SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Roundup weed killer was a substantial factor in a California man’s cancer, a jury determined Tuesday in the first phase of a trial that attorneys said could help determine the fate of hundreds of similar lawsuits.

<a href=”https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2017-03-17-at-9.41.37-AM.png”><img class=”size-medium wp-image-266358″ src=”https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2017-03-17-at-9.41.37-AM-300×279.png” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”279″></a> Roundup, the Monsanto brand name pesticide built on the chemical glyphosate, is used on farm fields and on lawns and gardens.<br>FILE: by GRANT GERLOCK / courtesy HARVEST PUBLIC MEDIA

The unanimous verdict by the six-person jury in federal court in San Francisco came in a lawsuit filed against Roundup’s manufacturer, agribusiness giant Monsanto. Edwin Hardeman, 70, was the second plaintiff to go to trial out of thousands around the country who claim the weed killer causes cancer.

Monsanto says studies have established that Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, is safe.

A San Francisco jury in August awarded another man $289 million after determining Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A judge later slashed the award to $78 million, and Monsanto has appealed.

Hardeman’s trial is before a different judge and may be more significant. U.S. Judge Vince Chhabria is overseeing hundreds of Roundup lawsuits and has deemed Hardeman’s case and two others “bellwether trials.”

The outcome of such cases can help attorneys decide whether to keep fighting similar lawsuits or settle them. Legal experts said a jury verdict in favor of Hardeman and the other test plaintiffs would give their attorneys a strong bargaining position in any settlement talks for the remaining cases before Chhabria.

The judge had split Hardeman’s trial into two phases. Hardeman’s attorneys first had to convince jurors that using Roundup was a significant factor in his cancer before they could make arguments for damages.

The trial will now proceed to the second phase to determine whether the company is liable and if so, for how much.

Hardeman declined to comment outside court.

“This has been a long time coming for Mr. Hardeman,” said one of his attorneys, Jennifer Moore. “He’s very pleased he had his day in court, and we’re looking forward to phase two.”

Many government regulators have rejected a link between cancer and glyphosate. Monsanto has vehemently denied such a connection, saying hundreds of studies have established that the chemical is safe.

Bayer, which acquired Monsanto last year, said in a statement after the verdict that it continues to “believe firmly that the science confirms glyphosate-based herbicides do not cause cancer.”

“We are confident the evidence in phase two will show that Monsanto’s conduct has been appropriate and the company should not be liable for Mr. Hardeman’s cancer,” it said.

Monsanto developed glyphosate in the 1970s, and the weed killer is now sold in more than 160 countries and widely used in the U.S.

The herbicide came under increasing scrutiny after the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization, classified it as a “probable human carcinogen” in 2015.

Lawsuits against Monsanto followed. The company has attacked the international research agency’s opinion as an outlier.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says glyphosate is safe for people when used in accordance with label directions.

Hardeman started using Roundup products to treat poison oak, overgrowth and weeds on his Sonoma County property in the 1980s and continued using them through 2012, according to his attorneys. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2015.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that local courts can’t throw people back in jail for not paying previous jail debts, a practice that critics said led to modern-day debtors’ prisons.

At issue are boarding costs for time spent in county jails, which are commonly referred to as board bills. Judges wrote in a unanimous decision that while inmates are responsible for those costs, “if such responsibilities fall delinquent, the debts cannot be taxed as court costs and the failure to pay that debt cannot result in another incarceration.”

ACLU of Missouri Legal Director Tony Rothert praised judges for reaffirming that “people cannot be imprisoned for being poor.”

“We know several counties have abused the court process for years to lock up Missourians because they could not afford their freedom,” Rothert said in a statement. “That ends today.”

The case stems from two Missouri men who fell behind on paying the cost of their own imprisonment in county jail and were ordered to return to court repeatedly regarding their bills.

One of the men, George Richey, was ordered to pay $3,150 after serving time in the St. Clair County jail for violating an order of protection. When he didn’t pay, he was sent back to jail for another 65 days and charged another $2,275.

Judges in the decision wrote that the lower courts were wrong to intervene because “express statutory authority permitting jail board bills to be taxed as court costs does not exist.”

“The courts should not have required them to repeatedly appear to account for debts the courts could not legally designate as court costs, and, in Richey’s case, the circuit court should not have sent him back to jail for failing to make those payments,” judges wrote in the ruling.

Attorney Josh Jones defended the practice in court proceedings. On Tuesday, he said the ruling could mean taxpayers shoulder more of the burden for county jail costs.

“The practical reality is it’s going to reduce the amount paid by the people that actually committed the offenses, and practically it’s going to increase the amount paid by taxpayers for feeding and housing prisoners,” Jones said.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly withdrawing a nominee for the Kansas Court of Appeals over political posts on his Twitter feed.

A pro-life group influential in Kansas politics has called on a trial-court judge to step down after political posts on his Twitter feed sunk his nomination for the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Kansans for Life said Tuesday that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s decision to withdraw her nomination of Judge Jeffry Jack for the state’s second-highest court is a good first step.

But Executive Director Mary Kay Culp said the group believes Jack also should resign from his current position of Labette County district judge.

Jack’s Twitter page included posts from 2017 criticizing President Donald Trump and expressing support for gun control and abortion rights. Some used vulgar language.

Jack asked to have his name withdrawn Monday night after Republicans predicted he would not be confirmed by the GOP-controlled state Senate.

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A Kansas judge whose Twitter feed sunk his nomination to the state’s second-highest court says he was expressing personal opinions that do not influence his work on the bench.

In a statement Tuesday, Judge Jeffry Jack also criticized Senate President Susan Wagle for opposing his confirmation to the Kansas Court of Appeals before he had a hearing.

His Twitter page showed hundreds of tweets and retweets from 2017 that criticized President Donald Trump and expressed support for gun control and abortion rights. Some included vulgar language.

Kelly withdrew Jack’s nomination Tuesday.

Jack said his tweets were “anti-violence, anti-discrimination and anti-hypocrisy.” He said he assumed he was expressing personal opinions to a small group of followers and did not understand that his tweets were accessible to the public.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Latest on flooding in the Midwest (all times local):

Vice President Mike Pence says the Trump administration will expedite presidential disaster declarations for Nebraska and Iowa.

Americans like Brad Brown & his airboat co-pilot Jake Rohr are the heart of the heartland. Brad & Jake have been helping victims of the flooding & delivering much needed supplies. Grateful for their service & ALL the volunteers & emergency personnel helping Nebraskans in need! pic.twitter.com/l2PxhwX6a4

— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) March 20, 2019

Pence was in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday to tour areas ravaged by the flood that has killed at least three people and forced hundreds of Midwesterners from their homes.

Pence says he spoke to the governors of both states shortly after landing in Omaha to assure them federal aid will soon be on the way.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds were among a group of Republican leaders accompanying Pence during a brief tour of damaged areas. Others included U.S. Sens. Ben Sasse, of Nebraska, and Joni Ernst, of Iowa, as well as Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.

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4:50 p.m.

A small Missouri town is under a mandatory evacuation order as the Missouri River threatens it.

The Holt County Sheriff’s Department says the evacuation was ordered Tuesday in Craig, a town of about 250 residents 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Kansas City, Missouri.

The sheriff’s office says anyone choosing to stay must go to City Hall to provide their name and address in case they need to be rescued.

Snowmelt and heavy rain have sent the Missouri River pouring over and through levees in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. Craig residents join thousands of others who have been displaced by the flooding.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence is on his way to view flooding caused by heavy rains and snowmelt that damaged hundreds of homes and inundated tens of thousands of acres with water.

Being briefed on AF2 w/ @SenJoniErnst en route to Nebraska on the latest from the devastating flooding that has impacted Nebraska, Iowa, & much of the Midwest. Our hearts are w/ the victims & we are grateful to First Responders & volunteers. Be there soon. pic.twitter.com/TIIjOPTYDE

— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) March 19, 2019

Flooding is expected throughout the week in several states as high water levels flow down the Missouri River. Swollen rivers have already breached at least a dozen levees in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The flooding, which started after a massive late-winter storm hit the Midwest last week, has been blamed for at least three deaths.

Pence is expected to arrive late Tuesday afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska, where the president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau estimates farm and ranch losses could reach $1 billion. Steve Nelson estimates $400 million in crop losses because of crops that will be planted late, if at all. He also estimates up to $500 million in livestock losses from the floods.

The Nebraska city of Fremont was walled off by flooding, but local residents got a lift from private pilots offering free flights to shuttle people to and from their hometown.

The Missouri River is forecast to crest Thursday morning at 11.6 feet above flood stage in St. Joseph, Missouri, the third highest on record. More than 100 roads are closed in the state, where the State Highway Patrol is watching from the air and has water patrol officers on standby to help.

There are widespread evacuations in two counties, including Holt County, where about 40,000 acres (16,188 hectares) and hundreds of homes have been flooded.

“This isn’t new to them,” Highway Patrol Sgt. Jake Angle said. “But it’s no less devastating.”

River flooding has also surrounded a northern Illinois neighborhood with water, prompting residents to escape in boats. People living in the Illinois village of Roscoe say children have walked through high floodwaters or kayaked to catch school buses amid flooding along the Rock River.

Flooding along rivers in western Michigan also has damaged dozens of homes and businesses.

President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that he was staying in close contact with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem about the flooding in those states.

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KANSAS CITY (AP) — The Latest on flooding in the Midwest (all times local):

Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Nebraska to survey damage from flooding in the Midwest.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted that President Donald Trump requested Pence go Tuesday to the Midwest to see the damage.

Troopers are assisting Fremont Police Department with flooding operations. Thank you for allowing safe transport utilizing the MRAP. #NSP51 #NSP309 @NSP_TroopA_ISO pic.twitter.com/tefdz5MBT3

— NSP_TroopANightShift (@NSPTroopANights) March 18, 2019

Sanders says Pence will be joined by Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The tweet did not say where in Nebraska Pence would go.

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3:30 p.m.

North Dakota’s largest city has declared an emergency and Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney is asking residents to help fill 1 million sandbags as the city prepares for major Red River flooding.

This Highway 91 at the Dodge/Washington County line. pic.twitter.com/ZFqyobYt1O

— NSP Troop A (@NSP_TroopA) March 18, 2019

The National Weather Service says “significant” snowmelt flooding is likely this spring in the Red River Valley after last week’s massive late-winter storm in the Midwest. The chance the river will reach major flood stage in Fargo has increased from 50 percent to 90 percent.

The neighboring cities of Fargo and Moorhead, Minnesota, experienced a record flood 10 years ago. The two cities have implemented several measures such as home buyouts and levees since then.

But Mahoney says there are still areas that could be vulnerable. Sandbag-filling operations begin March 26.

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3:10 p.m.

An Illinois town is bracing for potentially the worst flooding it has seen in at least a half-century.

Freeport City Manager Lowell Crow says the town of 25,000 residents west of Rockford could see an all-time record flood along the Pecatonica River. At best, the water level will get to its highest level in 50 years.

Several Illinois towns face flooding from the late-winter deluge that has ravaged several Midwestern states. National Weather Service readings show major flooding along the Pecatonica River at Shirland, Illinois, and along the Rock River in Moline and the Rockford area.

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2:45 p.m.

The late-winter flood has compromised about 200 miles of Missouri River levees in four Midwestern states.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says levees that have been topped or breached in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas contributed to the flooding that has forced hundreds of people from their homes. Three deaths have been blamed on floodwaters, and two men in Nebraska have been missing since Thursday.

The National Weather Service says river levels have topped off along the Missouri River at Omaha, Nebraska, as well as at several Missouri River tributaries in Nebraska.

High flows and water levels remain throughout the river basin south of Sioux City, Iowa.

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LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A woman has been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years for killing the father of her child whose body was found inside a burning house near Lawrence.

39-year-old Tria Evans appeared in court Tuesday for sentencing six weeks after a jury deliberated 1½ hours. She was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, arson and aggravated burglary in the November 2017 killing of 34-year-old Joel Wales.

Evans and Wales had a child together and a history of domestic disputes.

Judge Kay Huff says “it doesn’t get much more premeditated than this case.”

Wales was shot six times while house-sitting at his mother’s home just south of Lawrence. Gasoline was was poured over his body and lit on fire.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — University of Missouri officials say they have fired a campus police officer after verifying he was in a photo depicting him blackface.

The university said Tuesday in a news release that Marcus Collins acknowledged he was the person in the picture and that it was taken before he was hired with the police department in January 2018.

A message left for Collins was not immediately returned.

Chancellor Alexander Cartwright says that this type of behavior is not tolerated at the university, adding they understand how this impacts the entire community profoundly.

Spokesman Christian Basi says Collins is the only person depicted in the photo, but that he did not know when or where the photo was taken or any other context. He says university officials received the photo on Tuesday.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect following a hit and run crash and fire and have made an arrest.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect following a hit and run crash and fire.

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — A kidnapping suspect who escaped from a Missouri jail and an Oklahoma patrol car was arrested Tuesday back in Missouri after being on the run for nine days.

Authorities said Travis Lee Davis, 30, was found in the early morning trying to hide in the attic space of a garage after a call from a citizen who believed Davis was in there.

Sedalia Police Chief Matt Wirt said that Davis tried to escape before he was arrested.

“He tried to get away from the officers through going over the rafters, but officers were able to grab him when he got over by a wall and quickly handcuff him,” Wirt said. “We didn’t give him the opportunity to run, to fight, and got him into custody quickly.”

Davis claimed he had a medical issue after being discovered and was transported by ambulance to the Bothwell Regional Health Center where he was found fit for confinement, according to a news release. Officers then took him to the Pettis County Jail, where Sedalia officers had brought him five weeks ago after a hostage situation in Buckner Court.

Davis had been the subject of a two-state manhunt since escaping from the Pettis County Jail in Sedalia on March 9.

He was recaptured four days later in Heavener, Oklahoma. But police said he was able to escape from a patrol car by crawling into the front seat while handcuffed. He drove the car about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) before crashing.

Police suspect he later stole a pickup truck and drove back to Missouri.

Davis is now in isolation at the Pettis County Jail, Bond said

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SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a kidnapping suspect who escaped from a Missouri jail and an Oklahoma patrol car has been arrested after returning to Missouri.

Travis Lee Davis, 30, was found early Tuesday trying to hide in the attic space of a detached garage. Sedalia Police Chief Matt Wirt says he tried to escape before he was arrested.

Davis has been missing from Sedalia since escaping from the Pettis County Jail on March 9.

He was recaptured last Wednesday in Heavener, Oklahoma. But police say he was able to escape from a patrol car by crawling into the front seat while handcuffed. He drove the car about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) before crashing.

Police suspect he later stole a pickup truck and drove back to Missouri.

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HEAVENER, Okla. (AP) — Authorities say a kidnapping suspect who escaped from a Missouri jail and then from an Oklahoma police car apparently stole a pickup truck and returned to Missouri.

The truck was found Sunday in Pettis County, Missouri. That’s where 30-year-old Travis Lee Davis broke out of jail just more than a week earlier. The sheriff’s office says the truck had been stolen Friday from a home near Heavener, Oklahoma, where Davis apparently stayed in a camper after his second escape.

Police say that escape happened Wednesday when he crawled from the back seat of a patrol car and into the front while handcuffed. Davis then drove the car about 1.5 miles  before crashing into a tree.

A search is underway. Authorities say Davis should be considered armed and dangerous.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against a group of immigrants in a case about the government’s power to detain them after they’ve committed crimes but finished their sentences.

The issue in the case before the justices had to do with the detention of noncitizens who have committed a broad range of crimes that make them deportable. Immigration law tells the government it must arrest those people when they are released from custody and then hold them while an immigration court decides whether they should be deported.

But those affected by the law aren’t always picked up immediately and are sometimes not detained until years later. In the case before the Supreme Court, a group of mostly green card holders argued that unless they’re picked up essentially within a day of being released, they should be entitled to a hearing where they can argue that they aren’t a danger to the community and are not likely to flee. If a judge were to agree, they would not have to remain in custody while their deportation case goes forward. That’s the same hearing rule that applies to other noncitizens the government is trying to deport.

But the Supreme Court disagreed with the immigrants’ interpretation of federal law in a 5-4 ruling that divided the court along ideological lines. Looking at a statutory provision enacted by Congress in 1996, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “neither the statute’s text nor its structure” supported the immigrants’ argument. The court’s conservative justices sided with the Trump administration. The administration argued, as the Obama administration did, that those affected by the law aren’t entitled to a hearing where they can argue for their release, regardless of whether they are arrested immediately after being released from custody or not.

Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the administration was “pleased with the decision.”

Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent he read aloud in court, said that the larger importance of the case has to do with the power his colleagues’ ruling gives the government.

“It is a power to detain persons who have committed a minor crime many years before. And it is a power to hold those persons, perhaps for many months, without any opportunity to obtain bail,” Breyer said.

He wrote that in his view the law requires immigrants who have committed crimes to be detained “within a reasonable time after their release” from custody, “presumptively no more than six months.” If the person is not detained within that time, they should get a hearing where they can argue for their release, Breyer wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union represented the immigrants in the case before the Supreme Court. ACLU attorney Cecillia Wang, who argued the case, said after the decision that the ACLU will call on Congress to clarify the law and will continue to pursue options in court.

Tuesday’s ruling was based on the text of the statute, and Wang said the ACLU will argue that the statute, as interpreted by the justices, is unconstitutional. Wang also called the decision an “extreme waste of taxpayer money,” saying it locks up individuals who are not a danger to the community.

The case before the justices involved a class-action lawsuit brought by noncitizens in California and a similar class-action lawsuit brought in the state of Washington. In those cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit sided with the immigrants, but other appeals courts had sided with the government in similar cases.

One of the lead plaintiffs involved in the California case, Mony Preap, has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States since 1981 and has two convictions for possession of marijuana. He was released from prison in 2006 but was not taken into immigration custody until 2013. Preap has since won his deportation case, allowing him to remain in the country.

The case is 16-1363 Nielsen v. Preap.