EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — Emporia State University excluded media from a public forum on race but later allowed reporters back into the event.

The Emporia Gazette reports that reporters on Thursday were asked to leave the forum, which the university had announced earlier in a press release.

Emporia State officials allowed reporters back into the event after discussing the issue with the university’s general counsel.

Emporia State’s Interim President Jackie Vietti said the reporters were asked to leave the event because students thought the forum would not be open to the media. She said the university would work to avoid that confusion in the future.

The Kansas Press Association says denying media access to a public meeting would be a violation of the state’s open meetings law.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The United Methodist Church in Kansas and Nebraska says 35 congregations are willing to sponsor at least one Syrian refugee family.

Bishop Scott J. Jones, leader of the church in the two states, announced Friday that the number of participating congregations could increase in the future.

Jones says the vast majority of Muslims in the world are our allies, and the church wants to stand with them against the jihadists.

The church’s Great Plains Conference includes 1,032 congregations in the two states.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback issued an executive order Monday prohibiting state agencies and organizations receiving state money from relocating Syrian refugees in the state. Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has urged resettlement agencies not to participate in any efforts to bring Syrian refugees to that state.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Abortion rights opponents delivered about 590 letters to the University of Missouri about the university’s decision affecting a Planned Parenthood clinic’s ability to perform medically-induced abortions.

University of Missouri Health Care says it’s compiling documents so a doctor at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia can apply for state-required privileges after the university decided to pull privileges earlier this year. Under state law, Missouri clinics or physicians at those clinics must obtain certain privileges with local hospitals to provide abortions.

Anti-abortion group 40 Days for Life says 592 more letters urging the university to cut ties with Planned Parenthood were delivered to the university Thursday, bringing their total to about 4,370 letters.

Abortion rights supporters delivered more than 2,000 petitions to the university seeking reinstatement of the clinic doctor’s privileges.

 

WESTMORELAND, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in the 2014 slaying of his 70-year-old uncle.

Christopher Arand, 37, of rural Belvue was sentenced Thursday in the death of Larry Arand, who was beaten in the back of the head with brass knuckles before being suffocated with a plastic bag on November 10th, 2014.

Arand pleaded guilty in October to premeditated first-degree murder just before jury selection was scheduled to begin in his trial.

Pottawatomie County District Judge Jeff Elder said he decided not to give Arand a Hard 50 sentence because of Arand’s mental health status and to spare his family additional grief.

Arand also admitted killing his uncle’s cat.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Officials on both sides of the Kansas City state line have approved ordinances raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products and alternative nicotine items to 21.

Kansas City, Missouri Council members on Thursday approved the measure on an 11-1 vote. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County.

Kansas City, Kansas approved a similar measure on a 6-1 vote Thursday night.

Supporters say raising the legal age to 21 will make it harder for younger smokers — including 18-year-olds who are still in high school — to obtain tobacco products and provide them to younger friends and relatives.

The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce is leading the effort to have the ordinance passed in all cities in the metropolitan area.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Four members of Missouri’s congressional delegation want the Army Corps of Engineers to take over remediation of the West Lake Landfill site in St. Louis County.

The lawmakers say the Environmental Protection Agency is moving too slowly in addressing concerns about nuclear contamination.

Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill and U.S. Representatives Ann Wagner and William Lacy Clay on Thursday introduced legislation to put the site in the Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program.

An EPA spokesman declined comment on the bill but says the agency will announce a decision for remediation of the contaminated soil by the end of 2016.

West Lake was contaminated 40 years ago after a contractor for a uranium processing company illegally dumped waste there. It was declared a Superfund site in 1990.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say 30 iPads owned by Columbia Public Schools are being held as evidence by law enforcement in various investigations.

Ten iPads are in the possession of the Boone County Sheriff’s Department and 20 are with Columbia police.

Boone County Sheriff’s Department Detective Tracy Perkins says a majority of the devices were used to share sexually graphic conversations or videos. Perkins says one investigation involves a school district employee, and the rest involve students, either as a victim or suspect.

The school district owns 12,000 iPads that were provided to all classroom teachers, fifth- and sixth-graders, and students in Advanced Placement courses and Battle High School students.

District spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark says not all of the iPads held as evidence are from investigations that started this school year.

TECUMSEH, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office and the Johnson County Attorney say charges have been filed against five inmates in connection with a May riot at the prison in Tecumseh that left two inmates dead.

In a news release issued Thursday, the attorney general’s office said the five inmates charged face counts ranging from making terroristic threats to assault.

No one has yet been charged in the deaths of two sex offenders who were found dead at the prison once order was restored following the May 10 riot. The riot also left two guards and four inmates injured.

Officials said Thursday that property crimes and the homicides committed in the riot are still under investigation and additional charges may be forthcoming.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The wife of a principal in a St. Louis-area school district is accused of stealing thousands of dollars while serving as the now-former overseer of a scholastic book fair.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis County prosecutors have charged 38-year-old Erin Dittrich with felony stealing.

Dittrich is the wife of Thomas Dittrich Jr., principal of Hancock Place Middle School. Her administrative jobs included director of the Parents as Teachers program.

Although court records don’t specify how much money Erin Dittrich is accused of stealing, police say the amount is at least $13,938.

Online court records do not show whether Erin Dittrich has an attorney.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The man who used to pitch Subway sandwiches will be pitched into prison for 15 years.

Jared Fogle was sentenced today in Indianapolis for child pornography and having sex with minors.

The judge who sentenced him describes his “perversion and lawlessness” as being “extreme.” The judge went above Fogle’s wish of a sentence on the low end — five years — and above the prosecution’s recommendation of a 12 ½ year sentence. He could have gotten up to 50 years.