BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) — Officials say 25 people were injured and dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed by a tornado in the southeastern Kansas town of Baxter Springs.

Southeast Kansas Incident Management Team spokeswoman Kari West said late Sunday night that one person died, but it was not clear whether the death was related to the storm.

West said nine of the injured were taken to area hospitals. Their conditions were not immediately available.

West said that search and rescue crews had gone through all of the damaged properties more than once, and everyone was accounted for.

The tornado struck around 5:45 p.m. and was roughly three blocks wide, cutting a diagonal through the town of about 4,200 people.

 

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Missouri Senate plans to debate a 1-cent sales tax increase for transportation this week.

Senate Majority Leader Ron Richard says he expects debate to begin on Tuesday. The proposed constitutional amendment cleared the House earlier this year and would need to be approved by voters in November to take effect.

A similar proposal stalled in the Senate last year during the closing days of the Legislature’s session. It was blocked by a group of conservative Republicans who argued raising taxes was contrary to the party’s values.

The measure is expected to generate $8 billion over the 10-year lifespan of the tax. Funding would be used for construction, operating costs and alternative modes of transportation.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A 28-year-old Kansas City man who told police he killed a Missouri bar owner at the behest of a Saudi Arabian student goes to trial this week in Cass County on a change of venue.

Reginald Singletary is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Warrensburg businessman Blaine Whitworth, who was shot in his driveway on Sept. 1, 2012.

Investigators say in a probable cause statement that Singletary admitted shooting Whitworth but claimed University of Central Missouri aviation student Ziyad Abid paid him to do it.

Abid was charged with the same crimes and held in jail for nearly a year before the charges were dropped after a key witness stopped cooperating.

Singletary’s trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Harrisonville and run through Friday.

WEBB CITY (AP) – Students in a southwest Missouri school district have made up part of this year’s 11 snow days by heading to classes during the weekend.

KOAM-TV reports that schools in the Webb City district were in session Saturday morning. The school board chose the Saturday option over adding an extra day at the end of the school year.

Classes began at 7:45 a.m. and ended by 11 a.m.

Many students said they preferred making up the lost time on a rainy Saturday morning to going to school in the summer.

High school senior Lydia Proctor said she and her classmates would probably have spent the morning sleeping, but being in class wasn’t too bad.

WARRENSBURG (AP) — The University of Central Missouri is planning the largest construction project in its history.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for Tuesday on a $41 million student residence and retail complex.

It’s part of $60 million of planned improvements on the Warrensburg campus. Elements include improvements to Audrey J. Walton Stadium and moving the school’s general services operation to a former elementary school on the east side of campus.

The Kansas City Star reports the project is expected to be completed by summer 2015.

A university spokesman says demand for student housing has increased as enrollment surged, along with a requirement implemented last fall that all students live on campus their first two years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Supreme Court cases about police searches of cellphones without warrants present vastly different views of the it’s-everywhere device.

Is it a critical tool for criminals or is it someone’s virtual home?

How the justices answer that question could determine the outcome of the cases being argued Tuesday.

In those cases, a drug dealer and a gang member argue that searches of their cellphones after their arrest violated their right to privacy in the digital age.

The Obama administration and California defend the searches, and say cellphones are no different from anything else a person may be carrying when arrested. Police may search those items without a warrant.

The cases come to the court amid separate challenges to the massive warrantless collection of telephone records by the National Security Agency.

BENTON COUNTY–A Missouri man is recovering from injuries he sustained in an ATV accident at 11:25 p.m. Saturday.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Arctic Cat ATV driven by Mitchell T. Crawford, 48, Lee’s Summit was southbound on Mound Road one mile north of Route Z.

The driver made a left turn and was ejected.

Staff for life flew Crawford to University Hospital in Columbia.

By KHI NEWS SERVICE
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger is scheduled to take part in a panel discussion on the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act, starting at 11:30 a.m. Monday at Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center on the Washburn University campus.

The luncheon meeting is free and open to the public, but those planning to attend are asked to make reservations before Thursday by calling 785-670-1526 or by sending an email to marykay.thornburg@washburn.edu.

Also scheduled to join the panel:

• Tom Bell, chief executive of the Kansas Hospital Association,

• Kent Palmberg, vice president and chief medical officer of Topeka-based Stormont Vail HealthCare,

• Randy Peterson, chief executive officer of Stormont-Vail HealthCare.

Maynard Oliverius, the former CEO of Stormont-Vail HealthCare, will serve as moderator.

The discussion is sponsored by Washburn University, its leadership center and nursing school.

Oliverius currently is a visiting professor at the nursing school.