GRAY COUNTY – A Southwest Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 3p.m. on Saturday in Gray County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Jeep Wrangler driven by Stacey R. Platt, 44, Dodge City, was traveling westbound U.S.50 thirteen miles west of Garden City.

The jeep left the roadway into the north ditch.

It hit a mailbox, a fence post, a telephone pole and overturned.

Platt was transported to St. Catherine’s Hospital.

She was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

JEFF MARTIN, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal prosecutors say they’ve charged a German firm with selling and smuggling into the United States badges described as “virtually identical” to genuine badges worn by FBI agents and other law enforcers.

A federal complaint, unsealed this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta states that undercover operations resulted in the charges. The probe stemmed from the April arrest of a man accused of posing as a federal officer in Doraville, Georgia.

J. Britt Johnson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta field office, said dismantling a foreign company’s ability to sell counterfeit U.S. law enforcement badges is “critical in the post 9/11 era.”

Federal authorities say they shut down one website used by Kaarst, Germany-based Master-Equipment. Company representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — The parents of a 12-year-old Salina girl who died several months after being shocked while playing during a rainstorm say they will appeal a judge’s dismissal of their lawsuit against the city.

Jayden Hicks was 11 in May 2013 when she came into contact with the metal cover of an in-ground electrical junction box while playing with friends near a downtown plaza. The box had been installed without a grounding wire and contained damaged wires.

Jayden underwent months of hospitalization and rehabilitation before she died in December of that year.

An attorney for Jayden’s parents told the Salina Journal on Friday the family will appeal Judge Bill Elliott’s Sept. 23 summary judgment in favor of the city.

The case had been set to go to trial Jan. 18.

JUNCTION CITY -Teachers in Geary USD 475 rejected a contract offer for the current 2015-16 school year. Contract negotiations remain at impasse.

The vote announced by USD 475 officials included 355 teachers in the district voting no and 113 yes.

A total of 468 out of 729 teachers cast a vote, for a percentage total of 64.19%.

Brian Field, Board of Education President, was disappointed.

“We’re very disappointed. In the end we felt like we offered a fair contract. The contract included an average salary increase of 7.23%. But from here we’ll continue to move forward. In the end we want what’s best for everybody involved, but we really want, especially, what’s best for the students of USD 475.”

Initially school district officials had indicated the raise for teachers would average 6.5% but the percentage released Friday was even higher.

The next step in the process must be determined. It could involve a move on to a fact finding process, or if that option is bypassed the Board of Education could issue a unilateral contract. For now, teachers are working under the contract that was in effect for the 2014-15 school year.

Issues in the contract negotiations on which the two sides differ range from taking the work day from 7 hours 50 minutes up to 8 hours, added collaboration time where administrators could be active participants with input in collaboration among teachers, allowing meetings to start a little later after school following the departure of students or a bit earlier before students arrived at school, and elimination of flex time where teachers had some options of arriving or departing 15 minutes early…for example a teacher required to arrive 15 minutes early could depart 15 minutes early.

The Board of Education will discuss their next step when they meet Monday at the Devin Center. KASB attorney David Shriver plans to meet with the Board at that time.

He has been their lead negotiator in the contract process this year.

SALINA- Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are working to identify the vehicle and driver that left the scene of an injury accident just after 1:30p.m. on Saturday.

Salina Police reported a Chevrolet Equinox driven by Keli Hodges, 31, Salina, was eastbound in the 1200 Block of West Crawford.

A vehicle described as a gray Volkswagen Passat exited the Sunset Plaza collided with Chevy near the passenger side rear wheel.

The Chevy rolled into the eastbound lanes of Crawford. The Volkswagen fled the scene but left behind a bumper sheared off due to the collision.

Two children were in the vehicle at the time of the accident. One was transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

The accident remains under investigation.

SYDNEY (AP) — An American anti-abortion activist is expected to be deported from Australia amid concerns that he could incite violence.

Troy Newman is president of the Kansas-based anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. He was detained at Melbourne Airport on Thursday after trying to enter Australia even though officials had cancelled his visa.

The battle to prevent Newman from coming to Australia began earlier this week, after lawmaker Terri Butler said Newman had previously called for abortion providers to be executed. Butler said that could lead to threats of violence against women and medical professionals in Australia.

Newman denied that he posed a threat to anyone.

On Friday, a judge disagreed and dismissed Newman’s request to overturn the government’s decision to revoke his visa.

HUTCHINSON – One of the two men suspected of beating a Reno County Correctional Facility inmate so severely that he was taken to a Wichita hospital has been formally charged.

Antoine Alexander was charged on Friday by the state with a single count of aggravated battery. He appeared in front of Judge Joe McCarville for the reading of the charge and bond was set at $7,500.

He and a co-defendant, William Alexander are accused of beating 30-year-old inmate Darrell Beachy in one of the pods at the new Reno County Jail on September 26.

William Alexander is expected in Court on Monday.

Both face a possible sentence ranging between three years, two months to over 14-years.

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) this week announced that legislation he cosponsored to improve awareness and prevention of mental illness passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The bill will now head to the full Senate for consideration.

“To truly address the root cause of the terrible violence and tragic attacks we continue to see, we must look to the structural deficiencies in our mental health system,” Roberts said. “This bipartisan legislation is a step in the right direction at addressing mental health conditions and preventing another terrible tragedy. Troubled folks, especially our youth, requiring mental health care deserve the highest protections, care and understanding.”

The Mental Health Awareness and Improvement Act reauthorizes and improves programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services related to awareness, prevention, and early identification of mental health conditions, and the promotion of linkages to appropriate services for children and youth.

The bipartisan legislation focuses on suicide prevention, helping children recover from traumatic events, mental health awareness for teachers and other individuals, and assessing barriers to integrating behavioral health and primary care. This bill makes targeted improvements designed to advance federal efforts to assist states and local communities in addressing the mental health needs of their citizens.

Roberts was also an original cosponsor of this bill in the previous Congress.

As the Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, the Co-Chair of the Senate Rural Health Caucus and as a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Roberts has fought for improved mental health services and mental health parity. Senator Roberts was a long time original cosponsor of Senators Pete Domenici and Paul Wellstone’s landmark legislation on Mental Health Parity which became law in 2008. He was also a supporter of the Garrett Lee Smith Act.

DIGGINS, Mo.- A Kansas man and woman were injured in an accident just before 2a.m. on Saturday in Webster County, Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2016 Ford Explorer driven by Emory L. Vankirk, 70, Derby, was traveling on U.S. 60 one mile west of Diggins.

The vehicle struck the passenger side of a 2004 Toyota Tundra that was stopped in the middle of the road attempting to make a u-turn.

Vankirk and a passenger Patricia Vankirk, 71, Derby were transported to South Hospital in Springfield.

The driver of the Toyota Christopher R. Melton, 29, Springfield, was not injured.

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

By ANDY MARSO

A Kansas committee formed to vet a federally mandated plan to cut carbon emissions met for the first time Thursday in a hearing dominated by criticism of the plan.

Rep. Dennis Hedke, chairman of the Clean Power Plan Implementation Study Committee, blasted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for putting forth the rule, which is intended to prevent climate change.

“They have overstepped so many bounds it’s just almost unconscionable,” Hedke said.

The United Nations and other international groups have urged countries to try to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that burn fossil fuels. Most climate scientists agree the carbon emissions are contributing to global climate change and sea level rise.

The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expect serious public health effects as Earth’s climate changes, including expansion of vector-borne disease and disruption of the water and food supply.

The Clean Power Plan is a set of regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that require states to meet certain carbon reduction goals within their electrical grids by 2030.

According to the EPA, Kansas was given “one of the least stringent state goals” in the country.

President Obama and EPA officials say the carbon reduction plan is key to reducing the U.S. role in climate change.

Gov. Sam Brownback and Republican legislative leaders have decried the regulations, saying they violate states’ rights and will lead to big utility cost increases for businesses and individuals.

They passed a bill instructing the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to move forward in drafting a plan to meet the 2030 mandate, because if the state does not form its own plan, the EPA will impose one on it.

But the legislation passed last session stipulates that any KDHE plan must be vetted by the Kansas attorney general to ensure it doesn’t undermine a lawsuit Kansas and 14 other states have filed against the EPA.

Legal fight pending

The bill also formed the 11-member committee to provide legislative oversight of any plan KDHE puts forth.

The agenda for Thursday’s committee meeting included presentations from utility company representatives, state regulators and an attorney from Baker Botts, which bills itself as “one of the leading oil and gas firms in the world.”

Tom Gross, the leader of KDHE’s air quality monitoring program, and Jeff Chanay, the deputy attorney general working on the lawsuit, both said the EPA’s emission reduction targets would be impossible to reach.

“There is just no way possible to comply with these implementation dates,” Chanay said.

Hedke said Chanay’s assessment of the federal government’s “overreach and misapplication of the law” was spot on and urged him to litigate vigorously.

“Keep it up,” Hedke said. “Keep the pressure on.”

The Clean Power Plan committee is made up of nine Republicans and two Democrats, all of them members of the House Energy and Environment Committee or Senate Utilities Committee. The two Republican chairmen of those committees, Hedke and Sen. Rob Olson, both are on record saying they do not believe humans are causing climate change. Hedke is a geophysicist who contracts with oil and natural gas companies.

Religious leaders press for action

The committee’s inaugural gathering came days after Pope Francis urged Americans to make fighting climate change a priority during his visit to the East Coast. The Pope called on Congress and other Americans to preserve creation and protect poor nations that will be least able to cope with a changing climate.

Rep. Annie Kuether, one of the two Democrats on the committee, said she did not believe the Pope’s comments during his U.S. visit would change the discussion in Kansas, where fighting climate change is a low priority.

Kuether said she thought she and the committee’s other Democrat, Sen. Marci Francisco of Lawrence, were probably the only members who believe humans are causing climate change.

“I want to ask everybody if they’re Catholics,” Kuether said. “Your Pope is espousing that we need to pay attention to climate change. I think he has a great message.”

Sen. Mike Petersen, a Republican from Wichita who sits on the committee, expressed skepticism of human-caused climate change, saying “climate change has been in cycles, that’s kind of still up in the air whether how much we can contribute.”

Petersen said some initial estimates from the Kansas regional electricity pool showed a 40 percent increase in electricity costs if the state were to comply with the federal emissions reduction plan.

“I think most members of this committee are wanting us to be good stewards of our atmosphere,” he said. “We all live here. But we’re looking at the data and trying to get the cost and how this is going to affect our consumers, particularly the poor.”

Kansas Interfaith Power and Light, a group of religious leaders who lobby for policies to fight climate change, has planned a vigil Sunday afternoon in Overland Park to raise awareness about the issue.

The vigil coincides with the Catholic Feast of St. Francis and the Jewish holiday Sukkot and will feature clergy representing Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

“Our many faiths call us to be responsible stewards of creation and to stand in protection of the poorest and most vulnerable humans, ecosystems and species that will be most harmed by climate change,” said Moti Rieber, a rabbi who serves as the group’s director.

Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

HAVEN- A Reno County Sheriff’s Deputy was involved in an accident just after 7:30p.m. on Friday.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Ford Explorer driven by Deputy Lee D. Johnson was northbound on Haven Road on the way to a call.

He was running a red light and siren, according to a media release from the Reno County Sheriff.

As the vehicle approached Red Rock, an unknown vehicle traveling southbound veered into his lane. It caused the Explorer to drive into the ditch.

The unknown vehicle left the scene.

Johnson was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center and treated for minor injuries.

The public is asked to contact law enforcement if you have any information on the incident.

LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — New research says computer-assisted detection used in most U.S. mammograms adds no benefit to women.

The technique uses special software to highlight suspicious areas on mammogram images that radiologists reading the scans may have missed. Doctors take another look before making a determination.

Screening mammograms are preventive care and most women don’t pay more for the technique, but the researchers say it adds millions to U.S. health care costs,

Previous studies suggesting benefits mostly involved older film mammograms. Most scans now are digital. The study involved nearly 324,000 U.S. women who had screening mammograms, most with computer assistance and some without. The overall cancer detection rate was about 4 in 1,000 women and was identical in both groups.

The study appears in Monday’s JAMA Internal Medicine.