KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Kansas to allow same-sex couples to marry, but he delayed enforcement of the order until next week to give the state time to appeal.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday barring the state from enforcing its constitutional ban starting at 5 p.m. on Nov. 11, pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging it.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued to overturn Kansas’ ban after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals from five states seeking to save their gay marriage bans. Among them were Oklahoma and Utah, which are in the same appeals court circuit as Kansas.

The ACLU says denying the couples it is representing the right to marry, even for a short period, would do them irreparable harm.

Target Corporation

 

MINNEAPOLIS -Target Corporation today announces that it will close 11 locations as of February 1, 2015. Target guests in the affected markets can continue to expect the same great variety and service at other Target locations and also visit Target.com for their shopping needs. To find the nearest Target store, guests can use the Find a Store function on Target.com.

The decision to close a Target store is only made after careful consideration of the long-term financial performance of a particular location. All eligible store team members are being offered the option to transfer to other Target stores. Team members who choose not to transfer will be offered a separation package.

The following stores will close:

Wichita East, Kansas
301 S. Towne East Mall Drive
Wichita, Kan.

Lithonia, Georgia
8109 Mall Parkway
Lithonia, Ga.

Castleton, Indiana
8448 Center Run Drive
Indianapolis, Ind.

Monroe, Michigan
2121 N. Monroe St.
Monroe, Mich.

Clinton, Iowa
2900 S. 25th St.
Clinton, Iowa

Northland, Michigan
21400 Northwestern Highway
Southfield, Mich.

McHenry, Illinois
1860 N. Richmond Road
McHenry, Ill

Bay City, Michigan
4135 Wilder Road
Bay City, Mich.

Austin, Minnesota
1701 18th Ave. N.W.
Austin, Minn.

Calumet City, Illinois
1717 E. West Road
Calumet City, Ill.

Carrolton, Texas
2620 N. Josey Lane
Carrollton, Texas

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden predicts Democrats will lose seats in the Senate but retain a 52-48 majority.

He says he foresees Democratic victories in closely contested races in Alaska, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Georgia and a runoff election in Louisiana.

He did not mention Colorado and Iowa, two other neck-and-neck races. Biden indicated Kansas independent Greg Orman could beat Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. He says Orman “will be with us,” though Orman has not said whether he would join Republicans or Democrats in the Senate.

Listen to the Vice President’s comments here

Biden spoke Tuesday on the “Chaz and AJ” radio show, airing on Connecticut stations WPLR, WDRC and WFOX.

Biden was pitching an Election Day get-out-the-vote message on talk radio in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and in the Quad Cities on the Iowa and Illinois border.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a former Kansas Air National Guard senior airman for lying about where she lived so she could fraudulently collect higher housing benefits.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday the evidence was sufficient for a federal jury to convict Eledria J. Bradley of wire fraud. She was sentenced in January to three years of probation and ordered to repay the $55,000 she fraudulently received.

Prosecutors said Bradley went online and changed her address to Chandler, Ariz., while she was deployed to McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, where she lives.

The Arizona address placed Bradley outside the commuting distance for McConnell, allowing her to collect two years’ worth of benefits for lodging and per diem expenses.

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Nearly 230,000 Kansas voters had cast their ballots before the polls opened on Election Day.

The Kansas secretary of state’s office says that 114,690 mail-in ballots had been turned in by Tuesday morning, less than in 2010. Another 115,079 advance voters had gone to the polls, an increase from 2010.

Combined, 67,498 of the voters were Democrats, 834 were Libertarians, 125,561 were Republican and 35,876 were unaffiliated.

The secretary of state’s office couldn’t yet provide data about Tuesday’s turnout. But The Kansas City Star said voters who showed up Tuesday waited as long as 30 minutes to cast their ballots at some Johnson County polling locations.

Jessica White of the Johnson County Election Office said polling places were reporting a steady stream of voters on Tuesday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has pleaded guilty to stealing credit card information while he worked at a Taco Bell in Belton, Missouri.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a news release that 32-year-old Yao Vignon Kpade, of Overland Park, Kansas, pleaded guilty Monday to electronic device fraud.

He admitted that he used a device called a credit card skimmer to obtain information from customers’ credit cards. He encoded the stolen information onto bank cards in his name and used the cards for personal purchases.

Kpade agreed to pay a total of $2,465 in restitution to two banks and to forfeit seized property including computers, electronic tablets and cell phones.

He will be sentenced March 2.