ARLINGTON, Kan. (AP) – Residents who were evacuated after an explosion at a central Kansas grain elevator are back in their homes, as the investigation continues to determine what caused the blast.

Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson said residents of about a dozen homes were allowed to return home Thursday evening when the danger subsided at the Cairo Co-op elevator in Arlington. Kansas Highway 61 and a nearby and nearby rail line also reopened.

One employee, Tyler Stejskal of Arlington, is hospitalized after the explosion Thursday morning in the headhouse atop the elevator. The blast blew out windows in the headhouse and damaged a door.

Reno County Emergency Management Director Bill Guy says it could be several days before investigators determine what caused the explosion.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A court hearing for the leader of a group of people that lived off life insurance payouts of its dead members was postponed until March.

Thursday’s preliminary hearing for Daniel U. Perez was rescheduled at the request of his defense attorney. The hearing will be held March 8.

Perez is accused of premeditated murder in the death of Patricia Hughes at the group’s Valley Center compound. Her 2003 drowning death was originally considered an accident but was recently reclassified as a homicide.

The 52-year-old Perez is also charged with rape, sodomy, aggravated assault, making false statements on life insurance policies, making false statements to obtain auto credit and sexual exploitation of a child.

He is being held on a $2.1 million bond.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Gov. Sam Brownback is preparing to fill a vacancy in his Cabinet and sign an executive order that advances his plan to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program by reorganizing three state agencies.

Brownback’s staff wasn’t saying ahead of his Friday morning news conference what major administrative position would be filled.

However, Jeff Kahrs has been serving as acting secretary of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services since Secretary Rob Siedlecki stepped down at the end of last year.

SRS would be reorganized under the Medicaid plan, along with the Department on Aging and the Department of Health and Environment. Programs would be shifted among the agencies, and they’d get new names.

The $2.9 billion Medicaid program provides health coverage for the poor, disabled and elderly.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A group of dental associations hopes to attract dentists to underserved areas of Kansas with an offer to help young practitioners pay off their loans.

The Kansas Dental Association and the Delta Dental of Kansas Foundation announced the loan repayment program Thursday. It’s patterned on a similar initiative program in Iowa.

The Delta Dental of Kansas Foundation is pledging up to $150,000 a year for three years to the program. The Kansas Initiative for New Dentists will target new students enrolled in regional dental schools.

An oversight committee will review applications for the loan repayment program.

Kansas health officials have identified several communities as underserved by dentists, including Greensburg, Medicine Lodge, Coldwater, Sublette, Satanta, Ness City and Sharon Springs. Those and other communities will be targeted for participating new
dentists.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A recent survey shows the number of Kansans who recycle has jumped dramatically.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment released the results of its 2011 Community Recycling Survey last month. It found that the number of Kansans who recycle reached 85 percent in 2011, up from 65 percent the last time the survey was administered in 2005.

KDHE Secretary Robert Moser says he is encouraged so many Kansans recycle.

His agency’s survey also found that 81 percent of households recycle aluminum cans, 70 percent of households recycle plastics, 56 percent of households recycle newspapers, 45 percent of households recycle cardboard and 44 percent of households recycle other paper.

The agency surveyed 300 people by phone over a two-week period in November.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A Kansas nurse who added tap water to a painkiller prescribed for a 105-year-old nursing home patient is due in court for sentencing.

Federal prosecutors are recommending that Wendy Parmenter receive a three-year term when she’s sentenced Friday, in a deal allowing for early release if she successfully completes a residential drug treatment program.

The plea agreement bars Parmenter from working again in health care.

Parmenter pleaded guilty in November to product tampering and adulteration of a drug. She admitted that in November 2010 she diluted a bottle of morphine on the rolling cart used to dispense medication to a patient at Rolling Hills Health Center in Topeka.

Parmenter also has a past conviction for stealing drugs from patients at the Flint Hills Care Center in Emporia.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A local prosecutor is warning Kansas legislators and Governor Sam Brownback to preserve records andelectronic files about meetings at his official residence. The prosecutor calls it “potentially relevant evidence” into a newspaper’s complaints that the sessions violated the state’s open meetings act.

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor sent a letter to all 40 state senators and all 125 House members, directing them to preserve not only their records, electronic files and “tangible items,” but the same materials for their staffs, including interns. He told the legislators their efforts to preserve such materials “must begin immediately.”

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Thursday evening from a legislative source who did not want to be identified because copies of the letter, while delivered to the Statehouse.

ARLINGTON, Kan. (AP) – A grain elevator has exploded in south-central Kansas, injuring one worker.

The explosion was reported about 7:25 a.m. Thursday at the Cairo Coop in Arlington, which is about 15 miles southwest of Hutchinson.

Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson said one employee was taken to a Wichita hospital with burns that appeared to be minor.

Bill Guy, Reno County emergency management director, said the injured employee was at the base of the elevator when the explosion occurred. He said another employee was at the grain elevator at the time, but was not hurt.

He said it was unclear if the elevator was full and the cause is under investigation.

Fire crews were also moving a crane to the scene to assess the explosion site.