TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has joined 18 other states in adopting a law requiring motorists to use caution around garbage trucks by making driver carelessness a fineable offense.

A ticket for what is now known as “unlawful passing of a waste collection vehicle” will cost an offender $45 starting July 1, 2019. Until then, police will hand out warnings.

The Kansas law took effect this month. Motorists are required to treat stopped garbage trucks with “due caution,” meaning they must slow down when nearing the truck and give it space when passing.

Exactly what constitutes “due caution” will depend on the given circumstances and the judgment of the enforcing police officer. The same standards are in place for emergency vehicles.

“Drivers have a habit of not always paying attention, of getting distracted and running into the back of the vehicles,” said Brandon Wright, communications director for the National Waste and Recycling Association.

Garbage collection is the fifth most hazardous civilian job in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and motorists are a big reason.

Besides inattentive driving, drivers often try to zip around trucks too quickly or squeeze by them when there’s not enough room, all of which can end badly for the workers, Wright said.

“You just hate to see someone get hit beside one of those big old trucks,” said Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Mike Petersen, a Wichita Republican. “There’s not much between them and the traffic. It’s not pretty.”

His committee heard testimony from nearly a dozen waste industry employees and experts supporting the law, which convinced members of the need, he said.

Kansas traffic laws generally require drivers to adjust their speed and tactics for road conditions and weather to remain safe. The state Supreme Court ruled in 1970 that a driver must exercise “ordinary care and caution” to avoid accidents.

In the case of the new law, drivers are likely to get pulled over if they “buzz right by at their normal speed” when a garbage truck is present, said state House Transportation Committee Chairman Richard Proehl, a Parsons Republican.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – A 23-year-old Joplin man will stand trial for first-degree murder in a road rage shooting that occurred while he was speeding to a hospital to check on his mother.

The Joplin Globe reports Christopher Montz was bound over for trial Thursday after a preliminary hearing into the death of 27-year-old David Reynolds, of Carthage.

Reynolds was shot in the head on the shoulder of Highway 249 on June 10. Police say Reynolds punched Montz twice before Montz pulled out a gun and shot him.

Joplin police Detective Dustin Moyer testified that Montz was flashing off-road lights to alert other vehicles as he sped toward a Joplin hospital. Montz told Moyer that Reynolds refused to let him pass and the two men pulled over and began arguing.

Moyer acknowledged that police believe Montz shot Reynolds after Reynolds attacked him.

By MADELINE FOX

The fact that seemingly everyone and his wife are gunning for the Kansas political major league, the governor’s office, has opened up all four spots in state’s lesser statewide offices.

The other four statewide elected offices in Kansas — attorney general, insurance commissioner, treasurer and secretary of state — are up for grabs. Only one incumbent who’s previously been elected to his current office is running this time around.

All four offices also have both Republican and Democratic candidates, not always a given in Republican-leaning Kansas.

The secretary of state and insurance commissioner, both without incumbents as those offices’ current occupants vie for the highest office, have contested Republican primaries. Sitting attorney general Derek Schmidt doesn’t have a challenge until the general election, while state Treasurer Jake LaTurner is angling to win the office outright after being appointed by then-Gov. Sam Brownback last year.

On Tuesday, the primary offers the first real test of campaign season.

Secretary of State

The secretary of state is Kansas’ top election official. The office runs elections and voter registration and helps regulate lobbying and campaign finance.

In 2015, Kobach won added power, making Kansas the only state where a secretary of state can take legal action against fraudulent voters. The secretary also oversees a range of business entities and operations, from registering trademarks to regulating funeral homes.

With Kobach moving on, five Republicans are running against each other to face the lone Democrat in the race. This story from Celia Llopis-Jepsen outlines the GOP candidates — Scott Schwab, Dennis Taylor, Keith Esau, Craig McCullah and Randy Duncan — and their experience. Former tech executive Brian McClendon, who put Kansas at the center of Google Earth, is the Democrat.

The office hasn’t gone to a Democrat since 1949. Left-leaning Kansans are hoping a combination of the outgoing Kobach’s unpopularity with some voters and energy behind Democratic campaigns nationally and locally might help McClendon break that streak.

McClendon comes with a lot of financial firepower. He contributed a little more than a quarter of the $509,000 his campaign has raised so far, and was able to draw on wealthy donors from Silicon Valley to help fill out the rest.

Insurance commissioner

Kansas’ chief insurance officer regulates and reviews insurance companies in the state, licenses insurance agents, and helps consumers navigate the insurance marketplace. The insurance commissioner’s ability to go after insurance companies who violate Kansas laws about what they can cover helped thrust it to “the top of (Kansans for Life’s) cards,” said Mary Kay Culp, the anti-abortion group’s executive director.

Current assistant insurance commissioner Clark Shultz, who lost the top job to Ken Selzer in 2014, is trying again. His campaign website says he’s a “Kansas conservative to his roots.” Culp said her organization appreciated Shultz going after insurance companies that paid for abortion-related services. Private insurers are not permitted to cover abortions under their comprehensive health plans in Kansas unless the mother’s life is in danger. Shultz, in a campaign radio ad, played up his anti-abortion bona fides.

What has been perhaps the biggest factor putting the insurance commissioner’s race in Kansans for Life’s crosshairs, though, is Shultz’s opponent. Vicki Schmidt is a moderate Republican senator from Topeka who chairs several Senate committees, including Public Health and Welfare and the Child Welfare System Task Force.

One of her votes as a senator particularly rubbed Culp and Kansans for Life the wrong way — in 2015, Schmidt was the only Republican senator to vote against a bill banning dilation and evacuation abortions, the most common procedure for second trimester abortions.

Schmidt is touting her 40 years of health care experience as a practicing pharmacist, as well as her legislative work to expand Medicaid, in TV ads.

Both Schmidt and Shultz have emphasized the importance of bringing more insurance companies to Kansas, to give consumers more options and make prices more competitive. When Selzer was sworn in in 2015, he also said he wanted to attract more insurers to the state.

In recent years, the office of the insurance commissioner has been a springboard to higher office. Kathleen Sebelius served two terms as insurance commissioner before taking over as governor in 2003.

Attorney general

Current attorney general Derek Schmidt is the lone Republican candidate to be Kansas’ top lawyer, after performance artist Vermin Supreme’s candidacy was quashed by the State Elections Board.

Schmidt was elected attorney general in 2010. His two terms have been dominated by the Kansas Supreme Court case over whether the state is adequately and equitably funding its schools. The attorney general is responsible for arguing on behalf of whatever school funding formula the Legislature passes.

Schmidt has called for putting a constitutional amendment to keep the courts out of school funding to a public vote.

His Democratic challenger is Lawrence attorney Sarah Swain, though she lost her party’s support over a poster in her law office depicting Wonder Woman with a lasso around a police officer’s neck. Swain told KSHB-TV that the poster shows a superhero “using the lasso to force the truth from the mouth of a police officer, a metaphor for the rigors of cross-examination.” She said it was misconstrued by the Kansas State Trooper Association and others who called for her to withdraw from the race.

The attorney general’s office oversees the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, handles compensation for crime victims, facilitates the Child Death Review Board, and otherwise investigates and litigates on behalf of the state.

Treasurer

Jake LaTurner took over as treasurer last year after Rep. Ron Estes (not to be confused with Ron M. Estes) was elected to fill Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s fourth district seat.

Both LaTurner and his Democratic opponent, Marci Francisco, get to skip the primaries, as both are running unopposed to represent their respective parties.

Before Brownback tapped LaTurner for treasurer, the former aide to retiring U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins was considered a frontrunner to replace her. Without him, though, the 2nd District isn’t wanting for Republican candidates — seven Republicans are lining up to face Democrat Paul Davis in the general election.

As a state senator from southeast Kansas, LaTurner was an outspoken advocate for improvements to U.S. Highway 69, which connects southeast Kansas to Kansas City.

The Kansas Department of Transportation was scheduled to expand the 20-mile stretch of U.S. 69 between Pittsburg and Fort Scott to four lanes with a median in 2016, but it was one of many projects delayed later that year as highway funds were used to balance the budget. After Turner’s objections, including an open letter to Brownback, a portion of the expansion was restored.

As he gears up for his first statewide election, LaTurner is highlighting his increased social media outreach as treasurer, and his efforts to connect the more than $6.9 million in unclaimed property in the treasurer’s office with the Kansans it belongs to.

Francisco, too, would come to the treasurer’s office from the state senate. She’s served in the Legislature since 2005, representing a district that covers part of Lawrence and points north. She’s also a former mayor of Lawrence.

Francisco had planned to run for secretary of state, forming a campaign committee in mid-December before switching to the treasurer’s race in May at the request of the Kansas Democratic party.

Francisco has also highlighted the importance of the unclaimed property program, and suggested that the office add an option for Kansans to donate their unclaimed property to charity. 

The Kansas state treasurer is custodian of Kansas’ cash, handles municipal bonds, and otherwise helps the state operate by handling its banking, investing, and cash management.

Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox.

PHELPS COUNTY— One person died in an accident just before 4:30p.m. Saturday in Phelps County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported 71-year-old Leon Saxton, Jr. of Newburg lost control of a 2018 Harley Davidson motorcycle as he accelerated rapidly from a standing start in the 2400 Block of Highway P five miles west of Jerome.

The motorcycle traveled down an embankment and struck a tree.  Saxton was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Teague Funeral Home.

DOUGLAS COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating Friday’s fatal water rescue incident on the Kansas River in Lawrence and have made an arrest.

On Saturday, officers arrested 26-year-old Scharron Renea Dingledine of Columbia, Missouri on one count of First Degree Murder and one count of Attempted First Degree Murder, according to Captain Trent McKinley.

The charges stem from the death of Dingledine’s five year old daughter and critical injuries to her one year old son, who remains hospitalized.

Ms. Dingledine is currently being held at the Douglas County Jail without bond.

Anyone with information on this crime is asked to contact the Lawrence Police Department by calling 785-832-7509.

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DOUGLAS COUNTY —On Saturday morning, members of the Douglas County Search and Recovery Dive Team recovered the body of a five year old child that was believed to be the third passenger in the vehicle that entered the river Friday, according to Officer Drew Fennely.

No one else is believed to have been in the vehicle, and the recovery operation in the river was completed.

On Saturday morning, authorities were unable to provide an update on the condition of the one-year-old or the adult female pulled from the river Friday. The investigation into this incident is ongoing, according to Fennely.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A Kansas City-area man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for a crash last year that killed his two young sons.

42-year-old Brian Keith Moyer was sentenced Thursday. He also received four years for leaving the scene of a crash. The sentences are to be served at the same time.

Prosecutors say Moyer was driving up to 100 mph on a Kansas City street when the vehicle crashed, killing 10-year-old Brian Moyer Jr. and 6-year-old Dustin Moyer, who were not wearing seat belts.

Police say Moyer had been fleeing the scene of an earlier crash. Police say Moyer’s license was suspended at the time and that he had a prior conviction for driving while intoxicated.