TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The city of Topeka is paying a $16,000 demolition fee originally billed to a family grieving the death of an 18-year-old woman in a house fire last month.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that City Manager Jim Colson said Monday that he apologized to the family of Morgan Duncan, who died in a Nov. 20 fire.

The bill was for the weeklong demolition of the home in which Duncan lived. Her mother received the bill last week, just days before a memorial service.

Colson said he ordered an investigation, and the city concluded that the demolition was necessary to put out the fire and keep fire and emergency personnel safe.

Colson said that made the city responsible for the cost of hiring a private company to do the work.

ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Authorities have released the federal autopsy in the Ferguson police shooting.

The autopsy on 18-year-old Michael Brown was performed by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System at the request of the Department of Justice. The conclusions were similar to those reached in autopsies performed by the St. Louis County medical examiner and a private examiner hired by Brown’s family.

The autopsy report was included in documents released Monday by St. Louis County prosecutors.

The Justice Department autopsy found Brown died from multiple gunshot wounds and had severe head and chest injuries. It noted the latter might have been an exit wound from a shot that entered Brown’s arm or forehead.

The autopsy also found a minor gunshot wound to Brown’s right hand was evidence of close range discharge of a firearm.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Electronic cigarettes would have to be wrapped in child-safe packaging under a bill proposed by a Missouri House member.
State Rep. Sheila Solon of Blue Springs recently filed legislation requiring stricter packaging for vapor products. Electronic cigarettes heat liquid nicotine into an inhalable vapor, and some is flavored to taste like candy.

Lawmakers last session approved a bill to ban sales of electronic cigarettes and other alternative nicotine products to minors. But the bill faced opposition from Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, who vetoed it because of concerns that it also prevented the products from being taxed or regulated as tobacco.

Lawmakers later overrode the veto.
Federal officials have suggested a similar ban nationwide, with experts saying nicotine is especially dangerous for children.

ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judge asked to rule on the legality of President Barack Obama’s changes to U.S. immigration rules is the same judge who last year criticized the government for being lenient on illegal immigration.

A lawsuit filed by 20 states to block Obama’s plan has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Brownsville, Texas. He is one of two judges there and hears half all civil cases filed in the court.

The judge wrote a scathing order last year. In it, he accused the Obama administration of helping fulfill criminal conspiracies to smuggle children across the border by reuniting them with parents living in the country illegally. He wrote the 10-page order at the conclusion of an immigrant smuggling case involving a child immigrant.

BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) — Police are seeking help to identify whoever stole items from the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame’s collection.

Bonner Springs police tell The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1yvuD3q ) thieves broke into the center on Sept. 10 and November 5. Stolen items include an antique coin collection valued at $25,000, mantel clocks and cast iron agricultural models. Center officials say a pair of laptop computers was taken in the September break-in.

The 160-acre facility has separate museums and many exhibits that give an extensive history of farming and agriculture.

No suspects have been identified. Police are asking the public to call with information related to the thefts.

ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press

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ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A police interview with a key witness was not provided along with the thousands of documents released after a grand jury decided to not indict a Ferguson police officer in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.