DAVID PITT, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Aside from increased demand for corn to make food sweeteners and a boost in soybean exports, few adjustments are found in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest crop update.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not change in Wednesday’s report the number of corn acres planted this year, as some analysts expect it may.

The agency will likely wait until January to make adjustments, because there is still corn in some Michigan and Wisconsin fields.

Currently, the number of acres reported in federal program applications exceeds USDA estimates by about 5 million acres, a larger discrepancy than usual.

Farmers in 22 states including Iowa and Nebraska expect record corn yields this year as part of the anticipated record 14.41 billion-bushel crop. Soybean farmers expect a record 3.96 billion bushel harvest.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Mexican man accused in a bizarre identity theft scheme would likely still be able to circumvent tough new Kansas voting laws because he had the proper documents.

Eighty-one year-old Ramon Perez-Rivera entered a not guilty plea Wednesday in Wichita after being charged in a 33-count indictment. Federal prosecutors say he took another man’s identity to get food stamps and Medicaid, obtain a U.S. passport and driver’s license, and register to vote.

While Perez-Rivera did not have to prove his citizenship to vote because he registered in 1999, he still would have likely fooled the state even under the strict requirements now in place because he would have had the needed paperwork.

Election officials say he remains eligible to vote pending a conviction.

As of Wednesday, more than 25,000 voter registrations in Kansas were suspended because they had not provided the necessary paperwork.

———–

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Tough election laws that have kept 25,248 Kansas residents from voting would not have affected a Mexican man accused in a federal indictment of lying about his citizenship status when registering to vote.

Eighty-one year-old Ramon Perez-Rivera makes a court appearance Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Wichita on charges accusing him of assuming a false identity to obtain food stamps and Medicaid, register to vote and obtain a U.S. passport and driver’s license, among other charges.

Perez-Rivera did not have to prove his citizenship since he was grandfathered in because he registered in 1999 to vote. But even if had he registered under the state’s new strict documentation requirements he still would have had the needed paperwork.

Election officials say he remains eligible to vote pending a conviction.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says sign-ups picked up last week under the president’s health care law.

More than 618,000 people selected a plan for 2015 from Nov. 29 through Dec. 5, the Health and Human Services department reported Wednesday.

It was the highest weekly number since open enrollment began Nov. 15.

Sign-ups were about evenly split between new customers and consumers making changes to existing coverage.

Cumulatively, nearly 1.4 million people have enrolled through HealthCare.gov, the online market that offers subsidized private insurance in 37 states. Statistics for states running their own websites will be reported later.

The administration set a target of 9.1 million people enrolled across the country for 2015. That includes 6.7 million current customers, most of whom will be automatically re-enrolled.

Sign-up season runs through Feb. 15.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A University of Missouri campus near the site of the fatal Ferguson police shooting has announced a hiring freeze for faculty and staff in response to what administrators call an unexpected enrollment drop by students worried about their safety.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis announced the move Wednesday in a campus-wide email from Chancellor Tom George. He cited a $2 million budget shortfall created by “widespread anxiety about the region in general and North (St. Louis) County in particular.”

School spokesman Bob Samples says the campus expects to enroll 600 fewer students in the upcoming spring semester compared to spring 2014.

He attributed the drop to a combination of returning students declining to again register for classes and admitted students not actually enrolling for the first time.

MIAMI COUNTY- Three people were injured in an accident just before 9:30 a.m. in Miami County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Honda Accord driven by Alan D. Stambaugh, 66, Wichita, was traveling northbound on Interstate 35 in the number one lane. The driver lost control as the vehicle traveled across a bridge.

The Honda left the roadway, traveled through a grass median and entered the southbound lanes.

A southbound 1996 Lexus driven by Dana M. McCullough, 43, Ottawa, struck the Honda in the passenger’s side front axle and doors.

The Honda left the roadway again.

Passengers in the Honda Amy M. McCleary, 20, Wichita, and a one-year old were transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center.
The KHP reported Stambaugh was possibly injured but not where he was treated.

McCullough was transported to the Ottawa Hospital.
All were properly restrained at the time of the accident the KHP said.

The Associated Press

Delayed are increasing on U.S. airlines.

The Department of Transportation said Wednesday that 80 percent of domestic flights arrived on-time in October, down from 81.1 percent in September and 84.1 percent in October of last year.

Industry trade group Airlines for America says many of the delays were due to a fire that reduced operations at an air traffic control center in Chicago for 12 days in late September and early October.

Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Delta had the best ratings, while regional carrier Envoy Air had the worst.

About 1.1 percent of October flights were canceled. That was better than September but worse than the previous October.