MANHATTAN — Republican Senator Pat Roberts will not run for re-election in 2020.

Roberts made the announcement Friday morning at the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s headquarters in Manhattan.

Roberts, 82, is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee and made the announcement weeks after Congress approved a massive farm bill

Roberts is serving his fourth term in the Senate. He began his career on Capitol Hill as an aide in 1967.

His longevity became a political liability during tough primary and general election races in 2014.

“Senator Pat Roberts has had an impressive tenure as a leader in both the House and the Senate, and has served Kansans honorably as chairman of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Ethics Committee,” said fellow U.S> Sen. Jerry Moran. “Pat’s leadership, wit and ability to bring individuals on both sides of the aisle together, skills he honed in service to our nation as a U.S. Marine, will be missed in Congress. It’s been an honor to work with the senior senator from Kansas on behalf of our state. Thank you, Pat, for your friendship and many years of service.”

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities say a 6-year-old girl who was struck by a car along a Kansas City highway had run from a state foster home at least twice.

The child remains in critical condition after she was hit Dec. 21 running across U.S. 40 toward the Tool Shed Lounge biker bar.

Ten days earlier, bar patrons called police to come get the girl after finding her wandering in the dark along the four-lane highway. Kansas City Police spokesman Capt. Lionel Colón says officers returned the child to her foster home. He says police also alerted “a state-appointed social service worker.”

A Missouri Department of Social Services spokeswoman says no records can be released until it’s determined that doing so won’t harm the child or siblings.

CARTHAGE, Mo. (AP) — A 23-year-old southwest Missouri man pleaded guilty in the death of his former girlfriend’s young daughter in a deal that included a 22-year prison sentence.

Jalen Deshawn Vaden pleaded guilty Thursday to child abuse resulting in death in the 2017 death of 3-year-old Jayda Kyle, of Carl Junction. In exchange, a second-degree murder charge was dropped.

A probable cause affidavit says Vaden told investigators he became angry with Jayda in November 2017 when she wouldn’t put on pajamas he told her to wear.

Prosecuting Attorney Theresa Kenney said in December that Vaden confessed to repeatedly throwing Jayda down, causing injuries that led to the girl’s death.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A former Missouri State University assistant professor has been found incompetent to stand trial in the murder of a retired professor.

KYTV reports Edward Gutting was ordered Thursday to be taken into the custody of the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Gutting was charged with killing Missouri State history professor emeritus Marc Cooper and injuring his wife, Nancy. Police say Gutting forced his way into the Coopers’ home in central Springfield in August 2016 and stabbed the victims.

Gutting was charged with first-degree murder after police found him covered in blood outside of Cooper’s home.

Gutting taught in Missouri State’s department of Modern and Classical Languages. Police have said Cooper and Gutting knew one another but were not friends.

A motive for the attacks has not been publicly disclosed.

CALLAWAY COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 9:30p.m. Thursday in Callaway County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2019 Chevy 2500 driven by William T. Schulte, 78, Westphalia, was westbound on U.S. 54 at County Road 318.

The pickup collided with a westbound 2008 Ford Escape driven by Justin C. Ward, 22, New Bloomfield, as it slowed and made an improper left turn from right lane of U.S. 54.

A passenger in the Chevy Charles Eichholz, 82, Westphalia, was transported to St. Mary’s Hospital where he died. Ward and Schulte were not injured. All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.

TOPEKA, Kan. – More than 1,000 Kansas students will receive $2.1 million in student loan forgiveness under the terms of a settlement reached today with Career Education Corporation (CEC), according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

CEC, a for-profit education company based in Illinois, currently offers primarily online courses through American InterContinental University and Colorado Technical University. CEC has closed or phased out many of its schools over the past 10 years.

A total of 1,077 Kansans are eligible for student loan debt relief for a total amount of $2,142,116.

CEC agrees to forgo any and all efforts to collect amounts owed by former students living in the states participating in the agreement.

After receiving numerous complaints from students and a critical report on for-profit education by the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a group of attorneys general, including AG Schmidt, launched an investigation into CEC in January 2014. The attorneys general alleged that CEC pressured its employees to enroll students and engaged in unfair and deceptive practices. These practices included making misleading statements or failing to disclose information to prospective students on total costs, transferability of credits, program offerings, job placement rates, and other topics.

As a result, some students could not obtain professional licensure and incurred debts that they could not repay nor discharge.

The agreement with attorneys general in 48 states plus the District of Columbia mandates added disclosures to students, including a new interactive online financial disclosure tool; bars misrepresentations to prospective students; prohibits enrollment in unaccredited programs; and institutes an extended period when new students can withdraw with no financial obligation.

Nationwide, the agreement requires the for-profit college company to forgive $493,687,220 in outstanding loan debt held by more than 66,000 former students.

“Our investigation revealed that CEC lured prospective students into its programs and that many students left the program with unfulfilled promises and sometimes tremendous debt,” Schmidt said. “This agreement addresses concerns about the company’s business practices and relieves many Kansas students of debt.”

As part of the agreement, CEC does not admit to the conduct alleged by attorneys general.

CEC has agreed to forgo collection of debts owed to it by students who either attended a CEC institution that closed before Jan. 1, 2019, or whose final day of attendance at AIU or CTU occurred on or before Dec. 31, 2013.

Eligible students will receive a letter from CEC within 60 days advising them that CEC will no longer attempt to collect student debt forgiven under the terms of this settlement.

A copy of the agreement is available here.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov.-elect Laura Kelly announced Thursday that she will replace the top administrator at Kansas’ troubled child welfare agency and successfully pushed the departing leader to put new, major grants to private contractors on hold.

Kelly is a critic of the grants from the Department for Children and Families to five nonprofit organizations, committing to higher spending on services for troubled families and abused and neglected children in foster care. Kelly, a veteran state senator, has long been a key player in state budget debates; the department announced the four-year grants just days before Kelly’s election in November, and they were to take effect July 1.

Kelly takes office Jan. 14. Departing Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer and some GOP lawmakers credit Meier-Hummel with improving the department and the child foster care system.Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, said he had hoped Kelly would keep Meier-Hummel on.

But Kelly announced Thursday that she would appoint Laura Howard as both interim DCF secretary and interim secretary for the Department for Aging and Disability Services. Howard is director of the Public Management Center at the University of Kansas but is a former administrator for state and federal social services agencies.

Kelly also issued a blistering statement calling the grants “essentially no-bid contracts,” questioning their legality and promising they would be reviewed. Kelly said she contacted the organizations to ask them to avoid spending state dollars until further notice.

“Despite our best efforts during the transition, accurate and forthright information from current DCF leadership was hard to come by,” Kelly said in a statement.

Department employees investigate allegations of abuse and neglect and recommend to judges whether children should be removed from their homes, but private contractors provide assistance to troubled families, manage foster children’s cases, provide them with services and get them placed in foster homes.

The department used a new process for awarding the new grants that removed oversight from the state Department of Administration and gave DCF more control. Kelly said it “has not been transparent.”

Meier-Hummel responded three hours later in her own, lengthy statement defending the department’s work during her yearlong tenure and confirming that the grants had been put on hold. Meier-Hummel said the department had been “fully transparent and forthcoming” with Kelly’s transition team, whose advisers include Howard.

Under the grants, the state would spend a total of $245 million on foster care services during the budget year beginning July 1. That would be an increase of $35 million, or 17 percent.

In recent years, the department has faced questions about several high-profile deaths of abused children after DCF was alerted to problems. Until September, some children in state custody slept overnight in foster care contractors’ offices, including a 13-year-old girl who in May was raped in an officeby an 18-year-old man also in state custody.

“These new grants are necessary to improve child welfare in Kansas and are in the absolute best interest for Kansas children and families,” Meier-Hummel said in her statement.

Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., an Olathe Republican, said the department was making progress in addressing its problems under Meier-Hummel.

“That’s a hard agency, a very difficult agency, to manage,” said Denning, the Senate majority leader. “I was hoping she would be given a little more runway to prove herself.”

Denning also said Kelly is signaling that she could attempt to cancel the grants.

Kelly’s appointment of a single interim secretary for two departments also suggests that she might merge the agencies, said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat. Together, the departments have an annual budget of $2.6 billion and more than 5,000 employees.

Howard was the expert on social services programs on the Legislature’s nonpartisan research staff before working as a state social services administrator and regional official for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“She has a vast knowledge and experience in the social service field,” Hensley said.