HARRISON COUNTY —Two people were injured in an accident just before 8:30a.m. Monday in Harrison County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2009 Kia Optima driven by Rachel D. Flowers, 32, Gilman City, was eastbound on Route M one mile west of Gilman City.
The Kia crossed the centerline and struck a 2007 Dodge Caliber driven by Ralph W. Meservey, 82, Chula, head-on. After impact, the Dodge traveled off the north side of the road and overturned.
NTA EMS transported Flowers to Harrison County Community Hospital. A private vehicle transported Meservey to Harrison County Community Hospital.
Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.
Republicans in the Kansas Senate seem ready to end a long-running lawsuit by complying with a court ruling that said the state sends too little money to local school districts.
The Kansas House? Not just yet. It’s advancing a plan that would continue adding school spending for another year, and only another year.
That sets up a potential fight between the two chambers and threatens Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s hopes for a plan to finally settle the court battle and carve out increased funding for public schools for several years to come.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman, left, and Senate President Susan Wagle are leading chambers that could be headed for conflict in the school funding debate. CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Leaders in the House want to mix conservative policies with a funding plan that only boosts spending for the coming fiscal year. They’d also strip away future funding increases already in state law.
Senators have approved a bill mirroring Kelly’s plan for a multi-year funding hike, which many lawmakers hope could end the lawsuit.
“It is our best attempt to provide a reasonable solution for the Supreme Court,” Republican Sen. Molly Baumgardner said last week when pitching the bill to her fellow senators.
In a way, the Senate vote marks a change of fortune for Kelly. Republican leaders have blasted and blocked many of her major proposals. But Kelly’s school funding plan, based on numbers from the Department of Education, has garnered bipartisan support.
The Senate sent the bill to the House on a 32-8 vote with support from Democrats, moderate Republicans and conservatives such as Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning.
But House Speaker Ron Ryckman said he has concerns the boost in school funding would leave lawmakers unable to fund other services like roads and mental health care.
“We have to balance everything out and not always do what is politically easy to do,” Ryckman said. “We need to protect other core functions of government.”
The House will continue to work first on a proposal introduced last week, Ryckman said.
That bill includes an initial injection of cash for local school districts, but it cancels future funding increases and mixes in some controversial policies. For instance, it would let bullied students transfer to private schools on the state’s dime. Letting students use public money for private schools already draw criticism from a teachers’ union and school districts.
The Kansas Supreme Court mostly signed off on a funding boost lawmakers approved last year. But the justices said that previous spending plan needs to be adjusted for inflation. Kelly’s bill offers that added money.
Rep. Tom Sawyer, the Democratic Party leader in the House, wants to simply approve the Senate plan and move on. He said the House Republicans’ bill reopens the entire school funding debate.
“That causes all kinds of problems with the court,” Sawyer said. “Do the Senate bill. Get it behind us. Fund our schools the way we should.”
A committee will continue work this week on the House plan.
If the House approves its bill, the two chambers will have to find a compromise between proposals that have a wide disparity in funding and policy ideas.
Kelly will stay out of the fight for now and won’t pitch her plan to House lawmakers.
“They would prefer just operating on their own,” Kelly told reporters.
The issue is further complicated by a group of dozens of school districts, including the four that sued the state in the latest lawsuit, that now say even the bill approved in the Senate falls hundreds of millions of dollars short.
Baumgardner said lawmakers can’t afford what the school districts want without crippling the state budget.
“A $900 million price tag over four years will be devastating to our state,” she said during the Senate debate.
Republican Sen. Kevin Braun said if the Senate bill doesn’t satisfy the high court, it’s time to change the state constitution so courts can’t weigh in on school spending. He’s not interested in another round of fighting over a funding increase.
“This is not an opening bid,” Braun said. “This is a final offer.”
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for the Kansas News Service Kansas. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.
VICHY, Mo. (AP) — A 13-year-old girl is dead after fire broke out at a home in south-central Missouri.
Scene of the fatal fire -photo courtesy Maries Co. sheriff
The fire broke out Sunday at a home in Maries County, near the small town of Vichy.
Sheriff Chris Heitman says a 16-year-old boy called for help and said his 13-year-old sister, who had a disability that left her unable to walk or talk, was trapped inside.
Firefighters were unable to save the girl. Her name has not been released.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court is refusing to toss out a lawsuit filed by two female students alleging Kansas State University refused to investigate their rapes and other sex assaults at off-campus fraternity houses.
photo KSU
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the women had sufficiently alleged that Kansas State’s deliberate indifference made them vulnerable to sexual harassment by allowing the students who they say attacked them to continue attending the university. The university purportedly did not investigate the rape allegations.
The two women contend in their civil rights lawsuit that this caused them to withdraw from participating in educational opportunities at the university.
While the appellate panel affirmed a lower court’s refusal to dismiss the students’ claims, its narrow ruling does not address the merits of the case.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Federal authorities say 1 million pounds of pork products allegedly smuggled from China have been seized at a New Jersey port.
Troy Miller, field operations director for the Customs and Border Protection in New York and New Jersey, says it’s the largest agricultural seizure ever made in the United States.
.@CBP NYFO Director Troy Miller, Acting Port Director Port of New York/Newark Stephen Maloney and Chief CBP Agriculture Specialist Basil Liakakos host media event discussing recent seized shipments of food products from China that may be contaminated with African Swine Fever pic.twitter.com/aZdEBoxtbf
Officials feared the meat could be contaminated with African swine fever virus, which has killed more than a million pigs in China. It’s not dangerous to humans, but officials say an outbreak in America could cause $10 billion in damage to the pork industry in just one year.
Officials say the pork was smuggled over several weeks in containers where it was hidden by packages of noodles and laundry detergent. They say the meat was “primarily cured,” and the cargo containers were not refrigerated.
An Eagle Communications bucket truck loaded down with bottled water for stricken communities in Nebraska
Flooding has reached record levels at 17 locations in Nebraska. Hundreds of homes have been damaged and hundreds of people are staying in shelters. Nearly 300 people have been rescued from high water across the state. In one county alone, Sarpy County, up to 500 homes have been damaged.
You can get information on how you can send donations to help here.
At that link you will find a way to text donations or send donations to Nebraska Flood Relief.
From the Fremont area this morning on the Platte. Each of those little islands has dozens of cattle on it, stranded with no place to go.
Our thoughts are with our agriculture industry as they will certainly feel the effects of this flooding. pic.twitter.com/PK8gpu2NMb
Please don’t come to closed areas to sight see. You put yourselves at risk and the first responders as well. Barricades are placed and roads are closed for safety.
Expect rain to move into the area as early as Monday night across far eastern Kansas and western Missouri. Rain will spread eastward into Tuesday morning, and should last most of the day Tuesday, with around 1/2″ of rain expected. While the rainfall isn’t anticipated to make the ongoing moderate to major river flooding much worse, it certainly will not be helpful in getting the already swollen streams down to more manageable levels soon. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Sunny, with a high near 51. North northeast wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm.
Tonight: Scattered showers after 1 a.m. Increasing clouds, with a low around 36. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Tuesday: Rain and snow showers likely before 8 a.m., then periods of rain showers. High near 47. Light and variable wind becoming east southeast 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.
Tuesday Night: Showers, mainly before 1 a.m. Low around 35. East northeast wind around 7 mph becoming north northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.
Wednesday: Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 52. Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.
Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 33.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 57.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 35.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 62.
Friday Night: A chance of showers after 1 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 43. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday: A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 59. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Saturday Night: A chance of showers. Cloudy, with a low around 48. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Sunday: A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 64. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
JOHNSON COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 3:30p.m. Sunday in Johnson County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Dodge 3500 driven by Nicholas D. Failer, 35, Windsor, was eastbound in the 900 Block of SE 900 Road. As the vehicle was pulling forward, 3-year-old passenger Isabelle J. Failer, fell from the pickup.
The pickup’s trailer ran over the child.
She was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Sweeney, Phillips and Holdren Funeral Home. Authorities released no additional details late Sunday.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Hundreds of homes have flooded in northwest Missouri after the Missouri River overtopped and breached several farm levees.
Holt County emergency management director Tom Bullock says there is 6 to 7 feet of water in many homes. He says one couple was rescued in a helicopter, and some businesses also have flooded.
Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Water Patrol Officers launching a boat to assist a family in Corning, Missouri, who couldn’t get to safety due to flood water surrounding the town. pic.twitter.com/ARCTttntnV
The Missouri Department of Transportation also reported about 100 flood-related road closures in the state, including a stretch of Interstate 29.
The Missouri River already has crested upstream of Omaha, Nebraska. The National Weather Service says it will crest Thursday in St. Joseph at 10.4 feet above flood stage, which would be the third highest on record. Military C-130 planes were evacuated last week from the Rosecrans Air National Guard base in preparation.
TOPEKA — An employee with the Kansas Department of Transportation is no longer employed with the agency after using KDOT’s twitter account to respond to a tweet from President Trump critical of two Fox News television anchors.
Were @FoxNews weekend anchors, @ArthelNeville and @LelandVittert, trained by CNN prior to their ratings collapse? In any event, that’s where they should be working, along with their lowest rated anchor, Shepard Smith!
The KDOT Twitter account called the president a president a “delusional communist” and added “You know it’s communist countries that try to control media, right?”
Julie Lorenz, acting KDOT Secretary, also used twitter to confirm the employee was no longer working for KDOT.
Today an employee sent a tweet from @SCKansasKDOT. The tweet has been deleted as it does not reflect the views of KDOT or the Administration and was an unacceptable use of state communication tools. The person who sent the tweet is no longer an employee of KDOT.
