TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas laboratory responsible for testing for contamination in the event of an accident at the state’s only nuclear power plant hasn’t been staffed for several weeks after its final two employees left in September.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says an Iowa lab is testing routine samples from the Wolf Creek nuclear plant, and that Kansas has several other agencies that would respond if there were an emergency.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports five people worked at KDHE’s Radiochemistry Section in 2014 but two left before the end of the year. By July staffing was down to the two who left last month.

KDHE says public health isn’t endangered and the agency’s ability to carry out its responsibilities doesn’t rely on any individual department or worker.

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri farmer has been ordered to stand trial in a fork loader assault.

Sixty-eight-year-old Ronald Wilson was bound over for trial Thursday in Lawrence County Circuit Court on first-degree assault and motor vehicle tampering charges.

The Joplin Globe reports that Wilson’s sister, Barbara Cole, and her husband, Gary, went to see Wilson in June about selling jointing owned property near Miller. Gary Cole said that as his wife approached, Wilson rolled a hay bale off the trailer, and it almost hit her. Cole said Wilson then drove the dual spears of the hay-fork loader through the windshield of the couple’s pickup truck. No one was hurt.

Wilson’s attorney, Dee Wampler, described his client as well respected in the community and said he’s filed a dismissal motion.

CARTHAGE, Mo. (AP) — Prosecutors have filed a new charge against a southwest Missouri woman in the death of her fiance’s 2-year-old daughter.

Twenty-year-old Tearra Olson, of Carthage, initially was charged with abuse of a child resulting in death. The Joplin Globe reports that Jasper County prosecutors have since added a second-degree murder charge in the death of Emalata “Emma” Hoeft.

Authorities said Olson admitted striking the girl’s head three times on a hard surface in August. The probable cause affidavit says the girl quit breathing and Olson put her in a bed. Police were called the next day.

Authorities say the child also had been left alone for hours at a time in the days before her death.

Olson’s attorney didn’t immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press.

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 12-year-old Omaha boy has admitted his role in a fatal shooting as part of a deal with prosecutors that will lead to a sentence of probation.

The Omaha World-Herald reports the boy pleaded guilty Thursday to reduced charges of criminal conspiracy and using a weapon.

Authorities have said the boy was carrying a handgun when he and two teens ambushed two men. Prosecutors believe the other boys, ages 15 and 17, are more responsible for the death of 31-year-old Jamymell Ray on June 29. Another man was wounded.

The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.

Prosecutors asked the judge to place the 12-year-old in a group home, so he will be away from the influence of fellow gang members.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas and two other states are suing the federal government over fees imposed on insurance companies as part of the Affordable Care Act.

In a news release issued Thursday, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said the state is seeking a $32.8 million refund from the federal government.

The lawsuit, which was filed with Texas and Louisiana, also seeks to stop the collection of fees from insurance companies that manage the states’ Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance programs.

States are required to reimburse the private insurance companies for the costs of the fee.

The lawsuit argues the Affordable Care Act did not give clear notice to states that they would have to reimburse the fee as a condition of receiving federal funds for their Medicaid and CHIP organizations.

HICKMAN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a canvas bag of muddy, rusty firearms has been found in southeast Nebraska’s Lancaster County.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that a Winwater employee found the bag in a dry waterway on Monday. The waterway is about 1½ miles west of Hickman.

Sheriff Terry Wagner says none of the weapons had been reported stolen. Deputies are trying to find out who owns the guns.

The bag contained five shotguns, three conventional rifles and one black powder rifle.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The top election official in Kansas was dismissed as a defendant from the lawsuit filed by a Wichita mathematician seeking voting machine tapes after finding statistical anomalies in election counts.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said in a statement Thursday he was pleased but not surprised. The move leaves Sedgwick County Elections Commissioner Tabitha Lehman, whose office actually has the tapes, as the only defendant in the case.

Wichita State University statistician Beth Clarkson wants the tapes to do a statistical model by checking the error rate on electronic voting machines used at a Sedgwick County voting station during the November 2014 general election.

Kobach says the law is clear regarding auditing procedures and contends he should have never been a party to the lawsuit in the first place.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former information systems director has been ordered to repay more than $1.2 million he stole from a company which owns assisted living centers in Kansas and Missouri.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten also sentenced on Thursday Brent Shryock of Augusta to three years in prison, as the parties had proposed in their plea deal. His ex-wife, Lori, faces sentencing Monday. Both pleaded guilty to mail fraud.

Marten said he was troubled that Shryock stole the money not out of some need, but to finance his own lavish lifestyle.

The indictment alleges the thefts occurred while Brent Shryock was employed as information systems director for Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America, where he was in charge of purchasing equipment. Prosecutors allege the couple created four fictitious companies to submit fraudulent invoices.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former guard at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution accused of trying to smuggle drugs to inmates has been sentenced to 18 months of probation.  The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 21-year-old Michael Splittgerber was sentenced Monday.

He pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to convey an article to a committed offender. Prosecutors say Splittgerber offered to sneak marijuana into the prison to an inmate in May 2014.

According to an arrest affidavit, prison officials learned of the offering when an inmate reported to Splittgerber’s superior that the guard told the inmate he had something for him. Authorities say a search of Splittgerber’s pockets by prison officials turned up marijuana inside a staff-issued plastic glove.

Splittgerber worked for the Department of Correctional Services from December 2013 to June 2014.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A jury has found an aide to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign guilty of one of five charges he faced related to secret payments to an Iowa lawmaker. A second aide was acquitted.

The jury in Des Moines, Iowa, convicted Dimitri Kesari of causing the campaign to file false records concerning the payments to former Iowa Senator Kent Sorenson. He was acquitted of one other charge, and jurors said they could not reach a verdict on three other charges.

Co-defendant Jesse Benton was acquitted of the one charge he faced — making false statements to the FBI. Benton was the former campaign chairman and Kesari was a deputy campaign manager.

Prosecutors alleged the men knowingly hid $73,000 in payments to Sorenson, who endorsed Paul’s campaign before the Iowa caucuses.