(AP) – Services have been scheduled for a 13-year-old student who died after sustaining an ankle injury in a football game.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Alec Mounkes, a seventh grade student at Lyndon Middle School, died Thursday as the result of complications from an ankle injury sustained in the Oct. 6 football game.

Brian Spencer, superintendent of Lyndon Unified School District 421, said the injury led to blood clots, which led to cardiac arrest that placed him on a heart and lung machine.

He said doctors then had to amputate 1 of Alec’s legs at mid-calf and the other at mid-thigh. He said the boy underwent surgery in Kansas City on Thursday to clear his lungs and died shortly after that surgery.

Services are Monday in Lyndon.

Crews have suspended rescue efforts for three people missing since an explosion at a Kansas grain elevator that killed three workers and injured two.

Atchison City Manager Trey Cocking says the search was suspended Sunday while crews waited for more specialized equipment to help in the search at the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator.

Cocking said earlier that the company had been weighing whether it was safe to send rescue teams into the facility, which sustained significant damage in the Saturday night explosion.

The family of one of the men who is unaccounted for waited Sunday at the site for news.

Gary Keil, of Salina, said his son, 34-year-old Travis Keil is a state grain inspector missing since the explosion. He said the family is praying for his safe return.

UPDATE:  Three people are dead, three unaccounted for, and more were injured after a grain elevator exploded into a huge fireball in Atchison, Kansas Saturday night.

City Manager Trey Cocking confirmed the deaths and said three others remain unaccounted for after Saturday night’s blast at the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator, which shook homes and businesses all around. Authorities also reported injuries, but were still trying to get accurate information and notify families.

Cocking said authorities planned to bring in heavy equipment to dig through the rubble Sunday.

Bartlett Grain President Bill Fellows said in a statement that 11 workers were loading a train with corn when the explosion occurred about 7 p.m. Saturday. He said several of those 11 workers escaped injury, but that there were fatalities and some injuries.

Witnesses said the fireball and blast could be seen and felt across Atchison and in neighboring Missouri. Buchanan County, Missouri authorities fielded numerous calls from alarmed citizens.

Randy Burton, who works at a Quick Stop East convenience store in Atchison about two miles from the elevator, said the explosion “shook our whole building.”

“All I saw was a flash and then the building shook really good,” Burton said. “Some things fell off our shelves.”

Fellows said Bartlett Grain workers remained at the elevator early Sunday and aiding authorities any way they could.

“The company’s concern at this point is caring for those involved and their families,” Fellows said. “We, of course, are in touch with all of the families of the Bartlett employees. We will share more information as it is discovered.”

A news release from Atchison city officials said multiple injuries were reported, but that authorities were withholding details pending notification of families.

ORIGINAL: Authorities in the northeast Kansas town of Atchison say they have been called to a grain elevator explosion, and media reports said the blast could be felt widely around the site and seen across the river in Missouri.

A spokesman for the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., said the hospital was expecting two patients from the blast, but their conditions weren’t immediately known.

An Atchison Fire Department dispatcher said several area agencies have responded to the scene at Bartlett Grain Co. along with firefighters and paramedics.

Atchison is about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City, Mo.

The St. Jospeh News-Press reported that the blast sent a fireball into the air that could be seen across the river in Buchanan County, Mo.

(AP) – More than 160 soldiers returned to Fort Riley from Iraq recently.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the soldiers with the 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division returned Friday night after a one year deployment to Baghdad. The unit deployed with more than 3,000 Soldiers in November 2010.

This was the brigade’s second deployment to Baghdad since their return to Fort Riley from Germany. The brigade previously deployed to Iraq from October 2008 to September 2009.

(AP) – A 13-year-old Kansas girl faces numerous charges after authorities say she led deputies on a chase through two counties in a stolen truck.

Lyon County Sheriff Jeff Cope told The Emporia Gazette the chase began shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday and ended when the pickup hit a Coffey County sheriff’s car in a field.

Cope says the Emporia girl suffered only a sore wrist.

The chase began when Lyon County deputies noticed the pickup swerving on Interstate 35. Officers tried to stop the pickup on Kansas 130, but the driver took off at speeds ranging from 40 to 80 mph.

The pursuit ended when the truck drove onto a field in Coffey County and struck a sheriff’s car.

Cope says the pickup had been stolen in Emporia.

Rural fire departments in Rush, Osborne and Phillips Counties, as well as the town of Downs, recently received grants through the Kansas Forest Service’s Volunteer Fire Assistant Cooperative Fire Protection program.

The grants will be used to purchase fire equipment and training materials and requires matching funds from each department.

To be eligible for funding, the fire departments must serve a community of fewer than 10,000 people.

Landshire is recalling Nike sandwiches that have been distributed in Kansas because of possible health risks.

Landshire, of St. Louis, Mo., is recalling Nike Super Poor Boy Sandwiches and Nike All-American Sandwiches, according to a news release from the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

“Consumer safety is a top priority of the Kansas Department of Agriculture,” said Adam Inman, food safety and lodging inspection and training manager for the Kansas Department of Agriculture. “We want to highlight this recall because of the wide distribution of the product in our state.”

While no confirmed illnesses have been reported, the products may contain Listeria monocytogenes. Listeria monocytogenes is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

The following products are subject to recall:

• Landshire Nike All-American
• Landshire Nike Super Poor Boy

Production lot codes affected by the recall are from 11 237 6 through 11 285 6

The lot number is printed in black ink on the side or back of the individual packaged sandwich. The initial recall was issued Oct. 20, with an expansion issued Oct. 25.

The Nike Super Poor Boy sandwich may be sold in a two-count pack and an eight-count pack.

Consumers who have purchased the Nike All-American or Nike Super Poor Boy are urged to return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact Landshire, at 314-925-4009.

The Northwest Kansas Travel Council  received a Travel Industry Association of Kansas, TIAK, Marketing Award during the Kansas Tourism Conference held in Lawrence Oct. 17-19.

The award is for the development of the Ultimate Guide to Northwest Kansas, a 44-page guide to hunting, fishing, attractions, history, culture, and recreation in Northwest Kansas.

The Northwest Kansas Travel Council is an organization that includes representatives from the travel/ tourism industry and businesses that support tourism in Northwest Kansas.

Free copies of the most current Ultimate Guide to Northwest Kansas magazine are available in many local businesses and economic development offices.

(AP) – A national abortion rights group announced Thursday that it will sue over revised regulations for abortion providers in Kansas, saying that even with recent changes meant to placate the doctors who have already persuaded a federal judge to block the earlier version, the rules still impose unreasonable and “irrational” requirements.

The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights represents Dr. Herbert Hodes and his daughter, Dr. Traci Nauser, who perform abortions and provide other services at their medical offices in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park. The center, on behalf of the doctors, filed a lawsuit in late June, when the Kansas Department of Health and Environment was preparing to enforce new regulations mandated this year by the Legislature.

The first version of the rules told providers what drugs and equipment they must stock and set minimum size requirements for procedure and recovery rooms. The department recently revised the rules, paring down the list of drugs and equipment required and dropping specific sizes for rooms. The state published the revised regulations Thursday and they are set to take effect next month.

A federal judge blocked enforcement of the original regulations until a trial of the doctors’ lawsuit. Learning last week that revised regulations would take effect Nov. 14, the judge ordered the parties in the lawsuit to analyze the differences between the two sets of rules.

“While the regulations have been changed in some respects, they are still unacceptable,” Bonnie Scott Jones, an attorney with center, said in a statement. “They run roughshod over patient confidentiality, and impose unnecessary and unreasonable requirements that will prevent physicians from providing the full range of reproductive health services to the women of Kansas.”

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. Health department spokeswoman Miranda Steele said the agency had not seen the announcement.

“KDHE will move forward as we can legally, however we need to do our jobs within the rule of law,” she said.

The health department wrote both sets of regulations under a law enacted this year requiring clinics, hospitals and doctors’ offices performing five or more elective abortions a month to obtain a special, annual license. It was a part of a wave of anti-abortion measures enacted this year across the nation, as abortion opponents
capitalized on the election of new, sympathetic Republican governors like Kansas’ Sam Brownback.

A third physician, Dr. Ronald Yeomans, who performs abortions at a Kansas City, Kan., clinic was also part of the original lawsuit.

Three people were injured in a single vehicle accident on I-70, 9 miles NE of Ellsworth.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, 36-year-old Susan J Eicher of Platteville, CO was eastbound on I-70 when she became distracted and struck a guard rail.

Eicher and two teenage passengers were transported to the Ellsworth County Medical Center with injuries. Their conditions were not immediately known.

A third passenger was not injured.