JACKSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for theft and drug charges following a high-speed chase.

Just after 9:30a.m. Saturday, a Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputy stopped a 2002 Honda Civic with Missouri plates near 150th and Q. Road in Jackson County, according to a media release.

The vehicle’s tag was reported to have been stolen from Blue Springs, Missouri and the vehicle was reported stolen out of Lee Summit, Missouri.

The deputy ordered the driver to shut off the vehicle, the driver failed to follow the order and left the scene prompting a pursuit.

Local agencies assisted with the pursuit that led across parts of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and Jackson County and into the City of Holton.

While near the south side of Holton the suspect vehicle entered the parking entrance of the Banner Creek Animal Clinic and then drove through a yard of a residence.

The vehicle then again attempted to elude law enforcement by driving through a KDOT fence gaining access once again to US Highway 75 and northbound through the City of Holton.

The vehicle then went north of Holton and east and ended up driving into the Prairie Lake city park. The vehicle went to the southeast side of the dam leaving the roadway and crashed into a small creek where the vehicle came to a stop. Law enforcement officers took the driver identified as Robert Joseph Calisti, 28, Olathe, into custody at that location at approximately 10:13a.m., according to the sheriff’s department.

Calisti is being held in the Jackson County Jail on felony possession of stolen property, felony flee and eluding and a number of traffic crimes and drug charges. Further charges on Calisti may occur including Stolen property (car & tag), Felony flee and elude, criminal damage to property, Possession of methamphetamine, Possession of Drug paraphernalia, Possession of marijuana, Reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident.  Two others in the vehicle have not been charged.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – Greene County officials say Missouri owes the county $1.76 million in overdue payments for housing state inmates.

The Springfield News-Leader reports having that state money would help Greene County balance its budget but it wouldn’t prevent the roughly $3 million in cuts officials expect to make.

Greene County Commissioner Bob Cirtin says the overdue payments for housing state inmates would be used to strengthen the county’s reserves.

The Missouri Department of Corrections estimates that the state owes more than 100 counties about $19 million total for housing state prisoners in local jails.

ALLEN COUNTY— Three people died in an accident just after 5:30p.m.Sunday in Allen County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Toyota Corolla driven by Ashley Nicole Walters, 20, Warrensburg, MO., was northbound on U.S. 169 four miles south of Iola. A deer came out of the east ditch, striking the Toyota.

A southbound 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by Sherry Laraine Bingham, 33, Chanute, then struck the deer and traveled into the southbound ditch. Vehicle one came to a stop on the northbound shoulder.

Bingham and passengers Ciara Joan Edwards, 32, Chanute, and Samantha Rnee McMillan, 37, Walnut, were pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics. Walters was not injured.   All four were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A new law that caps donations to state political candidates didn’t stop two political action committees from helping a Missouri Senate candidate win a seat in the Legislature.

Republican Mike Cierpiot, of Lee’s Summit, defeated Democrat Hillary Shields in Tuesday’s election to take the state Senate seat out of Jackson County.

The Kansas City Star reports two political action committees spent more than $400,000 in October to help Cierpiot and attack Shields. Cierpot’s campaign spent another $353,000. Shields spent only $48,000.

Last year, Missouri voters approved caps on donations to state political candidates. But the law doesn’t cap donations from groups outside the state or consultants, and critics say that has shifted influence in Missouri politics from candidates to outside groups.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas legislative task force on child welfare is meeting this week after several legislators raised concerns about how state policies are affecting families.

The Child Welfare Task Force is scheduled to meet Tuesday at the Statehouse. Its agenda includes a look at the court system’s role in protecting abused and neglected children.

The task force’s meeting comes after a joint legislative budget committee reviewed data from showing that 44,000 people have become ineligible for cash assistance under policies that include work requirements for able-bodied adults.

Meanwhile, the number of children in foster care has grown in recent years, and critics of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback are linking the two trends. The Department for Children and Families contends the social services policies help make welfare recipients self-sufficient.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A southwest Missouri jury’s inability to decide whether a man should be put to death for kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old girl sets up a rare situation where a judge will make that decision.

Circuit Judge Thomas Mountjoy is scheduled to announce Jan. 11 whether Craig Wood will get the death penalty or life in prison. Wood was convicted of killing Hailey Owens in Springfield in February 2014 but the Greene County jury couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on his sentence.

The Springfield News-Leader reports Missouri and Indiana are the only states where a judge can impose a death sentence. But in 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that only a jury, not a judge, can make that decision.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri Department of Conservation is searching for chronic wasting disease as hunters prepare for opening weekend of the November firearms deer season.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that Missouri’s deer hunting season starts Nov. 11 and runs through Nov. 21. Hunters are reminded there are mandatory procedures they need to follow if they harvest a deer on the season’s opening weekend in counties that are part of the department’s CWD Management Zone.

The department says chronic wasting disease infects deer and other members of the Cervidae family. It’s a neurological disease that can be passed from one deer to another. The disease is 100 percent fatal to cervids.

More than 76,000 deer have been tested in the state since 2002. More than 40 cases have been confirmed to date.