KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A committee charged with choosing a site for the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential nominating convention will be in Kansas City this week.

The convention site selection committee arrives in Kansas City Wednesday, after spending Monday and Tuesday in Cleveland. The committee will then travel to Dallas and Denver next week.

Most of the committee’s work in Kansas City will occur Thursday, when members are scheduled to tour the Sprint Center and other potential convention venues, and then meet with local officials to discuss the city’s bid.

The Kansas City Star reports workers have cut weeds, repaired signs and picked up trash in the downtown areas, and welcoming billboards are up around the city.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — There’s video of the Taliban releasing Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan.

The video, emailed to media, shows Bergdahl in traditional Afghan clothing sitting in a pickup truck. More than a dozen Taliban fighters with machine guns stand near. A Black Hawk helicopter then lands and two Taliban fighters, one carrying a white flag, lead Bergdahl half way. He is greeted and taken by three Western-looking men.

WASHINGTON – As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is continuing her investigation into counternarcotics contracts at both the Department of Defense (DOD) and State Department by calling for a thorough review into reports of overpayments of more than $100 million.

McCaskill’s letters to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the State Department Inspector General follow a recent report by the DOD Inspector General finding that Northrop Grumman and its subcontractor DynCorp improperly charged the U.S. Government more than $100 million over six years under a contract to provide counternarcotics services. Like DOD, the State Department has contracts with DynCorp to provide counternarcotics services.

“To ensure that similar overbilling has not occurred under the State Department’s current counternarcotics contracts, I request that your office review the State Department’s current counternarcotics contracts and, if warranted, conduct a thorough audit to determine the existence and extent of overcharges,” McCaskill wrote to the State Department Inspector General.

McCaskill also asked DOD to explain how the overbilling occurred and how DOD plans to recover the improper charges.

Specifically, the report found at least 360 of 460 DynCorp employees did not meet the labor qualifications required by the DOD contract. Additionally, Northrop Grumman charged 215,298 labor hours in excess of eight hours per day from October 2007 through March 2013. The report found that Army Contracting Command contracting officials did not review invoices before approving labor charges.

In 2011, McCaskill released a report finding that federal agencies did not have systems in place to adequately track money spent on more than $3 billion in counternarcotics contracts or evaluate whether those contracts were achieving their goals. The report followed a 2010 hearing on the performance of counternarcotics program contractors, at which neither the State Department nor DOD could provide basic information about the contracts awarded for fighting drug production south of the U.S. border.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An Australian animal health company plans to establish its U.S. headquarters in Kansas City.
Jurox makes veterinary pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter products, which it sells in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere. The company says it’s focusing on expanding into North American markets, with plans to open several regional offices around the U.S.
The Missouri Department of Economic Development said Tuesday that Jurox plans to invest $741,000 in the Kansas City headquarters and create 13 jobs. The state is offering up to $231,000 of incentives through the Missouri Works Program.

KU News Service

LAWRENCE–The University of Kansas Medical Center has received a five-year, $19 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, which will continue a Kansas cell and developmental biology research program that has brought $64 million into the state since it was first funded in 2001.

One of the largest biomedical research grants awarded in Kansas, the award is for the Kansas Institutional Development Award Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (K-INBRE). K-INBRE is a multi-disciplinary program to enhance Kansas’ research capacity through faculty development, retention and infrastructure, as well as inspire undergraduate researchers to pursue careers in biomedical research. Ten university campuses in Kansas and Oklahoma are a part of the initiative.

“The INBRE is a critical program for the state of Kansas,” said Douglas Wright, Ph.D., program director and professor of anatomy and cell biology at KU Medical Center. “This award will continue to enhance and strengthen our network of researchers, students and others in the biomedical field, and help researchers in Kansas remain competitive for national research grants. It also brings together universities in Kansas that work together to help make students and faculty successful in their biomedical research.”

“This program allows KU Medical Center, working with our partners in higher education throughout the state, to keep the biosciences in Kansas growing and thriving,” said Douglas Girod, M.D., executive vice chancellor of the University of Kansas Medical Center. “Through this funding, we are ensuring that future generations of scientists will continue to build healthy communities in Kansas and make world-changing discoveries in the field of biomedical research.”

The grant will fund numerous research initiatives, including research projects and startup funds for new faculty, post-doctoral fellowships and undergraduate student research projects. The 5-year renewed grant also supports translational research partnerships between clinicians and basic scientists, and provides bridging funds for national-level applications that are close to acquiring national funding. A major initiative of the grant is to enhance bioinformatics research in Kansas that builds biological information databases. Known as the K-INBRE Bioinformatics Core, the facility is directed by Susan Brown, Ph.D., university distinguished professor of biology at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.

K-INBRE was originally funded in 2001 as part of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences’ Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program. IDeA supports biomedical researchers in 23 states and Puerto Rico that historically have been underfunded by NIH research dollars. The financial support from NIH over the last  13 years has assisted researchers in obtaining 189 grants totaling $96.4 million to date.
More information about the program can be found on the K-INBRE website.

The K-INBRE network is comprised of 10 campuses in Kansas and northern Oklahoma: the University of Kansas Medical Center (lead school), Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Haskell Indian Nations University, Kansas State University, Langston University, Pittsburg State University, University of Kansas-Lawrence, Washburn University and Wichita State University.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A Joplin man has admitted lying about his residence when he sought federal aid after the May 2011 tornado.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 36-year-old Dustin Joe Showalter pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraudulently receiving federal disaster benefits.

Prosecutors said Showalter submitted an application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency claiming damage at an address where he didn’t live. He received $938 in disaster benefits.

The tornado killed more than 160 people and caused more than $2.9 billion in damage.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) co-sponsored the “Coal Country Protection Act,” which U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) introduced today to block President Barack Obama’s proposed regulation on existing power plants unless appropriate agencies can prove it will not eliminate jobs, cost our economy, increase electricity prices, or reduce electricity reliability.

“President Obama’s latest EPA rule is a direct attack on low and middle-income families in Missouri and nationwide,” Blunt said. “This bill is an important step in preventing the president and his administration from further burdening people who simply cannot afford to pay more at the pump or higher utility bills as a result of these costly energy policies.”

The bill would ensure that before the EPA Administrator establishes any new regulation or guidance that limits carbon emissions from new or existing power plants, the following criteria must be met:

• The Secretary of Labor certifies to the EPA Administrator the regulation will not generate loss of employment.
• The Director of the Congressional Budget Office certifies to the EPA Administrator that the regulation will not result in any loss in gross domestic product of the U.S.
• The Administrator of the Energy Information Administration certifies to the EPA Administrator that the regulation will not increase electricity rates.
• The Chairperson of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the President of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. certify to the Administrator that electricity delivery will remain reliable.

Missouri relies on coal for more than 80 percent of the state’s electricity needs, and Blunt has long-fought against the Obama Administration’s burdensome energy policies. Last month, Blunt introduced an amendment to protect families from skyrocketing energy costs that would result from a carbon tax. He introduced similar amendments to prevent a carbon tax in April 2014 to the unemployment insurance bill, and in March 2013 to the FY14 budget.

SWEET SPRINGS-  A Missouri teen was injured in a Tuesday afternoon crash in Saline County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1996 Saturn driven by Alexia J. Hays, 16, Sweet Springs, was westbound on 125^th Road west of Augusta when the vehicle ran off the right side of the road. The driver overcorrected, returned to the road, she overcorrected again and the vehicle struck a ditch and overturned.

Hays was transported by private vehicle to I-70 Community Medical.

The MSHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.