KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man considered a person of interest in his ex-girlfriend’s 2007 disappearance and now charged with burning another missing Missouri woman’s car spent time in jail for assaulting his pregnant then-girlfriend in 2011.

Police and court records show the 18-year-old woman in the 2011 incident won a protection order against Kylr Yust who was accused of drunkenly choking her. He pleaded guilty and served 120 days in jail.

Yust was arrested Sunday after Jessica Runions’ car was found burned and abandoned in Kansas City. The 21-year-old Runions was last seen Thursday.

In Belton, police say Yust is a person of interest in the 2007 disappearance of teenager Kara Kopetsky, who vanished days after seeking a protection order against him.

Yust isn’t charged in either disappearance. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney, and he’s jailed in Benton County, 100 miles southeast of Kansas City.

ROSENDALE, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a 9-year-old girl rolled a utility vehicle, killing her 8-year-old passenger, on a rural road in western Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the crash happened Monday on a county road near Rosendale, about 75 miles north of Kansas City.

The patrol says the girl driving the Polaris Ranger UTV overcorrected, and the vehicle overturned on its side.

The patrol identified the girl who died as Alexis Walker of Leavenworth, Kansas. The young driver was rushed to a hospital in serious condition.

No other vehicles were involved.

BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County are investigating a shooting.

Just before 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, officers from the Great Bend Police Department were dispatched to the 1200 block of 10th Street, in reference to a man who had been shot.

The caller advised that another party was driving the gunshot victim to the hospital.

Shortly thereafter, a man later identified as Austin Amos was dropped off at Great Bend Regional Hospital and ran inside exclaiming that he had been shot.

Amos suffered what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the back. He was treated and flown to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.

Through the course of the investigation, officers came to believe that Dallas Mills, while inside a vehicle belonging to the victim had shot Amos.

As officers were searching for Mills and the vehicle, Barton County Dispatch received information from a citizen indicating that the vehicle had been abandoned near the intersection of 5th Street and Morphy Street.

Officers established a perimeter around the area and deployed Kia, one of the Great Bend Police patrol dogs.

Kia tracked a scent from the area of the truck to an abandoned house nearby. Officers noticed that the door to the house appeared to have been kicked in, so they announced that they would send in the dog to search the house if the person inside didn’t surrender.

At that point, Mills announced that he was in the house. Mills came out of the house and surrendered. He was taken into custody without any harm or incident.

Officers are still searching for the weapon used during this incident.

“Our greatest concern right now is finding this gun before a child happens upon it and gets hurt. We’d ask that the public be on the lookout for this weapon, which was probably thrown out of the vehicle somewhere on the way to the hospital. It would likely be in a ditch or near a roadway,” according to Great Bend Police Chief Cliff Couch.

The Department asks that anyone who might see the weapon contact Barton County Dispatch at 911 and not touch it.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A memorial service is scheduled for Thursday for a Johnson County sheriff’s deputy who died when his car was hit by a vehicle during a traffic stop.

Visitation for Master Deputy Brandon Collins will be Wednesday evening at College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe.

The memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at the same church. He will be buried Saturday in Oilton, Oklahoma.

Collins was killed early Sunday when a truck ran into his patrol car as he was conducting a routine traffic stop.

Adrian Espinosa-Flores, of Kansas City, Kansas, is being held on $2 million bond after being charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter in Collins’ death.

A memorial fund has been setup for the Collins family at any Mainstreet Credit Union location.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A judge has denied self-defense claims from one of four men charged in a fatal gunfight at a suburban Kansas City.

De’Anthony Wiley, of Kansas City, Missouri, claimed that he was wounded and trying to surrender when Jon Bieker was fatally shot in January 2015 while defending his wife at the She’s A Pistol gun store in Shawnee, Kansas.

The Kansas City Star reports District Judge Timothy McCarthy on Tuesday denied Wiley’s self-defense claim. He it was Bieker acting in self-defense when he fired at Wiley and three other men trying to rob the store.

Johnson County prosecutors argued that Wiley fired after he was wounded and did not try to give up.

The four men are charged with attempted robbery and first-degree murder in Bieker’s death.

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OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — One of the four men charged with first-degree-murder in the killing of a suburban Kansas City gun store owner is arguing that he acted in self-defense.

The Kansas City Star reports that De’Anthony Wiley, of Kansas City, Missouri, says he was wounded and had tried to surrender when 44-year-old Jon Bieker was fatally shot while defending his wife. She suffered minor injuries during the January 2015 robbery at the couple’s Shawnee, Kansas, store.

Video of the fatal shooting was shown Monday during a hearing in Johnson County District Court.

Co-defendant Nicquan Midgyett, who also was wounded, is joining Wiley’s motion seeking immunity from prosecution for murder.

Johnson County prosecutors argue that the men cannot claim self-defense because they instigated the confrontation. No ruling has been made.

By Jim McLean

The Kansas general election ballot is now set. Officials in the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office late last week cleared the last hurdle to certifying the roster of candidates for the Nov. 8 election by granting presidential candidate Jill Stein’s request to change the person listed on the ballot as her vice presidential running mate.

When Stein, the nominee of the Green Party, submitted the petition with 5,000 signatures she needed to qualify for a spot on the ballot, it listed party stalwart Howie Hawkins as her “placeholder” running mate. But Stein wanted Hawkins’ name replaced with that of Ajamu Baraka, the human rights advocate she selected in August to be her actual running mate.

Minnesota election officials recently rejected a similar request, but Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach granted it Friday.

With the issue resolved, Kobach was able to finalize the candidate list and send it to county election officers across the state, who will oversee the programing of electronic voting machines and the printing of ballots.

Stein will appear as an independent because the Green Party isn’t officially recognized by the state of Kansas.

Ballots in Kansas will list Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump and Libertarian Gary Johnson as nominees of officially recognized parties.

Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico, is joined on the Libertarian ticket by another former governor, Bill Weld of Massachusetts.

Emporia State University political scientist Michael Smith said with national and state polls showing voter dislike of both major party candidates at an all-time high, 2016 could be a banner year for third-party candidates in Kansas.

“I think third-party candidates could do unusually well this year,” Smith said, predicting that Johnson could win double-digit support this year after getting only 1.7 percent of the Kansas vote in 2012.

The state’s modern-day high mark for a third-party candidate was set in 1992, when Reform Party nominee H. Ross Perot won 27 percent of the vote in Kansas.

Johnson and Stein will take votes from both major-party candidates, Smith said, but not equally.

“It shows that Johnson is taking votes from both Trump and Clinton,” he said. “But when you add in Jill Stein, the net effect of third-party candidates is actually hurting Clinton a little bit more.”

But increased expectations bring increased scrutiny, and both Johnson and Stein recently have generated headlines that could make them less appealing alternatives.

Johnson blanked when asked during a nationally television interview about the toll the Syrian civil war is taking on the remaining citizens of Aleppo, the nation’s largest city.

Stein is facing possible arrest for allegedly vandalizing construction equipment while participating in a protest against a controversial oil pipeline in North Dakota.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

SALINE COUNTY – Lightning from a Tuesday morning thunderstorm is believed to be responsible for a house fire in Salina.

Just after 5:30 a.m., Firefighters were called to single-family residence at 5337 South Ohio just before 5:30 a.m., according to Saline County Undersheriff Roger Soldan.

The fire did considerable damage to the attic and utility room of the home, according to Soldan.

No damage estimate was available Tuesday morning. There were no injuries reported.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawmakers are expressing concerns that Kansas won’t be able to quickly catch up with $100 million in delayed contributions to public employee pensions.

The Topeka Capital-Journal that members of the Joint Committee on Pensions and Investments discussed their concerns Monday. The pension payments were delayed this spring to address budget shortfalls. Under the plan, the delayed payments were to be repaid with interest by 2018.

But Republican Rep. Steven Johnson, of Assaria, says he’s “not optimistic” about the prospects of the money being paid back in time. Committee members note that the state faces budget difficulties that lawmakers must confront next year.

Democratic Sen. Laura Kelly, of Topeka, predicted the Legislature will further delay the payment. The delayed amount represents a quarter of the state’s annual pension system payments.

POLK COUTY, IA– A Kansas woman died in a accident just after 5:30 p.m. on Monday in Polk County Iowa.

The Iowa State Patrol reported a Ford Crown Victoria driven by Geraldine Rietveld, 83, Hutchinson, was southbound on Old Highway 392.

The driver failed to yield at a stop sign at the intersection with Highway 163.

A westbound SUV driven by Emily Eisentrager, 41, Altoona, Iowa, hit the passenger side of the Ford.

Rietveld was transported to Methodist Hospital in Des Moines where she died.

Eisentrager was transported to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.

The accident remains under investigation, according to the Iowa State Patrol.

DETROIT (AP) — Keystone RV Co. is recalling nearly 52,000 camping trailers because an improperly wired air conditioning thermostat could cause a fire.

The recall covers Bullet and Passport trailers from the 2011 to 2017 model years.  Keystone RVs are sold at dealers across Kansas.

The company says in government documents that any damage to the wiring could cause an electrical short and a fire. The problem was reported by a dealer, and the documents do not mention any fires.

Keystone of Goshen, Indiana, will notify owners. Dealers will correct the wiring at the air conditioner control box free of charge. The company expects the recall to start this month.

BROWN COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Brown County, Kansas are investigating a suspect for alleged murder-solicitation.

Just after 7 p.m. on Sunday, deputies in Brown County arrested Douglas Wayne Mueller, 39, on a single count of solicitation of murder in the first degree, according to the sheriff’s department jail log.

He is being held without bail.

No additional details in the case were released on Monday.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security, will convene a subcommittee hearing titled “Examining the Better Online Ticket Sales Act of 2016” on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.

Witnesses scheduled to testify include

Bob Bowlsby, Commissioner, Big 12 Conference
Jeffrey Seller, Producer, “Hamilton”
Tod Cohen, General Counsel, Stubhub
Jeremy Liegl, Associate General Counsel, Pandora and Ticketfly

“Scalpers have long been driving up ticket prices and harming consumers, but their methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated,” said Sen. Moran. “It’s hard enough to get tickets to high-profile events without the added struggle of having to battle bots online. My legislation seeks to put an end to this practice, and I plan to chair a hearing on this important legislation next week as we work to protect consumers from fraud and level the playing field for all Americans.”

The hearing will examine the growth of “ticket bot” software that circumvents fair access to concert, theater, and sporting event tickets for consumers.

These bots allow ticket scalpers to purchase mass quantities of tickets for resale through third-party brokers at a much higher price to consumers. Witnesses have been asked to testify on the impact of ticket bots on consumers, and on pending legislation before the Commerce Committee that would prohibit the use of ticket bots.

SALINE COUNTY – Two people were injured in an accident just after 11 p.m. on Monday in Saline County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Chevy Tahoe driven by Holly J. Cooke, 23, McPherson was southbound on Interstate 135 at the Kansas 4-Assaria Road exit.

The SUV drifted off the roadway to the west and hit a guardrail.

The driver overcorrected. The SUV crossed the median and entered the east ditch of northbound Interstate 135, crossed thru KDOT fencing and rolled in the field.

Cooke and a passenger Alfred E. Bennett III, 26, Wichita, were transported to the hospital in Salina.

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