(AP) — Bitterly cold weather prompted death penalty opponents to cancel a news conference to discuss efforts to halt executions.

The news conference had been scheduled for noon Monday at the Missouri Capitol.

George Mercer was executed on Jan. 6, 1989, for the 1978 rape and slaying of waitress Karen Keeten in the Kansas City area. Mercer’s execution was Missouri’s first after a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in 1976.

Since then, Missouri has executed 70 inmates.

The state executed two people in the past two months and is scheduled to execute Herbert Smulls on Jan. 29 for the 1991 robbery and slaying of suburban St. Louis jewelry store owner Stephen Honickman.

(AP) A former Kansas secretary of agriculture says water supply issues and the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer aren’t just a western Kansas problem.

Former secretary Josh Svaty told environmentalists with the group Lawrence Ecology Teams United for Sustainability on Sunday that the agriculture economy in western Kansas flows toward the eastern part of state.

Roughly 90 percent of the water pumped out of the Ogallala is used for irrigation to grow corn, soybeans and milo, which is used to feed livestock. Svaty says the livestock industry also has a big presence around the Kansas City and Johnson County areas in eastern Kansas.

He says water levels in some parts of western Kansas have declined rapidly since large-scale irrigation began there in the 1970s.

(AP)  Sites related to former president Harry Truman apparently will remain closed for the foreseeable future.

The Truman Farm Home in Grandview and a home near where the Trumans lived in Independence were closed last March after mandated federal budget reductions. The Truman home, where Harry and Beth Truman lived for most of their married lives, remains open but only five days a week.

The Truman Home is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

 (AP) — The Supreme Court has put same-sex marriages on hold in Utah, at least while a federal appeals court more fully considers the issue.

The court issued a brief order Monday blocking any new same-sex unions in the state.

The order follows an emergency appeal by the state following the Dec. 20 ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violates gay and lesbian couples’ constitutional rights.

More than 900 gay and lesbian couples have married since then.

The high court order will remain in effect until the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decides whether to uphold Shelby’s ruling.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas Natural History Museum is restoring a 360-degree wildlife panorama that was installed in 1903.

The panorama in the university’s Dyche Hall was damaged by temperatures, lights and humidity. Leonard Krishtalka, director of the KU Biodiversity Institute, says the building is now equipped with LED lights and temperatures controls that will help preserve the specimens.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports (http://bit.ly/19W9e6i ) that the first step in the restoration process was completed in December when researchers conducted a chemical analysis of the exhibit. In March, researchers will analyze the exhibit for degradation such as the splitting animal hides or loss of color in background paintings.

Krishtalka says that specimen-by-specimen analysis should be completed by mid-summer.

(AP) — Bad weather has delayed plans to open three new schools in Joplin that were built to replace schools damaged by the May 2011 tornado.

Joplin school officials planned to open Irving and Soaring Heights elementary schools and East Middle School on Monday, more than 2 1/2 years after the tornado destroyed or damaged several schools and district buildings. The district called off school Monday because of bitterly cold temperatures.

Superintendent C.J. Huff told The Joplin Globe that the schools probably will open Tuesday but the situation will be evaluated later Monday.

The National Weather Service says temperatures are expected to be between zero and minus 10 throughout the Joplin region Monday morning, with wind chills dropping to minus 25 in some areas.

The number of Kansans who applied for concealed carry handgun permits last year exceeded the previous one-year record by 50 percent, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced today.

More than 24,000 Kansans applied for concealed carry handgun permits in 2013.

“Record numbers of Kansans are exercising their Second Amendment rights and taking advantage of the Kansas concealed carry law,” Schmidt said. “We’re working hard to provide them top-quality customer service in the permitting process.”

The 24,181 applications received by the Attorney General’s Concealed Carry Licensing Unit during the 2013 calendar year was more than had been received in any previous calendar year since the program began in 2006. The previous record for a calendar year was 15,707 applications received in 2012.

During the month of December, the Attorney General’s Office received 1,036 applications. There were 75,099 active permits as of January 2. The applications are being processed in an average of 30 days.

The concealed carry licensing program was enacted by the Legislature in 2006 over the veto of then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. By law, the program is administered by Attorney General Schmidt’s office.

Monday update    (AP) — A 20-year-old man and a juvenile female are jailed after a man’s tortured body was found at a northwest Missouri lake.

The victim, 58-year-old Mark Thomas of Liberty, was found dead early Sunday at Smithville Lake. Court documents say his body was found inside a park restroom with his ankles bound, a bag wired around his head and a ring finger partially severed. He died from a blow to the head.

The Clay County prosecutor’s office says Zachary Lisle is charged with murder, kidnapping, robbery and armed criminal action. His bond was set a $1 million. Online records do not indicate that he has an attorney.

The prosecutor’s office did not specify what charges the female might face.

Sunday 1/5/14(AP) — Authorities are investigating the death of a man whose body was found at a western Missouri lake as a possible homicide.

The victim is believed to be 58-year-old Mark Thomas of Liberty. Clay County deputies found the body early Sunday in a park at Smithville Lake. Family members had reported Thomas missing, and his vehicle was found Saturday in a Kansas City trailer park.

Kansas City police say the cause of death has not been determined but that the case is being investigated as a homicide that likely occurred in Kansas City.