DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government’s road safety agency is investigating complaints about engine stalling and alternator failures in Dodge Charger sedans.

The probe covers about 123,000 Chargers from the 2011 and 2012 model years.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has 14 complaints of alternator failure and stalling. All the cases happened while the cars were going 40 or more miles per hour.

In one case a car stopped in traffic with smoke coming from the alternator, which generates electricity to recharge the battery and run other devices. No injuries have been reported to the agency.

Chrysler says it’s cooperating in the probe. Investigations can lead to recalls but there haven’t been any so far.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A former employee of the Internal Revenue Service in Kansas City pleaded guilty to stealing taxpayers’ identity information to receive fraudulent tax refunds.

Thirty-two-year-old Taylor S. Knight of Kansas City entered the plea Friday in federal court. She admitted that she used the information to receive fraudulent tax refunds and prepaid debit cards while working at the IRS.

Knight and her boyfriend were arrested in August 2011 when they tried to cash a $46,734 refund check at a convenience store, and offered store employees $6,000 to persuade them to cash the check. A suspicious store supervisor called police.

Knight faces up to five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000 and an order of restitution.

By KHI NEWS SERVICE

TOPEKA — Kansas welfare officials said Thursday that they will use more than $600,000 in grants from two nonprofit groups to launch a program aimed at getting parents to pay down child support debts.

The program, called the Child Support Savings Initiative, will encourage parents who owe child support to pay into education savings accounts for their offspring. For every dollar put into an account, the state will reduce the parent’s debt obligation by $2.

Money from the grants will be used to publicize the program and to pay offsetting sums to the custodial parent owed the child support money.

“The program is a win-win,” said Phyllis Gilmore, secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, the agency that was awarded the grants by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “The non-custodial parent who owes child support will have arrears reduced, the parent who has custody of the child will have the money he/she is owed and the child will know that money is there available when it’s time to start college or a technical program.”

The Kellogg Foundation gave DCF a grant of $600,000, of which $100,000 will be used to promote the program with the remainder paid out to custodial parents, agency officials said.

The Casey Foundation gave $50,000, which will be used for a media campaign and related promotional services.

DCF officials said a child who has designated school savings is nearly five times more likely to graduate from college than a child with no savings account.

Accounts created through the program will be in the state’s name so that neither parent can withdraw funds from it. But the money can be used at any college or technical school accredited to receive financial aid.

The program will be run with assistance from the State Treasurer’s Office.

Non-custodial parents who owe back child support may owe debt both to the custodial parent and the state (if the custodial parent is receiving assistance). The non-custodial parent with debt now has the opportunity to pay $25 to open a CSSI 529 account and for every $1 paid into that account, the state will forgive $2 of state-owed debt. The individual will still be required to meet his/her monthly obligation to the custodial parent.

Television ads publicizing the program are scheduled to air in early August and online ads will begin this week, officials said.

DCF officials said they also would work with the Kansas Department of Education and its community partners to spread the word.

For additional information about the Kansas Child Support Savings Initiative click here or call Child Support Services at (888) 632-7758.

NEMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An erroneous evacuation warning about a hazardous material spill has sounded in a village of 150 people that sits a couple of miles from a nuclear power plant in southeast Nebraska.

The vocal warning went out once or twice over a siren speaker in Nemaha while a technician from Cooper Nuclear Station worked on the siren Thursday. Nebraska Public Power District owns the plant, and district spokesman Mark Becker said Friday that the technician accidentally played a recorded message that had been loaded by the manufacturer but is not part of the plant’s procedure. The plant’s warning system triggers sirens within 10 miles of the plant for three minutes, alerting people to seek more information from television or radio.

Becker says federal regulators will be notified about the error.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police have arrested the foster parent of a 10-month-old girl who died after being left inside a hot car in Wichita, Kansas.

Lt. Todd Ojile said Friday the 29-year-old man was booked on suspicion of aggravated endangerment but has not been charged.

Ojile says the man had “somehow forgotten” leaving the girl in the back seat after picking her up from the baby sitter late Thursday afternoon. He went inside the house with a 5-year-old child but left the baby strapped in the car seat outside.

No charges are expected against the other foster parent, a 26-year-old man who was inside the house.

Ojile says they didn’t remember the child was outside until something on television jogged their memories. The girl had been in the car for about 2 hours.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police say a 10-month-old girl died after being left in a hot car outside a house in south Wichita.

Officers found the girl unresponsive inside the car Thursday evening. She was pronounced dead a short time later.

Police say the child had been in the car for about two hours. She was a foster child of two men who lived in a house where the car was parked. They were taken in for questioning.

The National Weather Service says the high temperature was 90 degrees on Thursday.

Police were expected to release more information on the case at a briefing Friday morning.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has overturned the death sentences of two brothers convicted of capital murder in the shooting deaths of four people whose bodies were found in a snow-covered Wichita soccer field in 2000.

The state Supreme Court on Friday also struck down three of the four capital murder conviction each against Jonathan and Reginald Carr. But it upheld one capital murder conviction each.

Their cases will return to Sedgwick County District Court for further hearings and a new sentencing.

The court’s majority overturned the death sentences because, it said, the presiding judge failed to have separate proceedings for each brother.

In overturning most of the capital convictions, the majority said the instructions to jurors were flawed.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Shawnee County judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by 10 former parks and recreation employees against the city of Topeka will go to trial.

The employees sued in May 2012 after they were fired from the department and then hired to become Shawnee County employees. They contend the city didn’t follow a requirement that employees who lose their jobs in such circumstances should receive severance pay.

Shawnee County District Judge Rebecca Crotty last week denied both sides’ efforts to have the case decided in their favor without a trial.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports  Crotty learned Tuesday the two sides were trying to reach a settlement.

Crotty indicated a pretrial hearing next Tuesday will instead be a status conference, with pretrial hearing and trial dates set then.

United States Attorney’s Office