GARDEN CITY- A Kansas teenager was injured in an accident just before 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Finney County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1963 Chevy pickup driven by Lawrence Jonagan, 77, Ingalls, was northbound in the 4500 Block of Jennie Barker Road.

The truck attempted to turn westbound onto Rodkey Road.

A 2001 Olds Intrigue driven by Jacob Thys, 17, Garden City, was southbound, applied brakes and collided with the front of the truck.

Thys was transported to St. Catherine’s Hospital.

Jonagan was not wearing a seat belt and not injured according to the KHP.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal regulators have ordered Union Pacific to pay $350,000 to a long-time employee who was disciplined after reporting an injury, but the railroad plans to appeal.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday this is the third time since 2011 that Union Pacific had violated federal rules by disciplining workers who reported injuries and sought treatment.

OSHA says a locomotive engineer based in North Platte, Neb., who was hurt in a December 2013 collision, was disciplined afterward. The worker had never been disciplined before in 35 years of working for the railroad.

Union Pacific spokesman Aaron Hunt says the railroad strongly disagrees with regulators’ findings and will appeal.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A dispute over whether Kansas must boost spending on its public schools by tens of millions of dollars each year is headed back to the state’s highest court.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office notified a three-judge Shawnee County District Court panel this week that the state will appeal the panel’s latest ruling in a lawsuit filed in 2010.

The panel ruled in December that the state must spend at least $548 million more annually to fulfill its duty under the state constitution to provide a suitable education to every child.

The state both appealed to the Supreme Court and asked the panel to reconsider. The high court told the lower court March 5 to review the state’s request to reconsider.

But the panel last week reaffirmed its December ruling.

By Jim McLean

The state of Kansas and four nonprofit organizations are seeking federal approval to conduct an experiment that they hope will boost participation in a summer meals program that now is serving only a fraction of eligible children.

Led by the Kansas State Department of Education, the coalition is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily waive some rules so that it can conduct a demonstration project to feed needy children in rural parts of the state when school is out for the summer.

Last year, fewer than 7 percent of Kansas children who were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches during the school year took advantage of the Summer Food Service Program. One of the biggest reasons for the low participation was the fact that there were no meal sites in 44 rural counties.

Cheryl Johnson, director of child nutrition and wellness for KSDE, said federal rules that require children to travel to congregate meal sites could be part of the problem. The waiver would test that theory by allowing KSDE and its nonprofit partners to feed children at congregate sites one day but send them home with packaged meals for the next day.

“Parents wouldn’t have to drive their children to the congregate site each day,” Johnson said. “There would be the benefits of the congregate meal — the socialization and the activities — on some days, but they would also have healthy nutrition the following day without the transportation costs.”

The Kansas Food Bank, Harvesters Community Food Network, Kansas Health Foundation and Kansas Appleseed joined with KSDE to submit the waiver request on Feb. 20.

“Kansas ranks 48th in the nation in the number of children fed when school is not in session,” the applicants wrote in the justification section of the proposal. “We would like to evaluate in specific rural communities in Kansas whether the opportunity to provide meals at a congregate site a minimum of two to three days per week with shelf-stable meals for the other days of the week would encourage and increase participation in rural areas of Kansas and thus decrease food insecurity among Kansas children.”

KSDE and its partners hope to use the demonstration project and other initiatives to increase the number of meals served this summer to 1.4 million, a 20 percent increase over last year. The overall cost of the summer meals program would rise if participation increased, but the demonstration project wouldn’t generate any additional administrative costs, according to the waiver application.

The food bank, which is based in Wichita, and the Harvesters network, which is based in the Kansas City area, would recruit volunteers to staff 12 demonstration-project sites.

A Summer Meals Summit convened in January by the Kansas Health Foundation helped prompt the idea for the demonstration project. At that summit, Audrey Rowe, the administration of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, said many of the tens of thousands of Kansas children who qualify for free and reduced-price meals during the school year go hungry in the summer.

“Summer is when food insecurity among children increases dramatically,” Rowe said. “With our partners in the states, we’re looking at ways to address that gap.”

Filling the gaps in rural areas of the state may not be the only challenge faced by state officials and the more than 120 sponsors of the summer meals programs.

Recent cuts in K-12 funding ordered by Gov. Sam Brownback to help avert state budget shortfalls have prompted the Topeka school district and some others to contemplate shutting down their meal sites. KSDE is working on a contingency plan, Johnson said. “We are working with community organizations in advance trying to come up with ways we can still try to meet the need if we do have reduced school sites,” she said.

In addition, Johnson said, KSDE is waiting to see if USDA offers funding to help states and volunteer organizations transform buses and vans into rolling meal dispensaries. If funding is available, Johnson said, several school districts and site sponsors are eager to take meals to “wherever kids might be during the summer.”

That could be community swimming pools, baseball fields, libraries or even “the Walmart parking lot,” she said.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

JUNCTION CITY -Bond has been set at $1 million for a man accused in a Junction City homicide case.

The Geary County Attorney’s Office reported Daniel E. Edwards had a first appearance in Geary County District Court where bond was set. The Court appointed a public defender to represent Edwards.

A status hearing and a preliminary hearing in the case are both scheduled for March 24 in Geary County District Court.

Edwards was arrested on suspicion of first degree murder in the death of 52-year old Sharon Moody.

Her body was found last Sunday at her 1015 West Ninth Street residence in Junction City.

Edwards was arrested that night in Topeka, and has been transported back to Junction City. He is being held in the Geary County Detention Center.

PITTSBURG – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Cherokee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2012 John Deere tractor driven by Dale G. Roberds, 85, Pittsburg, was westbound on the shoulder of Kansas Highway 171 three miles east of U.S. 169.

The tractor turned left in front of a semi.

The truck struck the tractor’s front left wheel.

Roberds was transported to Via Christi. The semi driver was not injured.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — University of Kansas officials have met with state legislators in Topeka to discuss the school’s ownership and use of jets.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that officials told the House Standing Committee on Education Budget that the jet expenditures of $1.5 million are more than offset by revenue that the aircrafts generate from donor relations and athletics.

The university has owned planes for several decades, but recently its endowment association has given the school money to purchase them.

Taxpayers and students pay for the fuel, operations and maintenance of the jets.

According to flight data obtained by the paper, about two-thirds of $3.5 million spent over five years was for Kansas coaches and athletic administrators. The rest of the money was used to fly top university officials. The university also flew doctors and medical staff 643 times to rural cities to treat patients.

TOPEKA – Three people were injured in an accident just after 11 a.m. on Tuesday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Chevy Cobalt driven by Brandon S. Cook, 26, Canton, was northbound on U.S. 75 just north of 25th.

The vehicle veered off onto the right shoulder. The driver overcorrected into the median and struck and a southbound 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse driven by Connor Scott Cummings, 17, Topeka.

Cook, Cummings and a passenger in the Eclipse Zachary Stephen Cummings, 15, Topeka, were transported to Stormont Vail.

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