KANSAS CITY– A Kansas City man who was arrested after an hours-long standoff with police officers was indicted by a federal grand jury for attempted distribution and possession of child pornography, according to the United State’s Attorney.

Eric C. Hacker, 36, was charged in a 10-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City this week. That indictment was unsealed and made public following his arrest.

The federal indictment alleges that Hacker attempted to distribute child pornography over the internet on eight separate occasions between March 27, 2017, and June 2, 2017. The indictment also charged Hacker with one count of receiving child pornography over the internet and one count of possessing child pornography.

Hacker was arrested on Wednesday after he fled from police officers and barricaded himself for several hours inside of a storage container he had been using as a residence.

The charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a collision with a parked dump truck has left one teen dead and another injured in Kansas City, Kansas.

Police say the teens were riding in a speeding sport utility vehicle that skidded into the city work truck Thursday. It appears that the SUV then struck a guardrail and rolled over. A team of workers who were around the corner didn’t see the crash but came running after they heard the impact.

The teen who died was ejected. A girl in the SUV was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Two other teens in the SUV weren’t hurt.

Police say the teens weren’t wearing seat belts.

CASS COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are asking the public for help to locate a suspect in connection with shots fired.

Jacob Long,  25, has active warrants for his arrest, according to a media release from the Harrisonville Police Department.

Police want to question him in connection with an incident Thursday in which shots were fired while officers were investigating a trespassing in progress.

Long is to be considered armed and dangerous. He is possibly armed with a .22 or similar caliber firearm.

He was last seen in the wooded area north of Commercial (behind the VFW). He is reportedly wearing all dark clothing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials have traced a food poisoning outbreak from romaine lettuce to at least one farm in California.

But they cautioned Thursday that other farms are likely involved in the E. coli outbreak and consumers should continue checking the label before purchasing romaine lettuce.

The Food and Drug Administration said 59 people in 15 states have now been sickened by the tainted lettuce. That’s seven more cases than previously reported, but regulators said they are fairly confident that the lettuce which first triggered the outbreak has been removed from the market. The FDA told consumers to avoid romaine lettuce just before Thanksgiving.

Officials said a water reservoir at Adam Bros. Farms in Santa Barbara County tested positive for the bacterial strain and the owners are cooperating with U.S. officials. Officials from the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not determined how the water reservoir — which is used to irrigate lettuce — became contaminated.

The bacteria can get into water and soil through multiple routes, including waste from domesticated animals or wild animals, fertilizer and other agricultural products.

The FDA’s Dr. Stephen Ostroff said investigators have linked the tainted lettuce to multiple distributors and processors, suggesting it must have come from several farms.

A man who answered the phone at Adam Bros. Farms said he could not comment on the government announcement. According to the company’s website, it only grows vegetables products, including broccoli, cauliflower, celery and various types of lettuce.

The government also narrowed the source of the outbreak to three California counties: Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Benito. That’s down from six California counties under investigation when regulators began warning the public last month.

Regulators said people should only buy lettuce with a label listing where and when it was harvested. Lettuce from outside the three California counties that was harvested after Nov. 23 should be safe to eat.

Romaine harvesting recently began shifting from California’s Central Coast to winter growing areas, primarily Arizona, Florida, Mexico and California’s Imperial Valley. Those winter regions weren’t yet shipping when the illnesses began.

E. coli, the bacteria often associated with food poisoning, usually causes sickness two to eight days later, according to health authorities. Most people with the infection get diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Some cases can be life-threatening, causing kidney failure and seizures.

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WASHINGTON —Democrat Claire McCaskill had stern words for her soon-to-be former colleagues in the Senate in a farewell speech on Thursday, saying that polarization and fear of political consequences have rendered the body ineffective and unwilling to take on difficult issues.

The two-term senator lost to Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley in her re-election bid in November. In an emotional speech from the Senate floor, McCaskill said she was proud of her 34-year public service career that included stints as Jackson County prosecutor, state representative, state auditor and senator.

She called her fellow senators “family,” but expressed concern about what the Senate has become since she first took office in 2007.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was worried about this place,” McCaskill said. “It just doesn’t work as well as it used to.”

McCaskill, 65, didn’t single out any individual senators, but she said the Senate has “too many embarrassing uncles.”

“The United States Senate is no longer the world’s greatest deliberative body,” McCaskill said. “And everybody needs to quit saying it until we recover from this period of polarization, and the fear of the political consequences of tough votes.”

She cited a litany of concerns: Legislation written behind closed doors, omnibus bills so large that senators don’t know what is in them and lobbyists learning details of tax bills before senators do.

“Something is broken and if we don’t have the strength to look in the mirror and fix it, the American people are going to grow more and more cynical and they might do something crazy like elect a reality TV star president,” McCaskill said, a reference to President Donald Trump, who was the host of TV’s “The Apprentice” prior to his election in 2106.

McCaskill was subdued in her criticism of Trump during the campaign — perhaps understandable, considering that Trump won Missouri by 19 percentage points in 2016. But her floor speech and comments earlier Thursday during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” indicate she may be far more outspoken now that she’s leaving elected office.

On the TV program, McCaskill was asked what Republican senators say about Trump behind his back.

“Nuts,” McCaskill said. “Weak. Doesn’t really understand government. Doesn’t care to understand anything complicated. Asks and says the most unbelievable things in meetings that clearly show he doesn’t understand the subject matter. No intellectual curiosity.”

In her farewell speech, she urged senators to “throw off the shackles of careful. Open the doors of debate. Reclaim the power of members and committees, and most of all, realize that looking the other way and hoping that everything will work out later is a foolish idea.”

Other senators took to the floor to honor McCaskill.

Her Missouri colleague, Republican Roy Blunt, lauded the work they were able to do together on their home state’s behalf despite their political differences.

“Our state has benefited from your service in incredible ways at all levels,” Blunt said.

Another Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said McCaskill, like one of her political heroes, fellow Missourian Harry Truman, is “feisty.”

“She was always well prepared,” Collins said. “She was always insightful. And she was always tough.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A gang member who fled to Mexico after a Topeka killing will be sentenced in February.

Fernando Diaz, 25, pleaded guilty last week to involuntary manslaughter in the death of 22-year-old Christopher Galvan. In July 2015, Galvan was found wounded in a crashed car. He died three days later.

Diaz initially was charged with second-degree murder and fled the state after a warrant for his arrest was issued. The U.S. Marshals Service announced this September that Diaz had been arrested in Mexico.

Court records say that as part of the Diaz’ plea agreement, prosecution and defense attorneys recommended that Diaz be sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison. Prosecutors also will ask that his probation be revoked in a law enforcement assault case.

WICHITA, KAN. – An EMT in Jackson County, Kan., pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing morphine from vials, according to U.S.Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Colby W. VanWagoner, 33, Mayetta, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining a controlled substance by deception and one count of making a false statement during an investigation.

The crimes took place while VanWagoner was working for the Jackson County Emergency Medical Service in Holton, Kan.

In his plea, VanWagoner admitted he tampered with vials of morphine sulfate. He replaced morphine with saline solution and put the vials back into narcotic boxes on ambulances and in office stocks. Tests showed the concentration of morphine in vials that had been tampered with was low as 1 percent or less. The concentration of morphine should have been 100 percent.

Sentencing is set for March 12.

NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities say bomb threats sent Thursday to dozens of schools, government buildings and other locations across the U.S. appear to be a hoax.

In Kansas, The Barton County Sheriff’s Office as well as the Great Bend Police Department responded to numerous bomb threats Tuesday afternoon, according to the organization’s social media page.

“As of 3 p.m. 13 bomb threats have been received in Barton County. We also believe several bomb threats have been received in Reno County. As of this time, no suspicious devices have been found. It is further believed the threats have been emailed from Russia. We do not believe there is reason for alarm at this time, we just ask that citizens be aware of their surroundings and alert for any suspicious packages.”

Law enforcement agencies across the country dismissed the threats, which they said were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and are not considered credible.

Some of the emails had the subject line: “Think Twice.” The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient’s building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin.

We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city.

These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time. pic.twitter.com/GowGG4oZ9l

— NYPDCounterterrorism (@NYPDCT) December 13, 2018

“We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city,” the New York City Police Department’s counterterrorism unit tweeted. “These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time.”

Other law enforcement agencies also dismissed the threats, which were written in a choppy style reminiscent of the Nigerian prince email scam.

The Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff’s office and the Boise, Idaho, police said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible.

The FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Across the country, some schools closed early and others were evacuated or placed on lockdown because of the hoax. Authorities said a threat emailed to a school in Troy, Missouri, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of St. Louis, was sent from Russia.

The bomb threats also prompted evacuations at city hall in Aurora, Illinois, the offices of the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, a suburban Atlanta courthouse and businesses in Detroit.

“Organizations nationwide, both public and private, have reported receiving emailed bomb threats today,” Michigan State Police spokeswoman Shannon Banner said. “They are not targeted toward any one specific sector.”

Penn State University notified students via a text alert about threats to a half-dozen buildings and an airport on its main campus in State College, Pennsylvania. In an update, the school said the threat appeared to be part of a “national hoax.”

Officials at Columbine High School in Colorado were dealing Thursday with a bomb threat of a different sort. Students were being kept inside for the rest of the school day after someone called in a bomb threat against the school.

The Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff’s Office said the caller claimed to have placed explosive devices in the school and to be hiding outside with a gun.

There is nothing to validate the threat was found at Columbine, where 12 students and a teacher were killed by two students in 1999, according to Sheriff’s spokesman Mike Taplin.

Two dozen other Colorado schools were also temporarily placed on lockout, meaning their doors were locked but classes continued normally, as the threat was investigated.