KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Council has agreed to settle the seventh of eight discrimination lawsuits stemming from the reorganization of the city prosecutor’s office.

The council on Thursday approved a $500,000 settlement with Cynthia Holmes, a former assistant city prosecutor. The settlement brings the total taxpayer outlay to nearly $2 million for the seven lawsuits. The remaining case is set for a September trial.

Eight attorneys who had worked for years as part-time prosecutors who filed lawsuits applied for the new full-time jobs but were not selected. They alleged age, gender and/or race discrimination because several younger, less experienced lawyers were hired.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Revenue is studying its options for moving out of the Docking State Office Building but has not determined when or where the relocation will happen.

Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan told employees earlier this month that the department will stay in Topeka. He said he wants the department to stay in one building but that might not be possible because of limited office space in Topeka.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Jordan told employees that the Department of Administration had closed a request for public bids to lease office space for the revenue department. He says his department currently is reviewing potential sites.

The Brownback administration wants to demolish the Docking building, which is almost $100 million behind on maintenance, and sell several other state office buildings.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Missouri and four other states will soon be selling federal duck stamps online.
Eight states already are doing so. “Anyone, regardless of what state you live in, may purchase an E-Stamp online through any of the states,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website.

Michigan, Louisana, North Carolina and Virginia also were recently chosen for the federal E-Stamp option, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said in a news release Thursday.
Louisiana’s online sales will begin Aug. 1.

The federal department’s website links to state sites in Arkansas, Florida, Maryland, Texas, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota and Wisconsin for online duck stamp sales.

“It is important that you have a printer so you will be able to print the electronic stamp,” the federal website notes.
Hunters who buy the stamp online get a confirmation number that they can use for 45 days. Within that time, the government will mail a stamp certified by theU.S. Postal Service. After 45 days, the hunter must carry the actual stamp while hunting.

Hunters will also be able to buy a temporary federal E-Stamp from any retail vendor selling Louisiana hunting licenses, the Louisiana department said.
“If you experience problems during your purchase of the online stamp or with the receipt of your duck stamp, please contact the state from which you made the purchase, since that information will be in their system,” according to the federal website. “Do not contact the Federal Duck Stamp Office.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Tea party challenger Milton Wolf is planning a 45-stop bus tour of Kansas to boost his campaign for the U.S. Senate ahead of the state’s Republican primary.

Wolf’s campaign says he will launch the bus tour with a Saturday morning send-off from his campaign headquarters in Overland Park. It plans an afternoon event at Chisholm Creek Park in Wichita, followed by an evening rally there.

Wolf doesn’t plan to take a break from the tour until it ends Aug. 2 at his campaign headquarters.

Wolf is a 43-year-old Leawood radiologist trying to unseat three-term Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts in the Aug. 5 primary. Two lesser-known candidates are also on the GOP ballot.

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor and Lawrence attorney Patrick Wiesner, are seeking the Democratic nomination.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill on Thursday told General Motors’ CEO that the “failure of [GM’s] legal department is stunning” and questioned how the company’s top lawyer has so far kept his job. The exchange was a part of McCaskill’s hearing of her Consumer Protection Subcommittee to examine the investigation into GM’s response to the defective ignition switches that have been linked to at least 13 deaths, including a fatality in Missouri, and other matters related to the ignition switch recall.

McCaskill and 10 of her colleagues, including the subcommittee’s top Republican, Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, used the hearing to examine recent developments and the policy implications following GM’s recalls earlier this year for Chevy Cobalts and other vehicles with defective ignition switches. In particular, the hearing focused on the various developments and findings since McCaskill’s April hearing, including the role of GM’s legal department, the May 29, 2014, investigative report, and the June 30, 2014, announcement of the GM Ignition Compensation Claims Resolution Facility program.

Citing the investigative report, McCaskill blasted “incompetence and deceit among engineers in positions of responsibility,” adding “it is clear that the culture of lawyering-up and whack-a-mole to minimize liability killed innocent customers of GM.”

McCaskill grilled GM’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel Michael Millikin—bluntly asking him how he has retained his job after ticking through multiple failures of his legal department to recognize troubling litigation patterns and to meet obligations to employees, shareholders and customers in the delayed recall.

“In the aftermath of this report, how in the world did Michael Milikin keep his job? I do not understand how the general counsel for a litigation department that had this massive failure of responsibility, how he would be allowed to continue in that important leadership role in this company,” McCaskill said, also holding GM CEO Mary Barra’s feet to the fire, telling her: “I think you’ve … handled this with courage and conviction … but for the life of me, I [can’t understand] the notion that he can say ‘I don’t know’ … the failure of this legal department is stunning.”

Joined by her colleague Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, McCaskill praised General Motors’ workers who “build good cars,” and were also “victims of outrageously incompetent management.” Approximately 6,000 people in the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas work for GM at assembly plants in Wentzville, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan.

The subcommittee members also heard testimony from Rodney O’Neal, Chief Executive Officer and President of Delphi, the company that produced the defective ignition switch for GM, and Kenneth Feinberg, who was hired by GM to establish and administer a victims’ compensation program for the company.

Last month, Feinberg announced a plan for compensating victims of GM’s ignition switch defect. Additionally, in May, GM released a report summarizing the investigation conducted by former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas in relation to the defective ignition switches. This was one month after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that GM agreed to pay a record $35 million civil penalty and comply with additional oversight requirements as a result of findings from NHTSA’s timeliness investigation regarding the defective switches. As part of the settlement, GM agreed to provide NHTSA with full access to the results of GM’s investigation into this recall, to take steps to ensure its employees report safety-related concerns to management, and to speed up the process for GM to decide whether to recall vehicles.

McCaskill noted that the subcommittee’s work on the GM recall and auto safety issues will continue, with a hearing in the coming weeks to further examine failures at NHTSA in recognizing and addressing the defective ignition switch and legislative reforms to ensure the tragedies associated with the recall are not repeated.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas saw its unemployment rate inch up to 4.9 percent in June but also experience modest, over-the-year growth in private-sector jobs.

The state Department of Labor reported Thursday that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose from 4.8 percent in May. However, June’s figure still was significantly better than the 5.6 percent recorded in June 2013.

The department also said the number of nonfarm, private-sector jobs grew by about 1.3 percent in June, compared with June 2013. Nearly 1.13 million Kansans held such jobs, up 15,000 from June 2013.

Government employment also grew 1.3 percent, to about 255,000. State, local and federal agencies added 3,400 jobs over the year. The most robust over-the-year job growth occurred in construction. Employment in the industry grew by 6.9 percent, or 3,900 jobs.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Researchers at Kansas State University say their research and a recent change in bedbug fumigation will make it cheaper to get rid of the pests.

The Wichita Eagle  reports a prepared statement from the university says bedbug infestations in the U.S. have grown and the bugs have developed a resistance to many insecticides.

Entomology professor Tom Phillips specializes in fumigant gases. He recently tested a sulfuryl fluoride known as Vikanea and found that it could be effective even at one-third of the rate of other products.

Phillips says his discovery means consumers will pay less money to get rid of bedbugs because less chemical is being used.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Agriculture Department is allowing emergency haying and grazing on Conservation Reserve Program acreage in 44 Kansas counties.

Adrian Polansky is state executive director of the Kansas Farm Service Agency. He said Thursday the authorization provides relief for livestock producers who have suffered through severe drought. The drought has depleted hay supplies and affected the growth of hay and pasture in parts of Kansas. He says many producers cannot maintain their current herds without it.

The agency used its authority to allow the emergency measure once the primary nesting and rearing season ended in July 15 in counties designated on the U.S. Drought Monitor Map as being in a severe drought.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A former Republican congresswoman from Kansas said she never endorsed Democratic challenger Paul Davis in the gubernatorial race against incumbent Sam Brownback, despite being included on a list of GOP backers.

The Kansas City Star reports that Jan Meyers said she would never publicly endorse a Democratic challenger over a sitting Republican governor.

Davis announced earlier this week that more than 100 former and current GOP officials had endorsed him through a new group called Republicans for Kansas Values. Meyers’ name was one of the most prominent on the list.

Meyers said she joined the group because she’s a GOP moderate, but she said she didn’t endorse Davis. She said there must have been some miscommunication.

Meyers represented the Kansas City-area 3rd District from 1985 to 1997.