LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A university wetlands center in Lawrence is gearing up for a June opening to the public.

The Lawrence Journal-World  reports that the 11,000-square-foot Baker University Wetlands Discovery Center is expected to have its ceremonial opening in September. The center will house a research lab, classrooms and offices. The building is being designed to give visitors a panoramic view of the wetlands.

Construction of the $1.5 million center is being funded by the Kansas Department of Transportation as part of the highway department’s mitigation agreement for 58 acres to extend the South Lawrence Trafficway through the wetlands. The state also agreed to help restore 410 acres of wetlands, which will bring the land’s total to 927 acres. The center was also given $350,000 for site improvements.

By Dan Margolies

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided more details about a new virus that may have contributed to the death of an eastern Kansas resident late last spring.

The Bourbon virus is named after the county where the man, who was in his 50s, received multiple tick bites while working on his property. Several days later he developed nausea, weakness and diarrhea. Eleven days after he was bitten, he suffered multiple organ failure and died of cardiac arrest.

The CDC has now officially identified the novel virus as belonging to a group called thogotovirus, named for a pool of ticks collected in 1960 from the Thogoto forest near Nairobi, Kenya.

It says the Kansas case is the first instance of a virus in this group causing human illness in the United States. And it’s only the eighth known case of a virus in the group causing symptoms in people worldwide, the CDC says. “We’ve identified a new virus that appears to be a pathogen that could be dangerous to humans,” said Kansas state epidemiologist Charles Hunt, one of the authors of the CDC study.

“We don’t know much about it because it’s only been identified in one patient. But any new virus or agent that has the potential to harm human health is something that we need to be concerned about potentially and learn as much as we can about so we can help the public avoid it.”

The discovery of the virus, along with those of Heartland virus in Missouri and other pathogens in China, leads the CDC to believe that other undiscovered viruses may be making people sick. The CDC says it doesn’t know yet whether the Bourbon virus can be found in other parts of the United States.

But because thogotovirus pathogens have been linked to ticks and mosquitos in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, it says the Bourbon virus might also be spread that way. There’s no vaccine or drug currently available to counter the virus.

The CDC recommends that people protect themselves from outdoor tick and bug bites by using insect repellant, wearing long sleeves and pants, avoiding bushy and wooded areas, and performing thorough tick checks after spending time outdoors. “Ticks are dangerous to people,” Hunt said.

“They can carry lots of things. This is one additional thing that we think can be transmitted by ticks. And we obviously have a lot more work to do in terms of understanding this virus. But it’s prudent to avoid tick bites.”

Dan Margolies is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

Beginning today and running through March 6, 2015, the Kansas Highway Patrol will work on an annual seatbelt enforcement campaign around area high schools.

In a media release,  the KHP reported the campaign is hosted by the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Traffic Safety Section, and is in conjunction with Kansas’ Seatbelts Are For Everyone (SAFE) program.

In 2014, Kansas lost 34 teens (ages 13-19) in crashes, with 63% of those victims not being properly restrained. The hope of the enforcement is to work to increase education and enforcement on seatbelt laws. KDOT, the Kansas Traffic Safety Resource Office (KTSRO), and law enforcement partners across the state have spent more than 20 years educating Kansas teens on the dangers of driving without a seatbelt.

The Kansas SAFE program began in 2008, in southeast Kansas. It is a teen run, peer to peer program, focused on increasing teen restraint compliance through education, positive rewards, and enforcement. It is designed to bring awareness to the importance of wearing a seatbelt, reducing the number of motor vehicle-related injuries and fatalities among Kansas teens. The goal of SAFE is to increase seatbelt use among students while providing strong traffic safety messages throughout the school year.

“Our priority is to keep motorists of all ages safe as they travel to and from their destinations. It is our hope that by encouraging students to wear their seatbelts, this will begin a lifelong practice, which will help keep them safe in the years to come,” said Colonel Mark Bruce, KHP Superintendent. “The SAFE program has already seen life-saving results over the past few years, and we hope these good results will keep building.”

For the two-week enforcement period, troopers and other officers will work near local high schools. Anyone caught not properly restrained could be issued a citation. For more information on the SAFE Program, go to https://www.ktsro.org/safe.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A judge is recusing himself from hearing the sexual assault retrial of a man accused of knocking his attorney unconscious during his first trial.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Shawnee County District Court Judge Mark Braun announced the decision in a ruling he issued this past week in the case of Lance Franklin. Braun was in court in December when attorney David McDonald was punched. McDonald suffered a concussion, cuts, swollen eyes and chipped teeth.

Braun found Franklin to be in contempt of court and will continue to handle that decision. Franklin also was charged with felony aggravated battery.

Franklin’s new defense attorney is appealing “all adverse rulings” against Franklin, including the contempt sentence. The contempt sentence won’t be credited toward any of Franklin’s other sentences.

PAOLA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a couple died after their car went off the side of a Miami County road, overturned and caught fire.

The Kansas City Star reports that the crash happened around 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The Miami County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims as 78-year-old Willis D. Hodgson and 77-year-old Beth E. Hodgson. The couple lived in the town of Parker.