WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal jury has sided with the operator of a Wichita abortion facility who contended she had reasonable grounds to seek a protection-from-stalking order against an abortion protester.

The verdict returned Tuesday follows a seven-day trial in the lawsuit filed by anti-abortion activist Mark Holick against clinic operator Julie Burkhart.

The lawsuit stems from anti-abortion protests in 2012 and 2013 in front of Burkhart’s home and neighborhood. She got a temporary protection-from-stalking order against Holick that was dismissed two years later. He then sued her.

Jurors found Holick failed to prove his claim for malicious prosecution.

Burkhart says in a news release that she opened the clinic after Dr. George Tiller was killed for providing abortions. She says that’s why she finds threats against her and her family “particularly chilling.”

DETROIT (AP) — Industry analysts say the 23-day strike by General Motors workers has cost the company production of 165,000 cars and trucks and has passed the point where the GM can make up lost volume.

That means losses are growing for GM, even though dealers have enough inventory to get by for several more weeks.

The strike by 49,000 United Auto Workers including 2,400 in Kansas began Sept. 16.

GM made another offer Monday and talks continued Tuesday but were hung up on large economic issues.

A person briefed on the talks says the union wants hourly wage increases versus lump-sum payments favored by the company. They’re also haggling over pensions, faster wage increases for workers hired after 2007, and products for U.S. factories.

The person didn’t want to be identified because the talks are confidential.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Greyhound Lines has apologized for forcing a Texas man off a bus in Kansas and for accusing him of being unruly and uncooperative.

Mohammad Reza Sardari was traveling from Dallas to Kansas City, Missouri, in November 2017 when he was thrown off a Greyhound bus at a bus station in Wichita, Kansas.

Sardari, who is Iranian, sued Greyhound in 2018 saying the bus driver discriminated against him after looking at his ticket and seeing his name.

In a statement last month, the bus company said Sardari wasn’t unruly or uncooperative and that he was not removed from the vehicle by police as the company claimed in an earlier statement.

Greyhound apologized in the statement but maintains it didn’t discriminate against Sardari.

TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas has seen a big jump in syphilis cases over the past five years and a spike in the number of infants born with the sexually transmitted disease.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday that Kansas reported 152 cases of primary and secondary stage syphilis in 2018, compared with 60 in 2013. The increase was 153%.

The rate of cases per 100,000 residents grew to 5.2 in 2018 from 2.1 in 2013.

Kansas had eight cases of newborns being born with syphilis in 2018. The state had only a single reported case from 2013 through 2017.

Kansas Health and Environment Secretary Lee Norman said babies born with syphilis may be developmentally delayed, have seizures or die if the infection is not treated during a pregnancy.

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON — The Reno County Commission received an update on damage at the courthouse from earthquakes.

Structural engineer Brent Engelland says the only major problem seems to be the area where the dome connects with the rest of the building.

“We have what we feel is a pretty good concept to reinforce that area between the concrete and the steel,” Engelland said. “We can do it all from the inside. The area up in the middle of the dome is where the elevators rise up and it’s all an open space up there, relatively easy accessed, so we’re actually right now in the process of designing those reinforcements up there to stiffen that so we don’t have more cracking in the future.”

Before the earthquakes, the county had contractors take pictures and prepare bids to seal cracks anyway. Those contractors came back after the earthquakes to compare what was there before.

The main concern right now is cracks that could allow moisture in during the winter months. Engelland talked about having a cover on the dome during the winter months.

“What we think we would like to try to do is figure out a temporary cover for the dome area just to keep moisture out of it,” Engelland said.

Work will continue inside this winter to prepare for the work that will come on the exterior next spring.