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Headlines for Tuesday, January 9, 2024

A graphic representation of eight radios of various vintages, underneath the words "Kansas Public Radio News Summary"
Emily DeMarchi
/
KPR

State of Disaster Emergency Declared for Kansas Due to Winter Storms

TOPEKA, Kan.(KPR) – Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has issued a state of disaster emergency for the entire state due to the winter weather. That declaration allows resources to be positioned to provide state assistance, and allows recovery measures to be put in place more quickly. The official press release announcing the state of emergency declaration included advice from the governor to stay off the roads if possible, and to check statewide road information at KanDrive.gov, or by calling 511.

The winter weather has forced K-12 schools and universities to close.

The National Weather Service is cautioning Kansans not to let their guard down; after a brief break on Wednesday, more snow is possible Thursday night into Friday, followed by frigid temperatures over the weekend into the beginning of next week.

Get the latest weather from the National Weather Service in Topeka.

(–Related–)

Reports from Western Kansas Indicate Storm Caused Difficult Highway Travel

LIBERAL, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas is trying to recover from harsh winter weather Monday but extremely low temperatures soon will follow. A wide range of snowfall blew across the state, up to 14 inches in Scott City to three inches in Wichita. The Kansas News Service reports that all major highways in the western part of the state closed, and the rest were either partially or completely covered by snow. Visibility was near zero in western Kansas, leaving many cars and people stranded on highways, including some emergency responders. Scott Smith, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Wichita says the challenging weather might not be over just yet.

“...so expecting some chance of some more snow then the really cold temperatures. That's the real big story. The arctic air that's moving in Thursday night and for the next several days after that,” Smith advised.

The National Weather Service also says that in most areas, some of the snow could melt before temperatures drop to single digits later this week.

(-Related-)

Sprawling Storm Wallops U.S. with Tornado Reports, Damage and Heavy Snow

UNDATED (AP) - A sprawling storm has hit the South with strong thunderstorms and tornado warnings that blew roofs off homes and tossed about furniture in the Florida Panhandle and brought cities across the Midwest to a standstill with more than half of foot of snow. The National Weather Service says a storm with 55 mph winds and hail moved through the Florida Panhandle and into parts of Alabama and Georgia by sunrise Tuesday, along with at least several reports of radar-confirmed tornadoes. Up to a foot of snow could blanket a broad area stretching from southeastern Colorado all the way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The weather has already affected campaigning for Iowa's January 15 precinct caucuses.

In the Midwest, where a snowstorm started Monday, up to 12 inches of snow could blanket a broad area stretching from southeastern Colorado all the way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, including western Kansas, eastern Nebraska, large parts of Iowa, northern Missouri and northwestern Illinois. From there, the storm was expected to head east, bringing a combination of snow, rain and strong winds to the Northeast by Tuesday night, as well as concerns about flooding in areas such as New England, parts of which got more than a foot of snow Sunday.

Nearly 8 inches of snow fell in the northern city of Athol, Kansas, Monday.

Whiteout conditions in central Nebraska closed a long stretch of Interstate 80, while Kansas closed Interstate 70 from the central city of Russell all the way west to the Colorado border due to dangerous travel conditions. Several vehicles slid off I-70 in the northeastern part of the state, authorities said.

The weather has already affected campaigning for Iowa's January 15 precinct caucuses, where the snow is expected to be followed by frigid temperatures that could drift below zero degrees. It forced former President Donald Trump's campaign to cancel multiple appearances by Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who had been scheduled to court Iowa voters on Trump's behalf Monday.

Parts of northern Missouri braced for up to a foot of snow as the system moved east. Officials in Kansas City, Missouri, said City Hall would be closed Tuesday and municipal courts would operate remotely.

Disruptions extended as far south as the Oklahoma panhandle, where Cimmaron County emergency managers asked citizens to stay home. More than a dozen motorists were stranded there Monday afternoon, with whipping winds and blizzard conditions leading to near-zero visibility, said Lea Lavielle, the county's emergency management director. "At this point in time, we are advising individuals to shelter in place the best they can," Lavielle said.

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2024 Kansas Legislative Session Begins

TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR/KNS) - The 2024 legislative session started Monday, as lawmakers returned to Topeka. The Democratic governor and the GOP-controlled Legislature have different priorities. Medicaid expansion remains a top goal for Governor Laura Kelly, as it has been since she took office in 2019. While it looks unlikely to pass, Kelly seems to be rallying public support for the issue ahead of November’s elections, when all 165 seats in the state Legislature will be up for election. Republican leaders are gearing up for another battle over tax reform, with the goal of implementing a single-rate income tax system. They’ll need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override an almost certain veto from the governor.

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Kansas Governor Laura Kelly Announces New Tax Proposal

TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas Democratic Governor Laura Kelly unveiled a new tax proposal Monday on the first day of the 2024 legislative session. The Kansas News Service reports that Kelly’s plan includes eliminating the food sales tax by April instead of next year and increasing the residential exemption on state property taxes. While the plan has support from a few Republican lawmakers, GOP leaders are expected to instead pursue a single-rate tax plan. Kelly opposes that idea, referencing budget shortfalls after tax cuts during the administration of former governor Sam Brownback. “I refuse to take us back to the days of four-day school weeks, crumbling roads and bridges, and crippling debt,” Kelly said. Kelly’s plan would also increase the standard deduction on state income taxes and eliminate income taxes on social security.

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Overland Park Venue Defaults on STAR Bonds Payments

TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) – The Prairiefire entertainment venue in Overland Park has defaulted on its payments related to a state economic development program. Prairiefire was built with $65 million in Kansas Sales Tax Revenue Bonds (often referred to as STAR bonds) issued in 2012. The program lets cities issue bonds for development and pay them off later with diverted sales tax revenue. But a report from the Kansas City Star says the venue has failed to generate enough revenue to pay off its first $15 million in debt. Some lawmakers have criticized the program after certain developments have failed to meet expectations. To date, Prairiefire has reportedly only paid $130,000 on its bonds.

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Education Leaders Seek Changes to At-Risk Student Funding Disbursements

WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas education leaders say they want to change a law that dictates how they can spend money earmarked for academically struggling students. The Kansas News Service says that a report last year showed many Kansas schools are misusing millions of dollars set aside for students at risk of failing academically. The law requires programs to be delivered specifically to those students, and that they be backed by five years of research. Deputy Education Commissioner Ben Proctor says some schools gear at-risk programs toward whole classrooms. He urged state school board members to push for updates.

“Ultimately make recommendations to the Legislature on statutory changes based on how students are benefiting from programs that may not meet the current law,” Proctor added.

Kansas sends about $400 million a year in at-risk aid to school districts. Last year’s report echoed one five years ago that said schools are misusing at-risk funds. Some lawmakers say they may consider penalties for districts.

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Task Force Wants $350 Million for Special Ed Funding

TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) - A group created to study special education in Kansas is urging lawmakers to increase funding by nearly $350 million over four years. The task force split 6-4 on the recommendation. It echoes Governor Laura Kelly’s plan to bring Kansas into compliance with state law on special-ed funding. Four Republican lawmakers oppose the move, citing problems with the overall funding formula. Rep. Kristey Williams says schools get more money for special education than their budgets reflect. “There is money attributable to special-education students, and we are not counting any of it. We are not counting the local option budget, and that’s just one," she said. The task force recommended further study on how districts provide special-ed services. The group also wants the state to reimburse schools for special-ed costs more quickly.

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Kansas Bill Would Criminalize Encouraging Others to Commit Suicide

WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) – A Kansas bill would make it illegal to encourage someone to take their life. The Kansas News Service reports that the mother of a Wichita man is spearheading efforts to get the bill passed into law. Jill Janes’s son Max was 21 when he died by suicide last year. She says he received texts from people encouraging him to take his own life, even though they knew he was struggling with depression. She talked to Representative Nick Hoheisel, a Wichita Republican, to draft the new bill.

“We’re hoping that this law will reroute behaviors. You’ve got someone that is tempted to hide behind their screen and push someone towards action like this — that they might go, ‘They could trace this back to me. I don’t want to be involved in this,’” Janes said. She says she’d also like to see resources put into increased access to mental health services.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 9-8-8.

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KBI Identifies Leavenworth Man Killed by Police over the Weekend

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (KPR) - The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has identified a man in Leavenworth who was shot and killed by police over the weekend. Authorities say 44-year-old Micheal L. Mills, of Indianola, Iowa - died Saturday night after he was shot multiple times by a police officer. Police say Mills was armed with a knife an refused police demands to drop the weapon. According to the KBI, the man called Leavenworth police just before 9 pm Saturday, requesting police officers so that he could report a crime. He also stated that he was armed. A short time later, officers arrived and found a man - armed with a knife - in the front yard of the residence (in the 400 block of North 5th). Police asked the man repeatedly to drop the knife, but the man charged toward an officer who then shot the man multiple times.

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New Wind Farm in North-Central Kansas Producing Electricity

TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - A new wind farm in north-central Kansas has the most wind power capacity in the state. High Banks wind farm is in central Kansas near the Nebraska border. When winds cooperate, it can produce as much electricity as about 240,000 households would use. Some residents opposed the farm with 233 turbines taller than the Statue of Liberty. But hundreds of landowners leased property to NextEra Energy Resources for the project. The Belleville Telescope in Republic County says the farm is now sending electricity to a Leavenworth County substation for distribution to customers.

(Additional reporting...)

New Giant Wind Farm in North-Central Kansas Designed to Limit Night Pollution

TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - A new, giant wind farm in north-central Kansas is designed to avoid night-time light pollution. High Banks has the most wind power capacity in Kansas. And it’s the state’s second wind farm designed to stay mostly dark at night. New technology allows red flashing lights to stay off except when airplanes fly nearby. A new law in Kansas means older wind farms will eventually have to seek federal permission to follow suit. The Belleville Telescope reports that High Banks started sending power last month from Republic and Washington counties near the Nebraska border to a substation in Leavenworth County for distribution. When winds cooperate, the new wind farm can produce as much electricity as about 240,000 households would use. Some residents opposed the farm with 233 turbines taller than the Statue of Liberty. But hundreds of landowners leased property to NextEra Energy Resources for the project.

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Jackson County Puts Stadium Sales Tax on April Ballot

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCUR) – Jackson County, Missouri voters will decide in April whether to renew a stadium sales tax that, if approved, would keep the Chiefs and the Royals in the Show-Me State. The county legislature approved putting the question on the ballot in an eight to one vote Monday. If it passes, the three-eighths cent sales tax would be renewed for another 40 years. The tax revenue would be split evenly between the Chiefs and the Royals, who would both commit not to move to Kansas.

"...I always believe that when, when you're moving into something, this dynamic, then you ought have a lease agreement in place before you put it on the ballot,” said County Executive Frank White, adding that he wants more for the county out of the negotiations.

White has 10 days to issue a veto. He has not confirmed whether he will. The legislature needs six votes to override a veto. The Royals have still not chosen a site for their proposed new stadium.

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Scientists Discover About a Quarter Million Invisible Nanoplastic Particles in a Liter of Bottled Water

UNDATED (AP) - New research shows that the average liter of bottled water has nearly a quarter million invisible pieces of ever so tiny nanoplastics. Scientists long figured there were lots of these microscopic plastic pieces, but until researchers at Columbia and Rutgers universities did their calculations they never knew how many or what kind. Looking at five samples each of three common bottled water brands, researchers found levels ranged from 110,000 to 400,000 per liter. The study in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looks at particles less than a micron in size. There are 25,400 microns in an inch. The average liter of bottled water has nearly a quarter million invisible pieces of ever so tiny nanoplastics, detected and categorized for the first time by a microscope using dual lasers.

Scientists long figured there were lots of these microscopic plastic pieces, but until researchers at Columbia and Rutgers universities did their calculations they never knew how many or what kind. Looking at five samples each of three common bottled water brands, researchers found particle levels ranged from 110,000 to 400,000 per liter, averaging at around 240,000 according to a study in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. These are particles that are less than a micron in size. There are 25,400 microns — also called micrometers because it is a millionth of a meter — in an inch. A human hair is about 83 microns wide.

Previous studies have looked at slightly bigger microplastics that range from the visible 5 millimeters, less than a quarter of an inch, to one micron. About 10 to 100 times more nanoplastics than microplastics were discovered in bottled water, the study found.

Much of the plastic seems to be coming from the bottle itself and the reverse osmosis membrane filter used to keep out other contaminants, said study lead author Naixin Qian, a Columbia physical chemist. She wouldn't reveal the three brands because researchers want more samples before they single out a brand and want to study more brands. Still, she said they were common and bought at a WalMart.

Researchers still can't answer the big question: Are those nanoplastic pieces harmful to health? "That's currently under review. We don't know if it's dangerous or how dangerous," said study co-author Phoebe Stapleton, a toxicologist at Rutgers. "We do know that they are getting into the tissues (of mammals, including people) … and the current research is looking at what they're doing in the cells."

The International Bottled Water Association said in a statement: "There currently is both a lack of standardized (measuring) methods and no scientific consensus on the potential health impacts of nano- and microplastic particles. Therefore, media reports about these particles in drinking water do nothing more than unnecessarily scare consumers." The American Chemistry Council, which represents plastics manufacturers, declined to immediately comment.

The world "is drowning under the weight of plastic pollution, with more than 430 million tonnes of plastic produced annually" and microplastics found in the world's oceans, food and drinking water with some of them coming from clothing and cigarette filters, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Efforts for a global plastics treaty continue after talks bogged down in November.

All four co-authors interviewed said they were cutting back on their bottled water use after they conduced the study. Wei Min, the Columbia physical chemist who pioneered the dual laser microscope technology, said he has reduced his bottled water use by half. Stapleton said she now relies more on filtered water at home in New Jersey. But study co-author Beizhan Yan, a Columbia environmental chemist who increased his tap water usage, pointed out that filters themselves can be a problem by introducing plastics. "There's just no win," Stapleton said.

Outside experts, who praised the study, agreed that there's a general unease about perils of fine plastics particles, but it's too early to say for sure. "The danger of the plastics themselves is still an unanswered question. For me, the additives are the most concerning," said Duke University professor of medicine and comparative oncology group director Jason Somarelli, who wasn't part of the research. "We and others have shown that these nanoplastics can be internalized into cells and we know that nanoplastics carry all kinds of chemical additives that could cause cell stress, DNA damage and change metabolism or cell function."

Somarelli said his own not yet published work has found more than 100 "known cancer-causing chemicals in these plastics." What's disturbing, said University of Toronto evolutionary biologist Zoie Diana, is that "small particles can appear in different organs and may cross membranes that they aren't meant to cross, such as the blood-brain barrier." Diana, who was not part of the study, said the new tool researchers used makes this an exciting development in the study of plastics in the environment and body.

About 15 years ago, Min invented dual laser microscope technology that identifies specific compounds by their chemical properties and how they resonate when exposed to the lasers. Yan and Qian talked to him about using that technique to find and identify plastics that had been too small for researchers using established methods.

Kara Lavender Law, an oceanographer at the Sea Education Association, said "the work can be an important advance in the detection of nanoplastics" but she said she'd like to see other analytical chemists replicate the technique and results.

Denise Hardesty, an Australian government oceanographer who studies plastic waste, said context is needed. The total weight of the nanoplastic found is "roughly equivalent to the weight of a single penny in the volume of two Olympic-sized swimming pools." Hardesty is less concerned than others about nanoplastics in bottled water, noting that "I'm privileged to live in a place where I have access to 'clean' tap water and I don't have to buy drinking water in single use containers." Yan said he is starting to study other municipal water supplies in Boston, St. Louis, Los Angeles and elsewhere to see how much plastics are in their tap water. Previous studies looking for microplastics and some early tests indicate there may be less nanoplastic in tap water than bottled.

Even with unknowns about human health, Yan said he does have one recommendation for people who are worried: Use reusable bottles instead of single-use plastics.

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Sporting KC Moves Match Against Lionel Messi's Inter Miami to Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Sporting Kansas City moved its April 13 Major League Soccer home game against Lionel Messi's Inter Miami to Arrowhead Stadium from the team's Children’s Mercy Park.
The team made the announcement on Monday. Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri has a capacity of about 76,000. It is the home of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and the oldest of the 11 U.S. sites for the 2026 World Cup. Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas, the soccer team's home since 2011, has a capacity of about 18,000. The soccer team, then known as the Kansas City Wizards, played at Arrowhead Stadium from 1996 through 2007 and used the larger stadium for a 2010 exhibition against Manchester United that drew of 52,424. Single game tickets go on sale January 16 and start at $65, Sporting KC said.

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This summary of area news is curated by KPR news staffers. Our headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays and updated through 7 pm. This ad-free news summary is made possible by KPR members. Become one today. And follow KPR News on Twitter.