JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A company is trying again to build a power line in Missouri for a multistate wind energy project.

Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners on Thursday reapplied to build the Grain Belt Express despite earlier rejection from state regulators.

The power line would transmit energy from Kansas, across northern Missouri and Illinois to Indiana. Missouri utilities would have access to electricity.

Gov. Jay Nixon said Wednesday he supports the project. A group representing Missouri municipal utilities in June signed up for space on the transmission line.

But some landowners have said it could hurt farming and property values.

The Missouri Public Service Commission last year denied Grain Belt Express’ application, citing landowner concerns and questioning the need for the project.

Missouri is the only state that hasn’t approved it.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new government report shows Kansas growers planted this spring more of their fields into corn and soybeans, and put in fewer acres of sorghum.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service said Thursday that Kansas farmers planted 4.8 million acres in corn, an increase of 16 percent compared to a year ago. About 95 percent were biotechnology varieties.

Also up in the state are soybean acres. The agency said Kansas had 4.15 million acres seeded in soybeans, an increase of 6 percent compared to last year.

Plantings this spring of sorghum are down 7 percent to 3.15 million acres.

Sunflower plantings plummeted 35 percent, down to 55,000 acres.

Kansas farmers are now harvesting the 8.5 million acres of winter wheat seeded last fall.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A Kansas man arrested on June 21 after a fire and explosion at the Plaza Towers building on 2nd Avenue in Hutchinson now faces five felony counts.

On Thursday, Chase Coble, 22, Hutchinson, was charged with three counts of aggravated arson with substantial risk of great bodily harm and two counts of criminal use of explosives.

The first three counts are level three felonies with a maximum sentence on each count of over 20-years in prison.

He was experimenting with plastic and chemicals and it got out of hand, according to police.

He was using chemicals to make black powder to use in explosives, but he claims he wasn’t doing that.

The chemicals he had were all toxic and volatile according to authorities.

The fire and explosion caused significant damage to the apartment on the 12th floor of the Towers building and also some damage to the apartment below.
He asked for a bond reduction saying that his dad is paying for damages to the apartment and can’t afford to bond him. But, Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen denied the request citing the safety of the community, but also with the charges calling for presumptive prison, there is danger of flight risk.

Bond in the case is only set at $25,000 and the case now moves to waiver-status docket on July 27.

GEARY COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities in Geary County are investigating a suspect on drug charges.

Just before 6p.m. on Wednesday, sheriff’s deputies stopped James Pasley, Marietta, GA on I-70 at East Street just west of Grandview Plaza for an alleged unsafe lane change, according to a media release from the Geary County Sheriff.

He was then arrested on suspicion of Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, No Drug Tax Stamp and a lane change violation.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The president of a central Topeka hospital says the lack of Medicaid expansion in Kansas played a large role in the decision to sell St. Francis Health.

The Topeka Capital Journal reports that SCL Health put the hospital up for sale in May.

Hospital president David Setchel says that the facility forgoes up to $10 million in revenue each year because the state refused to expand KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.

SCL Health owns hospitals in multiple states, but Setchel said at a KanCare forum that its Topeka hospital is the only facility to operate in a state that hasn’t expanded Medicaid.

The governor’s office has argued expansion would prioritize those who choose not to work before people who are intellectually or physically disabled, as well as people who are frail, elderly or mentally ill.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police say two men have died at an industrial accident in south Wichita.

The accident was reported Thursday morning at Occidental Chemical Corporation.

They were contract workers at the plant. The men were pronounced dead at the scene. Their names have not been released.

Sedgwick County Sheriff Lt. Lin Dehning says a preliminary investigation indicates some of the men’s mechanical equipment failed.

Dehning says no chemicals were released from the plant and the public was never in danger.

HENRY COUNTY, MO – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 5a.m. on Thursday in Henry County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2015 Kenworth semi driven by Patrick A. Nourse, 43, Lawrence, was westbound on Missouri 18 just east of SW County Road 1501.

The truck ran off the right side of the road and overturned. The driver reported his vision was obstructed just before the truck left the road.

Nourse was transported to Golden Valley Hospital.

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

LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will let transgender individuals serve openly in the U.S. military, ending one of the last bans on service in the armed forces.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the change Thursday. Carter says it’s the right thing to do. He says only a person’s qualifications should matter, and that there should be no other unrelated barriers to service.

Carter’s announcement comes despite concerns from senior military leaders that the department is moving too fast and that more time is needed to work through the changes.

The changes will be phased in over a year. But by October 1, transgender troops should be able to receive medical care and begin formally changing their gender identification in the Pentagon’s personnel system.

By BRYAN THOMPSON

A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council says more than 5,000 public water systems — including 68 in Kansas — are in violation of Environmental Protection Agency rules meant to protect people from lead in the water they drink.

Erik Olson, a health programs director with the council, a nonprofit international environmental organization, said those are just the systems that have been flagged. Many others — like the troubled Flint, Mich., system — don’t show up in the federal database.

“We are very concerned about severe under-reporting and gaming of the system by some drinking water suppliers to avoid finding lead problems,” he said during a Tuesday call with reporters. “In other words, basically a water system can avoid detecting lead in their water if they’re savvy and understand how the rules work.”

Olson said some systems test only in locations where they’re unlikely to find a high lead level — a tap that’s not served by lead pipes, for example.

“Some utilities have tested just in their employees’ homes, rather than targeting the high-risk homes that they’re supposed to do,” he said.

Other strategies Olson cited:

Flushing all water from the pipes before taking a sample, to get rid of water that lead has leached into from lead plumbing.
Removing the aerator from a faucet to get rid of lead particles that may have been captured in the screen.
Using sample bottles with very narrow openings, so that the flow rate has to be minimized during the test. Faster water flow is more likely to disturb lead particles in the pipes.
“EPA finally, on February 29, issued a guidance document saying that water utilities should stop using three of the most widely used techniques, sort of tricky techniques, to avoid detecting lead,” Olson said. “EPA had known about these tricky techniques for many years, and there had been a lot of pressure on EPA to stop them, but the agency had not moved aggressively to stop water systems from using them.”

The report found that between 15 million and 22 million people nationwide have lead pipes bringing water to their homes from the water mains buried beneath the streets.

“It’s basically like sipping water out of a lead straw,” Olson said.

And enforcement of existing lead standards is lax. Almost 90 percent of water systems violating the rules never face any kind of formal enforcement action from state or federal agencies, according to the report. Only 3 percent faced any penalties.

“Basically, there’s no cop on the beat. We don’t have anyone making sure that the law is being complied with,” Olson said. “The bottom line is that providing safe drinking water to citizens is a fundamental government service. If you’re not doing that, you’re not doing your job.”

The report said water systems in 18 Kansas counties were cited for exceeding allowable lead levels.

The highest lead level reported in Kansas last year was at the Sundowner West Mobile Home Park west of Salina. While the federal limit for lead in drinking water is 15 parts per billion, one sample at Sundowner West contained 647 parts per billion. Officials with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment are leading an investigation after tests by local doctors this year found elevated lead levels in the blood of 32 Saline County children — most of them from Salina.

The report cited two Kansas water systems — the City of Mullinville, a small town in Kiowa County, and Saline County Rural Water District 7 — for health violations, which means they failed to take required steps to protect their customers from lead.

Download the Kansas Water Systems with Violations
Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said the report highlights an important public health issue.

“Flint, Michigan, was a wake-up call for America,” he said. “Once we saw the terrible outcome in that city when gross negligence or worse led to children and many others being exposed to high levels of lead in their water, people started looking around, saying, ‘What about my water?’”

Durbin is co-sponsoring a bill called the Copper and Lead Evaluation, Assessment and Reporting Act that calls for the EPA to develop ways to improve reporting, testing and monitoring of copper and lead in drinking water.

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

DETROIT (AP) — The government is urging owners of older Hondas and Acuras to stop driving them and get them repaired after tests found that their Takata air bag inflators are extremely dangerous.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has new data showing that chances are as high as 50 percent that the inflators can explode in a crash.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says the vehicles should be fixed as soon as possible before they cause more deaths or injuries.

Takata inflators can explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister and sending shrapnel into drivers and passengers. At least 11 people have died and more than 100 have been injured.

The advisory covers vehicles from the 2001 to 2003 model years.

FORT RILEY- Fort Riley officials are requesting help to locate a missing soldier.

The 1st Infantry Division reported Spc. Oscar Delgado, 26, was last in contact with his unit on June 24.

He drives a black 2012 Ford Mustang and it has not been seen.

Delgado is a fire control repairer with Company B, 101st Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.

At this time, Delgado is only being sought to ensure his welfare.
Those with information regarding Delgado are asked to call his unit at (785) 239-4272 or the Fort Riley Military Police Desk at (785) 239-6767.

ELLSWORTH COUNTY- The District Court in Ellsworth County sentenced a second student this week in connection with the incident on a Great Bend swim team activity bus.

Connor Furrey, 17, convicted in May of misdemeanor battery was sentenced to unsupervised probation through July 5, 2017, according to court documents.

The condition of the probation includes no further violation of the law, graduation from high school or obtaining a GED, report any contact with law enforcement that are not merely social in nature, no contact with the victim and timely payment of court costs.

The court declined to order an apology from Furrey to the victim, due to the pending lawsuit in the case.

On June 1, co-defendant, Alan Matthew Bobbitt, was sentenced to probation through May of 2017.

The incident on the swim team bus occurred in Ellsworth County on February 6.
USD 428 changed bus policies to prevent similar behavior in the future.