COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Gov. Jay Nixon is eliciting support from health professionals as he tries to persuade Missouri lawmakers to sustain his veto of legislation dealing with electronic cigarettes.

Nixon convened a panel of medical doctors and officials from the lung, heart and cancer associations Wednesday to highlight what they described as the dangers of electronic cigarettes.

Nixon says he vetoed the bill because it also would prohibit the state from regulating or taxing electronic cigarettes as tobacco products.

Health professionals on Nixon’s panel said e-cigarettes contain nicotine derived from tobacco and can be addictive just like regular cigarettes.

JIM SALTER, Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A new report suggests that the Missouri Department of Corrections has quietly and repeatedly used a sedating drug that has raised concerns in botched executions in other states.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Police have identified the three victims of a shooting in south Kansas City that also left two people critically wounded.

The victims of Tuesday’s shooting were 63-year-old Darrel Hurst; his mother, 88-year-old Alice L. Hurst; and 69-year-old Susan Choucroun, a neighbor of Alice Hurst.

A couple in their 80s who lived in the neighborhood were beaten and critically injured.

The Hurst family issued a statement saying Darrel Hurst was visiting his mother during the shooting but they offered no other details.

Police are trying to determine if a man arrested Tuesday after three other people were assaulted at a north Kansas City motel is connected to the shooting deaths. The man was arrested as he walked along the interstate near the motel.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Shawnee County Courthouse is closed after flooding caused by heavy rain caused a problem with electricity.

The courthouse was closed Wednesday morning after flooding in the building’s subbasement near a transformer.

Shawnee County Sheriff’s Lt. Akim Reynolds says before the courthouse was closed, power was out in three public elevators and some offices. The courthouse has four floors, a basement level and a subbasement level.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports  the courthouse was closed for the rest of Wednesday, to allow Westar Energy to shut down power to begin repairs.

PARIS (AP) — A Silicon Valley insider says tech companies drafted plans to scrub the web after a grisly video showing the beheading of an American journalist by Islamic State militants — and implemented them this week after a second killing.

Video showing the death of James Foley last month ricocheted through social networks in what many feared was a propaganda coup for the extremists. The tech official said Wednesday that a YouTube video showing a second beheading, of American journalist Steven Sotloff, was deleted as accounts and Tweets linking to it were suppressed.

The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because companies are grappling with increasing pressure to impose more censorship on the web, did not say whether the developments came at the request of governments or ordinary users.

EUDORA- A Kansas woman was injured in a rear-end collision just after 9 a.m. on Wednesday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Kia Rio driven by Tanessa Balluch, 21 Lawrence, was eastbound on Kansas 10 just west of Kansas 7 and rear-ended a 2011 Ford Fusion driven by Judi O’Grady, 71, Eudora

O’Grady was transported to Shawnee Mission Medical Center. Balluch was not injured.

The KHP reported both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City police refuse to say whether they’re still looking for a suspect in a quintuple shooting after a man was arrested for an unrelated assault 30 miles from the middle-class neighborhood.

Two women and one man were shot to death Tuesday afternoon, and two others were in critical condition Wednesday after the attacks at three homes in south Kansas City.

Three people were assaulted at a motel near where the SUV was found.

A suspect in those assaults was arrested late Tuesday night as he walked along Interstate 29, but police have not said whether he is linked to the shootings.

FERGUSON (AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has lifted the state of emergency that he declared Aug. 16 in response to looting and violent protesting in Ferguson.

The unrest followed the Aug. 9 shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. A state grand jury and the Justice Department are still investigating the shooting.

Nixon on Wednesday cited a return to some normalcy in the St. Louis County town, with school back in session, businesses reopening. He called the progress “a testament to the efforts of community and faith leaders” who worked with government and police officials to return peace to the streets.

“Over the past week, we’ve seen students getting back to school, businesses reopening their doors and folks getting back to their normal routines,” Governor Nixon said. “This progress is a testament to the efforts of community and faith leaders, working alongside state and local law enforcement officers, to bring peace to the streets of Ferguson and much-needed stability to its citizens.”

Nixon also terminated an executive order issued Aug. 18 that activated the Missouri National Guard. The guard, providing security for police, completed the role Aug. 26.