WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — After a slow start to 2014, several wind energy projects in Kansas are under construction and more are planned once utilities have signed contracts to purchase the power they generate.

The Wichita Eagle reports the state has nearly 3,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity in 25 wind farms, and four wind farms under construction bring an additional 475 megawatts. Six other wind farms under development and approved for construction have a combined capacity for 1,800 more megawatts.

Federal wind energy tax credits expired at the end of last year, but by law developers can still qualify for the credits if their wind farms were started in 2013 and are finished by 2016.

Developers says some of the projects are on hold until utilities agreed to purchase power from them.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart plans to eliminate health insurance coverage for some of its part-time U.S. employees in a move aimed at controlling rising health care costs of the nation’s largest private employer.

Wal-Mart tells The Associated Press that, starting January first, it will no longer offer health insurance to employees who work less than an average of 30 hours a week.

The move, which would affect 30,000 employees, follows similar decisions by Target, Home Depot and others to eliminate health insurance benefits for part-time employees. A senior manager says the company will use a third-party group to help part-time workers find insurance alternatives.

The announcement comes after Wal-Mart said far more U.S. employees and their families are enrolling in its health care plans than it had expected following rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Rumors that a patient at a Kansas City hospital had Ebola were false, but they forced health officials to respond to stories that spread online.

The Kansas City Star reports a feverish man, apparently from Nigeria, was taken to Research Medical Center’s Brookside Campus on Saturday night, prompting the hospital to take precautions. Police were told hospital was under lockdown because of suspicions about the patient, and officers blocked access to the man’s apartment.

A Kansas City television station reported the apartment lockdown but didn’t mention Ebola. A local blog reported Ebola case had come to Kansas City, and a Wichita, Kansas, station’s website followed suit.

A spokeswoman for Research Medical Center says the man didn’t have Ebola and was released from the hospital on Monday.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Cleanup continues at the site of a train derailment in northeast Louisiana.

State police say the engineer and conductor were injured when a freight train hit a truck Sunday at a crossing in Mer Rouge derailing two engines and 17 cars of the 87 car train.

Troopers say crews worked throughout the night and hoped to have the line open Tuesday.

Union Pacific Railroad Co. officials said the conductor’s injuries weren’t considered life-threatening. He was being treated at a hospital in Shreveport. They say the engineer suffered minor injuries.

Mer Rouge Police Chief Mitch Stephens says the truck driver, Daniel Shackleford, of Freedom, Missouri, was unhurt. Stephens says Shackleford’s trailer got stuck on the tracks but he saw the train coming and jumped out of the truck.

Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Chris Koster released the following statement:

“The circuit court’s judgment in Barrier v. Vasterling held that Missouri must recognize marriages lawfully entered into in other states. We will not appeal that judgment. Our national government is founded upon principles of federalism – a system that empowers Missouri to set policy for itself, but also obligates us to honor contracts entered into in other states.

A consequence of this morning’s ruling by the United States Supreme Court is that gay marriage will soon be legal in as many as 30 states. At a time when Missouri is competing to attract the nation’s premier businesses and most talented employees, we should not demand that certain individuals surrender their marriage licenses in order to live and work among us.

Missouri’s future will be one of inclusion, not exclusion.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new poll says the Kansas governor’s race between Republican incumbent Sam Brownback and Democratic challenger Paul Davis is a toss-up.

The poll released this week by NBC and Marist College in in Poughkeepsie, New York, showed Davis as the choice of 44 percent of the 636 likely voters surveyed. Brownback was the choice of 43 percent.

Libertarian candidate Keen Umbehr polled at 4 percent, and 7 percent were undecided.

The poll was conducted from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 and had a 3.9 percent margin of error.

Nearly 1,100 registered voters were surveyed about how they viewed Brownback. Fifty-one percent said they disapproved of the job he’s doing as governor, while 40 percent approved. The margin of error for the question was 3 percent.

MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Two astronauts are taking a spacewalk 260 miles up. They’re performing NASA’s first routine maintenance outside the International Space Station in more than a year.