DETROIT (AP) — Federal regulators are investigating whether Ford Motor Co. should expand a 2013 safety recall of diesel trucks.

The previous recall involved 2,951 F-350, F-450 and F-550 trucks sold with ambulance packages. The trucks were equipped with 6.7-liter diesel engines that could stall because of a malfunctioning sensor. Ford replaced the sensors for free.

But since then, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has received complaints from truck owners who didn’t have the ambulance packages as well as owners who got the first repair.

The government is now investigating to see whether the first recall repair worked, and whether Ford should expand the recall to cover all of the 200,000 diesel-equipped trucks it sold from the 2011 and 2012 model years.

Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker says the company is cooperating with the investigation.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Operators of the state’s central law enforcement training facility say $3.9 million is need from the Legislature to avoid extreme cuts.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center is generating less revenue than expected. The University of Kansas runs the center near the southern Kansas town of Yoder as part of its continuing education program.

Center director Ed Pavey says the district and municipal court docket fees that the center has relied on as its main funding source have plummeted in recent years. The center attributes the drop largely to fewer traffic tickets being issued.

Pavey said the center needs more money to ensure it’s able to continue operating and keep up with payments on bonds issued to finance an expansion.

COLUMBIA (AP) – Federal officials have signed off on university-backed drone research in south-central Missouri.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reported the Federal Aviation Administration granted an application to use airspace at the University of Missouri’s Wurdack Research Center for research and economic development projects. The 1,200-acre center is located 45 minutes southeast of Rolla, along the Meramec River.

The application was sought by the University of Missouri, the Missouri University of Science and Technology and Saint Louis University.

SLU is providing the providing the drone. Researchers will use a “Maveric” model that weighs 2.6 pounds and has a 29.5-inch wingspan.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A Kansas City mother has been charged with failing to promptly seek treatment after her baby was severely burned in bathwater.

The Jackson County prosecutor’s office said Ernestine Swinton was charged Saturday with abuse or neglect of a child or an alternative charge of first-degree child endangerment. The 26-year-old also faces a second-degree domestic assault charge. Prosecutors have requested a $50,000 cash bond. It wasn’t immediately known if she had an attorney.

Court documents say Swinton told police that her son’s skin began to fall off after she placed him in a hot bath on Christmas Eve. But she said she treated his injury at home because she feared losing custody.

Police were called Jan. 8, and a medical examination revealed a burn covering 20 percent of the boy’s body.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Authorities say a shooting at a Kansas City home has left a man dead and a woman seriously wounded.

Police said in a news release that officers found the two shooting victims around 5 a.m. The male victim died at a hospital and the female victim was listed in serious but stable condition. Witnesses said an argument led to the shootings.

Police said that the suspect fled on foot, but a description wasn’t immediately available.

FORT LEONARD WOOD (AP) – A newspaper review of military sexual assault programs found that reporting lapses and other mistakes contributed to a climate in which a Fort Leonard Wood drill sergeant preyed on female subordinates.

Army Staff Sgt. Angel M. Sanchez was found guilty at a September court-martial of four counts of sexual assault and six counts of abusive sexual contact at a court-martial. He faces a possible 20-year prison sentence.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a government investigation concluded that high-level leaders on post “mishandled” informal sexual harassment complaints in Sanchez’s unit, E Company, 701st Military Police Battalion.

The newspaper reviewed more than 500 pages of military records received in response to a public records request.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Kansas City’s next City Council will have several new members, with some big decisions coming up.

While Mayor Sly James apparently will not have a strong challenger for re-election, seven of the 12 incumbents on the City Council are leaving, either because of term limits or resignations. Other members have serious challengers.

The deadline to file for mayor or the council was Tuesday.

The Kansas City Star reports that James has encountered little opposition from the current council. But that could change when the new council takes up issues such as extending a streetcar route, the future of Kemper Arena and proposed changes to the city’s airport.

The primary is April 7. The general election June 23. The new council takes office Aug. 1.

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Ten members of the Congressional Black Caucus and U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay are scheduled to take part in a Ferguson church service honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

The St. Louis Democrat’s office says the leaders at Sunday’s service will also call for “transformative changes” in the wake of Michael Brown’s fatal shooting by a Ferguson officer in August as well as other fatal police shootings nationwide.

The delegation at Wellspring United Methodist Church in Ferguson is expected to include caucus chairman Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, both Democrats.

BY GARRETT HAWKINS
Takin’ care of business, every day

Takin’ care of business, every way

Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s 1974 hit could have been the theme song of the business session at the recent

American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) convention. More than 355 voting delegates representing every crop and livestock sector in the U.S. wasted no time discussing, debating and approving policy resolutions to guide the organization in 2015.

Missouri Farm Bureau’s (MFB) delegates at the national convention, led by President Blake Hurst, were successful in getting several resolutions adopted by farmers and ranchers at our state annual meeting included in AFBF’s policy book. They include support for:

Prohibiting states from imposing production standards or practices onto other states’ agricultural products (California’s new egg law is a case-in-point);
Producer-led and -approved checkoff programs like the existing national beef checkoff program;
Allowing rural electric cooperatives and other entities to qualify for the federal Connect America funding program to improve high speed internet availability;
The Aggie Bond program used by state agencies to help beginning farmers; and
More thorough consideration of landowner concerns when recreational trails are proposed under the federal railbanking program.

On other policy matters, delegates:

Reaffirmed that a farmer’s proprietary data remain strictly the property of the farmer when submitted to third parties for processing and analysis;
Emphasized the need for common-sense Endangered Species Act reform;
Reaffirmed support for country-of-origin labeling provisions consistent with international trade rules; and
Called for an end to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) attempts to require permits for farmers to repair erosion damage on their property.

These are only a few of the resolutions approved. In total, delegates approved 300 pages of policies spanning agricultural credit to wilderness areas and everything in-between.

The job of setting state and national Farm Bureau policies is finished, but our work has only begun. Blocking EPA’s “Waters of the U.S.” proposal, protecting farmers’ abilities to use biotech plant varieties and other innovative technologies, and reforming endangered species regulations top our “to do” list. Congress better be ready to take care of business, because we are.

Garrett Hawkins, of Jefferson City, Mo., is the Director of National Legislative Programs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.