KCUR

Kansas City, KS – Wyandotte County's Unified Government will spend almost $500,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged police misconduct.

The federal lawsuit claimed that Kansas City, Kan., officers violated the civil rights of a black family and two of their friends when they broke up a birthday party in 2005. The suit alleges that officers forced their way into the family's duplex, demanded that people leave and fought with the residents.

Members of the family say the white officers used racial slurs, punched and kicked them and hit them with flashlights.

Lexington, MO – Prosecutors in Missouri have filed 15 additional charges against a father and his sons who are all accused of sexually abusing children.

The additional charges against 77-year-old Burrell Mohler Sr., and his four adult sons include rape, sodomy and use of a child in a sexual performance. The new charges were filed Monday.

All five men are to be arraigned Tuesday on the earlier charges. The men are being held in the Lafayette County jail. It's not clear if any of them had lawyers. No attorneys were listed on any of the court documents.

Lenexa, KS – Two people were charged Thursday in federal court with poisoning salsa at a Lenexa, Kan., Mexican restaurant twice in August and making nearly 50 people sick.

Thirty-year-old Arnoldo Bazan and 19-year-old Yini De La Torre are accused of putting the pesticide Methomyl into salsa at Mi Ranchito restaurant to get back at the owner for Bazan losing his job and car.

Prosecutors say De La Torre put the poison into salsa on Aug. 10, and the next day 12 diners immediately became sick. She is accused of doing the same thing on Aug. 30, making 36 people ill.

St. Joseph, MO – A massive blast at a production plant in St. Joseph rocked part of the city but initial reports were that everyone at the plant escaped injury.

KQTV reports that the explosion at the AG Processing Inc. plant occurred around 3:20 a.m. Friday on the city's south side and was felt by residents miles away.

First responders say about 25 to 30 employees were working during the explosion, but the blast occurred outside the plant. Emergency crews evacuated nearby businesses.

Topeka, KS – William Avery, a one-term Republican governor in the 1960s and former U.S. House member, has died, the governor's office said Thursday. He was 98.

Gov. Mark Parkinson's office said Avery died Wednesday and ordered flags across the state lowered until Nov. 14.

"Governor Avery led our state during a time of tragic loss and national attention. Kansas honors his long life and service to our state. Our thoughts and prayers are with his children and family," Parkinson said in a statement.

Kansas City, MO – After nearly 20 years, the Kansas City Zoo will again have a bear exhibit.

Zoo officials said Monday that the zoo will receive a polar bear in time for a new exhibit to open next spring.

Only 81 polar bears are held in captivity in North America. Kansas City hasn't had one since 1990.

The zoo expects to receive a 3-year-old male polar bear on loan from the Toledo Zoo, where he was born and is called Nikita.

Kansas City, MO – Kansas' governor Mark Parkinson said Wednesday that he's prepared to make additional spending cuts this year to keep the state's budget balanced, and key legislators predicted he'll be forced to further trim aid to public schools.

Parkinson wouldn't speculate during a news conference about what steps he'll take to close any projected deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1. But he said he won't leave the job of closing a shortfall to legislators when they reconvene in January.

Topeka, KS – Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson said Wednesday that the state doesn't plan to sweeten a $230 million package of incentives to lure a soccer stadium and office complex to Wyandotte County.

During a news conference at the Kansas Statehouse, Parkinson said the proposal offered two weeks ago to medical software maker Cerner Corp. and Kansas City Wizards owner OnGoal LLC was final.

Jefferson City, MO – Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says it is dropping plans to create statewide math exams using an "integrated math" curriculum.

Integrated math offers a sequence of courses that teaches some algebra, geometry and higher math in the first year, followed by more complex concepts the next three school years.

It replaces a system used in many districts where math is taught in a sequence of algebra I, geometry, algebra II, and then higher level courses.

Kansas City, MO – The U.S. Senate has approved $32 million for a massive Kansas lab aimed at research on foot-and-mouth and other diseases.

The money is in the Homeland Security Appropriations bill that the Senate approved on a vote of 79-19 Tuesday. The House has already approved the $44.1 billion compromise spending bill, which is headed to President Barack Obama.

WaKeeney, KS – The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks says its staff have verified that a big cat photographed by the hunter northwest of WaKeeney was a mountain lion. The agency says it's the first documentation of a live, wild mountain lion in the state.

In a statement Tuesday, the department said the hunter was in a tree stand when the mountain lion appeared near a pile of corn. The hunter took multiple photos as the lion approached within 10 feet of the stand and looked up before moving out of sight.

Topeka, KS – Kansas Attorney General Steve Six worries that some crimes in the state may stay unsolved longer because of budget problems facing the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

Six's office said Tuesday that the KBI lab that processes DNA samples is understaffed, leading to a backlog in testing and including test results in the state's database.

Spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett said the backlog affects samples collected from people who are arrested for felonies, not from current investigations.

Manhattan, KS – A judicial board at Kansas State University has suspended the Phi Delta Theta fraternity for a hazing incident that left a student hospitalized for alcohol poisoning.

The 18-year-old freshman was found unresponsive at the off-campus fraternity house in late September. He recovered and is still a member of the chapter.

The Interfraternity Council imposed the sanctions on Phi Delta Theta. The fraternity will be on probation until September 2011, will have to pay fines and won't be allowed to have any event involving alcohol until February 2011.

Kansas City, MO – A water treatment plant on the Kaw in Lawrence reports finding zebra mussels starting to clog an intake pipe. And plant officials are pondering how often they may have to clean the molluscs out. Tim Banek of the Missouri Department of Conservation explains how prolific the Eurasian species is. He tells of a test conducted by putting plastic signs under water in a Missouri lake.

Topeka, Ks – Outbreaks of seasonal and swine flu continue to be widespread across Kansas, even as the first shipments of vaccine arrive in the state.

The Department of Health and Environment reports that there were 30 deaths from pneumonia or influenza out of 456 deaths in the state for the week ending Oct. 10, or about 6.6 percent. That's slightly higher than the national average of 6.5 percent for the preceding week.

Overall, 75 of the 105 Kansas counties had confirmed cases of swine flu.