JACKSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon on theft charges after an arrest.
Just after 8a.m. Monday, deputies received a report of a truck backed into a residential driveway in the area of 118thand U.4 Road near Hoyt, according to Jackson County Sheriff Tim Morse. A man was sleeping inside the truck.
Deputies made contact with the subject and identified him as Dylan Wayne Massey, 28, of Topeka.
LABETTE COUNTY — One person died in an accident just before 4:20p.m. Tuesday in Labette County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Ford Escape driven by Laci R. Myers, 21, Oronogo, MO., was northbound on U.S. 59 and Road 20000.
The vehicle crossed the center line and struck a 2016 Nissan Frontier driven by Herman C. Long, 84, Parsons, head-on.
Myers was pronounced dead at the scene. Long and two passengers in the Ford Nolan T. Polinsky, 2 and Mckenna V. Polinsky, 1, both of Oronogo, Mo., were transported to Labette County Medical Center.
All four were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas woman has been killed by a massive tree falling on her home while she was in the living room.
The death occurred Tuesday morning in Leavenworth. Authorities have not yet released the victim’s name.
Leavenworth Fire Chief Gary Birch said authorities believe the tree might have fallen over because the ground was so saturated from recent rains that its roots became loose. He said there was no strong wind in the area Tuesday morning.
Birch said a crew was working Tuesday to remove the tree so that the woman’s body can be recovered. He said the trunk of the tree appeared to be about 4 feet in diameter.
Much of Kansas has seen heavy rain and flooding over the past week.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Latest on the possible closure of Missouri’s only abortion clinic (all times local):
The ACLU of Missouri is seeking a statewide vote on a new law that will ban most abortions starting at eight weeks of pregnancy.
The ACLU said Tuesday that it has submitted a referendum petition to the secretary of state’s office as a first step toward blocking and potentially repealing the law that Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed last week.
If the petition is approved for circulation, the ACLU would need to gather more than 100,000 signatures to block the law from taking effect on Aug. 28 and force a referendum in 2020.
A similar tactic was used in 2017, when opponents of a law limiting union powers submitted enough signatures to block it from taking effect. Missouri voters overwhelmingly rejected that law in 2018.
Also Tuesday, Planned Parenthood announced a lawsuit against the state that seeks to keep open its abortion clinic in St. Louis. Planned Parenthood says the state may not renew the clinic’s license, which means it could be forced to stop performing abortions as of Saturday.
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11:55 a.m.
Planned Parenthood is suing to keep Missouri’s last remaining abortion clinic open.
Leaders of Planned Parenthood said Tuesday that the lawsuit seeks a restraining order that would prevent the state from closing the clinic in St. Louis.
State officials have not returned several messages seeking comment.
Planned Parenthood says the current license for the St. Louis facility expires Friday and Missouri is threatening not to renew it. If that happens, the organization says Missouri would become the first state without a functioning abortion clinic since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
Missouri is among half a dozen states that have passed sweeping anti-abortion measures. Parson, a Republican, signed a bill Friday banning abortions on or beyond the eighth week of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
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11:15 a.m.
Planned Parenthood says Missouri’s only abortion clinic could be closed by the end of the week because the state is threatening to not renew its license.
Planned Parenthood officials said in a teleconference Tuesday that the current license for the St. Louis facility expires Friday. If not renewed, the organization says Missouri would become the first state without a functioning abortion clinic since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
Phone and email messages left for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and Gov. Mike Parson’s office haven’t been returned.
Missouri is among half a dozen states that have passed sweeping anti-abortion measures. Parson, a Republican, signed a bill Friday banning abortions on or beyond the eighth week of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 27-year-old Kansas City-area man has drowned while swimming at the Lake of the Ozarks during the Memorial Day holiday.
The Missouri Highway Patrol said 27-year-old William Gordon-Price of Overland Park, Kansas, drowned about 4:45 p.m. Monday near the Grand Glaize Bridge.
Gordon-Price had jumped into the water and was swimming near a pontoon boat when he went under and did not resurface.
The Highway Patrol said the lake is about 60 feet deep in the area where Gordon-Price went under. The patrol said he was operating the pontoon boat and was not wearing a safety device.
Rescuers used surface and side-scan sonar searches in hopes of finding him. Divers were brought in to search for him and continued into Monday night.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri’s only abortion clinic could be closed by the end of the week because the state is threatening to not renew its license, Planned Parenthood officials said Tuesday.
Planned Parenthood officials said in a teleconference that the current license for the St. Louis facility expires Friday. If not renewed, the organization said Missouri would become the first state without a functioning abortion clinic since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
“This is not a drill,” said Dr. Leana Wen, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “This is not a warning. This is real and it’s a public health crisis.”
Planned Parenthood said the state told officials it was investigating “a large number of possible deficiencies.” The state wanted to interview seven physicians, but the organization said only the two staff physicians agreed to be interviewed. Those interviews will take place later Tuesday.
Phone and email messages left for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and Gov. Mike Parson’s office haven’t been returned.
Missouri is among half a dozen states that have passed sweeping anti-abortion measures. Parson, a Republican, signed a bill Friday banning abortions on or beyond the eighth week of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
Under the Missouri law that comes into force Aug. 28, doctors who violate the eight-week cutoff could face five to 15 years in prison. Women who terminate their pregnancies cannot be prosecuted.
Wen said a lawsuit has been filed to try and keep the St. Louis clinic open. If it closes, the nearest clinics performing abortions are in a Kansas suburb of Kansas City and in Granite City, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.
“While the state of Missouri is waging a war against its abortion services and providers, the Hope Clinic remains committed to the patients of Missouri,” Erin King, executive director of the Granite City clinic, said in a statement.
Wen said Missouri has “illegally weaponized the licensing process.” Colleen McNicholas, an OB-GYN at the Planned Parenthood office in St. Louis, called it the “natural consequence of several decades of restriction after restriction.”
“This is precisely what we’ve been warning of,” McNicholas said.
Alabama’s governor signed a bill on May 15 making performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases. Supporters have said they hope to provoke a legal challenge that will eventually force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationally.
Unlike Alabama’s near-total abortion ban, lawmakers who helped draft the Missouri bill say it’s meant to withstand court challenges instead of spark them. If the eight-week ban is struck down, the bill includes a ladder of less-restrictive time limits at 14, 18 or 20 weeks.
Missouri’s bill also includes an outright ban on abortions except in cases of medical emergencies, but that would kick in only if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Missouri Right to Life called it “the strongest pro-life bill in Missouri history.”
Kentucky , Mississippi , Ohio and Georgia also have approved bans on abortions once fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy. Some of those laws already have been challenged in court, and similar restrictions in North Dakota and Iowa have been struck down by judges. Nonetheless, the rash of new legislation has left abortion providers in some of those states uncertain about what they can now do.
Even before the latest legislation, Missouri already had some of the most restrictive abortion regulations in the nation, including a requirement that doctors performing abortions have partnerships with nearby hospitals.
A total of 3,903 abortions occurred in Missouri in 2017, the last full year for which the state Department of Health and Senior Services has statistics online. Of those, 1,673 occurred at under nine weeks and 119 occurred at 20 weeks or later in a pregnancy.
A total of 2,910 abortions occurred in 2018 in Missouri, according to provisional data provided by the health agency. That includes 433 abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy and 267 at six weeks or earlier.
McNicholas said there is “a tremendous amount of confusion” among women who come to the Planned Parenthood clinic because of all of the recent laws.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri is seeking a statewide vote on Missouri’s new abortion law. The ACLU said Tuesday that it has submitted a referendum petition to the secretary of state’s office as a first step toward blocking and potentially repealing the law.
If the petition is approved for circulation, the ACLU would need to gather more than 100,000 signatures to block the law from taking effect on Aug. 28 and force a referendum in 2020.
A similar tactic was used in 2017, when opponents of a law limiting union powers submitted enough signatures to block it from taking effect. Missouri voters overwhelmingly rejected that law in 2018.
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TOPEKA— The Kansas boy critically injured after hit by a car while riding a bicycle has died.
The 11-year-old died Monday, according to Gretchen Koenen with the Topeka Police Department.
Just before 7p.m. May 14, police responded to the intersection of SW 4th and Taylor in Topeka where the vehicle struck the 11-year-old on a bicycle.
EMS transported him to a local hospital with what was determined to be life threatening injuries.
The accident remains under investigation, according to Koenen. Police have not released additional details.
President Donald Trump says the summertime ban on higher ethanol blends is a “ridiculous rule.” However, SP Global Dot Com says during a press conference last Thursday, he didn’t give any new timeline for giving consumers year-round access to E-15.
The Environmental Protection Agency says it will issue a final rule allowing summertime E-15 sales by June 1, the official start of the U.S. summer driving season. Last October, the president promised his administration would approve year-round E-15 access, but the policy got bogged down, thanks to the government shutdown and the debate between biofuel producers and oil refiners.
The EPA did propose a year-round E-15 rule in March, a process that typically takes several months to finish. Market experts say that gas station owners are likely waiting until the final rule is official before they add any new pumping equipment. The Renewable Fuels Association says hundreds of fuel stations would add equipment to pump E-15 in the months after the EPA adopts the final rule, and that number will grow to thousands in the years after the decision is reached.
Senate Republicans and Democrats finally came together on an agreement regarding a $19.1 billion disaster aid package. An Agri-Pulse report says the aid was expanded to include payments to producers who can’t plant a crop this year. It also will include farmers whose stored commodities were damaged by flooding. Producers who lost crops to hurricanes and wildfires last year will also qualify for payments.
The combination of disaster payments and crop insurance benefits or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program would be limited to 90 percent of a farmer’s loss. Disaster payments to farmers who don’t buy crop insurance will be limited to 70 percent of their loss. The disaster aid package also includes a provision making industrial hemp eligible for whole-farm insurance policies starting next year. The Senate approved the bill 85-8 on Thursday, just before the Memorial Day recess.
Passing the bill had been delayed months because of a battle between President Trump and Democrats over disaster funding for Puerto Rico. The battle also involved funding the president wanted for the southern border. Those funds were left out of the final bill. Most of the House had already left for the holiday weekend before the Senate passed the bill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will not take up a challenge to a school district’s policy allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their sexual identity.
The justices on Tuesday rejected an appeal from students who argued that allowing transgender students to use the same facilities violated their right to privacy.
The court’s order leaves in a place a federal appeals court ruling that held the Boyertown School District, about 45 miles northwest of Philadelphia, could continue to allow transgender students the choice of what facilities to use.
The students are represented by the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom.
