KANSAS CITY (AP) – Kansas City council members have unanimously voted to ban people from openly carrying firearms within city limits.

Mayor Sly James has advocated for the prohibition that was voted on Thursday. He says the city doesn’t need any more weapons on the streets.

The ban takes effect in 10 days. It’s unclear how long it will last.

The Missouri General Assembly approved a bill prohibiting such bans for permit holders in May. Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed the bill, but an override session is set for Sept. 10.

OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas congresswoman Lynn Jenkins faces a Republican primary tea party challenger who accuses her voting to allow the indefinite detention of American citizens.

Joshua Joel Tucker, of Pittsburg, also said Friday that the House’s GOP leaders aren’t doing enough to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama.

Jenkins is seeking her fourth, two-year term representing the 2nd District of eastern Kansas. The primary is Tuesday, and the winner will face Democrat and Lawrence attorney Margie Wakefield in the November election.

The congresswoman defends her vote for 2011 legislation authorizing the military detention of terrorism suspects, saying Tucker and other critics are wrong in contending it allows U.S. citizens to be held indefinitely.

Campaign manager Lee Modesitt says Jenkins is working hard to make sure Kansans’ voices are heard.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have identified a Topeka jail inmate as a suspect in the weekend killing of a 56-year-old Lawrence woman.

Christine Kaplan was found dead Saturday at her home. An autopsy determined the death was a homicide, but the cause has not been made public.

Police said Thursday that 38-year-old Angelica Marie Kulp, of Lawrence, is charged in an arrest warrant with first-degree murder.

Investigators located and interviewed Kulp at the Shawnee County Jail, where The Topeka Capital-Journal reports she was booked late Wednesday on unrelated charges of theft and burglary.

Lawrence police Sgt. Trent McKinley says Kulp was acquainted with Kaplan and may have stayed at her home. Neighbors have said Kaplan was known to take in people who needed a place to stay.

PARSONS, Kan. (AP) — A southeast Kansas company that makes tanks for customers worldwide is planning a major expansion.

The Parsons Sun reports Tank Connection is adding equipment and employees to expand production by 50 percent.

The Parsons-based firm was established 10 years ago with two employees. The addition of 35 workers will bring total employment to more than 400.

Tank Connection manufactures shop-welded, field-welded and hybrid storage tanks as well as aluminum dome covers. The company has two plants in Parsons and one each in Baxter Springs, Oswego and Galesburg.

Company president Bill Neighbors most of the new equipment will be installed at the Galesburg plant. A third shift will be added there and at the Parsons facilities.

NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter says government requests for user data grew sharply in the past six months as more countries asked for a greater amount of information about users.

More than half of the requests came from the United States.

Twitter Inc. said in a blog post Thursday that it received 2,058 requests from 54 countries in the first six months of the year, including from eight countries that had not previously submitted requests. In the last six months of 2013, the short messaging service received 1,410 requests, the majority of which also came from the U.S. Most Twitter users live outside the U.S.

In addition to account information queries, Twitter says it also received 432 requests to remove content, up 15 percent from 377 in the last six months of 2013.

 

 JC Post

JUNCTION CITY– The Geary County Sheriff’s Department reported the arrested of Shane Curtis Hutcheson, 30, McPherson, on suspicion of aggravated assault.

On Thursday, the Sheriff’s Department received a report that while traveling on Interstate 70, Hutcheson drove by another vehicle, cutting it off.

That led the driver of the vehicle to honk at him.

Hutcheson then allegedly pointed a revolver at the vehicle.

Hutcheson was later located on Southwind Drive on the west side of Junction City and arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault.

No injuries were reported.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – During the Republican Leadership Stakeout today, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) discussed President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Kansas City, Mo. and called on the president to stop campaigning and instead focus on various important issues facing the nation.

MOBERLY (AP) – A Missouri man is among the hundreds of Peace Corps volunteers being evacuated from three West African nations affected by the worst recorded Ebola outbreak in history.

Liz Sosniecki of Moberly heard from her 25-year-old son, Dane Sosniecki, on Wednesday. He told her he was coming home and would be back in the United States on Saturday. He’s with the Peace Corps in Liberia and has been there only six weeks.

Sosniecki says she shares her son’s disappointment that his volunteer work has been interrupted. He’s been training to be a high school math teacher in Liberia, his assignment during an anticipated two-year stint.

On his blog, Dane Sosniecki wrote Wednesday: “I am willing to accept the possibility of contracting Ebola to do what I think is right.”

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A Missouri proposal to create one of the nation’s most expansive early voting periods appears to have fallen short of the number of initiative petition signatures needed to make the November ballot.

An Associated Press analysis of tallies by Missouri’s local election authorities shows the proposed constitutional amendment on early voting lacks enough valid signatures of registered voters in all but two of the state’s eight congressional districts.

To qualify for the ballot, initiatives must get signatures equal to 8 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in at least six of the congressional districts.

That threshold appears to have been met by supporters of a separate initiative that would curb teacher tenure protections and require public schools to evaluate personnel based on student performance data.