COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Boone County has spent nearly $100,000 on outside attorneys to defend it and three employees in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of Ryan Ferguson and are expected to budget another $100,000 for addition legal fees.

County Counselor C.J. Dykehouse says in his request to County Auditor June Pitchford and the Boone County Commission he can’t guarantee the additional money will be enough to get through the year.

The Columbia Daily Tribune (http://bit.ly/1mfDQW9 ) reports Ferguson’s lawsuit names 14 defendants, including four at the county level, the city of Columbia and its police department.

Ferguson was convicted in 2005 of first-degree robbery and second-degree murder in the 2001 death of Tribune Sports Editor Kent Heitholt. Last year, a state appeals court panel vacated his convictions.

DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

 

JUERGEN BAETZ, Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — Google says the number of requests from people seeking to have some search results removed in Europe has jumped to 70,000 by the end of June.

WASHINGTON – A barely-used power plant financed by American taxpayers near Kabul, Afghanistan has cost the U.S. more than $300 million, and U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is demanding answers.

Continuing her ongoing oversight of waste, fraud, and abuse in contracts in Afghanistan, McCaskill-Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight and a former state auditor-this week demanded answers from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on its contracts to build and maintain the Tarakhil Power Plant near Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Tarakhil plant was completed in 2010, after nearly 150 percent cost overruns, at a total expense of $307 million to USAID. USAID has since spent about $27 million on maintenance-meaning an expenditure of one-third of $1 billion on one power plant, an expenditure previously questioned by McCaskill.

“I recently learned that, since the Tarakhil power plant has been handed over to the Afghans, it has generated only 2.2% of the power it was designed to produce,” McCaskill wrote. “The power plant operates only as an emergency power source and its generators sit idle most of the time. Worse, this limited use is actually damaging to plant equipment and, over time, could lead to catastrophic failure.”

McCaskill continued in the letter: “Outrageously, this waste seems to have been entirely predictable and preventable. The Tarakhil generators can combust either diesel or heavy fuel oil (HFO). Because of the cold climate and the lack of delivery and storage facilities to handle HFO, Tarakhil must be fueled with diesel, which is extremely expensive to import into Afghanistan. The plant loses money with each kilowatt-hour of electricity it generates.”

McCaskill notes in the letter that USAID has known of these problems and lack of capacity for the Afghan government and utilities to operate the plant sustainably since at least 2010, but has not identified a more economical and affordable fuel source. The letter requests USAID provide documentation of all contracts, task orders, expenditures, and mission staff and their training programs for the power plant, as well as an analysis of a more economical and affordable fuel supply.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 5-month-old American black bear cub orphaned in Oregon has found a new home in northeast Kansas.

Topeka Zoo director Brendan Wiley announced Thursday that the zoo acquired the female bear in late May. The bear’s name is Independence — or Indie for short.

Wiley told The Topeka Capital-Journal an 11-year-old boy found the cub May 22 near the southwest Oregon town of Myrtle Creek. She was malnourished and dehydrated, and after a night at the local police station, wildlife officials contacted the Topeka Zoo.

Indie arrived in the Kansas capital May 29. She’s been living in an enclosed housing unit in the zoo’s black bear habitat since.

HALE (AP) – The U.S. Postal Service says a man who shot himself after wounding an employee at a northwest Missouri post office has died.

The shootings occurred Wednesday afternoon at the post office in the small town of Hale, about 75 miles northeast of Kansas City.

Acting postmaster Michelle Bell sustained at least wound and was flown to a hospital. The 42-year-old Hale resident was in stable condition Thursday.

The Postal Service said the suspect, Billy Bell, was taken to another hospital and died early Thursday.

Authorities did not disclose the relationship between the Bells. But Missouri’s online court records show that a judge finalized a divorce Tuesday between Michelle Bell, of Hale, and Billy Gene Bell, of nearby Bosworth, where Michelle Bell previously worked as the postmaster.

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors says it recalled 3.4 million large cars last month after finding a 9-year-old email from an employee in its files warning of trouble.

The admission is more evidence that GM knew about safety problems for years but failed to recall cars until recently.

The company didn’t recall the cars when it got the email in 2005.

But it decided to call them in for repairs last month after finding the old email in its files in an April search.

In the email, an employee who was testing a 2006 Chevrolet Impala before production reported that the engine stalled and a technician blamed it on a faulty ignition switch.

The email was detailed in documents released Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.