz of Tyndale House, a leading Christian publisher, confirmed Friday that Alex Malarkey’s “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven” was being withdrawn. Earlier this week, Malarkey acknowledged in an open letter that he was lying, saying that he had been seeking attention. He also regretted that “people had profited from lies.”

“The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” was first published in 2010 and told of an auto accident which left Malarkey in a coma. According to the book, he had visions of angels and of meeting Jesus. “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” has long been disputed, including by Alex’s mother.