A teen driver was injured in a Tuesday evening head on crash in Leavenworth County.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol Fourteen year old  Reilly Martin of Tonganoxie was driving a1992 Mercury and Thirty-five year old Sarah Kay Henricks  of Tonganoxie was driving a 2012 Ford Fusion westbound on U24, just south of Tonganoxie.

The Mercury went left of center and stuck an eastbound 2004 Chevy Impala driven by Twenty-two year old Richard Wise of De Soto head on.

The Impala then struck the Fusion. Martin was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Henricks was taken to KU Medical Center. Wise was not seriously injured.  All three divers were wearing seat belts.

 (AP) – The inaugural inductees of Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame will feature a former president, senator and journalist.

Missouri State University says an induction ceremony will occur April 11 for former President Harry Truman, former U.S. Sen. John Danforth and Donald Suggs, the publisher and executive editor of the St. Louis American newspaper.

It says the three men were chosen for the hall of fame because they served as examples of global citizens who defined the essence of public affairs and acted for the benefit of others.

Danforth and Suggs are to be at the induction ceremony. Truman’s grandson, Clifton Truman Daniel, is to accept the award on behalf of his grandfather.

The public affairs hall of fame plans to induct up to six people annually.

(AP) – More than 2,300 students expect to receive their diplomas at the University of Missouri’s winter commencement exercises this weekend in Columbia.

The university expects to issue nearly 1,900 bachelor’s degrees and more than 150 doctorates. Another 300 students are receiving degrees from online programs. Graduation ceremonies are set to begin Friday.

Lawyer Larry McMullen will receive an honorary degree at an honors commencement ceremony Saturday. Speakers at the individual graduation ceremonies to be held by each school and college at MU include former two-sport star Phil Bradley, now an assistant softball coach; and former Missouri poet laureate Walter Bargen.

As consumers grow more concerned with animal welfare issues, Tyson says beef producers will have to follow on-farm requirements for animal treatment next year if they want to work with the major meat processor.
Tyson made the decision as it’s received customer feedback from major food companies including Whole Foods and McDonald’s. Tyson already requires its hog producers to follow specific guidelines and will now enforce its higher animal welfare standards on beef and poultry producers.

The animal-handling practices will be implemented by a third-party auditor who will visit farms to ensure compliance. The Des Moines Register reports the auditor will review animal handling practices and confirm animals have access to adequate feed and water.
Cattle producers heard the news from Lora Wright, Tyson’s beef supply chain manager, at the Iowa Cattlemen Association’s annual convention. Many of the practices are already practiced, so the change will be in the requirement for producers to document practices.
Following the audit, producers will learn if their practices are approved, in need of improvement, or unacceptable.
Tyson Foods’ FarmCheck program was implemented for all of its pork producers. Wright said the audit system has yet to give a hog farm a rating of ‘unacceptable,’ but did remove an Oklahoma producer from its supply chain after an undercover video found incidents of animal cruelty.
The company’s FarmCheck program ensures the best practices for the farm which are reviewed by a panel of 13 animal welfare experts.-Brett Wessler, Drovers CattleNetwork

9 p.m. UPDATE (AP) – A house fire at a rural home in western Missouri has killed two juveniles and left an adult severely burned.

The Ray County sheriff’s office says the fire broke out at the home in Orrick on Tuesday afternoon. Orrick Fire Chief Mike Arnold says the house was fully engulfed in flames when fire crews arrived. Fire crews from several nearby towns were called in to help.

The sheriff’s office says the two juvenile victims were found in a bedroom. Their identities, ages and genders haven’t been released.

The sheriff’s office said in a release that an adult male in the home was hospitalized with severe burns. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Orrick, a town of about 800 residents, is located about 30 miles northeast of Kansas City.

7:05 p.m.(AP) Two people have died in a fire at a rural home in western Missouri.

The fire broke out at the home in Orrick on Tuesday afternoon. Orrick Fire Chief Mike Arnold says the house was fully engulfed in flames when fire crews arrived. Fire crews from several nearby towns were called in to help.

Arnold says the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Orrick is a town of about 800 residents located about 30 miles northeast of Kansas City.

(AP) The fate of Missouri death row inmate Allen Nicklasson is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster late Tuesday appealed a stay of execution granted by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The full appeals court declined to take up the case, prompting Koster’s appeal to the Supreme Court.

Nicklasson is scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for a 1994 killing. Businessman Richard Drummond was fatally shot after stopping to help when a car carrying Nicklasson and two others stalled along Interstate 70 in mid-Missouri. Nicklasson and one of the men then drove to Arizona and killed a husband and wife.

Nicklasson’s attorney has also asked the Missouri Supreme Court and Gov. Jay Nixon to intervene.

 (AP) — A Shawnee County jury has been selected for the trial of a Topeka man facing more than 100 counts of child pornography.

Jason W. Hachmeister is charged in Shawnee County court with 108 counts of sexual exploitation of a child. He’s also charged in another case with killing his mother in 2011.

Prosecutors say the child pornography was found on Hachmeister’s personal computer during an investigation into the September 2011 killing of 58-year-old Sheila R. Hachmeister of Topeka. Jason Hachmeister’s homicide trial in Shawnee County is scheduled to start Jan. 21, 2014.

The jury was selected Tuesday for his trial on child pornography charges, with opening arguments to follow.

(AP) The superintendent of Kansas City public schools says a Missouri Supreme Court ruling and an inadequate student transfer law threaten to take away healthy neighborhood schools for thousands of urban students.

Superintendent R. Stephen Green says Tuesday’s court ruling upholding a state law that requires unaccredited schools to pay for students to attend class elsewhere was not surprising. At a news conference Tuesday, he said the district doesn’t think any transfers will happen before the 2014-2015 school year.

Green said inaction by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to change the district’s accreditation status has been devastating and threatens every accomplishment its students have made.

Kansas City’s school district has been unaccredited since 2012, but student transfers have been on hold because of the legal challenge.

(AP)The Missouri Supreme Court has again upheld a law requiring unaccredited school districts to pay for students who chose to attend elsewhere.

The court’s unanimous decision Tuesday applies to the Kansas City School District and its suburban neighbors. A similar ruling earlier this year dealt with St. Louis area schools.

A 1993 Missouri law requires unaccredited school districts to cover the costs for students to attend nearby accredited schools.

Kansas City’s school district has been unaccredited since 2012, but student transfers have been on hold because of the legal challenge.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an assertion that the student transfer law amounted to an unfunded mandate that violated the state constitution.

 (AP) — Kansas City Power & Light is seeking to raise electric rates for its Kansas customers.

KCP&L has asked the Kansas Corporation Commission to approve the rate hike, which the utility says would help pay its share of a $1.2 billion environmental upgrade for the coal-fired La Cygne power plant in Kansas.

If approved by the KCC, the increase would raise Kansas customers’ rates 2.3 percent or $12.1 million a year. A typical residential customer would be charged an additional $2.35 month.

The KCC has eight months to consider the request.

KCP&L’s Missouri customers will also see their rates go up to pay for the plant’s environmental work, but under Missouri rules a rate hike can’t be requested until the upgrade is completed.