COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri is banning the use of all tobacco products on the Columbia campus, effective immediately.

Cigarettes and electronic nicotine devices have been prohibited on campus since 2013. The policy announced Tuesday expands that to include any tobacco-based product, including chewing tobacco, nicotine salt products like Juul and pipes.

The Tobacco Free Mizzou Committee worked on the policy for a year, funded by a $20,000 grant from the American Cancer Society.

The university plans to use education efforts to spread word about the ban but persistent offenders could face disciplinary action.

Free tobacco cessation support and nicotine replacement therapy will be provided to students, staff and faculty at the university.

The ban applies to sporting events and the Athletics Department will work to make fans aware of it.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A man has been charged with threatening to have explosives with him while robbing a Columbia bank in a heist that evacuated the grocery store in which the bank is located.

59-year-old Jeffrey Alan York is charged with robbery and making a terrorist threat. The probable cause statement says he told a teller in a note that he had a gun and explosives in his backpack during Friday’s robbery at a Commerce Bank branch that’s in a Hy-Vee grocery store. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

The statement says he got into a car afterward. He’s then accused of exiting the vehicle and leaving the backpack behind when customers began photographing him. Police found him near the store with the cash.

By ANDREA TUDHOPE

A voting equipment vendor says a coding error is behind the delay in this year’s primary election results in Johnson County, which left some statewide races undecided until the following morning earlier this month.

Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software (ES&S) issued an apology Monday, taking responsibility for the delay. Gary Weber, vice president of software development for ES&S, said it came down to a “non-performing” piece of software, which caused slow processing of the 192 encrypted master thumb drives that held the votes.

“There were several different things that all kind of came together on election night that really exposed this section of code, and exacerbated the problem,” Weber said.

Part of the issue was a failure to test the system with the actual number of ballot positions that a Johnson County voter would see on August’s ballot. ES&S conducted many tests ahead of time, but Weber told KCUR that if they had increased the capacity in the tests, they would have likely run into and identified the coding issue ahead of the election.

Moving forward, he said, the company has expanded the numbers of contests and candidates for testing of the systems.

Weber emphasized that the flawed software in question is separate from the vote tallying software and the voting machines.

The delay in August called into question the seeming last-minute purchase of ES&S equipment this year, two years after the Johnson County Election Commission approved $13 million to replace 15-year-old voting machines. The commission didn’t select ES&S until earlier this year, and the selection wasn’t certified until July.

“We were coming under the wire on getting the version of the software certified and ready to go for this election, but the voting machine itself, and waiting ’til late in the game like it may appear that we did, had no bearing on that,” commissioner Ronnie Metsker told KCUR.

After conducting an investigation, ES&S has rewritten the software code, which the company said it will submit for federal certification later this week. Kathy Rogers, senior vice president of government relations, said it usually takes about a month for approval.

At that rate, Johnson County may not see the updates installed until early to mid-October. But Rogers told KCUR it will be enough time ahead of the general election Nov. 7.

“Plenty of time,” she said. “We’ll be doing testing here, Johnson County will be testing concurrently, we’ll continue testing, and also, testing will be ongoing at the lab.”

The Johnson County Election Office also plans to install an additional thousand voting machines and hire 1,000 more workers to ease issues voters reportedly experienced at the polls in August.

Andrea Tudhope is a reporter in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. Follow her on Twitter @_tudhope.

CAMDEN, Mo. (AP) — Authorities are blaming excessive speed for a boat crash that killed three people from Kansas at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol released its crash reconstruction report more than three months after a 1991 Regal Runabout slammed into a rock bluff in the early morning hours of May 19. The report also said the “nighttime conditions” played a role, and noted that the boat lacked navigation aids, such as a chart plotter or GPS unit.

The crash killed 23-year-old Joseph LeMark, 24-year-old Daniel Lewis, and 21-year-old Hailey Hochanadel. LeMark and Lewis were from Overland Park, Kansas; and Hochanadel was from Olathe, Kansas. Two others including Ashley Lamb, 22, a senior at Kansas State University were injured.

Toxicology and autopsy reports have not yet been released.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says he is considering calling the Legislature into a special session next month.

Parson told reporters Monday at the Capitol that he has had discussions with House and Senate members about whether to have a special session and, if so, what topics to address.

The governor’s comments came after he was asked whether he was considering calling a special session — potentially to include ethics legislation.

A special session likely would occur around the time of the annual veto session on Sept. 12.

That could allow lawmakers to weigh in with their own ethics bill before voters consider a November ballot measure. An initiative is seeking to amend the constitution to limit lobbyist gifts, revamp campaign contribution limits and change the way legislative districts are drawn.

JACKSON COUNTY— A woman arrested for a November 2017 head-on crash that killed three members of a Kansas family is now in a Kansas jail following extradition from Nebraska, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.

Maria De Jesus Perez-Marquez, 49, of Omaha, was arrested last week in Nebraska on a Jackson County District Court Warrant for 3 counts of involuntary manslaughter, 2 counts of aggravated battery and reckless driving.

The warrant was issued as a result on the accident investigation involving the death of 42-year-old Carmen, 11-year-old Marlee and 59-year-old Stephen Ukele who died on US Hwy 75 south of the Brown County line on November 25, 2017.

They are the mother, sister and uncle of two Kansas high school football players and were returning home from watching the Sabetha boys’ team win a state football championship.

Perez-Marquez appeared in an extradition hearing on Friday and waived extradition back to Kansas, according to Morse.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A woman who worked as a supervisor in the post office in Shawnee Mission was sentenced Monday for stealing mail, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Stacey L. Kampfer, 40, Kansas City, Kan., was sentenced to a year on probation and ordered to pay about $785 in restitution.

Kampfer pleaded guilty to one count of mail theft. In her plea, she admitted that while she was employed as a supervisor of customer services she opened mail and stole gift cards and debit cards. Investigators identified 214 people whose mail was opened and property stolen.

McAllister commended the U.S. Postal Service-Office of Inspector General and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tris Hunt for their work on the case.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Court documents say a Columbia man who used Bitcoins in an attempt to buy a highly toxic chemical through the mail may have been trying to kill a woman who rejected him.

44-year-old Jason William Siesser made an initial appearance Friday on a single charge of attempting to purchase toxic poison to use as a chemical weapon.

Tim Garrison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said in a news release that there are no allegations that a public attack was planned. He says federal agents executed a search warrant after observing Siesser sign for a package, which contained an inert substance.

An FBI agent wrote in the affidavit that a target was identified in writings found in the home.