BOSTON (AP) — More than 30 states have filed briefs asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on same-sex marriage.

Massachusetts and 14 other states where same-sex marriage is legal filed a brief Thursday asking the justices to overturn other states’ bans on gay marriage.

Colorado and 16 other states that have banned same-sex marriage filed a separate brief asking the court to rule one way or the other to clear up a “morass” of lawsuits. Their brief doesn’t specifically ask the court to uphold their bans.

Massachusetts was joined by California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.

Colorado was joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says hackers breached HealthCare.gov, but no consumer information was taken in the attack on the health insurance website that serves more than 5 million Americans.

Instead, hackers installed software that could have been used to launch an attack on other websites from the federal insurance portal.

Health and Human Services spokesman Aaron Albright said Thursday the website component that was breached had been used for testing and did not contain consumer information, such as names, birth dates and Social Security numbers.

The Homeland Security Department, which helps safeguard federal systems, said the scope of the attack was limited to one machine. There was no evidence an attack was launched from the tainted machine.

The breach, detected last week, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kansas says he’ll challenge a decision to keep his name on the November ballot even though he wants to withdraw against incumbent Republican Pat Roberts.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday Democrat Chad Taylor did not comply with state law. He said Taylor didn’t formally declare that he would be unable to serve if elected.

Kobach said Taylor’s only recourse is filing a lawsuit.

Taylor withdrew from the race Wednesday without explanation, potentially giving independent candidate Greg Orman a better shot at defeating three-term conservative Roberts.

Taylor said in a statement that he was assured by a top Kobach aide that a letter he sent to the secretary of state’s office was sufficient for withdrawing. Kobach said that’s not the case.

Hillsboro, Kan.-  One Kansas woman died and another was injured in an accident just before 10:30 a.m. on Thursday in Marion County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Buick Lacrosse driven by Joyce A. Smith, 82, Topeka, was westbound on U.S. 56 at Ash Street in Hillsboro.

The vehicle failed to yield, pulled out into oncoming traffic and was struck head on by an eastbound semi driven by Grant A. Unruh, 29, Hesston.

Smith was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Ziner Funeral Home.  A passenger in the Buick Jean E. Case, 85, Marion, was transported to Wesley Medical Center.  Unruh was not injured.

The KHP reported Unruh was not wearing a seat belt and the occupants in the Buick were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Police have lifted a lockdown at a northeast Kansas community college after checking a report of a suspicious woman carrying a long gun.

Johnson County Community College police and officers from the city of Overland Park began a room-to-room search of several buildings after the report around 4 p.m. Thursday. Campus police Officer Dan Robles said students were released from buildings as the searches ended.

Robles said police had not found anyone fitting the description of suspicious, pony-tailed woman carrying a camouflage-print bag and a long gun, possibly a shotgun.

The college tweeted shortly after 7 p.m. that there was no longer a “viable threat” and said classes would resume Friday.

 

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas community college has been placed on lockdown after security received two reports of a suspicious person with a weapon.

Five buildings at Johnson County Community College were affected by an initial order shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday. The lockdown was extended to the full campus about 35 minutes later.

Overland Park police were helping college officers go from building to building. Overland Park police spokesman Gary Mason says the two reports described a woman with some kind of a long gun.

Campus police ordered everyone to remain in a safe place under they were released. Entrances to the campus were also closed, and classes were canceled for the rest of the day.

Television news helicopters showed students standing outside buildings and officers walking calmly around the campus.

 

By Andy Marso
KHI News Service

An official with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment says it will be difficult for the state to have a plan in place by the proposed deadline to meet President Obama’s order to curb emissions linked to climate change.

Tom Gross, chief of the bureau’s air monitoring and planning division, said this week that the rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency could leave the state with only one year between the time it becomes final in June 2015 and the time the state has to implement a plan in June 2016.

“That’s a very short time period compared to what we’ve had at other times,” Gross said. “That’s very tight.”

The EPA rule proposed in June instructs states to limit the amount of carbon dioxide spewed into the air by existing power plants. A rule proposed a year earlier applied only to new plants.

The proposed target for Kansas, Gross said, is to reduce emissions from existing plants by 23 percent from their 2012 level by 2030.

States have until Oct. 16 to submit comments to EPA. Gross said his agency is “wading through thousands of pages in the docket to try and figure out where EPA has some issues” before it submits its response.

“We’ve found a couple of areas where we think they are a bit aggressive,” Gross said.

He said the state’s comments are still in draft form, and he would not go into specifics except to reiterate that the timeline between EPA issuing its final rule and states having to implement their plans might be too short.

“That’s probably our number one comment,” Gross said.

Gross said Kansas may seek an extension, especially if it opts to participate in a multi-state plan.

Enesta Jones, a media relations specialist for the EPA, said via email that the deadlines were based on Obama’s June 2013 memo to the EPA instructing it to cut carbon emissions.

“However, the proposed rule provides an enormous amount of flexibility and recognizes that some states may need more than one year to complete the actions needed for their final state plans,” Jones said. “EPA is proposing an optional two-phased submittal process for state plans.”

Under the two-phased process, Jones said states would have to submit reasons for an extension by the June 2016 deadline, and commit to submitting a completed plan by 2017 or 2018, depending on circumstances.

While briefing a legislative committee on other EPA regulations Tuesday, Gross briefly dipped into the latest carbon dioxide emission proposal.

Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, asked Gross if his division had begun forming a plan to meet the 2030 target.

Gross said it was too early, given the final rule had not yet been issued, but he and other KDHE officials are seeking input from stakeholders.

He also said the EPA had given states “fairly broad possibilities” in how they can meet their goals, but quickly qualified that statement.

“They didn’t just give us carte blanche,” Gross said. “It’s EPA, they never do. There’s always strings attached. But they did give us a framework.”

Rep. Sharon Schwartz, R-Washington, raised concerns about the economic impact of the proposal.

EPA has estimated the project could cost $8.8 billion annually nationwide when it is fully implemented in 2030.

European Union nations have started carbon emission reduction plans based on reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The reports recommend quick action to avoid a rise in global temperatures that would have dangerous effects on sea levels and weather patterns.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, proposed his own plan to fight climate change when he ran for president against Obama in 2008, but Republican appetite for such proposals has since waned.

Republicans in Congress launched an investigation this week into whether the National Resources Defense Council, an environmentalist group, wielded undue influence on the EPA’s climate change rules and other proposed regulations.

At the state level, the Kansas House’s Energy and Environment Committee passed a resolution in February opposing Obama’s climate change plan. Prior to passage, committee members voted to strip out language stating that there is no evidence for human-caused climate change, against the wishes of committee chairman Dennis Hedke, R-Wichita. The resolution never got a vote in the full House.

Gross said the EPA is unlikely to go back on its latest proposal.

“The president set in his climate action plan hard targets for EPA,” Gross said. “I’m guessing if the president is your boss, you try to reach those targets.”

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police in Junction City are putting drivers on notice: They’ll soon be enforcing a new ordinance that limits use of cellphones by motorists.

The city commission approved the law in early June. It bans motorists from talking or listening on a cellphone unless it’s a hands-free device.

Police Chief Tim Brown said Thursday his department has held off on enforcing the ban until the city put up signs notifying drivers of the law. The signs are now up, and Brown said police will begin enforcing the law Sept. 15.

Officers will issue warnings for the first four weeks, but violators will receive tickets beginning in mid-October.

Drivers will still be allowed to hold cellphones to their ears in limited circumstances, such as talking to law enforcement in emergency situations.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Plans for a 722-unit apartment complex in the city of Manhattan are moving forward.

The Manhattan Mercury reports  the City Commission this week approved the annexation and rezoning of 38 acres for the proposed Trails at Manhattan project.

Developers plan to build the 48-building complex in two phases. The first would include 28 buildings, each with 18 one- and two-bedroom apartments, along with a clubhouse, recreation area and parking.

The remaining buildings would be constructed when the first phase was fully occupied.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kansas must remain on the November ballot even though he wants to withdraw against incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday Democrat Chad Taylor did not comply with state law. He says Taylor didn’t formally declare that he would be unable to serve if elected.

Taylor Wednesday withdrew from the race without explanation, raising questions about whether he quit to give independent candidate Greg Orman a better shot at defeating three-term conservative Roberts, who has struggled to solidify re-election in a predominantly Republican state.

The Kansas race suddenly emerged as a wild card in the national fight for control of the U.S. Senate. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to control the chamber.

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Joan Rivers, the raucous, acid-tongued comedian who crashed the male-dominated realm of late-night talk shows and turned Hollywood red carpets into danger zones for badly dressed celebrities, died Thursday. She was 81.

Rivers was hospitalized last week after she went into cardiac arrest at a Manhattan doctor’s office following a routine procedure. Daughter Melissa Rivers said she died surrounded by family and close friends.

Rivers — who opened her routine with the trademark “Can we talk?” — never mellowed during a decades-long career. She moved from longtime targets such as Elizabeth Taylor, whom she famously ridiculed as fat, to new faces, and continued to appear in clubs and on TV into her 80s