A Thursday morning high-speed chase left a Kansas City man against a tree and ultimately in the hospital.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol 33 year old Calvin Cortez Jones of Kansas City was driving a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer northbound on 59th Street, in Wyandotte County, at a high rate of speed fleeing from Kansas City, KS Police Department.

Cortez failed to negotiate the curve of the road and lost control. The vehicle then went sideways up through a driveway and into a tree. Cortez was transported to KU Medical Center. He was not wearing a seat belt.

Playtex is recalling 1.4 million pacifier holders because of concern that a small child could choke if a part of the clip broke off.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday that the clips — used to connect a pacifier to clothing, diaper bags or strollers — can crack and a small part can break off. Playtex has received 99 reports of the holder cracking or breaking. No injuries have been reported.

Playtex is recalling 1.25 million clips in the U.S. and 150,000 in Canada. They were sold from 2010 through October 2013 for about $3 at major retailers including Target, Walmart and online at Amazon.com.

Consumers should stop using the pacifier holder and contact Playtex Products Inc. for a refund at (888) 220-2075 or online at www.playtexproducts.com.

(AP) – Missouri is looking for other sources of money for education and health care after experiencing shortfalls in gambling and tobacco revenues.

State budget director Linda Luebbering says revenues from casinos, cigarettes sales and the Missouri Lottery all are coming in lower than budgeted this year. Those revenues all are earmarked for education.

Gov. Jay Nixon is proposing to transfer $44 million from general revenues to make up for the lost education funding.

Missouri also is losing about $70 million of expected revenues from a legal settlement with tobacco companies, because an arbitration panel ruled the state failed to diligently enforce tobacco laws a decade ago.

Nixon is proposing to use general revenues to finance the health care programs that were supposed to get tobacco funds.

(AP) — A former NASA astronaut who helped put the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit now uses the images it captures to conduct research at the University of Kansas.

Physics and astronomy professor Steven Hawley first researched an abnormal planetary nebula called Tololo 26 as a young astronomer, before ever venturing beyond earth. Besides helping to put the Hubble into orbit, he also replaced a few failed components in a later shuttle mission.

Now done flying shuttle missions, his research on the planetary nebula has resumed. Planetary nebulas are the colorful remnants of dying stars.

Hawley says another astronomer used the Hubble telescope to study a comparable object and determined it likely was two stars.

Hawley suspects that Tololo 26 is two stars as well. Images expected in February could provide answers.

(AP) Legislation revising Missouri’s school transfer law for unaccredited school districts received a public airing Wednesday as the Senate Education Committee during a public hearing started work on what could prove to be the marquee education issue confronting state lawmakers.

The 1993 transfer law requires districts without state accreditation to pay tuition and provide transportation for students who want to attend an accredited school within the same county or a bordering one. It has prompted concerns about schools’ ability to control incoming students and is creating financial problems for unaccredited districts.

The Senate Education Committee focused Wednesday on measures each filed by several St. Louis-area lawmakers.

“This is the year for us to come together and recognize that we need to do things that we can get done,” said Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt, of St. Louis County.

The St. Louis-area lawmakers said the legislation is a starting point. Under their proposal, districts receiving transfer students would set policies for class sizes and student-teacher ratios. The State Board of Education would assess individual school buildings within unaccredited districts, and the first option for students in unaccredited districts would be going to an accredited school within their home district.

In addition, accredited school systems could operate charter schools in unaccredited districts, and unaccredited school districts could approve longer school days and academic years.

The Senate Education Committee plans to consider other proposals dealing with the transfer law, among them a bill filed by the committee’s chairman, Sen. David Pearce. His bill would include the creation of a “statewide achievement district” to oversee struggling schools.

The most active questioner during Wednesday’s hearing was Democratic Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, who also has filed an education bill that addresses student transfers. Chappelle-Nadal, of University City, raised questions about several issues, including finances and charter schools.

Missouri’s three school districts currently unaccredited are Normandy, Riverview Gardens and Kansas City public schools. Another 11 districts have provisional accreditation.

Gov. Jay Nixon has suggested a $5 million supplement for the current year’s budget to prevent Normandy from running out of money this spring. If the school system becomes insolvent, it would cease to exist and the State Board of Education would assign students to other districts, deputy education commissioner Ron Lankford said. He said the most likely scenario would be to keep the students in their current buildings but shift the management to new districts.

Several members of the Senate Appropriations Committee raised concerns in a separate hearing Wednesday that a $5 million bailout could set a poor precedent for how the state deals with unaccredited districts.

Kansas City Superintendent R. Stephen Green told the Senate Education Committee the transfer law could thrust his school system into financial distress.

Kate Casas, state director of the Children’s Education Council of Missouri, said any changes to the transfer law also should include creation of additional education options. She has pointed to options such as charters, virtual education and private school choice.

Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey has made addressing the transfer law and unaccredited schools a priority for the session.

(AP) – A Senate panel has halted one of Governor Jay Nixon’s appointments to the Missouri Human Rights Commission.

The Democratic governor appointed former Democratic state House member Sara Lampe of Springfield, to the board.

The Republican-led committee stopped the nomination today because of concerns that there would be too many Democrats on the commission.