KANSAS CITY- A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 6 p.m. on Wednesday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a International Bobtail tractor driven by Raymond D. Whisenhunt, 49, Lawrence, was northbound on Interstate 35 just south of 167th Street.

The vehicle made an unsafe lane change and struck the side of a 1998 Ford passenger car driven by Karen A. Finney, 47, Spring Hill, that was also traveling southbound.

The Ford went off roadway to the right, overturned in the ditch entrapping the driver.

Finney was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center.
Whisenhunt was not injured.
The KHP reported both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pregnant and worried about your medication? The Food and Drug Administration is revamping confusing labels on prescription drugs to make it easier to understand which medications may pose risks to the baby.

Women take an average of three to five prescription drugs during pregnancy, for everything from asthma to infections. It’s hard to tell which are safest, or even if they’ll require a different dose. The letters A, B, C, D and X are used to convey risk, but FDA acknowledges that’s misleading.

On Wednesday, FDA announced it is scrapping that system. Starting next summer, labels on new prescription drugs must clearly state what’s known about safe use during pregnancy or breastfeeding, including whether the information comes from studies in people or only in animals. Older drugs will phase in the new labels.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a suspect was shot and wounded in suburban Kansas City as the U.S. Marshals Service was attempting to take him into custody.

The Overland Park Police Department said in a news release that it is investigating the shooting. It happened just before 4 p.m. Wednesday as a team of law enforcement officers from multiple agencies were moving in on the suspect. The release didn’t say what led up to the shooting, and the Marshals Service didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Police said the suspect was taken to a hospital, and his condition, name and what he was being sought for weren’t immediately released. No officers were injured.

NANCY BENAC, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Christmas is going digital at the White House this year.

The holiday decorations unveiled Wednesday include 3-D printed ornaments that were designed by students, tinkerers, engineers and artists from around the country.

There’s also an interactive installation in the East Garden Room that allows people to visualize themselves in a snowscape projected on the wall.

This year’s theme for the White House decorations is “a children’s winter wonderland.”

Another new feature this year is in the Vermeil Room, where two Christmas trees were created from dress-form mannequins.

Overall, 26 Christmas trees are on display, and there’s more than a mile of knotted ribbon in the animated replicas of first dogs Bo and Sunny.

NICKERSON- A semi driver was injured in an accident just before 11 a.m. on Wednesday in Reno County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1996 Kenworth semi driven by Michael Albert Ake, 56, Enid, OK., was eastbound on Kansas 14 five miles west of Nickeson.

The driver failed to negotiate the curve on southbound Sego Road and the truck overturned.

Ake was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center.
The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — A spokesperson for the Kansas Department for Children and Families on Tuesday announced that Deputy Secretary Kathe Decker and Prevention and Protection Services Director Brian Dempsey have left the agency.

Anna Pilato, director of the department’s divisions for strategic development and community and faith-based initiatives, is due to leave later this month.

“As is normal with a new term, we have re-evaluated our organizational structure and identified places where we can be more efficient,” Theresa Freed, communications director at DCF, wrote in an email to KHI News Service.

“Some individuals have been let go, decided to move on or accept different positions within the agency,” Freed said. “Although we cannot discuss specific personnel matters, we can say that the changes are unrelated to any one issue.”

Dempsey and Decker oversaw the administration of the state’s foster care program, which in recent months has taken in record and near-record numbers of children.

According to DCF reports, 6,156 foster children were in “out-of-home placements” in April, which, at the time, was an all-time high. Since then, the monthly counts have topped that number in May, June, July and October.

In October, 6,215 foster children were in out-of-home placements.

DCF officials have attributed the increases to corresponding greater public awareness. Child advocates have cited how the increases coincided with cuts in the state’s public assistance programs.

Freed said Dempsey’s position has been filled by Michael Myers, director at the department’s regional office in Overland Park since 2012.

Jaime Rogers, she said, has been named deputy secretary of family services, replacing Decker, a former Republican legislator from Clay Center. Rogers had been director of economic and employment services at DCF.

Freed said Pilato’s position “will be left vacant.”

According to state records, Pilato’s annual salary last year was $97,500. Decker’s salary was $90,000 and Dempsey’s was $66,600.

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

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A woman has lunged at a man charged with kidnapping, raping and killing an 8-year-old girl during his capital murder trial.

The Topeka Capital-Journal eports that several police officers caught the woman before she made contact with Billy Frank Davis Jr. He is accused of kidnapping Ahliyah Irvin in March 2012 while she slept in her Topeka apartment, where Davis was a neighbor.

The altercation happened as Davis was being escorted from the courtroom at the start of the afternoon break. Earlier in the day the dryer in which the girl was found was wheeled into the courtroom. Jurors also saw a photo of the victim’s body.

Police have said Davis told detectives that he kidnapped and choked the girl during a flashback to his military service in Iraq.

Michael Pagels, Little Apple Post

MANHATTAN -More than 40 students participated in a protest at the K-State Student Union over the lack of an indictment in the well-publicized case of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Mo.

Justice Davis, junior at K-State and Black Student Union President, led the protesters in the ‘Hands Up – Don’t Shoot’ chant before 4.5 minutes of silent protest by those present.

The student activists wore black and laid on the ground on the main level of the Union in the main hall to represent the 4.5 hours Michael Brown was left on the street after being shot by Officer Darren Wilson.

Davis mentioned several cases involving racial discrimination and police brutality that have occurred over the last few years.

He finished the protest by explaining the Black Student Union’s position is one of non-violence, and violence is not to be condoned.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has lost another legal skirmish in its efforts to salvage the state’s battered ban on gay marriage.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected on Tuesday the state’s request to convene the full court to hear its appeal of U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree’s order that the state allow same-sex marriages.

The latest procedural development from the federal appeals court in the case has little practical effect because the U.S. Supreme Court has already refused an emergency request to block Crabtree’s order. It means that, as usual, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit will hear arguments over the preliminary injunction issued in the Kansas case.

Also, the U.S. Supreme Court is widely expected to resolve soon the question of whether state marriage laws excluding same-sex couples are unconstitutional.