MCPHERSON COUNTY – A Kansas teen was injured in an accident just before 6p.m. on Wednesday in McPherson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Ford Focus driven by Mary Wasinger, 19, Hillsboro, was traveling on U.S. 56 two miles east of Canton

The Ford rear-ended a 2002 Dodge Dakota driven by Matthew Rauch, 25, Canton, that was slowing down to turn north on 29th Avenue. The collision caused the pickup to roll.

Wasinger was transported to the hospital in Hillsboro.

Rauch and a passenger were not injured. The drivers and a 5-month-old in the Ford were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A lawsuit alleging that administrators at the University of Kansas allowed the Student Senate to illegally slash the student newspaper’s funding has been dismissed after the reductions were reversed.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that both parties stated the case had been resolved to “their satisfaction” in a document filed Monday in federal court. The suit alleged that the cut was based on dissatisfaction with the newspaper’s Senate coverage. But the school argued in court filings it was because the paper was printing less frequently.

University spokesman Andy Hyland says the administration is “pleased that we’ve been able to bring these two student organizations together to agree to terms that both groups find acceptable.”

Patrick Doran, the attorney representing the Kansan, declined to discuss the suit with The Associated Press.

MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials want to know whether hand sanitizers used by millions of Americans work as well as manufacturers claim — and whether there are any health risks to their growing use.

The Food and Drug Administration is asking for new studies on how the antiseptic gels and sprays fight germs and get absorbed into the body, with a particular focus on children and pregnant women. The proposal is part of an ongoing effort to review decades-old chemicals that have never had a comprehensive federal review.

Agency officials stressed that the review “does not mean the FDA believes these products are ineffective or unsafe.”

Hand sanitizers have become nearly ubiquitous over the last 20 years, offered in workplaces, schools, restaurants and other public spaces to reduce the spread of germs.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A woman accused of giving her former boyfriend guns used in a shooting at a Kansas lawn equipment factory plans to mount a battered woman’s syndrome defense at her August trial.

The attorney for Sarah Jo Hopkins filed notice Wednesday saying he plans to introduce expert evidence related to her mental state. The defense is also seeking to suppress her statements.

The 28-year-old Newton woman has pleaded not guilty to transferring weapons to a prohibited person.

Prosecutors say she gave Cedric Ford an AK-47-type semi-automatic rifle and a .40-caliber handgun that he used in the Feb. 25 attack at Excel Industries in Hesston. Four people, including Ford, were killed and 14 others were injured.

Hopkins has told investigators that she gave him the guns because he had threatened her.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A federal lawsuit claims that Shawnee County sheriff’s deputies arrested a deaf woman after having trouble communicating with her and the jail didn’t provide an accessible phone.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Carolyn Hans claims Shawnee County and the sheriff’s office failed to provide her services required under federal law during her encounter with law enforcement. The suit also contends that the sheriff’s office refused to allow her to file a police report using an accessibility service, instead telling her she needed to hire an interpreter.

The lawsuit indicates Hans likely seeks upwards of $75,000.

County counselor Rich Eckert says the county is aware of the lawsuit, but declined to comment on it. The sheriff’s office general counsel, Matthew Boddington, said he hadn’t heard of the suit.

TOPEKA — Kansas Transportation Secretary Mike King is resigning effective July 15 and says he plans to return to private business.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s office announced King’s departure Wednesday and said former state Rep. Richard Carlson of St. Marys will serve as interim secretary until a permanent replacement is named.

While leading the agency, the state moved millions of dollars from KDOT to the general fund to help close budget deficits.

King had worked in the construction industry for more than three decades and was owner of a McPherson company when Brownback named him transportation secretary in March 2012.

King has run a department with about 2,500 employees and an annual budget of well over $1 billion. Since 2013, he’s also overseen daily operations for the 236-mile Kansas Turnpike.

But also during his tenure, the state has repeatedly diverted highway funds to other parts of state government to balance its budget.

-The AP contributed to this report.

PRATT COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Pratt County are investigating a hit and run accident.

Just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday, a Pratt County Sheriff’s Deputy came upon a woman walking northbound on Kansas 61 eleven miles north of Pratt, according to a media release.

Miranda Taylor, 20, Stafford, had a scratch on her left shoulder and left thigh.

She said she had just been clipped by a northbound semi. The only description she could give was a white semi pulling a white trailer.

The victim did not want emergency services called. A friend of the victim gave her a ride from the scene.
Evidence at the scene indicates Taylor was walking with her back to the traffic before sunrise.

The Pratt County Sheriff’s Office investigated the incident as a hit and run.

Anyone with any information on this accident please call the Pratt County Sheriff’s Office at 620-672-4133

By BRYAN THOMPSON
KHI News Service

LARNED–The troubled Larned State Hospital has a new superintendent.

Veteran state attorney Bill Rein has been named to head the facility, which provides inpatient treatment for people from the western two-thirds of Kansas suffering from severe or persistent mental illness.

Rein is the former chief counsel for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the state’s mental health hospitals in Larned and Osawatomie. More recently, Rein was the agency’s commissioner of behavioral health services, overseeing hospital operations and administration of the state’s behavioral health programs.

Rein drafted the state’s comprehensive mental health reform legislation in 1985 and 1990 while working for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, which became part of the Department for Children and Families in 2012. He supervised attorneys representing the state hospitals from 1984 to 1987.

Tim Keck, interim KDADS secretary, said the state would be hard-pressed to find anyone more qualified than Rein to take charge at Larned.

“No one in Kansas knows more about our state’s mental health system’s history and institutions,” Keck said. “Bill is the right person at the right time for the challenges facing Larned State Hospital.”

Those challenges include ongoing difficulties hiring and retaining adequate staff. Rein said one of his goals is to improve relations with employees who do most of the patient care at the state hospital.

“Making sure staff are really listened to, and they’re respected, and they’re valued, and all those kinds of things that would go into any job that we have,” he said. “We’re also trying to make very sure that people do understand how much we value their work, and how much we value the overtime, and that sort of thing that many of them are putting into the job.”

Two Larned State Hospital employees testified at a legislative hearing in April that mandatory overtime and limited time off between shifts are taking a toll on employees and their families.

Kyle Nuckolls and Lynette Lewis said employees are overworked and exhausted, and because of that more likely to make mistakes on the job.

A 2015 report from the Legislative Division of Post Audit found that Larned’s sexual predator program was near capacity. The report estimated the program’s costs would more than double by 2025 and that Larned would struggle to find enough staff for the program, mostly due to a lack of available labor in the rural area around it.

In April, the state moved some mental health inmates from Larned State Hospital units to another facility on the same campus run by the Kansas Department of Corrections because of concerns about understaffing.

Rein vowed to do all he can to improve conditions at the mental health hospital.

“I will use that experience to work with the staff of LSH, the Larned community and every other community and type of service that touches the lives of persons with behavioral health needs in central and western Kansas,” he said.

Rein thanked lawmakers and Gov. Sam Brownback for allocating additional funding for salaries to help attract applicants for key positions. He said the biggest obstacle is the inability to provide workers adequate time off.

“They just want to be able to spend more time with their families, want to be able to get to events in the community and those kinds of things that are equally if not more important than salary,” he said.

It’s becoming harder to recruit mental health professionals, Rein said.

“But the real challenge is in the rural areas, where 100 years ago society built their state hospitals. Now it’s a little harder to attract people to go to those kinds of rural areas,” he said.

Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokeswoman, said 32 percent of the full-time state jobs at Larned State Hospital are open. That’s down from 37 percent last April. However, she pointed out that state employees are only part of the workforce at Larned. Contractors fill many of the positions on an as-needed basis.

De Rocha said that means the overall job vacancy rate at the state hospital is significantly lower than 32 percent, although she could not give a precise figure because the numbers change with patient needs.

Rein succeeds Chris Mattingly, who was named interim superintendent in April 2016 to focus on long-standing staffing and other difficulties at the hospital.

Bryan Thompson is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

ELLSWORTH COUNTY – A Kansas teen was injured in an accident just before 10a.m. on Wednesday in Ellsworth County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Chevy SUV driven by Dylan Grant Lemieux,16, Holyrood, was northbound on 6th three miles southwest of Blackwell.

The SUV left the roadway to the right, crossed the centerline, left the roadway to the left and rolled.

Lemieux was transported to the hospital in Ellsworth.

He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.