LANE COUNTY— One person was injured in an accident just before 8:30p.m. Sunday in Lane County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1988 Blue Bird Bus from USD 482 Dighton and driven by Mark Duane Hager, 48, Ness City, was westbound on Kansas 96 nine miles east of Dighton attempting a left turn.

At the same time, a 2004 Kawasaki motorcycle driven by Paul Dean Simpson, 58, Hays, was attempting to pass the bus on the left.The motorcycle struck the bus on the driver’s side steering axel.

EMS transported Simpson to Wesley Medical Center.

Hager, four teens and one other adult on the bus were not injured. Simpson was wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced last week to 77 months in federal prison for robbing a bank and a pharmacy and attempting to rob a retail store, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Ralph McGinnis, 63, Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery.

In his plea, McGinnis admitted he robbed the Bank of Labor at 756 Minnesota in Kansas City, Kan. According to documents filed in the case, McGinnis told a teller, “Don’t say anything,” as he handed her a note. The note said: “This is a robbery. Give me 100’s and 50’s.” After the robbery, a security guard followed the robber to a nearby apartment building where McGinnis was living.

The day before the bank robbery, McGinnis was carrying what appeared to be a rifle when he attempted to rob a Family Dollar at 1200 N. 7th Street. After the clerk ducked behind the counter, McGinnis left with no money.

On the same day as the attempted robbery, McGinnis robbed the CVS Pharmacy at 950 Minnesota. He told a clerk he had a gun and would use it if he didn’t get what he wanted. He fled with cash.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas prosecutor has charged a man with premeditated first-degree murder in the stabbing death of another man in Topeka.

Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay announced the charge Friday against 40-year-old Andrew Timothy Evans. Evans is being held in the Shawnee County Jail on a $1 million bond in the Sept. 1 death of 41-year-old Raymond Lee Smith.

Police say Smith was found suffering from life-threatening injuries in a Topeka house. He was pronounced dead by medical personnel.

Topeka, KS. – The Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team comprised of members from multiple Kansas agencies was released from its deployment in North Carolina Saturday morning and is now traveling home after assisting in Hurricane Dorian response efforts. The team was expected back in Kansas Sunday afternoon, according to a media release from the State Fire Marshal.

Initially, Kansas Task Force 1 (KS-TF1) rostered a team of 42 first responders from across the Kansas to assist with operations in Florida as catastrophic Hurricane Dorian made its way toward the east coast of the US. However, after the storm turned north, and continued to barrel toward the Carolinas, they were requested for deployment in North Carolina. The team left Kansas last Monday for Florida, arrived in Florida on Tuesday, and by Thursday, they were headed to North Carolina.

“I am so proud of the quick, selfless response of our Kansas task force,” Governor Laura Kelly said. “It is reassuring to know that when disaster strikes, we have individuals who are ready, at a moment’s notice, to give their valuable time and expertise, not only in our own state, but wherever the call is needed. Multiple agencies gave up time and resources to assist our fellow states of Florida and North Carolina. It was a successful effort, and I am relieved that everyone has returned home safely.”

Agencies who deployed individuals/equipment included: Chanute Fire Department, City of Winfield, Coffeyville Fire Department, Derby Fire Department, Johnson County MED-ACT, Junction City Fire Department, Kansas City Kansas Fire Department, Kansas Task Force K9, Lawrence Fire Department, Manhattan Fire Department, Mission Township Fire Department, Olathe Fire Department, Office of the State Fire Marshal, Pittsburg Fire Department, Salina Fire Department, Shawnee County Fire District 4, Shawnee Fire Department, and Wichita Fire Department.

TOPEKA – – Despite the Legislature’s temporary reduction of the application fee for new concealed carry licenses, the number of Kansans applying continued to decline in 2019 fiscal year,  according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019, the attorney general’s Concealed Carry Licensing Unit received 3,841 new applications. The figures represent a more than 21 percent decrease from the prior fiscal year and the lowest number of applications received in a fiscal year since the licensing program began in 2006.

Last year, the application fee for new licenses was reduced for one fiscal year from $132.50 to $112. Effective July 1, 2019, that new-license fee returned to $132.50. The cost for license renewals remains unchanged at $25. Renewal applications submitted after expiration do increase to $40. Licenses six months or more past expiration without submitting a renewal application are considered permanently expired and must reapply in order to regain their license.

While the number of new applications has waned, most Kansans who already have licenses are choosing to keep their licenses active. The Concealed Carry Licensing Unit received more than 16,400 renewal applications during the 2019 fiscal year.

Licenses are still required in most states, and Kansas licenses are currently recognized in 40 states. Currently, more than 82,300 Kansans have active concealed carry licenses.

“Many Kansans continue to recognize the benefits of obtaining a license, including our reciprocity agreements with other states,” Schmidt said. “We continue to work with other states to ensure Kansas licenses are recognized.”

A legislative change in 2015 allows eligible Kansans to carry concealed without a license. Schmidt also encouraged all Kansans who intend to carry firearms to pursue training opportunities whether or not required by law. He reminded all Kansans who choose to carry firearms to comply with properly posted signage and all applicable laws.

More information on the concealed carry licensing program is available on the attorney general’s website at www.ag.ks.gov/concealed-carry.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials on Friday again urged people to stop vaping until they figure out why some are coming down with serious breathing illnesses.

Officials have identified about 450 possible cases, including as many as five deaths, in 33 states. The count includes newly reported deaths in California, Indiana and Minnesota.

No single vaping device, liquid or ingredient has been tied to all the illnesses, officials said. Many of the sickened — but not all — were people who said they had been vaping THC, the chemical that gives marijuana its high. Many are teens.

Health officials have only been counting certain lung illnesses in which the person had vaped within three months. Doctors say the illnesses resemble an inhalation injury, with the body apparently reacting to a caustic substance that someone breathed in. Symptoms have included shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain and vomiting.

The illnesses have all surfaced this year, and the number has been growing quickly in the last month as more states have begun investigations. A week ago, U.S. officials pegged the number at 215 possible cases in 25 states.

It’s unclear whether such illnesses were happening before this year.

“We’re all wondering if this is new or just newly recognized,” Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters Friday.

An Illinois health official, Dr. Jennifer Layden, said officials there don’t know when such illnesses first began, but she said there has been a marked increase since spring.

Deaths previously were reported in Illinois and Oregon .

Indiana officials said the person who died there was an adult, but they didn’t say when it happened or release other details. Health officials in Los Angeles said they were investigating a vaping death as well. And Minnesota health officials said that state’s first known vaping-related death was a person over 65 years with a history of lung problems who had vaped illicit THC products and died in August.

Recent attention has been focused on devices, liquids, refill pods and cartridges that are not sold in stores.

New York state has focused its investigation on an ingredient called Vitamin E acetate, which has been used to thicken marijuana vape juice but is considered dangerous if heated and inhaled. State investigators have found the substance in 13 cartridges collected from eight patients. In several cases, the ingredient made up more than half of the liquid in the cartridge.

CDC officials said they are looking at several ingredients, including Vitamin E acetate. But Meaney-Delman added that no single factor has been seen in every case.

Also Friday, the New England Journal of Medicine released a series of articles that give medical details about cases reported in Illinois, Wisconsin and Utah.

An article on 53 illnesses in Illinois and Wisconsin noted that nearly one-fifth of the cases were people who said they vaped nicotine and not anything that contained THC or CBD oil.

For that reason, doctors and health officials are continuing to suggest people stay away from all vaping products until the investigation establishes exactly what’s at the root of the illnesses.

Meaney-Delman said avoiding vaping is “the primary means of preventing this severe lung disease.”

It’s not yet clear what impact the recent illnesses are having on vaping rates, but some health officials are hoping more Americans will become wary.

There’s been a split among public health experts about the value of vaping nicotine. Some argue e-cigarettes are not as lethal as conventional cigarettes and can be a valuable aide to smokers trying to kick the habit.

But others say studies have not established that adult smokers who try vaping end up quitting smoking long term. And they fear that kids who might never have picked up cigarettes are taking up vaping.

The National Association of County and City Health Officials “has long been cautious about endorsing e-cigarettes even before the recent spate of illnesses, because little scientific evidence exists to show that e-cigarettes and other nicotine delivery devices are effective cessation devices,” spokeswoman Adriane Casalotti said in a statement.

The states reporting vaping-related lung illnesses to the CDC are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A man has been charged with breaking into the Islamic Center of Lawrence last month and stealing two donations boxes.

Amadou Oury Bah, 32,  was charged Thursday with burglary, theft and criminal damage to property. Police said previously that the donation boxes contained between $1,000 and $2,000 in cash.

Police previously asked for help identifying the break-in suspect, who was captured on surveillance video. Bah was arrested last week in Omaha, Nebraska, and is jailed on $15,000 bond.

By LAURA UNGAR/KAISER HEALTH NEWS

FORT SCOTT, Kansas — Thirteen-year-old Aura Brillhart and her 11-year-old sister, Morgan, will face a new sort of test in school this year: a drug test.

The middle and high schools in their community of Fort Scott, Kansas, are among the latest to require random drug testing of students who want to participate in sports, clubs, dances or any other extracurricular activities.

Fort Scott and the Bushland Independent School District near Amarillo, Texas, join the growing number of communities across America testing kids as young as 11 for illicit drug use.

Nationally, a federal government survey shows, nearly 38% of school districts had such policies in 2016, up from a quarter of districts a decade earlier.

But over that time, the number of schools employing other drug prevention strategies dropped. The latest School Health Policies and Practices Study shows that a declining number of districts require elementary schools to teach drug and alcohol prevention, have arrangements with off-site organizations to provide drug treatment and provide funding for professional development on drug prevention.

The rise in drug testing is a reaction to the still-raging opioid epidemic and liberalized marijuana laws spreading across the country, according to health experts and educators. “The biggest fear is that legalization will lead to more teen use,” said Dr. Paul Glaser, a child psychiatry professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

More schools are adopting drug testing even as research remains mixed on how effective it is at reducing teen drug use. Supporters say it gives kids a reason to say no to drugs and may identify students who need help with drug problems. But opponents argue it invades student privacy and diverts money from educational priorities like books.

Bushland’s program costs about $10,000 a year. Fort Scott’s costs about $4,000, which Superintendent Ted Hessong said is the costliest part of the district’s overall drug prevention strategy.

To Amber Toth, principal at Fort Scott High School, the cost-benefit ratio is clear. Stopping even one student from going down the costly path of drug abuse and addiction, she said, “is worth $4,000.”

Counteracting ‘peer pressure’

Chris Wigington, superintendent of the Bushland district in Texas, said the school board asked him to look into the idea of drug testing after he arrived less than two years ago. In his previous school systems, he said, testing helped kids resist peer pressure to take drugs.

“We all know peer pressure is very real,” he said.

The programs — allowed under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling — are similar in Bushland and Fort Scott, with random testing of a relatively small portion of the student body several times a year. Under Fort Scott’s policy, 10 middle school students and 20 high school students are randomly tested each month with a urine screening for 10 drugs.

If they test positive, they are suspended from extracurricular activities. In both Fort Scott and Bushland, results are disclosed only to students, parents and certain school staff members, such as the student’s principal. The information does not appear on academic records and isn’t shared beyond school walls.

Families in Fort Scott may opt out of testing. But if they do, their children can’t participate in activities or even park a car in the school parking lot. Toth said only a few families have opted out.

“Our policy is a little bit different than some of the policies of schools in our area,” said Toth, who wrote it. “It has a treatment component where a student can lessen their consequences.”

The school is partnering with a mental health provider offering free services to students who test positive. Hessong said the testing and treatment policies are part of a larger district drug prevention strategy that includes drug education in middle and high school health classes, a “Red Ribbon Week” awareness program in elementary schools and sweeps by drug-sniffing dogs brought in by local law enforcement in the middle and high schools. He said he’s not sure of the total cost of these efforts.

Toth said the district’s drug prevention efforts address a growing issue. A 2018 youth survey showed that pot and prescription drug abuse among middle and high school students was higher in Bourbon County, where Fort Scott is located, than the state average.

More than 8% of students in the county reported using marijuana in the previous month, for example, compared with a state average of 6.5%. And Toth said marijuana use has been rising among local students as other parts of the country have legalized it.

“They sort of view it as harmless,” she said.

Hoener, a former social worker who is now Bourbon County’s economic development director, said her eighth grader, Aura, has told her about friends caught with pot in their lockers.

Concerns linger

It’s unclear whether testing will make a difference. “It’s a mixed bag on the research,” said Washington University’s Glaser.

A 2015 report from the American Academy of Pediatrics said there’s a lack of convincing scientific data demonstrating that testing works. A previous study, directed by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance in 2010, examined seven school districts and compared substance use reported in high schools that tested and those that didn’t. It found that 16% of students subject to drug testing reported using drugs compared with 22% of students in schools that didn’t test. Testing didn’t change students’ reported intentions to use drugs in the future.

Glaser said some students find ways to use drugs outside of testing periods or choose ones that are not screened. Sometimes, he said, kids who are suspended from activities after testing positive may get depressed or bored, making them more likely to use drugs.

Lauren Bonds, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said the growth in such testing is concerning. “There are more effective ways to limit student drug use,” she said.

Glaser said districts would do best to have an array of drug prevention and treatment programs. One good strategy, he said, is identifying young children suffering from trauma or family problems and getting them help before they turn to drugs. He’s involved with such a program in Missouri that provides services to young children referred by schools and also gives students, teachers and families preventive information and education.

“It’s always harder to treat the brain after it’s been affected by these substances,” he said.

Aura said that even though she doesn’t use illicit drugs, she realizes she may be randomly chosen for testing at some point. “I’d be OK with it,” she said, “but it would also be weird.”

KHN senior correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble contributed to this report.

Laura Ungar: lungar@kff.org, @laura_ungar

RAWLINS COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after noon Saturday in Rawlins County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2012 Ford pickup driven by Derrick D. Bassnett, 50, Trenton, NE., was eastbound on County Road AA fourteen miles west and nine miles north of the U.S. 36 and Kansas Highway 35 Junction.

The pickup entered the intersection and was unable to see a northbound 2009 International semi driven by Joshua Joe Friemel, 29, Colby coming due to the tall corn. The semi struck the pickup on the passenger side.

Bassnett was transported to the hospital in Atwood where he died.

Friemel was not injured. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.