HIAWATHA, Kan. (AP) — A new kind of telephone scam is hitting northeast Kansas, this one perpetrated by people pretending to be federal agents.

Brown County Sheriff John Merchant tells KNZA-FM that a caller with a heavy foreign accent leaves messages on home answering machines claiming the recipient is a suspect in a federal investigation.

The caller says the recipient must return the call or face legal consequences. But the sheriff says the return call will result in hefty telephone charges that the scammer will pocket.

A second scam involves calls to cellphones saying a federal warrant has been issued for the recipient. The caller says the recipient must make a payment through personal financial information to avoid being arrested at work.

Merchant says anyone receiving such calls should notify law enforcement.

NIXA, Mo. (AP) – Missouri authorities say a teenager has died after being stabbed in the throat in Nixa.

City spokeswoman Jill Finney tells the Springfield News-Leader a 15-year-old boy was stabbed Thursday evening at an apartment complex. She says he was transported to an area hospital where he later died.

Authorities haven’t released his name or details of the incident.

Finney says police have taken a 21-year-old man into custody in connection to the death. It wasn’t immediately clear if charges have been filed.

Nixa is about 20 miles south of Springfield.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence nature center has won a grant from Westar Energy to install solar panels.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports the Prairie Park Nature Center was one of 15 projects chosen by Topeka-based Westar for funding.

Eileen Horn, the city and county’s sustainability coordinator, says Westar will pay for the solar panels and their installation. The panels are expected to produce about 25 percent of the nature center’s electricity, resulting in savings of about $1,300 a year.

The project will include a kiosk where visitors can see how the solar panels work and how much energy they’re producing. Horn says the project should be up and running this fall.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he’s authorized the U.S. military to carry out airstrikes in Iraq against Islamic militants if they advance toward the critical city of Irbil (ur-BEEL’). The U.S. has a consulate and a military operations center there.

Obama, speaking from the White House, says the U.S. military has already started dropping food, water and supplies to thousands members of a religious minority trapped on a mountain top by the Sunni extremist group Islamic State.

Obama said the U.S. can’t turn a blind eye to potential genocide. But he also said that the U.S. will not send combat forces into Iraq.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A homeless woman who was the subject of a long search in a Kansas City river turned up safe many hours later.

The woman’s boyfriend told authorities the woman fell into the fast-moving Blue River during a storm around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

KMBC-TV reports  the woman appeared at a relative’s home later Thursday, saying she had grabbed a tree branch in the river and pulled herself out. Family members told the station the woman was doing well.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Republican Governors Association is running a new TV ad in Kansas attacking Gov. Sam Brownback’s Democratic challenger in November’s election.

The 30-second spot portrays Paul Davis as a liberal tied to President Barack Obama. The ad does not mention Brownback, but the message dovetails with one of the Republican incumbent’s key campaign themes.

Davis spokesman Chris Pumpelly said Thursday that the ad on Topeka and Wichita stations is designed to distract voters from Brownback’s record on fiscal issues.

The ad notes that Davis was a delegate for Obama at the Democratic National Conventions in 2008 and 2012.

Online records of television ad contracts show the RGA is spending $111,000 on time on broadcast stations over seven days. The ads started Wednesday, the day after the state’s primary election.

(AP) — General Motors is warning owners of certain older model SUVs to park the vehicles outdoors until they are repaired because they could catch fire when left unattended.

The SUVs were included in a handful of recalls GM announced in late June. The warning was included in recall-related documents posted online Wednesday by safety regulators.

It’s the third recall of the same vehicles in three years.

Water can get into the driver’s side power window control switch and cause a short. The switches can overheat and even catch fire.

The latest recall covers about 189,000 Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy, Buick Ranier and Isuzu Ascender SUVs from the 2006 and 2007 model years, as well as the Saab 97-X from 2005 to 2007.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Two southwest Missouri women have admitted using stolen identities to obtain credit cards on which they spent nearly $61,000.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 35-year-old Kelly Marie Lockhart, of Buffalo, pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated identity theft. Forty-year-old Stacy R. Rosa, also of Buffalo, pleaded guilty to the same charge Wednesday.

In one instance, Lockhart used the unauthorized credit card to get a $3,600 cash advance.

Both women face minimum sentences of two years in federal prison.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A driver is unhurt but 78-year-old man suffered a minor injury when a car crashed through the wall of a northeast Kansas restaurant.

The accident happened Thursday afternoon at a Golden Corral in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe.

Police say a 77-year-old woman was trying to park her car in front of the restaurant but hit the outside wall. The car ended up partially inside the restaurant.

The 78-year-old patron sustained what police called a minor injury to his face.

CARL JUNCTION, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri church that was rebuilt after a 2003 tornado has been destroyed again — this time by fire.

The Joplin Globe reports the Carl Junction United Methodist Church burned early Thursday after an apparent lightning strike. Fire Chief Bill Dunn says no injuries were reported.

Pastor Bill Kenagy says the building was insured and will be rebuilt — again.

In 2003, a tornado destroyed homes and buildings in Carl Junction and also hit the United Methodist church, which offered shelter to more than two dozen people after the tornado, despite the church’s heavy damage. The congregation was displaced for nearly two years after the tornado while its members rebuilt.
Kenagy says services are planned for this weekend, but it’s unclear where they’ll be held.