CASS COUNTY— One person died in an accident just before noon Sunday in Cass County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2003 BMW Motorcycle driven by Kristian P. Metz, 48, Adrian, was northbound on Interstate 49 just north of the North Cass Parkway exit.

The motorcycle attempted to overtake and pass a 2009 Dodge Ram driven by Javen E. Fogle, 15, Peculiar. The motorcycle struck the left rear of the pickup and traveled off the left side of the road.

Metz was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to the Jackson County medical examiners office.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers will get a crash course in sports gambling this week as they consider how to capitalize on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May that lifted a federal ban on it.

Seven states offer legal sports betting , and Kansas is among numerous other states considering whether to jump on the bandwagon. The surge in interest comes after New Jerseysuccessfully challenged the federal ban, clearing the way for gambling on games to expand beyond Nevada.

Democratic Gov.-elect Laura Kelly voiced support for expanding into sports betting during her campaign. Kansas already allows commercial casino gaming. The challenge is the details, said state Sen. Bud Estes, a Republican from Dodge City who is the chairman of the committee that will handle bills on the topic.

“I don’t want to skate on thin ice on something we don’t know anything about,” he said, while adding that it is “probably” going to happen in some form. He’s encouraging all lawmakers to show up Tuesday and Wednesday in Topeka for a special interim committee session on the topic.

No legislation has been drafted yet for the upcoming session, which starts Jan. 14.

Key issues include ensuring the tax rate isn’t so high that betters turn to illegal wagers and providing oversight to prevent fraud or cheating in games. Where and how bets can be cast also raises other questions. Will betting be restricted to casinos or allowed at sports bars, too? Are mobile betting apps permitted? If so, who will manage them?

“If we start passing legislation for interest groups, we could make a real mess,” Estes said. “We need to be educated. I’m not going to let my committee go out and pass a lot of legislation right out of the bag. We need to be smarter before we do it.”

During the last legislative session, Republican Rep. Jan Kessinger, of Overland Park, introduced a bill that received a hearing but failed to gain much traction. Budget officials estimated that it would have generated $75 million a year. He plans to try again next year.

“That is not waving a magic wound, boom,” he said of the revenue such a bill would generate. “It would take a while to get up to speed.”

He said the money could allow the state to address several pressing issues, including foster cases , the state pensionsystem and highways. He said some money would be set aside to help problem gamblers.

Kessinger would like to see sports betting available in social settings, such as sports bars and restaurants.

“It will generate more excitement and interest in sports, which I think will drive more traffic into these social settings,” generating jobs and more revenue from taxes of food and drink sales, he said. “There are a lot of different opportunities there.”

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – The University of Missouri System will offer voluntary buyouts for some tenured faculty starting this spring.

Provost Latha Ramchand said in an email to faculty and staff Friday that full-time and benefit-eligible tenured faculty who are 62 or older, with at least five years of service, can apply for the payouts.

The Columbia Missourian reports the lump sum will be 1.5 times an employee’s benefit-eligible salary, not exceeding $200,000.

Spokesman Christian Basi said the buyouts are an effort to provide more financial flexibility as departments plan budgets for next year.

Ninth-month faculty who take the buyout will retire Sept. 1, 2019. Twelve-month faculty will retire between July 1 and Sept. 1, 2019.

Basi says the system doesn’t have a goal for the number of faculty who take the buyout.

TOPEKA. — The Kansas Supreme Court Friday upheld Daron Ingham’s Reno County conviction on one count of possession or use of a commercial explosive.

In March of 2013, Reno County 911 received a call about an explosion at a trailer park in Nickerson.

Ingham told the arriving deputy he was responsible for some explosions and said he made firecrackers in an attempt to blow up boulders.

The components were a beer can, a fuse, green tape, and gunpowder. Ingham said he set off the explosion in a cement mixer by the front door of the trailer. Deputies found a damaged can in the mixer.

Ingham then said that he was using the fireworks to blow up rocks inside the cement mixer in order to extract gold from them. Ingham showed the deputy the back seat of his truck, which was parked in the driveway. It contained a roll of green fuse, a container of Pyrodex gunpowder and a roll of clear tape. As he was showing the deputy the container of gunpowder, Ingham unscrewed the top and poured it onto the ground. At that point, the officer arrested Ingham and placed him in handcuffs to prevent him from destroying evidence.

He raised several arguments in his appeal, asserting the state used prejudicial language in describing the explosive. Ingham says jury instructions were either insufficient or improperly directed.

Both the Kansas Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court have now upheld the conviction.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A federal grand jury returned an indictment Thursday alleging drug deals were taking place within 1,000 feet of Junction Elementary School, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Michael Pruitt, 48, who is in federal custody, was charged with two counts of distributing methamphetamine and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of the school at 2570 S. 42nd Street in Kansas City, Kan.

According to court documents, three times in November 2018 investigators working undercover bought methamphetamine from Pruitt. The transactions took place at a business at 4200 Shawnee Drive. A search of that business turned up almost two pounds of methamphetamine.

If convicted, Pruitt faces a penalty of not less than five years on the first distribution count, and not less than 10 years on each of the other counts.

and change how Americans think about food by creating a protein powder made out of crickets.

Six students formed the startup Agrotech Enterprises, which recently won the Washburn Entrepreneur Pitch Competition for their cricket protein powder business idea.

Crickets are an excellent prospect for the company because of their nutritional value, said Jonathan Barnell, a senior who directs the group’s research and development.

“They’re basically a superfood,” he said. “Per gram, when you grind down crickets into powder, you’re looking at twice the protein as beef.”

Crickets contain all essential amino acids, Barnell added. It also takes a fraction of the water and feed to produce 10 grams of protein using crickets, compared to beef.

But the startup team said their biggest challenge is changing the image of insect-based foods.

Junior student Joey Holley, who’s leading the group’s marketing, said the startup is targeting Generation Z and millennials, who may be more accepting of the idea as environmentally conscious consumers.

Holley said the group is focusing on cricket flour because it’s easier to disassociate with the idea of eating bugs if it’s baked into cookies and muffins. Flour makes it more approachable to understand that it’s a nutritional product, he said.

The group will start selling its products online first, Holley said.

“We’re getting close to the point where we’re hoping to begin producing and selling our product in the winter of next year,” said Andrew Z. Foreman, an entrepreneurship student and the group’s CEO. “It’s a rapidly emerging market in the U.S. and globally. It’s expected to quadruple in size in the next six years.”

___

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Running back Kareem Hunt acknowledged that he misled the Kansas City Chiefs about his role in a February assault in a Cleveland hotel that ultimately led to his release this week.

During a live interview with ESPN on Sunday, the NFL’s reigning rushing champion also said that league officials never spoke to him about the incident while conducting their own investigation, and that he never saw the security camera video until TMZ Sports posted it Friday.

In the course of a few hours, Hunt went from preparing for Sunday’s game in Oakland to being sent home from the practice facility. He was then placed on the NFL’s Commissioner Exemption List, summoned back to the team facility and told that he was being released .

“They believed that I lied to them. I lied to them,” Hunt said. “They pretty much said we love you, everybody cares about you, and just we have to let you go. It was a tough conversation. And the Chiefs did what was right. I made a poor decision and I’m willing to take full responsibility.”

In the grainy, graphic video, Hunt is seen getting into an argument with a woman and several men step in to hold him back. He later pushes one of the men, knocking down a woman that Hunt admitted he did not know, and eventually kicks her while she lays on the ground.

“The Chiefs are right. I didn’t tell them everything,” Hunt said. “My actions caused this and I really wish I could apologize to them and let them know there’s no hard feelings.”

The video brought immediate comparisons to the footage of former Ravens running back Ray Rice , who was seen punching out his then-fiancée in an elevator. That incident led to a lengthy legal saga, and it culminated in an investigation by Robert Mueller into the NFL’s mishandling of it.

The league eventually hired more staff to conduct such investigations, and announced it would take a more active role in handling similar cases in the future.

The NFL made multiple attempts to obtain the video of Hunt, but the hotel said corporate policy only allowed footage to be given to law enforcement. The NFL then contacted Cleveland police, but the department said Saturday it did not pursue the video because it was not a felony-level case.

When asked whether the NFL spoke directly to Hunt about it, he replied: “No, they have not.”

The NFL said in a statement Sunday that its investigation began immediately after the incident in February and that the league “continues to pursue a complete understanding of the facts.”

“The NFL’s ongoing investigation will include further attempts to speak to the complainants involved in the incident,” the statement said. “It will include a review of the new information that was made public on Friday — which was not available to the NFL previously — as well as further conversations with all parties involved in the incident.”

The statement did not say whether the league attempted to contact Hunt.

Hunt said he’d just purchased an apartment in the Cleveland hotel and had several friends over, and that he did not know the woman involved in the assault. Hunt said the argument came at the end of “a long night” and that “it was just a disagreement. I honestly wanted her just to leave.”

“That’s not an excuse,” he said. “I’m not that person in that video.”

Hunt pointed out that he was raised by his mother and grandmother, and they “they always taught me well. I know right from wrong and I’m a person that always wants to make everyone happy.”

Still, Hunt has been in trouble before. He was suspended during his junior season at Toledo for a violation of team rules, and he was accused of a second, unrelated assault over the summer.

As in the case with the hotel incident, no charges were filed in that case.

“I regret the entire thing, everything,” Hunt said. “I’m going to take the time to better myself, learn from this, get some help if needed, talk to people and really just take this really serious.”

Hunt admitted that anger “could be an issue” and that he wants to get treatment, and Rice told NFL Network on Saturday that he would offer his help and experience in moving forward.

“I would definitely try to help him figure out, ‘How can we start dealing with the underlying problems in your life?'” Rice said. “He has a long life to live, this will be a defining moment, but it shouldn’t be the moment that defines you.”

Hunt said he isn’t sure that another NFL team will give him a chance, though adding a 23-year-old standout could be worth the public backlash for a team in need of help.

After leading the NFL in rushing last season, Hunt had already run for more than 800 yards while scoring 14 touchdowns in helping the Chiefs to a 9-2 record. He also had proven to be a popular player in the locker room, often attending sporting events and other functions with his teammates.

Of course, that was before the hotel security video surfaced.

Hunt remains on the exempt list, which means a team could sign him but he would be unable to play or attend games until the league’s investigation is complete. The Redskins made a similar move — and accepted the public backlash — when they signed linebacker Reuben Foster, who had been cut by the 49ers after he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence.

Foster also remains on the exempt list and the Redskins have acknowledged he may never play for them. But by signing him, they retain his rights should he make it back to the field.

“Everything is happening fast right now and I just want everybody to forgive me,” Hunt said. “I know it’s going to be hard. I made a bad choice. … I think I deserve it because if you really know me, and everybody that I’m really close to — I’ve had really close women who are friends — I’m so respectful to everyone. I made a bad decision at that time and I just hope that people forgive me.”

___