JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Great Plains Energy Inc. has reached an agreement with the staff of the Missouri Public Service Commission designed to insulate Missouri customers against any negative impacts from Great Plains’ takeover of Westar Energy Inc.

Great Plains, the parent company of Kansas City Power & Light, is planning an $8.6 billion purchase of Westar, the largest utility company in Kansas.

Chuck Caisley, a Great Plains spokesman, said Thursday the agreement addresses some concerns raised by the public service commission about the Westar acquisition. He says the agreement also allows the company to move forward with the proposal with more certainty.

Caisley says the combination of the two utilities is still expected to close by next spring.

The proposed sale of Westar must be approved by the full Public Service Commission.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis alderman says Police Chief Sam Dotson shouldn’t continue to serve while also running for mayor.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that alderman Joseph Roddy is expected to introduce a resolution Friday calling for Dotson to resign. The resolution would be nonbinding.

Some argue that a police chief running for mayor creates conflicts of interest, and takes away from his ability to try and control crime in a city that has plenty of it.

Roddy says the police chief should be “insulated” from elected officials asserting influence. He says a sitting chief running for mayor “defeats the whole purpose.”

Dotson is among several Democrats running in the heavily Democratic city. Incumbent Francis Slay announced earlier this year he would not run in next year’s election.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature.

It was a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award on a musician for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

Reporters and others gathered at the Swedish Academy’s headquarters in Stockholm’s Old Town reacted with a loud cheer as his name was read out.

The 75-year-old Dylan is arguably the most iconic poet-musician of his generation. Songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin'” became anthems for the U.S. anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. His impact on popular culture was immense.

Although he had been mentioned in the Nobel speculation for years, many experts had ruled him out, thinking the academy wouldn’t extend its more than a century-old award to the world of music.

Dylan is the first American winner of the Nobel literature prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A move by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to allow the state to enforce its proof-of-citizenship requirement for some new voters has prompted another attempt to block him.

Attorneys for a prospective voter asked a federal judge Wednesday to reject Kobach’s formal answer to a lawsuit against the requirement.

An attorney for Kobach filed his answer to the suit late Tuesday, weeks after the deadline.

Kobach’s filing came hours after a court clerk entered a default judgment against him for failing to respond. If the action stands, the state can’t enforce a 2013 law requiring new voters to document their U.S. citizenship when registering.

Previous court rulings have temporarily narrowed the requirement so it doesn’t apply to people registering with a federal form or at state motor vehicle offices.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander has raised more money recently for his bid for U.S. Senate but incumbent GOP Sen. Roy Blunt has more cash on hand.

Kander’s campaign on Wednesday announced he raised more than $3 million between July and the end of September.

The Missouri Democratic Party’s federal account raised more than $780,000 that could be used to help Kander.

Blunt announced he raised more than $1.8 million for his re-election campaign. The Missouri Republican Party federal account raised more than $1 million.

That leaves Blunt with more than $4 million in cash on hand to spend in the final weeks before the Nov. 8 election.

Kander’s campaign says he has nearly $3.5 million to spend.

NEEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Travel website TripAdvisor will no longer sell bookings to attractions where travelers can come in contact with captive wild animals or endangered species.

The policy announced Tuesday was made with input from animal welfare and conservation groups. It takes effect early in 2017.

Massachusetts-based TripAdvisor said it applies to attractions including elephant rides, swim-with-the-dolphins programs, and tiger petting.

The policy has exemptions, including children’s petting zoos, aquarium touch pools and other attractions where visitors are properly supervised.

The company will also start providing links on its site to bring users to educational research on animal welfare and conservation.

TripAdvisor President Stephen Kaufer said in a statement that the policy “is designed as a means to do our part in helping improve the health and safety standards of animals.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Sedgwick County will provide gun lockers for visitors to stow their weapons while visiting the county courthouse.

The county commission voted 3-2 Wednesday to spend about $64,000 to install 20 gun lockers in the courthouse.

The public isn’t allowed to take weapons into the courthouse in downtown Wichita but commissioners who supported the lockers said people who legally carry guns should be able to bring them to the building and have a place to store them while conducting their business.

The two commissioners who opposed the lockers said it wasn’t an essential service and the lockers weren’t a good use of county funds.

The lockers won’t be available until at least next spring.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s Supreme Court has scheduled an execution for a man convicted of killing a woman and her two children even as five legal groups press a federal appeals court to spare him.

Missouri’s highest court on Wednesday set Mark Christeson’s execution date for Jan. 31. It’s the only execution currently scheduled in Missouri. The state’s last execution was in May.

Three national criminal defense associations, a civil rights law firm and the American Bar Association have an appeal pending with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

The U.S. Supreme Court previously intervened in Christeson’s case hours before a scheduled execution in 2014, saying his court-appointed attorneys were ineffective because they missed a federal appeals deadline. Most capital cases are appealed through the federal courts.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge in Kansas has appointed an Ohio attorney to investigate whether recordings of attorney-client conversations at a for-profit federal prison violated inmates’ constitutional rights.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson on Tuesday appointed David R. Cohen as special master, or expert, to identify and retain confidential information contained in recordings at the Corrections Corporation of America facility in Leavenworth.

The judge’s order says Cohen’s duties will not include investigating whether federal prosecutors violated any rules or laws by requesting the recordings — at least for now.

The Cleveland attorney recently served as a special master in a Kansas class-action lawsuit against Sprint Nextel Corp.

Public defenders in Kansas and Missouri say recordings of their meetings and phone calls violated their clients’ constitutional right to a fair trial.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two Missouri men charged in the kidnapping and rape of a Kansas sheriff’s deputy may have attacked others.

Johnson County District Attorney Stephen Howe said Wednesday that he hopes more victims will come forward now that 24-year-old William Luth and 21-year-old Brady Newman-Caddell are in custody. They are jailed on $1 million bond on charges of rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sodomy. Court records don’t list attorneys to speak on behalf of the men.

Howe declined to explain why authorities believe there may be more victims.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Department has said that the deputy wasn’t in uniform when she was abducted Friday from the parking lot of the detention center in Olathe, Kansas. She was released about two hours later in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.