KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The owner of restaurants in Kansas City, Missouri and Olathe, Kansas, has pleaded guilty to employing and harboring several illegal workers.

Forty-year-old Wei Liu of Olathe pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens for private financial gain.

Several of his family members, including his wife, 36-year-old Xiang Liu, pleaded guilty to other charges in the case. Liu and his wife owned Wei’s Super Buffet restaurants in Olathe and Kansas City.

Prosecutors say Wei Liu admitted that he employed at least 12 illegal workers in his two restaurants, paid them in cash and provided them with housing without charging for the rooms.

Xiang Liu pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to the Department of Homeland Security

NEW YORK (AP) — Staples says that it is looking into a potential credit card data breach and that it has been in touch with law enforcement officials about the issue.

The office supplier retailer said that if it turns up any data discrepancies during its investigation, customers won’t be responsible for fraudulent activity on their credit cards as long as it is reported in a timely manner.

Spokesman Mark Cautela said in a statement that “we take the protection of customer information very seriously, and are working to resolve the situation.”

Earlier this month Sears Holdings Corp. reported a data breach at its Kmart stores. Other breaches have occurred at retailers including Target, Supervalu and Home Depot.

Shares of Staples Inc., based in Framingham, Massachusetts, slipped in premarket trading Tuesday

ST. MARYS, Kan. (AP) — The Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a woman who it says led officers on a slow-speed chase and ran into a police car.

Deputies say the chase began Sunday night after authorities received a call about an unwanted person at a home in Emmett. They say the 43-year-old woman from Topeka left in a van and wouldn’t pull over for authorities. Deputies say she was driving slowly.

The chase ended in St. Marys after city police officers used spike strips on the van. Officers say the woman hit a patrol car directing that was traffic before coming to a stop.

No injuries were reported.

The woman faces charges of criminal damage to property, fleeing and eluding, DUI and transporting an open container.

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis County police say a Missouri state senator has been arrested during a protest outside of the Ferguson police station.

Sgt. Brian Schellman tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Democratic Sen. Jamilah Nasheed of St. Louis walked in the street on Monday night after police told her she couldn’t protest there. He says Nasheed and an unidentified man were arrested after officers asked them multiple times to leave the street.

The protesters have condemned the early August shooting in Ferguson of 18-year-old Michael Brown and other killings of young black men by white officers.

Police say Nasheed is facing two unspecified charges and is being held at the St. Ann jail.
An attorney for Nasheed says she refused bond. He says the senator was promoting nonviolence.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has vowed during a debate to defend Kansas’ ban on same-sex marriage.

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) — Police say 13 people have been taken to hospitals following an accident involving a school bus in suburban Kansas City.

The bus was taking a girls’ volleyball team from the Raymore-Peculiar School District to a tournament at Lee’s Summit West High School late Monday afternoon.

The accident happened around 4:45 p.m. near the Lee’s Summit school. Police said the bus collided with a flatbed truck while making a U-turn. The flatbed truck hit the bus on the left rear side.

The two drivers were not hurt.

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans may be close to winning control of Congress and more votes to repeal “Obamacare,” but GOP governors don’t see the president’s health care law going away.

MOLINE, Kan. (AP) — The Oklahoma Air National Guard says two of its fighter jets collided over southeast Kansas during a training exercise, with one ejecting from one of the aircraft.

The Oklahoma Guard’s Col. Max Moss said neither pilot was seriously injured in the midair collision Monday afternoon.

Moss said one of the F-16’s returned safely to its base in Tulsa. The second crashed and burned in a field in Kansas.

Moss said the pilot of the crashed plane was taken to McConnell Air Force Base hospital in Wichita for evaluation, but is not believed to be seriously injured.

He said the collision occurred during a training exercise northeast of the Elk County town of Moline.