ST. LEO, Kan. (AP) — Grasshoppers are once again infesting parts of Kansas, causing at least one small farmer in south-central Kansas to go out of business.

Experts say the years of drought left perfect conditions for grasshoppers although there numbers are not expected to be larger than normal in Kansas.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture shows significant grasshopper infestations from Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska west this year.

Gary Gantz, who operates DE Bondurant Grain in Ness City, says the insects are everywhere this year and farmers are worried any new growth they plant will be eaten.

The Hutchinson News reports Keven and Mary Ford are giving up their dream of running a small vegetable and livestock farm near St. Leo because, for the second year in a row, grasshoppers have decimated their crops.

NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder is resigning after heading the Justice Department for six years.

A White House official says President Barack Obama will announce Holder’s departure later Thursday.

Holder is the first black attorney general, and his tenure is the fourth longest on the job.

He plans to remain at the Justice Department until his successor is in place.

INDEPENDENCE, Kan. (AP) — Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is calling for Republican Party to unify now that the primary is over.

Palin was in southeast Kansas Thursday campaigning for U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts at a breakfast in Independence. Roberts is locked in a close race with independent challenger Gregg Orman.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee told the crowd of more than 250 that the nation is watching the race in Kansas in hopes voters will make what she calls the right decision.

Roberts told the crowd the GOP is united because supporters realize control of the U.S. Senate is at stake.

Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Clay Barker says it makes sense to have Palin in southeast Kansas because it is a strong area for tea party Republicans.

PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death of an employee at a Pittsburg plant.

Authorities say 51-year-old Harley Burch Jr. of Pittsburg died Tuesday after being injured in an accident at the Vinylplex plant, which makes PVC plastic pipe products. Lt. Tim Tompkins says Burch was working near a manufacturing machine and somehow came into contact with a piece of equipment.

OSHA spokesman Scott Allen said Wednesday that investigators will interview witnesses and try to determine what caused the accident.

The Joplin Globe reports Vinylplex officials declined to comment.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Jimmy John’s sandwich chain said Wednesday that it believes customers’ credit card data was stolen from 216 of its shops between June and September.

The Champaign, Illinois-based chain said in a news release that stores in 37 states across the United States were affected. It did not say how many customers are affected.

Jimmy John’s believes someone stole log-in credentials and remotely installed malware on machines used to swipe credit cards. Some customers’ credit card numbers, expiration dates, verification codes and names were stolen between June 16 and Sept. 15, the company said.

The privately held company said it discovered the problem on July 30.

Jimmy John’s said it believes its security has been restored by installing encrypted swipe machines and taking other steps.

Jimmy John’s has more than 2,000 locations.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has sent a letter to Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Secretary Bob McDonald calling for immediate action to remove the VA employees who were found to have abused their positions, mistreated their coworkers, and disrespected veterans and their families. With the passage of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act this summer, Congress empowered the VA Secretary with the ability to more readily terminate employees for poor performance and misconduct – yet no action has been taken.

“There has been no shortage on news stories and investigations exposing employees – particularly managers – at the VA who engages in objectionable and outrageous behaviors that must never be tolerated for anyone in public service,” Sen. Moran wrote in a letter to Secretary McDonald along with nine of his Senate colleagues. “…Yet, more than a month since the President signed the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act into law on August 7, the Department has yet to use its authority to fire senior officials and administrators for poor performance and unethical conduct… Americans expect and deserve immediate action from the VA to demonstrate the culture and expectations at the Department are changing.”

Click here to read Sen. Moran’s entire latter to VA Sec. McDonald calling for the removal of those who endangered the health and lives of veterans.

A call for accountability at the VA also came this week from the National Commander of the American Legion Michael D. Helm, of Norcatur, Kansas, in a separate letter to President Obama on Sept. 18, 2014, which called for corrupt managers within the agency to be “fired immediately.”

“The only way those culpable will get their just desserts, and credibility will be restored to the thousands of VA employees who really deserve it, is for you to demand that those who caused this scandal, and those who oversaw it and did nothing, be fired and removed from government,” said National Commander Helm said in a letter sent to President Obama. “Let me assure you that if someone on my staff were found to be cooking the books, committing fraud or putting career ambitions ahead of veterans’ lives, they wouldn’t be transferred or suspended with pay. They would be fired immediately. Our VA employees should be held to the same standard.”

THOMAS BEAUMONT, Associated Press

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (AP) — Republican Sen. John McCain is in Kansas praising three-term Sen. Pat Roberts as “a steady hand” and calling Roberts’ independent opponent a Democrat in disguise.

At a rally Wednesday in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee fired up the crowd of Roberts supporters.

Roberts has called Orman, a businessman from Olathe who has run as a Democrat and made contributions to Democratic candidates, a vote for Senate Democrats, should he win.

McCain repeating those criticisms, saying, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it might be a duck!”

Orman’s campaign called the critique “desperate.”

McCain is scheduled to headline a Roberts fundraiser in Olathe on Thursday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man and woman have been charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl over the weekend in Topeka.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that 28-year-old Jeremy Lindsey and 23-year-old Michelle Harris were charged with the attack Wednesday in Shawnee County District Court. The two are jailed on $1 million bond.

The Shawnee County court website listed Lindsey’s attorney as Joseph Huerter, but a woman at his law firm said the case hadn’t yet been formally assigned to Huerter. Harris’ attorney in the Shawnee County public defender’s office didn’t immediately return a phone call.

The girl was missing for nearly six hours when she was found Saturday afternoon walking along a road about two miles away from her home. About 50 people participated in the search.

LYNDON, Kan- A Kansas man died in an accident just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday in Osage County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1994 Mazda truck driven by Bryan Lee Turpin, 34, Emporia, was northbound on U.S. 75 three miles north of Lyndon and began to fishtail.

The vehicle went into on coming traffic and was struck in the passenger side by a 2005 Ford Econoline driven by James William Nutt, 52, Topeka.

A passenger in the Mazda Brian Warren Bender, 27, Waverly, was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics.

Turpin was transported to Stormont Vail. Nutt was not injured.

The KHP reported Bender and Turpin were not wearing seat belts.