MAE ANDERSON, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Cyber Monday deals are being stretched out this holiday season, crimping sales on the day itself.

Retailers from Target to Amazon have been offering online deals since the beginning of November, and are promising “cyber” deals all week. That seems to have put a dent in Cyber Monday sales. Sales were up, according to estimates. But they weren’t as strong as some were expecting.

IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark reported that online sales rose 8.5 percent compared to 2013. That still makes it the busiest U.S. online shopping day of the year so far — a title the date has held since 2010. But it was less stellar growth than last year’s Cyber Monday, when online s

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union says the Army has agreed to “fully recognize” the new legal names of two New Jersey-based transgender military veterans.

The group’s New Jersey chapter announced Tuesday that the Army Board for Correction of Military Records recently notified the two veterans about its decision. The board initially recommended that the request be rejected, but the Army Review Boards’ deputy assistant secretary overrode the decision.

The veterans, whose full names were not disclosed, were seeking to change their names on the principal document that a military veteran uses to prove a veteran’s status. One of them was a sergeant major who served in the Army for 29 years, while the other was a New Jersey National Guardsman who served for nine.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Drug testing of welfare applicants in Kansas is off to a slow start.

After four months, only 20 applicants have been tested, with four testing positive and five refusing the tests. State officials concede early numbers are low. But they predict testing will increase as staffers grow more comfortable in referring welfare applicants for drug testing.

A spokeswoman for the state’s children and families department, which administers the drug-testing program, says it’s important to note that this is the first year.

Missouri has been testing applicants since last March. It has conducted 655 tests so far. Almost 70 tested positive, but about 700 refused the test and were disqualified for benefits.

The Kansas City Star reports Missouri conducted almost 70 tests in the program’s first four months.

DETROIT (AP) — Under pressure from U.S. safety regulators, automakers are expanding recalls or adding them to fix potentially faulty passenger air bags in high-humidity states.

Documents posted Tuesday by the government say Subaru is expanding a previous recall of five models. Mitsubishi is recalling one model, the 2004 and 2005 Lancer small car.

Both companies have cars equipped with air bags made by Takata Corp. They can inflate with too much force and spew metal shrapnel into the passenger compartment.

Previous recalls were limited to Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and several other territories. The new Subaru and Mitsubishi recalls now cover those areas as well as Southern Georgia and coastal areas of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and South Carolina.

The government is pushing for a national recall of Takata driver’s air bags.

CHANUTE, Kan. (AP) — A small southeast Kansas town is facing another obstacle in its efforts to extend ultra-high-speed fiber broadband to its residents and businesses.

A 1947 state law on utilities will require the city of Chanute to get permission from the Kansas Corporation Commission to sell bonds to fund the city’s broadband project.

The Wichita Eagle reports Chanute’s project would extend some of the fastest Internet service in the country to a community of 9,200 residents. It would offer a download speed of 1 gigabit at an estimated cost of $40 a month for residents. That’s 14 times faster and 60 percent cheaper than the fastest Internet service now available to Chanute residents.

AT&T, one of two lower-speed broadband providers serving Chanute, has filed to intervene in the case.

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — A suspect in a 2013 Emporia homicide has made his first court appearance after being returned from Mexico.

Gabino Ruiz-Ascensio was in Lyon County court Monday, where a preliminary hearing for the 27-year-old suspect was scheduled for Jan. 8.

Ruiz-Ascensio is charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Police say two men were shot at an Emporia home in April 2013. Twenty-five-year-old Andrian Peralta died three days later, while 22-year-old Michael Koy was injured.

The Emporia Gazette reports Ruiz-Ascensio was found in Mexico in early November and was returned to Lyon County Detention Center on Friday.

Ruiz-Ascensio was initially arrested on minor charges in Mexico and arrested after a check turned up his warrant in the Emporia case.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is having a special session this week to swear Caleb Stegall in as its newest justice.

The ceremony is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Stegall currently is a Kansas Court of Appeals judge. Gov. Sam Brownback elevated him to the state’s highest court in August.

It was Brownback’s first appointment to the seven-member Supreme Court.

Stegall will replace former Justice Nancy Moritz. She was appointed to the federal appeals court for Kansas and five other western and Plains states.

Stegall is 43 and was serving as Brownback’s chief counsel when the governor appointed him to the Court of Appeals last year. He served as Jefferson County’s elected prosecutor for two years before joining Brownback’s staff in January 2011.