Articles by Josh Funk, Margery A. Beck and Heather Hollingsworth

Multiple Tornadoes Hit Nebraska and Iowa, Leaving Trails of Damage

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A tornado plowed through suburban Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday, damaging hundreds of homes and other structures as it tore for miles along farmland and into subdivisions. Some injuries were reported but there were no immediate reports …

Minneapolis Settles Suit Alleging Journalists Were Harassed, Hurt Covering Floyd Protests

The city of Minneapolis agreed last week to pay $950,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that journalists were subjected to police harassment and even hurt while covering protests over the police killings of George Floyd. The suit, brought by the …

Kansas Court System Down in ‘Security Incident’ With Hallmarks of Ransomware

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Kansas officials are calling a massive computer outage that’s kept most of the state’s courts offline for two weeks a “security incident” and, while they had not provided an explanation as of Wednesday, experts say it …

Mother Files Wrongful Death Suit Against Shuttered Missouri Boarding School Over Son’s Abuse and Suicide

MISSION, Kan. (AP) – A mother is suing a shuttered Christian boarding school in Missouri, blaming her son’s death on a gang rape and other abuse he endured there. Agape Boarding School has been subjected to a wave of litigation …

NTSB Looking at Risk Parked Semis Posed to Greyhound Bus in Fatal Illinois Accident

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Big rig driver David Cherno was hauling Jimmy Dean sausages on Interstate 70 when he had to stop for the night or risk violating federal regulations limiting driving time for truckers. An Illinois rest area was …

Ransomware Criminals Are Dumping Kids’ Private Files Online After School Hacks

The confidential documents stolen from schools and dumped online by ransomware gangs are raw, intimate and graphic. They describe student sexual assaults, psychiatric hospitalizations, abusive parents, truancy — even suicide attempts. “Please do something,” begged a student in one leaked …

Gun Dealer Sued by Kansas City Reaches $150K Settlement

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Kansas City has reached a settlement with one of the gun dealers it accused in a lawsuit of contributing to surging violence in the region by ignoring evidence that firearms were being sold illegally. Kansas …

Faulty Weld Led to Kansas Oil Spill; Cleanup Costs at $480M

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A faulty weld at a bend in an oil pipeline contributed to a spill that dumped nearly 13,000 bathtubs’ worth of crude oil into a northeastern Kansas creek, the pipeline’s operator said last Thursday, estimating the …

Company Starting to Recover Oil From Kansas Pipeline Spill

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The company operating a pipeline that spilled about 14,000 bathtubs’ worth of oil into a Kansas creek during a test for potential problems is recovering at least a small portion of the crude. The U.S. Environmental …

Kansas Oil Spill Biggest in Keystone History

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ A ruptured pipe dumped enough oil this week into a northeastern Kansas creek to nearly fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, becoming the largest onshore crude pipeline spill in nine years and surpassing all the previous ones …