WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — State health officials say two cases of measles in the Wichita area are linked to a recent outbreak in the bistate Kansas City metropolitan area.

The Sedgwick County cases reported Thursday involve an unvaccinated adult and an infant who is too young to be vaccinated. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says the state has now had five cases of measles this year.

Officials did not disclose the relationship between the Wichita-area cases and those in Johnson County, Kansas, and nearby Clay County, Missouri.

Four Clay County residents were diagnosed with measles in mid-May, including an unvaccinated infant who had traveled abroad with family members.

In early June, an adult and an unvaccinated child in Johnson County contracted measles after having contact with some of the Missouri patients.

TOPEKA — Fourteen Kansas attorneys and judges applied by a noon deadline Thursday to fill a vacancy on the Kansas Supreme Court created by the July 28 departure of Justice Nancy Moritz to serve on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Click the image at right to see the applicants.

Applicants will be interviewed by the Supreme Court Nominating Commission Aug. 4 and 5 in the Fatzer Courtroom in the Kansas Judicial Center in Topeka. The interview schedule will be posted on the Kansas judicial branch website at www.kscourts.org later in July.

Interviews will be open to the public and interested parties are encouraged to attend.

After interviewing applicants, the Supreme Court Nominating Commission will submit names of three qualified individuals to the governor. The governor will then choose from that list who to appoint to fill the Supreme Court vacancy.

The Supreme Court Nominating Commission is an independent body created by the Kansas Constitution. Its members are: Anne E. Burke, Chair, Overland Park; David J. Rebein, Dodge City; Linda B. Weis, Manhattan; Natalie G. Haag, Topeka; Felita R. Kahrs, Topeka; Matthew D. Keenan, Leawood; Robert Hayworth, Shawnee Mission; Jay F. Fowler, Wichita; and Gary T. Mason, Maize.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has directed two state agencies to develop a program for breeding lesser prairie chickens after the federal government listed the bird as a threatened species.

Brownback said Thursday that the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism will draft a plan for a program. The governor announced his action during a news conference in Dodge City amid an agri-business trade show.

The governor said the federal government must sign off on a breeding program, and he’ll seek its consent.

Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said the program would round up wild prairie chickens, breed them and release them.

The federal government listed the bird as threatened in March because of a sharp decline in its population. Brownback has been critical of the action.

DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — In the nation’s agricultural heartland, farming is more than a multibillion-dollar industry that feeds the world. It could be on track to become a right, written into law alongside the freedom of speech and religion.

Some powerful agriculture interests want to declare farming a right at the state level as part of a wider campaign to fortify the ag industry against crusades by animal-welfare activists and opponents of genetically modified crops.

The right to farm has already won approval in North Dakota and Indiana. It goes next to Missouri voters in an Aug. 5 election. Similar measures passed both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature earlier this year before dying in a conference committee.

It’s not clear how much protection the right would offer because it’s never been tested in court.

ELLINWOOD — A Great Bend man was injured in a crash just after 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Barton County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Ram 3500 pickup driven by Trent M. Peters, 28, Great Bend, was eas bound on U.S. 56, approximately 3 miles east of Ellinwood.

A 2009 International semi-truck driven by David A. Hayes, 41, Higbee, Mo., was following the pickup.

The pickup attempted to turn left onto SE 140 Avenue, as the semi attempted to pass and struck the pickup at the intersection.

Peters was transported to Great Bend Regional Medical Center.

The KHP reported both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

Salina Post

SALINA — A 37-year-old Salina woman told the Salina Police Department she believes a man took a picture of her while she was changing clothes in a dressing room of a downtown business Wednesday afternoon.

The woman said she was in a changing room at the Salvation Army Thrift Store at 157 N. Fifth, when she looked up a saw someone holding a camera over the wall of the changing room.

The woman stepped out of the dressing room and saw a white male with a beard — wearing blue jeans, a short-sleeved black T-shirt and a green baseball cap — leaving the store. She said he drove away in a white pickup pulling a trailer.

The incident occurred between 3 and 3:15 p.m. Wednesday.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The ever-changing geology of Yellowstone National Park has melted an asphalt road, blocking access to several popular geysers and other thermal features at the height of tourist season.

Park officials said Thursday they’re evaluating how to address the problem.

Meanwhile, they’re telling visitors not to hike into the affected area. They say the danger of stepping through a solid-looking crust of soil into boiling-hot water is just too high.

The hot spot has closed Firehole Lake Drive, a 3.3-mile loop 6 miles north of Old Faithful that takes visitors past Great Fountain Geyser, White Dome Geyser and Firehole Lake.

Naturally changing thermal features often damage Yellowstone’s roads and boardwalks. Park spokesman Al Nash says fixing this damage will be a bit more challenging than the typical repair.

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press

No, the United States military isn’t trying to build a force of centenarians.

It just seems that way after the Selective Service System mistakenly sent notices to more than 14,000 Pennsylvania men born between 1893 and 1897, ordering them to register for the nation’s military draft. The agency realized the error when it began receiving calls from bewildered families last week.

Selective Service spokesman Pat Schuback tells The Associated Press that the error originated with the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles, which sent the federal agency a batch of records of males born between 1993 and 1997 mixed with the records of men born a century earlier.

Schuback says that families who received the notices in error can simply ignore them.

Kansas Department of Revenue

TOPEKA – For one year after their deployment, military veterans will be able to waive a commercial driver’s license skill test if they have two years of safe driving in a comparable military vehicle.

The option previously had been available for veterans who had returned within 90 days of the application. The extended waiver option allows veterans returning from an overseas deployment more time to adjust to the civilian world.

“Kansas has a strong military community, when our veterans come home with skills that are useful in the civilian world we want to help them put those skills to work,” said Director of Vehicles Lisa Kaspar. “We are happy to offer the longer waiver period as a way to help our veterans transition into civilian life and find employment.”

Since it was created in 2012, 6,000 active duty and military veterans in Kansas have taken advantage of the waiver.

The waiver applies only to the drive portion of the commercial driver’s license test; applicants will still need to have valid medical certification, pass the written test, have a valid commercial learners permit and verification of two years safe driving in a comparable military vehicle.

The American Association of Motor Vehicles Administrators, the Department of Defense and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration developed the skills test waiver sample form, and updated version of which is re-posted on websites for both the AAMVA and FMCSA.

OSAGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Osage County Sheriff’s Office says a 78-year-old man died when his tractor overturned.

The victim of Wednesday’s accident was identified as Wilford D. Croucher from rural Osage City.

The sheriff’s office says it received a call Wednesday afternoon that a tractor had rolled over and the driver was trapped beneath it. Emergency responders found Croucher dead when they arrived.

An investigation into the accident is continuing.