WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is recalling hundreds of vehicle license plates on the streets containing the “JAP” lettering in the wake of complaints that they are offensive to Japanese Americans.

The Kansas Department of Revenue said there are 731 active registrations containing that random letter combination on standard license plates. Vehicle owners were sent a letter dated Tuesday asking them to return the plate to their county vehicle office within 30 days for replacement at no cost.

The issue arose last year when a motorist spotted a car with the Kansas plate in traffic near his home in Culver City, California, and took a photo of it. A Kansas woman of Japanese heritage contacted the state after seeing the picture and story in the newspaper put out by the Japanese American Citizens League.

By DAVID PITT
Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa — American farmers still working to get out their remaining soybeans after a weather-plagued harvest season are struggling to figure out what to do with a record crop now their traditionally dominant export market is largely closed.

Usually by this point in the year, 100-car trains filled with North Dakota soybeans would be moving to ports on the West Coast destined for China. This year is different because that leading soybean customer has all but stopped buying American soybeans in response to President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

Some farmers are storing unsold beans, hoping prices will improve and markets open. But with farmers already in debt due to high costs but falling net income, economists are warning they could be forced out of business by the export crisis.

By ANDREW DALTON
AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES — Stephen Hillenburg, who created SpongeBob SquarePants and the absurd undersea world he inhabited, has died at age 57, Nickelodeon announced Tuesday.

Hillenburg died Monday of Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS, the cable network said in a statement. He was 57.

Hillenburg had announced he had the disease in March 2017. His death comes just weeks after the passing of another cartoon hero in Marvel creator Stan Lee.

An Oklahoma native with a love of both drawing and marine biology, Hillenburg conceived, wrote, produced and directed the animated series that began in 1999 and went on to spawn hundreds of episodes, movies and a Broadway show.

“He was a beloved friend and long-time creative partner to everyone at Nickelodeon, and our hearts go out to his entire family,” Nickelodeon’s statement said. “Steve imbued ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ with a unique sense of humor and innocence that has brought joy to generations of kids and families everywhere. His utterly original characters and the world of Bikini Bottom will long stand as a reminder of the value of optimism, friendship and the limitless power of imagination.”

The absurdly jolly SpongeBob, his starfish sidekick Patrick, and a vast cast of oceanic creatures quickly appealed to college kids and parents as much as it did kids.

“The fact that it’s undersea and isolated from our world helps the characters maintain their own culture,” Hillenburg told The Associated Press in 2001. “The essence of the show is that SpongeBob is an innocent in a world of jaded characters. The rest is absurd packaging.”

Born at his father’s army post in Lawton, Oklahoma, Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University in California in 1984 with a degree in natural resource planning with an emphasis on marine resources, and went on to teach marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute.

He shifted to drawing and earned a master of fine arts degree in animation from the California Institute of the Arts in 1992.

That same year he created an animated short called “Wormholes” that won festival plaudits and helped land him a job on the Nickelodeon show “Rocko’s Modern Life,” where he worked from 1993 to 1996 before he began to build SpongeBob’s undersea world of Bikini Bottom, which showed off his knowledge of marine life and willingness to throw all the details out the window.

“We know that fish don’t walk,” he told the AP, “and that there is no organized community with roads, where cars are really boats. And if you know much about sponges, you know that living sponges aren’t square.”

The show was an immediate hit that has lost no momentum in the nearly 20 years since its creation. Its nearly 250 episodes have won four Emmys and 15 Kids Choice Awards, and led to an endless line of merchandise to rival any other pop cultural phenomenon of the 2000s.

In 2004, the show shifted to the big screen with “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” and a 2015 sequel, “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.”

A musical stage adaptation bowed on Broadway in 2017, with music from such stars as Steven Tyler, Sara Bareilles and John Legend. It earned 12 Tony Award nominations, including one for best performance by a leading actor for Ethan Slater.

“I am heartbroken to hear of the passing of Stephen Hillenburg,” Slater said in an email Tuesday. “Through working on ‘SpongeBob,’ I got to know him not only as a creative genius, but as a truly generous and kind person. He warmly embraced us on Broadway as the newest members of his wonderful ‘SpongeBob’ family, and made it so clear from the get-go why he is so beloved: genuine kindness.”

Hillenburg is survived by his wife of 20 years Karen Hillenburg, son Clay, mother Nancy Hillenburg, and a brother, Brian Kelly Hillenburg.

WICHITA— Wichita State University President John Bardo responded to questions about his health on social media Tuesday morning.

 

I’m in good spirits and continuing to work with members of the Executive Team on university issues. I’m looking forward to being back on campus and seeing you in the new year. Best, John (2 of 2)

— John Bardo (@President_Bardo) November 27, 2018

The 70-year-old Bardo became WSU president in 2012. He was hospitalized last week as he has battled a variety of health issues in recent months.

Provost Rick Muma will fill in for Bardo at commencement ceremonies Dec. 16 and other meetings Bardo would usually attend.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A man is claiming self-defense after he was charged with wounding a 17-year-old whose friends were shooting fireworks at a Lawrence apartment building.

20-year-old Rashan Gill is scheduled to be tried in January on one count of criminal discharge of a firearm. His attorney is citing the state’s “stand your ground” law.

An affidavit in the case says the girl waited in a car on July 5 while her friends shot Roman candles at the apartment. The friends said that at one point a man ran out of the building toward them, so they shot a Roman candle at him. The victim told police she was shot in the torso and arm as they started driving away.

The shooter was later identified as Gill.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the U.S. military said, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in the last 17 months.

The military said that three other service members were wounded when the bomb went off near the city of Ghazni. An American contractor was also wounded, it said. The military did not immediately identify any of the casualties.

Lt. Ubon Mendie, a military spokesman, said the wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical care.

The Taliban claimed the attack, saying a U.S. tank was completely destroyed.

It appeared to be the deadliest attack on American forces since June 2017, when an Afghan army soldier shot and killed three U.S. soldiers in an insider attack in the Achin district of the eastern Nangarhar province. The Taliban claimed that attack.

The Taliban carry out near-daily attacks on Afghan forces, and in August the insurgents overran parts of Ghazni, leading to days of intense fighting before they were driven out. Ghazni was the only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces where parliamentary elections could not be held in October. Voting there has been postponed for a year.

The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but still provide close support to Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism operations. Some 15,000 American forces are currently serving in Afghanistan.

In a separate incident on Tuesday, the Taliban abducted 21 passengers from two vans that were traveling through the northern Sari Pul province, according to Habibullah Mujahidzada, a district police chief. It was not immediately clear what motivated the abduction, and there was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas hasn’t escaped the growing urban-rural political divide that is playing out nationally, especially after Democratic voters in the state’s urban centers fueled Laura Kelly’s victory over Republican Kris Kobach in the November governor’s race.

The urban-rural divide could make it easier for Democrats to control the governor’s office or hold a congressional seat and could help Republicans fortify their hold on rural areas.

Ahead of the 2018 midterm election, the percentage of Kansas Democrats registered to vote grew for the first time in years. But Kansas won’t have any Democratic state lawmakers west of Hutchinson after several rural Democrats lost their races.

The urban-rural divide has grown gradually in both Kansas and across the county over the last couple of decades, said University of Kansas political scientist Patrick Miller. The politics and size of the divide “have finally gotten to the point where they’re becoming starkly obvious on maps,” he said.

The few blue counties in central and eastern Kansas, within a sea of red, were able to push Kelly to victory by 5 percentage points, or about 46,000 votes. Kelly won nine Kansas counties but none west of Wichita.

Kelly received 86,000 more votes in the state’s 10 most-populated counties than the party’s 2014 gubernatorial candidate, Paul Davis. Kobach had just about 7,100 more votes in those counties than the 2014 Republican who was seeking re-election, Sam Brownback.

“We’ve been reaching out to urban voters for years. That’s been a big part of what we do as a party,” said Kelly Arnold, the outgoing chairman of the Kansas Republican Party. “But it has changed. It is something that as we move forward we need to make sure we’re spending enough time on the issues that are important to each district, whether that be a rural district or an urban district.”

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A mother and her boyfriend are charged with the malnutrition death of a 2-year-old in a rat-infested Kansas City home.

Prosecutors announced Monday that 25 -year-old Saritza Serrano and 24-year-old Ruben Yepez-Ruiz are charged with abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death. No attorneys are listed for them in online court records.

Charging documents say emergency crews responded to their home on Nov. 16. They found the boy’s body in feces-covered bedroom with a door that latched on the outside.

Serrano told police the boy had been sick for three weeks but that she hadn’t taken him to a doctor. She said she fed him milk through a bottle. Yepez-Ruiz said he hadn’t seen the child in several weeks, although they lived in the same home together.

SCOTT COUNTY— One person died in an accident just before 7:30 p.m. Monday in Scott County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 Toyota Camry driven by Mony Sen Conner, 39, Dodge City, was southbound on U.S. 83 twelve miles north of Kansas 96.

The driver attempted to pass a southbound 2010 Freightliner truck driven by Luis Fernando Jimenez-Sanjuan, 35, Garden City, on the left.

The Toyota side-swiped the driver’s side of a northbound 2015 Ford E450 driven by Stanton Ray Herrada, 19, Garden City.

The Toyota then pushed back over into the southbound lane and side-swiped the Freightliner truck.

Conner was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to Price and Sons Mortuary.

Jimenez-Sanjuan and Herrada were not injured. All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s OK to eat some romaine lettuce again, U.S. health officials said. Just check the label.

The Food and Drug Administration narrowed its blanket warning from last week, when it said people shouldn’t eat any romaine because of an E. coli outbreak. The agency said Monday the romaine linked to the outbreak appears to be from the California’s Central Coast region. It said romaine from elsewhere should soon be labeled with harvest dates and regions, so people know it’s OK to eat.

People shouldn’t eat romaine that doesn’t have the label information, the FDA said. For romaine that doesn’t come in packaging, grocers and retailers are being asked to post the information by the register.

Romaine harvesting recently began shifting from California’s Central Coast to winter growing areas, primarily Arizona, Florida, Mexico and California’s Imperial Valley. Those winter regions weren’t yet shipping when the illnesses began. The FDA also noted hydroponically grown romaine and romaine grown in greenhouses aren’t implicated in the outbreak.

The labeling arrangement was worked out as the produce industry called on the FDA to quickly narrow the scope of its warning so it wouldn’t have to waste freshly harvested romaine. An industry group said people can expect to start seeing labels as early as this week. It noted the labels are voluntary, and that it will monitor whether to expand the measure to other leafy greens and produce.

The FDA said the industry committed to making the labeling standard for romaine and to consider longer-term labeling options for other leafy greens.

Robert Whitaker, chief science officer of the Produce Marketing Association, said labeling for romaine could help limit the scope of future alerts and rebuild public trust after other outbreaks.

“Romaine as a category has had a year that’s been unfortunate,” Whitaker said.

The FDA still hasn’t identified a source of contamination in the latest outbreak. There have been no reported deaths, but health officials say 43 people in 12 states have been sickened. Twenty-two people in Canada were also sickened.

Even though romaine from the Yuma, Arizona, region is not implicated in the current outbreak, it was blamed for an E. coli outbreak this spring that sickened more than 200 people and killed five. Contaminated irrigation water near a cattle lot was later identified as the likely source.

Leafy greens were also blamed for an E. coli outbreak last year. U.S. investigators never specified which salad green might be to blame for those illnesses, which happened around the same time of year as the current outbreak. But officials in Canada identified romaine as a common source of illnesses there.

The produce industry is aware the problem is recurring, said Jennifer McEntire of the United Fresh Produce Association.

“To have something repeat in this way, there simply must be some environmental source that persisted,” she said. “The question now is, can we find it?”

Growers and handlers in the region tightened food safety measures after the outbreak this spring, the industry says. Steps include expanding buffer zones between cattle lots and produce fields. But McEntire said it’s not known for sure how the romaine became contaminated in the Yuma outbreak. Another possibility, she said, is that winds blew dust from the cattle lot onto produce.

McEntire said the industry is considering multiple theories, including whether there is something about romaine that makes it more susceptible to contamination. Compared with iceberg lettuce, she noted its leaves are more open, thus exposing more surface area.

Since romaine has a shelf life of about 21 days, health officials said last week they believed contaminated romaine could still be on the market or in people’s homes.

Food poisoning outbreaks from leafy greens are not unusual. But after a 2006 outbreak linked to spinach, the produce industry took steps it believed would limit large scale outbreaks, said Timothy Lytton, a Georgia State University law professor. The outbreak linked to romaine earlier this year cast doubt on how effective the measures have been, he said.

But Lytton also noted the inherent risk of produce, which is grown in open fields and eaten raw.

HUTCHINSON — Two men accused of murder for the shooting death of a Hutchinson man on June 26 have been bound over for trial.

Eighteen-year-old Tristan Delaney and 26-year-old Curtis Garcia are accused of being involved with the killing of 18-year-old Norman Cushinberry. He had multiple gunshot wounds and his leg may have been run over with a green pickup.

The theory for the crime involves Delaney and Cushinberry purchasing drugs. According to court testimony, Delaney and Garcia had been texting the day of the shooting about the purchase of around a quarter pound of marijuana.

There is also some indication over phony money being involved. Garcia claims he was there to sell an Xbox and not drugs.

Police found Cushinberry in the street suffering from gunshot wounds to his upper chest, on his side around the rib cage, and around his upper arm. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

According to testimony, Delaney came out of a home in the 500 block of Washington with a shotgun. That gun was later found near Cushinberry.

Because of the dispute between the two suspects, it’s likely they will be tried separately.

Both will be arraigned before separate judges in separate Reno County courtrooms on Monday December 3.

SEDGWICK COUNTY Law enforcement authorities are investigating an armed robbery and have a suspect in custody.

Just after 2a.m. Saturday, police responded to an armed robbery call at a convenience store in the 700 Block of West 29^th Street North, according to officer Charley Davidson.  A 23-year-old f employee told police a suspect later identified as 18-year-old Ivan Vasquez entered the business, pointed a handgun at her and demanded money.  Vasquez took the cash and fled on foot.

On Saturday evening, investigators located and arrested Vasquez. He was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail for aggravated robbery, possession of marijuana and obstruction, according to Davidson.

Investigators are working to determine if this Vasquez is also responsible for other armed robberies in the area.  Police will present the case of Saturday’s robbery to the district attorney later this week, according to Davidson.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Leavenworth police say a 74-year-old woman fatally shot a man who she thought was trying to burglarize her home.

Police Chief Pat Kitchens says when officers responded to the woman’s call early Saturday they found the 41-year-old suspect, Ralph Byrd Jr., of Leavenworth suffering from a gunshot wound.

Byrd was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kitchens says the woman suffered a “medical event” after the shooting and was taken to a hospital but was expected to survive.

Kitchens says the focus of the investigation will be to determine if Byrd was committing a burglary when he was shot.