MONTGOMERY COUNTY — An 88-year-old Kansas man is recovering after a dramatic water rescue.

On Wednesday, Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the intersection of County Road 6600 and 4500 Road where a family reported 88-year-old Robert Harriman was last seen at that location at approximately 10a.m., according to Sheriff Robert Dierks.

Heavy rainfall over the past week left the area flooded by the Verdigris River.

Deputies and the family began a search and located Harriman’s vehicle one half mile from the road. Deputies contacted Neodesha Fire crews and a warden from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to do a water rescue.

They used a drone to help see the vehicle and determined Harriman was trapped in the vehicle.

Neodesha Fire crews, Game Warden Uhrmacher and an off-duty trooper used a patrol boat to reach the vehicle that had been swept 2000 feet off the flooded road and remove Harriman.

Independence EMS treated him at the scene and transported him to a local hospital.  The sheriff had no update on his condition Thursday.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A tornado tore apart buildings in Missouri’s capital city as part of an outbreak of severe weather across the state overnight that left at least three people dead and dozens injured.

Last night’s tornado activity and the increased flooding has been devastating our state.

This morning we took an aerial tour of Jefferson City to see the damage firsthand and learn what support our emergency personal need. Help the recovery – STAY CLEAR of debris. pic.twitter.com/zIXSlCnufb

— Governor Mike Parson (@GovParsonMO) May 23, 2019

The National Weather Service confirmed that the large and destructive twister moved over Jefferson City shortly before midnight on Wednesday.

“Across the state, Missouri’s first responders once again responded quickly and with strong coordination as much of the state dealt with extremely dangerous conditions that left people injured, trapped in homes, and tragically led to the death of three people,” Gov. Mike Parson said.

Jefferson City’s damage spanned about a 3-mile area, said police Lt. David Williams. Emergency workers rescued about 20 people, he said, and hospitals reported treating 19 victims for injuries such as cuts and bruises.

There were no immediate reports of any deaths or missing people in the capital city of about 40,000, but authorities began going door-to-door in the morning.

The three deaths happened more than 150 miles away near Golden City in Missouri’s southwestern corner.

Kenneth Harris, 86, and his 83-year-old wife, Opal, were found dead about 200 yards from their home, and Betty Berg, 56, was killed and her husband, Mark, seriously injured when their mobile home was destroyed, authorities said.

The storm also ripped a roof off a fertilizer plant in the area, prompting a precautionary evacuation within a 1-mile radius because of a possible chemical leak.

The severe weather moved in from Oklahoma, where rescuers struggled to pull people from high water. This week has seen several days of twisters and torrential rains in the Southern Plains and Midwest.

Kerry Ann Demetrius locked herself in the bathroom of her Jefferson City apartment as the storm approached.

“We heard a loud bang. It sounded like stuff was being thrown around, everything was just banging together, and then it just went dead silent,” she said. She emerged to find that the roof had been blown off her apartment building.

Austin Thomson, 25, was in the laundry room of his complex of two-story apartment buildings in Jefferson City when he saw sheets of rain coming down and a flagpole bend and slam to the ground in the wind. The windows broke, and he dove behind the washers and dryers.

After the storm had passed, he went outside to see the damage: “There’s basically one building that’s basically one story now.”

At the Cole County Sheriff’s office in Jefferson City, insulation, shingles and metal pieces lay on the ground outside the front doors.

The weather service had received 22 reports of tornadoes by late Wednesday, though some may have been duplicate sightings of the same twister.

A tornado also skipped through the town of Eldon, population 4,900, about 30 miles outside Jefferson City, where it damaged the business district and “tore up several neighborhoods,” Miller County Emergency Management Director Mike Rayhart said.

He said several people were injured seriously enough to be sent to the hospital, but he did not have specifics.

A twister also caused damage and several injuries in the town of Carl Junction, not far from Joplin, on the eighth anniversary of the catastrophic tornado that killed 161 people in that city.

The severe weather was expected to push eastward Thursday, with forecasters saying parts of the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic — including Baltimore and Pittsburgh — could see tornadoes, large hail and strong winds.

Storms and torrential rains have ravaged the Midwest, from Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, in the past few days.

Two barges broke loose and floated down the swollen Arkansas River in Oklahoma, spreading alarm downstream as they threatened to hit a dam. On Facebook, Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, warned the town’s 600 residents: “If the dam breaks, it will be catastrophic!! Leave now!!”

Authorities located the barges Thursday morning, still lashed together and stuck on rocks in the swollen river. Still, the Interstate 40 bridge and another span were closed as a precaution.

Missouri’s three tornado fatalities bring to seven the number of deaths from storms this week.

JOPLIN, Mo (AP) — The Latest on storm damage in the Southern Plains and Midwest (all times local):

Tornadoes touched down near Joplin, Missouri, on the eighth anniversary of a massive twister that devastated the city and killed 161 people there.

Jasper County Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer said a tornado started Wednesday night southwest of the small town of Carl Junction and moved northeast through the towns of Oronogo and Golden City. Carl Junction is about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) north of Joplin.

Stammer said authorities were conducting a house-to-house search in Carl Junction to determine whether anyone was hurt but no injuries were reported. He said roofs of homes were damaged, along with fences, farm buildings and utility poles.

Stammer said officials won’t know the true extent of the damage until the morning.

The Joplin Globe also reported that the National Weather Services confirmed a tornado in Galena, southwest of Springfield, near Branson.

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MANHATTAN — Thomas Lane, a highly experienced student affairs administrator, will become Kansas State University’s new vice president for student life and dean of students.

Kansas State University President Richard Myers announced the appointment of Lane, who currently serves as associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Missouri State University. His appointment follows a national search to replace Pat Bosco, who is retiring after nearly 50 years of service in student life administration at the university.

Lane will join Kansas State University on July 14 and brings more than25 years of experience in student life administration to his new job.

“We are excited to have found someone of Dr. Lane’s caliber for this vital position at K-State,” Myers said. “His broad experience in student life administration will serve him well as the top advocate for Kansas State University students while he plays a key role in ensuring and enriching their development and success.”

Lane will provide executive-level leadership, strategic planning, oversight and coordination of all units in the Division of Student Life, which include the Office of Student Life, Housing and Dining Services, Recreational Services, K-State Student Union, Career Center, Lafene Health Center, Counseling Services, Academic Achievement Center and many other key services and programs essential to student success. He also will provide leadership for the development and implementation of high-quality and student-centered approaches to support student success in nonacademic dimensions of student university experiences, and he will respond to student crises and issues and concerns, among many other duties.

“I am truly humbled and excited to be joining the K-State family,” Lane said. “During my time on campus, it was clear to me the university is deeply committed to students’ personal and academic success. I am greatly looking forward to working with students, faculty, staff, administration and alumni in ensuring a Wildcat student experience that is welcoming, inclusive and changes lives for the better.”

Lane has been in his current position at Missouri State University since June 2015. He joined the university in 2005, serving as assistant dean of students and director of the student union. He was promoted to assistant to the vice president for student affairs in 2008 and became the assistant vice president for student affairs in 2011, serving until his appointment as associate vice president for student affairs. Before joining Missouri State, Lane served as associate director of the student union and activities at Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he initially was assistant director of operations. He also has been a coordinator with Visitor and Information Services at Illinois State University.

Lane earned a bachelor’s degree in communications in 1991 and a master’s degree in educational administration in 1995, both from Illinois State University. He earned a doctorate in educational leadership and analysis in 2010 from the University of Missouri, where he serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the educational leadership cooperative doctoral program.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fourteen public safety officers were awarded the Medal of Valor by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, including eight who responded to a shooting at a southern California polling place.

“Every officer, firefighter and first responder who receives this award embodies the highest ideals of service and sacrifice, character and courage,” Trump said during a White House ceremony.

Watch LIVE: President Trump Presents the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor https://t.co/tPqXH9Bgcp

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 22, 2019

The medal is the nation’s highest honor for bravery by a public safety officer.

Eight men from the Azusa, California, police department were honored for placing themselves in danger and saving the lives of civilians and fellow officers during the shooting on Election Day 2016. The recipients were: Retired Lt. Xavier Torres; Sgt. Seth Chapman; retired Sgt. Terry Smith Jr.; Sgt. Thomas Avila III; Sgt. Rocky Wenrick; Cpl. Andrew Rodriguez Sr.; senior officer Carlos Plascencia; and detective Manuel Campos.

When they arrived at the polling place, a person was shooting from a house across the street from a park. An elderly woman had been killed and a man lay wounded on a sidewalk. Two vehicles had collided and a woman in one of the cars was critically injured. The shooter was eventually killed and the officers were credited for preventing other deaths and injuries.

The other recipients were:

—Fire Capt. Dustin Moore and firefighter and paramedic Andrew Freisner of the fire department in Lenexa, Kansas, risked their lives to rescue a family from inside a burning apartment building on April 24, 2017. They climbed a ladder to the second floor, went inside and rescued an unconscious adult, two young children and the family dog.

—Ohio State University police officer Alan Horujko, who risked his life on Nov. 28, 2016, to save the lives of civilians. A driver had driven down a sidewalk and struck several pedestrians, and then got out of his car and began attacking people with a knife. Horujko killed the attacker after trying unsuccessfully to get him to disarm. Thirteen people were attacked and 11 were hospitalized, one in critical condition.

—Nicholas Cederberg, senior trooper with the Oregon State Police, who suffered life-threatening injuries while helping apprehend a man wanted for shooting his estranged wife eight times. The attacker rammed the patrol car and shot Cederberg in the right hip. As he lay on the ground, Cederberg was shot 12 more times. Five bullets were stopped by his armored vest, but seven penetrated his body. Cederberg underwent surgeries to repair a collapsed lung and two broken arms.

Two awards also were given to the families of fallen officers:

—Sgt. Verdell Smith Sr. of the Memphis, Tennessee, police department was clearing an intersection of pedestrians on June 4, 2016, when he was struck by a vehicle driven by a suspect in a triple shooting.

—Officer Brent Thompson of the Dallas, Texas, Area Rapid Transit Police Department was killed on July 7, 2016, during a shootout with a man who had just killed three Dallas police officers and wounded three others with an assault rifle. Thompson’s actions created a distraction that allowed others to aid the wounded and gave cover to officers so they could force the attacker inside a building where he was killed by the Dallas Police SWAT team

TOPEKA —The National Weather Service survey crews have completed their work reviewing tornadoes from Tuesday.

The first tornado reported occurred at 4:32p.m. in Dickinson County and was rated and EF1, according to the National Weather Service.  The tornado produced peak winds of 105 miles per hour and traveled over 7 miles.

The second intermittent tornado in Dickinson and Geary Counties that passed northwest of Junction City has been rated EF0. It was estimated 150 yards wide and traveled approximately 17 miles, according to the National Weather Service.

Just after 7p.m., an EF1 tornado was reported southwest of Oneida in Nemaha County. It traveled approximately 3 miles, according to the National Weather Service.

An EF3 tornado also was reported in Nemaha County at 7:20p.m. It had maximum winds of 140 miles per hour and traveled almost 6 miles.

The National Weather Service also reported an EF2 tornado in Jackson County just after 6:30p.m. Tuesday along with an EF0 tornado north of Topeka that is responsible for tree and power line damage.

By DAN MARGOLIES

A day after Kansas notified Planned Parenthood in May 2016 that it would cut off its participation in Medicaid, the nonprofit group sued to block the move.

So Kansas hired three high-powered East Coast law firms to defend it in a case that would slog on for nearly three years before Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration agreed to drop the termination effort in April.

The state’s legal defense cost taxpayers at least $899,000, according to records obtained by KCUR through the Kansas Open Records Act.

One of the law firms retained by Kansas — Washington, D.C.,-based Consovoy McCarthy Park — represents President Donald Trump in a lawsuit seeking to block his accounting firm from complying with a congressional subpoena of Trump’s financial records. (A federal judge on Monday ruled that the accounting firm must comply with the subpoena.)

A boutique firm boasting several former U.S. Supreme Court law clerks, Consovoy McCarthy billed more than $396,000 for its work on the Medicaid termination case from August 2016 through August 2018, invoices from the firm show.

One of the biggest law firms in the world, Norton Rose Fulbright, billed Kansas more than $471,000 for work it performed during the same two-year span.

And a third firm specializing in litigation, Cooper & Kirk, billed nearly $31,000 for a month’s worth of work in June 2016. (The firm had initially billed $61,910, but a note on the invoice states it was “renegotiated per Governor’s office 12/22/16.”)

The law firms commanded billing rates ranging from $492 per hour to $750 an hour. Those compare with average billing rates for Kansas law firms of $244 an hour, according to a 2017 survey by the Kansas Bar Association.

Law firm invoices typically provide detailed descriptions of the services they rendered. However, those portions of the invoices were blacked out in the copies obtained by KCUR. So it’s unclear what work the firms performed for the money.

Katelyn Radloff, an attorney with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the defendant in the case, told KCUR in an email that the redacted portions fell under the attorney-client privilege exception to the Kansas Open Records Act.

Ordinarily, the state attorney general’s office defends Kansas in suits brought against it or its agencies. But occasionally — and especially in matters involving complex litigation — the state hires outside counsel to represent it.

A spokesman for Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt did not respond to questions about why the state chose to hire outside counsel in this case rather than have the attorney general’s office defend the case.

Ashley All, a spokeswoman for Kelly, made clear in an email that the newly elected governor regarded the case as a waste.

“Multiple courts ruled against the previous administration’s effort to remove Planned Parenthood as a KanCare provider,” All said. “To continue with this costly litigation would be unwise and out of step with the priorities of Kansas. Governor Kelly is focused on expanding healthcare options to women, not limiting them.”

It’s not clear how many patients would have been affected, or how much money Planned Parenthood would have lost, had Kanas succeeded in its effort to cut off its Medicaid funding. But a similar — and so far successful — effort by the state of Missouri has affected several thousand Planned Parenthood patients.

Video release

Kansas was originally represented in the case by Stephen R. McAllister, a former University of Kansas Law School dean who served as Kansas solicitor general for more than a decade before becoming U.S. Attorney for Kansas in 2018.

McAllister, however, withdrew from the case without explanation less than two weeks after the suit was filed by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri (now Planned Parenthood Great Plains) and Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, which had a handful of patients in Kansas.

Kansas was one of several Republican-controlled states that tried to defund Planned Parenthood after a video released in late 2015 by an anti-abortion group purported to show the organization sold fetal tissue for profit. Subsequent investigations discredited the highly edited video, which, in any case, concerned only the national Planned Parenthood organization, not its Kansas affiliate.

But in his State of the State address in January 2016, Brownback accused Planned Parenthood of trafficking in “baby body parts” and vowed to defund Planned Parenthood. The state made good on his threat on May 3, 2016, when the Kansas Department of Health and Environment notified Planned Parenthood that it was terminating its  Medicaid contract.

Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region sued the next day. At every stage of the case, the state lost.

In July 2016, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson granted Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction, ruling that the move likely violated federal law.

After Kansas appealed, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February 2018 ruled that states may not cut off health care providers from Medicaid “for any reason they see fit, especially when that reason is unrelated to the provider’s competence and the quality of the healthcare it provides.”

Kansas then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case, but the court in December declined, turning away both the Kansas case and a similar case appealed by Louisiana.

The high court’s decision to stay out of the issue let stand decisions by five federal appeals courts that have ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood and one federal appeals court that has ruled against it.

While Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates health centers in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, never lost its Kansas Medicaid funding, the story is different in Missouri.

A year ago, that state suspended Medicaid reimbursement payments to the organization’s affiliates in Missouri, saying the suspension was required by a provision in the 2018 state budget cutting off funds for abortion providers and counselors.

The move affected about 7,000 Medicaid patients who relied on Planned Parenthood’s 11 Missouri clinics for health services, including cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted infections and birth control.

Although federal law already barred the use of Medicaid funds for abortions, Missouri cut off funding for all of Planned Parenthood’s services.

Kate Maxcy, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said that while the affiliates technically remained in the Medicaid program, they haven’t been reimbursed for services for nearly a year.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies