SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities continue their investigation surround the murder of a Saline County woman.

On June 25, 2016, 57-year-old Lori Heimer was found deceased in her home in rural Saline County.

According to a media release from the KBI, investigators from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Saline County Sheriff’s Office have followed hundreds of leads in an effort to hold Heimer’s attacker accountable. On the anniversary of her murder, the investigation is active and ongoing, but the case remains unsolved.

At the time of her death, Heimer operated Lori’s Poodle Patch, a dog breeding business, from her home in Assaria, Kan. Authorities continue to seek information from anyone who had contact with Heimer through this dog business, in the month of June 2016.

Anyone with information about the death of Lori Heimer is urged to contact 1-800-KS-CRIME. Callers may remain anonymous.

MANHATTAN — A new risk assessment model for the transmission of Ebola accurately predicted its spread into the Republic of Uganda, according to the Kansas State University researchers who developed it.

According to a media release from KSU, Caterina Scoglio, professor, and Mahbubul Riad, doctoral student, both in the Mike Wiegers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering at Kansas State University; Musa Sekamatte and Issa Makumbi at Uganda Ministry of Health; and Felix Ocom with the World Health Organization in Uganda, published “Risk assessment of Ebola virus disease spreading in Uganda using a multilayer temporal network” in bioRxiv on May 23.

The paper describes a new model to better predict how diseases like Ebola spread. The model combines data of people’s constant contacts — such as family members and co-workers — with their temporary contacts — such as people in a market or encountered during travel. According to Scoglio, the model should be used as a risk assessment tool to prepare and distribute resources, but it also has been accurate thus far regarding the movement of Ebola from the Democratic Republic of Congo into Uganda.

“This is very a new type of model,” Scoglio said. “Since we consider movement data in addition to constant contacts, we saw that not only are the districts directly bordering Congo at risk but that the districts on the path to some important Ugandan destinations also are at risk.”

In 2018, Scoglio and her collaborators worked with Ugandan officials to collect movement data to model disease progression and find areas most at risk. According to the model, the Kasese district was the highest risk area for an infected person to enter the country. The researchers used the model to create a 150-day simulation of possible disease progression in Uganda and produced a map of 23 Ugandan districts at risk.

The specific scenario used in the simulation is similar to actual events so far. According to the Uganda Health Ministry’s June 18 release, there are three confirmed cases of Ebola in travelers to Uganda — all from one family that entered the country at the Kasese district border.

“The risk assessment maps can be used to allocate and distribute limited resources,” Scoglio said. “Uganda has about 4,000 doses of the new Ebola vaccine. They are vaccinating health workers, communicating about how to prevent spreading diseases, and advising people to limit travel in high-risk areas. We have much respect and admiration for how Uganda has organized the preparedness and now the response.”

The researchers used the simulation of Ebola in Uganda to test their model because there is a lot of traffic coming into the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo for health care, trading and refuge. Ebola is highly contagious through physical contact with an infected person and their bodily fluids.

Scoglio said that even though the real events in Uganda have aligned with the simulated model, the scenario should only be used to mitigate the risk.

“One very important point for the public to understand is the concept of risk and probability with these maps,” Scoglio said. “It should not be interpreted that these red regions will be affected because that will cause panic in the population, but rather these are a guide for allocation of limited resources in regions that could be potentially affected if no mitigations are implemented.”

This model may open a new era in infectious disease management, Scoglio said. She gives credit to Aram Vajdi, doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering at Kansas State University, for developing the framework for the theoretical model based on a multilayer temporal network and the Gillespie algorithm. Scoglio also praised Riad, who applied the data collected from Uganda and how Ebola was transmitted to create the risk assessment.

According to Scoglio, network models used for highly infectious disease risk assessment must be able to anticipate changes in human-to-human contacts — unlike many other models, which are based mainly on constant contacts and constant movement flows. Using these models can help increase the effectiveness of preventive measures by targeting the most critical regions and can help decrease the risk of Ebola and other infectious diseases from spreading.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former state legislative aide has been sentenced to five years in prison for soliciting sex from someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

Twenty-five-year-old Carter Clinton Ballman was sentenced Friday for attempted receipt of child pornography. He will serve five years on federal supervision after his release.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports Ballmann was arrested as part of a Boone County child predator sting. He responded to a cell phone message posted by an undercover investigator posing as a teenager.

Investigators also uncovered various Columbia Middle School hours and honor rolls during the time Ballman was communicating with the decoy.

He was arrested April 17 at the Missouri Capitol.

Ballman was a legislative assistant to Rep. Mark Matthiesen, a Republican from Maryland Heights. Ballmann was fired shortly after his arrest.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A clerk at a suburban Kansas City phone store will not be charged in the fatal shooting of a man identified as Deshawn Brim who police say was trying to rob the store.

The Johnson County District Attorney’s office announced Monday that the June 10 shooting at a Boost Mobile store in Overland Park was self-defense.

Police say Brim, of Raytown, Missouri, was armed with a handgun when he tried to rob the store.

The store clerk pulled out a handgun and shot Brim as he jumped over the counter toward the employee.

Prosecutors say the employee feared for his life and the life of a co-worker when he shot Brim.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Two Dallas men who helped steal 654 firearms in Springfield, Missouri, have been sentenced to federal prison.

Federal prosecutors say 36-year-old Raynord Hunt was sentenced Friday to eight years and four months in prison without parole. And 29-year-old Keith Lowe was sentenced to six years without parole. Both men were charged with aiding and abetting.

They were among six men charged with stealing handguns and shotguns from United Parcel Service trailers in October 2017. The weapons were being shipped from Beretta Firearms in Maryland to Bass Pro Shops in Springfield.

Four other Texas men were sentenced in late May for their roles in the theft.

The men also must pay more than $206,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors said in May that only 73 of the guns have been recovered.

JACKSON COUNTY —One person died in an accident just before 9:30p.m. Monday in Jackson County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Cadillac driven by Desiree C. Smith, 37, Blue Springs was westbound in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 just west of Adams Dairy Parkway.

The Cadillac struck a 2003 Ford passenger vehicle driven by Heather R. Blackman, 44, Blue Springs, head-on.

Blackman was pronounced dead at the scene. Jackson County EMS transported Smith and a passenger in the Ford Chloe D. Atkinson, 18, Blue Springs, to Centerpoint Medical Center. The occupants of the Ford were properly restrained at the time of the crash, according to the MSHP.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on a dispute between the Missouri state health department and a St. Louis clinic over the clinic’s license to perform abortions (all times local):

2:10 p.m.

A St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic is taking a battle over its abortion license to a state panel.

Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Colleen McNicholas in a Monday statement said the St. Louis clinic will continue its fight through the Administrative Hearing Commission.

A St. Louis judge on Monday had ruled that the clinic had not yet exhausted its options outside of court.

McNicholas says abortion access in Missouri will be gone if the commission doesn’t act by Friday.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s spokesman Steele Shippy says the judge’s ruling affirms the state’s contention that the licensing dispute should be heard by the state commission.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge on Monday ruled that the state’s lone abortion clinic can continue performing abortions through Friday but kicked the clinic’s lawsuit out of court.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer extended a preliminary injunction he previously issued in order to give a Planned Parenthood affiliate in St. Louis time to take a licensing fight before an administrative panel.

Stelzer ruled the clinic has not yet exhausted its options outside of court to handle the dispute over its license to perform abortions. The state health department on Friday declined to renew the clinic’s abortion license.

The judge directed Planned Parenthood to take the issue up with the Administrative Hearing Commission, a panel that typically handles disputes between state agencies and businesses or individuals.

Requests for comment Monday to Planned Parenthood were not immediately returned.

The fate of the clinic has drawn national attention because Missouri would become the first state since 1974, the year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide, without a functioning abortion clinic if it closes. The battle also comes as abortion rights supporters raise concerns that conservative-led states are attempting to end abortion through tough new laws and tighter regulation.

The state has said concerns about the clinic arose from inspections in March. Among the problems Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services investigators have cited were three “failed abortions” requiring additional surgeries and another that led to life-threatening complications for the mother, The Associated Press reported last week, citing a now-sealed court filing.

Planned Parenthood has said Missouri is using the licensing process as a weapon aimed at halting abortions.

Missouri is among several conservative states, emboldened by new conservative justices on the Supreme Court, to pass new restrictions on abortions in the hope that the high court will eventually overturn Roe v. Wade.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation on May 24 to ban abortions at or beyond eight weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest.

The number of abortions performed in Missouri has declined every year for the past decade, reaching a low of 2,910 last year. Of those, an estimated 1,210 occurred at eight weeks or less of pregnancy, according to health department data.

More Missouri women are getting abortions in Kansas than in Missouri. Information from the state of Kansas shows that about 3,300 of the 7,000 abortions performed there last year involved Missouri residents.

Kansas has an abortion clinic in Overland Park, a Kansas City suburb just 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the state line.

The nearest clinic to St. Louis is in Granite City, Illinois, less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. Illinois does not track the home states of women seeking abortions so it’s unknown how many Missouri residents have been treated there.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will allow transgender residents to change their birth certificates so that the documents reflect their gender identities under a legal settlement ending a federal lawsuit.

LGBTQ-right advocates said Monday that Kansas now will have a policy on birth certificates in line with most other states’ policies.

It’s time for KS to move past its discriminatory anti-transgender policy. This decision acknowledges that transgender Kansans have the same rights as anyone else, including the right to easily obtain a birth certificate that reflects who they are. #ksleg https://t.co/VHe1AAZjHL

— Governor Laura Kelly (@GovLauraKelly) June 24, 2019

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree signed an order Friday to make the agreement binding on Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials. The department issues birth certificates.

Four transgender Kansas residents and the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project sued last year over the health department’s policy of not allowing transgender residents to change the sex listed on their birth certificates after changing their names legally.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly applauded the agreement and called the old policy “outdated.” She took office in January.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A man who authorities say had a violent criminal history in North Carolina is charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the shooting death of a Missouri police officer.

Officer Michael Langsdorf of the North County Police Cooperative was killed Sunday afternoon in the St. Louis suburb of Wellston after responding to a call about someone trying to pass a bad check at a small market. Langsdorf was a 40-year-old father of two.

Authorities on Monday announced that 26-year-old Bonette Kymbrelle Meeks has been charged in the officer’s death. Meeks is jailed without bond.

ST. LOUIS  —  Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal  shooting that killed a Missouri police officer at a food market near St. Louis.

Officer Michael Langsdorf responded to a call Sunday afternoon about a bad check at a food market in Wellston, according to a media release from the North County Police Cooperative.

Just after arriving, the person attempting to cash the check shot Langsdorf. He was later pronounced dead. The suspect is in custody and a  firearm was recovered.

Langsdorf, 40, had been employed by the North County Police Cooperative since April 2019, according to the release.  He had 17 years of prior police experience with the St. Louis Police Department.

Langsdorf leaves behind two children, a fiancé, parents and an enormous amount of friends and family.

The North County Police Cooperative serves seven communities in the northern St. Louis county.