KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mourners will gather to remember a Muslim teenager who was run down and killed in a crash that was being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Thirty-four-year-old Ahmed H. Aden, of Kansas City, was charged Friday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the crash that killed 15-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein at the at Somali Center of Kansas City. Funeral services for Abdisamad are set for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City.
A probable cause statement says Aden was driving the sport utility vehicle that hit the teen as the boy got into a car.
No attorney is listed for Aden in online court records.
MANHATTAN -Kansas Farm Bureau recognized members and friends at its 96th Annual Meeting this week.
Dale Rodman was honored with the Distinguished Service Award. Rodman is a former Secretary of Agriculture in Kansas. He served in this position beginning in 2011, following his appointment by Governor Sam Brownback. After leaving the secretary’s office, he retained his role as the elected chair of the Board of Directors of the Kansas Bioscience Authority.
The organization also recognized its Friends of Agriculture. This award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to Kansas Farm Bureau and agriculture or rural Kansas. They included:
Matt and Stephanie Symns of Doniphan County received the Natural Resources Award. This award goes to the farm family who exemplifies good land stewardship. The Symns operate a diversified crop and livestock farm. They raise 775 acres of corn, 725 acres of soybeans and 200 acres of hay. The rest of their farm land is used for grazing for their beef cattle. The Symn’s use a host of practices to preserve their natural resources. They have many acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), utilize rotational grazing and prescribed burning to maintain forage health. They apply variable-rate fertilizer by carefully monitoring their soil through grid testing and plant tissue sampling.
· Congressman Mike Pompeo from Sedgwick County. Pompeo works effectively for Kansas farmers as Congressman for the 4th Congressional District of Kansas.
· Bob Grant, state representative for the 2nd District, has served in this role for 21 years where he has worked on the agriculture and natural resources committee.
· Greg Akagi is the farm editor at WIBW and co-host of the “Morning Agriculture Roundup.” He is also a reporter for the Kansas Ag Network. He covers commodity markets and mainstream production agriculture in Kansas.
· Steve Sears from Reno County has been a fulltime faculty member at Hutchinson Community College since 1979. During this time, he has taught hundreds of students in the field of agronomy.
· William Prescott from Osage County has been a strong supporter of agriculture. He served as the 59th District House Representative where he was part of the agriculture and natural resources committee and vice-chair of the transportation committee. Prescott currently serves as special assistant to the Kansas Attorney General.
· Mary Mertz from Riley County is an active advocate for agriculture. She frequently writes letters to the editor and shares what’s happening on the farm. In 2011, she started “Feast of the Fields” as an event to bring urban residents to the farm.
· Rhonda McCurry from Sedgwick County serves as the executive director for the Agribusiness Council of Wichita as well as the Kansas Ag Aviation Association.
· Dan Yunk from Riley County served as Executive Director and CEO for Kansas Farm Bureau. He retired in 2013. Prior to joining KFB in 2002, he served the Manhattan community for 20 years as the superintendent and principal for the USD 383 public school system. Dan is still very active in the agriculture community and Farm Bureau.
Matt and Stephanie Symns of Doniphan County received the Natural Resources Award. This award goes to the farm family who exemplifies good land stewardship. The Symns operate a diversified crop and livestock farm. They raise 775 acres of corn, 725 acres of soybeans and 200 acres of hay. The rest of their farm land is used for grazing for their beef cattle. The Symn’s use a host of practices to preserve their natural resources. They have many acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), utilize rotational grazing and prescribed burning to maintain forage health. They apply variable-rate fertilizer by carefully monitoring their soil through grid testing and plant tissue sampling.
Michelle Hubert, Agency Manager for Farm Bureau Financial Services, received KFB’s Partnership Award Winner. This award recognizes someone from Farm Bureau Financial Services who has gone above and beyond for the state’s largest farm organization. Hubert has been with Farm Bureau for 24 years and does a tremendous job serving Kansas Farm Bureau and Farm Bureau Financial Services customers.
TOPEKA — The deadline for submitting public comment on the proposed changes in the waivers that define the state’s Medicaid-funded services for frail seniors, people with physical and developmental disabilities, and those who’ve suffered traumatic brain injury is Dec. 20.
Last month, the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services released information indicating a Dec. 10 deadline for comments.
The comment period was later extended to Dec. 20 to ensure compliance with a federal rule that requires a 30-day comment period.
KDADS hosted public hearings on the proposed changes Nov. 12, 13 and 14.
Early Thursday, the public comment form on the KDADS website indicated a Dec. 10 deadline. However, KDADS officials corrected the date on the website form Thursday afternoon.
“All of us the advocacy community know the deadline is Dec. 20,” said Sean Gatewood, interim director of the Kansas Health Consumer Coalition. “I’m not worried about us, I’m worried about the people who are going to be affected by this.”
Gatewood said the proposed changes have generated considerable concern among advocacy groups.
“There are a lot of us who’ll be filing public comment,” he said. “There is no doubt about that.”
Most of the concerns, he said, focus on potential reductions in services that help frail elders and people with disabilities live in community-based settings rather the nursing homes.
“There is the potential for significant disruption in how case management is performed in the state for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said Matt Fletcher, a spokesperson for InterHab, the association that represents most of the state’s community-based programs for the developmentally disabled.
“That’s a huge issue for persons who rely upon their relationships with their case managers,” he said.
InterHab, Fletcher said, will be filing its concerns with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regional office in Kansas City, Mo.
Mitzi McFatrich, executive director with Kansas Advocates for Better Care, said her group will be commenting as well. KABC represents the interests of Kansas nursing home residents and their families.
“We’ll be citing several areas of concern, yes,” McFatrich said.
Though the waivers expire Dec. 31, the process allows CMS to grant temporary extensions.
Kansas’ waivers for the brain-injured and the developmentally disabled expired June 30 but were extended to Dec. 31.
Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking on a free speech case over a proposed license plate in Texas that would feature the Confederate battle flag.
The case involves the government’s ability to choose among the political messages it allows drivers to display on state-issued license plates.
The justices said Friday they will review a lower court ruling in favor of the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group is seeking a specialty plate with its logo bearing the battle flag, similar to plates issued by several other states that were part of the Confederacy.
NEW YORK (AP) — A new government report counts hundreds of times U.S. doctors and hospitals raised false alarms about possible Ebola cases, finding that fewer than one in five warranted even additional investigation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report — released Friday — looked at Ebola-related calls the federal agency received this year from doctors, hospitals, and state and local health departments.
In most calls, it turned out the patient had neither traveled to an Ebola-affected country nor had contact with an Ebola patient.
Of 650 patients flagged to federal officials, four ended up testing positive.
But health officials say there was a national learning curve for Ebola — even for doctors and nurses — and they had no complaint about all the nervous phone calls.
Ryan Spangler scored a season-high 18 points to help No. 22 Oklahoma defeat Missouri 82-63 Friday night in the SEC/Big 12 challenge. Buddy Hield had 17 points and three steals and Isaiah Cousins added 16 points for the Sooners, who shot 57 percent from the field and made 10 of 20 3-pointers.
But what changed the game was the way Oklahoma defended after halftime. The Sooners opened the second half on a 15-0 run. Missouri (4-4) didn’t score for the first 5:16 of the second half and missed its first seven shots after the break. It’s a big step for a team that wasn’t always focused on getting stops a year ago.
“Defensively, we’ve been making progress and we’ve been getting better,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said. “Defensively, I thought we were pretty solid all night.”
Oklahoma (5-2) was coming off a runner-up finish in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Johnathan Williams III led Missouri with 16 points and eight rebounds. Montaque Gill-Caesar, Missouri’s top scorer entering the game, finished with 15 points on 6-for-16 shooting.
Namon Wright added 12 points for the Tigers, who had won two straight.
The Sooners held Missouri to 42 percent shooting.
“We have a lot of quick guys,” Hield said. “We do a good job pressuring the ball. It was a team effort.”
It was the third blowout loss for the Tigers this season under first-year coach Kim Anderson. They lost to Arizona by 19 and Purdue by 21 last month.
Missouri led Oklahoma early, but a 3-pointer by Cousins put the Sooners up 19-17. Cousins scored 11 points in the first 9:29.
Hield, Oklahoma’s top scorer for the season, didn’t score until 5:39 remained in the first half, but his layup pushed the Sooners’ lead to 27-20 and caused Missouri to call timeout.
A 3-pointer by Hield pushed the lead to 10, and a dunk by TaShawn Thomas bumped the lead to 12. Spangler’s 3-pointer right before the half gave Oklahoma a 37-25 lead at the break.
The Sooners rolled in the second half against a Missouri team that is loaded with freshmen and sophomores.
“This is big boy basketball, and you have to be ready for anything they throw at you,” Anderson said. “I thought we panicked more than anything, and they put pressure on us.”
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT
“I think all around, we just kind of succumbed to what they were doing.” — Gill-Caesar.
ON THE RISE
Spangler, who made 3 of 11 3-pointers last season, made 2 of 2 on Friday night and has made 6 of 9 for the season.
TIP-INS
Oklahoma: The teams met regularly when Missouri was a member of the Big Eight, then the Big 12 before moving to the SEC. Oklahoma now has a 113-97 lead in the series. … Oklahoma beat then-No. 22 UCLA and Butler to reach the Battle 4 Atlantis final before losing to then-No. 2 Wisconsin.
Missouri: The Tigers, who had been holding opponents to 36 percent shooting in the second half of games, allowed the Sooners to shoot 68 percent in the second half. … Missouri started off well, but made just 11 of 27 shots in the first half.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Last year, Wayne Selden Jr. might have let a lousy shooting performance in Kansas’s previous game affect his confidence in a high-profile matchup with Florida on Friday night.
That’s the difference between being a freshman and a sophomore.
Selden poured in 21 points and keyed a massive second-half run, allowing the No. 11 Jayhawks to overcome an 18-point deficit and beat the Gators 71-65 inside boisterous Allen Fieldhouse.
“You’re not going to make them every night,” said Selden, who was 0-for-10 from the field last Sunday against Michigan State. “You just have to stay persistent.”
Cliff Alexander and Frank Mason III had 12 points apiece, and Perry Ellis finished with 10 for the Jayhawks (6-1), who trailed 39-24 at halftime before using a 17-0 surge to seize control.
Kansas wound up outscoring the Gators 47-26 in the second half.
“It was a terrible start and our best players were not very good at all in the first half,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “The roles reversed in the second half.”
Devin Robinson scored 13 points and Chris Walker had 12 for Florida, which is off to its worst start through seven games since it also started 3-4 during the 1990-91 season.
“You have to credit them. They had a lot of fight,” the Gators’ Jon Horford said. “I felt like we let them speed us up a little bit, take us out of the flow we had in the first half.”
The Gators once again played without the calming influence of guard Eli Carter, who has been hobbled by a sprained left foot. He hurt it during practice Nov. 20 and had struggled in two of the four games he had played, causing coach Billy Donovan to rest him Friday night.
“It’s been hard the last week just because we’ve had limited numbers in practice,” Donovan said. “It was good to see Devin Robinson respond like he did. I thought he was a bright spot.”
The Jayhawks led 14-10 as the game approached the midway point of the first half, but a slew of turnovers and some frigid shooting allowed Florida to pull into the lead.
Robinson scored four quick points, Dorian Finney-Smith contributed the next five and Michael Frazier popped a shot-clock-beating 3-pointer to cap a 19-3 assault. By the time Ellis scored in the paint, the Gators had successfully set the tempo of the game.
They continued to pull away, pushing their run to 25-4 on Robinson’s 3-pointer late in the first half, silencing what had been a roaring crowd inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Even the introduction of new football coach David Beaty, who had been hired away from Texas A&M earlier in the day, did little to energize the stunned fans at halftime.
The Gators kept everyone quiet early in the second half, too, extending their lead to 45-27 on back-to-back baskets by Frazier and Robinson for their biggest lead of the game.
It was at that point that Kansas began chipping away.
Turning up the pressure with some full-court defense, the Jayhawks began producing turnovers of their own, often turning them into easy layups at the other end. And when Alexander came in off the bench, the bruising freshman gave them the interior muscle they’d been lacking.
Kansas knotted the game 52-all on a free throw by Ellis with 6:18 left, part of their 17-0 second-half run. Selden had six points during the charge, including a pair of silky jumpers, and Ellis’s basket with 3:17 remaining gave the Jayhawks a 60-52 lead.
By that point, the Gators were in the bonus and Kansas began a parade to the free throw line, putting the game away by making 11 consecutive foul shots in the final couple minutes.
“There’s no six- or eight-point plays. Just try to win each 4 minutes,” Self said. “Once the crowd got into it, we played with so much more energy.”
TIP-INS
Florida: The Gators shot 53.6 percent in the first half. They shot 34.5 percent in the second half. … Florida was outrebounded 24-9 in the second half.
Kansas: The Jayhawks had more turnovers (9) than field goals (8) in the first half. They had only five turnovers in the second half. … Kansas shot 48 percent in the second half.
BEWARE THE PHOG
There’s a reason Self has only lost nine games at Allen Fieldhouse. When the crowd gets amped up like it was during the Jayhawks’ second-half run, it can be nearly impossible for opposing teams to communicate. “I think the crowd really helped them out,” Walker said.
QUOTABLE: “It was just like Jekyll-and-Hyde the first half and second,” Self said.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s newest space vehicle, Orion, accomplished its first test flight with precision and pizazz Friday, shooting more than 3,600 miles out from Earth for a hyperfast, hot return not seen since the Apollo moon shots.
For a space agency still feeling the loss of its shuttles, the four-hour voyage opened a new era of human space exploration, with Mars as the plum. It even brought some rocket engineers to tears.
“There’s your new spacecraft, America,” Mission Control’s Rob Navias said as the unmanned Orion capsule came in for a Pacific splashdown after two orbits of Earth.
NASA is counting on future Orions to carry astronauts out into the solar system, to Mars and beyond.
The next Orion flight, also unmanned, is four years off, and crewed flights at least seven years away given present budget constraints. But the Orion team — spread across the country and out in the ocean, is hoping Friday’s triumphant splashdown will pick up the momentum.
“We challenged our best and brightest to continue to lead in space,” lead flight director Mike Sarafin said with emotion as he signed off from Mission Control in Houston. “While this was an unmanned mission, we were all on board Orion.”
W. Michael Hawes, a former NASA official who now leads the Orion program for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp., choked up as he recalled the pre-shuttle days.
“We started with all the Apollo guys still there. So we’ve kind of now finally done something for the first time for our generation,” he said, pausing for composure. “It’s a good thing.”
Orion splashed down 270 miles off Mexico’s Baja peninsula, just a mile from the projected spot — “a bull’s-eye” according to NASA. Navy ships quickly moved in to transport the crew module 600 miles to San Diego, where it was expected Monday. From there, it will be loaded onto a truck and returned to Cape Canaveral just in time for Christmas.
Preliminary test reports were encouraging: Not only did the capsule arrive intact, all eight parachutes deployed and onboard computers withstood the intense radiation of the Van Allen belts surrounding Earth. What’s more, everything meant to jettison away did so as Orion soared into space.
“It’s hard to have a better day than today,” said a beaming Mark Geyer, NASA’s Orion program manager.
Sensors placed inside and out of the crew module will tell the full story: “Our big focus now is to get that data from those 1,200 sensors so they can pore over it in the next month or so,” Geyer said.
Most critical was the heat shield covering Orion’s bottom, the largest of its kind ever made. NASA wanted to be sure it would hold before committing to a human mission.
Orion reached a peak altitude of 3,604 miles, higher than any crew module since NASA’s final manned moon mission, Apollo 17, in 1972. That’s more than 14 times higher than the International Space Station.
The capsule came in over the Pacific at 20,000 mph and endured 4,000 degrees. In just 11 minutes, it slowed to 20 mph for splashdown. A crew would have endured as much as 8.2 Gs, or 8.2 times the force of Earth gravity, double the Gs of a returning Russian Soyuz capsule, according to NASA.
Earth shrank from view through Orion’s capsule window during its trip out into space, and stunning images were relayed back home. Having part of the window frame in the picture drove home the fact that this will be an astronaut’s view from inside, Geyer said.
“It’s different than a satellite taking a picture of the Earth … very moving,” he said.
More spectacular views came from Orion’s return, recorded by an unmanned drone flying over the recovery zone. Helicopters also provided images of the crew module bobbing in the water. Three of the five air bags deployed properly, enough to keep the capsule floating upright. All but two parachutes were lost at sea.
This inaugural run was intended to be brief — just two laps around Earth, shorter than even John Glenn’s orbital achievement in 1962.
The same capsule will be reused around 2017 for a launch abort test, followed by a second Orion heading to space in 2018 aboard the SLS megarocket NASA is developing.
“The sight of the Orion on top of the Space Launch System is going to take your breath away, even before it takes flight,” promised astronaut Rex Walheim.
Officials expect it will be 2021 before Orion carries people, but NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. was already calling Friday’s test “Day One of the Mars era.”
Indeed, the team working the Mars Curiosity rover tweeted a quick congrats: “We’re one step closer to bootprints next to these rover tracks.”
Lockheed Martin, which handled the $370 million test flight for NASA using a Delta IV rocket, already has begun work on a second Orion and plans to build a whole fleet. An asteroid redirected to lunar orbit is intended for the first stop in the 2020s, followed by Mars in the 2030s. Monthslong journeys would include habitats as well as the four-person capsules, which are bigger than the old-style Apollo and considerably enhanced.
“Everybody wants to go to Mars,” Walheim noted, “and it’s important to go there to figure out what happened to Mars and establish our presence on another planet to become a multiplanetary species.”
The atmosphere surrounding Friday’s smooth sunrise launch — one day late because of wind and valve trouble — was a throwback to the shuttle-flying days, but considerably more upbeat than that last 2011 mission. Walheim was on board for that mission and welcomed all the excitement returning to Kennedy Space Center.
Chris Tarkenton, who traveled from Poquoson, Virginia, to watch from a nearby causeway, called the whole thing “awe inspiring.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to launch something of this magnitude,” he said.
This Orion — serial number 001 — lacked seats, cockpit displays and life-support equipment, but brought along bundles of toys and memorabilia: bits of moon dust; the crew patch worn by Sally Ride, America’s first spacewoman; a Capt. James Kirk doll owned by “Star Trek” actor William Shatner.
Officials noted that in two days, it will be exactly 42 years since Apollo 17 launched.
“Here we are again now, the United States leading exploration out into the solar system,” Geyer told reporters.
Before the news conference ended, a rainbow appeared in the sky.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An attorney for four school districts suing Kansas over education funding says the state Supreme Court’s newest justice should remove himself from the case on appeal.
Attorney John Robb said Friday that Justice Caleb Stegall participated in two days of mediation over the lawsuit in 2013 and represented Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
Stegall was sworn in as a justice Friday and declined to comment afterward. He is a former chief counsel for the governor.
Four school districts and the parents of more than 30 students filed the lawsuit in 2010. A three-judge Shawnee County District Court panel is considering whether the state is spending enough money on public schools to provide an adequate education for every child.
Attorneys expect an appeal to the Supreme Court regardless.
