JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Most Missouri teenagers soon won’t be able to buy electronic cigarettes.
Missouri lawmakers on Thursday overturned Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto on the legislation, which would ban anyone under 18 from buying electronic cigarettes.
Nixon said he vetoed the bill because it also would exempt electronic cigarettes from being taxed or regulated as tobacco products.
Nixa Republican Jay Wasson sponsored the bill and says he included the exemption because of concerns over whether a tax would have hurt the bill’s chances of passing.
At least 38 other states already have banned sales or possession of electronic cigarettes among minors.
Research on the health effects of the devices is mixed, but some physicians and other opponents argue they could cause addiction and similar side effects as other tobacco products.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Federal investigators are looking into what appears to have been an attempt to firebomb a U.S. congressman’s office in Missouri.
Kansas City police were called to U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s office in Kansas City around 2:50 a.m. Thursday after an alarm sounded at the building.
Police Sgt. Kari Thompson says two alcohol bottles — one rum and one Jagermeister — were found shattered on the ground below a broken window inside the office.
Thompson says paper towels were sticking out of the necks of the bottles and it appeared they had been ignited but were extinguished during flight.
Cleaver was in Washington, D.C., and there were no staff members in the building at the time.
FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton says the agency is investigating the incident.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State University is restricting travel of university-sponsored students, faculty and staff to several African countries affected by the Ebola virus.
The university said in a letter Wednesday to the Kansas State community that it will deny university-sponsored travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which have been placed on a federal travel alert list. Travel requests to nearby Nigeria and the Congo will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
The university also said that anyone who has traveled to those countries in the last four weeks needs to be screened at the Lafene Health Center on the Manhattan campus.
The Manhattan Mercury reports that as of Wednesday, 16 people who were screened were found to be not at risk of contracting Ebola.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback and some Republican state senators say a man appointed by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis to a school efficiency task force should be removed because of comments he made in 2011 about school consolidation.
Davis appointed John Vratil, a Republican who is a former vice president of the Kansas Senate, to the task force. The panel is studying ways for schools to use more of their state funding for classroom instruction and less on other expenses.
Majority Leader Terry Bruce, a Hutchinson Republican, says Vratil said in a 2011 interview with the Topeka Capital-Journal that rural school districts should accept that they will have to consolidate.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports Brownback brought up the issue during a debate Saturday at the Kansas State Fair.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., released the following statement today on the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks:
“Thirteen years ago today, our nation was attacked by enemies of freedom. On the anniversary of September 11, 2001, we remember those who perished and honor all who stepped forth to defend America, seek justice, and help us recover and rebuild even after the most terrible of tragedies. It is clear the threat of violence from terrorism remains very real, and good people around the world remain at risk. Our mission also remains clear: the United States must stay vigilant and uphold the American values of freedom, equality and tolerance on which this country was founded.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two executives are offering to pay for the demolition of Kemper Arena with their own money.
Neal Patterson, CEO of Cerner Corp., said Wednesday that he and Mariner Kemper, CEO of UMB Financial Corp., will pay for the demolition of the little-used Kansas City arena.
The two men are supporting a proposal to tear down the arena and replace it with a smaller building to be used for American Royal and other events.
Another developer is offering a second proposal to renovate the arena for a youth athletics center, with a smaller building at the site for the American Royal.
The Kansas City Star reports Patterson estimated demolition would cost $5 million. The city has estimated it would cost between $6 million and $6.5 million.
LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A northwest Missouri man was convicted of killing his wife and injuring another woman.
A jury on Wednesday recommended that 46-year-old Ervin D. Carroll be sentenced to 30 years in prison for second-degree murder.
Carroll was convicted of killing 51-year-old Linda Carroll with a shotgun last October. One of her friends was wounded in the foot.
The Kansas City Star reports the friend told police that Ervin Carroll had told his wife to leave their home. She said when he approached the women with a 10-gauge shotgun, Linda Carroll tried to push the barrel away and the gun went off.
Carroll also was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon, second-degree assault and armed criminal action.
There were at least 60 state highways across northern Missouri closed because of flooding Thursday morning, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation Traveler Information Map.
That’s more than double the number posted on the map Wednesday morning. Marty Liles of MODOT told reporters they continue to monitor the state’s roads, deploying flagging operations or barricades depending on conditions.
“As we continue to get some more rainfall, and as those floodwaters that were in the northern part of the state start heading south, we might see other routes that are affected as well,” Liles said.
Liles said each time big rain events happen there’s a certain amount of flooding that’s going to occur.
“Every day we go out there, after a rainfall event, and check those roadways, and close those down so we make sure we don’t have the travelling public going through those routes and into the flood routes.”
Sergeant Jacob Angle of Troop-H says the Missouri State Highway Patrol discourages anyone from proceeding if you see water over the roadway.
“Even if you think it’s just inches of water, it only takes inches of water to float a vehicle,” Angle said. “So if you see water over the roadway, don’t attempt to cross it.”
“You don’t think it’s very deep, and you get in it, the vehicle starts floating, you’re swept away, and it can be very rapid.”
That’s precisely what happened to several motorists near Mound City during the severe weather event Tuesday night. Squaw Creek flowed over its banks very quickly after the area received eight to ten inches of rainfall. Angle says the water on the highway was at least three feet deep. Three vehicles were swept into the median where the water was about twice that deep.
When rescue workers arrived, some of the occupants were perched on top of their vehicles. That’s when crews from Troop-H, MoDOT, the Conservation Department, St Joe Fire, and the Holt and Andrew County Sheriff’s offices took extreme measures. They used heavy construction equipment, and a boat, to navigate the fast-moving waters and pull eight victims to safety.
“Considering the area we were dealing with, and we had to get vehicles around the floodwater and navigate to get people there, traffic was backing up, you know we had a lot of variables to deal with,” Angle said.
“If you take all that into account, I would consider our response spot on, about as quick as it could have been,” he said.
“With that collaborative effort, we saved eight lives last night, in rapidly-rising flash-flood waters.”
Officials with four of the agencies gathered for a news conference Wednesday to lay out details of their efforts the night before.
(Pictured left to right, are George Albert of the St Joseph Fire Department, Sgt. Jacob Angle of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Marty Liles of MoDot, and Robert Wolken of the Missouri Department of Conservation.)
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — An Atchison man charged after a police chase ended in the death of a 5-year-old girl will undergo a mental competency evaluation.
A Leavenworth County District Judge on Wednesday approved the mental examination for 30-year-old Marcas McGowan, who is charged with first-degree felony murder and several other charges in the July 18 chase near Leavenworth.
Authorities allege McGowan abducted Cadence Harris from a home they shared with the girl’s mother in Atchison. Cadence was found dead from a gunshot in McGowan’s car after a police chase ended when McGowan was shot after he pointed a gun at officers.
The Leavenworth Times reports the competency evaluation will be done through The Guidance Center in Leavenworth.
A Sept. 24 hearing is scheduled to determine McGowan’s competency to stand trial.
PHOENIX (AP) — Two men accused of alcohol-related violations in connection with the fatal fall of an Arizona State University student have pleaded not guilty.
David Siegel and Matthew Farberov appeared Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court in the case of Naomi McClendon.
The 18-year-old woman from Manhattan, Kansas, plunged 10 floors to her death March 30 from an apartment complex near ASU’s campus.
Tempe police say McClendon initially attended an “all-you-can-drink” party thrown by ASU fraternity members and surveillance video shows her stumbling and intoxicated when she entered the residential building.
Siegal and Farberov, both 20, are charged with minor possession of liquor and failing to require identification.
Another defendant, 21-year-old Alex Kraus, faces the same charges but now lives in New Jersey. A judge reset his court appearance for Oct. 16.
McClendon was a 2013 Manhattan High School graduate. Her parents both were employed at MHS.
