WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration’s health care website is stumbling on deadline day for sign-ups.

Visitors to HealthCare.gov on Monday morning saw messages that the site was down for maintenance. At times the visitors were also directed to a virtual waiting room — a feature designed to ease the strain on the site during periods of heavy use.

Administration spokesman Aaron Albright says the website undergoes “regular nightly maintenance” during off-peak hours and that period was extended because of a “technical problem.” He didn’t say what the problem was, but a statement from the Health and Human Services Department called it “a software bug” unrelated to application volume.

Albright said consumers seeking to sign up will be able to leave their email and “will be invited back when the system is available.”

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Springfield police say a man is hospitalized with severe injuries after a standoff with police ended when he shot himself.

Police St. Eric Reece says officers were called to home Sunday evening when a woman reported her husband was suicidal and had fired a shot in the house.

The Springfield News-Leader reports police negotiated with the man over the phone, but the suspect began shooting inside the house and then fired at officers.

The standoff ended after about three hours when the man shot himself and came out of the house. He was conscious when he was taken to the hospital.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Kansas City has agreed to settle four discrimination lawsuits at a cost of more than $1 million.

The Kansas City municipal prosecutor’s office replaced part-time assistant prosecutors nearly three years ago with full-time positions. Eight of the part-time assistant city prosecutors who were replaced with full-time employees sued the city for age, race and/or gender discrimination.

Four cases were settled, and four others remain in court.

The Kansas City Star reports former city prosecutor Lowell Gard, who oversaw the 2011 prosecutors office reorganization, said at the time the municipal court was switching to a fully computerized, paperless system and moving from 16 part-timers to eight full-timers made sense.

City Manager Troy Schulte says the city is taking steps to minimize future discrimination complaints.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A new estimate puts the eventual cost of a Missouri Senate income tax cut plan at more than $620 million annually.

The new projection from legislative researchers is to be considered Monday by a Senate fiscal review committee. If the panel signs off, the full Senate then could vote to pass the legislation on to the House.

The bill would phase in a half-a-percentage-point reduction in Missouri’s top individual income tax rate and a new, 25 percent deduction for business income reported on individual tax returns. It also would expand the tax deductions available for lower-income individuals and require the tax brackets to be adjusted annually for inflation.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Three articles of impeachment against Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon are now in a state House committee.

Republican lawmakers have raised several complaints against the Democratic governor.

 One article seeks to impeach Nixon over an executive order directing state tax officials to accept joint returns from same-sex couples who married legally in other states.

Another asserts Nixon did not move fast enough to call special elections for vacant legislative seats. The third complains there was insufficient punishment of officials involved in a dispute over the handling of concealed gun permits.

The articles of impeachment have been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – When the 2010 census numbers came out, one thing was certain: Missouri would lose a seat in Congress. And because Republican state lawmakers controlled the redistricting process, it was almost equally as certain that the displaced congressman would be a Democrat.

Indeed, Democratic U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan found himself out of a job after the new maps were used in in the 2012 elections. Because of the redrawn districts, Republicans further strengthened their hold on Missouri’s congressional delegation while contributing to the GOP’s advantage in the U.S. House.

As Missouri’s eight members of Congress prepare to seek re-election this year, the effects of redistricting still can be seen. None of the incumbents appear likely to draw a stiff challenge, because they all represent districts tailored to their partisan bents.

Missouri’s redistricting results have mirrored what happened nationally.

As a result of victories in the 2010 elections, Republicans controlled a majority of state legislative chambers when it came time to redraw congressional districts based on the latest census figures. In many cases, they redrew maps to concentrate Democrats into a limited number of districts.

Nationally, Democratic candidates for the U.S. House received 1.4 million more votes than their Republican opponents in the 2012 elections, the first under the new districts. Yet Republicans won a 33-seat majority in the U.S. House.

In Missouri, Democrats went from holding three seats to two seats after the 2012 elections, when Missouri’s total number of districts dropped from nine to eight because the state’s population growth lagged that of the nation. Missouri’s redrawn congressional districts were enacted when the Republican-led Legislature got the help of a few urban Democrats to override a veto by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.

The two remaining Democratic districts – one in St. Louis, the other stretching from Kansas City eastward into some rural counties – have a higher concentration of Democratic voters than they did previously. The concentration of Republicans in the six other districts was diluted under the new maps but remains strong enough so that all of those districts still tilt toward the GOP.

Republican state Sen. Scott Rupp, who led that chamber’s redistricting efforts, said the high concentration of Democrats in the St. Louis district is partly the result of a federal Voting Rights Act prohibition against diluting minority votes. Blacks comprise 49 percent of the voting age population in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, making them a majority over the 43 percent white population.

Rupp said the congressional districts also reflect a “migration of votes across the state,” in which Democratic voters have congregated in urban areas while Republicans have spread to the outer suburbs and rural areas.

“That’s just how it is. The whole state’s red and you have these blue earrings in Kansas City and St. Louis,” said Rupp, who lives in the outer St. Louis suburb of Wentzville.

But there were alternatives that could have given Democrats a better chance in congressional elections.

Political science professor David Kimball, of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, testified in 2012 in a lawsuit challenging Missouri’s redrawn districts. Although the Supreme Court ultimately disagreed, Kimball believes the districts are unconstitutional because they are not compact enough. He supported an alternative map that would have kept an additional district rooted in the St. Louis area. That might have given Democrats a better shot at winning a third seat.

But Kimball said he doubts redistricting made a dramatic difference on the nation’s public policy.

“If Republicans had not had control of the redistricting process in so many states, their majority would have been smaller than it is, but I think they still would have had a majority,” Kimball said.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Springfield authorities say no charges are expected from a hospital shooting last year that left one man dead and his wife wounded.

A police report says 69-year-old Booker Cox died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He was hospitalized for renal failure. His 70-year-old wife was also shot but survived. The report says the shooting was a failed double-suicide.

The Springfield News-Leader reports the police documents, obtained through a Sunshine request, give the first detailed accounting of the Nov. 30 shooting. The report says a note at the scene indicated the couple, together for 50 years, decided to commit suicide and that no one will be charged.

The police report says Cox’s wife told officers and hospital staff that she shot herself, and Booker Cox shot himself.

by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill

I spent last week on the road in Missouri, giving the odometer a workout as I logged more than 1,000 miles crisscrossing the state.

From Hannibal to Joplin, St. Joseph to Rolla, Springfield to Columbia, I took this trip so that I could hear directly from Missourians about how best to expand job opportunities and keep our economy moving in the right direction.

I think it’s no secret to anyone that I get my best ideas not from Washington, but from Missouri, and last week was no exception. I took to the road to listen to constituents to understand their concerns, hear their ideas, answer their questions, and to share my proposals.

I kicked off my “McCaskill on Main Street” tour with a stop in Hannibal, where I hosted a public town hall meeting. Anyone who’s been to one of my town halls knows that no question, no matter how tough, is off-limits. Even though there were times I gave an answer the crowd didn’t want to hear, it’s my job to be honest and accountable, and I take that very seriously.

In Columbia, I was asked about topics including marijuana decriminalization and my support for the Keystone XL Pipeline. In Kansas City, folks wanted to talk about the healthcare law, and the Springfield crowd was interested in issues facing national security and our veterans.

All of my public town halls were lively, civil discussions-and I was moved by how many took time out of their days to engage, listen, and ask questions. It’s this kind of civil engagement that truly makes a difference in our country.

It wasn’t just town halls that gave me the chance to connect one-on-one with Missourians. At an event in Washington, Mo. with Mayor Sandy Lucy, I called for upgrading the region’s roads, bridges and infrastructure. We’ve had a good start in turning our economy in the right direction, but I believe we need to get more bang for our buck with infrastructure investments, and I’m supporting some innovative, bipartisan proposals to do just that.

It was that same message I took to Joplin, where I sat down with the city’s Chamber of Commerce and local leaders for a roundtable with “comeback businesses” to discuss city revitalization efforts and the role of federal resources following the devastating tornado in 2011.

In St. Louis, Mayor Francis Slay and I rallied support with local veterans for the renewal of the Workforce Investment Act-expired legislation with a proven track-record of boosting job opportunities. This bill can forge a successful partnership between the federal government and the local business community to provide pathways to jobs-and we called on Congress to renew it as soon as possible.

And in St. Joseph, I teamed up with my friend and colleague Senator Roy Blunt for a roundtable discussion at the Missouri Air National Guard Base to discuss the role of Missouri’s military bases in our national defense and the impact of the recently proposed Pentagon budget cuts. The historic nature of the event wasn’t lost on us-two Senators of different political parties who both serve on the Armed Services Committee joining together to advocate for the Missouri’s role in our national defense.

So as I return to the Senate to continue my fight to expand job opportunities for Missourians and keep our economy moving in the right direction, I am better equipped than ever to take the fresh ideas-as well as the concerns-voiced by Missourians, and ensure that they are heard.

Claire McCaskill is the senior U.S. Senator from Missouri.