JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is suing the U.S. agriculture secretary for not extending the deadline for some farmers to file reports needed for crop insurance.

Attorney General Chris Koster filed the lawsuit Wednesday against Secretary Tom Vilsack in federal court asking for a deadline extension.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says by law it can’t give farmers more time but will help them maintain coverage.

At issue is insurance used if weather or other conditions hurt crops. Farmers must file reports with the federal department to apply for the insurance.

But Koster says heavy rains and flooding delayed planting by farmers in northwest Missouri. That caused some to miss the July 15 filing deadline.

Koster sued after Gov. Jay Nixon received a letter Wednesday from the agency denying state farmers an extension.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Two men are accused in a federal indictment of involvement in the killings of two witnesses in drug investigations in St. Louis.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in St. Louis on Thursday announced the indictments of 47-year-old Dionne Gatling and 50-year-old Andre Rush.

The men are accused of involvement in the April 2010 killing of Theodis Howard. Federal prosecutors say Howard was killed as retaliation for being a witness in a drug trafficking case.

They are also accused of roles in the May 2013 killing of Terrance Morgan as part of an effort to keep Morgan from giving investigators information about a drug crime.

Gatling, Rush and two other men are also accused of cocaine and heroin conspiracy charges.

Names of attorneys for the men were not immediately available.

(AP) –  The death toll in the Chattanooga shootings includes four U.S. Marines and the sole gunman believed responsible, a U.S. official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The official said two others, a soldier and a police officer, were wounded.

A U.S. attorney says the killing of four people during a shooting rampage in Chattanooga is an “act of domestic terrorism.”

U.S. Attorney Bill Killian made the comments Thursday during a news conference. Mayor Andy Berke says two different military sites were “viciously attacked.” The shooter was killed at a Naval reserve center, where the victims were also slain.

There was also a shooting at a military recruitment center about 7 miles away.

A woman who says she witnessed the shooting in Chattanooga says she heard a barrage of gunfire near one of the shooting sites.

“It was rapid fire, like pow pow pow pow, so quickly. The next thing I knew there were police cars coming from every direction,” said Marilyn Hutcheson, who works at a Binswanger Glass.

Hutcheson says she ran inside, where she remains with other employees and a customer. The gunfire continued with occasional bursts she estimated for 20 minutes.

“We’re apprehensive,” Hutcheson said. “Not knowing what transpired, if it was a grievance or terroristic related, we just don’t know.”

President Barack Obama has been briefed by his national security team on the shooting involving two military sites in Tennessee.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz says that the president will continue getting updates from his staff as needed.

Obama was in Oklahoma to speak about criminal justice reform at a federal prison at the time of the shooting. He plans to return to Washington on Thursday afternoon.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal safety officials are warning consumers not to use a nut chopper sold by Avon after reports that metal fragments from the device can break off into food.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is highlighting the recall of 27,000 of the devices, plus another 5,100 that were sold in Canada. Avon Products Inc., based in New York, issued the recall after seven reports of the chopper bending or breaking. In two instances metal fragments fell into food prepared by users. There have been no reports of injury with the device.

The nut chopper was sold online and in retail stores for between $10 and $13, according to a posting to the government’s website.

The agency recommends customers stop using the chopper immediately and return it to Avon for a refund.

LONDON (AP) — The European Medicines Agency says it has started a review of cervical cancer vaccines to see if they are linked to two rare conditions, but emphasized it hasn’t changed its recommendations for how the shots should be used.

The vaccines against HPV have been used in more than 70 million people worldwide and prevent cancers caused by HPV, including those of the cervix and womb.

In a statement, the European drug regulator says an investigation has started into a possible connection between the HPV vaccines and two conditions: complex regional pain syndrome, and POTS, a condition where the heart rate jumps abnormally after sitting or standing.

Current HPV vaccine information doesn’t include warnings about these conditions and no causal link has been found.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita couple has pleaded guilty to beating and abusing a girl they were foster parents to and later adopted.

The Wichita Eagle reports the couple pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges including child abuse, aggravated battery and criminal restraint. They had denied the allegations.

The 15-year-old girl and three other children were taken into protective custody in March 2014. A child-in-need-of-care petition alleges that the girl’s adoptive parents at times chained her in a basement and gave her a bucket to use as a toilet.

Authorities say the girl, who was 14 at the time, weighed just 66 pounds when she was removed from the home.

The girl and the other children remain in foster care pending the outcome of their child-in-need-of-care case.

The Eagle has not named the parents in order to protect the identity of the children.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Reports of confirmed mountain lion sightings have increased over the past decade in Kansas and Missouri, but experts say there are no signs that the animals are reproducing in either state.

The Kansas City Star reports most of the mountain lions — also known as pumas, painters, catamounts and cougars — that make their way into the states are males that wandered away from the Black Hills, Badlands and northwestern Nebraska.

Mountain lion populations were devastated by hunting and a shortage of prey in the early 1900s, but researchers say they are recolonizing in the Midwest.

Almost all of the mountain lions found in Kansas and Missouri are males.

There have been more than 50 confirmed sightings in Missouri since 1994, while Kansas has reported 10 during that period.

DALLAS (AP) — Federal authorities say 46 people are facing charges related to smuggling drugs on airline flights from Dallas to cities nationwide, including Wichita.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas says most of the defendants are from northern Texas. It’s not clear how many are in custody.

They face charges that include intent to distribute cocaine and methamphetamines, conspiracy and money laundering.

The indictment says undercover agents gave some suspects packages purporting to be drugs that were carried on flights to Chicago, San Francisco and other cities for payments of up to $9,000.

Authorities say four defendants either worked at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport or used ties to an airport worker to bypass security.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mars Incorporated is planning a new, $100 million candy-making facility in Kansas that will be built near where its first new plant in 35 years began churning out sweets last year.

The company disclosed the deal Wednesday in advance of a Topeka economic development meeting.

The development comes a little more than a year after the New Jersey-based company opened a $270 million plant south of Topeka, where M and M’s and Snickers are made.

After work on the 90,000-square-foot facility wraps up in late 2016, the company will add 70 full-time workers to the 200 already working in the city. Mars said in an email statement that the new facility, which is receiving economic development incentives, was designed to “add capacity.” The company hasn’t determined which candies it will make there.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors in St. Louis have indicted five men for two separate killings — the first indictments since the city’s police chief reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s office to help address the increase in violent crime.

U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan said Wednesday that the indictments are part of the effort to tackle the city’s growing homicide rate.

The city has already had nearly 100 killings this year, far more than a year ago at this time.

Police Chief Sam Dotson said last month that he was taking more cases to the feds, citing the increase in violence and concerns about an amendment to the Missouri Constitution. St. Louis officials say Amendment 5, passed last year, makes it difficult to get charges to stick against convicted felons caught with guns.