MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal investigative agency says it is looking into claims that Veterans Affairs supervisors retaliated against 67 employees who filed whistleblower complaints, including 25 filed since June 1, after a growing health care scandal became public.

The independent Office of Special Counsel says 30 of the complaints about retaliation have passed the initial review stage and are being further investigated for corrective action and possible discipline against VA supervisors and other executives.

Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner provided the updated figures in testimony prepared for a Tuesday night hearing before the House Veterans Affairs Committee. The Associated Press obtained a copy of her testimony in advance.

In a related development, the VA said it is restructuring its Office of Medical Inspector after a highly critical report by Lerner’s office last week.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Gov. Jay Nixon says he is leaning toward opposing an August ballot measure that would amend the Missouri Constitution to include a right to farm.

The Democratic governor has not publicly taken a position on the proposal but was asked about it Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The Missouri Republican Party has officially endorsed the proposal.

Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster, who is running for governor in 2016, plans to hold an event Wednesday in support of the ballot measure.

NEWTON, Kan. (AP) — Top executives of Amtrak and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway will make a whistle-stop trip on the passenger railroad’s Southwest Chief in Kansas.

Wednesday’s event takes place amid efforts to preserve the Southwest Chief’s current route between Newton, Kansas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The service is in jeopardy because BNSF, which owns the track, needs to upgrade it for its freight trains.

Kansas Transportation Secretary Mike King will be aboard the train with Amtrak president CEO Joe Boardman and BNSF executive Matt Rose. They plan to talk with local officials at each stop about the funding needed to keep the Southwest Chief’s current route after Amtrak’s current agreement with BNSF expires in 2016.

The train is scheduled to leave Topeka at 9 a.m. and stop in Newton, Hutchinson, Dodge City and Garden City.

ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A survey by the Department of Education suggests it may matter less whether your alma mater is public or private than what you study — math and science in particular earning recent graduates the most money.

The survey looked at the class of 2008 four years after they received their hard-earned bachelor’s degrees during one of the nation’s worst economic recessions. Overall, college grads reported lower unemployment rates compared to the national average at 6.7 percent. College grads from private four-year schools earned about the same as those from public four-year schools, about $50,000 a year.

But while a paltry 16 percent of students took home degrees in science, technology, engineering or math, those who did averaged $65,000 a year compared to $49,500 of graduates of other degrees.

NEW STRAWN-  A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Coffey County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Ford passenger car driven by Linda. L. Wilks, 72, Melvern, was  southbound on U.S. 75 just north of New Strawn

The vehicle went left of center for an unknown reason.  A northbound 2009 Freightliner semi-truck tried to avoid the Ford by going left of center. The Ford struck the passenger side of the semi-truck.

Wilks was transported to Stormont Vail in Topeka. The truck driver Valeriy Kambur, 37, North Highlands, CA., was not injured.

The KHP reported Wilks was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Missouri hospital will open a clinic in Wichita next month to serve kidney patients who need transplants.

Saint Luke’s Hospital, of Kansas City, announced plans Tuesday to open the clinic near Wichita’s Via Christi hospital.

Doctors at the clinic will evaluate potential transplant recipients. They will also provide pre- and post-surgery care for patients who receive new kidneys at Saint Luke’s in Kansas City.

KWCH-TV reports  more than 1,000 dialysis patients in Wichita are being evaluated for transplants. Wichita was left with a void when Via Christi announced in May it would not reopen its own program, which was halted in 2012 for the investigation of the deaths of four transplant patients in less than a month.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) — Excelsior Springs police say two men who died in a murder-suicide were neighbors.

Police on Tuesday announced that 53-year-old Timothy Todd Logan shot and killed 49-year-old Cletis Southwick Friday outside an Excelsior Spring home. Southwick then ran to a neighbor for help.

Southwick died Sunday at Liberty Hospital.

A motive for the shooting has not been made public.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — After three delays, the world’s tallest water slide is scheduled to open this week.

Officials at Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kan., said Tuesday that the public will be able to ride the Verrückt slide on Thursday.

The ride was originally scheduled to open on May 23 when the water park’s season began. The next scheduled opening on June 5 was postponed, and a June 29 date also was delayed. Park officials have said the delays were needed to allow for more testing.

Guinness World Records in April certified the 17-story, 168-foot-tall attraction as the tallest water slide in the world. Riders on the Verruckt, which means “insane” in German, plummet at 60 mph to 70 mph on four-person rafts.