Arctic Cold Invades Kansas, Missouri and Rest of the Midwest
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) - Arctic cold has invaded Kansas, Missouri and much of the Midwest. A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until noon Friday. A Wind Chill Warning takes effect at 6 pm and will remain in effect until Tuesday morning. Wind chill values this weekend could drop to 30 degrees below zero. The National Weather Service says Kansans will want to bundle up for brutally cold weather this weekend. Meteorologist Bill Gargan says temperatures will drop deep into sub-zero territory. "If you have to go out I would cover all exposed skin, wear a hat that will cover your ears and face," he said. "But I would avoid going outside." Gargan says high winds, freezing temperatures and blowing snow could make driving difficult in some places. especially north of the Kansas City area.
Stay up to late with the latest conditions by visiting the National Weather Service online.
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Kansas Governor's Proposed Budget Includes Millions for Child Care
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Kansas families would have more options for child care and early education under a plan from Kansas Democratic Governor Laura Kelly. She wants to include $56 million for the programs in the next state budget. Kelly’s budget director, Adam Proffitt, told lawmakers Thursday that nearly $30 million would go toward constructing new child care facilities. “There is a capacity shortfall in Kansas, and as we all know child care issues are work force issues," he said. "If parents can’t find child care for their kids, it’s going to be difficult to go to work.” About $15 million would go toward supporting existing child care providers, especially home-based ones. The governor's plan would give grants of around $4,000 to thousands of providers. The governor also wants to consolidate state programs for day cares in a new Office of Early Childhood. Kelly says child care is too costly in Kansas, leading many parents to exit the workforce to care for their children.
(Additional reporting...)
Kansas Governor Pushes Medicaid Expansion, Tax Cuts, Rural Issues in Annual Address
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR/KNS/AP/LJW) - In her State of the State address Wednesday night, Kansas Democratic Governor Laura Kelly proposed familiar legislative priorities with a focus on rural areas. Medicaid expansion and fully funded public schools have become signature priorities for the governor since she took office in 2019. But during her annual speech in front of lawmakers, she refocused those goals from the perspective of rural Kansas, which is predominantly represented by her Republican counterparts. She said expansion would benefit struggling rural hospitals. “Step up for rural Kansas. Step up," she said. "This must be a priority. When rural Kansas is strong, Kansas is strong.” Kelly also said she would veto any efforts to approve private school vouchers, which give tax cuts to parents for private education or homeschooling.
While Kelly renewed her call to expand Medicaid, the issue has been a non-starter in the Republican-controlled Legislature. Kelly noted that Medicaid expansion would help 150,000 Kansans access health care and would also help rural hospitals. Another of the governor's priorities is water policy, including finding a way to address declining water levels in the High Plains Aquifer, which is used to irrigate crops in western Kansas.
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Kansas Judiciary Begins Bringing Court System Back Online
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - The Kansas Supreme Court has begun bringing its statewide information system back online months after it was hacked by Russian cyber criminals. Chief Justice Marla Luckert says a review of the October hack has taken longer than expected. But the court’s online system should be fully restored in the next few weeks. Luckert says the court is still reviewing what information was stolen. Officials will notify Kansas residents if their information was compromised. “I express my deep sorrow that Kansans suffered because these criminals attacked our system of justice. But I thank my fellow Kansans for their support and their patience," she said. The court is also bolstering the system with technology upgrades and policy changes. The hackers had threatened to post the stolen information on the darkweb and demanded ransom. Luckert says the state refused to pay.
Attorneys and other Kansans who need to use the state’s online court system should have full access again in the next few weeks. Luckert told lawmakers that the hack was conducted by Russian cyber criminals and recovery took longer than expected. She says the court is bolstering its online systems with technology upgrades and policy changes to prepare for future hacking attempts. “We had to carefully fortify them because once hacked, the likelihood of another attack increases," she said. The court is still reviewing what information was stolen. Officials will notify Kansas residents if their information was compromised.
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Kansas Legislators Propose Near-Total Abortion Ban
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Kansas lawmakers have introduced a near-total abortion ban that would allow citizens to sue anyone who helps someone get an abortion, but the proposal has little path forward. The proposal would prohibit abortions except to save the life of the mother. It would also let private citizens sue anyone who helps someone else get an abortion. The Republican-backed bill would likely violate the state’s constitutional protection for abortion rights, which voters affirmed in 2022. A similar group of lawmakers last year introduced a total abortion ban without exceptions to save the mother’s life. Meanwhile, the state’s leading anti-abortion lobbying group Kansans For Life released a more measured legislative agenda. The group is asking for more money for anti-abortion counseling centers and wants to require child support from conception.
(Related)
Kansas for Life Announces Legislative Agenda
UNDATED (KNS) - The leading anti-abortion lobbying group in Kansas is asking lawmakers to make it more difficult to get an abortion, even though the state constitution prohibits an all-out ban. The group "Kansans For Life" has released its legislative agenda, which includes new ultrasound requirements and stricter data reporting rules for clinics that provide abortions. The group will also ask lawmakers to enact new tax credits that would send more state money to anti-abortion counseling centers.
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Kansas Department of Agriculture to Seek Ban on Ornamental Pear Trees
UNDATED (KNS) – Conservationists will cheer if Kansas moves forward with a ban on selling invasive ornamental pear trees. The Kansas Department of Agriculture wants to ban Callery pear trees, which are also called Bradford pears and many other names. It will hold a hearing on the issue later this month. These trees are popular for their white flowers. But they’re escaping suburbia and invading prairies and woods, squeezing out native plants that support the food web. Under the proposed ban, homeowners wouldn’t be required to cut down existing trees. But some conservation groups and local governments give free native trees to people who cut down Callery pears on their property. (Read more.)
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Ag Officials in Kansas, Elsewhere Seek Passage of U.S. Farm Bill
UNDATED (HPM) - Agricultural officials in Kansas and elsewhere want Congress to pass a farm bill as soon as possible. But that might be a tall order. The farm bill was supposed to be renewed last year. President Biden signed a one-year extension for the five-year legislation that expires in September. Iowa Farm Bureau President Brent Johnson recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby members of the agricultural committee to tackle the bill in the next few months. “In this presidential election year, national politics is going to get in the way. And we really don't need this farm bill to be extended into the new administration," he said. The farm bill provides a safety net in the form of subsidies, crop insurance, trade, and conservation programs. Harvest Public Media reports that most of the funding, more than 80%, goes toward food programs.
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Federal Grant to Help Kansas Foster Kids Get Environmental Job Certifications
UNDATED (The Kansas City Beacon) – A federal grant is helping Kansas foster kids get jobs in the environmental field. The Kansas City Beacon reports that the money was given to foster care agency Cornerstones of Care. The $450,000 grant helps foster kids get the months of training needed for job certifications. It also gives them real world experience, said Theo Bunch, director of Build Trybe, which is part of the group that is getting the money. “There might be a day where they got their waders on and they are, you know, knee deep in a creek, and they're doing water testing, and they're removing trash and debris.” Foster kids are more likely to be homeless, short on food and struggle with college. The Build Trybe program hopes to stabilize their futures. The EPA says the grant trains kids to get jobs cleaning up polluted Brownfield sites in Missouri.
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Olathe Man Sentenced for Role in January 6 Riot
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KC Star) – An Olathe man has been sentenced to more than four years in prison for his participation in the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Kansas City Star reports that William Chrestman, age 50, was sentenced to 55 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release. Chrestman has already spent almost three years in jail since his arrest in February 2021. He must also pay $2000 in restitution for damage to the Capitol. The federal government had sought a sentence of 63 months in prison, along with the supervised release and restitution. Chrestman is one of 10 Kansans charged in connection with the Capitol riot, and the seventh sentenced. Prosecutors say the U.S. Army veteran and former sheet metal worker was a “second-degree” Proud Boy who played an important role in the attack.
(–Additional reporting–)
Proud Boys Member Who Wielded an Axe Handle During the Capitol Riot Gets over 4 Years in Prison
UNDATED (AP) – A jailed member of the Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Friday to more than four years in prison for his role in a mob's attack on the U.S. Capitol three years ago, court records show.
William Chrestman, a U.S. Army veteran from Olathe, Kansas, brandished an axe handle and threatened police with violence after leading other Proud Boys members to the perimeter of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Chrestman pleaded guilty in October to obstructing the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying the Electoral College vote. He also pleaded guilty to a second felony count of threatening to assault a federal officer during the Capitol riot.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced Chrestman to four years and seven months in prison, according to court records.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of five years and three months, arguing that he “played a significant role during the riot due to his presence and conduct at pivotal moments during the day.”
“Indeed, Chrestman regularly presented himself as a leader among the rioters including when he was part of the tip of the spear that created the breach at the Peace Circle, encouraged other rioters to move to the police barricades, told rioters to stop the arrest of a rioter, and thanked them for supporting the Proud Boys,” prosecutors wrote.
Chrestman has been jailed since his arrest in February 2021. He'll get credit for the nearly three years he already has served in custody.
Defense attorney Michael Cronkright argued that Chrestman never used his axe handle “to do anything remotely violent” on Jan. 6.
“To date, the worst thing that the government has asserted is that he used it to touch a security gate that was already going up,” Cronkright wrote.
Chrestman also had a gas mask, a helmet and other tactical gear when he traveled to Washington with other Proud Boys members from the Kansas City, Kansas, area. On Jan. 6, he marched to the Capitol grounds with dozens of other Proud Boys leaders, members and associates.
Chrestman and other Proud Boys moved past a toppled metal barricade and joined other rioters in front of another police barrier. He shouted a threat at officers and yelled at others in the crowd to stop police from arresting another rioter, according to prosecutors.
Facing the crowd, Chrestman shouted, “Whose house is this?”
“Our house!” the crowd replied.
“Do you want your house back?” Chrestman asked.
“Yes!” the crowd responded.
“Take it!” Chrestman yelled.
Chrestman also pointed his finger at a line of Capitol police officers, gestured at them with his axe handle and threatened to assault them if they fired “pepper ball” rounds at the crowd of rioters, according to a court filing accompanying his guilty plea.
Also on Friday, a man who briefly ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor of Oregon after storming the Capitol was sentenced to nearly four years in prison. Reed Knox Christensen, 65, charged at a group of police officers outside the Capitol and assaulted five of them before rioters breached the police line, prosecutors said.
Christensen captured less than 1% of the votes cast in Oregon's May 2022 Republican primary for the governor's race. Prosecutors said he used the campaign “to obtain free publicity and brag about his participation in the riot."
Christensen also wrote a self-published book about his “experiences prior to and including January 6,” according to his attorney, Troy Nixon.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Christensen, an engineer from Hillsboro, Oregon, to three years and 10 months in prison, court records show.
More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. About 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials decided by a jury or judge. Over 750 of them have been sentenced, with nearly 500 receiving some term of imprisonment, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
Dozens of Proud Boys leaders, members and associates have been arrested on Jan. 6 charges. The group's former national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, was sentenced to 22 years in prison — the longest for a Capitol riot case so far. A jury convicted Tarrio and three lieutenants of seditious conspiracy charges for a failed plot to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 election.
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Southwest Kansas Dealing with High Rate of Those Without Health Insurance
LIBERAL, Kan. (KNS) – Adults in southwest Kansas are less likely to have health insurance than anywhere else in the state. The Kansas News Service reports that Hispanic Kansans are three times less likely to have health insurance than non-Hispanic White Kansans.
Multiple counties in southwest Kansas are majority Hispanic, contributing to the high rates. Janeth Vazquez is a city commissioner in Liberal. 26% of adults are uninsured in her county, according to the Kansas Health Institute. Vazquez says affordability, cultural stigmas and eligibility due to legal status are barriers to health insurance for southwest Kansans.
“And so they don't go to the doctor, they'll tough it out as long as they can until they can no longer and then like I said, they usually end up in the ER, ” Vazquez explained.
If Medicaid were to expand in Kansas, half of the uninsured adults in the region would be eligible. But the Republican-led Legislature is unlikely to support that.
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Chiefs Set to Play Miami Saturday Night to Begin Super Bowl Run
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KNS) – The Kansas City Chiefs will begin their bid for back-to-back Super Bowl championships with a home game Saturday night at 7 against the Miami Dolphins. The Kansas News Service reports that wide receiver Mecole Hardman made a welcome addition to the Chiefs last Sunday, seeing extended play in the win at Los Angeles. It was Hardman’s second game since coming back from an injury. "It feels good just to go out there and do that type of thing. It’s been a minute since I played that amount of snaps. It was good to get out there, get my feet wet and take that into this week," he said. Hardman caught six passes for 77 yards, and looks to make another big contribution during wild card weekend. The Chiefs and Dolphins haven’t faced each other in the playoffs since 1994.
(–Additional reporting–)
Chiefs Face Dolphins at Arrowhead in Bitter Cold Temps
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KPR) - The Miami Dolphins are coming to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs Saturday night at 7. The game could be one of the NFL's coldest playoff games on record. Saturday night's temperatures could hit historic lows. At kickoff, the wind chill could be 29 degrees below zero. Going to the game? Bundle up!
(–Related–)
Chiefs Fans Urged to Bundle Up, Limit Drinking for Saturday Night Game
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCUR) – Kansas City Chiefs fans could face temperatures as low as negative two degrees during Saturday night’s game against the Miami Dolphins. KCUR reports that Julia Slater, Medical Director of the Burnett Burn Center at the University of Kansas Health System, says fans looking to avoid frostbite and hypothermia during Saturday’s game should drink less and layer more. While layering may seem obvious, Slater clarified that fans should wear several loose layers rather than tight fitting items, to allow warm air to get trapped in between them. Slater also advised fans to limit or forgo drinking because alcohol can worsen frostbite and hyperthermia and make the conditions harder to notice. “It can actually worsen frostbite because it does change sort of how your blood is circulating…and hypothermia, you may even confuse excessive alcohol consumption signs with the signs of hypothermia itself.” The kick-off time for Saturday’s game is set for 7:00 p.m.
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AP Top 25's Highly Ranked Teams Look Vulnerable After Losses to Unranked Foes
UNDATED (AP) - It's been a rough week for the headliners in the AP Top 25. Four of the top five and half of the top 10 have lost on the road to unranked teams. No. 1 Purdue lost at Nebraska. No. 2 Houston lost at Iowa State. No. 3 Kansas lost to UCF. No. 5 Tennessee lost to Mississippi State. And No. 9 Oklahoma lost to TCU. Each came in the past two days. It's a reminder how much college basketball's natural order has changed in the era of older teams, the transfer portal and talent dispersed across the country.
Bill Self had just watched his third-ranked Kansas team squander a 16-point lead to lose on the road to an opponent picked to finish last in the Big 12 when he was asked how he will remember the game. "To be real candid with you," Self told reporters in his postgame news conference, "I hope I don't."
It's a sentiment that could apply to many of the headliners in the AP Top 25 after a bumpy few days.
Top-ranked Purdue and No. 2 Houston lost Tuesday. Fifth-ranked Tennessee and No. 9 Oklahoma joined the Jayhawks in losing Wednesday. Each loss came on the road to an unranked foe, offering an early end to the unbeaten watch for the Cougars and a reminder to everyone else that college basketball's natural order is very different in the era of older teams, the transfer portal and talent dispersed across the country.
If anything, it's following the lead of last year's chaotic season that included a record 54 teams cracking the Top 25 before the NCAA Tournament ended with no 1-seed even making a regional final and no team seeded higher than No. 4 reaching the Final Four.
Houston (14-1) fell at Iowa State in a low-scoring grind as the nation's last unbeaten team. That prompted NCAA director of media coordination and statistics David Worlock to note that this marked the fourth time in seven years that the sport lost all unbeatens before Jan. 12; there had been at least one as late as Jan. 13 in 40 of 41 seasons before that.
The problems popping up for the top-10 losing teams this week came in multiple areas.
It was a matter of composure for some, such as Self saying the Jayhawks (13-2) didn't show as much poise against UCF as in other games. The quintet of top-10 losers this week averaged 15.6 turnovers leading to 19.6 points for their opponents backed by home crowds, highlighted by TCU's 25 points against the Sooners (13-2). Kansas (18.1%) and Oklahoma (18.6%) rank in the 200s nationally in KenPom's measure of per-possesion turnover rate.
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