Great Plains News Digest
The following AP stories are planned for today or have moved. For text, photos, video, live and audio plans beyond the next 24 hours, please visit Coverage Plan.
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IOWA – NEW AND DEVELOPING – NEWS
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US–KANSAS HIGHWAY CRASH-8 DEAD
Teen basketball players were among those who died in a Kansas highway crash that killed 8
SUMMARY: Two teenage basketball players, a coach and a trainer from the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area were among eight people killed in a fiery head-on highway crash in eastern Kansas. Authorities said other victims in Sunday’s crash on a two-lane stretch of U.S. 169 about 60 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri, included three members of a St. Louis-area family. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the crash occurred when a southbound SUV carrying the basketball players and driven by the trainer collided with a northbound sedan with the three St. Louis-area family members as passengers. A third teenager from the Tulsa area survived and was hospitalized.
WORDS: 524 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 12:40 p.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:2e67ecba7b77203e4badb0ab69bf45cb&mediaType=text
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KANSAS – NEW AND DEVELOPING – NEWS
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US–KANSAS HIGHWAY CRASH-8 DEAD
Teen basketball players were among those who died in a Kansas highway crash that killed 8
SUMMARY: Two teenage basketball players, a coach and a trainer from the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area were among eight people killed in a fiery head-on highway crash in eastern Kansas. Authorities said other victims in Sunday’s crash on a two-lane stretch of U.S. 169 about 60 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri, included three members of a St. Louis-area family. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the crash occurred when a southbound SUV carrying the basketball players and driven by the trainer collided with a northbound sedan with the three St. Louis-area family members as passengers. A third teenager from the Tulsa area survived and was hospitalized.
WORDS: 524 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 12:40 p.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:2e67ecba7b77203e4badb0ab69bf45cb&mediaType=text
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US–MEDICATION ABORTION
Trump administration asks judge to toss suit restricting access to abortion medication
SUMMARY: President Donald Trump’s administration has asked a judge to toss out a lawsuit from three Republican-led states seeking to cut off telehealth access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Justice Department attorneys on Monday stayed the legal course charted by the President Joe Biden’s administration. But the attorneys didn’t weigh in on the underlying issue of access to the drug. Instead, the government argued Missouri, Kansas and Idaho don’t have the legal right, or standing, to sue. The lawsuit from Idaho, Kansas and Missouri argues the Food and Drug Administration should roll back access to mifepristone.
WORDS: 565 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 6:46 a.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:e5a89a12e98fc4c529d487daba81606a&mediaType=text
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MINNESOTA – UPCOMING – SPORTS
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HKW–PWHL PLAYOFFS
DESCRIPTION: The defending PWHL champion Minnesota Frost renew their playoff rivalry with the Toronto Sceptres in a best-of-five semifinal meeting opening on Wednesday. And the regular-season champion Montreal Victoire will further their regional rivalry in facing the Ottawa Charge making their playoff debut in a series opening Thursday. By Hockey Writer John Wawrow. UPCOMING: 700 words, photos by 5 p.m. EDT.
UPCOMING: By 05/06/2025 4:00 p.m. CDT, Text
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BBO–ORIOLES-TWINS
DESCRIPTION: MINNEAPOLIS — Baltimore plays Minnesota at Target Field. By Brian Hall. 300 words.
UPCOMING: By 05/06/2025 6:40 p.m. CDT, Photo, Text
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MISSOURI – NEW AND DEVELOPING – NEWS
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US–KANSAS HIGHWAY CRASH-8 DEAD
Teen basketball players were among those who died in a Kansas highway crash that killed 8
SUMMARY: Two teenage basketball players, a coach and a trainer from the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area were among eight people killed in a fiery head-on highway crash in eastern Kansas. Authorities said other victims in Sunday’s crash on a two-lane stretch of U.S. 169 about 60 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri, included three members of a St. Louis-area family. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the crash occurred when a southbound SUV carrying the basketball players and driven by the trainer collided with a northbound sedan with the three St. Louis-area family members as passengers. A third teenager from the Tulsa area survived and was hospitalized.
WORDS: 524 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 12:40 p.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:2e67ecba7b77203e4badb0ab69bf45cb&mediaType=text
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US–MISSOURI-HOME-EXPLOSION
Federal investigators say a utility wasn’t marked before a deadly natural gas explosion in Missouri
SUMMARY: The National Transportation Safety Board says a deadly explosion that leveled one Missouri home and damaged two others happened after a subcontractor drilled into an unmarked underground gas main while installing fiber optic cable. One person was killed and two others were injured in the April 9 explosion in the 4,500-person town of Lexington, which is about 55 miles away from Kansas City. Liberty Utilities, a subsidiary of Algonquin Power and Utilities Corporation, sent someone out to mark its lines before the subcontractor began digging. But the NTSB said in its preliminary report Monday that the uncapped gas main section involved in the accident wasn’t identified.
WORDS: 280 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 10:52 a.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:d6bb9012e15e31cf45b3c9009c2e9bc0&mediaType=text
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ENT–OPERA ST. LOUIS-RACETTE
Soprano Patricia Racette to become artistic director of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
SUMMARY: Soprano Patricia Racette will become artistic director of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, filling a key management position of a company she has been associated with since her debut there in 1993. She will take over on Oct. 1 from James Robinson, who had been artistic director since 2009 and announced in June that he was becoming general and artistic director of the Seattle Opera. The 2025 St. Louis season includes the world premiere on May 31 of Ricky Ian Gordon’s “This House,” with a libretto by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and her daughter, Ruby Aiyo Gerber.
WORDS: 385 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 9:57 a.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:a82cccd610a1ba0d4b53e6225b8830da&mediaType=text
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US–MEDICATION ABORTION
Trump administration asks judge to toss suit restricting access to abortion medication
SUMMARY: President Donald Trump’s administration has asked a judge to toss out a lawsuit from three Republican-led states seeking to cut off telehealth access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Justice Department attorneys on Monday stayed the legal course charted by the President Joe Biden’s administration. But the attorneys didn’t weigh in on the underlying issue of access to the drug. Instead, the government argued Missouri, Kansas and Idaho don’t have the legal right, or standing, to sue. The lawsuit from Idaho, Kansas and Missouri argues the Food and Drug Administration should roll back access to mifepristone.
WORDS: 565 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 6:46 a.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:e5a89a12e98fc4c529d487daba81606a&mediaType=text
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MISSOURI – UPCOMING – SPORTS
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BBO–WHITE SOX-ROYALS
DESCRIPTION: KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chicago plays Kansas City at Kauffman Stadium. By David Smale. UPCOMING: 300 words, photos. Game starts 6:40 p.m. CT.
UPCOMING: By 05/06/2025 6:40 p.m. CDT, Text
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BBO–PIRATES-CARDINALS
DESCRIPTION: ST. LOUIS — Pittsburgh plays St. Louis at Busch Stadium. By Joe Harris. UPCOMING: 300 words, photos. Game starts 6:45 p.m. CT.
UPCOMING: By 05/06/2025 6:45 p.m. CDT, Text
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NEBRASKA – NEW AND DEVELOPING – NEWS
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NE–OFF-CYCLE ELECTIONS
As Omaha, Lincoln voters head to polls, debate reignites over low-turnout off-cycle city elections
SUMMARY: As voters in two Nebraska cities head to the polls this month, an unlikely coalition of politicians are calling for future off-cycle city elections to be merged with the presidential ballot. For more than a century, state law has required Omaha and Lincoln to hold municipal elections apart from statewide contests. A proposal in the Legislature would allow the cities to sync their local elections with even-numbered presidential years. Advocates say syncing elections would boost voter turnout and save taxpayers money. Opponents argue that important city issues could get overshadowed by national politics. If state lawmakers approve the proposed change, the cities would have to amend their charters before merging elections.
SOURCE: Flatwater Free Press
WORDS: 1647 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 12:44 p.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:94ed7559a9ce939e35e4f90c4af3c433&mediaType=text
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US–HEMP PRODUCT BAN-NEBRASKA
A GOP Nebraska bill would criminalize hemp-based THC. Opponents say it could make grandma a felon
SUMMARY: A bill winding its way through the Nebraska Legislature would criminalize the sale and possession of an array of products containing hemp-based THC. That’s the same compound that gives marijuana its psychoactive properties and the ingredient in many hemp-based products that opponents call dangerous. Nebraska’s ban, as currently written, includes even topical products like THC-containing lotions and creams intended to dull joint and muscle pains. The effort has led opponents of the measure to accuse the bill’s sponsors of making “felons of all the grannies” who are just seeking a treatment for arthritis.
WORDS: 918 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 11:39 a.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:78e103e98accfdb489e5078ee26ce8a4&mediaType=text
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NORTH DAKOTA – UPCOMING – NEWS
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US–WILDFIRES-NORTH DAKOTA
DESCRIPTION: Thousands of acres of wooded and grassy land have burned due to multiple wildfires on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. About 4,200 acres have burned in the fires that began Friday. Most of the fires are north of Belcourt on the reservation. Several firefighters have been treated for exhaustion, dehydration and smoke inhalation, but are doing well, the tribal chairman said. No homes have been lost. As many as 100 firefighters joined the response on Sunday. High wind made the conditions worse on Monday, but rain helped overnight. Business owners and tribal members also have lent a hand, with equipment, buckets and hoses.
UPCOMING: By 05/06/2025 2:15 p.m. CDT, Photo, Text
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OKLAHOMA – NEW AND DEVELOPING – NEWS
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US–KANSAS HIGHWAY CRASH-8 DEAD
Teen basketball players were among those who died in a Kansas highway crash that killed 8
SUMMARY: Two teenage basketball players, a coach and a trainer from the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area were among eight people killed in a fiery head-on highway crash in eastern Kansas. Authorities said other victims in Sunday’s crash on a two-lane stretch of U.S. 169 about 60 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri, included three members of a St. Louis-area family. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the crash occurred when a southbound SUV carrying the basketball players and driven by the trainer collided with a northbound sedan with the three St. Louis-area family members as passengers. A third teenager from the Tulsa area survived and was hospitalized.
WORDS: 524 – MOVED: 05/06/2025 12:40 p.m. CDT
https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=itemid:2e67ecba7b77203e4badb0ab69bf45cb&mediaType=text
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