ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart is launching a service allowing customers to pick up their tax refunds in cash at its stores.

It says the process will take the same time as if customers were to file their returns electronically and then get direct deposit, which could take just a week.

The service could help people without bank accounts avoid high check-cashing fees. Wal-Mart also says it could prove convenient for others.

Wal-Mart’s business could get a boost by bringing customers into the store who have cash in their pockets.

The store is teaming up with more than 25,000 tax-preparation locations for the service.

Wal-Mart doesn’t charge a fee for the cash pickup. Tax preparers can charge a maximum of $7 for the service at the time of filing.

The service is not available for people who electronically file their own taxes.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – An online company that sells classroom supplies plans to open a distribution center in south Kansas City, bringing 44 jobs to the region.

Connecticut-based ReallyGoodStuff.com says the center will open in June. It will distribute products, mostly geared toward elementary school teachers, across the United States and Canada.

The Kansas City Star reports the center will be located at the CenterPoint Intermodal Center at the site of the former Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base.

Company official Tim Kochuba says the company will make a $3.36 million investment in the project and will share space with another tenant.

ReallyGoodStuff will receive about $170,000 in state incentives if it meets job creation and investment criteria.

The company’s corporate headquarters is in Monroe, Connecticut.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 34-year-old homeless man has been arrested for attempted murder after police say he stabbed two people in Kansas last week.

The man was booked early Sunday morning in the Shawnee County Jail on charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery.

Police officers who arrived Thursday afternoon to the home say they found 54-year-old Sheila Kay Alexander suffering from a stab wound to her neck and 28-year-old Jason Lewis Alexander with a stab wound on his leg.

Officials say the mother and son were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A motive hasn’t been released in the attack.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is siding with a Muslim prison inmate in Arkansas who sued for the right to grow a short beard for religious reasons.

The court’s unanimous ruling Tuesday in a case about religious liberty stands in contrast to the Hobby Lobby case that bitterly divided the justices in June over whether family-owned corporations could mount religious objections to paying for women’s contraceptives under the health care overhaul.

The justices said that inmate Gregory Holt could maintain a half-inch beard because Arkansas prison officials could not substantiate claims that the beard posed a security risk.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A program that brings lower airfares to Wichita and Garden City might be grounded in the near future.

Gov. Sam Brownback is proposing reducing state funds for the Kansas Affordable Airfares Program. The governor wants to reduce the current $5 million state funding to $4 million in fiscal year 2016 and $3 million the next fiscal year.

And Jason Watkins, spokesman for the program, says officials will propose ending the state funding for the program after fiscal year 2016.

The Wichita Eagle reports the program pays the difference between airline monthly costs that exceed revenue.

Southwest Airlines, the main recipient in Wichita of state funds from the program, says it is too early to know how ending the program would affect its service.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — The owners of a Kansas wind farm say in a lawsuit that City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri, did not buy the amount of energy required under an agreement.

Smoky Hills Wind Project says in its lawsuit that City Utilities bought $1.7 million less energy than the wind farm had expected.

The Springfield News-Leader reports Smoky Hills says reduced use of wind energy caused the company to receive less value in tax benefits.

CU spokesman Joel Alexander said the utility denies the claims and will defend itself in court.

Smoky Hills is accusing the utility of two counts of breach of contract. It is asking that City Utilities be required to pay for the loss and other relief that is considered fair.

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press
JACK GILLUM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is calling for stronger cybersecurity protections for consumers. But a little-known side to the government’s own health insurance website has prompted renewed privacy concerns.

When you apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, dozens of data companies may be able to tell that you are on the site and even glean some insight into what you’re doing.

Data companies use sophisticated technology to track individual Internet users, building profiles that are a vital tool for advertisers.

The Obama administration says the third-party firms on HealthCare.gov are forbidden from using data for their own purposes.

There’s no evidence that personal information from HealthCare.gov is being misused but the number of third-party connections is raising questions.

Corporate cybersecurity consultant Theresa Payton says the site is an outlier among government websites.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Police have identified a 30-year-old man who died after a shooting in Kansas City that also left one woman injured.

Authorities said Monday that officers found James M. Williams and the woman suffering from gunshot wounds at a home early Sunday morning.

Williams died at a hospital. The female victim, whom police said is around 50 years old, is in serious but stable condition. Authorities said witnesses told them an argument led to the shootings.

Police said a suspect fled on foot. They ask anyone with information to call the department.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Legislation requiring Kansas law enforcement officers to be equipped with body cameras has gained bipartisan support in the first days of the new session, but questions about costs have raised some concerns.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports a bill backed by Democratic Rep. Gail Finney of Wichita likely will be considered in the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, whose chairman supports the cameras but thinks the measure might be an unfunded mandate.

Democratic Sen. David Haley of Kansas City is pushing a similar proposal.
Finney says Wichita has experienced a number of officer-involved shootings and could potentially have an incident like in Ferguson, Missouri, where sometimes violent protests followed the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer.