GEARY COUNTY – Three Kansas woman were injured in an accident just before 3:30p.m. on Tuesday in Geary County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Jeep Wrangler driven by Christopher Cody Stapp, 31, El Dorado, was southbound on U.S. 77 six miles south of Junction City.

The driver failed to stop and rear-ended a 2012 Toyota Camry driven by Darlene M. Kleist, 44, Herington, which was stopped in traffic waiting for a pilot car to proceed thru a work zone.

The Camry was spun counterclockwise and collided with 2003 Cadillac CTS driven by Dicy Elizabeth Albrecht, 37, Herington, also stopped waiting in the work zone.

Kleist, Albrecht, and a passenger in the Camry Lois A. Kleist, 71, Herington, were transported to Geary County Hospital.

Stapp and a teen passenger in the Cadillac were not injured.

All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The government has come up with a plan in case mosquitoes start spreading Zika in the U.S.

Health officials aren’t expecting big outbreaks like in Latin America and the Caribbean. But they do think some local cases in the U.S. are likely.

States can call on a special team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help out under the plan issued Tuesday. The plan also details steps for destroying mosquitoes and breeding sites in the area. That work should last for at least 45 days after the last illness.

The Zika virus causes only a mild and brief illness, at worst, in most people. But it can cause fetal deaths and severe birth defects in the children of women infected during pregnancy.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas is abandoning a plan to block 11 people who have provided services such as cancer screenings to Planned Parenthood from continued participation in its Medicaid program, though it still will press to cut those funds from the organization’s affiliates.

A lawyer for the state announced the move in a letter filed Monday with a Kansas City, Kansas federal judge weighing a request by two Planned Parenthood affiliates to block Kansas’ plans to halt Medicaid reimbursements. That cutoff could come as early as July 7.

Arguments over the lawsuit by the providers, and Planned Parenthood affiliates for Kansas and Mid-Missouri as well as another for the St. Louis region were heard last week.

Federal courts have blocked attempts to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in other states.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A North Newton couple accused of abusing three children they adopted have waived their preliminary hearings in Harvey County District Court.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Jim and Paige Nachtigal appeared in court briefly Monday to waive their preliminary hearing in which a judge decides whether there’s enough probable cause to bind a defendant over for a jury trial.

The couple is scheduled for an arraignment Aug. 1. They’ll enter a plea of guilty, not guilty or no contest to at least a dozen criminal charges, including three counts of child abuse alleging cruel and inhuman corporal punishment, seven counts of aggravated battery and two counts of child abuse alleging child torture.

Authorities say the Nachtigals brutally assaulted two daughters and a son they adopted from a Peruvian orphanage while working as international missionaries.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The owners of a Kansas roofing company are accused of forcing workers who are in the U.S. illegally to pay kickbacks by threatening to turn them into immigration agents if they didn’t.

A 17-count federal indictment unsealed Tuesday in Kansas City, Kansas, accuses Century Roofing owners Tommy Frank Keaton and Graziano Cornolo of profiting from kickbacks since at least 2009.

Prosecutors say workers who were in the country illegally were paid in cash to complete roofing projects in the Kansas City area in Kansas and Missouri, then were forced to give some of the money back.

A spokesman for Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall says no attorneys had entered an appearance for either defendant. Keaton’s voice mailbox was full Tuesday and Cornolo doesn’t have a listed number.

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today announced that the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including his amendment to prohibit the administration from reprogramming funds intended for other purposes to transfer the remaining terrorists at Guantanamo Bay (GITMO) to the mainland or to construct an alternative site on the mainland.

Video of Senator Roberts discussing the bill is here.

“This bill provides critical funding for our military, including equipment, pay, and programs to protect this nation from the many threats we face as a nation – and it again prohibits the administration from transferring terrorists at Guantanamo Bay to the mainland,” said Roberts. “I was pleased to secure an amendment in this bill which goes one step further to explicitly prohibit the administration from going around the Congress and using funds intended for other purposes to transfer these prisoners or construct an alternative site for GITMO.

“The president is again threatening to veto this legislation over a campaign promise which is already against the law. Fortunately the clock has run out, but I will not stop fighting to preventing the president from sending terrorists to our communities.”

The NDAA, which passed the Senate by a vote of 85-13, authorizes funding for the Department of Defense through Fiscal Year 2017. The bill contains the first major update to Pentagon organization in 30 years, with the goal of prioritizing innovation and improving the development and execution of defense strategy. It also modernizes the military health system to provide military service members, retirees, and their families with higher-quality care, better access to care, and a better experience of care.

Roberts’ amendment to the bill amendment prohibits reprogramming of funds for the transfer or release of detainees held at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to an alternative site in the United States. “Reprogramming” funding is when an agency seeks flexibility to use funds appropriated to other accounts. Generally agencies must seek the approval of Congress. The Roberts amendment also prohibits the reprogramming of funds to construct alternative facilities to house the detainees.

Roberts has led the charge in the Senate against the Obama administration’s attempts to close Guantanamo Bay and transfer the prisoners to the U.S. mainland, in particular Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, a site that has been surveyed by the administration. Ft. Leavenworth is the home to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, which houses U.S. military prisoners, and it is against the law for enemy combatants to be housed with members of the U.S. military. Fort Leavenworth is also home to the Command and General Staff College, the Intellectual Center of the Army, where all Army officers study.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas House member says he has drafted a proposal that would prevent transgender students from using school bathrooms that do not match their birth genders.

But Republican Rep. John Whitmer of Wichita told The Wichita Eagle that he doesn’t plan to push for a debate during the Legislature’s coming special session unless Democrats seek to amend an education funding bill.

Lawmakers convene June 23 to address a state Supreme Court order to make the school finance system fairer to poor school districts or risk having schools remain closed after June 30.

Whitmer said his proposal would encourage schools to create gender-neutral bathrooms.

Democratic Rep. John Carmichael of Wichita said it would be irresponsible of legislators to delay an education funding solution with a dispute over bathrooms.

SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating an alleged IRS scam.

A Salina man, in his 70s, received a call early last month from someone who claimed he would be arrested if he didn’t pay taxes he owed to the Internal Revenue Service, according to Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney.

The man sent a $23,000 cashier’s check and a box containing $55,000 in cash to Ohio and then purchased 29 prepaid Visa cards worth $500 each, He gave the numbers of the cards over the phone to another man.

Police were notified by the man’s bank on Monday concerned he may have be the victim of a scam.

The man may be out $93,500, according to police.

Sweeney said the IRS will never call and threaten to have you arrested if you don’t make immediate payments.

Also any legitimate business or office will not ask you to make payments with a Money gram, Western Union wire, or prepaid Visa or other type of prepaid card.

Once money is sent via a wire it is virtually impossible to recover the money, according to Sweeney.