The Associated Press

Missouri's frog-hunting season begins this week.

The Department of Conservation says the season for bullfrogs and green frogs runs from sunset Thursday through Oct. 31.

Missourians can capture frogs using a hand net, gig, and throw line. They also can snag, snare, grab or use a pole and line if they have a fishing permit. People who have a hunting permit can use a .22 caliber rifle, pellet gun or bow.

National Guard responding to flooding in St. Joseph

Gov. Jay Nixon says Missouri faces several more weeks of potential flooding along the Missouri River as high water pushes its way south and eastward across the state.

Nixon met with officials from the Missouri National Guard outside St. Joseph for a briefing Monday on the guard's response to the flooding. He said the floods were made worse by heavy overnight storms that dumped up to 4 inches of rain in some sections, swelling the river past major flood stage near St. Joseph.

Updated 11:39 a.m. with information that George Ryan was at his wife's side when she died.

The wife of imprisoned former Illinois Gov. George Ryan has died.

An attorney for the governor, Andrea Lyon, confirmed that Lura Lynn Ryan died Monday at a Kankakee hospital. She was 76, and had been diagnosed last year with incurable lung cancer. She'd been hospitalized since Friday and had been on a respirator.

The massive amount of water flowing south and east along the Missouri River will begin to flood portions of central Missouri this Independence Day holiday weekend.

The Missouri River at Jefferson City is forecast to rise by six feet and reach 29 feet as early as Thursday, just a foot shy of the top of the city's north levee.  Jim Kramper with the National Weather Service office in St. Louis expects the capital city's flood threat to remain at moderate.

Updated 2:24 p.m. with verdict information:

A jury has convicted Rod Blagojevich of nearly all the corruption charges against him, including trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama's old Senate seat.

(See full list of charges and verdicts below with details)

Jurors delivered their verdicts Monday after deliberating nine days.

Blagojevich had faced 20 charges, including the Senate seat allegation and that he schemed to shake down executives for campaign donations. He was convicted on all charges regarding the Senate seat.

He testified for seven days, denying wrongdoing. Prosecutors said he lied and the proof was on FBI wiretaps. Those included a widely parodied clip in which Blagojevich calls the Senate opportunity "f------ golden."

Jurors in his first trial deadlocked on all but one charge, convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI.

Blagojevich already faces up to five years for the lying conviction.