OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a 59-year-old man who was upset that another man was carrying a concealed weapon disarmed the man and shot him in the leg in suburban Kansas City.

Overland Park police said in a news release that the shooting happened around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Police said the suspect also pointed the weapon at a second man before the shooting.

The suspect was taken to jail, and the victim was taken to a hospital for treatment of an injury that wasn’t life threatening.

STOCKHOLM (AP) Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature.

It was a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award on a musician for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

Reporters and others gathered at the Swedish Academy’s headquarters in Stockholm’s Old Town reacted with a loud cheer as his name was read out.

The 75-year-old Dylan is arguably the most iconic poet-musician of his generation. Songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin'” became anthems for the U.S. anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. His impact on popular culture was immense.

But although he had been mentioned in the Nobel speculation for years, many experts had ruled him out, thinking the academy wouldn’t extend its more than a century-old award to the world of music.

Dylan is the first American winner of the Nobel literature prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.

RENO COUNTY – A Kansas woman was jailed Tuesday after police served a search warrant on a home in the 1100 block of East 9th Street in Hutchinson, according to the police arrest report.

The warrant was to search for alleged stolen items from motorcycles.

Police allegedly found a motorcycle helmet. While inside the residence, they also allegedly found drugs in what they say is a seller’s quantity and obtained a second search warrant.

Jacqueline Lois Jurgens, 28, was arrested for distribution of methamphetamine and brown tar heroin.

Other charges include possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana, personal use drug paraphernalia and no tax stamp. They allegedly found the drugs, around 2 grams that field-tested for methamphetamine as well as some pipes and baggies used to package.

One of the pipes allegedly had burned marijuana inside.

This allegedly occurred within a thousand feet of a McCandles Elementary School.

In court, Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen stated from the affidavit that Jurgens might have admitted to police that she had sold drugs and may have been doing so for sometime.

Jurgens requested a bond reduction, which was denied. She’ll be back in court on Oct. 18, to see if the state has filed formal charges.

FORT RILEY -The new hospital at Fort Riley represents this country’s commitment to the health of our warriors, both past and present.

Those were the sentiments of Brigadier William “Bill” Turner, the Deputy Commanding General of the 1st Infantry Division, during the ribbon cutting for the new Irwin Army Community Hospital at Fort Riley on Wednesday.

“This wouldn’t have been possible without the unwavering support and dedication of our local, state and national leaders as well as the hard work and perseverance exhibited by the engineers, contractors and hospital staff.”

The long delayed hospital project has finally been completed, with the facility opening to provide services next week.

Hospital Commander Colonel John Melton said, “This shapes who we are. It is what makes us an Army hospital. Ours is a solemn duty to fulfill the sacred trust, to care for those who wear and have worn the uniform and their families.”

A large audience of hospital employees, community members and elected officials including Senators Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts plus Governor Sam Brownback were in attendance for the ribbon cutting, and the five-story building was opened up to tours afterward.

 

I’m so proud to see @FortRiley‘s Irwin Hospital opening for our service members, their families & veterans after so many years of effort. pic.twitter.com/TgXmgjbMMW

— Pat Roberts (@SenPatRoberts) October 12, 2016

 

Some of the building details included a four-bed triage that is expected to serve about 3,000 patients per year, labor and delivery area that will serve about 900 births per year, and the facility has more than 1,400 parking spaces including 572 for patient parking.

WICHITA– A Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Deputy was booked into jail Wednesday afternoon on one count of battery-domestic violence, according to a media release.

The arrest is the result of a disturbance at the deputy’s home earlier in the day.

Kansas Law restricts the release of information that may identify the victim of domestic violence, neither the name of the victim nor the deputy was released.

A criminal investigation is underway and the results of the investigation will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office for charges.

In addition to the criminal case, an investigation is also being conducted by the Professional Standards Unit of the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas farmers are harvesting what are expected to be record corn and soybean crops.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Wednesday that the 713 million bushels of corn forecast in Kansas is a 23 percent increase compared to last year’s production.

Kansas is harvesting corn from 4.85 million acres this season, up 24 percent from last year’s acreage. Average corn yields are down a bushel to 147 bushels per acre.

The agency is also projecting a record soybean production of 180 million bushels in Kansas. That is up 21 percent more than last year.

Sorghum production is forecast at 264 million bushels, down 6 percent from a year ago. Kansas growers planted fewer acres of sorghum, but the sorghum yield is still forecast at a record 91 bushels per acre.

DEXTER, Kan. (AP) — Kansas floodwaters have destroyed an historic stone bridge in Cowley County.

The Wichita Eagle reports that flooding over the weekend caused the 105-year-old Fox Bridge over Grouse Creek to collapse.

The county says on its Facebook page that the bridge was weakened by the creek’s cresting over it and heavy currents slamming against it.

The area is known for its stone bridges, which were built by Russian and German artisans from around 1890 to 1917. The bridges range from one to three arches.

Steve Tredway, who is working on a book about the stone bridges of Cowley County, says the Fox Bridge was built by Abe Finney. It most likely is the only one he built.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge in Kansas has appointed an Ohio attorney to investigate whether recordings of attorney-client conversations at a for-profit federal prison violated inmates’ constitutional rights.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson on Tuesday appointed David R. Cohen as special master, or expert, to identify and retain confidential information contained in recordings at the Corrections Corporation of America facility in Leavenworth.

The judge’s order says Cohen’s duties will not include investigating whether federal prosecutors violated any rules or laws by requesting the recordings — at least for now.

The Cleveland attorney recently served as a special master in a Kansas class-action lawsuit against Sprint Nextel Corp.

Public defenders in Kansas and Missouri say recordings of their meetings and phone calls violated their clients’ constitutional right to a fair trial.

BY ALEX SMITH

At his apartment in Olathe, Kansas, 42-year-old Nick Fugate catches up on washing dishes and remembers the 22 years he spent doing it at a local hotel, trying to stay on top of a never-ending-stream of plates, glasses and silverware.

Nick recalls minor annoyances like the long days, the hot kitchen and his fingers pruning in the water. It could be tedious, but he says he didn’t really mind.

“Just as long as I got the job done, it was fine,” Nick says.

The job wasn’t glamorous, but Nick’s father Ron Fugate says it was the key to the self-reliance he wanted for his son ever since Nick was born with an intellectual disability.

“From our perspective, having a job, being independent, participating in the community, paying taxes, being a good citizen – that’s a dream parents have for their children in general,” Ron says.

But all of that changed last year when Nick lost his job and did something he’d never done before: He enrolled in Medicaid.

That landed him in a state of limbo, along with thousands of other Kansans.

Savings up in smoke

Not far from Nick’s home, 30-year-old David Lee Hunter and a handful of men at Lake Mary Center in Olathe take apart computers and other electronics for recycling.

Hunter thinks of each piece that passes across his workbench as a unique puzzle.

“I like to improvise, and I like to ask my coworkers for assistance,” Hunter says.

Elsewhere in the building, other individuals with disabilities shred medical documents or get job coaching. Lake Mary also offers services like transportation or help buying groceries.

A few decades ago, many of Lake Mary’s clients might have received Medicaid care as residents of an institution. But in the early 1980s, states began shifting their strategies to allow people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live at home.

Advocates say this was not only much cheaper – about a third of the cost of institutional care – but it provided a vast improvement in the clients’ quality of life.

In many states, however, the first step toward getting these services is signing on to a long waiting list.

That’s what happened when Nick applied for Medicaid. In the months since, he’s had to pay around $1,000 a month out of pocket for Lake Mary’s services.

It’s quickly burning through his life savings.

This years, families like the Fugates and many others in similar situations have been speaking out about the waiting list and other Medicaid problems at public forums like one held in Kansas City, Kansas, in May.

Waiting

In a basement meeting room of the Jack Reardon Convention Center, hundreds of people with disabilities, their families and caseworkers railed against KanCare. Some even heckled the moderator.

The state has been gathering feedback because it needs federal government permission to continue running KanCare, Kansas’ privatized Medicaid system.

In 2013 Republican Gov. Sam Brownback put Medicaid under the management of three private companies, promising it would improve services, cut waste and save enough money to end the lists for the kind of services Nick Fugate needs.

Conservatives loved the plan, but developmental disability families were less happy. They didn’t trust the companies to provide the complicated help their loved ones needed. They managed to get the federal government to delay the switchover, but in February 2014 the feds gave their approval and the KanCare experiment began.

Two-and-a-half years in, many families say they’ve seen few signs of improvement, particularly in the waiting list.

Not only is there still a waiting list, it’s grown by a few hundred to about 3,500 people.

Except in emergency situations, the average wait is seven years.

Complicated cases

An end to the list remains in view, insists Brandt Haehn, commissioner for Home and Community Based Services, part of the agency that oversees KanCare, the Department of Aging and Disability Services.

“I think everybody in the system is doing the best job they can do to provide the people services,” Haehn says.

In August, the department announced it had eliminated a different waiting list – the one for physical disability services.

Although that claim has been challenged by advocates, state officials say it shows KanCare can get results.

Haehn, however, acknowledges that developmental disability cases are more expensive and complicated, and it will take time to come up with the state’s share of the total cost of $2.6 billion – about $1.5 billion – needed to eliminate the waiting list through 2025.

“Nothing would make me happier than to write a check and give all these people services, but that’s just not reality,” Haehn says. “So I have to deal with what reality is and try to use the money that I have to effect positive change in the most amount of people.”

Still waiting

Ron Fugate says KanCare had its chance.

“We’re not treading water; we’re drowning,” Fugate says. “And it’s not getting any better. We’ve got to start taking some serious action on this and get it addressed. We’ve kicked the can down the road too long.”

The Department of Justice is investigating the waiting lists, although it declined to comment for this story.

The state’s ability to act may be limited. Brownback’s tax cuts, which were supposed to boost the economy, have blown a huge hole in the state’s budget, leaving little money to apply to something like a Medicaid waiting list.

Meanwhile, Nick Fugate is still waiting.

His parents Ron and Julie are in their 70s, and they say they’re now watching their carefully laid plans for their son’s future slip away.

“After 22 years, it looked like he was going to be able to complete a career, and it didn’t happen that way. And so all of this comes at a time in our lives where we’re in the waning seasons of our life, and we did not anticipate this kind of a challenge at this point.”

Alex Smith is a reporter for the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @AlexSmithKCUR

RILEY COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 2p.m. on Wednesday in Riley County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 International semi driven by Dale Taylor, 57, Junction City, was southbound on U.S. 77 a mile north of U.S. 24.

The semi crossed centerline and struck a northbound semi, left the roadway into the east ditch and came to rest at bottom of an embankment.

Taylor was transported to the hospital in Manhattan.

The other driver Daryl Langvardt, 67, Clay Center, was not injured.

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

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Court of Appeals has ordered that an Emporia man be tried in the shooting of his brother, reversing a lower court’s decision ruling that he was protected from prosecution by the state’s self-defense law.

The court’s ruling last week reverses a Lyon County District Court decision in May 2015 dismissing an attempted voluntary manslaughter charge against Sony Uk.

Prosecutors say Uk shot his brother, Viseth Ear, because Ear was attacking their mother.

The appeals court ruled that no evidence existed that Uk knew his mother was facing imminent death or great bodily harm, which is required under Kansas’ “stand your ground” law.

Two judges noted that Ear stopped hitting his mother after one shot was fired but Uk fired again.

 

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two Missouri men charged in the kidnapping and rape of a Kansas sheriff’s deputy may have attacked others.

Johnson County District Attorney Stephen Howe said Wednesday that he hopes more victims will come forward now that 24-year-old William Luth and 21-year-old Brady Newman-Caddell are in custody. They are jailed on $1 million bond on charges of rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sodomy. Court records don’t list attorneys to speak on behalf of the men.

 

If you know someone who is a potential victim of our kidnapping and rape suspects, please call @JOCOSHERIFF at 913-782-0720 or 816-474-TIPS https://t.co/RnEJldCR2g

— Johnson Co. Sheriff (@JOCOSHERIFF) October 12, 2016

 

Howe declined to explain why authorities believe there may be more victims.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Department has said that the deputy wasn’t in uniform when she was abducted Friday from the parking lot of the detention center in Olathe, Kansas. She was released about two hours later in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.