WASHINGTON, D.C. – During an interview today with Bill Hemmer on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom,” U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) discussed the Obama Administration’s decision to release Guantanamo Bay detainees. Blunt currently serves on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Blunt also announced that he co-sponsored a bill introduced this week by U.S. Senators Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Richard Burr (N.C.), John McCain (Ariz.), and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) to restrict transfers of detainees from Guantanamo Bay in order to best protect Americans and our national security. The “Detaining Terrorists to Protect America Act of 2015” would suspend international transfers of high and medium risk detainees, prohibit transfers of Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, extend the current prohibition on transfers to the U.S., and increase transparency regarding risk assessments of the remaining Guantanamo detainees.

ST. LOUIS – A federal judge has rejected a request for DNA testing by a 46-year-old Missouri inmate facing a late January execution for the fatal stabbing of a St. Louis County woman during a 1998 burglary.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Marcellus Williams’ request was deemed “frivolous” in a ruling two days after he filed the challenge. The decision is under appeal, as is a related request in state court.

Williams is scheduled to die on Jan. 29 in Missouri’s first execution of the new year after 10 inmates were put to death in 2014.

Lisha Gayle, a former Post-Dispatch reporter, was killed at her home in University City. Williams was convicted of burglarizing the home and then killing Gayle after she discovered him while getting out of the shower.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City hospital says it has confirmed two flu-related deaths that happened within the past two months, but a spokeswoman says rules prohibited her from providing additional information.

Children’s Mercy Hospital spokeswoman Jessica Salazar declined to provide ages or genders of the patients, but she said the hospital treats people between birth and 21 years old.

The National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 45 children have died from the flu this season, including four in the region that includes Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.

The CDC says 109 children in the U.S. died last year of the flu, which was a sharp decline from the 171 pediatric deaths reported in the 2013 flu season.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Three credit card companies will pay $2.2 million to Missouri to settle an investigation alleging they marketed deceptive add-on products to consumers.

Attorney General Chris Koster says Discover, Capital One and HSBC have agreed not to engage in misleading marketing of identity theft and payment protection products under a settlement announced Friday.

Koster says some were not aware they’d signed up for the products charged on their credit cards or were misled about the products. He says consumers paid hundreds of dollars for products they later found they couldn’t receive.

Similar settlements with credit card companies over deceptive marketing of products have been made in other states including Hawaii and West Virginia.

The money from the settlement will go toward a fund for consumer-protection education and enforcement activity.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced in a media release today that an Independence, Mo., business owner pleaded guilty in federal court today to his role in a multi-million dollar, multi-state conspiracy to transport hundreds of thousands of cartons of contraband cigarettes from the Kansas City, Mo., area to the state of New York, where they were sold primarily on Indian reservations.

Craig Sheffler, 45, of Independence, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to participating in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and contraband cigarette trafficking from July 2010 to Jan. 26, 2012. Sheffler has forfeited $599,206 to the government from his company, Cheap Tobacco Wholesale in Independence.

The state of New York imposes excise taxes on all cigarettes sold in the state, unless expressly exempted by law or by private agreement between the state and an Indian nation or tribe. Only licensed wholesalers may purchase unstamped cigarettes, either through the cigarette manufacturer or through other wholesalers. Under New York state law, it is the obligation of state-licensed stamping agents to prepay the excise tax and affix stamps on all cigarette packs. Tobacco wholesalers must report the sales of cigarettes to the state.

Sheffler admitted that he made regular purchases of contraband cigarettes from undercover agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The contraband cigarettes were transported to New York without prior approval by the New York Department of Taxation and Finance and without first paying the required $4.35 per pack excise tax. The unstamped, untaxed cigarettes were then sold to other smoke shops on the reservations in New York by several co-conspirators, including AJ’s Candy & Tobacco, LLC, a tobacco wholesaler located on a reservation in Irving, N.Y., to other smoke shops on the reservations in New York, thus allowing the sale of the cigarettes at a considerable discount and depriving the state of its tax revenue.

AJ’s Candy & Tobacco was sentenced for its role in the conspiracy on Aug. 1, 2014, and ordered to pay a $1 million fine. The company also must forfeit to the government $221,550, which represents the proceeds of the offense. The court also ordered the company to pay an additional $535,050 in restitution to the state of New York. Under the terms of the company’s plea agreement, AJ’s is prohibited from selling premium cigarettes for two years.

According to the indictment, conspirators purchased more than $17 million worth of contraband cigarettes from ATF agents during an undercover operation. Sheffler admitted in today’s plea agreement that the amount of loss exceeded $7 million. Approximately 620,600 cartons of cigarettes – containing 10 packs per carton – were transported to New York without paying the required $4.35 per pack excise tax. The untaxed cigarettes were sold by New York retailers and smoke shops on the reservations in the state of New York. The total state excise tax lost to the state of New York was more than $8 million.

Under federal statutes, Sheffler is subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul S. Becker and Justin G. Davids. It was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, IRS – Criminal Investigation, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of Inspector General and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Johnson Country Republicans are pushing back against Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposals to increase taxes on alcohol and cigarettes to balance the state budget.

Overland Park Sen. Jim Denning said he opposes the higher consumption taxes because they would disproportionately affect Kansas City-area communities. Denning is vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Leawood Sen. Jeff Melcher said the tax increases would drive shoppers across the border to Missouri.

The governor wants to raise taxes on alcoholic beverages to 12 percent from 8 percent. The tax is paid by consumers at liquor stores and by businesses purchasing beer, wine and liquor.

The cigarette tax would jump to $2.29 a pack from 79 cents and the tax on other tobacco products would jump to 25 percent from 10 percent.

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner — who oversaw the rocky rollout of the president’s health care law — says she’s stepping down at the end of February.

In an email Friday to staff at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Tavenner says she’s leaving with “sadness and mixed emotions.”

Tavenner survived the 2013 technology meltdown of HealthCare.gov, but was embarrassed last fall when she testified to Congress that 7.3 million people were enrolled for coverage. That turned out to be an overcount that exaggerated the total by about 400,000.

Calling Tavenner “one of our most esteemed and accomplished colleagues,” Health and Human Services Secrerary Sylvia M. Burwell said the decision to leave was Tavenner’s.

Principal deputy administrator Andy Slavitt will take over as acting administrator.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed raising tobacco and liquor taxes and slowing down future income tax cuts to help close projected budget shortfalls.

Brownback released a plan Friday to nearly triple the state’s cigarette tax, to $2.29 a pack from 79 cents a pack.

He also proposed raising the state’s tax on alcoholic beverages to 12 percent from 8 percent.

Brownback also proposed making future personal income tax cuts more gradual than promised under reductions enacted in 2012 and 2013 at his urging to stimulate the economy.

The tax changes would raise an additional $394 million over the two years, starting in July.

The measures would help close projected shortfalls totaling more than $710 million in the current and next state budgets and balance the budget through J

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new report says more Kansas college students are receiving Pell Grants but the money isn’t covering the rising cost of attending a four-year college.

The report delivered Thursday to the Kansas Board of Regents says more than 37 percent of four-year students in Kansas received Pell Grants last year.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports more than 37 percent of students attending four-year universities in Kansas last year received Pell Grants. But the grants covered only 63 percent of tuition and fees, compared with 99 percent a decade ago.

The information was part of a report about the Regents’ long-range strategic plan, which includes the goal of increasing the higher education level in the state.