(AP) — Amazon is taking aim at grocery stores and discounters like Wal-Mart with a grocery service that lets its Prime loyalty club members fill up to a 45-pound box with groceries and get it shipped for a flat rate of $5.99.

The mega online retailer says the service, called Prime Pantry, will offer Prime users an expanded selection of items that they usually pick up in grocery stores, in addition to larger in-bulk groceries more commonly ordered online, at competitive prices. Some items now available are single boxes of Cheerios, a six-pack of Bounty paper towels and Coca-Cola fridge packs.

Amazon has been bulking up services for its Prime membership program since it increased the annual membership price to $99 from $79 in March to help offset rising shipping costs.

(AP) — The federal government wants to extend its oversight of tobacco to include cigars, hookah, nicotine gels, pipe tobacco and dissolvable tobacco products.

The Food and Drug Administration proposal being issued Thursday would ban sales to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels.

Companies also would be required to register their products with the agency and disclose ingredients, among other things.

Once finalized, the agency could propose additional restrictions on the products, such as flavor bans or marketing restrictions.

Officials also are seeking public comment on whether the agency should treat premium, handmade cigars differently than machine-made cigars.

A 2009 law that gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco but so far have only focused on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products outlined in that law.

(AP) — Authorities have filed a capital murder charge against a Houston nursing home resident accused of using the armrest of his wheelchair to beat two of his roommates to death.

Guillermo Correa was in custody after being formally charged Wednesday.

Houston police spokesman Victor Senties says employees at the Lexington Place Nursing and Rehabilitation Center told investigators the 56-year-old Correa got into a fight with his roommates Tuesday evening.

Senties says exactly what sparked the fight is still unknown.

Irma Chavez, the daughter of 77-year-old Antonio Acosta, one of the victims, said her father had complained about Correa repeatedly, including earlier Tuesday.

Plano, Texas-based Pinnacle Health Facilities, listed in state records as the nursing home’s owner, did not immediately return a call Wednesday seeking comment.

(AP) — A series of fiery train crashes spurred a push by government and industry to make safer tank cars used to ship crude oil and ethanol. But the effort is bogging down in squabbling and finger-pointing.

A spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute says the railroad industry won’t share data behind their recommendations to make the cars safer. He says the oil industry wants a “comprehensive examination” of proposed changes.

But the Transportation Department says it’s the oil industry that won’t share its data on the dangers of the oil being shipped. The department is drafting regulations aimed at making the cars less likely to spill their contents in the event of a crash.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman says it’s time for a referee to step in.

(AP) — A 9-year-old Atlanta boy who police say was abducted for a short time from his driveway is being praised by community leaders for his calm as he sang the gospel song “Every Praise” until the man released him.

Willie Myrick recounted the story at a recent gathering in his honor. He says as he sang, the man drove around and was cursing before eventually letting him go unharmed last month.

Grammy Award-winning gospel singer Hezekiah Walker, who performed the song, traveled to Atlanta to meet the boy.

Walker says he believes God spoke through him to save the boy’s life.

Police have a sketch of the suspect and are searching for him.

More details on what the boy told police about what happened on March 31 weren’t available.

(AP) — A resident of a Houston nursing home is accused of beating two of his roommates to death with the armrest of his wheelchair.

Police spokesman Victor Senties said a 56-year-old resident will be charged with capital murder in the deaths of two other men, ages 77 and 51.

Senties said it’s not clear what provoked the Tuesday night attack, but that the three men did not get along. A fourth roommate was asleep.

Irma Chavez, the daughter of 77-year-old Antonio Acosta, said her father had complained about the accused attacker repeatedly, including earlier on Tuesday.

She said the nursing home told her she could move her father to a different facility.

An employee at the nursing home declined to comment Wednesday.

(AP) — A southwest Missouri youth football coach accused of kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old girl is now facing rape and sodomy charges.

Greene County prosecutors added the new charges against 46-year-old Craig Michael Wood of Springfield on Monday. Court documents indicate the additional charges in the February death of Hailey Owens stem from newly available autopsy results.

Hailey was abducted while walking home from her best friend’s house, just two blocks from her own home. Neighbors reported watching in horror and unsuccessfully giving chase as Hailey was pulled into a pickup truck that sped away.

She was found dead hours later in the basement of Wood’s home.

Wood is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Thursday. His public defender says he plans to ask for a delay because of the new charges.

 

(AP) — The FBI is asking for help to identify at least 90 victims of a suspected serial child predator who worked in American schools worldwide for four decades.

The suspect, 64-year-old William James Vahey, killed himself in Luverne, Minn., on March 21.

FBI agents in Houston filed for a warrant March 19 to search a computer thumb drive that belonged to Vahey, a U.S. citizen. An employee of an American school in Nicaragua where Vahey had recently taught ninth-grade world history and geography gave the drive to the agency.

Special Agent Shauna Dunlap says the thumb drive contains pornographic images of at least 90 boys, aged 12-14, who agents suspect were Vahey’s students starting in 2008.

The FBI says Vahey told a Nicaragua school administrator that he drugged his victims.

(AP) — One doctor has been fired and another is being dismissed from the Kentucky State Penitentiary after an inmate went on a hunger strike and committed suicide by starving himself to death.

According to documents obtained by The Associated Press, the Department of Corrections terminated physician Steve Hiland and will soon cut loose psychologist Jean Hinkebein. The firings stem from the Jan. 13 death of 57-year-old James Kenneth Embry, who was serving a nine-year sentence for drug offenses.

An internal investigation done by the Corrections Department concluded that the doctors missed multiple signs that Embry was slowly committing suicide by refusing food and that Hiland signed off on nurses’ notes without seeing patients.

Hiland has denied wrongdoing. Hinkebein declined to comment.

The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office is conducting a criminal review of Embry’s death.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The FBI says a defendant has died after being shot by a U.S. marshal during an attack on a witness during a trial in federal court in Salt Lake City.

The FBI said 25-year-old Siale Angilau died Monday at a hospital. The agency says Angilau was shot in the chest as he rushed the witness with a pen in an aggressive, threatening manner.

Authorities said Angilau, who had not been restrained in the courtroom, was shot several times in front of a jury that had been selected on Friday.

Angilau was one of 17 people named in a 29-count racketeering indictment filed in 2010 accusing gang members of assault, conspiracy, robbery and weapons offenses.