SHAWNEE COUNTY- Two people died in an accident just after 6a.m. on Monday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Dodge Ram pickup driven by Daniel Jordan Warner, 16, was northbound on Kansas 4 just south of U.S. 24.

The pickup went left of center and struck a southbound 2002 GMC pickup driven by Thad H. Hess, 40, Rossville, head-on.

Warner and Hess were pronounced dead at the scene and transported to First Call.

Warner was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Texas’ strict regulations of abortion clinics is expected to affect the fate of similar state regulations currently on hold in a Kansas court.

Texas rules required abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forced clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient care.

Kansas lawmakers passed similar requirements in 2011, but that law has been temporarily blocked pending trial in a Shawnee County courtroom.

The nation’s highest court held Monday that the regulations are medically unnecessary and unconstitutionally limit a woman’s right to an abortion.

That ruling was lauded in Kansas by abortion rights supporters who contend it clearly tells legislatures such laws are unconstitutional. Abortion opponents contend the decision jeopardizes women’s health.

Kansas has four clinics offering abortion services.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Army has identified a man who died in an Alaska motorcycle crash as a soldier from Junction City, Kansas.

Thirty-one-year-old Staff Sgt. Maurice Tucker crashed on Anchorage’s Minnesota Drive just before 8 p.m. Saturday.

Witnesses say the Tucker had stopped for a red light at Spenard Road while heading south.

On a green light, he took off at high speed, lost control and began doing “speed wobbles.”

Witnesses tell police Tucker was thrown from the bike and struck the pole at Jefferson Avenue as the motorcycle slid several hundred feet down the roadway.

Emergency responders declared Tucker dead at the scene.

By MEGAN HART

Advocates for early childhood education and welfare programs are objecting to parts of two proposals that Republican lawmakers hope will address a recent Kansas Supreme Court decision on the adequacy of funding for public schools.

The Legislature returned Thursday to Topeka for a special session to come up with enough money to fix what the Kansas Supreme Court called inequitable funding for public schools.

The court didn’t specify the amount, but lawmakers believe $38 million could do the job. The state’s tax receipts have consistently come in below expectations this year, leaving almost no cash on hand. The state finance council recently approved borrowing $900 million to ensure Kansas can meet its obligations if cash flow doesn’t come in as anticipated.

One legislative proposal to come up with some of the money for school funding would take $4.1 million from the Children’s Initiatives Fund and move it to the general fund. Another bill would take $3 million from the CIF, which is funded by payments Kansas receives as part of a settlement with major tobacco companies.

The funding would come from the Kansas preschool program, which makes grants to local entities like school districts to run pre-kindergarten programs, said Annie McKay, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children.

Both bills propose replacing the CIF money with funding from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal block grant program best known for providing cash assistance to low-income people. It likely would be a short-term fix if Kansas continues its current practice of spending more than it receives from the TANF block grant.

The state used $7 million in TANF funds to replace CIF money for Parents as Teachers, a program that offers home visits to families with young children.

Kansas had about $61.2 million in TANF reserves that it hadn’t spent as of June 30, 2015, but that number likely will be lower when the 2016 fiscal year closes at the end of this month, according to the Kansas Legislative Research Department. If the state continued to withdraw $11.1 million annually to fund Parents as Teachers and preschool programs, it would run out of TANF reserves in less than six years.

The bills currently before the Legislature only specify how to fund the preschool program in fiscal year 2017, which starts in July, McKay said. After that, it isn’t clear what might happen, she said.

“There’s no vision beyond the next 12 months,” she said. “Funding early childhood programs with TANF is not a sustainable, long-term solution.”

It also isn’t clear what effect the funding shift would have on the preschool program and families who use it. TANF funds can only be used for families with a low income or some other qualification, such as a child with a disability or parents who don’t speak English.

As Parents as Teachers switches to TANF funding, some programs leaders say they may have to limit the number of non-qualifying families they serve.

The groups running preschool programs still could offer services to children who don’t qualify by using funding sources other than TANF, but some may not have enough money to do so. If the preschool programs do have to make changes, they would have little time to adjust, because the fiscal year starts July 1, McKay said.

The timeline is short because of the need to fix the school funding situation before the fiscal year begins.

Using funding for the preschool program to accomplish that actually may worsen educational inequities, because the programs are designed to help low-income children catch up with their peers, McKay said.

Research has suggested children who attend quality preschool programs may have better educational outcomes but hasn’t proven the programs caused the outcomes.

“This is short-sighted on many levels,” she said.

Usually, when the Legislature takes money from the CIF, it doesn’t attempt to restore it in the next year, McKay said. It is more likely that legislators will continue making cuts above what they proposed this session when they return next year, further reducing the money available to fund children’s programs in the long term, she said.

“At this point, we’re using almost one out of every two (tobacco fund) master settlement dollars for other uses — to plug the budget hole,” she said.

Megan Hart is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach her on Twitter @meganhartMC

POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY – Three people were injured in an accident just before 10:30 a.m. on Monday in Pottawatomie County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Ford Taurus driven by Carl Joseph Behrens, 40, Wamego, was eastbound on U.S. 24 in the slow lane and struck a 2007 Ford Focus driven by Alyssa Jade McCormack, 15, Saint George, that was southbound crossing U.S. 24 on Blackjack Road.

McCormack and a passenger Kyla McCormack, 13, Saint George, were transported to the hospital in Manhattan.

Behrens was transported to the hospital in Wamego.

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

SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a murder.

Just after 8 p.m. on Saturday, 57-year-old Lori J. Heimer was found dead inside her residence at 10525 S. Hopkins Road five miles southeast of Assaria, according to Saline County Undersheriff Roger Soldan.

“It is believed that she died earlier in the day and it appears to be a homicide,” Soldan said.

He declined to comment on the manner or cause of Heimer’s death, but did ask for the public’s help in the case.

If anyone saw anything in the area of the crime that looked out of place or suspicious, they need to contact the authorities immediately, according to Soldan.

No arrests have been made in the case and a specific suspect has not been identified.

“We are asking residents in the area to lock their doors and be aware of their surroundings,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Office is being assisted in the investigation by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Their Crime Scene Response Team, as well as nine KBI agents and a civilian KBI employee, were still working at the scene Monday morning. An investigator from the Saline County Attorney’s Office is also involved.

Soldan said the Saline County Mounted Patrol assisted in a search of the area, but he declined to give specifics on the search.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Saline County Sheriff’s Office at 785-826-6500 or the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-KSCRIME.

BENTON COUNTY- Two people from Salina were injured in an accident just after 4:30p.m. on Sunday in Benton County Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1990 Dodge Dakota driven by George T. Duff, 54, Sunrise Beach, MO., was traveling on Missouri 7 north of Route AA.

The Dodge crossed into oncoming traffic and struck a 2013 Chevy Sonic driven by DAVID W. Gavin, 29, Salina, head-on.

The Dodge slid and was rear-ended by a Chevy Truck driven by RACHEL Ferguson, 42, Versailles, Missouri.

Furguson, Gavin and a passenger in the Sonic Courtney Hail, 26, Salina were transported to Lake Regional Hospital with serious injuries, according to the MSHP.

Duff was not injured but arrested for Felony Assault and Driving while Intoxicated, according to the MSHP. He is being held in the Benton County Jail.

All were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

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MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has struck down Texas’ widely replicated regulation of abortion clinics in the court’s biggest abortion case in nearly a quarter century.

The justices voted 5-3 Monday in favor of Texas clinics that protested the regulations as a thinly veiled attempt to make it harder for women to get an abortion in the nation’s second-most populous state.

Justice Stephen Breyer’s majority opinion for the court held that the regulations are medically unnecessary and unconstitutionally limit a woman’s right to an abortion.

Texas had argued that its 2013 law and subsequent regulations were needed to protect women’s health. The rules required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forced clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery.

By Jennifer Tidball

MANHATTAN — Kansas State University is helping the fight against Zika virus through mosquito research.

The university’s Biosecurity Research Institute is taking a two-part approach: Researchers are studying mosquitoes to understand how they become infected with Zika virus and researchers are providing the virus to collaborative organizations for further study.

The university research is key to fighting Zika virus because it can develop better methods for controlling the mosquitoes that spread the virus, said Stephen Higgs, director of the Biosecurity Research Institute.

“We are hoping to provide some answers and insights into the relationship between Zika virus and the mosquito,” Higgs said.

Since Zika virus emerged in Brazil last year, the U.S. has seen more than 700 cases, including the first case in Kansas in March.

The Biosecurity Research Institute has had Zika virus isolates for several years, but has started conducting collaborative research because of the recent outbreak. University scientists have been growing samples of the virus and antibodies and providing them to collaborators for further research into vaccines and diagnostics.

“Countries are spending resources to control the spread of mosquitoes, we want to make sure we are controlling the right mosquitoes in the right way,” Higgs said. “This research can help us target the particular species of mosquitoes that we know are carriers of Zika virus.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified two mosquito species that transmit Zika virus: Aedes aegypti, or yellow fever mosquito, and Aedes albopictus, or Asian tiger mosquito. Both mosquitoes are widely distributed in the U.S. and are present in Kansas. These two mosquito species live close to people and can breed in houses, said Higgs, who also has studied chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus that has a similar transmission cycle to that of Zika virus.

At the Biosecurity Research Institute, Higgs and university scientists are gathering details about how Zika virus interacts with different mosquitoes. Researchers are studying how long after a mosquito feeds on a blood meal that it can transmit Zika virus. The amount of time is unknown for Zika virus, but with other viruses it can range from five days to two weeks. Similarly, the research can show how much virus a person needs to have in their blood in order to infect a mosquito. If mosquitoes feed on a relatively low level, they may not become infected.

Only 1 in 5 people infected with Zika virus show symptoms, Higgs said, but it is possible that even people without symptoms may have enough virus in the blood to infect mosquitoes.

“As we learn how much virus is in human blood, knowing how much virus needs to be in the blood in order to infect a mosquito will tell us at what point after infection a person can infect another mosquito and for how long,” Higgs said. “It is important to know these details because it can help us develop better controlling measures.”

But there are still many unanswered questions relating to Zika virus, Higgs said. It is still unknown exactly what human cells are affected by the virus, if livestock are affected by the virus, what other transmission mechanisms are possible and when a vaccine may be available.

The Biosecurity Research Institute can help answer some of those questions and is equipped to handle any vaccine studies as well as diagnostic studies, Higgs said.

“This research is important to prepare us long-term for the next virus that comes,” Higgs said. “We can’t predict what that will be, but there will be something else that will be introduced and we need effective surveillance programs to help control them. We need the fundamental research and applied research that we can get here at the Biosecurity Research Institute.”

SHAWNEE COUNTY- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 8 p.m. on Sunday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported 2008 Ford F-250 hauling a Coachman-RV trailer and loaded boat trailer and driven by Kevin T T, Byrd, 53, Olathe, was eastbound on Interstate 70, just east of Auburn Road.

The vehicle slowed due to traffic congestion and began to move into the left lane.

An eastbound 2002 GMC pickup driven by Kyler A. Jost, 21, McPherson, failed to slow in time and struck the rear loaded boat trailer.

The collision pushed the boat off the trailer into the fifth wheel camper trailer pulled by the Ford.

Jost was transported to St. Francis Medical Center.

Byrd and a passenger in the Ford were not injured.

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

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Police have shot and injured two dogs that they said charged an officer outside a home in Topeka.

Lt. Jack Mackey says officers exited a residence after responding to a disturbance around 10:30 a.m. Sunday when the homeowner opened the door and the dogs charged at the officer.

Mackey described the dogs as “vicious.” An officer on the scene said he had no choice but to fire because he felt threatened.

Animal control officers took the injured dogs away from the scene. Their condition wasn’t immediately known.

HUTCHINSON – A Kansas teen who entered a plea to a single count of conspiracy to commit capital murder in a threat at Hutchinson High School is scheduled for sentencing on Monday.

On June 6, Ayrton Marroquin, 14, Hutchinson, entered the plea in Juvenile Court.

Marroquin and 15-year-old Carson Cabral are accused of making threats against officials at Hutchinson High School.

The two were arrested on March 7, after several students came forward to express concerns about a threat to students.
Officers were called into investigate, and the two students were then taken into custody.

Several search warrants were issued which turned up plans for making pipe bombs as well as sketches and plans of where certain teachers and staff would be so they could be targeted.

Police also recovered items that could be used to build explosive devices, which were confiscated by law enforcement.

A psychiatric evaluation was ordered for Marroquin.