CLAFLIN- Three people were injured in an accident just before 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in Barton County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Toyota Camry driven by Cary Wethington, 34, Hutchinson, was traveling eastbound on Kansas 156 one mile south of Claflin. The driver swerved to miss a deer in the roadway.

The vehicle hit the deer, entered the south ditch, striking a KDOT stop sign, vaulted across NE 130th Ave, struck a power pole on the east side of 130th Ave, and rolled. The occupants of the vehicle were entrapped.

Wethington was transported to Great Bend Regional Medical Center.

Passengers Macey D. Fagen, 23, and , Forestwalker Burch, 15, both of Great Bend, were transported to Clara Barton Hospital.

By Alex Smith
Heartland Health Monitor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cerner Corp., the Kansas City-based health care information technology giant, broke ground Wednesday on its massive Three Trails Campus in south Kansas City, Mo., a project that’s eventually expected to house as many as 16,000 workers.

Cerner officials, along with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Kansas City Mayor Sly James, took part in the ceremony at the site of the now-demolished Bannister Mall, once one of the area’s biggest shopping centers. The mall was torn down in 2009.

Cerner’s plans call for a 4.7 million-square-foot office complex consisting of 16 buildings on 290 acres to be built in 16 phases. The complex will dwarf the company’s current 1.4 million-square-foot headquarters in North Kansas City. By comparison, Sprint Corp.’s campus in Overland Park includes 3.9 million square feet.

Completion of the entire project could take up to a decade, although Cerner hopes to fill several thousand jobs there by 2017.

The company says the project, not far from the former Marion Labs complex that now serves as Cerner’s Innovation Campus, eventually will include shops, restaurants and a hotel.

The project is estimated to cost nearly $4.5 billion. About $1.75 billion, the largest public subsidy ever given to a private company in Kansas City, will come from local and state tax increment financing.

Cerner, one of the area’s fastest growing companies, says it expects to add 16,000 jobs at the campus between 2017 and 2025 with an average annual salary of $75,000.

The complex was initially approved by the Kansas City Council in October 2013.

Company officials anticipate the first Three Trails jobs will be filled in early 2017.

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

WASHINGTON (AP) — A newspaper is reporting that the Justice Department is collecting data from thousands of cellphones through high tech gear deployed on airplanes that mimics communications towers.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the hunt for information about criminal suspects is also collecting data from many innocent Americans.

The newspaper, citing sources familiar with the operations, says the U.S. Marshal’s Service program, which became fully operational in 2007, operates Cessna aircraft from at least five metropolitan-area airports to collect the data.

The planes are equipped with devices that mimic cell towers of large telecommunications firms and trick cellphones into reporting unique registration information.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — During World War I, Kansas sent flour to Belgium in cotton sacks to help the relief efforts during the war.

Belgium women embroidered the sacks and sent them back to Kansas as a thank you gift.

Now 100 years later, one of those embroidered flour sacks is returning to Belgium for an exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of the war.

The Kansas Historical Society said Thursday an embroidered sack from its collection is now on display at the Het Stadsmus in Hasselt, Belgium, for an exhibit open through August 31.

Hasselt is the town that originally received the sack, filled a century ago with flour from Kansas.

This time, Kansas is sending it back without the flour.

VALLEY CENTER, Kan. (AP) — Valley Center police plan to present evidence in a case against a couple who they say stole thousands of dollars from a youth cheerleading squad.

Chief Mark Hephner tells The Wichita Eagle that police have identified 66 people who say they entrusted money to the director of the privately run cheerleading team. He says about $8,000 to $16,000 of money is missing after parents gave the woman money for uniforms, shoes, backpacks and other supplies.

Hephner says the missing money was kept in the woman’s bank account and that it hasn’t been recovered. He declined to comment on her boyfriend’s involvement with the case. They haven’t been charged.

The couple was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on Wednesday and released on bond. The newspaper couldn’t reach them for comment on Thursday.

STAFFORD- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 5 p.m. on Thursday in Stafford County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Dodge pickup driven by Nathaniel L. Russell, 23, Stafford, was westbound in a field four miles southeast of Stafford.

The pickup was leaving the field to go south on SE 100th Ave and pulled out in front of a 2001 Dodge pickup driven by Floyd J. Kocher, 40, Turon.

Russell was transported to the hospital in Stafford.

MANHATTAN, KAN. – Law enforcement authorities in Morris County have made an arrest in an attempted murder in Manhattan.

In a media release, the Riley County Police Department reported receiving a 911 call just after 11:30 a.m. on Thursday in a domestic violence incident in the 600 Block of Yuma Street.

A 27-year-old woman had been stabbed multiple times during an altercation. at the Manhattan Public Library.

The victim, found at the Manhattan Public Library with puncture wounds to her neck and face, was transported by EMS to Mercy Regional Hospital.

Just after 1p.m. Samuel Lee Dartez, 30, Manhattan, was stopped by authorities in Morris County.

After a standoff Dartez was taken into custody at 5:45 p.m.

He was arrested on 1st degree attempted murder and is being held in lieu of a $500,000 bond.

The victim was in stable condition on Thursday evening, police said.

WASHINGTON (AP) -€” Justice Clarence Thomas is suggesting that the Supreme Court was divided over whether to hear the gay marriage cases the justices rejected last month without comment.

Thomas made reference to the same-sex marriage cases Thursday in a statement he attached to a high court order in an unrelated immigration case from Arizona.

He said he doesn’t understand why the court did not hear appeals from five states that sought to preserve their bans on same-sex weddings.

The court often reviews decisions striking down state laws. But Thomas said it has been inconsistent about that recently “for reasons that escape me.”

Justice Antonin Scalia signed onto the statement.

It takes four justices to grant review of a lower court decision.

INDEPENDENCE- Three Kansas women were injured in an accident just before 5 p.m. on Thursday in Montgomery County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Ford Eclipse driven by Tyler K. Linn, 20, Neodesha and a 2006 Ford F150 driven by Jerica R. Hall, 17, Independence, were northbound on U.S. 75 three miles north of Independence. The Eclipse hit the pickup.

Linn and a passenger Casey Sheppard, 17, Cherryvale, were transported to Wilson Hospital

Halls mother transported her for treatment. The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A former Kansas attorney accused of covering up his role in a friend’s death has been ordered to pay her family nearly $300,000.

On Wednesday, a Clay County judge approved the resolution of the suit against former Overland Park, Kansas, lawyer Robert Mintz. The Kansas City Star reports that Mintz was accused of leaving Jennifer Arnett alone and heavily intoxicated in her Kansas City apartment in January 2012. The suit says that after she fell and broke her neck, Mintz found her body but didn’t immediately alert authorities. He also was accused of trying to cover up that they had been drinking together.

Although Mintz did not face criminal charges, state supreme courts in Missouri and Kansas suspended Mintz’s law license. Mintz has called his actions “a personal failure.”

This year Kansas Department of Transportation has implemented new snow fighter training courses to better educate new equipment operators on all aspects of roadway snow and ice control as well as how to maintain their equipment.

KDOT has a staff of 1,200 ready for winter weather, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; they have taken their dry runs and have stored 200,000 tons of salt in preparation for this Kansas winter.

Last winter, KDOT spent more than $22 million and used 128,000 tons of salt to clear the state’s highways while plowing approximately 2.8 million miles, effectively plowing the 25,000-mile state system more than 110 times.

“We are constantly fine tuning KDOT’s operation based on what we learned last year,” said Peter Carttar, Assistant Bureau Chief of Maintenance. “We are always working to improve what we do.”

KDOT joins with other state and local agencies to enhance the safety of travelers before, during and after the storm.

One of the best ways to stay safe on the road over the next few days and during the upcoming holiday travel period is to know the conditions before venturing out. There are a variety of ways to get updated information about road conditions in Kansas. Travelers can obtain route-specific road conditions and weather by calling 5-1-1 within the state or (866) 511- 5368 from out of state. The same information and more can be obtained by visiting the KanDrive website, https://www.kandrive.org, which also has maps, camera views of many routes and more, and the 511 mobile text only site, https://511mm.ksdot.org.
Those planning to travel during or after the storm should follow these safety tips:
Completely clean frost and snow off all windows, mirrors, and lights, and use headlights to provide optimum visibility.
Slow down, accelerate and brake gently, and increase following distance between other vehicles.
Don’t use cruise control.
Allow for more travel time.
Always wear a seat belt, and secure children in the proper child safety seats.
Slow down and move over for stopped emergency vehicles and maintenance crews.
· If involved in a non-injury crash on an interstate, U.S. highway, or any divided or multi-lane road in the state of Kansas, and if you are not transporting hazardous materials, you are required by law to move your vehicle out of the lane of traffic. This law is intended to help keep drivers and passengers safe by getting them out of the lane of traffic and away from oncoming vehicles.

· If possible, remain in your vehicle, and remain buckled up, that way if a crash would occur involving your car or another vehicle nearby, you are more protected than if you are out in the roadway or even on the shoulder.

If involved in a traffic crash, or need assistance, call 911, or contact the Kansas Highway Patrol at *47 (*HP) from a cell phone. Call *582 (*KTA) on the Kansas Turnpike.