WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new report says Kansas crops need more moisture despite widespread rain over most of the state last week.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that subsoil moisture is short to very short across 51 percent of Kansas. Topsoil moisture conditions are only a bit better with 40 percent of the state still short of what is needed.

Stock water supplies are adequate or surplus across 75 percent of the state.

The agency rated the condition of the Kansas corn crop as 14 percent poor to very poor, 31 percent fair, 42 percent good and 13 percent excellent.

Sorghum is rated as 11 percent poor to very poor, 33 percent fair, 48 percent good and 8 percent excellent.

DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Family and friends of a Missouri teenager fatally shot by a police officer describe Michael Brown as a quiet, respectful and nonviolent youth.

The 18- year-old had planned to start college this week for a career as a heating and air conditioning engineer. Instead, his parents are planning a funeral after Brown was killed Saturday while walking down the street near the apartment where he lived with his grandmother.

Police say the shooting followed an altercation after the officer told Brown and a friend to move to the side.

Brown’s family and friends say he typically shied away from confrontation. His father says Brown was funny and silly, and could solve any problem and bring people together.

A witness said Brown had his hands up when he was repeatedly shot.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas businessman running for U.S. Senate as an independent candidate says he supports term limits and ending pensions for members of Congress.

Greg Orman outlined a plan Monday for reforming Congress. It includes term limits and ending members’ pensions, as well as a lifetime ban on lobbying by former lawmakers and barring political action committees controlled by congressional leaders.

Orman said he wants to change an environment in Washington that encourages lawmakers to become career politicians. He’s discussing the plan during an 18-stop, eight-day bus tour.

Orman hopes to unseat Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. The Democratic challenger is Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor.

Roberts spokesman Leroy Towns called Orman’s plan stale. Taylor spokesman Brandon Naylor said problems in Congress can be solved by voting out long-term incumbents.

CRESTLINE, Kan- A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 5:30 p.m. on Monday in Cherokee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 GMC Acadia driven by Heather S. Burns, 33, Cherokee was westbound on Lawton Rd three miles north of Crestline.

The vehicle failed to stop at the posted stop sign on U.S 69. The vehicle crossed U.S. 69 airborne, overturned, slid on its roof and was engulfed in flames.

Burns was transported to Freeman Hospital.

The KHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

 

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The attorney for the parents of an unarmed black teenager fatally shot by police in suburban St. Louis says he was “executed in broad daylight.”

Benjamin Crump joined the parents of 18-year-old Michael Brown during a news conference Monday. Crump says he and the family reject police accounts that Brown struggled with an officer before being shot Saturday in Ferguson.

The attorney says several witnesses reported seeing Brown hold up his hands before the officer repeatedly shot him.

Brown’s parents joined Crump in pressing for calm in their son’s honor, noting the looting and unrest that broke out Sunday night following a candlelight vigil.

Crump also represented the parents of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was fatally shot by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was later acquitted of murder charges.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police have released the names of an elderly couple found dead in the northeast Kansas home over the weekend.

Officers were called to the home in Kansas City, Kansas, on Sunday and found the man and woman dead in a car inside their garage.

They were identified Monday as 88-year-old Gerald Lorfing and his 86-year-old wife, Mary Lorfing.

Authorities have not released any details on how the couple died. The police department’s Major Case Squad asked to hear from anyone with information about the deaths.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — Oscar-winner Robin Williams, whose free-form comedy and adept impressions dazzled audiences for decades, has died in an apparent suicide. He was 63.

The Marin County Sheriff’s Office says Williams was pronounced dead at his home in California on Monday. The sheriff’s office says a preliminary investigation shows the cause of death to be a suicide due to asphyxia.

Williams shot to fame in the late ’70s as the alien in TV’s “Mork and Mindy.” He conquered the big screen in comic films such as “Good Morning, Vietnam” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.” But he won his Academy Award in a serious role — as the therapist in “Good Will Hunting.”

His performing style was at its purest in his standup act, as he impersonated a Russian immigrant or parodied anyone from John Wayne to Keith Richards

KELLY P. KISSEL, Associated Press

The Storm Prediction Center is adding two threat levels to its U.S. weather outlooks so people aren’t surprised by really bad storms on days with just a “slight risk” of tornadoes, hail or high winds.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder says the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in a St. Louis suburb deserves a full review.

Holder’s statement Monday comes as the Justice Department dispatched its Community Relations Service to the scene to try and help calm the area’s racial tension. The service helps communities resolve conflicts and tensions arising from racial differences.

The FBI is looking into possible civil rights violations in the shooting of 18-year old Michael Brown. Police said Brown was shot multiple times Saturday after an altercation with an officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Nearly three dozen people were arrested Sunday after crowds looted and burned stores and taunted officers.

Holder says aggressively pursuing these types of investigations is “critical for preserving trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.”