JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Latest on allegations against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (all times local):

1:15 p.m.

A Republican consultant is testifying about efforts by Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens to lay the groundwork for a political campaign long before Greitens officially created a fundraising committee.

Consultant Michael Hafner was testifying Tuesday before a Missouri House investigatory committee considering whether to pursue impeachment proceedings against the Republican governor.

Committee members questioned Hafner about emails he had written and received arranging meetings for Greitens with potential donors and campaign vendors in 2014. Greitens didn’t formally launch a candidate exploratory committee until February 2015.

Hafner said Greitens’ promotional company paid him more than $500 for political work before Greitens’ political committee was formed.

State law requires candidates to form committees when they raise or spend more than $500.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A judge says a secretive group supporting Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens must turn over documents subpoenaed by a legislative committee trying to determine whether to bring impeachment proceedings against the Republican governor.

The ruling Tuesday by Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem applies to an organization called A New Missouri, a social welfare nonprofit created shortly after Greitens took office in order to support his agenda.

A House investigatory committee is seeking communications and documents showing potential coordination between Greitens, his campaign committee and A New Missouri. It also is seeking documents on communications and expenditures by A New Missouri related to media advertising.

An attorney for Greitens’ campaign and A New Missouri argued that the subpoena was beyond the scope of the committee’s investigation.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Four fluffy, white peregrine falcon chicks that hatched less than a month ago in Topeka are growing and healthy.

Officials on Monday but bands on the four chicks, which hatched on a nest near the top of the 12-story Westar Energy building. The Topeka Capital-Journal report s this is the first time four eggs hatched. Usually one to three eggs have hatched.

It’s the eighth consecutive year the falcons nested in a box Westar provides.

The chicks’ parents are falcons named Nemaha and Boreas. The chicks’ genders are not yet known.

Several Westar employees and wildlife specialist helped with the banding Monday. The goal is to allow wildlife experts to track the birds as they grow older.

Brad Loveless, environmental specialist for Westar, said the falcons are about 20 days old.

STRAFFORD, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say a dead bear was found on Interstate 44 in southern Missouri.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that the adult bear was spotted Sunday morning on the eastbound interstate near Strafford. Authorities say the bear appeared to have been hit by a vehicle and was already dead when they arrived.

They say they found no indication that any person was hurt in the crash. No vehicle were around when an officer arrived.

Missouri’s black bear population was estimated to be around 300 to 350 as of 2012. If the population continues to increase above 500 as expected by 2021, state officials may add a limited black bear hunting season.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on a weapons charge.

Just before 9p.m. Friday, a police conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by 20-year-old Tyron R. Michael near SW 21st and SW Fairlawn in Topeka, according to Lt. Ron Ekis.

Michael was wanted in connection with illegally discharging a firearm on May 6, 2018.

Michael fled from the vehicle on foot. TPD officers were able to capture him after a brief foot pursuit near the north east corner of Topeka West High School.

TPD officers recovered a gun Michael had discarded during the foot pursuit, according to Ekis.

TPD Officers did pursue Michael onto Topeka West High School property but he never entered any buildings.

He remains in custody Monday on a $150,000 Bond, according to the Shawnee County Department of Corrections.

WASHINGTON — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a report that a malware system from Russia infected routers in the U.S.

A similar malware compromised half-million internet-connected routers in the Ukraine.

The U.S. Justice Department said the malware “could be used for a variety of malicious purposes, including intelligence gathering, theft of valuable information, destructive or disruptive attacks, and the misattribution of such activities.”

According to the FBI, they “recommend homes and businesses reset routers. “Any owner of small office and home office routers power cycle (reboot) the devices. Foreign cyber actors have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide.

The actors used VPNFilter malware to target small office and home office routers. The malware is able to perform multiple functions, including possible information collection, device exploitation, and blocking network traffic.

The size and scope of the infrastructure impacted by VPNFilter malware is significant. The malware targets routers produced by several manufacturers and network-attached storage devices by at least one manufacturer. The initial infection vector for this malware is currently unknown.

VPNFilter is able to render small office and home office routers inoperable. The malware can potentially also collect information passing through the router. Detection and analysis of the malware’s network activity is complicated by its use of encryption and misattributable networks.”

Read the full statement from the FBI here.

-The Associated Press contributed to this story

By STEPHAN BISAHA

Kansas universities had about 800 more students enrolled this spring than they did last year, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

That’s about a half percent more — essentially flat. But flat is better than the national figure, which saw enrollment across the United States drop about 1.3 percent, or about 231,000 fewer students.

Other Midwestern states saw steeper drops, including Kansas’ neighbors. Colorado had about 9,000 fewer students this past spring semester compared to the previous year — a decline of  3.2 percent.

Kansas has struggled to enroll more students in its ongoing effort to increase the number of Kansans with some level of post-secondary education. A Georgetown University study found that Kansas will need to do so to avoid future workforce shortages.

Rick Muma, the provost at Wichita State University, said failing to meet those goals could have consequences.

“We could be losing businesses who are going to go somewhere else where they can get those needs met,” Muma said.

Last year was the second year in a row where Kansas fell short of its targets for the number of students who obtained a degree or certificate at a public university.

WSU has put a stronger emphasis on enrollment and recruitment, according to Muma. In order to attract more students, Muma said the university is looking into more online courses and focusing on industrial needs.

“What we’re seeing from a lot of local industry is they want short courses or curriculum that’s truncated in a matter that their employees can easily digest and get the skills that they need,” Muma said.

Stephan Bisaha reports on education for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @SteveBisaha.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has been subpoenaed to testify before a legislative panel weighing whether to try to impeach and remove him from office over allegations of sexual misconduct and political fundraising violations, the committee announced Friday.

The subpoena to testify June 4 comes amid mounting tensions between the governor’s legal team and the special House committee that has been investigating allegations against him since March but is now facing a mid-June deadline for the House to act on any impeachment recommendation.

An attorney representing Greitens said she didn’t know whether he would comply with the subpoena.

The legislative panel “has endeavored to find out the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” chairman Rep. Jay Barnes said. But, he added, “we need documents, not stonewalling. …We need Mr. Greitens to appear and testify under oath before this committee.”

Greitens has so far declined to do so, though his attorneys have indicated he could after his criminal cases are resolved. If Greitens chooses to testify now, it could create additional risk for a criminal trial. But if he refuses to testify, that too could carry political peril.

“It’s always been my observance that those that don’t have anything to hide are more than willing to speak with you. Those that do have something to hide are very reluctant to speak to you,” said committee vice chairman Rep. Don Phillips, who said he interviewed hundreds of witnesses during a 28-year career as Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper.

A woman with whom Greitens has acknowledged having an affair has testified at least seven times, including once to the House investigatory committee in March. Barnes said the panel was subpoenaing her to appear again on June 5, the day after Greitens.

The governor’s lawyers have been critical of the process being used by the House committee, which has declined Greitens’ request to call and cross-examine witnesses during the legislative hearings. Some Greitens’ supporters have suggested the House should wait until all criminal cases are resolved before pursuing impeachment, though there is no constitutional requirement to do so.

No trial date is set yet for a St. Louis felony charge of tampering with computer data alleging that Greitens disclosed a donor list of The Mission Continues to his political fundraiser in 2015 without the permission of the St. Louis-based veterans’ charity he founded.

A special prosecutor is still deciding whether to refile a separate felony invasion-of-privacy charge dismissed as jury selection began earlier this month. That charge alleged Greitens took and transmitted a nonconsensual photo of the women who has testified that she was bound, blindfolded and unclothed by Greitens in the basement of his St. Louis home. Greitens has denied criminal wrongdoing.

On Friday, the House investigatory committee questioned a forensic expert who analyzed the cellphones of Greitens, the woman and her ex-husband for the aborted invasion-of-privacy case.

Brian Koberna testified that he found traces of three deleted photos from March 21, 2015 — the date in question — on Greitnes’ phone but that they were “absolutely benign.” He said it’s possible there were more deleted photos for which traces no longer exist.

Committee member Rep. J. Eggleston said there appeared to be three possible scenarios: Greitens never took the photo as alleged; he took it but deleted it, and the phone storage space it occupied has since been overridden with other data; or he took the photo with a different device than the one examined by the expert.

Rep. Curtis Trent, who like Eggleston is a recent addition to the committee, redirected the questioning of Koberna to highlight the fact that no evidence of any such photo exists. Trent attempted to introduce into evidence a document he said was provided by Greitens’ attorneys relating to Koberna’s analysis of phones belonging to the woman and her ex-husband.

Other committee members reacted with umbrage, accusing Greitens’ attorneys of “cherry picking evidence” while refusing to provide other documents the committee has sought and suggesting that a court order prohibited them from doing so.

Barnes then got into a sharp-tongued exchange with Greitens’ attorney, Michelle Nasser, much as he had in previous days with Greitens’ lawyer Ed Dowd. Barnes later publicly apologized to Nasser while claiming that Dowd — who was not present — had been lying to the committee for the past three months.

Nasser read a statement from Dowd indicating that Greitens’ attorneys thought that the document they provided to Trent already had been included in evidence given to the legislative committee by the St. Louis circuit attorney’s office.

The committee refused to accept the limited documents from Greitens’ lawyers and instead voted to subpoena Koberna for all of his records related to the forensic cellphone analyses.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Lawmakers passed several items on Gov. Eric Greitens’ wish list this year, even as they prepared to launch a special session to consider impeaching him.

Greitens at the start of session called for “the boldest state tax reform in America,” although his agenda was quickly overshadowed when he admitted to having an extramarital affair in 2015.

Still, lawmakers passed bills to overhaul the state tax code before adjourning the regular session and quickly reconvening for a special session on possible impeachment of Greitens. Legislation on the state personnel law and foster care children also passed. Both were Greitens priorities.

Greitens’ spokesman Parker Briden called it a very successful year.

But Republican legislative leaders chalked up any policy victories for Greitens to shared priorities with the GOP governor.