KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the Kansas City school district over its punishment of a student who displayed the “Hands up, don’t shoot!” gesture while Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon was giving a speech.

Nixon was at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy last month when 14 students held up their hands in protest, the ACLU of Missouri said in a lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of the mother of one of the students. The pose has come to symbolize a movement, even though witnesses offered conflicting accounts of whether 18-year-old Michael Brown had his hands up in surrender when he was killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in August.
The lawsuit contends that school administrators ushered the students out of the auditorium, sent them home and threatened them with a 10-day suspension. The district finally settled on a Saturday detention, which the lawsuit says violated the girl’s First Amendment right to free speech.
“School administrators cannot punish students for communications they think will bring negative attention to the school,” Sarah Rossi, the Missouri ACLU’s director of advocacy and policy, said in a written statement. “The First Amendment does not permit that.”

The Kansas City Star reported that the district didn’t comment directly on the lawsuit, but said in an earlier statement that students faced discipline for refusing to obey an administrator’s order to sit down, not for exercising their right to free expression. A district spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press.
Nixon said at the time of the protest that he understands the students’ concerns. He said they’re “going to be — and need to be — a force, so that we can be a better state and better society after this.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Keurig is recalling some 7 million of single-serve coffee brewing machines because of reported burns.

Keurig says its Mini Plus Brewing Systems, with model number K10, can overheat and spray water during brewing. Keurig says it had received about 200 reports of hot liquid escaping from the brewer, including 90 reports of burn-related injuries.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission released details on the recall Tuesday. The recalled brewers have an identification number starting with “31” printed on the bottom. They were sold online and in stores in the U.S. and Canada between 2009 and 2014.

Consumers are being urged to call Keurig Green Mountain Inc. of Waterbury, Vermont, at 1-844-255-7886 to arrange for free repair.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Department of Transportation is using a nearly $1 million federal grant to apply a surface treatment that is designed to reduce stopping distance and loss of control.

The Columbia Daily Tribune  reports that the high-friction treatment will be applied on seven projects throughout the state. The treatment gets results on curves, loop ramps and other areas where skid-related crashes are more likely to occur.

Missouri was one of six states chosen to divvy up a $5.37 million award from the Federal Highway Administration as part of its Accredited Innovation Deployment Demonstration program. Ultimately, the program will provide $30 million for agencies in every level of government.
The U.S. Department of Transportation says Missouri’s share of the funding is $964,000.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Problematic executions in Oklahoma, Arizona and other states have highlighted a patchwork approach states are taking with lethal drugs, with types, combinations and dosages varying widely. Arizona announced Monday that it was switching from the two-drug method that led to a nearly two-hour execution earlier this year, while a federal judge in Oklahoma upheld the state’s three-drug lethal injection protocol, which was adjusted recently after a botched execution in the spring. A question-and-answer look at how the disparities in drugs came about and why, after more than three decades in which all death penalty states used the exact same mixture:

Q: What are states currently using for lethal drugs?

A: Georgia, Texas and Missouri use single doses of compounded pentobarbital, an anesthetic similar to the drug used to put pets to sleep. Ohio, which has been unable to obtain compounded pentobarbital, uses a combination of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller. Arizona said Monday it was switching from that same two-drug combination to a three-drug combination that includes midazolam. Florida uses midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. Oklahoma has authorized four different lethal injection protocols: a single, lethal dose of either pentobarbital or sodium pentothal, a two-drug procedure using midazolam and hydromorphone, or the same three-drug method used in Florida.

Q: All death penalty states used the same three-drug combo for lethal injection for more than three decades. Why isn’t that done now?

A: Two reasons. First, supplies of the drugs started to run short as death penalty opponents in Europe put pressure on their drugmakers — which manufactured key anesthetics — to prohibit their use in executions. Secondly, states eager to avoid ongoing lawsuits alleging the old three-drug method caused inmates to suffer unconstitutional levels of pain looked for alternatives beginning about five years ago.

Q: Why don’t all states follow the lead of Georgia, Missouri and Texas and use compounded pentobarbital?

A: The compounded version is difficult to come by, with most compounding pharmacists reluctant to expose themselves to possible harassment by death penalty opponents. Adopting it also raises the specter of lawsuits over its constitutionality, based on arguments that its purity and potency could be questioned as a non-FDA regulated drug. So far, Georgia, Missouri and Texas won’t reveal their sources, while Ohio, whose protocol includes the option of compounded pentobarbital, hasn’t been able to obtain it.

Q: Why can’t states just find another drug as effective as pentobarbital?

A: Basically, options are running out. The leading candidate after pentobarbital was propofol, the painkiller known as the drug that caused pop singer Michael Jackson’s 2009 overdose death. Missouri proposed using propofol but withdrew the idea over concerns the move would create a shortage of the popular anesthetic. Meanwhile, manufacturers are also starting to put limits on drugs in the old three-drug combo still in use in states like Florida.

Q: With all this uncertainty, why don’t states return to the electric chair or other non-drug methods?

A: Most states retired their electric chairs or used them sparingly with the advent of the three-drug method introduced in the 1970s. Tennessee recently enacted a law allowing its use if lethal drugs can’t be found, and other states are debating its reintroduction. But electric chairs come with their own constitutional problems, since they have produced a number of botched executions over the years, as did hanging decades ago. Lawmakers in Oklahoma also are considering the use of nitrogen gas to execute inmates. Many death penalty experts, and even some opponents, believe the quickest and most humane method is the firing squad. But it’s unclear whether there’s a public appetite for moving to that method.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is cutting back slightly on the amount of aid students will receive under the state’s A+ scholarship program.

The program typically provides free community college tuition to students who graduate from high school with at least a 2.5 GPA and meet various other criteria.

The Department of Higher Education says the change is being made because of a funding shortfall, rising tuition rates and a growing number of eligible students.

Department spokesman Liz Coleman says it will be up to each college to decide how to make up for the decreased scholarship funding.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s largest electric company said Monday that it plans to invest $135 million in energy efficiency programs for customers over a three-year period.

Ameren Missouri said its costs for the energy efficiency initiative would be recouped through charges on customer bills, but it said consumers ultimately should save money because the reduced energy use would decrease the need to build expensive new power plants.

The St. Louis-based utility serves about 1.2 million electric customers, mostly in the St. Louis region or eastern and central Missouri. It already offers energy efficiency incentives to customers, which it says have totaled about $155 million since 2009.
Its proposal, which was filed Monday with the Missouri Public Service Commission, outlines an initiative that would run from 2016 through 2018. It includes incentives for retailers to increase sales of energy-efficient light bulbs and for residential customers to install high-efficiency air conditioners and appliances.

Businesses also would receive incentives to implement energy-efficient measures.

Ameren’s costs for the energy efficiency programs would be recouped from customers through a line-item on their monthly bills. Despite that surcharge, customers could save money in the long run because the energy efficiency steps should reduce the need for additional power generation, said Warren Wood, Ameren Missouri’s s vice president of external affairs and communications.

KANSAS CITY – One person was injured in an accident just before 1:30 p.m. on Monday in Wyandotte County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2000 Chevy Sedan driven by Kevin G. Dunne, 22, Elmhurst, IL., was northbound on Interstate 635 just south of 38th Street.
The vehicle began drifting onto the left shoulder, swerved back to the right.

The driver over corrected left, struck concrete median barrier and overturned as it crossed lanes of traffic to the right.

Dunne was transported to KU Medical Center.
The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.