WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army has named a new commander at Fort Riley, Kansas, to replace an officer who was fired Monday, just weeks before soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division deploy to Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin is assuming command of the division. Martin replaces Maj. Gen. Wayne Grigsby, who is the subject of an Army investigation and was removed from command. The Army hasn’t released details of the investigation.

Martin is a 1986 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and recently was commander at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California. He deployed to Iraq twice as a commander during the Iraq war.

Brig. Gen. Jeffery D. Broadwater will take command of the National Training Center. He’s currently deployed to Afghanistan.

BRANSON, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s gubernatorial and senate candidates will get their chance to showcase their differences face-to-face Friday at a debate in Branson. The Missouri Press Association is hosting the forum as part of its annual convention. Republican candidate Eric Greitens and Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster will be joined in the hour-long debate by Libertarian Cisse Spragins, Independent Lester Turilli Jr., and the Green Party’s Don Fitz in the gubernatorial debate.

Greitens, a former Navy SEAL officer and first-time political candidate, won a hard-fought, four-person GOP primary.

Koster had a much easier road. The two-term attorney general defeated three lightly funded contenders in the Aug. 2 primary election.

Two-term incumbent Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon was prohibited by term limits from running again.

Another debate Friday featuring Republican Sen. Roy Blunt and his Democratic challenger, Jason Kander, could have ramifications far beyond the borders of Missouri.

Control of the Senate is up for grabs in November, and polls show a close race in Missouri. Both Democrats and Republicans are spending millions on TV ads on behalf of their candidates.

The two major party candidates will be joined by Libertarian candidate Jonathan Dine, the Constitution Party’s Fred Ryman and Green Party candidate Johnathan McFarland at the forum in Branson. It is part of the Missouri Press Association’s annual convention.

Blunt served seven terms in the House before being elected to the Senate in 2010. Kander was a two-term member of the Missouri House before being elected secretary of state in 2012.

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) — Two religious colleges in Missouri and Oklahoma say they won’t take part in this year’s NAIA cross-country championship because the meet was moved out of North Carolina in response to the state’s law limiting LGBT protections.

The NAIA opposes the law, which bans local ordinances that allow people to use locker rooms and bathrooms matching their gender identity. The law also excludes gender identity and sexual orientation from local and statewide antidiscrimination protections.

The NCAA also removed high-profile games from North Carolina.

The Tulsa World reports that Oklahoma Wesleyan President Everett Piper said the NAIA should give female athletes “the dignity of having their own restrooms.”

KYTV in Springfield, Missouri, says the College of the Ozarks cited similar reasons. President Jerry Davis called the NAIA’s action “political correctness gone berserk.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Family members restrained the father of a missing Missouri woman when the man accused of setting her vehicle on fire entered a courtroom.

Kylr Yust is charged with burning the vehicle of Jessica Runions, who was last seen Sept. 8. Her burned vehicle was found two days later.

Yust was arrested in Benton County and brought back to Jackson County to face the charge accusing him of setting fire to her vehicle. Yust hasn’t been charged in her disappearance.

The Kansas City Star reports Runions’ father had to be held back by relatives when Yust entered the courtroom Thursday for a hearing. Family members say it was the first time he had seen Yust since his daughter disappeared.

Kansas City police said Thursday there’s no update in the case.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a fleeing Kansas motorist has been arrested after driving to his own home and trying to sneak inside.

WIBW-TV reports that the man drove off Wednesday night when a Shawnee County deputy attempted to pull him over. The five-minute, slow-speed pursuit ended at the man’s home.

Sheriff’s officials said the 40-year-old suspect was booked into the Shawnee County Jail in connection with multiple offenses, including felony fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, possession of stolen property and interference with a law enforcement officer.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Catholic leaders are launching a campaign that will urge voters to retain Nebraska’s repeal of the death penalty in the November general election.

The Nebraska Catholic Conference announced a series of steps Thursday that church leaders will take to speak to the state’s 375,000 Catholics.

The church has distributed materials to parishes throughout the state, including videos filmed by bishops that outline the church’s teachings on capital punishment.

The Nebraska Catholic Conference will also advocate through radio and video spots and events planned in Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island. Priests throughout the state are expected to speak about the issue from pulpit.

Catholic leaders say the death penalty in Nebraska isn’t necessary to protect society. Death penalty supporters say the punishment is appropriate in certain cases.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The state plans to close a juvenile correctional facility in western Kansas in March.

The Kansas Department of Corrections earlier this year announced plans to close the Larned Juvenile Correctional Facility because of a declining number of youths jailed at the site. The state’s juvenile incarceration operations are to be consolidated at a complex in Topeka.

The department said in a release Thursday that it has set March 3, 2017, as the Larned facility’s final date of operation.

Secretary of Corrections Joe Norwood says many staff members are transferring to nearby correctional facilities and others will work for the Larned State Hospital.

Norwood says juveniles will stay at the Larned facility until January 23.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Tyson Foods plans to invest $27 million in one of its plants in western Iowa and hire another 350 workers.

Tyson says its Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Council Bluffs will employ more than 1,400 people after the 55,000-square-foot addition is complete. The plant makes retail-ready beef and pork products.

Bob Mundt, president of the Council Bluffs Chamber of Commerce, says this is great news for the area’s economy.

The plant expansion is scheduled to be completed in July 2017.

In addition to the plant being expanded, Tyson has a pepperoni plant in Council Bluffs and a bacon plant across the river in Omaha, Nebraska. The three plants already employ more than 2,000 people.

FORT BENNING, Ga. (AP) — Officials say seven Afghan military students in four different states have been absent without leave since earlier this month. U.S. Navy Defense Press Operations commander Patrick L. Evans says that four students left their posts without leave over the Labor Day weekend.

Two of the students were at Fort Benning in Georgia, while one was at Fort Lee, Virginia, and the other in Little Rock, Arkansas. Evans says three more students — two at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and one at Fort Gordon, Georgia — were discovered missing the weekend of Sept. 17.

Evans says most Afghan military students who train in the U.S. return to their country, but officials have in the past uncovered some students’ plans to go AWOL.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has struck a deal with the American Civil Liberties Union that he hopes will help him avoid a contempt finding.

The deal would allow people who registered at motor vehicle offices or with a federal form without providing citizenship documents to vote in the November election with a traditional ballot, rather than be forced to use a provisional one.

Kobach has also agreed to send notices to at least 20,000 affected voters telling them they are registered and qualified to vote.

It is unclear whether the deal will be enough for U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson to call off Friday’s contempt hearing in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU over the state’s voter identification law.