WICHITA- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 4p.m. on Monday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Honda motorcycle driven by Ryan M. Brown, 31, Valley Center, was westbound on Kansas 96 and exiting on 13th Street at a high rate of speed.

The driver failed to stop for a traffic control light, struck the median and was ejected from the motorcycle.

Brown was transported to Wesley Medical Center.

He was not wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.

KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Looks like the honeymoon’s over for President Barack Obama and new House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Just four days after Ryan took the helm in the House, the White House is accusing him of “pandering to the extreme right wing” of his party.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says Ryan’s recent comments on immigration reform are “preposterous” and disappointing.

Ryan said Sunday that he’s ruled out passing comprehensive immigration legislation while Obama is president. He said Obama cannot be trusted on the issue.

Earnest called the remark “ironic.” He says it’s Ryan who supported an immigration deal, then blocked it from passing the House.

Earnest says Ryan’s remarks don’t bode well for a “new era of Republican leadership.”

By DAVE RANNEY

Studies have shown that nearly half of the cigarettes consumed in the United States are smoked by people thought to have a mental illness.

At the same time, people who have a mental illness die an average of 25 years earlier than those who don’t have a mental illness.

“There’s a really big disparity in who’s smoking and in who’s dying,” said Kim Richter, who runs the tobacco cessation program at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

“And we as a society haven’t really done anything about this,” she said. “We really need to turn this around.”

Richter led a Saturday session, “Mental Illness & Tobacco Use: Why Do I Smoke and What Will Really Help Me?” during the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Kansas annual conference in Topeka.

“People tend to assume that people with serious mental illnesses are dying years earlier than the general population because of things like suicide or the side effects of homelessness,” Richter said. “But that’s not the case. They’re dying because of chronic conditions like diabetes or heart attacks or strokes or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or cancer, all of which are a direct result of tobacco use.”

Efforts to reduce smoking among people with mental illness, she said, have long been hamstrung by the perception — especially in the state’s medical community — that people can quit smoking if they really want to, and until they want to quit, cessation efforts are a waste of time.

“I think we forget how formidable tobacco is in people’s lives,” Richter said.

She asked the audience to realize that the average smoker takes 12 to 15 puffs per cigarette, which means that a pack-a-day smoker takes somewhere between 87,000 and 109,500 puffs in a year.

Richter said her average patient at the KU hospital has been smoking for 29 years.

Nicotine, she said, is incredibly addictive and cigarettes constitute “the best drug-delivery system that’s ever been created.”

Richter said surveys have found that most people who try to quit smoking take a “cold turkey” approach that doesn’t include counseling or cessation medication. These efforts, she said, typically have a 5 percent success rate.

For people with a mental illness, the success rate is between zero and 3 percent. “It’s very low,” Richter said.

But she said that success rate significantly improves when patients take advantage of cessation counseling and medications, most of which are now covered by private insurance, Medicaid and Veterans Affairs benefits.

“Chantix alone triples the odds of being able to quit,” Richter said, referring to the prescription drug that reduces craving for nicotine.

Health care professionals, she said, need to recognize that tobacco is an addictive substance and that successful cessation likely will require many attempts.

“We’ve got to stop blaming people for not quitting on the third, fourth or fifth time they try,” she said. “We’ve got to stick with them. The trick is … to use all the resources that are available and to make every quit attempt useful.”

Richter encouraged anyone who’s interested in finding out more about the resources that are available to call the state’s cessation hotline — 1-800-784-8669 — or talk with their health care provider.

Asked whether switching to e-cigarettes can help some people quit smoking, she replied: “The jury is still out on that one.”

Richter is an active member of a Kansas Health Foundation-funded fellows program that is looking for ways to help people with severe and persistent mental illness reduce their use of tobacco products.

Richter’s presentation struck a chord with Randy Selley, a 53-year-old resident of Wichita.

“I’m a smoker, have been for probably 30 years,” he said. “I’ve tried to quit before, many times. She’s right, people don’t realize how hard it is to quit.”

Selley, who said he has schizoaffective disorder, said he may try to quit smoking again.

“I’m not ready,” Selley said. “I might someday, but not now. Smoking makes me feel better. After I smoke about half a cigarette, it relieves my anxiety. My racing thoughts calm down.”

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

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City erupted in a half-hour flurry of fireworks Monday night after the Royals won the World Series, and the National Weather Service has radar images to prove it.

Watch Kansas City erupt in celebration last night, as detected by our radar! pic.twitter.com/2LCLE4Q6p6

— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) November 2, 2015

Meteorologist Jared Leighton says the weather service radar in Pleasant Hill, about 45 minutes southeast of Kansas City, shows the most intense fireworks activity was downtown, near the Power & Light District, starting just after 11:30 p.m.

He says smoke from the fireworks showed up better on the radar Monday night than it would have during the Fourth of July because the air is cooler and the radar beam stays closer to the ground.

Kansas City Police Chief Daryl Forte tweeted a photo of fireworks around midnight and said they were a big part of celebrations happening all over the city.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas collected nearly $11 million less in taxes than anticipated in October, and the shortfall worsens the state’s budget picture.

The state Department of Revenue reported that Kansas collected $446 million in taxes last month. The state’s official fiscal forecast had predicted $457 million in taxes, and the shortfall for the month was 2.4 percent.

Disappointing sales, corporate income and oil and gas tax revenues were largely to blame.

The shortfall in tax collections came only days before state officials and university economists planned to meet to issue new and more pessimistic revenue projections.

Since the current fiscal year began in July, tax collections have fallen more than $78 million short of expectations, at $1.8 billion. The shortfall for the four months is about 4.1 percent.

SEATTLE (AP) — The latest developments in an E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle restaurants in Washington state and Oregon (all times local):

1 p.m.

Analysts say the E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle restaurants in the Northwest could make consumers wary.

Allen Adamson of New York marketing consultancy BrandSimple says people have many fast food options and if they are worried about the safety of food they will avoid a chain until they’re certain the problem has been resolved.

Chipotle’s stock fell as much as 5 percent early Monday, but recovered slightly, and was down about 3 percent by Monday afternoon.

Although the shutdown restaurants represent just 2 percent of the company’s total locations of 1,931, Chipotle says each restaurant brings in about $2.5 million in revenue a year on average.

Laura Ries, president of Atlanta marketing strategy firm Ries & Ries, said the decision to immediately close the 43 restaurants in Washington and Oregon will help the brand in the long term. She says the chain “went above and beyond what they needed to do.”

9:45 a.m.

A food safety lawyer who is involved in other lawsuits against Chipotle restaurants says people should not assume a company that focuses on local and fresh ingredients is going to be immune from food safety issues.

An E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle restaurants in Washington state and Oregon has sickened nearly two dozen people in the third outbreak of foodborne illness at the popular chain this year. Chipotle said they would try to say more about the E. coli outbreak later Monday.

Although E. coli cases have only been connected to six restaurants so far, the company has closed 43 restaurants in the two states. Attorney Bill Marler of Seattle law firm Marler Clark says the company should be commended for that action.

But he says three cases of foodborne illness in a few months shows Chipotle is not paying attention to food safety like it should.

Health officials who are investigating the cause of the outbreak believe it is likely connected with a fresh food product. Marler agrees.

WICHITA- A Kansas man and two children injured in an accident just before 11:30 a.m. on Monday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Ford Ranger driven by Reginald L. Vaughn, 48, Wichita, was northbound on Interstate 235 at MacArthur.

The pickup left the roadway to the right, struck a KDOT guardrail, rolled, and the driver was ejected.

Vaughn and two 5-year old children in the pickup were transported to St. Francis Medical Center.

Vaughn was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.