WASHINGTON (AP) — Ground will be broken this week for a long-planned memorial in Washington for Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Eisenhower Memorial Commission chairman, U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, announced in a news release that the event is planned for Thursday morning. Former TV news anchor Greta Van Susteren will be the event’s emcee, and Eisenhower’s granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, will be among the attendees.

Roberts described Eisenhower as “Kansas’ favorite son” and said it’s “an honor to see this memorial become a reality.”

Congress approved the memorial in 1999 and allocated funding for planning, but the project became bogged down over objections to the design. Eisenhower’s relatives announced last year that they had dropped their objections after the design was modified, in part to place more emphasis on the 34th president’s home state.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers have created a committee to study public education funding after the state Supreme Court order directed them to boost spending.

The interim committee created Monday could make recommendations on education funding as well as draft a Constitutional amendment to reduce the Supreme Court’s authority over school finance. The Legislative Coordinating Council passed the measure unanimously on a voice vote.

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that legislators did not increase spending on the state’s public schools enough this year. The court hinted that spending is hundreds of millions of dollars short a year of providing a suitable education for every child but did not set a spending target. The court said a new law must be enacted before July 2018.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers are expected to form a committee to begin work on a response to a state Supreme Court order directing them to boost spending on public schools.

The Legislature’s top seven leaders were meeting Monday afternoon to discuss setting up such a committee.

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that legislators did not increase spending on the state’s public schools enough this year.

The court hinted that spending is hundreds of millions of dollars short a year of providing a suitable education for every child but did not set a spending target.

A law enacted in June phased in a $293 million increase in funding over two years to make it $4.3 billion annually. The court said a new law must be enacted before July 2018.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Planned Parenthood is suing for a second time over Missouri’s new abortion law.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Kansas City concerns medication abortions, which involve a woman taking two pills. Planned Parenthood is seeking to block a part of the law, known as complication plan regulation, that requires those who provide the medication to contract with an obstetrician-gynecologist with admitting privileges at a hospital.

KCUR reports the law requires the ob-gyn to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to treat any complications from a medication abortion.

The lawsuit contends the regulation is medically unnecessary and is already preventing Planned Parenthood’s clinic in Columbia from providing medication abortions.

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley says the regulation ensures that women have access to adequate care in medical emergencies.

JOHNSON COUNTY —A former Kansas City resident pleaded guilty Monday to aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of false income tax returns, according to Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Beall for the District of Kansas.

According to documents filed with the court, Alfred Reece, 58, owned and operated a tax preparation business in Kansas City.

From approximately 2013 through 2015, Reece prepared federal tax returns for individuals, claiming false business income and losses, medical and dental expense deductions, job-related expenses, charitable donations and other fraudulent items. Reece also concealed himself as the preparer on these fraudulent returns by falsely claiming that they were self-prepared. Reece admitted to causing a tax loss of between $550,000 and $1.5 million.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 17, 2018 before U.S. District Court Judge Julie A. Robinson. Reece faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison on each count, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — One of the three co-defendants in a Topeka shooting death has pleaded guilty to reduced charges.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that 36-year-old Use David Laeli Jr. admitted Friday to reckless involuntary manslaughter and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute in an unrelated case. He faces more than 11 years in prison when he’s sentenced in February.

Laeli was accused of ordering the disposal of the pistol used to shoot 28-year-old Xavier Patrick McCollough. Prosecutors say the shooting happened after McCollough was lured in July 2016 to a parking lot, where Laeli and two others waited.

Prosecutors say McCollough then drove out of the lot before crashing into an apartment building. Another suspect was upset because he was dating a woman that McCollough was going to see that night.

KANSAS CITY – A church maintenance worker was charged in federal court Monday with arson after setting a fire at Concord Cultural Center and spray-painting racist graffiti on the front of the adjoining church, Concord Fortress of Hope, in an effort to cover up his burglary, according to Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Nathaniel D. Nelson, 48, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. Nelson remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing.

Nelson was a member of the church who was employed as a maintenance worker at the church and cultural center, located at 11040 W. Longview Parkway, Kansas City, Mo. Firefighters were called by a church employee and responded to the cultural center on Sunday morning, Oct. 29, 2017. A fire had occurred in an office inside the building but a sprinkler had activated and extinguished the fire prior to the arrival of firefighters. Investigators concluded that an office chair and other ordinary combustible material had been intentionally ignited using an open flame.

Investigators also discovered racist graffiti spray-painted on the front of the church. A racial slur, the letters “KKK” and a symbol similar to a swastika were visible from the main entrance into the parking lot as members of the congregation arrived for church for Sunday morning services.

The digital video recorder for the video surveillance system that monitored the foyer area and the cultural center’s interior and exterior cameras was unplugged and no longer recording when examined by investigators. Investigators determined that the DVR system lost power sometime after 1 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, and had been intentionally unplugged.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the federal criminal complaint, a review of the DVR system revealed that Nelson was in the foyer area shortly before the DVR system was deactivated. A second DVR, which was still powered on, recorded the video surveillance footage for the interior and exterior cameras located inside and outside of the church, which were separate from the cameras located in the cultural center and foyer. The second DVR, the affidavit says, captured video footage of Nelson spray painting the front of the church. KCPD Deputy Chief Karl Oakman, a member of the church, identified Nelson from the video surveillance footage.

Investigators then interviewed Nelson. According to the affidavit, Nelson told investigators that he went to his office in the cultural center to smoke crack cocaine sometime after 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017. At some point after getting high, Nelson said he went into the church office area and attempted to force his way into the finance office to steal money. (The finance office was the only room in the church and cultural center he did not have keyed access.) Nelson wasn’t able to break into the finance room so he proceeded into two adjacent offices using his key and took $140 from one office and $94 from another office. Nelson told investigators that he then left the church to purchase more crack cocaine.

Nelson stated that after he purchased four crack rocks for approximately $125, he returned to the church to get high a second time. After Nelson smoked the crack cocaine in his office, he said, he retrieved a pair of bolt cutters, a wrench and a drill bit and attempted to break into the vending machines located in the gymnasium of the cultural center. Nelson said he was only able to steal $2 from the vending machines.

Nelson told investigators that at some point after breaking into the vending machines he left the church to purchase additional crack cocaine from the same source. Nelson told investigators that after he purchased approximately four additional crack rocks he again returned back to the church to get high. Nelson said he only paid $75 for the additional crack cocaine with the promise that he would provide his source $200 in food stamps at a later time.

During the interview, the affidavit says, Nelson admitted to investigators that he intentionally unplugged one DVR system but did not know that video was being recorded on a separate system inside the church, which captured him spray-painting the outside of the building.

According to the affidavit, Nelson told investigators that he intentionally set a fire inside the office area of the cultural center using clothing and paper towels that he had laid on or next to an office chair. Nelson also told investigators he spray-painted the front of the church with inflammatory graffiti and intentionally set the fire to create a diversion and throw investigators off.

JACKSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on felony charges.

On Saturday afternoon, sheriff’s deputies took a report of a burglary to a vehicle and theft of property in rural Jackson County, according to a media release. Within an hour of the report, deputies arrested Todd Gordon Severt, Jr., 30, Topeka at a Shawnee County pawn shop.

Severt is being held on a $25,000 Bond for burglary and felony theft charges. The stolen property that was allegedly found in the possession of Severt was returned to the owner.

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say a deputy has shot and wounded a Sedalia man after he fired multiple rounds.

The Sedalia Democrat reports that the shooting happened around 9 a.m. Saturday. The Pettis County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that a deputy and Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper encountered an armed man in front of a residence while responding to a call about a man who was threatening to hurt himself. The release says the 27-year-old man fired multiple rounds, and the deputy returned fire, striking the subject.

Sheriff Kevin Bond says investigators are still looking into whether the man shot in the direction of the deputy or trooper.

The wounded man was flown to a Columbia hospital. Bond says investigators were able to interview him at the hospital.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A defense attorney doesn’t dispute that a middle-school football coach abducted a 10-year-old Missouri girl in broad daylight in front of witnesses, then raped and killed her.

At issue is whether teacher’s aide Craig Wood deliberated before snatching Hailey Owens, as prosecutors argued Monday during opening statements, or whether it was impulsive, as the defense argues. The Springfield News-Leader reports that Wood’s attorney, Patrick Berrigan, blamed long-suppressed urges and methamphetamine. Charges against Wood include first-degree murder.

Neighbors unsuccessfully attempted to rescue Hailey in February 2014, chasing after the suspect and recording his license plate. The prosecution described Wood going to a store to buy bleach and going to a laundromat to clean his clothes. Hailey’s body was found in Wood’s basement.

Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – The trial of a middle-school football coach and substitute teacher charged with kidnapping, raping and killing a 10-year-old girl is getting underway in Springfield, Missouri.

Craig Wood is charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, child kidnapping, rape and sodomy. Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty. Opening statements are set for Monday.

Police say he snatched fourth-grader Hailey Owens from a neighborhood street in February 2014, less than two blocks from her home as she walked back from her best friend’s house. Several neighbors unsuccessfully attempted to rescue the child, chasing the suspect on foot and by car.  The abduction prompted an Amber Alert in Kansas.

Her body was found inside two garbage bags inside a plastic storage tote in Wood’s basement. Besides coaching, Wood also was a substitute teacher and teacher’s aide.