KIOWA, Kan. (AP) — Smoke from wildfires in Oklahoma and Kansas has drifted hundreds of miles.

The National Weather Service says the smoke has been detected as far away as Springfield, Missouri, about 290 miles to the east, and in St. Louis, about 460 miles to the northeast of the fires.

Springfield meteorologist Mark Burchfield says the smell of smoke was “pretty strong” as he was leaving for work Thursday morning.

St. Louis meteorologist Mark Britt says the weather service posted on social media advising of the smoke.

The strong winds that are blowing the smoke also are complicating efforts to fight the fires that have consumed more than 600 square miles of largely rural land along the Kansas-Oklahoma border since Wednesday.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Planned Parenthood has begun offering medication abortions at its Wichita clinic.

It is the second facility in the city to provide those services since abortion provider George Tiller was gunned down in 2009. Its spokeswoman, Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, said Wednesday the clinic has been taking appointments and scheduling the procedure.

Medication abortions are commonly known as the abortion pill and are done to terminate pregnancies up to about 9 weeks. The group’s Wichita clinic began doing them on March 17.

Three other clinics in Kansas offer abortion services, including a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park. Wichita did not have any abortion clinics for four years after Tiller’s clinic was shut down in the wake his murder.

OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) — Jurors have convicted an eastern Kansas man in the fatal shootings of three adults and a toddler in 2013. Franklin County court officials say the jury found 30-year-old Kyle Flack guilty of capital murder on Wednesday for the deaths of Kaylie Bailey and her 18-month-old daughter, Lana.

That means Flack could face the death penalty when sentenced next week.

He also was convicted in the deaths of Bailey’s boyfriend, Andrew Stout, and his roommate, Steven White, who lived in a rural farmhouse where Flack sometimes stayed.

It’s unclear what led to the shootings. Investigators say Flack at one point told detectives that two drug dealers may have been involved, but detectives determined those people didn’t exist.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled in favor of Nebraska state officials in a lawsuit that challenged the state’s law requiring picketers to stay at least 500 feet from funerals. U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp said in her decision Wednesday that the law does not infringe on the constitutionally-protected free speech rights of Westboro Baptist Church members.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a prominent member of the Topeka-Kansas based church, sued in 2009. She argued, among other things, that the Nebraska law is selectively enforced.

The church protests at funerals throughout the country using anti-gay chants and signs because it believes God is punishing U.S.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A business consultant who helped sell Missouri on a sweetener manufacturing company’s project will pay $100,000 to settle bankruptcy court claims that he participated in a scheme to divert millions of construction funds to company insiders.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Dow approved the settlement with Tom Smith on Friday.

Smith was sued by bankruptcy trustee Bruce Strauss for $39 million for the amount the city of Moberly borrowed to build the factory, plus nearly $800,000 paid to the company, Mamtek, as project manager.

The settlement comes after Smith threatened to file bankruptcy if the suit was taken to trial, according to a brief written by attorney Victor Weber.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri has named a diversity official to help the four-campus system recover from racial protests at the flagship campus in Columbia.

The school announced Wednesday that Kevin McDonald has been tapped to serve as the first ever chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. President Michael Middleton said McDonald would work to “foster more inclusive campus environments.”

The creation of the position is one of several initiatives undertaken to address last fall’s racial turmoil.

McDonald previously served as the vice president and associate provost for diversity and inclusion at the Rochester Institution of Technology. He also has worked at Virginia Tech, John Hopkins University and University of Maryland in College Park after working for the U.S. Department of Justice early in his career.

McDonald’s starting salary is $235,000.

ELSBERRY, Mo. (AP) — Three eastern Missouri residents are accused of injecting a 16-year-old girl with methamphetamine and forcing her into sex acts.

Lincoln County authorities accuse 29-year-old Christopher Bove of using a syringe to inject meth into the victim, a Florida resident who was in the Elsberry area staying with a family acquaintance for the weekend. Police say Bove forced the girl to have sex with him, 33-year-old Erika Oppeau of Wentzville and 42-year-old William Hope of Florissant.

Oppeau and Hope also are accused of injecting the drug into the girl.

Police say the crime happened over several days, with the victim so overcome by the drugs that she was unable to leave the home.

The suspects are jailed and do not yet have listed attorneys.

DENVER (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a Colorado company to recall more than 900,000 powerful, small magnets that could harm children.

U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello ruled Tuesday that Zen Magnets LLC and its owner, Shihan Qu, violated the Consumer Product Safety Act by repackaging and selling magnets that were purchased from a New Jersey company shortly before the magnets were recalled.

The U.S. Justice Department said putting the magnets in a different box and calling them a different name does not permit a company to circumvent a recall.

Shihan Qu did not return a phone call Wednesday seeking comment, but he said previously the court was mistaken banning the magnets because consumers want the product and there was no evidence the repackaged magnets caused harm.

GALVA, Kan. (AP) — A pilot has safely landed his small airplane on a central Kansas road after experiencing engine failure.

The Salina Journal reports that 22-year-old Ian Barnhart, of Wichita, and his 23-year-old passenger, Michael Parisi, of Flower Mound, Texas, weren’t hurt. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the Beechcraft Bonanza landed Tuesday afternoon about 2 miles north of Galva in McPherson County.

The patrol says the plane took off from Eisenhower Airport in Wichita around 12:30 p.m. for a routine flight check. When the plane got over McPherson County, Barnhart and Parisi started seeing troubling mechanical indicators and decided to attempt an emergency landing.

The report says a power line was struck during the descent, causing damage to the landing gear on the right side of the plane.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says its contractors collected nearly 3,000 tons of residential debris and hazardous material as part of a flood cleanup effort in eastern Missouri.

EPA Region 7 said Tuesday that the material was collected following the devastating December floods that caused significant damage in St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties. The Federal Emergency Management Agency assigned residential debris collection duties to the EPA.

EPA officials say the debris included, among other things, 179 propane tanks, more than 1,000 appliances such as refrigerators and stoves, and 1,310 tons of sandbags.