(AP) – Kansas City police are reviewing whether an officer used excessive force on a suspect during an arrest.

The 21-year-old male suspect was taken into custody on Oct. 5 after he jumped out of a car and ran from police. Officers caught him a short while later.

A mug shot taken of the suspect after his arrest shows his right eye blackened and swollen shut.

Police spokesman Capt. Tye Grant says a normal review of the arrest showed that an officer involved in the arrest “responded in a manner that required further review.” Grant says the review is being investigated as a possible criminal offense of assault.

No charges have been filed against the officer, whose name hasn’t been released.

(AP) — An Olathe-based relief group is preparing to send relief supplies to the Philippines in the wake of a deadly typhoon.

Typhoon Haiyan swept across the Philippines on Friday, killing thousands of people in one city alone. The massive storm also wiped out homes, schools and airport buildings.

Heart to Heart International spokesman Dan Weinbaum says the agency’s current efforts are a continuation of its year-round relief work in the Philippines. The organization will ship relief supplies and materials, including care kits, hygiene kits and relief boxes with pharmaceutical supplies which can serve up to 500 people.

Heart to Heart International is working with partner organizations in the Philippines, including Springfield-based Convoy of Hope and Hope Worldwide.

(AP) — A movie playing at Union Station in Kansas City for the next three weeks is part of an effort to reverse a decline in basic civics knowledge in the U.S.

The 40-minute, giant-screen historical drama called “We the People” premiered Thursday. Filmmakers Aimee Larrabee and John Altman say they want the movie to launch classroom discussions about the founding principles of the country.

In conjunction with the documentary, the nonprofit organization Remnant Trust is displaying collections of historic publications, including early printings of the Constitution; Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” and works by Frederick Douglass.

Fourteen constitutional scholars met with Larrabee and Altman for two days to discuss what should be in the movie.

The House of Representatives was not in session last week, but the leaders of the farm bill conference committee were working to find com­promises.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., says the conference committee’s work could be completed by Thanksgiving. That may be optimistic considering the major differences between the two bills and between the two parties.
Stabenow notes that funding for food stamps for the coming year fell by $5 billion with the end of the stimulus program last Friday, and that the saving over the next 10 years will total $11 billion.

She wants to take that $11 billion and add in the $4 billion in actual cuts the Senate passed and argue that proposed “savings” now total $15 billion. Conference com­mittee members from the House say that won’t fly, since ending the stimulus spending is not part of the farm bill reforms and was unbudgeted spending to begin with.

The House-Senate budget conference committee is under pressure to at least set top-line spending levels for fiscal 2014 by Thanksgiving.

Leaders of the Appropriations Committees in both houses need this information so they can begin work on bills for the different govern­mental agencies. They also hope the conference committee can agree on spending levels for fiscal 2015.

Appropriations bills for fiscal 2015 need to be completed by next September to avoid the use of those “continuing resolutions” that have become common practice in recent years. The budget conference committee is trying to find ways to replace across-the-board “seques­ter” spending cuts with a more targeted process that addresses specific needs.

The conference committee will resume work next week and is charged with finalizing a compromise budget by December 15.—Rich Pottorff, Doane chief economist & Washington analyst

(AP) — The health care law’s seemingly endless problems are giving congressional Republicans a much-needed boost by helping them move past the government shutdown debacle and focus on a theme for the 2014 elections.

Republicans’ approval ratings plunged during last month’s partial shutdown and worrisome talk of a possible U.S. debt default.

Now the GOP is back on offense.

Republicans pillory administration officials at congressional hearings.

They note that millions of people are losing their medical insurance despite President Barack Obama’s promise that it wouldn’t happen.

And they point to the program’s flawed enrollment process.

Conservative groups are pouring money into ad campaigns reminding voters that many Democrats had promised that Americans could keep their current insurance policies.

These groups are especially targeting Democratic senators facing tough races next year.

A Springfield man has died in a fire at his Springfield home.

Larry Burt was found dead in the home where the fire was reported Friday night.

 Battlefield Fire Chief Bryan Newberry says Burt, who was disabled and couldn’t walk, was found in the hallway where he apparently was trying to crawl to the door. The cause of death hasn’t been determined.

Newberry says the fire started in the bedroom and appears to have been caused by smoking materials. Firefighters didn’t find any smoke detectors in the home.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says a 68-year-old man has been killed in a tractor accident in southwest Missouri.
The patrol says James L. Landolt of Springfield died Friday evening when the tractor he was driving jackknifed and overturned, throwing Landolt off the tractor. The patrol says the accident occurred as Landolt towed a trailer loaded with firewood down a steep hill on private property south of Fordland.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two men have been sentenced in federal court in Kansas City for their roles in a scheme to provide fake IDs to people who were in the U.S. illegally.

The U.S. Attorney’s office for western Missouri says in a release that 34-year Domingo Ajanel-Castro was sentenced to four years in federal prison without parole, and 55-year-old Hector Juarez Mendoza was sentenced to three years and six months without parole. The court also ordered the men to forfeit $125,000.

Ajanel-Castro and Mendoza both pleaded guilty earlier to charges including Social Security fraud and aggravated identity theft.

(AP) — Charges this week against six people involved with Chinese restaurants in Kansas and Missouri mark the latest in an effort by federal prosecutors in Kansas to crack down on businesses that hire and harbor people who are illegally in the U.S.

The owners of restaurants in Olathe, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., were charged Wednesday with “harboring undocumented workers” more than two years after federal agents began watching the businesses.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says his office is going after companies that violate federal law by hiring workers who aren’t allowed to work in the U.S. so they can pay them less than minimum wage and avoid other costs associated with being an employer.