KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court says a judge went too far by dismissing a Kansas drug indictment after finding that a prosecutor violated the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson should retry Gregory Orozco.

Robinson dismissed Orozco’s two drug charges in December 2017 after finding that federal prosecutor Terra Morehead intimidated a witness into not testifying and belatedly disclosed evidence.

Morehead was also accused of misconduct in her handling of a case in the 1990s that caused a man to be imprisoned for nearly 23 years for a crime he didn’t commit.

The appeals court says Robinson never addressed why dismissing Orozco’s case was necessary to deter misconduct.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting and on Friday asked the public again for help with the investigation.

Just before 9p.m. March 16, police responded to the report of a shooting in the 1100 block of SW Hillsdale Street in Topeka, according to Lt. John Trimble.

Officers found a victim identified as 25-year-old Robert McKinsey James, unresponsive in the yard suffering what appeared to be several gunshot wounds.

Officers were able to secure the scene and first responders performed first aid on McKinsey. He was transported to an area hospital where he died, according to Trimble.

The suspect vehicle is described as an older, boxy, dark colored SUV that was seen fleeing from the area shortly after the shooting. The SUV had several occupants, according to Trimble.

Anyone with information regarding this crime is encouraged to contact the Topeka Police.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Kansas City area hospital has passed a follow-up inspection after state inspectors found that its staff failed to properly respond to an 83-year-old woman who died one day after undergoing a routine colonoscopy.

Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville came under scrutiny after Martha Wright of Pleasant Hill died in August of internal bleeding. In November, inspectors found that the hospital hadn’t recognized the seriousness of the incident or done a proper review to determine how it happened.

Hospital officials said in an email that the designation was lifted after a follow-up inspection in February but also acknowledged new infractions for cleanliness that the hospital had to address.

SALINE COUNTY —Rolling Hills Zoo is mourning the loss of one of the zoo’s iconic and beloved species, Motomba, an African lion, who had to be humanely euthanized on Friday due to complications from a long-term illness., according to a media release.

“He was a marvelous ambassador for his kind and helped stimulate the conservation of this endangered species,” said Bob Jenkins, Executive Director of Rolling Hills Zoo.

Born in captivity in 1997, Motomba and his brother Simba arrived at Rolling Hills Zoo in 1998. As cubs they were introduce to Torrey, a female lion and original resident of the zoo’s main barn. Motomba, Simba and Torrey moved into the new Lion Exhibit at Rolling Hills Zoo in July 2000. Motomba outlived his brother Simba who died in June 2016.

Just shy of his 22nd birthday on March 30, Motomba lived well passed the expected lifetime of a wild African lion, who seldom live longer than 15 years, and the median age for male lions in captivity is 20 -25 years old. Neither Motomba nor Simba produced any offspring.

Motomba, a beloved member of the Rolling Hills Zoo family, could be heard by visitors throughout the park chuffing along with an occasion roar as a way to express a greeting or excitement with his keepers. As a non-threatening vocalization, staff members always enjoyed hearing Motomba’s chuffing throughout the day.

Powerful and majestic, lions once roamed most of African and parts of Asia and Europe. Today they are found only in parts of sub-Saharan African, except for one very small population of lions in India’s Gir Forest. Lions have no natural predators, but due habitat loss, conflicts with people and poaching, African lion numbers have plummeted by more than 40 percent in the last three generations, and with only about 20,000 in the wild they are now listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Redlist (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

The staff at Rolling Hills Zoo will be working with the SSP (Species Survival Plan) of the AZA (Association of Zoo and Aquariums) to secure a new lion(s) for Rolling Hills Zoo in the future

OMAHA (AP) — Even as floodwaters receded in hard-hit places in in the Midwest, experts warned Saturday that with plenty of snow still left to melt in northern states, the relief may only be temporary.

KHP pilots continue to help monitor the MO River flooding. This morning we surveyed the river levee near Elwood, KS, and took pics of the flooding after the levee breach east of Atchison yesterday. pic.twitter.com/fyzUOZinAk

— KHP Air Support Unit (@KHPAircraft) March 22, 2019

Rainfall and some snowmelt spurred flooding in recent weeks that’s blamed in three deaths so far, with two men in Nebraska missing for more than a week. Thousands were forced from their homes in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, as water broke through or poured over levees in the region. The damage is estimated at $3 billion, and that figure is expected to rise.

As temperatures start to warm, snowmelt in the Dakotas and Minnesota will escalate, sending more water down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries.

None of this is supposed to be under water.

Here’s what the Missouri River looks like just across from Nebraska City into Iowa. If you ever drive to Kansas City, you’re probably familiar with this interchange of I-29 and Highway 2. The Missouri looks like an ocean.#NSP575 pic.twitter.com/kwkkAs5fha

— NEStatePatrol (@NEStatePatrol) March 21, 2019

Lt. Col. James Startzell, deputy commander of the Corps of Engineers’ Omaha, Nebraska, district, said even warmer temperatures are possible into next week. He urged those living near rivers to keep a wary eye on them.

Bill Brinton, emergency management director for hard-hit Buchanan County, Missouri, which includes St. Joseph’s 76,000 residents, said he expects more flooding this spring. Buchanan and its neighboring counties have been ravaged by this round of flooding.

“There’s a sense from the National Weather Service that we should expect it to continue to happen into May,” Brinton said. “With our levee breaches in Atchison and Holt and Buchanan counties, it’s kind of scary really.”

A precautionary evacuation involving hundreds of homes in the St. Joseph area was lifted as the Missouri River began a swift decline after coming just inches short of the 1993 record. St. Joseph was largely spared, but Brinton said 250 homes were flooded in the southern part of Buchanan County. It wasn’t clear when residents would be able to get back.

When they do, officials say they need to be careful. Contaminants that escaped from flooded farm fields, industrial operations and sewage plants are part of the murky water now saturating homes.

In Fremont County, Iowa, homes remain underwater, so it will be some time before residents can return, said county Supervisor Randy Hickey.

“We don’t want them in that water, anyway,” Hickey said.

The water itself isn’t the only concern. Experts warn that sharp objects — broken glass, pieces of metal, pointy sticks and rocks — could lurk in muddy debris. Downed or broken power lines also may pose electrocution hazards.

Another risk is posed by river wildlife. Brinton said two people in Buchanan County were bitten by snakes after returning home following flooding in 2011.

The Missouri River had yet to crest further downstream in Missouri, but flooding impact in those areas was expected to be far less severe.

Concern was rising on the Mississippi River, too. Major flooding was reported at several spots north of the Iowa-Missouri line. St. Louis and other Missouri cities were seeing mostly moderate flooding.

Even the lower Mississippi River was impacted. The U.S. Coast Guard on Friday rescued two boaters from a disabled vessel near New Orleans. Coast Guard officials said the flooding means more debris in the river, and the currents can pull a boat into danger.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Friday night shooting in Wichita.

Just after 11 p.m. police were dispatched to the 7900 block of E. Indianapolis in Wichita for a shooting call, according to officer Kevin Wheeler.

Upon arrival, officers located a 29-year-old male victim inside of the residence, who had been shot multiple times. He was transported to a local hospital and remains hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, according to Wheeler.

The preliminary investigation shows that there was a disturbance that took place at the residence just before the shooting. This does not appear to be a random incident and there were no additional injuries and no one is in custody early Saturday, according to Wheeler.

By NOMIN UJIYEDIIN

Social workers can perform a myriad of tasks. Some check on children in abusive homes and some train foster families. Others support patients through medical procedures like kidney dialysis or provide talk therapy to mental health patients.

But there are too few of them in Kansas.

An array of health care providers, state agencies and nonprofit organizations that employ social workers say low pay and emotionally challenging work make it hard to hire and retain qualified social workers — especially in the wake of years of declining state funding.

Advocates say Kansas’ uncommonly high standards make the problem worse. The state has stringent requirements for granting the most advanced social work certification and for allowing people certified elsewhere to practice in Kansas.

Now lawmakers are considering a bill that would lower those standards, bringing them closer to requirements in most other states.

“Currently there’s a chronic (worker) shortage,” said Becky Fast, executive director of the Kansas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, “in rural medical care, in mental health and in child welfare.”

Currently, Kansas requires aspiring licensed clinical social workers to pay for 4,000 hours of supervised experience with clients and 150 hours of direct contact with a supervisor. Most other states require between 3,000 and 4,000 hours of client experience and less than 110 hours of supervisor contact.

The state also requires social workers, counselors and other professionals who were licensed outside of Kansas to have worked at least 60 out of the last 66 months before applying for a license in Kansas.

A bill pending in the Legislature would reduce those requirements, instead asking for 48 months of work experience out of the preceding 54 months. It would also reduce the work requirement for licensed clinical social workers from 4,000 to 3,000 hours.

The state Senate approved the bill unanimously last month. It now awaits a vote from the House of Representatives.

Advocates and employers say the reductions would motivate more social workers to seek jobs or clinical certification in Kansas and would make it easier for nonprofits, state agencies and health care providers to recruit.

Laura Howard, the newly appointed secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, has said she wants to make hiring social workers a priority for the department. She said on KCUR’s Up to Date that her agency has been able to fill more vacancies since Gov. Laura Kelly came into office, and that recent interns have expressed interest in staying with the department.

“This is the hardest work that someone can do,” Howard said in the interview. “We have some aggressive recruitment campaigns with the schools of social work across the state.”

But Kansas employers often lose out to neighboring states with lower standards for clinical social worker certification, said Fast. One reason: the cost of paying a clinician to oversee training time, which can be as much as $70 an hour.

“Most social workers now have to pay for that clinical supervision because agencies can’t afford to lose that billable time,” Fast told lawmakers. “You’re paying several thousand dollars. Many just give up and say, ‘I’m going to move to Missouri.’”

Fast told legislators that it took her two years to get her clinical license in Missouri, while her colleagues working in Kansas needed three or four years to complete the required hours.

She called the requirements “a primary barrier” to recruiting social workers from nearby states.

In an interview, Fast said she doesn’t have an exact number for open social work positions in Kansas, but she said employers routinely send her job postings and tell her that they have trouble hiring workers. The impending retirement of Baby Boomer social workers and the mobility of the millennial workforce have made things worse.

“There’s a real generational shift right now,” she said. “Today’s young professionals want to live in many states and want to move across state lines. And how do you meet that changing workforce need?”

Fast said the shortage of licensed clinical social workers has a particular impact in rural western Kansas, where patients rely heavily on Medicare. Among the variety of social work and counseling positions, only clinical social workers and psychologists can bill Medicare.

There are only 79 licensed clinical social workers in the western half of the state, Fast said. “It is at (a) crisis point in rural areas of Kansas.”

Christie Appelhanz, executive director of the Children’s Alliance for Kansas, said in an interview that the shortage reduces social workers’ ability to manage their caseloads and help their clients.

“It’s really about fulfilling the needs that each individual has on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “Social workers are definitely feeling the stress.”

Nomin Ujiyediin is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @NominUJ.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A bicyclist has died after being struck by a vehicle in Overland Park, Kansas.

The accident happened Friday morning. The bicyclist was taken to a hospital and died Friday afternoon. Overland Park police have not released any information about the bicyclist, pending notification of relatives.

Police say the vehicle and bicyclist were heading in the same direction when the accident happened just after 9:30 a.m. The bicyclist was not wearing a helmet.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A woman has been convicted of helping to kill her cousin’s ex-boyfriend whose body was found inside a burning home near Lawrence.

38-year-old Christina Towell, of Leavenworth, pleaded no contest Thursday to felony first-degree murder in the November 2017 death of 34-year-old Joel Wales. Other charges, including burglary and arson, were dropped as part of the plea. Her cousin, Tria Evans, was convicted earlier of murder and other charges.

Evans and Wales had a child together and a history of domestic disputes. Prosecutors say text messages show that Towell and Evans plotted the death for more than a month and that Towell drove Evans to the scene.

Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson described the killing in a statement as “heinous and calculated.”

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating two armed robberies and have three suspects in custody.

Just after 8:30p.m. March 12, police responded to an armed robbery call at Dollar General, 1625 South Rock in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. Two employees told police two unknown suspects entered the business. One suspect pulled out a handgun and both demanded money. They took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled the business in a gray Chrysler 300 driven by a third suspect.

On March 14, police responded just after 9p.m. to a robbery at the Dollar Tree, 4830 East Lincoln. Two suspects entered the business, used a handgun and escaped with money, according to a female employee. Investigators learned that a third suspect had posed as a customer during the robbery, according to Davidson.

After an investigation, police arrested 24-year-old Rayontae Evans on Wednesday. They arrested 52-year-old Earl Williams and 37-year-old Derrick Smith Thursday, according to Davidson.

All three are being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on requested charges of aggravated robbery, according to Davidson.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller has concluded his investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with associates of President Donald Trump.

The Justice Department says Mueller delivered his final report Friday to Attorney General William Barr, who is reviewing it.

Mueller’s report, still confidential, sets the stage for big public fights to come. The next steps are up to Trump’s attorney general, to Congress and, in all likelihood, federal courts.

It’s not clear how much of the report will become public or provided to Congress. Barr has said he will write his own report summarizing Mueller’s findings.

The nearly two-year probe has shadowed Trump’s presidency and resulted in felony charges against 34 people including six people who served on Trump’s campaign.