OREGON, Mo- A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just after 12:30 p.m. on Saturday in Holt County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Ford Focus driven by Celia Miranda, 61, Abilene, was eastbound on U.S. 59, just east of Oregon. The vehicle traveled off the south side of the road and overturned.
Miranda was transported to Heartland Regional Medical Center.
The MSHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A 6-year-old Kansas City girl has died in a drive-by shooting at a convenience store in the southern part of the city.
Police said in a news release that Angel Hooper was wounded Friday night when someone in a passing vehicle fired multiple rounds into the parking lot of a 7-Eleven store. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Several people were in the parking lot when gunfire erupted. The girl was with a family friend.
Police are reviewing surveillance footage and urging anyone with information to call a special hotline. Police Chief Darryl Forté also used Twitter to urge the shooter or shooters to surrender. The message said that Forté didn’t believe the girl was the intended victim.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Sprint Corp. says it has cut 452 jobs from its Overland Park headquarters as part of a previously announced cost-cutting effort.
The Kansas City Star reports that the layoffs were disclosed Friday in a notice that the nation’s third-biggest cellphone carrier filed with the Kansas Department of Commerce. The report doesn’t cover any job losses outside the headquarters campus, although they are believed to be happening too.
The company said earlier this month in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was cutting an unspecified number of jobs to reduce costs. The filing said the company would book a $160 million charge in its fiscal second quarter to cover this round of layoffs.
Another 477 Sprint employees in Overland Park were laid off earlier this year.
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Missouri Constitution gives the governor some of the broadest budget-balancing powers in the nation.
But a proposal on the November ballot would flip that around. If approved, proposed Constitutional Amendment 10 would give the Missouri Legislature some of the broadest powers to cancel gubernatorial budget decisions.
The proposal would allow the Legislature to override a governor’s decision to reduce spending by getting a two-thirds vote of each chamber. That’s the same threshold already required to override vetoes.
Some Republican supporters of the amendment say the Democratic governor has abused his budget-balancing powers in recent years by temporarily freezing spending in an attempt to persuade legislators not to enact tax breaks.
But opponents of the measure say it could allow lawmakers to bust the budget with new spending.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The challenge of recruiting math and science teachers is expected to increase in Kansas as more of them approach retirement and demand for the courses they teach rises.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that job growth is strong in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math. That’s led to an enrollment surge.
The head of the University of Kansas’ Center for STEM Learning and a colleague analyzed six years of data on the state’s middle- and high-school math and science teachers. They found that nearly 20 percent will become eligible to retire in three more years.
Experts say there aren’t enough new teachers being recruited to take their place. As of Aug. 1, Kansas’ secondary schools were still seeking at least 36 math and science teachers.
MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas has gotten the go-ahead from the Supreme Court to use its strict voter ID law in the November election.
The court’s action early Saturday comes even after a judge said the law was the equivalent of a poll tax and threatened to deprive many blacks and Latinos of the right to vote this year.
The high court acted two days before the start of early voting in Texas.
The move appears to be based on the justices’ view that changing the rules so close to an election would be confusing.
Texas has conducted several low-turnout elections under the new rules. Those rules set seven forms of approved photo ID, including concealed handgun licenses, but not college student IDs.
The court’s brief unsigned order offered no explanation for its action.
ST. JOSEPH- A Maysville woman and child were injured in an accident just before 5 p.m. on Friday in Buchanan County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1997 Plymouth Voyager driven by Brittany-Robbin A. Wood, 26, Maysville, was northbound on Route P eight miles east of St. Joseph. The vehicle traveled off the east side of the road, struck a ditch, ejected the driver and overturned.
Lifenet transported Wood to Heartland Regional Medical Center. A one-year-old child in the vehicle was also transported to Heartland.
The MSHP reported wood was not wearing a seat belt. The child was properly restrained at the time of the accident.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The New York Times is reporting that the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old in a St. Louis suburb last summer has told investigators that he was pinned in his vehicle and in fear for his life as they struggled over his gun.
The newspaper reports that Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson has told authorities that Michael Brown reached for the gun during a scuffle. The Times reports that the officer’s account to authorities did not explain why he fired at Brown multiple times after emerging from his vehicle.
According to the newspaper, the account of Wilson’s version of events came from government officials briefed on the federal civil rights investigation into the Aug. 9 shooting.
Racial unrest and weeks of protests followed Brown’s death.
BILL DRAPER, Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A popular refrain for Kansas City baseball fans as their team blazes through the playoffs is that they’re ready to party like it’s 1985, when the Royals beat St. Louis for their first World Series title.
But with a farm crisis raging, interest rates skyrocketing and the economy in shambles 29 years ago, would they really want to?
The NBA’s Kansas City Kings moved to California that year and Union Station closed its doors after decades of neglect. With its empty storefronts, downtown was decades away from its revival as an entertainment mecca, and Kemper Arena was still city’s premier indoor sports venue.
Former Royals second baseman Frank White says a lot more than the old AstroTurf has changed since the team’s glory days, much of it for the better.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan is urging Kansans to back Republican Sen. Pat Roberts in a tight re-election race, saying the three-term incumbent isn’t a “rubber stamp” for President Barack Obama.
Appearing Friday at a hotel in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Ryan is the latest in a string of high profile Republicans to stump for the 78-year-old senator. Attention on the race intensified when the Democratic candidate dropped out, improving independent candidate Greg Orman’s odds.
Republicans need a net gain of six seats to recapture a majority and had always counted on Roberts winning re-election. He’s seeking to unify the GOP behind him by highlighting his opposition to Obama and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. Orman says he’ll caucus with whichever party has a clear majority.
