LENEXA – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Jackson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 International Box Truck driven by Robert J. Johnson, 21, Kansas City was westbound on Kansas 10 at Interstate 435 in Lenexa.
The vehicle was exiting too fast, dropped off the shoulder and rolled.
Johnson was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center.
The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.
TERRY WALLACE, Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) — Officials at a Wichita, Kansas, hospital say five people who fell ill with listeriosis after consuming a Blue Bell ice cream product became sick while patients in their hospital. Three of the people died.
A spokeswoman for Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita says five patients became ill with listeriosis during their hospitalizations for unrelated causes between December 2013 and January 2015.
Spokeswoman Maria Loving says hospital officials were unaware that some items produced on one of the 25 production lines at Blue Bell’s Central Texas creamery had been contaminated with listeria bacteria. She said all Blue Bell Creameries products were immediately removed from all Via Christi Health facilities in Kansas and Oklahoma once the potential contamination was discovered.
———
TOPEKA, Kan.—The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has been working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to investigate an outbreak of listeriosis cases in five adult Kansas residents linked to ice cream consumed from Blue Bell Creameries. Listeriosis is a serious infection usually caused by eating food contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.
Five people in Kansas have become ill as part of this outbreak and three deaths have been reported. Patients became ill with listeriosis after hospitalizations for unrelated causes at the same hospital. They became ill between January 2014 and January 2015 after a majority were known to have consumed Blue Bell Creameries ice cream at the hospital. The hospital was not aware of the listeriosis contamination. The outbreak was recently discovered after two patients were identified with the same strain of listeriosis. Further investigation identified three other patients with listeriosis who had been hospitalized for unrelated causes before the onset of listeriosis.
Today, the FDA warned consumers about the potential contamination in Blue Bell Creameries’ products. Kansas health officials are warning consumers who have purchased the following Blue Bell Creameries novelty items and have not consumed the items to discard them:
Chocolate Chip Country Cookie
Great Divide Bar
Sour Pop Green Apple Bar
Cotton Candy Bar
Scoops
Vanilla Stick Slices
Almond Bar
No Sugar Added Mooo Bar (regular Mooo Bars are not included)
Potentially contaminated items have been pulled from retail locations by Blue Bell Creameries and are no longer available for purchase. At this time, no other products from Blue Bell Creameries have been linked to this outbreak.
The disease primarily affects older adults, pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems. Symptoms of listeriosis include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms begin from three to 70 days after consuming the bacteria. In 2014, five cases of listeriosis were reported in Kansas.
Anyone who believes they may have become ill with listeriosis should contact their health care provider.
More information about listeriosis can be found on the CDC website www.cdc.gov/listeria. More information about this outbreak can be found on the FDA website http://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm438104.htm.
ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is at odds with Google and privacy groups over the government’s push to make it easier to locate and hack into computers in criminal investigations.
Federal prosecutors say better tools are needed to track down computer users who hide their locations while committing crimes on the Internet. Civil libertarians fear that the proposal would grant the government expansive new powers to reach into computers across the country.
The proposal would change existing rules of criminal procedure that generally permit judges to approve warrants for property searches in districts where they serve. The government says those rules are outdated in an era when criminals can mask their whereabouts.
The proposal is drawing concern from civil liberties groups, who say it’s vague and overly broad.
JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press
JOSH HOFFNER, Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) — President Barack Obama says there’s still work to do to fix problems in the Veterans Affairs Department.
Obama is making his first visit to the veterans’ hospital in Phoenix. That’s where treatment delays triggered a national examination last year into health care services for veterans.
Obama says everyone knows there have been significant problems at the Phoenix facility. He says VA Secretary Robert McDonald is “chipping away” at the problems.
Obama says he joins Arizona’s senators in their concern that information isn’t getting out to veterans. He’s also pointing to mental health and suicide prevention as areas that still need work.
Obama says trust can be lost quickly. He’s promoting the need to restore trust and confidence in the VA system.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The state’s highest court has upheld the premeditated first-degree murder conviction of a man who shot his uncle 10 times and left him to die in a burning house.
But the Kansas Supreme Court also overturned the enhanced sentence of 50 years without the possibility of parole handed down by the trial judge to Mark Salary. He was convicted for the 2008 murder of Valray “Joe” Estell at his home in Kansas City, Kansas. It sent the case back to Wyandotte County District Court for resentencing.
It is the latest in a string of Kansas cases sent back for resentencing since a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court opinion. That decision requires that a jury finds beyond a reasonable doubt that aggravating circumstances exist to merit the enhanced minimum sentence.
MANHATTAN – A member of the SAE fraternity at Kansas State University says he was attacked following this week’s incident at the University of Oklahoma.
Donald Stubbings, Major-Assistant Director of the K-State Police Department said a student member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at Kansas State University made an information only report to K-State Police of an incident Tuesday morning on the Manhattan campus.
The student was allegedly kicked in the shin area and called a racist. The student was not injured and requested no further police action.
K-State released the following statement about the incident at the University of Oklahoma.
“This issue involves a single chapter of a national fraternity,” said Pat Bosco, vice president for student life and dean of students. “We should not assume that the beliefs of students at another institution are shared by members of the chapter on our campus. Our local chapter has been very committed to diversity.”
The membership of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at Kansas State University includes students of color, international students and students who are openly gay. The chapter has made a very deliberate effort to be inclusive and diverse.
“We have heard that some on our campus have approached members of the local chapter and made disparaging remarks,” said Reagan Kays, Student Governing Association president. “This is not reflective of K-State values or the way we conduct ourselves as individuals. Please do not judge our fellow students based on the actions of others.”
“K-State fraternities and sororities work to provide an inclusive and diverse community,” said Ben Hopper, director of Greek Affairs. “Unique personalities and individual characteristics lead to a strong, diverse Greek community. Members strive to be inclusive in their actions and seek to eliminate thoughts and behaviors not upholding this ideal.”
Frederick Boulevard Baptist Church – 5502 Frederick Blvd., St. Joseph, MO 64507 – (816) 233-2824 phone
Come and celebrate Easter with Frederick Boulevard Baptist Church at 8:30 a.m., or 10:15 a.m., on Sunday April 5, 2015. Community groups are at 9 a.m., and 10:15 a.m. For more information about the church, check out www.frederickboulevard.com
NICHOLAS CLAYTON, Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has narrowly passed a school funding overhaul.
The chamber voted 64-57 Friday to pass the bill that now goes to the Senate.
The bill is a key part of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s policy agenda as education spending is the biggest item on the state budget. The plan would give school districts “block grants” based on their current aid for the next two school years. Lawmakers are then expected to establish a new funding formula.
The House gave first-round approval to the bill in a tight vote Thursday. Republican lawmakers were expecting a comfortable margin for the measure but got just 64 votes to advance it.
DETROIT (AP) — Kia is recalling nearly 209,000 Soul small SUVs because the gas pedals can bend or break.
The recall covers certain Soul and Soul electric vehicles from the 2014 and 2015 model years.
If the gas pedal bends or breaks, it can be hard to accelerate the SUVs, increasing the risk of a crash.
Kia Motors America says in documents filed with the government that an unsupported section of the pedal can bend if a driver stomps on it too hard when the vehicle isn’t moving.
The problem was discovered through warranty claims. Kia says no crashes or injuries have been reported.
Dealers will add rubber supports beneath the pedal stopper at no cost to owners.
The recall is expected to start on March 24.
EUFAULA, Okla. (AP) — Authorities say one person is dead and two are injured after an EagleMed medical helicopter crashed in woods in eastern Oklahoma.
McIntosh County Emergency Management Director Wesley Dawson says the crash was reported about 11:40 p.m. Thursday. Dawson says searchers on foot and on all-terrain vehicles found the wreckage about 4 a.m. Friday.
The crash site is west of Eufaula, about 120 miles east of Oklahoma City.
EagleMed, of Wichita, Kansas, said in a statement that all three on board the helicopter were EagleMed employees. No names or the conditions of the survivors have been released.
A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman says agency investigators are being sent to the scene and that the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation.
