RICE COUNTY—SpaceX convoy traveled south from Salina, west from McPherson, through Lyons and Great Bend before heading south on U.S. 281 just after noon Sunday.

The Kansas Department of Transportation continues to remind driver to aware as you travel, as this could affect your travel time.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690742894269.png" alt="Photo Great Bend Post" />
 <figcaption>Photo Great Bend Post</figcaption>
 </figure>RICE COUNTY—SpaceX convoy traveled south from Salina, west from McPherson, through Lyons and Great Bend before heading south on U.S. 281 just after noon Sunday.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690742960570.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690499513618.png" alt="KDOT image" />
 <figcaption>KDOT image</figcaption>
 </figure>The Kansas Department of Transportation continues to remind driver to aware as you travel, as this could affect your travel time.&nbsp;

SpaceX tanks moving across Kansas on Sunday

BY SETH BORENSTEIN, CAMILLE FASSETT and MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Many were not just killed at home. They were killed by their homes.

Angela Eason had visited Brenda Odoms' tidy mobile home before. It was a place where Odoms, who had many tragedies in her life, felt safe.

In March, a tornado ripped through this small Mississippi town and people in mobile or manufactured homes were hit the hardest. Inside a mobile morgue, Eason, the county coroner, examined Odoms' gaping fatal head wound. Odoms was found just outside of her collapsed mobile home that was tossed around by a tornado. Blunt force trauma killed her.

"The one place she felt safe she was not," Eason said. Fourteen people died in that Rolling Fork tornado, nine of them, including Odoms, were in uprooted manufactured or mobile homes.

Tornadoes in the United States are disproportionately killing more people in mobile or manufactured homes, especially in the South, often victimizing some of the most socially and economically vulnerable residents. Since 1996, tornadoes have killed 815 people in mobile or manufactured homes, representing 53% of all the people killed at home during a tornado, according to an Associated Press data analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tornado deaths. Meanwhile, less than 6% of America's housing units are manufactured homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

While the dangers of tornadoes to mobile homes have long been known, and there are ways to mitigate the risk, the percentage of total tornado deaths that happen in mobile homes has been increasing. Part of the problem is that federal housing rules that call for tougher manufactured home standards, including anchoring, only apply in hurricane zones, which is most of Florida and then several counties along the coast. Those are not the areas where tornadoes usually hit.

Auburn University engineering professor David Roueche called manufactured homes in non-coastal places "death traps compared to most permanent homes" when it comes to tornadoes.

The first tornado deaths this year were in Alabama in January, killing seven people, all in mobile homes. All but one were thrown at least 1,000 feet from their homes, with the seventh person thrown at least 500 feet, said Ernie Baggett, the former emergency management chief for Autauga County, Alabama. Less than 100 yards from where four of those people died was a permanent home that had little more than shingle damage, he said.

When the wind hits the mobile homes, "it's like a house of cards. They just crumble," Baggett said.

So far this year, at least 45 of the 74 people killed in the U.S. by tornadoes were in some form of manufactured housing when they died, according to NOAA data. Nine others died in site homes and the rest were killed in other places, such as in vehicles.

The manufactured housing industry — which disputes that there's any disproportionate danger — insists on calling the structures manufactured homes if they are built after hurricane-based federal standards in 1976 and mobile homes if they are built before, saying age of the home matters. Federal housing officials use the term manufactured housing. Other people, including many researchers and residents, use the terms interchangeably.

More than 70% of the 8 million manufactured homes in America were built after 1976. Because a big chunk were built in the 1980s and early 1990s, 60% of all those homes were installed before increased federal standards were adopted in 1994, the industry's trade group, Manufactured Housing Institute said.

Tornado experts say most tornadoes should be survivable.

"You just have to be in some structure that's attached to the ground. And then no matter what the tornado throws at you, you have really good odds," said NOAA social scientist Kim Klockow-McClain.

But in manufactured homes, even the weakest tornadoes are killing people in large numbers when they shouldn't be, more than a dozen experts in meteorology, disasters and engineering told The AP.

More than 240 people in mobile homes in the past 28 years have died in tornadoes with winds of 135 mph or less, the three weakest of the six categories of twisters, the AP analysis found. That's 79% of the deaths at home in the weaker tornadoes. It's only in storms with winds higher than 165 mph where most of the at home deaths are in more permanent structures.

Auburn's Roueche not only studies what happens in mobile homes during tornadoes, he grew up in one. What he sees over and over are mobile homes that fail from the bottom up because they are not secured enough to the ground, like permanent homes are.

"The whole structure is rolling or flying through air. You've got dressers falling on top of you. You've got the entire structure that's trying to crush you," said Roueche.

That March evening in Rolling Fork, when the tornado roared through Ida Cartlidge remembered the air blowing so powerfully that she couldn't breathe, the sounds of windows shattering and then utter mayhem.

"The only thing that's holding a mobile home down are the little straps in the ground," Cartlidge said. "It picked up the home one time, set it down. It picked it up again, set it down. It picked it up a third time, and we were in the air."

The tornado hit Mildred Joyner's mobile home so hard she felt the mobile home shake, heard the cracking sound of what she figured was her home coming apart and then she woke up in the hospital.

The problem is worsening in the South because tornadoes have been moving more from the Great Plains to the mid-South in recent decades and will likely to continue to do so with climate change a possible factor, studies show. Alabama has the most tornado deaths by far.

Unlike the rest of the country, which usually has most manufactured housing in parks, the South has mobile homes scattered about the countryside in ones and twos, making central tornado shelters less effective and likely to be built, said Villanova University tornado expert Stephen Strader and Northern Illinois meteorology professor Walker Ashley.

One thing scientists, emergency managers and the manufactured housing industry agree on is that anchoring mobile homes to the ground is key.

That requires expensive concrete or expensive tie down systems, said former Alabama emergency official Jonathan Gaddy, now a professor at Idaho State University.

"Why does that matter? Well, it explains why we haven't fixed the problem with anchoring because nobody can fix the problem and still make money. That's the bottom line," Gaddy said.

"Anchoring matters and has been shown to be the difference between life or death," Villanova's Strader said in an email. "However, the MH industry seems disinterested in addressing this because it would make their homes more expensive."

Manufactured Home Institute Chief Executive Officer Lesli Gooch said the industry is "very clear" about the importance of anchoring. "We also talk about making sure that a professional checks your anchoring systems on your manufactured home, especially on mobile homes built prior to (19)76," she said.

"We're very focused on making sure that there are minimum installation standards in the states," Gooch said.

Northern Illinois' Ashley said lack of state regulations and inspections, especially in much of the South, is a big problem.

Improvements in federal codes that went into effect in 1976, 1994 and 2008 make a big difference, Gooch said, arguing that the NOAA data the AP analyzed and that scientists use lump different ages of manufactured homes together and tar them with the problems of the oldest ones.

"I wouldn't want your readers to misinterpret your data to suggest that living in a manufactured home is somehow more deadly than living in a site-built home because I would tell you that I don't think that the data bears that out," Gooch said.

Gooch pointed to manufactured homes in Florida, where tighter federal Housing and Urban Development safety rules apply because it is a hurricane wind zone. "Homes in Florida that are manufactured homes are performing better than what you see in the site-built world," she said.

Several scientists and engineers said data, and history, show the situation has not improved.

"This is more of the handwaving- and misdirection-type statements that has come to represent the manufactured housing industry's take on tornado and manufactured home safety," Villanova's Strader said in an email, with Northern Illinois' Ashley agreeing.

"Our study of the Lee County Alabama EF4 tornado found that 19 of the 23 deaths were in manufactured homes (all built after 1994)," Strader said. "All of those deaths were due to a lack of anchoring or a floor-to-wall connection. There have been many prior studies that have illustrated that these homes are failing at lower wind loads than permanent homes."

If Gooch were right, the percentage of tornado deaths in mobile homes would be going down with time and they are not, NOAA National Severe Storms Lab tornado scientist Harold Brooks said, presenting data that goes back to 1975. His data showed mobile home deaths between 1975 and 1984 were 43.6% of all at-home tornado deaths and the same figure was 63.2% for the past ten years through the end of May.

A contributing factor, Strader, Ashley and Roueche said, is that federal rules for anchoring only apply in hurricane zones, mostly in Florida. Those are not the areas where tornadoes usually hit. Instead, they hit inland where the weakest federal standards are, they said. Most of tornado-prone areas, including almost all of Alabama, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Mississippi are in "Zone 1," where safety and anchoring of mobile homes have the most lax standards.

"People are dying in new and old Zone 1 manufactured homes," Roueche said in response to Gooch's comments. Tornado homes throughout the country would be much safer if the coastal federal requirements applied everywhere, he said.

One of the issues with mobile homes and tornadoes is that it is an intersection of risk and "different social vulnerability factors like poverty, even some issues pertaining to race, ethnicity, age," NOAA's Klockow said.

And it makes it harder for people to leave their mobile homes and head for a permanent shelter.

"I always think about the single mother who's living in a manufactured home. It's the middle of the night. She has three kids. Her car's not starting correctly and all of a sudden here comes a tornado," Strader said in an interview.

Officials tell her "to get to a storm shelter because our manufactured home isn't safe," Strader said. "Well, the problem there is that there's all these factors up against them."

Tornadoes pop down rapidly, which doesn't allow meteorologists to give much warning, maybe 10 to 15 minutes. In many cases, the National Weather Service warns days in advance that the conditions are be ripe for tornadoes, but that isn't the same as warning that one has touched down.

University of Oklahoma social scientist Justin Sharpe, who studies disaster warnings, said with poor and disabled residents the key is to avoid warnings that simply say "get out now" and nothing else.

Instead, a couple hours before a tornado is possible, meteorologists should warn people to be packed up and ready to go at a moment's notice later, Sharpe and Klockow-McClain said.

A relatively new law in Alabama could help provide more shelters. The law gives liability protection to buildings like churches and stores that open up in an emergency as a shelter if specifically-built shelters aren't available.

When this year's first deadly tornado struck just outside Montgomery, Alabama, Autauga County had about 30 minutes warning but no "safer places" to send people, the then-emergency chief, Baggett said. Seven people in mobile homes died.

The tornado continued into neighboring Elmore County, which had already set off its 30 warning sirens, used a mass notification system to make 16,772 calls to phones in the danger area and opened up 16 churches and other safer places.

People went into the temporary shelters. Homes were destroyed, but no one died.

This story has been corrected to show that Stephen Strader is affiliated with Villanova University, not Vanderbilt University.

Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert and video journalist Stephen Smith contributed to this report. Borenstein reported from Washington and Fassett from Seattle.

Follow AP's climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Follow Seth Borenstein, Camille Fasset and Michael Goldberg on Twitter at @borenbears, @camfassett and @mikergoldberg.

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP's climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1651760459335.png" alt="EF3 tornado in Andover, Kansas - photo courtesy city of Andover" />
 <figcaption>EF3 tornado in Andover, Kansas - photo courtesy city of Andover</figcaption>
 </figure>BY SETH BORENSTEIN, CAMILLE FASSETT and MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated PressROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Many were not just killed at home. They were killed by their homes.Angela Eason had visited Brenda Odoms' tidy mobile home before. It was a place where Odoms, who had many tragedies in her life, felt safe.In March, a tornado ripped through this small Mississippi town and people in mobile or manufactured homes were hit the hardest. Inside a mobile morgue, Eason, the county coroner, examined Odoms' gaping fatal head wound. Odoms was found just outside of her collapsed mobile home that was tossed around by a tornado. Blunt force trauma killed her."The one place she felt safe she was not," Eason said. Fourteen people died in that Rolling Fork tornado, nine of them, including Odoms, were in uprooted manufactured or mobile homes.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690567690702.png" alt="Damage from the EF3 tornado in Andover, Kansas in April 2022-photo NWS Wichita" />
 <figcaption>Damage from the EF3 tornado in Andover, Kansas in April 2022-photo NWS Wichita</figcaption>
 </figure>Tornadoes in the United States are disproportionately killing more people in mobile or manufactured homes, especially in the South, often victimizing some of the most socially and economically vulnerable residents. Since 1996, tornadoes have killed 815 people in mobile or manufactured homes, representing 53% of all the people killed at home during a tornado, according to an Associated Press data analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tornado deaths. Meanwhile, less than 6% of America's housing units are manufactured homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.While the dangers of tornadoes to mobile homes have long been known, and there are ways to mitigate the risk, the percentage of total tornado deaths that happen in mobile homes has been increasing. Part of the problem is that federal housing rules that call for tougher manufactured home standards, including anchoring, only apply in hurricane zones, which is most of Florida and then several counties along the coast. Those are not the areas where tornadoes usually hit.Auburn University engineering professor David Roueche called manufactured homes in non-coastal places "death traps compared to most permanent homes" when it comes to tornadoes.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690567758554.png" alt="Damage from the EF3 tornado in Andover, Kansas in April 2022-photo NWS Wichita" />
 <figcaption>Damage from the EF3 tornado in Andover, Kansas in April 2022-photo NWS Wichita</figcaption>
 </figure>The first tornado deaths this year were in Alabama in January, killing seven people, all in mobile homes. All but one were thrown at least 1,000 feet from their homes, with the seventh person thrown at least 500 feet, said Ernie Baggett, the former emergency management chief for Autauga County, Alabama. Less than 100 yards from where four of those people died was a permanent home that had little more than shingle damage, he said.When the wind hits the mobile homes, "it's like a house of cards. They just crumble," Baggett said.So far this year, at least 45 of the 74 people killed in the U.S. by tornadoes were in some form of manufactured housing when they died, according to NOAA data. Nine others died in site homes and the rest were killed in other places, such as in vehicles.The manufactured housing industry — which disputes that there's any disproportionate danger — insists on calling the structures manufactured homes if they are built after hurricane-based federal standards in 1976 and mobile homes if they are built before, saying age of the home matters. Federal housing officials use the term manufactured housing. Other people, including many researchers and residents, use the terms interchangeably.More than 70% of the 8 million manufactured homes in America were built after 1976. Because a big chunk were built in the 1980s and early 1990s, 60% of all those homes were installed before increased federal standards were adopted in 1994, the industry's trade group, Manufactured Housing Institute said.Tornado experts say most tornadoes should be survivable."You just have to be in some structure that's attached to the ground. And then no matter what the tornado throws at you, you have really good odds," said NOAA social scientist Kim Klockow-McClain.But in manufactured homes, even the weakest tornadoes are killing people in large numbers when they shouldn't be, more than a dozen experts in meteorology, disasters and engineering told The AP.More than 240 people in mobile homes in the past 28 years have died in tornadoes with winds of 135 mph or less, the three weakest of the six categories of twisters, the AP analysis found. That's 79% of the deaths at home in the weaker tornadoes. It's only in storms with winds higher than 165 mph where most of the at home deaths are in more permanent structures.Auburn's Roueche not only studies what happens in mobile homes during tornadoes, he grew up in one. What he sees over and over are mobile homes that fail from the bottom up because they are not secured enough to the ground, like permanent homes are."The whole structure is rolling or flying through air. You've got dressers falling on top of you. You've got the entire structure that's trying to crush you," said Roueche.That March evening in Rolling Fork, when the tornado roared through Ida Cartlidge remembered the air blowing so powerfully that she couldn't breathe, the sounds of windows shattering and then utter mayhem."The only thing that's holding a mobile home down are the little straps in the ground," Cartlidge said. "It picked up the home one time, set it down. It picked it up again, set it down. It picked it up a third time, and we were in the air."The tornado hit Mildred Joyner's mobile home so hard she felt the mobile home shake, heard the cracking sound of what she figured was her home coming apart and then she woke up in the hospital.The problem is worsening in the South because tornadoes have been moving more from the Great Plains to the mid-South in recent decades and will likely to continue to do so with climate change a possible factor, studies show. Alabama has the most tornado deaths by far.Unlike the rest of the country, which usually has most manufactured housing in parks, the South has mobile homes scattered about the countryside in ones and twos, making central tornado shelters less effective and likely to be built, said Villanova University tornado expert Stephen Strader and Northern Illinois meteorology professor Walker Ashley.One thing scientists, emergency managers and the manufactured housing industry agree on is that anchoring mobile homes to the ground is key.That requires expensive concrete or expensive tie down systems, said former Alabama emergency official Jonathan Gaddy, now a professor at Idaho State University."Why does that matter? Well, it explains why we haven't fixed the problem with anchoring because nobody can fix the problem and still make money. That's the bottom line," Gaddy said."Anchoring matters and has been shown to be the difference between life or death," Villanova's Strader said in an email. "However, the MH industry seems disinterested in addressing this because it would make their homes more expensive."Manufactured Home Institute Chief Executive Officer Lesli Gooch said the industry is "very clear" about the importance of anchoring. "We also talk about making sure that a professional checks your anchoring systems on your manufactured home, especially on mobile homes built prior to (19)76," she said."We're very focused on making sure that there are minimum installation standards in the states," Gooch said.Northern Illinois' Ashley said lack of state regulations and inspections, especially in much of the South, is a big problem.Improvements in federal codes that went into effect in 1976, 1994 and 2008 make a big difference, Gooch said, arguing that the NOAA data the AP analyzed and that scientists use lump different ages of manufactured homes together and tar them with the problems of the oldest ones."I wouldn't want your readers to misinterpret your data to suggest that living in a manufactured home is somehow more deadly than living in a site-built home because I would tell you that I don't think that the data bears that out," Gooch said.Gooch pointed to manufactured homes in Florida, where tighter federal Housing and Urban Development safety rules apply because it is a hurricane wind zone. "Homes in Florida that are manufactured homes are performing better than what you see in the site-built world," she said.Several scientists and engineers said data, and history, show the situation has not improved."This is more of the handwaving- and misdirection-type statements that has come to represent the manufactured housing industry's take on tornado and manufactured home safety," Villanova's Strader said in an email, with Northern Illinois' Ashley agreeing."Our study of the Lee County Alabama EF4 tornado found that 19 of the 23 deaths were in manufactured homes (all built after 1994)," Strader said. "All of those deaths were due to a lack of anchoring or a floor-to-wall connection. There have been many prior studies that have illustrated that these homes are failing at lower wind loads than permanent homes."If Gooch were right, the percentage of tornado deaths in mobile homes would be going down with time and they are not, NOAA National Severe Storms Lab tornado scientist Harold Brooks said, presenting data that goes back to 1975. His data showed mobile home deaths between 1975 and 1984 were 43.6% of all at-home tornado deaths and the same figure was 63.2% for the past ten years through the end of May.A contributing factor, Strader, Ashley and Roueche said, is that federal rules for anchoring only apply in hurricane zones, mostly in Florida. Those are not the areas where tornadoes usually hit. Instead, they hit inland where the weakest federal standards are, they said. Most of tornado-prone areas, including almost all of Alabama, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Mississippi are in "Zone 1," where safety and anchoring of mobile homes have the most lax standards."People are dying in new and old Zone 1 manufactured homes," Roueche said in response to Gooch's comments. Tornado homes throughout the country would be much safer if the coastal federal requirements applied everywhere, he said.One of the issues with mobile homes and tornadoes is that it is an intersection of risk and "different social vulnerability factors like poverty, even some issues pertaining to race, ethnicity, age," NOAA's Klockow said.And it makes it harder for people to leave their mobile homes and head for a permanent shelter."I always think about the single mother who's living in a manufactured home. It's the middle of the night. She has three kids. Her car's not starting correctly and all of a sudden here comes a tornado," Strader said in an interview.Officials tell her "to get to a storm shelter because our manufactured home isn't safe," Strader said. "Well, the problem there is that there's all these factors up against them."Tornadoes pop down rapidly, which doesn't allow meteorologists to give much warning, maybe 10 to 15 minutes. In many cases, the National Weather Service warns days in advance that the conditions are be ripe for tornadoes, but that isn't the same as warning that one has touched down.University of Oklahoma social scientist Justin Sharpe, who studies disaster warnings, said with poor and disabled residents the key is to avoid warnings that simply say "get out now" and nothing else.Instead, a couple hours before a tornado is possible, meteorologists should warn people to be packed up and ready to go at a moment's notice later, Sharpe and Klockow-McClain said.A relatively new law in Alabama could help provide more shelters. The law gives liability protection to buildings like churches and stores that open up in an emergency as a shelter if specifically-built shelters aren't available.When this year's first deadly tornado struck just outside Montgomery, Alabama, Autauga County had about 30 minutes warning but no "safer places" to send people, the then-emergency chief, Baggett said. Seven people in mobile homes died.The tornado continued into neighboring Elmore County, which had already set off its 30 warning sirens, used a mass notification system to make 16,772 calls to phones in the danger area and opened up 16 churches and other safer places.People went into the temporary shelters. Homes were destroyed, but no one died.___This story has been corrected to show that Stephen Strader is affiliated with Villanova University, not Vanderbilt University.___Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert and video journalist Stephen Smith contributed to this report. Borenstein reported from Washington and Fassett from Seattle.___Follow AP's climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment___Follow Seth Borenstein, Camille Fasset and Michael Goldberg on Twitter at @borenbears, @camfassett and @mikergoldberg.___Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP's climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

How living in a mobile home makes you more likely to die in a tornado

FRANKLIN COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting in rural Franklin County.

Just before 9p.m. Friday, sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call in the 1800 Block of of John Brown Road in rural Princeton, Kansas, according to a media release.

First responders found a man later identified as 42-year-old Nathan Boggs of Ottawa with an apparent gunshot wound.&nbsp; Despite efforts by law enforcement and Franklin County EMS, Boggs died at the scene.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Ottawa Police are assisting the Franklin County Sheriff with the investigation.

FRANKLIN COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting in rural Franklin County.Just before 9p.m. Friday, sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call in the 1800 Block of of John Brown Road in rural Princeton, Kansas, according to a media release.First responders found a man later identified as 42-year-old Nathan Boggs of Ottawa with an apparent gunshot wound.&nbsp; Despite efforts by law enforcement and Franklin County EMS, Boggs died at the scene.The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Ottawa Police are assisting the Franklin County Sheriff with the investigation.

Homicide: Police ID man who died in rural Kansas shooting

Disorganization could lead to closure of all school buildings in Barton County’s USD 112

By RACHEL MIPRO <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/04/05/kansas-lawmakers-debate-definition-of-female-and-male-for-county-jails/">Kansas Reflector</a>

CLAFLIN — Barton County residents will decide whether to break up with their school district and “start fresh” following heartbreak and anger over the closure of a rural community’s high school.

The change could result in hundreds of students displaced and three more schools shut down.

The Aug. 1 disorganization vote is a test case for rural communities that increasingly have to make decisions to shut down or consolidate as populations dwindle&nbsp;and schools face financial strain.

“This is brand new territory for the Department of Education, for the State Board of Education and basically every district in the state of Kansas,” said KSDE general counsel Scott Gordon during a June 27 meeting in Claflin.

Dissolving the district is likely to have widespread consequences for all district schools and likely will increase residents’ taxes, according to opponents of disorganization.

Wilson parent Kayla Cullens said the split needs to happen because the Claflin-based Unified School District 112 school board voted to shut down Wilson High School.

The district covers portions of five counties, including the Holyrood, Bushton, Claflin, Dorrance, Lorraine, Wilson, Beaver and Odin communities, along with other rural areas. Claflin and Wilson are a little less than a half hour apart, and the other communities mostly fall within a 10-30 minute range of each other.

Cullens, part of a disorganization campaign, said the district’s school board had long treated the Wilson community unfairly. She said the “hostility” in the decision to close the high school was the latest evidence of other schools being prioritized over Wilson.

“It’s been growing animosity between both ends of the district since consolidation, and it’s now a good time just to part ways,” Cullens said. “They weren’t willing to work with us. They weren’t willing to look at the bigger picture.”

Michael Kratky, a lifelong Wilson resident and fellow disorganization advocate, said the Wilson shutdown was a bad decision by the board. Kratky said part of his frustration stemmed from Claflin’s consolidation with Wilson, Holyrood, Bushton and Lorraine in 2010, when the Claflin school district needed financial help.

Kratky said the district didn’t extend the same help these past two years to Wilson.&nbsp;

“They’re shooting for everything to be centrally located eventually in Claflin. … (The district) helped them survive. They didn’t help us survive,” Kratky said.

The district now has three schools left: Central Plains Elementary, Central Plains Junior-Senior High School and Wilson Elementary School.

Cullens said she is aware that disorganization isn’t likely to re-open the high school, but she said the Wilson community will fare better under a different district school board.

“I do not think it will get re-opened,” Cullens said. “I hope it will, and it’s really the only chance we have of reopening it. But I don’t see a yes vote opening our high school.”

Other members of communities in the district call the move misguided.

Denise Schmidt, a Claflin resident, educator and member of the opposing&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.unitedusd112.com/">“United USD 112” campaign</a>, said the disorganization effort is driven by anger and fear.

“They will lose their elementary school, we will lose our elementary school, Central Plains Elementary, and we’ll also lose Central Plains Junior Senior High School,” Schmidt said. “We will lose everything in a yes vote.”

Some have said the disorganization campaign has been misleading, with Wilson residents encouraged to believe signing the disorganization petition would bring back the high school or allow them to create their own district. Schmidt said a sign at the local post office asked residents to go in and sign the petition to “save our schools.”&nbsp;

“Obviously it’s for the postal officials to decide, but putting it out there to patrons, ‘save our school’ or ‘we need a high school’ and then encouraging them to sign the petition is misleading, because by signing the petition, it doesn’t open the high school,” Schmidt said.

Cullens said signs about saving the school were the work of one person, and not the official campaign effort, which has put up signs asking for a “fresh start.”

If the measure doesn’t pass in the Aug. 1 vote, the USD 112 school district will stay the same, keeping the tax rate and schools intact.

If the measure passes, the Kansas State Board of Education takes over, deciding how to divide up the USD 112 territory into 10 neighboring school districts. The district’s schools will either be absorbed into the surrounding districts or shut down.

Officials from the Kansas State Department of Education held two informational meetings on June 27 to explain the repercussions of disorganization. During one of the informational meetings, Gordon, the agency attorney, said he wanted to clear up rumors that people in the school district would have some say over which school district they became a part of.

“I don’t know who came up with that,” Gordon said. “And that’s probably not going to happen.”

Gordon said Wilson High School wouldn’t be reopened unless the incorporating school district decided it was a good choice. Gordon said reassignment wouldn’t assure the future safety of any of the district’s schools, or the school staffs’ jobs.

“Do we get to guarantee that they’re going to stay open? I don’t believe so,” Gordon said. “If you vote to disorganize a school district and you disorganize the locally elected school board, it is the same as if an employer suddenly goes out of business or a business owner suddenly goes out of business. The business is gone. It is entirely up to the receiving school districts.”

According to Gordon, former USD 112 residents likely would lose any say in school district functions for a few months. After the state Board of Education makes the reassignment decision, people from the former district wouldn’t be eligible to vote in elections for about 120 days.

Gordon estimated it would take 18 months after reassignment before anyone from the former USD 112 could run for local school board.

Taxpayers will pay the rate of their new district. Because nine of the 10 neighboring districts have higher mill levy rates, it’s likely many reassigned residents would see a tax increase.

Cullens said she understood there could be negative implications for the district but that Wilson needed better representation.

“We don’t know if a school will close,” Cullens said. “That’s totally up to the receiving district. We don’t know what that looks like. … They can choose to leave as open as is. They can choose to reopen the high school here in Wilson. They could choose to shut everybody down.”

She added: “We’re putting faith in the effort that they will be looking out for what’s in the best interest of our students, which we feel they’re not getting today.”

In April 2022, the USD 112 Central Plains Board of Education voted to reassign Wilson junior and high school students to the Central Plains Junior-Senior High School because of low enrollment and financial issues.

Members of the Wilson community began to explore options of keeping the school open, such as a land transfer, which would place the building into a neighboring district.

After those unsuccessful efforts, the BOE voted in January to close Wilson High School at the end of the 2022-23 school year. The plan was that Wilson junior high and high school students would be bused to Central Plains High School in Claflin. Kindergarten through sixth grade students would continue to attend school in Wilson.

According to KSDE data, the Wilson high school had 73 students at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, a 50% decline over 10 years. The Claflin high school had 140 students for the same school year.

Members of the community asked the board to grant an one-year extension to give the school time to find alternate solutions, such as opening a Catholic school in the space, or continuing efforts to have other school districts accept the high school.

After the extension was refused, a group of community residents successfully filed a petition in May to dissolve the school district entirely. Under&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ksrevisor.org/statutes/chapters/ch72/072_006_0035.html">Kansas statute</a>, a disorganization petition with enough signatures is put on a ballot for all voters in the district.

Cullens, who has lived in Wilson for about 20 years, has said the months since the closure have been difficult. Her son graduated from the high school after attending the school since preschool, and her daughter, a rising senior, was set on the same track before the closure announcement. Now, she will shift schools, splitting her up from friends she has known since kindergarten.

“It’s very sad,” Cullens said. “And it’s hard on her.”

She blames a “lopsided” school board for the decision. Two out of the seven board members represent Wilson, and she said the school board wasn’t advocating for her community.

Cullens cited differences in janitor pay and being passed over for collaborative opportunities with other schools for athletic programs as examples of unequal treatment

She said she’s already seen some families move away as a result.

“There’s a house on the market,” Cullens said. “There’s no more local spending. … I just foresee it getting worse.”

In reaction to anger from the Wilson community, and support from other rural communities, the Legislature this year voted into law&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/summary_hb_2138_2023">House Bill 2138</a>.

The law allows citizens to request the state BOE to conduct an administrative review of a resolution to close a school building if 5% or more of registered voters in the school district request the review.

Kratky went to Topeka multiple times to testify in support of the proposal.

“Through all of this in our district, this discussion was never about education,” Kratky said in testimony submitted for a&nbsp; March 22 hearing. “It was always about one school surviving at the cost of another closing. … The current structure allows lopsided boards to overpower smaller schools in a district, and the smaller schools don’t have the ability to do what’s best for our communities. We need your help.”

Following the review, the state BOE will give its opinion on closure to the local board, which will make the final decision.

Schmidt said rural communities needed to find ways to cope with shrinking populations, pointing to Bushton as an example. When the district voted to shut down the Bushton middle school in 2019, her daughter was one of the students transferred to the Claflin school.

Schmidt said Wilson could learn from Bushton, which has turned the former middle school building into a multi-purpose facility for community spaces. She pointed out the Bushton community didn’t “take their anger and hurt” and use the statute to disorganize the school district.

“There’s always a loss,” Schmidt said. “Kind of like a death. You have to mourn the death of what was. You’re not the same community you’ve always been. But that doesn’t mean your community can’t go on, that your students can’t prosper, and that there’s good things to come.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1689420928876.png" alt=" Barton County residents will vote August 1, 2023, on whether to disorganize or keep the USD 112 school district intact. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> Barton County residents will vote August 1, 2023, on whether to disorganize or keep the USD 112 school district intact. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Disorganization could lead to closure of all school buildings in Barton County’s USD 112</h2>By RACHEL MIPRO <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/04/05/kansas-lawmakers-debate-definition-of-female-and-male-for-county-jails/">Kansas Reflector</a>CLAFLIN — Barton County residents will decide whether to break up with their school district and “start fresh” following heartbreak and anger over the closure of a rural community’s high school.The change could result in hundreds of students displaced and three more schools shut down.The Aug. 1 disorganization vote is a test case for rural communities that increasingly have to make decisions to shut down or consolidate as populations dwindle&nbsp;and schools face financial strain.“This is brand new territory for the Department of Education, for the State Board of Education and basically every district in the state of Kansas,” said KSDE general counsel Scott Gordon during a June 27 meeting in Claflin.Dissolving the district is likely to have widespread consequences for all district schools and likely will increase residents’ taxes, according to opponents of disorganization.Wilson parent Kayla Cullens said the split needs to happen because the Claflin-based Unified School District 112 school board voted to shut down Wilson High School.The district covers portions of five counties, including the Holyrood, Bushton, Claflin, Dorrance, Lorraine, Wilson, Beaver and Odin communities, along with other rural areas. Claflin and Wilson are a little less than a half hour apart, and the other communities mostly fall within a 10-30 minute range of each other.Cullens, part of a disorganization campaign, said the district’s school board had long treated the Wilson community unfairly. She said the “hostility” in the decision to close the high school was the latest evidence of other schools being prioritized over Wilson.“It’s been growing animosity between both ends of the district since consolidation, and it’s now a good time just to part ways,” Cullens said. “They weren’t willing to work with us. They weren’t willing to look at the bigger picture.”Michael Kratky, a lifelong Wilson resident and fellow disorganization advocate, said the Wilson shutdown was a bad decision by the board. Kratky said part of his frustration stemmed from Claflin’s consolidation with Wilson, Holyrood, Bushton and Lorraine in 2010, when the Claflin school district needed financial help.Kratky said the district didn’t extend the same help these past two years to Wilson.&nbsp;“They’re shooting for everything to be centrally located eventually in Claflin. … (The district) helped them survive. They didn’t help us survive,” Kratky said.The district now has three schools left: Central Plains Elementary, Central Plains Junior-Senior High School and Wilson Elementary School.Cullens said she is aware that disorganization isn’t likely to re-open the high school, but she said the Wilson community will fare better under a different district school board.“I do not think it will get re-opened,” Cullens said. “I hope it will, and it’s really the only chance we have of reopening it. But I don’t see a yes vote opening our high school.”Other members of communities in the district call the move misguided.Denise Schmidt, a Claflin resident, educator and member of the opposing&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.unitedusd112.com/">“United USD 112” campaign</a>, said the disorganization effort is driven by anger and fear.“They will lose their elementary school, we will lose our elementary school, Central Plains Elementary, and we’ll also lose Central Plains Junior Senior High School,” Schmidt said. “We will lose everything in a yes vote.”Some have said the disorganization campaign has been misleading, with Wilson residents encouraged to believe signing the disorganization petition would bring back the high school or allow them to create their own district. Schmidt said a sign at the local post office asked residents to go in and sign the petition to “save our schools.”&nbsp;“Obviously it’s for the postal officials to decide, but putting it out there to patrons, ‘save our school’ or ‘we need a high school’ and then encouraging them to sign the petition is misleading, because by signing the petition, it doesn’t open the high school,” Schmidt said.Cullens said signs about saving the school were the work of one person, and not the official campaign effort, which has put up signs asking for a “fresh start.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1689420894228.png" alt=" A sign placed in a Wilson gas station tells residents to “vote yes” on the Aug. 1, 2023, petition to disorganize. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> A sign placed in a Wilson gas station tells residents to “vote yes” on the Aug. 1, 2023, petition to disorganize. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>What will happen?&nbsp;</h2>If the measure doesn’t pass in the Aug. 1 vote, the USD 112 school district will stay the same, keeping the tax rate and schools intact.If the measure passes, the Kansas State Board of Education takes over, deciding how to divide up the USD 112 territory into 10 neighboring school districts. The district’s schools will either be absorbed into the surrounding districts or shut down.Officials from the Kansas State Department of Education held two informational meetings on June 27 to explain the repercussions of disorganization. During one of the informational meetings, Gordon, the agency attorney, said he wanted to clear up rumors that people in the school district would have some say over which school district they became a part of.“I don’t know who came up with that,” Gordon said. “And that’s probably not going to happen.”Gordon said Wilson High School wouldn’t be reopened unless the incorporating school district decided it was a good choice. Gordon said reassignment wouldn’t assure the future safety of any of the district’s schools, or the school staffs’ jobs.“Do we get to guarantee that they’re going to stay open? I don’t believe so,” Gordon said. “If you vote to disorganize a school district and you disorganize the locally elected school board, it is the same as if an employer suddenly goes out of business or a business owner suddenly goes out of business. The business is gone. It is entirely up to the receiving school districts.”According to Gordon, former USD 112 residents likely would lose any say in school district functions for a few months. After the state Board of Education makes the reassignment decision, people from the former district wouldn’t be eligible to vote in elections for about 120 days.Gordon estimated it would take 18 months after reassignment before anyone from the former USD 112 could run for local school board.Taxpayers will pay the rate of their new district. Because nine of the 10 neighboring districts have higher mill levy rates, it’s likely many reassigned residents would see a tax increase.Cullens said she understood there could be negative implications for the district but that Wilson needed better representation.“We don’t know if a school will close,” Cullens said. “That’s totally up to the receiving district. We don’t know what that looks like. … They can choose to leave as open as is. They can choose to reopen the high school here in Wilson. They could choose to shut everybody down.”She added: “We’re putting faith in the effort that they will be looking out for what’s in the best interest of our students, which we feel they’re not getting today.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1689420749268.png" alt=" The high school side of the Wilson school building closed at the end of the school year. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> The high school side of the Wilson school building closed at the end of the school year. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Timeline of the vote&nbsp;</h2>In April 2022, the USD 112 Central Plains Board of Education voted to reassign Wilson junior and high school students to the Central Plains Junior-Senior High School because of low enrollment and financial issues.Members of the Wilson community began to explore options of keeping the school open, such as a land transfer, which would place the building into a neighboring district.After those unsuccessful efforts, the BOE voted in January to close Wilson High School at the end of the 2022-23 school year. The plan was that Wilson junior high and high school students would be bused to Central Plains High School in Claflin. Kindergarten through sixth grade students would continue to attend school in Wilson.According to KSDE data, the Wilson high school had 73 students at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, a 50% decline over 10 years. The Claflin high school had 140 students for the same school year.Members of the community asked the board to grant an one-year extension to give the school time to find alternate solutions, such as opening a Catholic school in the space, or continuing efforts to have other school districts accept the high school.After the extension was refused, a group of community residents successfully filed a petition in May to dissolve the school district entirely. Under&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ksrevisor.org/statutes/chapters/ch72/072_006_0035.html">Kansas statute</a>, a disorganization petition with enough signatures is put on a ballot for all voters in the district.Cullens, who has lived in Wilson for about 20 years, has said the months since the closure have been difficult. Her son graduated from the high school after attending the school since preschool, and her daughter, a rising senior, was set on the same track before the closure announcement. Now, she will shift schools, splitting her up from friends she has known since kindergarten.“It’s very sad,” Cullens said. “And it’s hard on her.”She blames a “lopsided” school board for the decision. Two out of the seven board members represent Wilson, and she said the school board wasn’t advocating for her community.Cullens cited differences in janitor pay and being passed over for collaborative opportunities with other schools for athletic programs as examples of unequal treatmentShe said she’s already seen some families move away as a result.“There’s a house on the market,” Cullens said. “There’s no more local spending. … I just foresee it getting worse.”<h2>Rural communities across Kansas&nbsp;</h2>In reaction to anger from the Wilson community, and support from other rural communities, the Legislature this year voted into law&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/summary_hb_2138_2023">House Bill 2138</a>.The law allows citizens to request the state BOE to conduct an administrative review of a resolution to close a school building if 5% or more of registered voters in the school district request the review.Kratky went to Topeka multiple times to testify in support of the proposal.“Through all of this in our district, this discussion was never about education,” Kratky said in testimony submitted for a&nbsp; March 22 hearing. “It was always about one school surviving at the cost of another closing. … The current structure allows lopsided boards to overpower smaller schools in a district, and the smaller schools don’t have the ability to do what’s best for our communities. We need your help.”Following the review, the state BOE will give its opinion on closure to the local board, which will make the final decision.Schmidt said rural communities needed to find ways to cope with shrinking populations, pointing to Bushton as an example. When the district voted to shut down the Bushton middle school in 2019, her daughter was one of the students transferred to the Claflin school.Schmidt said Wilson could learn from Bushton, which has turned the former middle school building into a multi-purpose facility for community spaces. She pointed out the Bushton community didn’t “take their anger and hurt” and use the statute to disorganize the school district.“There’s always a loss,” Schmidt said. “Kind of like a death. You have to mourn the death of what was. You’re not the same community you’ve always been. But that doesn’t mean your community can’t go on, that your students can’t prosper, and that there’s good things to come.”

After school shutdown, rural Kansas community tries to divorce district

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday giving decisions on the prosecution of serious military crimes, including sexual assault, to independent military attorneys, taking that power away from victims’ commanders.

The order formally implements&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-kirsten-gillibrand-jackie-speier-032a79f53d084f93ea99674108567e9f" target="_blank">legislation passed by Congress in 2022</a>&nbsp;aimed at strengthening protections for service members, who were often at the mercy of their commanders to decide whether to take their assault claims seriously.

Members of Congress, frustrated with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/military-sexual-assault-report-a5138e59f145c223284dded6677257e3" target="_blank">the growing number of sexual assaults</a>&nbsp;in the military, fought with defense leaders for several years over the issue. They argued that commanders at times were willing to ignore charges or incidents in their units to protect those accused of offenses and that using independent lawyers would beef up prosecutions. Military leaders balked, saying it could erode commanders’ authority.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York spent about a decade in an uphill battle to reform how the military handles sexual assaults and get the legislative changes passed that were codified through Biden’s order.

“While it will take time to see the results of these changes, these measures will instill more trust, professionalism, and confidence in the system,” Gillibrand said.

The change was among more than two dozen recommendations made in 2021 by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sexual-assault-lloyd-austin-government-and-politics-13077b68cbaf65e8ad862a00aa3c5552" target="_blank">an independent review commission</a>&nbsp;on sexual assault in the military that was set up by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/lloyd-austin" target="_blank">Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin</a>. And it was included in the annual defense bill last year. But since it requires a change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it needed formal presidential action.

In a call with reporters previewing the order, senior Biden administration officials said it was the most sweeping change to the military legal code since it was created in 1950.

The Pentagon had already been moving forward with the change. A year ago, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force set up the new special trial counsel offices, which will assume authority over prosecution decisions by the end of this year. Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, that prosecution authority will expand to include sexual harassment cases.

The changes come as the military grapples with rising numbers of reported sexual assaults in its ranks.

While the services have made inroads in making it easier and safer for troops to come forward, they have had far less success reducing the number of assaults, which have increased nearly every year since 2006. Overall, there were more than 8,942 reports of sexual assaults involving service members during the 2022 fiscal year, a slight increase over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-crime-pandemics-army-62b6b37fbb992b19f0da65a3a1ba1115" target="_blank">8,866 the year before</a>.

Defense officials have long argued that an increase in reported assaults is a positive trend because so many people are reluctant to report them, both in the military and in society as a whole. Greater reporting, they say, shows there is more confidence in the reporting system, greater comfort with the support for victims, and a growing number of offenders who are being held accountable.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690574292520.png" alt="White House photo" />
 <figcaption>White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday giving decisions on the prosecution of serious military crimes, including sexual assault, to independent military attorneys, taking that power away from victims’ commanders.The order formally implements&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-kirsten-gillibrand-jackie-speier-032a79f53d084f93ea99674108567e9f" target="_blank">legislation passed by Congress in 2022</a>&nbsp;aimed at strengthening protections for service members, who were often at the mercy of their commanders to decide whether to take their assault claims seriously.Members of Congress, frustrated with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/military-sexual-assault-report-a5138e59f145c223284dded6677257e3" target="_blank">the growing number of sexual assaults</a>&nbsp;in the military, fought with defense leaders for several years over the issue. They argued that commanders at times were willing to ignore charges or incidents in their units to protect those accused of offenses and that using independent lawyers would beef up prosecutions. Military leaders balked, saying it could erode commanders’ authority.Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York spent about a decade in an uphill battle to reform how the military handles sexual assaults and get the legislative changes passed that were codified through Biden’s order.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Today, President Biden signed an Executive Order strengthening how the U.S. military handles sexual assault, domestic violence, and other serious offenses. Keeping our country safe starts with prioritizing the safety of those who serve. <a href="https://t.co/kRzgrki4RE">pic.twitter.com/kRzgrki4RE</a>&mdash; The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1685066720325640192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>“While it will take time to see the results of these changes, these measures will instill more trust, professionalism, and confidence in the system,” Gillibrand said.The change was among more than two dozen recommendations made in 2021 by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sexual-assault-lloyd-austin-government-and-politics-13077b68cbaf65e8ad862a00aa3c5552" target="_blank">an independent review commission</a>&nbsp;on sexual assault in the military that was set up by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/lloyd-austin" target="_blank">Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin</a>. And it was included in the annual defense bill last year. But since it requires a change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it needed formal presidential action.In a call with reporters previewing the order, senior Biden administration officials said it was the most sweeping change to the military legal code since it was created in 1950.The Pentagon had already been moving forward with the change. A year ago, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force set up the new special trial counsel offices, which will assume authority over prosecution decisions by the end of this year. Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, that prosecution authority will expand to include sexual harassment cases.The changes come as the military grapples with rising numbers of reported sexual assaults in its ranks.While the services have made inroads in making it easier and safer for troops to come forward, they have had far less success reducing the number of assaults, which have increased nearly every year since 2006. Overall, there were more than 8,942 reports of sexual assaults involving service members during the 2022 fiscal year, a slight increase over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-crime-pandemics-army-62b6b37fbb992b19f0da65a3a1ba1115" target="_blank">8,866 the year before</a>.Defense officials have long argued that an increase in reported assaults is a positive trend because so many people are reluctant to report them, both in the military and in society as a whole. Greater reporting, they say, shows there is more confidence in the reporting system, greater comfort with the support for victims, and a growing number of offenders who are being held accountable.

Biden signs order strengthening how U.S. military handles sex assault

LINN COUNTY —Two people died in an accident just before 5p.m. Saturday in Linn County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Ford Edge driven by Dennis N. Mayes, 62, Mapleton, was westbound on 200th Road just west of Jackson Road eight miles south of Mound City. A 2005 Dodge Ram 2500 driven by Clinton C. Barker, 21, Centerville, was eastbound.

&nbsp;Both vehicles crossed the center line and collided head-on. 

After impact, the Ford spun into the west ditch. The pickup entered the eastbound ditch and rolled onto its top.

Mayes and a passenger in the Ford Elizabeth A.&nbsp;Mayes, 59, Fort Scott, were pronounced dead at the scene. EMS transported Barker to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. A three were properly restrained, according to the KHP.

LINN COUNTY —Two people died in an accident just before 5p.m. Saturday in Linn County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Ford Edge driven by Dennis N. Mayes, 62, Mapleton, was westbound on 200th Road just west of Jackson Road eight miles south of Mound City. A 2005 Dodge Ram 2500 driven by Clinton C. Barker, 21, Centerville, was eastbound.&nbsp;Both vehicles crossed the center line and collided head-on. After impact, the Ford spun into the west ditch. The pickup entered the eastbound ditch and rolled onto its top.Mayes and a passenger in the Ford Elizabeth A.&nbsp;Mayes, 59, Fort Scott, were pronounced dead at the scene. EMS transported Barker to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. A three were properly restrained, according to the KHP.

Kansas man, woman dead after SUV, pickup head-on crash

KANSAS CITY (AP) —The planned execution of a 45-year-old Missouri man with schizophrenia is back on after an appellate court reversed course Saturday.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-august-06f474f368dfd5ff5c4145164b222a3b">Johnny Johnson</a>&nbsp;is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre for killing 6-year-old Casey Williamson after trying to sexually assault her in 2002.

With questions swirling about his mental competency, the execution was halted last Tuesday by a divided three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court. But after the Missouri Attorney General’s Office asked that the full court reconsider, that decision was reversed in a 7-3 ruling.

The case will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court before the scheduled execution date.

Attorneys for Johnson have claimed his schizophrenia prevents him from understanding the link between his crime and the punishment. They have also said Johnson has delusions about the devil using his death to bring about the end of the world.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-johnny-johnson-052a2b3c6a25f14ef51ce35c59935084">The Missouri Supreme Court</a>&nbsp;in June declined to halt the execution based on the mental health claim. The attorney general’s office challenged the credibility of psychiatric evaluations of Johnson and contended that medical records indicate he is able to manage his mental illness through medication.

Johnson lured the girl to an abandoned glass factory, even carrying her on his shoulders on the walk to the dilapidated site. When he tried to sexually assault her, Casey screamed and tried to break free. He killed her with bricks and rocks, then washed off in the Meramec River. Johnson confessed to the crimes.

Casey’s disappearance set off a frantic search involving first responders and volunteers. Her body was found in a pit less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from her home, buried beneath rocks and debris.

The execution would be the fourth in Missouri this year.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690408112630.png" alt="Johnson-photo MODOC" />
 <figcaption>Johnson-photo MODOC</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY (AP) —The planned execution of a 45-year-old Missouri man with schizophrenia is back on after an appellate court reversed course Saturday.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-august-06f474f368dfd5ff5c4145164b222a3b">Johnny Johnson</a>&nbsp;is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre for killing 6-year-old Casey Williamson after trying to sexually assault her in 2002.With questions swirling about his mental competency, the execution was halted last Tuesday by a divided three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court. But after the Missouri Attorney General’s Office asked that the full court reconsider, that decision was reversed in a 7-3 ruling.The case will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court before the scheduled execution date.Attorneys for Johnson have claimed his schizophrenia prevents him from understanding the link between his crime and the punishment. They have also said Johnson has delusions about the devil using his death to bring about the end of the world.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-johnny-johnson-052a2b3c6a25f14ef51ce35c59935084">The Missouri Supreme Court</a>&nbsp;in June declined to halt the execution based on the mental health claim. The attorney general’s office challenged the credibility of psychiatric evaluations of Johnson and contended that medical records indicate he is able to manage his mental illness through medication.Johnson lured the girl to an abandoned glass factory, even carrying her on his shoulders on the walk to the dilapidated site. When he tried to sexually assault her, Casey screamed and tried to break free. He killed her with bricks and rocks, then washed off in the Meramec River. Johnson confessed to the crimes.Casey’s disappearance set off a frantic search involving first responders and volunteers. Her body was found in a pit less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from her home, buried beneath rocks and debris.The execution would be the fourth in Missouri this year.

Court rules man convicted of killing 6-year-old can be executed after all

SEDGWICK COUNTY—A Kansas man accused of double homicide in Wichita made his first appearance in court Friday.

Charles Crawford, 62, Wichita, is charged with one count of Capital Murder for the deaths of 58-year-old Donald Eckert and 50-year=old Vanessa Crawford, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

On Tuesday, a woman dropping off her child at an in-home daycare saw the two homicide victims through a window of a home in the 1100 Block of North Woodrow, according to Officer Kris Gupilan. The victims were identified as Crawford and Eckert both of Wichita.

While the investigation was taking place on the scene, Charles Crawford arrived with a gun pointed at his own head. Officers took cover for safety and immediately requested the assistance of SWAT and Crisis Negotiators. A standoff ensued with Crawford but it ended peacefully when he surrendered and was taken into custody. <a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/InmateSearch/Details.aspx?Id=741589">He remains jailed on a</a> $2 million bond, according to online jail records.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690372152213.png" alt="Crawford-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Crawford-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY—A Kansas man accused of double homicide in Wichita made his first appearance in court Friday.Charles Crawford, 62, Wichita, is charged with one count of Capital Murder for the deaths of 58-year-old Donald Eckert and 50-year=old Vanessa Crawford, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.On Tuesday, a woman dropping off her child at an in-home daycare saw the two homicide victims through a window of a home in the 1100 Block of North Woodrow, according to Officer Kris Gupilan. The victims were identified as Crawford and Eckert both of Wichita.While the investigation was taking place on the scene, Charles Crawford arrived with a gun pointed at his own head. Officers took cover for safety and immediately requested the assistance of SWAT and Crisis Negotiators. A standoff ensued with Crawford but it ended peacefully when he surrendered and was taken into custody. <a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/InmateSearch/Details.aspx?Id=741589">He remains jailed on a</a> $2 million bond, according to online jail records.

Kan. man charged in murder of couple at home day care

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man whose 2-year-old daughter died after going days without food while he was passed out drunk has been sentenced to nearly 57 years in prison.

The sentence ordered Friday was the maximum that could be imposed after Jeffrey Exon was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/malnutrition-child-death-father-convicted-d5371bfaae9ed23f3027852ebc47dd93">convicted</a>&nbsp;in April of charges that included aggravated child endangerment and first-degree murder in the commission of a felony, The Topeka Capital-Journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/local/2023/07/28/topekan-receives-long-prison-sentence-in-daughters-malnutrition-death/70489888007/">reported</a>.

Exon, a 47-year-old who goes by the name of James, called 911 on Jan. 5. 2021, telling a dispatcher that his daughter, Aurora Exon, had stopped breathing. He also said she recently had been “starving herself.”

She was cold to the touch when found, and appeared to have been dead for several days, Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay said. The coroner blamed her death on a form of malnutrition called marasmus.

Five empty liquor bottles were found in Exon's bedroom, investigators said. They determined that Exon would not feed or attend to his children for days because of his addiction issues.

Exon’s 6-year-old son, who was 4 when his sister died, testified at trial that his dad locked them in their rooms for several days without food while he “slept.”

Seonaid Nichols, the children’s mother, said she agreed to give James Exon custody of the children because her living conditions didn’t allow her to take care of them.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/3/1617140051622.png" alt="Exon" />
 <figcaption>Exon</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man whose 2-year-old daughter died after going days without food while he was passed out drunk has been sentenced to nearly 57 years in prison.The sentence ordered Friday was the maximum that could be imposed after Jeffrey Exon was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/malnutrition-child-death-father-convicted-d5371bfaae9ed23f3027852ebc47dd93">convicted</a>&nbsp;in April of charges that included aggravated child endangerment and first-degree murder in the commission of a felony, The Topeka Capital-Journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/local/2023/07/28/topekan-receives-long-prison-sentence-in-daughters-malnutrition-death/70489888007/">reported</a>.Exon, a 47-year-old who goes by the name of James, called 911 on Jan. 5. 2021, telling a dispatcher that his daughter, Aurora Exon, had stopped breathing. He also said she recently had been “starving herself.”She was cold to the touch when found, and appeared to have been dead for several days, Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay said. The coroner blamed her death on a form of malnutrition called marasmus.Five empty liquor bottles were found in Exon's bedroom, investigators said. They determined that Exon would not feed or attend to his children for days because of his addiction issues.Exon’s 6-year-old son, who was 4 when his sister died, testified at trial that his dad locked them in their rooms for several days without food while he “slept.”Seonaid Nichols, the children’s mother, said she agreed to give James Exon custody of the children because her living conditions didn’t allow her to take care of them.

Kan. man sentenced in death of 2-year-old who went days without food

Mental Health Coalition says state needs strategy to help unsheltered homeless population

TOPEKA — Advocates say unhoused Kansans need more support from state and local governments.&nbsp;

The Kansas Mental Health Coalition held a Wednesday meeting to begin discussing goals for legislative action on the state’s homelessness problem. Mary Jones, coalition president, said she wanted to focus on creating more resources in cities for people who are struggling.&nbsp;

“How do we broaden funding?” Jones said. “How do we broaden services that go along with it?”

Kansas city governments struggle to adequately deal with homelessness, a problem that has grown in urgency in recent years due to higher cost of living, scarce mental health resources and the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing more Kansans out onto the streets.&nbsp;

Around 1,798 people are homeless on any given night in Kansas City, according to a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://gkcceh.org/">Kansas City advocacy group</a>. Wichita’s annual homeless count showed 702 unhoused individuals, the highest number recorded by the yearly survey since 2011. In Topeka, an annual survey showed 412 individuals experiencing homelessness in the city in 2023.&nbsp;

The spike isn’t unique to the state; a<a target="_blank" href="https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/BFI_WP_2023-41.pdf">&nbsp;March paper released</a>&nbsp;by University of Chicago researchers reported that more than&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/">half a million people</a>&nbsp;in the U.S. were unhoused in January of 2020, with people of color facing greater risk of homelessness.

Thirty-nine percent of unhoused people and 50% of unhoused families with children surveyed in the research paper were Black.

The paper also found people experiencing homelessness have significantly higher mortality risks than their peers. An unhoused 40-year-old has a similar mortality risk to a 60-year-old with housing or a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/04/09/high-mortality-rate-of-homeless-highlighted-in-new-report/">50-year-old person living in poverty with housing.&nbsp;</a>

State lawmakers have acknowledged the need to address the spike, but the only legislation on the topic in the 2023 legislative session was&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/hb2430/">House Bill 2430</a>, a measure that would make it illegal to use state or local government property for unauthorized sleeping, camping or long-term shelters.&nbsp;

After widespread backlash from<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/03/03/kansas-lawmakers-entertain-texas-groups-plan-to-penalize-homeless/">&nbsp;Kansans who had dealt with homelessness&nbsp;</a>and other concerned citizens, the House Welfare Reform Committee tabled the bill and pivoted to a one-day community&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/03/24/kansas-lawmakers-hear-from-businesses-city-officials-about-growing-homelessness-issues/">discussion of the issue</a>. Critics said the one-day meeting wasn’t enough to gain a complete picture of the situation, and more of a substantial game plan needed to be formed.&nbsp;

Amy Campbell, lobbyist and coordinator for the Kansas Mental Health Coalition, said there hadn’t been time to discuss potential solutions or&nbsp;followup at the roundtable, due to the time constraint.&nbsp;

Campbell said a comprehensive framework for Kansas’ homelessness problem needed to be made and implemented.

&nbsp;“Part of the problem has been that it’s such a big picture to have that comprehensive solution,” Campbell said. “So what has been preferred by most policymakers is to pick and choose pieces of the continuum to establish. And so that makes it a little more difficult.”&nbsp;

Ahead of the Legislature’s next scheduled meeting on homelessness, which will take place in November, community advocates and those working with the unhoused population pitched their thoughts on the matter.&nbsp;

Andy Houltberg, CEO of Wichita-based social services organization Breakthrough, said cities needed to have both temporary and long-term shelter plans. While he and others support the Housing First model, an approach that prioritizes providing permanent housing to those in need, he said more shelter beds should also be provided.&nbsp;

“I’m a huge proponent of Housing First, but I do think you need a mix,” Houltberg said. “I think that every city probably needs a healthy amount of long-term supportive housing and some emergency shelter crisis intervention type beds.”

Houltberg said Wichita was struggling with a scarcity of hospital beds.&nbsp;

“Right now we’re just seeing more and more folks die on the streets, and it’s pretty sad,” Houltberg said. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690651679528.png" alt=" A man lies under shading on July 19, 2022, on North Topeka Avenue in Wichita, Kansas. The city has reported growing numbers of people struggling with homelessness. (Lily O'Shea Becker/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> A man lies under shading on July 19, 2022, on North Topeka Avenue in Wichita, Kansas. The city has reported growing numbers of people struggling with homelessness. (Lily O'Shea Becker/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Mental Health Coalition says state needs strategy to help unsheltered homeless population</h2>By RACHEL MIPRO <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/04/05/kansas-lawmakers-debate-definition-of-female-and-male-for-county-jails/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — Advocates say unhoused Kansans need more support from state and local governments.&nbsp;The Kansas Mental Health Coalition held a Wednesday meeting to begin discussing goals for legislative action on the state’s homelessness problem. Mary Jones, coalition president, said she wanted to focus on creating more resources in cities for people who are struggling.&nbsp;“How do we broaden funding?” Jones said. “How do we broaden services that go along with it?”Kansas city governments struggle to adequately deal with homelessness, a problem that has grown in urgency in recent years due to higher cost of living, scarce mental health resources and the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing more Kansans out onto the streets.&nbsp;Around 1,798 people are homeless on any given night in Kansas City, according to a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://gkcceh.org/">Kansas City advocacy group</a>. Wichita’s annual homeless count showed 702 unhoused individuals, the highest number recorded by the yearly survey since 2011. In Topeka, an annual survey showed 412 individuals experiencing homelessness in the city in 2023.&nbsp;The spike isn’t unique to the state; a<a target="_blank" href="https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/BFI_WP_2023-41.pdf">&nbsp;March paper released</a>&nbsp;by University of Chicago researchers reported that more than&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/">half a million people</a>&nbsp;in the U.S. were unhoused in January of 2020, with people of color facing greater risk of homelessness.Thirty-nine percent of unhoused people and 50% of unhoused families with children surveyed in the research paper were Black.The paper also found people experiencing homelessness have significantly higher mortality risks than their peers. An unhoused 40-year-old has a similar mortality risk to a 60-year-old with housing or a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/04/09/high-mortality-rate-of-homeless-highlighted-in-new-report/">50-year-old person living in poverty with housing.&nbsp;</a>State lawmakers have acknowledged the need to address the spike, but the only legislation on the topic in the 2023 legislative session was&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/hb2430/">House Bill 2430</a>, a measure that would make it illegal to use state or local government property for unauthorized sleeping, camping or long-term shelters.&nbsp;After widespread backlash from<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/03/03/kansas-lawmakers-entertain-texas-groups-plan-to-penalize-homeless/">&nbsp;Kansans who had dealt with homelessness&nbsp;</a>and other concerned citizens, the House Welfare Reform Committee tabled the bill and pivoted to a one-day community&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/03/24/kansas-lawmakers-hear-from-businesses-city-officials-about-growing-homelessness-issues/">discussion of the issue</a>. Critics said the one-day meeting wasn’t enough to gain a complete picture of the situation, and more of a substantial game plan needed to be formed.&nbsp;Amy Campbell, lobbyist and coordinator for the Kansas Mental Health Coalition, said there hadn’t been time to discuss potential solutions or&nbsp;followup at the roundtable, due to the time constraint.&nbsp;Campbell said a comprehensive framework for Kansas’ homelessness problem needed to be made and implemented.&nbsp;“Part of the problem has been that it’s such a big picture to have that comprehensive solution,” Campbell said. “So what has been preferred by most policymakers is to pick and choose pieces of the continuum to establish. And so that makes it a little more difficult.”&nbsp;Ahead of the Legislature’s next scheduled meeting on homelessness, which will take place in November, community advocates and those working with the unhoused population pitched their thoughts on the matter.&nbsp;Andy Houltberg, CEO of Wichita-based social services organization Breakthrough, said cities needed to have both temporary and long-term shelter plans. While he and others support the Housing First model, an approach that prioritizes providing permanent housing to those in need, he said more shelter beds should also be provided.&nbsp;“I’m a huge proponent of Housing First, but I do think you need a mix,” Houltberg said. “I think that every city probably needs a healthy amount of long-term supportive housing and some emergency shelter crisis intervention type beds.”Houltberg said Wichita was struggling with a scarcity of hospital beds.&nbsp;“Right now we’re just seeing more and more folks die on the streets, and it’s pretty sad,” Houltberg said. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”&nbsp;

Homeless advocates: ‘We’re seeing more folks die on the streets’ in Kansas

NEW YORK (AP) — The fate of U.S. trucking company Yellow Corp. isn't looking good.

After years of financial struggles, Yellow is reportedly preparing for bankruptcy and seeing customers leave in large numbers — heightening risk for future liquidation. While no official decision has been announced by the company, the prospect of bankruptcy has renewed attention around Yellow's ongoing negotiations with unionized workers, a $700 million pandemic-era loan from the government and other bills the trucker has racked up over time.

Yellow, formerly known as YRC Worldwide Inc., is one of the nation's largest less-than-truckload carriers. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company has some 30,000 employees across the country.

Not yet. But industry experts suspect that a bankruptcy filing could come any day now.

People familiar with the matter&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trucker-yellow-prepares-to-file-for-bankruptcy-as-customers-flee-281151a6">told The Wall Street Journal</a>&nbsp;that the company could seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week — with some noting that a significant amount of customers have already started to leave the carrier.

Meanwhile, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/yellow-executive-tells-sales-employees-company-will-file-bankruptcy-on-july-31">FreightWaves</a>, employees were told to expect the filing Monday. Yellow laid off an unknown number of employees Friday, the outlet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/yellow-lays-off-portions-of-at-least-3-major-corporate-teams">later reported</a>, citing a memo that stated the company was “shutting down its regular operations.”

According to Satish Jindel, president of transportation and logistics firm SJ Consulting, Yellow handled an average of 49,000 shipments per day in 2022. As of this week, he estimates that number is down to between 10,000 and 15,000 daily shipments.

With customers leaving — as well reports of Yellow stopping freight pickups earlier this week — bankruptcy would “be the end of Yellow,” Jindel told The Associated Press, noting increased risk for liquidation.

“The likelihood of them surviving and remaining solvent diminishes really by the day,” added Bruce Chan, a research director at investment banking firm Stifel.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690585296924.png" alt="YRC Freight in Kansas City -Google image" />
 <figcaption>YRC Freight in Kansas City -Google image</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — The fate of U.S. trucking company Yellow Corp. isn't looking good.After years of financial struggles, Yellow is reportedly preparing for bankruptcy and seeing customers leave in large numbers — heightening risk for future liquidation. While no official decision has been announced by the company, the prospect of bankruptcy has renewed attention around Yellow's ongoing negotiations with unionized workers, a $700 million pandemic-era loan from the government and other bills the trucker has racked up over time.Yellow, formerly known as YRC Worldwide Inc., is one of the nation's largest less-than-truckload carriers. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company has some 30,000 employees across the country.Here's what you need to know.IS YELLOW FILING FOR BANKRUPTCY? Not yet. But industry experts suspect that a bankruptcy filing could come any day now.People familiar with the matter&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trucker-yellow-prepares-to-file-for-bankruptcy-as-customers-flee-281151a6">told The Wall Street Journal</a>&nbsp;that the company could seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week — with some noting that a significant amount of customers have already started to leave the carrier.Meanwhile, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/yellow-executive-tells-sales-employees-company-will-file-bankruptcy-on-july-31">FreightWaves</a>, employees were told to expect the filing Monday. Yellow laid off an unknown number of employees Friday, the outlet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/yellow-lays-off-portions-of-at-least-3-major-corporate-teams">later reported</a>, citing a memo that stated the company was “shutting down its regular operations.”According to Satish Jindel, president of transportation and logistics firm SJ Consulting, Yellow handled an average of 49,000 shipments per day in 2022. As of this week, he estimates that number is down to between 10,000 and 15,000 daily shipments.With customers leaving — as well reports of Yellow stopping freight pickups earlier this week — bankruptcy would “be the end of Yellow,” Jindel told The Associated Press, noting increased risk for liquidation.“The likelihood of them surviving and remaining solvent diminishes really by the day,” added Bruce Chan, a research director at investment banking firm Stifel.Yellow media contacts did not immediately respond to the Associated Press' requests for comment on Friday. In a Wednesday statement to The Journal, the company said it was continuing “to prepare for a range of contingencies.” On Thursday, Yellow said it was in talks with multiple parties about selling its third-party logistics organization.Even if Yellow was able to sell its logistics firm, it would “not generate a sufficient amount of cash to keep them operational on any sort of permanent basis," Chan said. “Without a major equity injection, it would be very difficult for them to survive.”HOW MUCH DEBT DOES YELLOW HAVE? As of late March, Yellow had an outstanding debt of about $1.5 billion. Of that, $729.2 million was owed to the federal government.In 2020, under the Trump administration, the Treasury Department granted the company a $700 million pandemic-era loan on national security grounds. Last month, a congressional probe concluded that the Treasury and Defense Departments “made missteps” in this decision — and noted that Yellow's “precarious financial position at the time of the loan, and continued struggles, expose taxpayers to a significant risk of loss.”The government loan is due in September 2024. As of March, Yellow had made $54.8 million in interest payments and repaid just $230 million of the principal owed, according to government documents.Yellow's current finances and prospect of bankruptcy “is probably two decades in the making,” Chan said, pointing to poor management and strategic decisions dating back to the early 2000s. “At this point, after each party has bailed them out so many times, there is a limited appetite to do that anymore.”In May, Yellow reported a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/earnings-9cccf85534862b16e643827b52dba349">loss of $54.6 million</a>, a decline of $1.06 per share, for its first quarter of 2023. Operating revenue was about $1.16 billion in the period.A Wednesday investors note from financial service firm Stephens estimated that Yellow could be burning between $9 million and $10 million each day. Using a liquidity disclosure from earlier this month, Yellow had roughly $100 million in cash at the end of June, the note added — estimating that the company has been burning through increasing amounts of money through July.“It is reasonable to believe that the Company could breach its $35 mil. liquidity requirement at any moment,” Stephens analyst Jack Atkins and associate Grant Smith wrote.DID THE COMPANY JUST AVERT A STRIKE? The reports of bankruptcy preparations arrive just days after a strike from the Teamsters, which represents Yellow's 22,000 unionized workers, was averted.A series of heated exchanges have built up between the Teamsters and Yellow, who sued the union in June after alleging it was “unjustifiably blocking” restructuring plans needed for the company's survival. The Teamsters called the litigation “baseless” — with general president Sean O’Brien pointing to Yellow's “decades of gross mismanagement," which included exhausting the $700 million federal loan.On Sunday, a pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow Corp. operating companies, averting a strike — and giving Yellow “30 days to pay its bills,” notably $50 million that Yellow failed to pay the Central States Health and Welfare Fund on July 15, the union said. While the strike didn't occur, talks of a walkout may have caused some Yellow customers to pull back, Chan said.Talks between Yellow and the Teamsters, which also represents&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ups-teamsters-strike-labor-logistics-delivery-a94482dbff7bfb67ad82f607ab127672">UPS's unionized workers</a>, are ongoing. The current contract expires in March 2024.“The financial struggles of Yellow are not related to the union and the contracts,” Jindel said, pointing to management's responsibility around its services and prices. He added the union wages from Yellow are “lower than any competitor.”WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YELLOW WENT UNDER? If Yellow files for bankruptcy and customers continue to take their shipments to other carriers, like FedEx or ABF Freight, prices will go up.Yellow's prices have historically been the cheapest compared to other carriers, Jindel said. “That’s why they obviously were not making money," he added. "And while there is capacity with the other LTL carriers to handle the diversions from Yellow, it will come at a high price for (current shippers and customers) of Yellow.”Chan adds that we're in an interesting time for the LTL marketplace — noting that, if Yellow declares bankruptcy and liquidates, “the freight would find a home” with other carriers, which may not have been true in recent years.“It may take time, but there’s room for it to be absorbed,” he said.