KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City auto repair worker escapes injury after jumping onto the roof of a customer’s Cadillac Escalade and going for a three-mile, high-speed ride after she tried to leave without paying a $3,000 repair bill.
The Kansas City Star  reports auto shop employees in another vehicle tried to stop the Cadillac on Monday afternoon by firing shots at its tires before the chase ended at Kansas City police headquarters.
Police say one of the bullets hit the Escalade’s driver’s side door but nobody was wounded.
They say the woman left after being told she needed to pay $3,000 and would owe $700 more in storage fees if she left the vehicle there.
The woman and the man who fired the shots were taken into custody.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is asking a Missouri judge to convene a new grand jury to consider charges against the Ferguson officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The letter submitted Monday to St. Louis County Circuit Judge Maura McShane also requests an investigation of the grand jury proceedings that led to the decision not to indict Darren Wilson. The white police officer shot Brown, who was black and unarmed, on Aug. 9.
The fund says its review of the grand jury proceedings raised “grave legal concerns,” including confusing instructions to jurors and the decision to allow testimony from witnesses who lied. The organization is also seeking a special prosecutor to replace St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch.
Messages left Tuesday with the judge were not returned. A spokesman for McCulloch declined to comment.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Humane Society of Greater Kansas City is saving more severely sick or abused animals since it signed a contract to become the official veterinarian of Kansas City, Kansas. But that effort has severely hurt the organization’s budget.

Kate Fields, the organization’s chief operating officer, says the life-saving work will continue but it is seeking extra donations for the effort.

The Kansas City Star reports the contract with the city covers only preventive and basic medical care for 1,300 to 1,800 dogs and cats collected by animal control within the city’s limits each year. But it does not cover extra care needed for about 140 severely sick, neglected, or injured animals. The Humane Society adds about $80,000 to its budget every year for that care.

GALENA, Kan. (AP) — Protests continue against a proposed landfill in southeast Kansas, even though Galena City Council members have postponed discussion of the project.

Dozens of people lined the streets in front of Galena City Hall Monday to protest the proposed landfill near Riverton in Cherokee County.

Last July, the council approved acquisition of 160 acres, where 40 acres would be used for a landfill. The decision caused an uproar, eventually prompting the council to rescind the contract and ordinances to annex the land. The council said it would discuss the proposal again this month but did not raise the issue at its Monday night meeting.

The Joplin Globe reports opponents also successfully petitioned for a grand jury investigation into council actions involving the landfill proposal.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 25-year veteran of the Kansas Highway Patrol has been appointed interim superintendent of the organization.

Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday appointed Maj. Mark Bruce as interim superintendent to replace outgoing superintendent Col. Ernest Garcia, whose retirement was effective Monday.

Bruce has served in several capacities for the patrol, in field and administrative positions. In recent years, he has been the patrol’s west region major over Garden City, Salina, Hays and Wichita.

A search for a permanent superintendent continues.

CASSVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A Springdale, Arkansas, man is jailed after the mother of his 2-year-old daughter and her grandfather died in a shooting in southwest Missouri.
The girl was found at the suspect’s mother’s home in Arkansas hours after she was taken Monday from the victims’ home just north of Washburn, Missouri.
Thirty-seven-year-old Christopher Paschall is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 29-year-old Casey Brace. She and her grandfather, 76-year-old Herb Townsend, were shot at Townsend’s home. Brace died at the scene and Townsend died at a hospital.
Barry County Sheriff Mick Epperly says Paschall was arrested Monday night at his mother’s home in Springdale
Paschall is being held on $1 million bond in Fayetteville, Arkansas, pending extradition. Online records do not indicate that he has an attorney.

By Andy Marso
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — A spokeswoman for Kansas City’s largest hospital system defended its record on patient safety following an announcement last month that more than half its facilities are among those to be penalized by the federal government for hospital acquired ailments.

A total of 721 hospitals nationwide will lose 1 percent of their Medicare reimbursements in fiscal year 2015 because they scored poorly in federal metrics that measure the prevalence of conditions like urinary tract infections, central line infections and other complications patients acquire while in the hospital.

The metrics, and the accompanying penalties, were created by the Affordable Care Act as an attempt to improve patient care.

Five of HCA Midwest Health’s nine Kansas City area facilities are among those getting docked, but company spokeswoman Christine Hamele cautioned against using the new federal metrics “as the only mechanism to monitor quality.”

The hospital acquired conditions program “does not fully recognize hospitals for quality improvement and actually penalizes hospitals who are often caring for the most critical and vulnerable patients,” Hamele, the company’s assistant vice president for public relations and community affairs, said via email.

Hamele said HCA Midwest has been recognized for quality of care by several private sector organizations, including the Joint Commission, the country’s largest hospital accreditation service. Other groups to honor HCA Midwest include the American Heart Association, the National Accredited Chest Pain Centers, the March of Dimes and The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that scores hospitals on patient safety.
The new federal metrics score hospitals on a 10-point scale, with 10 indicating higher incidences of hospital acquired conditions.

Among HCA Midwest’s hospitals, Overland Park Regional Medical Center scored a 9.025 — the highest of any hospital in Kansas. Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence had the third highest score among Missouri hospitals, at 8.65. Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park (8.375), Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., (8.025), and Lee’s Summit Medical Center (7.9) also face the Medicare penalty. Belton Regional Medical Center (3) will not and HCA Midwest’s other three facilities — Research Medical Center Brookside, Research Psychiatric Center and Lafayette Regional Health Center — were not scored.

HCA Midwest officials declined to say how the Medicare penalties would affect the company financially.

Hamele’s comments about the limitations of the federal metrics echoed those of officials from academic medical centers, which were hit particularly hard by the penalties. Some complained that the federal metrics penalized hospitals that treat the most fragile patients or are most diligent about reporting their hospital acquired conditions.

Shalan Stroud, a critical care clinical nurse specialist who leads Shawnee Mission Medical Center’s initiative to reduce such conditions, said underreporting was not a factor in her facility acquiring a score of 2 — the lowest in the Kansas City metro area.

“We report everything,” Stroud said. “We report more than even what we have to report because we want to know how we’re doing.”

Stroud said Shawnee Mission Medical Center has been working with the Kansas Health Care Collaborative, a nonprofit dedicated to improving patient care, as well as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network on programs to help curb hospital acquired ailments.

Stroud said the hospital’s parent company, Adventist Health System, has given financial backing to help make the programs a success. Of the 49 Adventist hospitals nationwide that were part of the federal HAC scoring, 10 were penalized.

“They are very focused on helping in any way they can and providing us the resources we need to be able to prevent (hospital acquired conditions),” Stroud said.

Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are expected to vote this month on rules to govern how Internet service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast deal with the flow of content on their high-speed networks.

The five-member Federal Communications Commission will consider then a proposal from Chairman Tom Wheeler on so-called net neutrality rules, agency spokeswoman Kim Hart said.

She was confirming reports in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal on the planned timing of the vote.

Details of the draft proposal weren’t disclosed. President Barack Obama has asked the FCC to put Internet service providers under the same rules as those imposed on telephone companies 80 years ago. The aim is to protect net neutrality, the concept that all online traffic should be treated equally and given the same access.

By ALEX SMITH
Missouri’s abortion regulations, among the strictest in the nation, may get even stricter.

Several lawmakers have already pre-filed abortion-related legislation in both the state House of Representatives and Senate.

Republican Rep. Rick Brattin, of Harrisonville, has introduced a measure that requires a women to receive written, notarized permission from the man with whom she conceived before getting an abortion. The bill (HB 131) provides exceptions in cases of rape or incest or if the man is deceased.

Republican Rep. Rocky Miller, of Lake Ozark, has filed a bill (HB 99) that requires a parent who gives permission for a minor to get an abortion to also notify another parent or guardian in writing about the procedure.

Miller’s bill also adds freedom of speech and religious protections for groups providing “alternatives-to-abortion” services, and would prevent state agencies from interfering with the work of those groups.

Yet another bill (SB 33) pre-filed by Republican Sen.Wayne Wallingford, of Cape Girardeau, requires the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to inspect at least once a year facilities where abortions are performed.

Wallingford’s bill was first introduced in the 2014 session but didn’t come to a vote.

In 2014, the state legislature overrode Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto and created one of the longest waiting periods in the country, 72 hours, for abortions.

Missouri already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

For example, women seeking an abortion must receive counseling discouraging the procedure.

The state also prohibits private insurance from paying for abortions unless the woman’s life is in danger or an optional insurance rider has been purchased.

Missouri law also bars the use of public funds to pay for abortions except in cases of rape or incest or where the mother’s life is endangered.

Alex Smith is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal judge has extended for 45 days a temporary restraining order requiring Missouri police to give protesters the chance to disperse before tear gas is deployed.

U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson on Tuesday extended the order she issued last month after attorneys for law enforcement agencies and protesters who are suing them said they were in settlement negotiations.

Six protesters sued the “unified command” that handled security at area protests after a white Ferguson police officer killed a black 18-year-old, Michael Brown, during an August confrontation. The shooting led to significant protests, some of them violent.

A grand jury in November declined to charge the officer, who has since resigned.

The command consists of officers from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and St. Louis city and county police.