Their stories are changing, but a federal official insists Uncle Sam never used a list of concealed gun permit holders from Missouri.

Missouri Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer says he was assured by a top federal official that an electronic list of people with Missouri concealed gun permits never was used by any federal agency.

Luetkemeyer says he spoke with Patrick O’Carroll, the inspector general of the U.S. Social Security Administration.  

He says O’Carroll confirmed that a Missouri-based investigator recently asked for and received a list of more than 160,000 concealed gun permit holders from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The patrol has said that federal investigators were unable to read the disc, but Luetkemeyer says O’Carroll told him that the disc was readable.

Luektekemyer also says he received assurances that it was destroyed and the information never was used by either the inspector general’s office or any other federal department.

Five people involved in a Kansas City company that promised people they would get rich by investing small amounts of money are scheduled to go to trial this week.

Among them is 57-year-old Kansas City, Kansas resident Isreal Owen Hawkins, who founded Petro America Corporation in 2007 and started selling stock the next year.

Prosecutors say Hawkins and several others sold more than $7 million in stock to roughly 9,000 investors.

Officials say many of the investors were poor and elderly church members who were persuaded to buy stock by their ministers.

Hawkins claimed the company was worth $284 billion after only three years, which would have made it the second-largest company in the U.S.

Hawkins has sought a new public defense attorney with expertise in securities issues but has been rejected twice.

A federal judge has refused to shorten the sentence of a former University of Kansas athletics consultant caught up in a $2 million ticket scalping conspiracy.

U.S. District Judge Monti Belot ruled Friday that Thomas Blubaugh is not entitled to a reduction in his 46-month prison term.

The judge rejected Blubaugh’s claims that his former attorney did a poor job representing him.

Belot also was unconvinced by arguments that the sentencing judge improperly considered the value of tickets that Blubaugh hid in a storage facility.

Blubaugh was among seven people convicted in a $2 million scheme involving the theft and sale of Jayhawk tickets. He was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. through wire fraud, tax obstruction and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Missouri conservation officials say 165 feral hogs have been removed in the southeastern part of the state as part of an eradication campaign that started this year.

The Department of Conservation says its personnel trapped, snared, ran dogs and used a helicopter to capture the hogs.

A half-dozen others were taken by private landowners.

The operations took place in Reynolds, Iron, Wayne, Stoddard and Pemiscot counties.

A feral hog is any hog that is roaming on public or private land and lacks conspicuous ear tags or notches. The animals can carry disease, damage crops and lead to soil erosion and water quality problems.

Officials say Missouri’s feral hog population is growing and spreading to new areas. Missouri law prohibits releasing feral hogs and hunting hogs.

The Missouri Senate has passed a bill that would allow nursing mothers to be excused from jury duty.

The measure approved Thursday would require nursing mothers to submit a written note from a doctor.

The bill also adds expressing breast milk to the list of protected activities under current state law.

It would also prohibit cities from passing local ordinances restricting breast-feeding mothers.

 

Senators voted 30-4 to send the legislation to the House. The sponsor is Republican Sen. Rob Schaaf, a physician from St. Joseph.

The head of the Missouri State Highway Patrol says his agency provided a list of 163,000 Missouri residents with concealed gun permits to federal authorities. But he says federal investigators never used the information.

Patrol Superintendent Col. Ron Replogle testified Thursday before a Senate committee that has raised concerns about a database on driver’s license applicants kept by the Missouri Department of Revenue.

Replogle says the patrol twice got a list of concealed gun permit holders from the Revenue Department and shared it with a fraud investigator at the federal Social Security Administration. But Replogle says the federal investigator was unable to read the information stored on the discs and ultimately destroyed them.

Replogle told senators the patrol should not have released the whole list.

 

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is renaming its large sculpture park after businessman and philanthropist Donald J. Hall.

The museum said in a release Wednesday that it has renamed its 22-acre park The Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park.

The renaming is part of the celebration for the park’s 25th birthday in 2014. The sculpture park contains 35 sculptures, including the well-known “Shuttlecocks.”

Sarah F. Rowland, chair of the Nelson’s board of trustees, says the renaming is a way to honor Hall’s commitment to the museum.

Hall is the chairman of the board of Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards. He and his late wife, Adele, have been strong supporters of the Nelson-Atkins for years and worked behind the scenes to support its acquisition of major works of art.

A Kansas couple facing forgery and second-degree murder charges in connection with a Camden County man’s 2010 death may testify against the victim’s daughter.

A prosecutor told a Boone County judge this week that Stacey and Desre Dory are cooperating as the state builds a case against Susan Elizabeth Van Note.

Van Note, a Kansas City lawyer, is charged with killing her millionaire father.

Prosecutors say she forged health care documents that led to University Hospital doctors removing him from life support.

William Van Note and his long-time girlfriend were attacked at their Lake of the Ozarks home in October 2010. Van Note’s daughter has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.

Desre and Stacey Dory, of Shawnee, Kan., have pleaded not guilty.

The Kansas Highway Patrol says two Nebraska men died in a two-vehicle wreck in south-central Kansas.

The patrol identified the victims of Tuesday’s accident in Pawnee County as 33-year-old Fidel Portillo-Moyao and 23-year-old Efrain Carrerea-Portillo, both of Schuyler, Neb.

The patrol says a pickup truck driven by Portillo-Moyao crossed into the westbound lane of U.S. 56 and was hit by a semi-trailer truck.

He died later at a hospital. Carrerea-Portillo died at the scene.

The driver of the semi-trailer was not injured.