NEW YORK (AP) — Sports Authority is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The retailer said in a Wednesday that it plans to close or sell about 140 stores and two distribution centers. The store closings are expected to take up to three months. The Englewood, Colorado, company has 463 stores including Wichita and Lenexa in Kansas.

Sports Authority stores will remain open and run on normal schedules during the Chapter 11 process. The company’s website will continue to function as well.

CEO Michael Foss said in a written statement that The Sports Authority Inc. has received interest from third parties that may want to invest in or buy some or all of the business.

MIAMI (AP) — Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump are beginning to focus on each other in the race for the White House.

Both front-runners were emboldened by commanding victories Tuesday across large swaths of the country.

Clinton previewed a “love and kindness” message while Trump traded his typical rollicking rallies for a sober media conference where he pressed his case that Clinton is a proven failure as a longtime politician.

Both spoke from Florida, where the general election is often won or lost. Clinton collected wins Tuesday in eight states, and Trump swept up victories in at least seven Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia, another important general election battleground.

Ted Cruz won in Texas, Alaska and Oklahoma. Marco Rubio won in Minnesota.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Kansas have presidential caucuses Saturday.

NICKERSON, Kan. (AP) — The body of a missing woman has been found in a wheat field in rural Reno County.

The Reno County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that 23-year-old Kati Salmans was reported as a missing person to the Hutchinson Police Department on Feb. 22. Her body was found Monday about three miles southwest of Nickerson.

Authorities said that Salmans may have been driving a vehicle that was found wrecked in the area on Feb. 7.

The Sedgwick County Forensic Science Center identified Salmans’ body. The cause of Salmans’ death has not been determined.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the return of NASA’s Scott Kelly and Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko from a year in space (all times EST):

11:26 p.m.

Astronaut Scott Kelly is back on Earth following an unprecedented yearlong mission in space for NASA.

Kelly and his Russian roommate for the past year, Mikhail Kornienko, landed in barren, frozen Kazakhstan on Wednesday. They checked out of the International Space Station 3½ hours earlier.

Their Soyuz capsule parachuted onto the central Asian steppes. Also returning to Earth: Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, who piloted the craft.

Kelly and Kornienko spent 340 consecutive days in space. They circled the world 5,440 times on a mission that began last March.

Russia continues to rule, however, when it comes to long-duration spaceflight with the world record of 438 days.

Scientists are hoping for more one-year subjects as NASA looks ahead to Mars trips.

___

10:32 p.m.

Astronaut Scott Kelly is streaking back to Earth to end an unprecedented yearlong mission in space for NASA.

Kelly and his Russian roommate for the past year, Mikhail Kornienko, checked out of the International Space Station on Tuesday night, U.S. time. Their Soyuz capsule undocked from the orbiting lab, then with an engine firing, began the hourlong descent. The men aimed for a touchdown Wednesday in Kazakhstan.

Kelly and Kornienko have spent 340 consecutive days in space. By the time the Soyuz lands, the pair will have circled the world 5,440 times.

Russia continues to rule, however, when it comes to long-duration spaceflight with the world record of 438 days.

Scientists are hoping for more one-year subjects as NASA looks ahead to Mars trips.

___

8:02 p.m.

Astronaut Scott Kelly is on his way back to Earth to end an unprecedented yearlong mission in space for NASA.

Kelly and his Russian roommate for the past year, Mikhail Kornienko, checked out of the International Space Station on Tuesday night, U.S. time. Their Soyuz capsule undocked from the orbiting lab and aimed for a touchdown 3½ hours later — on Wednesday — in Kazakhstan

Kelly and Kornienko have spent 340 consecutive days in space. By the time the Soyuz lands, the pair will have circled the world 5,440 times.

Russia continues to rule, however, when it comes to long-duration spaceflight with the world record of 438 days.

Scientists are hoping for more one-year subjects as NASA looks ahead to Mars trips.

___

12:19 p.m.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is closing the door on a space mission that has spanned a U.S.-record 340 days.

Kelly and his roommate for nearly a year, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, check out of the International Space Station on Tuesday night, U.S. time. By the time their Russian capsule lands in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, the pair will have circled the world 5,440 times and experienced 10,880 orbital sunrises and sunsets. Their mileage: 144 million miles. Says Kelly, “We did it!”

Kelly’s closest U.S. contender trails him by 125 days. Russia continues to rule, however, when it comes to long-duration spaceflight. The world record of 438 days was set by a Russian doctor during the 1990s.

Scientists are hoping for more one-year subjects as NASA looks ahead to Mars trips.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board says pilot inaction was the likely cause of an October 2014 plane crash in Wichita that left four people dead, including the pilot.

The Wichita Eagle reports the NTSB report issued Tuesday says 53-year-old pilot Mark Goldstein failed to follow emergency procedures after the plane lost power in its left engine.

The NTSB says the Beechcraft King Air B200 crashed into a FlightSafety building at Wichita Eisenhower National Airport. In addition to those who were killed, six others were injured in the crash.

A Texas aviation company had purchased the airplane two days before the crash.

NTSB says it doesn’t know why the engine lost power because a post-crash inspection didn’t reveal anything that would have precluded normal operation of the aircraft.

SALINE COUNTY- One person was injured in an accident just before 6p.m. on Tuesday in Saline County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Hyundai SUV driven by Anna M. Duke, 69, Cisne, IL., was on the Interstate 70 east bound ramp one mile west of Interstate 135.

The vehicle failed to yield and struck a 2000 Dodge Neon driven by, Grace M. Bowers, 15, Culver, which was southbound on Halstead Road.

A passenger in the Hyundai Raymond Duke, 68, Cisne, IL., was transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.

Anna Duke and Bowers were not injured.

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

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The Lawrence school district is preparing to roll out its first class that uses only open-source learning material written by experts, vetted by their peers and posted for free downloading.

To get ready, several administrators and teachers participated in a conference last week in California. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the conference was part of a U.S. Department of Education campaign, #GoOpen, to encourage states, school districts and educators to use openly licensed educational materials.

In October, it was announced that the Lawrence school district was one of 10 districts nationwide to take up the #GoOpen challenge to replace at least one textbook with openly licensed educational resources within the year.

District administrators have selected seventh-grade English language arts as the subject area for the #GoOpen initiative.

MELISSA HELLMANN, Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Senate bill would allow cities and nonprofit organizations to gain temporary ownership of abandoned houses to rehabilitate them.

The measure would change the definition of abandoned property to include blighted real estate that has been unoccupied for a year.

Critics worry the measure would unfairly target disadvantaged people who can’t afford to maintain their homes.

Under the bill, a local government or nonprofit organization could seek temporary possession of the property in district court to use it for housing.

The Senate voted 32-8 in favor of the bill last week, sending it to the House for further consideration.

Current law allows only organizations, and not local government, to request temporary ownership of homes that have been vacant for 90 days and are two years delinquent in taxes.

SHAWNEE COUNTY – A soldier based at Fort Riley died in an accident just after 2a.m. on Sunday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Kia Sorento driven by Fernando Osornio, 29, Kansas City, was eastbound in the westbound lanes of Interstate 70 at Wannamaker.

The Kia struck a 2007 Honda Civic driven by Corey R. Jackson, 27, Newark, OH., head-on.

A passenger in the Honda Pfc. Coral Lynn Clark, 24, based at Fort Riley, and originally from Fort Worth, TX, was transported to Stormont Vail where she died.

Osornio and Jackson were also transported to Stormont Vail.
All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

Clark was a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist assigned to the First Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade and arrived at Fort Riley in September 2024.

“She was a model Soldier and an inspiration to her peers and superiors alike through her work ethic and her singing, “ said Lt. Col. Clint E. Tracy, the brigade’s rear provisional commander.

Clark joined the Army in March 2014. She had not deployed. Her awards and decorations include the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.

The accident remains under investigation.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is reporting that it collected $54 million less in taxes than anticipated in February, and the shortfall creates new budget complications.

The report Tuesday from the state Department of Revenue came only two weeks after the Republican-dominated Legislature passed a bill to eliminate a projected budget deficit of nearly $200 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

But the state now must act again to avoid a deficit on June 30, before the new fiscal year begins.

The department said the state collected $303 million in taxes last month instead of the $357 million projected in a November fiscal forecast. The shortfall is 15 percent.

Since the current fiscal year began in July, the state has collected $3.68 billion in taxes. That’s $80 million less than anticipated.

By BRYAN THOMPSON

A new poll from NPR, Harvard University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation explores Americans’ experiences with the health care system in the two years since the Affordable Care Act was fully implemented. Kansas was one of seven states singled out for closer scrutiny.

And while much of what Sunflower State residents said followed national trends, there were some notable exceptions. Of all the states surveyed, Kansas is where the Affordable Care Act is the least popular.

Robert Blendon of Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health was primarily in charge of conducting the poll.

He said of Kansans surveyed, 26 percent thought things improved as a result of the ACA and 13 percent thought their own lives were helped. “But in terms of the overall figures, people were much more negative about the impact on Kansas as a whole and about individuals,” Blendon said.

More than a third of Kansans surveyed — 39 percent — thought the health care law has been detrimental to the state. That compares with 27 percent nationwide. Blendon sees two main factors behind these numbers for Kansans.

There is “a real concern, greater than the other states, about the cost of health care for them and the state,” he said. “And the other is this sense of concern that many Republicans have that the law wasn’t the right thing to do. The two together is why I think Kansas stands out as being more critical of the ACA than other states.”

The Kansans with the most negative views about the health care law tend to be older than 65, live in rural areas and identify as Republican. They also say their health care costs are unreasonable and they have experienced serious financial problems as a result. The extent of their worry about costs surprised Blendon.

“Kansans are much more concerned about rising health care costs than people in other states,” he said. “They think they’re going up. They’re more concerned about the future.”

The finding that a lot of Kansans are not happy with the Affordable Care Act comes as no surprise to Mike Walker, assistant director of the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University. The institute has been doing its own polling of Kansans for seven years.

“We did see in our own data that Kansans were not favorable toward ACA overall,” he said. “There was a large portion that were favorable, but the majority of folks were not.” Walker said Kansans almost always vote Republican. What’s more, he said,

President Barack Obama is not popular in Kansas, and that carries over to his signature health care law, informally referred to as Obamacare. “A lot of Kansans just seem to dislike Obama, more specifically,” he said. “So I think those two things sort of lay a foundation for just opposing something that a Democratic president might come up with, and especially Obama.”

Walker said while it’s clear that Kansans are concerned about health care costs, it’s not clear whether those cost increases are real and actually caused by Obamacare.

“My experience tells me that people that have experienced their cost going up, or perceive that their costs are going up, are more likely to be vocal about the issue and complain about the ACA,” he said.

“Folks that aren’t impacted by it aren’t going to say anything about it.” If costs are increasing significantly, Walker said, it might be because people have more comprehensive coverage now thanks to the ACA — something they may not appreciate until they get sick or injured.

Walker said the health reform law is complicated, and it’s understandable that people might be confused about it, especially with persistent attacks on Obamacare from the state’s political leaders.

“But I kind of think that people don’t want to understand these issues, because it runs like a brick wall against their support for the Republican Party and their opposition to Obama in general,” he said. Walker said the real test will be to see how Kansans’ attitudes toward the ACA evolve over time as they have more experience with the health reform law and the health care system.

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

SALINA- Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating two suspects in connection with a Monday morning stabbing incident.

Police were sent to the intersection of 7th and Grand at 6:30 a.m. on a report of a stabbing, according to Police Captain Chris Trocheck

They found Jenifer Sharp, 18, inside a vehicle with a single stab wound in the abdomen. She was transported to Salina Regional Health Center for treatment.

An investigation revealed the stabbing was the result of an altercation over property between Sharp, and 25-year-old Jamie Wood, at a residence in the 1200 block of Stack Avenue.

Wood was arrested and booked into the Saline County Jail on a requested charge of aggravated battery.

After being treated for her wound, Sharp was also placed under arrest after she told officers and hospital staff that she was someone else.

She was booked into jail on requested charges of aggravated false impersonation and felony interference with law enforcement, according to Trocheck.

Sharp likely gave the false information due to having six active district court warrants for her arrest. She could also face charges stemming from those warrants.