LAWRENCE- Four people were injured in an accident just before 6 p.m. on Saturday in Douglas County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol Reported a Peterbilt semi driven by Martin D. Carter, 37, Onaga, was eastbound on N 1000 Road five miles southeast of Lawrence, failed to stop for a posted stop sign and struck a 2013 Chevy Impala driven by Anthony W. McClintock, 31, Eudora.

The collision caused the Impala to strike a 1989 Ford Ranger driven by Austin D. Trumble, 24, Lawrence. The semi continued eastbound, entered the ditch and rolled onto its side.

McClintock and passengers in the Chevy Stella J. McClintock and two children all of Eudora were transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Carter and Trumble were not injured.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is recognizing gay marriage in six more states, extending federal benefits to those couples.

Attorney General Eric Holder says the states are: Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Saturday’s announcement brings the total number of states with federal recognition of same-sex marriage to 32, plus the District of Columbia.

Couples married in these states will qualify for a range of federal benefits, including Social Security and veterans’ benefits.

Holder says the Justice Department also has determined that it can legally recognize gay marriages performed in Indiana and Wisconsin after federal courts declared state marriage bans unconstitutional. Subsequent developments created confusion about the status of those unions, but Holder says the federal government will recognize the marriages.

By Mike Sherry

Hale Center for Journalism
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At one point when he was a student at Kansas State University, Jon Smith would jog as many as 20 miles a day.

“If I wasn’t in the library and not in class,” he said, “I was running.”

But Smith was far from healthy.

His over-the-top regimen was a manifestation of an eating disorder known as purge-type anorexia, hints of which first surfaced when weight gain from migraine medication made Smith a pudgy fifth-grader. His training obsession began two years later during preparations for the Junior Olympics.

Born and raised in Lenexa, Kan., the 23-year-old now lives in his hometown and works as a data entry supervisor at a company that processes employee drug screenings for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Smith graduated from Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park in 2009 and earned a psychology degree from Kansas State University with a minor in English literature. He is now applying to medical school, thinking of pursuing a specialty in which he can use his unique insights to help eating disorder patients.

Smith’s experience makes clear that eating disorders are not just an issue for women.

Some researchers suggest that men make up a third of the 30 million Americans who battle clinically significant eating disorders. The National Association for Males with Eating Disorders, citing other research, said males make up anywhere from 25 percent to 40 percent of those suffering from eating disorders.

The association said that media objectification of men is just as rampant as it is for women and that males in treatment for eating disorders are more likely than women to exhibit co-occurring conditions such as excessive exercise.

Researchers suspect eating disorders might be under-reported among males who fear the stigma of suffering from a “women’s problem,” a view that contributed to Smith’s embarrassment over his struggles.

“I did not think guys got eating disorders,” he said.

By the time he was running fanatically at K-State, Smith’s diet consisted mostly of carrots, broccoli and kale.

In the fall of his senior year, he coughed up blood on one of his runs. The doctor diagnosed it as a pinhole in his lung and directed him not to run for two weeks, an order Smith followed for two days.

Eventually, Smith started to worry that he couldn’t concentrate in class and that his running compulsion was overriding his school work. By then, he was down to around 100 pounds and ready to seek inpatient treatment for the second time. An earlier attempt in high school had not worked.

Around Thanksgiving of 2012, he started what became a three-month stay at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver. In December, he earned his degree from K-State.

Helping him recover, Smith said, has been the recognition of what he missed because of his disorder, including some amazing food served up during a study-abroad semester in Rome, and the extent to which it might stymie his dreams for the future.

In place of a fanatical running schedule, Smith said, he now walks during his lunch hour or plays with his nieces and nephews.

“I try to stay as active as I can,” he said.

 

Mike Sherry is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A central Kansas man has suffered severe electrical shocks while helping to harvest a soybean field.

The Salina Journal reports that 24-year-old Zachary Short was flown to a Wichita hospital Saturday with critical injuries.

Saline County Sheriff’s deputy Chad Flesher said that after cutting a soybean field, an auger boom that would have transferred the soybeans into a semi came in contact with power lines. The current caused sparks, and Short grabbed a fire extinguisher.

Flesher says Short was vaulting over the hitch between the tractor and grain cart when he was thrown backward. Short collapsed against the frame of the grain cart. One of the other men helping with the harvest found a plastic shovel and was able to move Short away from the electric current.

 

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SALINA- Two men received electrical burns and one was hospitalized after a harvest accident on Saturday afternoon in rural Saline County.

Saline County Rural Fire District Chief Jim Preston said the accident occurred when a harvest crew unloading grain discovered a tire on fire in a field near Ohio Street and East Farrelly Road.

In an effort to help put the fire out, one man came in contact with machinery that was also touching power lines.

He was transported to Salina Regional Medical Center and then transported to Wichita for treatment of severe burns. The other worker was not seriously injured.

Fire crews had to let the machinery burn while waiting for Westar Energy crews to disconnect power. The farm equipment was destroyed.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The health care worker now quarantined at a New Jersey hospital because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa is sharply criticizing the way her case has been handled.

Kaci Hickox told the Dallas Morning News she stopped at Newark Liberty International and questioned over several hours after touching down Friday. She said none of those who questioned her would say what was going on or what would happen to her.

Hickox is a nurse who had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone. Officials say she was taken to a hospital after developing a fever, but Hickox says she was merely flushed because she was upset by the process.

Hickox tested negative for Ebola in a preliminary evaluation. Hospital officials would not say whether she would remain there for the entire 21-day state-ordered quarantine period.

 

CENTERVILLE, Kan. – A Kansas woman died in an accident just before 2 p.m. on Saturday in Linn County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Ford Escape driven by Charlene Jo Conner, 64, Blue Mound, was northbound on 1077 Road, three miles south of Centerville. The vehicle left the roadway to the west, crossed a small creek, and struck several small trees, three fence posts and a large tree.

Conner was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Schneider Funeral Home in Pleasanton.

The KHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

COURTLAND, Kan. – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 3 p.m. on Saturday in Republic County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1995 Harley Davidson Motorcycle driven by Curtis Ray Moser, 58, Mankato, was westbound on U. S. 36 one mile north of Courtland. The motorcycle struck a semi driven by Marvin Dee Bergstrom, 80, Courtland, that was entering U.S. 36 from Kansas 199.

Moser was transported to Republic County Hospital. Bergstrom was not injured.

The KHP reported Moser was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.