NEW YORK (AP) — Three months ago, this flu season was shaping up to be short and mild in the U.S. But a surprising second viral wave has made it the longest in 10 years.

This flu season has been officially going for 21 weeks, according to reports collected through last week and released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That makes it among the longest seen since the government started tracking flu season duration more than 20 years ago.

Some experts likened the unusual double waves to having two different flu seasons compressed, back-to-back, into one.

“I don’t remember a season like this,” said Dr. Arnold Monto, a University of Michigan researcher who had been studying respiratory illnesses for more than 50 years.

The previous longest recent flu season was 20 weeks, which occurred in 2014-2015.

Flu can cause a miserable, relatively mild illness in many people and a more severe illness in others. Young children and the elderly are at greatest risk from flu and its complications. Flu vaccinations are recommended annually for all but the very young.

The current season began the week of Thanksgiving, a typical start time. At the beginning, most illnesses were caused by a flu strain that tends not to cause as many hospitalizations and which is more easily controlled by vaccines.

But in mid-February, a nastier strain started causing more illnesses and driving up hospitalizations.

Not helping matters: The harsher bug is not well matched to the vaccine, said the CDC’s Lynnette Brammer, who oversees flu tracking.

Still, this flu season is not nearly as bad as last winter’s 19-week season, the deadliest in at least four decades. An estimated 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last season.

The CDC is estimating that flu-related deaths this season in the range of 35,000 to 55,000.

More good news: Brammer said that although the virus is notoriously unpredictable, signs suggest this flu season should be over soon.

“It’s on the verge” of being over, she said. “If nothing changes.”

FARMINGTON, Mo. (AP) — The wife of a Missouri Ku Klux Klan leader has admitted to fatally shooting her husband.

Malissa Ancona pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and abandonment of a corpse in the 2017 death of Frank Ancona Jr. She was sentenced to life in prison under a plea deal. Frank Ancona identified himself as an imperial wizard of the KKK.

Malissa Ancona initially reported her husband missing. She later claimed her son, Paul Jinkerson Jr., shot him while he was sleeping and after he had asked for a divorce. He faces the same charges as his mom.

But she said Friday that he had no role in the shooting. She said did help clean up the crime scene in a rural area of southeast Missouri and helped dump the body.

JEFFERSON COUNTY— A Kansas man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for killing his girlfriend’s mother’s boyfriend near a northeast Kansas lake.

Jonathan Davis Blevins, 23, of Topeka, will not be eligible for parole for 50 years, according to the Jefferson Co. Attorney’s Office.

In March, a Jefferson County jury convicted Blevins of first-degree murder in the death of Taylor Sawyer. He had been shot to death and his body was found in March of 2018 at Perry Lake. Blevin’s girlfriend, Ashlyn Hemmerling was arraigned last month on a charge of first-degree murder in the case. Her mother, Sarah Hemmerling, initially was charged with obstruction, but that charge was dropped.

Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Herrig said previously that authorities believe Ashlyn Hemmerling helped orchestrate the homicide. He said circumstances leading to the homicide may have involved a domestic dispute as well as drug use.

FULTON, Mo. (AP) — Fire officials have determined that a blaze that heavily damaged a central Missouri ambulance district headquarters that was under construction was accidental.

The fire was reported Thursday morning at the Callaway County Ambulance District’s new facility. It took about two hours to bring the blaze under control. The building was unoccupied, and no injuries were reported.

The ambulance district’s director, Charles Anderson, says staff had hoped to move into the facility in October or November. Now, he speculated that the building would need to be torn down and rebuilt.

By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas officials issued a new fiscal forecast Thursday that’s slightly more optimistic about how much tax revenue the state should expect to collect over the next two years, creating a little more breathing room for expanding Medicaid or providing tax relief.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly immediately urged the Republican-controlled Legislature to be cautious. She vetoed a tax relief billchampioned by GOP leaders earlier this month, and some lawmakers want to try again.

Kelly also is pushing to expand the state’s Medicaid health coveragefor the needy to as many as 150,000 additional people. While the idea has bipartisan support, top Republicans have opposed the idea, arguing that it could prove too costly for the state.

The forecasters increased the official projections for tax revenues by less than 1% for the current budget year, the 2020 budget year that begins in July and the 2021 budget year. But the new numbers reflect a view from that group — legislative researchers, university economists and officials in Kelly’s administration — that the economy should remain solid in the short-term.

“What we’re seeing is true, good, solid growth — business growth, income growth. Those are real,” said Larry Campbell, the governor’s budget director and a member of the forecasting group. “We’re hoping that we’re stabilizing out.”

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri social services director is resigning to take a job with a faith-based nonprofit.

Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday announced Director Steve Corsi will step down June 3.

In his resignation letter, Corsi wrote that he’s leaving for a job in the nonprofit human services field and is excited to “get back to direct care.”

Parson spokeswoman Kelli Jones says Corsi did not specify the nonprofit, and an Associated Press request for comment to a Department of Social Services spokeswoman was not immediately returned Thursday.

The department oversees food stamps, Medicaid and other services for low-income Missourians. The agency also investigates child abuse.

Former Gov. Eric Greitens named Corsi to lead the agency in 2017. He previously headed the Wyoming Department of Family Services.

TEXAS COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 5:30p.m. Thursday in Texas County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2017 Ford F250 driven by John A. Eisenhauer, 72, Mountain Grove was westbound on Highway 60 three miles east of Mountain Grove.

The pickup was towing a Jayco Camper-Trailer. The driver suffered a medical condition. The vehicle traveled down an embankment.
Eisenhauer was transported to the hospital in Houston, Missouri where he died. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City psychiatrist has lost his license to practice medicine in Kanas after state regulators alleged he had sex with a patient.

42-year-old Brian Patrick Lahey, of Overland Park, waived his right to a hearing and agreed Tuesday to an indefinite license suspension.

Lahey’s attorney, Nancy Crawford, said Lahey acknowledged the Kansas Board of Healing Arts had sufficient evidence to prove he violated the state’s Healing Arts Act. The Kansas board suspended Lahey’s license in July on an emergency basis over drug use. At the time, it was investigating whether he had sex with patients and improperly prescribed opioids and other drugs.

Other allegations against Lahey include that he exploited a patient relationship for financial gain. Crawford says the board’s charges remain allegations, not findings.