LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a pilot suffered only minor injuries when his small airplane crashed at the Lee’s Summit Airport.

The crash happened Friday evening. Emergency responders called to the airport just east of Kansas City found the single-engine plane just off the runway at the northeast edge of the airport. It was unclear whether the crash happened during landing or takeoff.

Lee’s Summit police Sgt. Chris Depue says damage to the plane was extensive, but that the pilot — the only person in the plane at the time of the crash — was treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

The pilot’s name has not been released.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash.

CHICAGO (AP) — Some younger workers aren’t particularly thrilled to see a rising share of older Americans forgo retirement and continue working, according to a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The poll found that workers under the age of 50 were significantly more likely to view America’s aging workforce as a negative development when compared with their older counterparts. About 4 in 10 respondents ages 18 to 49 and 44% of the youngest respondents ages 18 to 29 said they consider the trend to be a bad thing for American workers. Just 14% of those age 60 and over said the same.

“I don’t think in things like IT and medicine you’re as effective a worker (at 65 years old) as you are at 50,” says Katie Otting, a 29-year-old living near San Diego. “If some 65-year-old is in a position that he’s not ready to quit because he wants a better pension and there’s someone else ready to take that job, they’re not going to replace him.”

An aging population, elevated health care costs and lingering financial uncertainty following the Great Recession all are believed to be contributing to America’s steadily graying workforce. Nearly 20% of Americans over the age of 65 were employed or actively looking for work last year, up from less than 12% two decades prior, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But the increased prevalence of older workers has led some to believe seniors are holding back the country’s economic momentum by remaining in the workforce. Men were slightly more likely than women to cite the aging workforce as a problem for U.S. workers (32% to 27. And about a third (34%) of more affluent respondents earning more than $100,000 annually said the same, slightly more than the 24% of those earning less than $30,000 who said so.

By contrast, about 6 in 10 Americans age 60 and over say the trend has actually been a good thing for the economy, compared with 3 in 10 Americans under 30 who think that.

About a third of Americans under 50 who have noticed the trend in their own workplace believe the aging workforce has negative implications for their own careers.

“One of the myths that’s out there causing younger and older people to butt heads is the idea that ‘Oh, it’s because these older people are on the job preventing me from getting the job I want,'” says Steve Burghardt, a 74-year-old professor of social work at the City University of New York who thinks Americans are “looking for someone younger or someone older to blame” for inequality, job displacement and other economic problems.

Research is mixed on the aging workforce’s overall impact on the U.S. economy. Adam Ozimek, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics, says his prior research efforts have suggested a growing population of older workers can slow productivity and ultimately hamper wage growth for the rest of the labor market.

But he says there’s little evidence to suggest that the presence of older workers is “crowding younger workers out of promotions,” noting that many of the workers who would naturally move up and replace positions currently held by baby boomers are not millennials but rather middle-aged members of Generation X.

“In anxious times, we look for scapegoats. And old people are a ready scapegoat, especially if you are forced out of having a public presence or are forced (out of a job),” says Ashton Applewhite, a New York-based writer and ageism activist.

The idea that older workers are keeping jobs away from younger Americans, preventing them from moving up the corporate ladder into higher ranking, higher paying positions, is not a new one. But economists say it doesn’t have much basis in economic reality.

“The more of those seniors continue to work, that means they’re also spending. And that spending helps build a rich economy that gives you jobs and lots of opportunities,” says Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at employment hub Glassdoor.

But Chamberlain and Ozimek say it might be easier to believe older workers are holding back their younger counterparts when looking at the economy on a smaller scale. One particular company, for example, may only employ one chief of marketing. Should that person choose to remain in the workforce until he or she is 80 years old, lower ranking employees may perceive a lack of upward mobility.

A comparable job may be ripe for the taking elsewhere, Chamberlain says, but it may be at another company or in another city that would require a move that many employees may be unwilling to make.

“They feel like their opportunities are only within that firm,” Chamberlain says. “I think it’s just simple confusion. I think people are mixing up (opportunities) just inside one company versus the overall job market.”

Meanwhile, many older workers are coming to terms with the fact that they’ll need to remain in the workforce to keep their heads above water or maintain their current lifestyles.

Mitch Rothschild, 61, lives and works in New York City and says he expects he is “probably going to have to work until I die.” He says the aging workforce is less of an economic problem and more of a financial reality to which workers of all ages need to adapt.

“Hey, look, I wished I’d been skiing in the Alps since I was 40,” he says. “But you think I’m going to stop working a year from now and rely on Social Security for the next 20 years? No.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE — Andrew Soergel is studying aging and workforce issues as part of a 10-month fellowship at The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which joins NORC’s independent research and AP journalism. The fellowship is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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The AP-NORC Center survey of 1,423 adults was conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. It was conducted Feb. 14 to 18 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods and later were interviewed online or by phone.

By NOMIN UJIYEDIIN

The state spending review panel is freeing up some of the money the Kansas Department of Corrections asked for to place inmates in county jails and private facilities. Prison officials say it’s a last resort.

Desperate to relieve the strain on state prisons that are already over capacity, officials appealed to the State Finance Council to spend about $10 million on contracts with outside facilities to house as many as 400 inmates.

All that money is in the state budget, but the Finance Council, which includes top legislative leaders and the governor, only agreed to unleash $4.4 million at a meeting Wednesday. They expressed concerns about the quality and safety private prisons out of state.

“Conditions could be worse there,” said Senate President Susan Wagle, “than what we have in Kansas.”

Roger Werholtz, who retired from his second stint as corrections secretary less than a week ago, returned to the Statehouse to make the case for the spending.

He told the panel that the money will cover the housing, food, and basic medical costs for 160 inmates. But, speaking with reporters later, he said it won’t be enough to alleviate the effects of overcrowding.

“The major issues for which we need beds did not get resolved,” Werholtz said. “I don’t know what they think is going to happen with these folks.”

Corrections officials say there’s been a spike in violent incidents and that access to healthcare, counseling, and job training for inmates is inadequate. Inmates are being swapped in and out of solitary confinement because there’s not enough space. Maximum security inmates are being double-bunked, with two inmates in one cell. Staff are overworked.

The department still wants another $5.47 million for contracts to cover an additional 200 prison beds at outside facilities. The Finance Council decided to schedule a meeting at a later date to consider that spending.

The Department of Corrections began taking bids for prison bed contracts from out-of-state prisons and Kansas county jails in May.

Werholtz told the council that department staff had visited a private prison in Arizona that had submitted a bid. The department declined to specify to reporters the location or the company that owns that prison.

A spokesman for private prison company CoreCivic would not confirm the officials had visited one of its prisons in Arizona, but did confirm that the company had bid for contracts in Kansas.

But the legislative leaders on the Finance Council want the corrections department to put inmates in county jails first.

“At least let’s do that,” Denning said, “before we go the private route.”

Werholtz said the corrections department was already prioritizing housing inmates in Kansas’s county jails because they’re closer and easier to manage, but the jails don’t have the space to alleviate much of the crowding at state prisons.

“We’re then passing our overcrowding problem back to the county jail,” he said. “That’s going to be the consequence.”

Interim Corrections Secretary Chuck Simmons said the department received bids from four county jails located in Kansas, and had developed contracts with three: Cherokee, Wilson and Kiowa Counties. The department already has contracts with jails in Cloud and Jackson Counties.

Gov. Laura Kelly said contacting with private prisons isn’t the ideal solution, but that Kansas is out of options.

“We don’t have much of a choice at this point.” she said. “I am really, truly, very concerned about staff safety and inmate safety.”

As a condition of releasing the funds, the Finance Council is requiring the Department of Corrections to keep open a cell block at the El Dorado Correctional Facility. The department wanted to close the block to reduce strain on corrections officers, many of whom work double shifts for days on end.

“We are absolutely burning those staff out and it’s not sustainable,” Werholtz said. “We’re having to lock people down right now because of their violent behavior, instead of working with them to change that violent behavior.”

Kelly declared a state of emergency at that prison in February. Werholtz said staff there had worked more than 2,000 double shifts since. But the panel still argued that every block at the prison should remain open.

“We need a commitment from the administration that they’re going to be open at this time,” said House Speaker Ron Ryckman.

The council also nixed the spending of $3 million to reduce crowding in the women’s prison by moving 120 inmates to the state’s juvenile facility.

It did, however, authorize spending $9 million to raise the salaries of the state’s overworked prison staff and $4.5 million to pay for Hepatitis C treatment for inmates.

Werholtz warned that the strain on the prison system could get worse as the prison population is projected to grow by hundreds of people over the next decade.

“We’re either looking at increasing costs or changing policy,” he said. “There’s going to have to be a substantial change in sentencing policy.”

Nomin Ujiyediin reports from Topeka for the Kansas News Service. You can send her an email at nomin at kcur dot org, or reach her on @NominUJ

HOWARD COUNTY— One person died in an accident just before 8p.m. Saturday in Howard County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Victory Motorcycle driven by Michael J. Fuemmeler, 45, Glascow, was southbound on MO. 3 just south of Route JJ. 

The driver failed to negotiate a curve, traveled off the road and struck a utility pole. The driver was ejected.

Fuemmeler was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to FRIEMONTH-FREESE FUNERAL HOME IN GLASGOW.  He was wearing a helmet, according to the MSHP.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The number of untested rape kits with the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s crime lab has more than doubled since last August, when a new law requiring police to submit kits within 14 days took effect.

As of May 1, 403 kits sat untested, the Kansas City Star reported . There were 179 in August, according to the agency’s website, which posts monthly updates.

The figures indicate the kits are not being tested at a higher rate despite more continuing to be submitted. Advocates said increased kit testing should also be required.

There remains “quite a bit of work to do in Missouri,” said Ilse Knecht, director of policy and advocacy for Joyful Heart, whose objective is to alter society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, and support survivors.

At the highway patrol’s lab, numerous changes have been implemented to address the growing number of kits. Some lab workers are being moved within the division and a new section in the lab designed to screen kits is being established, MSHP director Brian Hoey said. Other kits will be sent to a private lab.

“It is a challenge, but we will meet the challenge,” Hoey said.

There were 4,889 untested rape kits across the state, according to a report published last year by the Missouri attorney general’s office. Five labs, 66 hospitals and 266 law enforcement departments sent responses for that survey. Other agencies didn’t, so it’s likely the figure was higher.

After the report, the attorney general’s office received a $2.8 million federal grant that is being used to compile a list of untested kits. The process should conclude in the next four months, spokesman Chris Nuelle said.

The funding will also be used to develop a forensic tracking system. Knecht said Joyful Heart backs this because it gives survivors an opportunity to check on the status of their kit, which gives them more power over the process.

“It comes back to the survivors and remembering that these boxes that we have sitting on shelves represent an individual,” Knecht said. “This represents a person’s life that was derailed by something that happened to them, something very violent and something very invasive. When we don’t do anything with this evidence, we don’t take it off the shelves and test it, we’re sending a terrible message to survivors that it doesn’t matter if you do this or not and that what happened to you doesn’t matter.”

TOPEKA — Authorities have identified the man who died in an accident Friday in Topeka.

Just after 6:00p.m. on Friday, fire crews responded to Heartland Motorsports near a maintenance building, according to Fire Chief Michael Martin.

Upon arrival fire and AMR crews located one adult male patient suffering from critical injuries sustained in an explosion. Despite efforts by EMS crews, 41-year-old Joshua Darryl Aubert  succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased on scene.

A preliminary investigation revealed the fire cause was accidental. Evidence indicates the victim was using a torch to cut open what was believed to be an empty metal drum labeled as methanol when the explosion occurred.

NEW YORK (AP) — Grocery stores owned by Kroger across the country are recalling store-label frozen berries because they might be contaminated with hepatitis A.

There have been no reported illnesses.

The stores include Kroger, Ralphs, Fry’s, Fred Meyer and other chains . The recalled fruit are branded “Private Selection” and include “Frozen Triple Berry Medley” in the 16-oz. and 48-oz. sizes and “Frozen Blackberries” in a 16-oz package.

Kroger announced Friday that it has removed the berries from store shelves, and that customers who have them at home should not eat them.

Hepatitis A, a contagious liver disease, may cause fatigue, stomach pain and jaundice. It can last a few weeks or several months and can cause liver failure in rare cases.

The Food and Drug Administration discovered the contamination.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Students from two Lawrence high schools are offering to digitally restore print photographs that were damaged when a tornado tore through Douglas County.

The large storm last month damaged trees, struck power lines and left a trail of debris on the southeastern edge of Lawrence, making some road impassable. County officials said six people were taken to the Lawrence hospital for injuries sustained in the storm.

Graphic design students at Free State and Lawrence high schools will begin restoring photographs this fall. It’s unclear how long it will take to return a restored digital file to each participant.

“Those tangible things that remind you of phases of your life are important,” said Barbara Tholen, a Lawrence High School teacher who pitched the idea to the two schools. “So hopefully we can restore some of that for people who lost them.”

Tholen said she wanted to notify tornado victims of the free service before they start disposing of items that were damaged in the tornado.

The newspaper didn’t provide details about the restoration process.

Jennifer Dixon-Perkins, who teaches graphic design at the school, said personal items such as photos are irreplaceable and can provide a sense of normalcy after a catastrophe.

Free State teacher Michelle Salmans said she tries to find ways for students to apply their learning to real world scenarios. Salmans said her students will take the assignments more seriously knowing they’re helping return something someone lost.

Free State senior Greta Hayden said she was eager to help after learning about Salmans’ class project.

“Photos are so sentimental,” Hayden said. “I just want to help people have that back again.”

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Charging documents say a suburban Kansas City nursing home worker stole rings valued at nearly $10,000 from a 99-year-old dementia patient by using lotion to slip them from the woman’s hands in the middle of the night.

23-year-old Leah Anne Goodall was arrested Saturday ahead of her preliminary hearing. The certified nursing assistant is charged with mistreatment of an elder.

A daughter of the elderly woman noticed her mother was missing four rings in April 2018. Court documents say staff at the Overland Park, Kansas, nursing home, told her that Goodall had cared for her mother the previous day and didn’t return to work.

When officers told her there was surveillance video of the room, Goodall allegedly admitted to taking the rings. They have been returned.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Health officials on Friday said they’re still seeking answers from Missouri’s only abortion clinic about why some patients were unaware that they remained pregnant after what the agency described as “failed surgical abortions.”

The state Department of Health and Senior Services said a March health inspection of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic “identified serious concerns, one of those involving the handling of fetal tissue extracted from abortions.” The agency said that led it to investigate Boyce and Bynum Professional Services, which handles fetal tissue from abortions at Planned Parenthood.

The state health department said Friday in a news release that the focus of the review was “to determine why women remained pregnant after the abortion provider and the laboratory confirmed the presence of fetal parts and tissue in the post-surgical abortion pathological examination.”

The agency declined to provide additional details about allegations that some women remained pregnant after receiving abortions at Planned Parenthood and did not specify how many instances it reviewed, citing the ongoing investigation. Planned Parenthood says pregnancies can continue after abortions in extremely rare circumstances.

While the health department in its Friday statement said the lab provisionally lost accreditation with the College of American Pathologists on May 7, a spokeswoman for the accrediting association on Friday said that’s incorrect.

College of American Pathologists spokeswoman Catherine Dolf said in a statement that Boyce and Bynum voluntarily dropped its accreditation in January and at that time fell under direct jurisdiction of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

Dolf said the lab is currently applying for accreditation through the group again and notified the college that an earlier inspection found the lab out of compliance with federal regulations, but that the facility has since come back into compliance.

Boyce and Bynum did not immediately reply to a Friday request for comment, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not immediately comment.

Dr. Colleen McNicholas, an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, called the health department’s announcement a “diversionary tactic.” She said Williams is “revealing his lack of knowledge and experience with abortion care, and is fearmongering in order to justify his efforts to ban abortion in Missouri.”

The state is still investigating the St. Louis clinic, but officials have been unable to interview some physicians — a major sticking point in an ongoing fight over whether the health department will renew the clinic’s license to perform abortions. Planned Parenthood has said those physicians are not staffers, so it can’t force them to be interviewed.

In its Friday release, Missouri’s health agency defined a “failed surgical abortion” as a “very rare complication–in which a woman remains pregnant after a surgical procedure” that “can usually be detected by the examination of fetal tissue confirming the abortion was performed.”

Dr. Cara Heuser, of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Health, said a surgical abortion that still leaves a woman “completely pregnant” is “not something that happens.” She said the state could be referring to abortions in which part of the placenta remains behind, but that can happen with any pregnancy, no matter how it ends.

“The anti-choice groups will say things like ‘botched’ abortions or like ‘failed’ abortions, and I’ve always been unclear what they’re talking about,” she said. “The idea that you would start a procedure and get halfway through and not finish it is preposterous.”

Julie Burkhart, founder and CEO of Trust Women, which operates clinics in Seattle, Oklahoma City and Wichita, Kansas, said its consent forms tell patients that there is a less than 1 in 500 chance that would have a pregnancy continue after a surgical abortion and need another procedure. She deemed it “highly unlikely.”

She said issues sometimes arise that affect procedures such as women having multiple pregnancies that were not apparent, double uteri or ectopic pregnancies, in which a fertilized egg attaches itself somewhere other than in a woman’s uterus. But having cases in which another procedure is required does not mean a clinic is offering substandard care, she said.

“This feels like people in power have decided that they don’t want abortion in their state and by golly, they are going to go to whatever lengths, because they have the power, to make sure that providers aren’t able to provide that care,” Burkhart said.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri health officials say they’re still seeking answers from the state’s only abortion clinic about why patients were unaware that they remained pregnant after what the officials described as “failed surgical abortions.”

The state health department said Friday that officials investigated why the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic and its contracted laboratory confirmed the presence of fetal tissue in biological material extracted during surgical abortions on some women who nevertheless remained pregnant.

Agency Director Dr. Randall Williams says the lab provisionally lost its license but was reaccredited Thursday “based on their willingness to fully comply with the investigation.”

The lab didn’t immediately reply to a Friday request for comment.

The state is still investigating the clinic but has been unable to interview some physicians. Planned Parenthood has said those physicians are not staffers, so the organization can’t force them to cooperate.