(AP) — A former Johnson County high school teacher pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with two teenage boys he met through online ads.

Forty-three-year-old Jeremy John Way, of Shawnee, entered the plea Wednesday to two counts of criminal sodomy with the boys. The boys did not attend St. James Academy in Lenexa, where Way taught science until the allegations against him surfaced in February.

Before going to St. James in 2008, Way taught at Mill Valley High School in Shawnee.

The investigation began when the parents of a 14-year-old boy called police after discovering sexually explicit emails on his cellphone. Police traced phone records to Way and during the investigation learned about the second boy.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 21.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)has  announced a proposed rule under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) aimed at strengthening the safety of food for animals, including pet food and animal feed. At the time, the FDA indicated it would hold three public meetings to discuss the rule and generate comments from stakeholders.
This week the FDA posted the agendas and additional details about the public meetings, which will take place in College Park, Maryland, on November 21, Chicago on November 25 and Sacramento, California on December 6.
This proposed rule intends to ensure the safety of food for animals, as well as help prevent foodborne illness in humans and animals. It is part of the effort mandated by Congress to modernize the food safety system and focuses on preventing food safety problems, rather than relying primarily on responding to problems after they occur.
Under the proposed rule for preventive controls for food for animals, facilities manufacturing, processing, packing, and holding animal food, both domestically and abroad, would be required to put into place procedures to minimize or prevent hazards reasonably likely to occur, as well as to follow new current good manufacturing practices (CGMPs).
This proposed rule would apply primarily to facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold animal food and are required to register as a food facility under section 415 of the FD&C Act. This rule does not apply to farms that manufacture food for their own animals or other food facilities not required to register under section 415 of the FD&C Act.
The proposed rule for preventive controls for food for animals was published in the Federal Register on October 29, 2013. Comments on this proposed rule are due by 120 days from the publication date.

Boeing says a 747 jumbo jet used to haul parts for construction of its new 787 Dreamliner jet landed at the wrong Kansas airport.

The plane maker says the Dreamlifter landed safely Wednesday evening at Col. James Jabara Airport, about eight miles from McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita where it was supposed to land.

Although Jabara airport has a small runway, Roger Xanders, chief of the Wichita Airport Authority’s police and fire department said that the plane will be able to take off about noon Thursday.

Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel says the Dreamlifter was bound for McConnell because it is adjacent to Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier for the Dreamliner. He didn’t say why or how the plane landed at the wrong airport.

(AP) — Ten sites have been nominated by a board of the Kansas Historical Society to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The list announced Wednesday includes an eastern portion of the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence and two locations where the Oregon and California trials converged in Kansas.

Other sites include two buildings in Kansas City, Kan., that have ties to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, a former school in rural Douglas County, the City Square Park Bandstand in Humboldt, and a youth cabin in Manhattan constructed during the Great Depression.

The list will be forwarded to Office of the Keeper of the National Historic Places in Washington, D.C., for evaluation.

(AP) – A 49-year-old Springfield man will spend the rest of his life in federal prison after being sentenced as a career criminal for three Springfield armed robberies in November 2008.

Mark Joseph Morris was sentenced Wednesday to 72 years and six months without parole and ordered to pay roughly $5,600 in restitution.

Morris was found guilty in March of three counts of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. Two months before that he pleaded guilty to the three robberies related to the firearm charges.

Morris admitted robbing a Bank of America on Nov. 7, 2008, a Walgreens Drug Store on Nov. 17, 2008, and a second Bank of America on Nov. 21, 2008.

Morris claimed the gun he used was a BB gun, though the weapon w

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) introduced a number of floor amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014 this week. Blunt is currently one of three U.S. Senators to serve on both the defense appropriations and authorizing committees.

“Our men and women in uniform and their families make tremendous sacrifices to protect our freedoms,” Blunt said. “I hope the Senate will have the opportunity to vote on these important amendments as we move forward with this bill and work to give our Armed Forces the resources they need to meet their critical mission of defending our nation.”

Blunt introduced a number of amendments, including:

Bannister Federal Complex, Kansas City, Mo. Land Transfer Amendment: Blunt’s amendment would authorize the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the General Services Agency (GSA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to enter into an agreement regarding the conveyance of federal property located at Bannister Road in Kansas City, Mo. and allow for an eventual title transfer and redevelopment of the site.
Amendment to Appoint a Special Envoy in Near East and South Central Asia: Blunt’s amendment would appoint a special envoy for the purpose of promoting religious freedom among religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia. The envoy would hold the rank of ambassador and work in coordination with the Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom to monitor and combat acts of religious intolerance and incitement targeted against religious minorities in these regions. In addition to working with foreign governments and relevant multilateral organizations, the envoy would coordinate these efforts with the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State.
Small Business Contracting Amendment: Blunt’s amendment protects small businesses from overly burdensome regulations when they subcontract with the Department of Defense contracts by ensuring that the Small Business Act applies to all contracts awarded using a small businesses preference no matter which agency makes the award.
Afghanistan Anti-Corruption Amendment: Blunt’s amendment would require the Defense Department and State Department to address in a meaningful way the lack of a comprehensive, measurable anti-corruption strategy in Afghanistan. Specifically, the amendment prohibits funds from being obligated or expended on new Request For Proposal agreements with the Afghanistan government or any third party in Afghanistan until the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense submit to the Senate Armed Services Committee a comprehensive, coordinated strategy for United States anti-corruption efforts in Afghanistan, including goals, objectives, and measurable outcomes.
Article 32 Reform Amendment: Introduced by Senators Blunt, Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), this amendment would reform Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to help prevent abusive questioning of victims of military sexual assault in a pre-trial setting, ensuring that victims who come forward to report sexual assault are not harassed or intimidated during pre-trial questioning.
A-10 Warthog Amendment: Introduced by Senators Blunt and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), this amendment would limit the ability of the Air Force to retire the A-10 until the Air Force certifies that the F-35A achieves Full Operational Capability and exists in the fleet in sufficient quantity to replace the retiring A-10s. It also requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to confirm that the Air Force certification is comprehensive, fully supported, and sufficiently detailed. For more information on this amendment, please click here.
Amendment to Remove Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan from Tier III Terrorist Organizations: Introduced by Senators Blunt and John McCain (Ariz.), this amendment would remove the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) from Tier III terrorist organizations. KDP and PUK have been classified by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as Tier III group terrorist organizations for U.S. immigration law purposes, which is contrary to the cooperative and friendly relationship between Kurdistan and the United States. Surprisingly, the Executive Branch does not have the authority to remove entities labeled as Tier III terror groups from that designation. Only Congress can grant a group exclusive relief as it did in 2008 when it acted to remove the African National Congress (ANC) from the list.
Advanced Concept Ejection Seat for the B-2 at Whiteman Air Force Base Amendment: Introduced by Senators Blunt and Tom Udall (N.M.), this amendment directs the Air Force to complete the Advanced Concept Ejection Seat qualification on the B-2, which will benefit pilots at Whiteman Air Force Base.
Urotrauma Amendment: Co-sponsored by Senators Blunt and Ben Cardin (Md.), this amendment directs the Department of Defense to address the prevention, care coordination, and research of urotrauma as a distinct entity.
Blunt also introduced or co-sponsored amendments that were included in the base bill and passed during the committee mark-up in June 2013.

The head of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and two members met today with President Obama to discuss the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, a moderate Republican who has generally supported the law, was invited but chose not to attend. NAIC President Jim Donelon, Connecticut’s insurance commissioner, organized the meeting.

Praeger said she wasn’t trying to distance herself from the controversy surrounding the law’s problem-plagued rollout.

But she said the meeting was “premature” because the NAIC had not worked with its members to develop consensus on how to address remaining problems with the law’s implementation.

“It’s a huge honor to be invited to the White House,” Praeger told KHI News Service. “But I want to make sure that we use the president’s time wisely and that we are really able to have some constructive and meaningful dialogue.”
Praeger said the NAIC typically has been a “consensus organization.”

“As a past president of this organization, I think we have a real responsibility to communicate with the leadership and make sure that when we have a meeting that it’s not just representing a single point of view, but it’s representing a consensus point of view that’s been arrived at through a vetting process,” she said.

In a joint email sent to their counterparts late Tuesday, Praeger and other commissioners who decided not to attend the meeting said they had “serious reservations about both the process and the policy issues surrounding such an important meeting.”

Adam Hamm, the Republican insurance commissioner from North Dakota, gave similar reasons for skipping the meeting in a statement to the New York Times.

“Because the topic for the meeting (Affordable Care Act) is so delicate and potentially divisive among the nation’s insurance commissioners, a meaningful discussion between all the commissioners needs to take place before a meeting with the president,” said Hamm, who like Praeger is a former president of NAIC. “Unfortunately, that did not happen so I had to respectfully decline to participate in today’s meeting.”

Bob Hanson, a spokesperson for the insurance department, said Praeger also wanted to remain in the state so that she could continue to work with Kansas insurers attempting to comply with President Obama’s recent request that the companies allow customers to temporarily keep policies that don’t meet the ACA’s minimum coverage requirements.

“The Commissioner and her department personnel are in the middle of conferring with companies on how the president’s changes might be implemented,” Hanson said in an email. “Those business and regulatory discussions are keeping the commissioner here in Kansas to make sure any details are hammered out in the best interest of our citizens.”

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state’s largest health insurer, announced Tuesday that it would comply with the president’s request and work to reverse approximately 10,000 policy cancellations already in process, allowing policyholders to keep their nonconforming plans another year.

“This governmental change will allow many of our members to keep the benefit plan they already have and like, while still allowing them to consider new plans that they may be able to purchase with the help of a tax subsidy or small business tax credit,” the company said in a news release.

Praeger said reversing the cancellations likely would be costly to BCBS-KS and other insurers and could lead to premium increases. The main reason, she said, was that companies had based their rates on the assumption that many young, healthy people who had nonconforming policies would purchase more comprehensive plans thereby broadening the insurance pool. If significant numbers of those people decide to hang on to their current plans, the mix of policyholders enrolled in more comprehensive plans will be older and less healthy, Praeger said.

“If you’re going to let these healthier folks stay out of the mix for another year, there’s going to be a (cost) impact,” she said.   –By Jim McLean, KHI News Service

(AP) — Kansas City, Kan., police are investigating after a shot was fired into an elementary school as students were preparing to be dismissed.

Police say no one was injured in the incident Wednesday afternoon at Whittier Elementary School. Police believe the bullet came from a drive-by incident about a block-and-a-half away.

The  school was preparing to dismiss students when staff heard gunshots in the neighborhood. The district’s chief of staff, David Smith, said staff made sure all doors were locked and everyone was kept inside.

After about 20 minutes, police told school officials the threat had been cleared and it was safe to dismiss the students.

Missouri’s execution of a white supremacist who claimed responsibility for killings across the country could increase the state’s use of the death penalty.

The state previously was among the country’s most active death penalty practitioners, but Missouri executions have slowed amid legal wrangling over the execution protocol.

Missouri has executed 69 people since the death penalty was reinstated, which is fifth most among all states, according to figures from the Death Penalty Information Center. The state’s next scheduled execution is that of Allen Nicklasson on Dec. 11.

(AP) – Records show that Missouri’s education commissioner provided advice to a group backing a ballot initiative that would end tenure protections for teachers.

Emails show that Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro met with an advocate for the proposed initiative a year ago and provided suggestions about its wording. Nicastro also reviewed a final version of the initiative before it was filed this March with the secretary of state’s office.

Her actions are detailed in emails released under a Sunshine Law request by the Missouri chapter of the National Education Association and obtained by The Associated Press. The teachers’ union opposes the initiative and contends Nicastro’s involvement was improper.

Nicastro says she has no position on the initiative and would have worked similarly with any group proposing a change to Missouri’s education laws.