Legislation creates KC-based World War I group

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Kansas City's National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial will be home to a new national commission under legislation approved by Congress.

The 12-member World War I Centennial Commission will be responsible for planning, developing and executing national projects and activities marking the war's outbreak in 1914.

Liberty Memorial is a 217-foot tower located atop the National World War I Museum. A resolution passed last month by the U.S. House would have made it the nation's official World War I monument. But a compromise measure approved Sunday night in the Senate and Monday in the House does not address that issue.

Missouri Sens. Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill both supported the legislation. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, of Kansas City, co-sponsored the measure in the U.S. House.