OAK GROVE- One person died in an accident just after 11 p.m. on Monday in Jackson County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Ford passenger vehicle driven by Geoffery R. Updike, 30, Hendersonville, TN., was westbound on Interstate 70 at Oak Grove.

A 2013 Chevy passenger vehicle driven by Joshua K. Swisher, 26, Charleston, IL., overtook and struck the Ford in the rear causing it to travel off the right side of the road and overturn.

A passenger in the Ford Marlon J. Cook, 31, Goodlettsville, TN., was transported to Centerpoint Hospital where he died. Updike and Swisher were not injured.

The MSHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident. The accident remains under investigation.

MARSHFIELD (AP) – A former southwest Missouri teacher will spend 60 days in a county jail for causing an accident that injured his two daughters and killed a man.

Thirty-three-year-old Chad Bybee, of Rogersville, was sentenced for involuntary manslaughter Monday in the October 2013 crash that killed 84-year-old William Hughes of Seymour. He must serve 1,000 hours of community service and will face 12 years in prison if he doesn’t complete five years of probation.

Investigators said Bybee was driving in the wrong lanes of U.S. 60 when his pickup truck collided head-on with a car driven Hughes. Bybee’s two daughters were injured.

Tests found Bybee’s blood-alcohol level was .192, more than twice Missouri’s legal limit.

Bybee was an agriculture teacher at Logan-Rogersville High School at the time but later resigned.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Investigators are still trying to determine what caused a house fire in Kansas City that killed a woman and injured a firefighter.

Battalion Chief James Garrett says 31-year-old Susan Herrera died after being trapped in the home late Sunday. Herrera was trapped after the fire caused floors of the upscale home to collapse and much of the roof burned away. Her mother was able to escape the blaze.

The Kansas City Star reports Herrera was staying briefly with her parents and planned to move to an apartment Monday. Two family dogs also died in the blaze.

FERGUSON (AP) – An open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder from Ferguson merchants and residents is seeking resolution on a federal investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown.

The letter states that the St. Louis County community won’t be able to move forward and rebuild until the investigation is complete and details of it are announced. The letter was announced Monday.

The Justice Department began its investigation in August, shortly after Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer, leading to protests and some violence.

A state grand jury’s decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson was announced Nov. 24. There is no timetable for completion of the Justice Department investigation.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A Missouri lawmaker is again pushing legislation that would shift regulation of farm-raised deer to state agriculture officials.

Republican Sen. Brian Munzlinger of Williamstown recently refiled a bill to define farmed deer as livestock instead of as wildlife.

The measure failed after it was combined with other agricultural proposals last session. Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed the bill because of the captive deer provision.

Legislative leaders have said they plan to address agriculture measures individually instead of as a package to avoid another veto.

If passed, the deer-farming bill would allow farmers to sell the animals’ meat, which wouldn’t be subject to sales taxes.

Farms couldn’t keep more than seven deer per acre of land and would be subject to annual inspections by the Department of Agriculture.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Adjunct faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis have voted to form a union.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports out of the 404 eligible votes tallied Monday, 138 voted for collective bargaining, while 111 voted against.

Adjunct instructors usually work part time and are assigned classes when departments are short-staffed or when full-time professors are busy with heavy course loads. Many complain of not earning a livable wage and are typically hired on semester-long contracts.

Monday’s vote was tallied by the National Labor Relations Board in St. Louis and won’t be made official for seven days.

A university spokeswoman says the school won’t comment until the count is official. However, the school did send a statement to employees saying that it’s committed to working with the union.

FORT SCOTT, Kan. (AP) — A southeast Kansas woman who says she was knocked down and trampled during an “early Black Friday” promotion is suing Walmart for not doing enough to protect her.

Amanda DuVall of Fort Scott says she got to the local store at 5 p.m. on Nov. 28, 2013, to wait for the 8 p.m. sale of a $49.99 tablet.

She says at 8 p.m. she was suddenly thrust forward from behind, her body fell violently to the floor, her face struck the hard tile and other customers stomped on her.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports DuVall filed a lawsuit in state court in Bourbon County on Oct. 22, and Walmart had the case moved to federal court in Topeka on Nov. 14.

A Walmart spokesman says DuVall’s claims couldn’t be verified.

SUE MANNING, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Petco says it has removed Chinese-made dog and cat treats from store shelves because of concerns they have sickened thousands of pets and killed 1,000 dogs in the U.S. since 2007.

The company’s Monday announcement makes it the first national pet retailer to pull the treats. Rival PetSmart said Monday that it plans to have them off shelves by March.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says initial tests haven’t connected the Chinese jerky and rawhide treats to the illnesses, but both retailers vowed in May to ban them.

The FDA targeted the treats after receiving more than 4,800 complaints of illnesses, including the deaths, after pets ate jerky treats from China.

Petco Vice President John Sturm says all treats are now made in the U.S. or places such as the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and South America.

By Dan Margolies
Heartland Health Monitor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At least half of Kansans and Missourians who signed up for 2015 health insurance through the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplaces are new consumers, according to data released this week.

Of the 102,087 Missourians who chose a marketplace plan from Nov. 15 through Dec. 15, 50 percent are new and 50 percent have re-enrolled, according to the figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Of the 39,023 Kansans who enrolled in the same period, 53 percent are new and 47 percent have re-enrolled.

Altogether, the government said, more than 6.5 million people nationwide had signed up as of Dec. 26 through the federally run health exchange, healthcare.gov, for 2015 health coverage.

The actual enrollment count is likely to be higher because most states have not reported complete information on re-enrollments, HHS said. And the figures do not include people who enrolled through state-operated exchanges in states like New York and California.

At this time last year, when healthcare.gov was plagued with technical glitches, only 1.4 million people had signed up for health coverage.

Eighty-nine percent of the Missouri enrollees and 80 percent of the Kansas enrollees were eligible for federal tax subsidies that reduce their premiums, according to the HHS data.

A pending lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court has challenged the legality of the subsidies, arguing the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, extends them only to people signing up for coverage through state-run exchanges.

Only 13 states operate their own exchanges. Both supporters and critics of the Affordable Care Act agree a decision favoring the plaintiffs could prove a fatal blow to the law.

Dec. 15 was the deadline to sign up for coverage starting Jan. 1. The open enrollment period ends Feb. 15 for coverage beginning March 1.

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

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A woman has been sentenced to jail time for stealing money from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and the Kearney Area Symphony Orchestra.

The Kearney Hub report 54-year-old Jane Jameson, Amherst, NE.,  was ordered Monday to serve 120 days in jail on charges of theft and attempted theft. She was ordered to pay more than $31,000 in restitution and serve five years of probation.

An audit showed Jameson misused more than $6,000 from a University of Nebraska at Kearney credit card. She also took more than $25,000 from other accounts. Court documents say the thefts occurred between February 2011 and February 2014.