BREAKING: Lawrence Police: Early Morning Shooting Kills 17-Year-Old
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) - A teenage boy was shot and killed in Lawrence early Thursday morning. Police were called to 2406 Alabama Street around 1:15 am where they found 17-year-old Isaiah Neal suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was treated at the scene but later died at the hospital. No arrests have been made. Investigators are asking anyone with information in the fatal shooting to come forward.
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Thousands of Kansas Children Lose Health Insurance Since Beginning of Medicaid Eligibility Review
UNDATED (KCUR) – Over 24,000 Kansas children have lost their health insurance since the state began reviewing Medicaid eligibility last year. KCUR reports that Kansas began Medicaid unwinding in April 2023, when the federal government stopped pandemic protections for health care coverage. By the end of last month, the Kansas health department had removed over 75,000 people from the rolls. Almost half of those were under 18, according to the Kansas Reflector. Children’s advocates have criticized Kansas for a confusing review process, which was complicated by slow call center and mailing times. Nationwide, the majority of people who lost Medicaid coverage were disqualified for paperwork reasons, like failing to turn in their application by the deadline.
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KCK Mayor Wants Chiefs and Royals in Wyandotte County
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KCUR) - The mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, says he’s all in on luring both the Kansas City Chiefs and the Royals to Wyandotte County. Tyrone Garner is hyping a new baseball stadium in downtown KCK. He suggests the Chiefs could build a new stadium in western KCK, near the Legends. But, he says, the east side of KCK could be revitalized with a new Royals stadium overlooking the Kansas River with the Kansas City skyline as a backdrop. “Land is cheap. It’s ripe for development," he said. "It sits centrally located in the Kansas City metropolitan area.” All of this is contingent on Kansas lawmakers taking up a STAR bond proposal in next week’s special legislative session. Democratic state Senator Jeff Pittman, who represents western Wyandotte County, says there is bipartisan support for the plan.
Garner also rejects the charge that this renews a border war between Missouri and Kansas. “I think what you saw was the legislative engine here in the state of Kansas say, we don’t want to lose these teams. We want to give them an alternate option and that’s what it’s about," he said, adding that Kansas officials didn’t interfere with the sales tax election in Jackson County and only moved after voters soundly defeated it.
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Democratic State Senator Unveils "Kumbaya" Tax Plan for Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) - With just days left before Kansas lawmakers return to Topeka for a special session on tax cuts, a Democratic state senator has unveiled what he calls the “Kumbaya” tax plan. Senator Tom Holland, of Baldwin City, picked that name for the bill because it proposes a number of tax cuts that he says most Kansas legislators support. That includes property tax relief and eliminating taxes on social security benefits. The plan also notably proposes no changes to state income taxes … which lawmakers and the governor have so far been unable to agree on. Republican leaders will largely determine what bills are actually considered during the special session, but Holland says he’s hopeful they will allow a discussion on his bill.
Read more details about Holland's tax plan in the Lawrence Journal-World.
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Northeast Kansas School District Loses $121,000 to Out-of-State Fraudster
HOLTON, Kan. (KSNT) – A northeast Kansas school district has been swindled out of $121,000. USD 336 in Holton saw its bank account fall victim to financial fraud and reported the theft to authorities. Superintendent Bob Davies says someone from outside the state illegally withdrew cash from the Holton school district's bank account on several occasions. KSNT reports that the crimes took place last summer when the district was changing its accounting systems.
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Wheat Harvest Underway in Southern Kansas
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) - The Kansas wheat harvest is underway and so far, the results are promising. KSNW TV reports that cutting began in southern Kansas June 3rd. According to the Kansas Wheat Commission and the Association of Wheat Growers, the quantity and quality of the crop are much better than in recent years.
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Unanimous U.S. Supreme Court Preserves Access to Abortion Medication
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously preserved access to a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court’s first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. The nine justices ruled that abortion opponents lacked the legal right to sue over the federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medication, mifepristone, and the FDA's subsequent actions to ease access to it. The case had threatened to restrict access to mifepristone across the country, including in states where abortion remains legal. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was part of the majority to overturn Roe, wrote for the court on Thursday that “federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs’ concerns about FDA’s actions."
The decision could lessen the intensity of the abortion issue in the November elections, with Democrats already energized and voting against restrictions on reproductive rights. But the high court is separately considering another abortion case, about whether a federal law on emergency treatment at hospitals overrides state abortion bans in rare emergency cases in which a pregnant patient’s health is at serious risk.
More than 6 million people have used mifepristone since 2000. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone and primes the uterus to respond to the contraction-causing effect of a second drug, misoprostol. The two-drug regimen has been used to end a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation.
Health care providers have said that if mifepristone is no longer available or is too hard to obtain, they would switch to using only misoprostol, which is somewhat less effective in ending pregnancies.
President Joe Biden’s administration and drug manufacturers had warned that siding with abortion opponents in this case could undermine the FDA’s drug approval process beyond the abortion context by inviting judges to second-guess the agency’s scientific judgments. The Democratic administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, which makes mifepristone, argued that the drug is among the safest the FDA has ever approved.
The decision “safeguards access to a drug that has decades of safe and effective use,” Danco spokeswoman Abigail Long said in a statement.
The plaintiffs in the mifepristone case, anti-abortion doctors and their organizations, argued in court papers that the FDA’s decisions in 2016 and 2021 to relax restrictions on getting the drug were unreasonable and “jeopardize women’s health across the nation.”
Kavanaugh acknowledged what he described as the opponents' “sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections to elective abortion and to FDA’s relaxed regulation of mifepristone.”
Federal laws already protect doctors from having to perform abortions, or give any other treatment that goes against their beliefs, Kavanaugh wrote. “The plaintiffs have not identified any instances where a doctor was required, notwithstanding conscience objections, to perform an abortion or to provide other abortion-related treatment that violated the doctor’s conscience since mifepristone’s 2000 approval,” he wrote.
In the end, Kavanaugh wrote, the anti-abortion doctors went to the wrong forum and should instead direct their energies to persuading lawmakers and regulators to make changes.
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Kansas Abortion Providers "Relieved" at SCOTUS Ruling on Mifepristone
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas abortion providers say they’re relieved that the U.S. Supreme Court has preserved access to the abortion pill mifepristone. The court unanimously ruled Thursday that a group of Texas doctors does not have standing to challenge the FDA’s authorization of the pill. Around 60% of abortions in Kansas involve mifepristone. The Kansas News Service reports that Emily Wales, president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, says the decision means doctors do not have to shift to an alternative medication protocol, adding that "...if we had had to do that, we could have, but it also means telling patients about increased pain.” The ruling represents a loss for Kansas Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach, who had joined the lawsuit. In an email, Kobach said he believes states do have standing in the case and “it is essential that this case continue.”
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Kansas Department of Corrections Providing Naloxone to Some Outgoing Inmates
UNDATED (KNS) – The Kansas Department of Corrections is helping some inmates leaving prison combat opioid drug overdoses. The Kansas News Service reports that state officials say the plan may help reduce skyrocketing opioid overdose deaths. The new Kansas program provides naloxone to outgoing inmates who suffer from drug addiction. Naloxone is an antidote to opioids like fentanyl and can reverse an overdose. State prison officials say more than 200 naloxone kits have been issued since March. Seth Dewey of the Kansas Recovery Network says providing naloxone can help educate inmates who are returning to civilian life on the dangers of opioids. “They could be very well going back into that kind of an environment where even if they do not use drugs, the people who live in the house might,” he added. In 2022, more than two-thirds of overdose deaths in Kansas were caused by opioids.
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Kansas Education Leaders Could Revisit FAFSA Requirement Decision
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas education leaders may reconsider their decision to require high school students to apply for college financial aid in order to graduate. The Kansas News Service reports that the state Board of Education voted last month to require the FAFSA. It was part of the first overhaul of high school diploma requirements in 20 years. But board member Dennis Hershberger says he’s concerned about student privacy. He says failing to fill out financial aid forms should not keep students from graduating. “This should be something totally voluntary, and if there’s information that can be given, that’s enough. There shouldn’t be any kind of requirement that would stop a graduation,” he explained. The Kansas Board of Regents urged school board members to add the FAFSA requirement. States that require it have seen more students go to college and get financial aid.
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Federal Judge Removes Kansas from Lawsuit Challenging Student Debt Relief Plan
UNDATED (KNS) – A federal judge has removed Kansas from a lawsuit challenging a Biden administration student debt relief plan. The Kansas News Service reports that the lawsuit, led by Republican Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, pitted Kansas and 10 other states against Biden’s plan. The program would lower monthly payments for low-income borrowers and cancel certain kinds of student debt. The states argue the federal plan would reduce tax revenue and hurt their ability to recruit public employees by offering state plans to help pay off student debt. But a U.S. District Judge in Wichita didn’t buy those arguments. He dismissed all but three of the states from the lawsuit for lack of standing. The state of Missouri is waiting for a decision on its own lawsuit against the same debt-relief plan.
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One Man Dead, Another in Custody After Altercation in Lawrence
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) - One man is dead and another man is in custody following a fight in Lawrence. According to witnesses, two men were fighting Tuesday night near the Lawrence Community Shelter, where both men were residents. When a Douglas County Sheriff's deputy arrived, both men were on the ground - one of them was unconscious. That man, identified as 43-year-old Christopher Allen Lickteig, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other man, 34-year-old George Luke Miller, was taken into custody and is facing murder charges.
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Juneteenth KC Heritage Festival Set for Saturday
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCUR) – Juneteenth KC’s 2024 Heritage Festival is tomorrow (Saturday) in the Historic 18th and Vine district. KCUR reports that the theme of this year’s Heritage Festival is “The Resistance,'' and it’s Juneteenth KC’s biggest event of the month. Special performers include local jazz vocalist Lee Langston and Grammy nominated singer Kelly Price. Program Director Makeda Peterson says they’ve also added new elements to celebrate and cater to Black men, since it’s also Father’s Day weekend. “We're hosting a men's lounge in addition to like a men’s tent with giveaways and male-centered programming,” Peterson added. The festival is free to the public, but Peterson says to arrive early. Events kick off at noon. Visitors are advised to expect road closures around 18th and Vine all day Saturday.
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Missouri Governor Indicates Concern over Possible Chiefs/Royals Relocation to Kansas
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCUR) – Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says everyone needs to calm down about the Royals and Chiefs possibly moving to Kansas. KCUR, however, reports that the Missouri governor is worried. Governor Mike Parson says there is no question Missouri needs to be worried about what sort of incentives are going to come out of a special Kansas legislative session next week. He’s also not surprised Kansas is making a play for both teams. “I don’t blame them one bit trying to get those teams over there on their side of the state because they have a huge economic impact," he said. Parson says he will not call a special session to counter any proposal that comes out of Topeka. Kansas legislative leaders say they will propose using STAR bonds to lure both teams across the state line.
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KU to Sell Part of Allen Fieldhouse Court Floor
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCUR) – KU fans can now own their own part of Jayhawk basketball history. The University of Kansas is cutting up and selling part of the court inside Allen Fieldhouse as the historic venue installs a new floor. Chris Rose is the managing partner of the company artsmansport.com, which is selling parts of the maple court on its web site starting today (THUR). “So many Big 12 championships, so many players have gone through there. It’s just an amazing piece of history for Kansas fans to get a piece of it,” he said. The floor was installed in 2005. Rose said only a fraction of the court will be sold. This includes the foul line, center court logo and the area where KU Coach Bill Self stands, among other significant areas.
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Lawrence Could Become Site for a World Cup Training Camp
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP/LJW) - Lawrence could become the site of a training camp for the 2026 World Cup. FIFA says several U.S. cities are under considertion, including Lawrence. Other cities under consideration include Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cincinnati; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Louis; Salt Lake City and San Antonio.
The Wold Cup kicks off on June 11, 2026, at Mexico City. This will be the first World Cup to be played in three nations and the first with a field expanded to 48 nations. FIFA says 78 of 104 World Cup games will be played here in the U.S. The final will be July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
FIFA announced more details of the tournament Wednesday.
Proposed training sites in the areas of U.S. game venues are in Chester, Pennsylvania; Dallas, Fort Worth and Frisco, Texas; Kansas City and Riverside, Missouri, and Lawrence, Kansas; Marietta, Georgia; and St. Louis. There also are possible training camps in Guadalajara, Mexico City and Toluca, and Monterrey but none were listed in Canada. FIFA said more possible training camps will be added.
In addition, FIFA listed specific site matchups for games in the new round of 32, round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals, revealing the pathway through the knockout rounds for the host nations.
If the U.S. wins Group D, it would play its first knockout match at Santa Clara, California, on July 1. The winner of that game plays at Seattle on July 6, could be in a quarterfinal at Inglewood, California, on July 10 and a semifinal at Arlington, Texas, on July 14.
If the U.S. finishes second in its group, it would next play at Arlington on July 3. The winner of that game plays at Atlanta on July 7, could be in a quarterfinal at Kansas City on July 11 and a semifinal at Atlanta on July 15.
The Americans open at Inglewood on June 12, play seven days later at Seattle and finished the group stage at Inglewood on June 25.
If Mexico wins Group A, its knockout games en route to a final would be at Mexico City on June 30 and July 4, Miami Gardens on July 11 and Atlanta on July 15. If El Tri finishes second, its games route would be at Inglewood on June 28, Houston on July 4, Foxborough, Massachusetts, on July 9 and Arlington on July 14.
If Canada wins Group B, it would play in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 2 and then in Vancouver again on July 7 if it advances. A quarterfinal would be at Kansas City on July 11. If Canada finishes second, it could play at Inglewood, Houston and Foxborough.
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Royals Avoid Sweep, Beating Yankees 4-3
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Maikel Garcia hit a game-ending two run double off Yankees closer Clay Holmes, and the Kansas City Royals recovered after squandering a brilliant start by Alec Marsh to beat New York 4-3 on Thursday and avoid a four-game sweep.
Marsh took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning against the major league-best Yankees (49-22), who had outscored the Royals 25-8 in the first three games of the series. He allowed Juan Soto's leadoff single in that frame and then retired the next three batters to conclude his 96-pitch outing.
“I thought we had a good game plan going in,” Marsh said. “Me and (catcher) Freddy (Fermin) were on the same page all day. I just felt comfortable out there.
"Just watching what they did the last couple of days, I was sick and tired of it.”
Marsh struck out Aaron Judge three times.
“Mixing it up,” he said. “I tried to keep him off-balance. He's such a good hitter. He's looking for things in certain counts. I was trying to throw him things I don't normally throw in those counts.”
After Marsh's exit, New York went to work in the eighth against reliever John Schreiber. Anthony Rizzo homered to get the Yankees within 2-1. An error by second baseman Garrett Hampson set up Anthony Volpe's RBI grounder. Angel Zerpa came in and gave up Soto's go-ahead RBI single.
With one out in the ninth against Holmes (1-2), Drew Waters hit a grounder that went for an infield hit after Holmes and first baseman Rizzo were confused about who would field the ball. After a fielder's choice, Kyle Isbel singled to bring up Garcia, who hit a liner down the left-field line to score MJ Melendez from third and Isbel from first.
It was the fourth blown save in 23 chances for Holmes.
“I couldn't be more proud of those guys,” Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro said. “You're down. That's a really good club with an elite closer coming in. We've talked so much about it, but I never get tired of bragging about it. The way they hustle, the way they never quit, it's inspiring for me to come to work every day to be around these guys.”
Quatraro missed the rally after being ejected in the sixth inning. After the game, Marsh said Quatraro told him he didn't even know he had a no-hitter going, and Marsh responded, “Don't get tossed next time.”
James McArthur (3-3) worked a scoreless ninth for Kansas City, which snapped a four-game skid and is second in the AL Central. The Royals finished 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
Bobby Witt Jr. extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games with a fourth-inning single and came in to score on Vinnie Pasquantino's two-run double off the wall in left-center. That gave the Royals their first lead in the series.
The Royals threatened again in the sixth. Witt led off with a single, but was caught stealing on a pickoff throw by Cortes. Quatraro was ejected after arguing that Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres blocked Witt's path to the bag.
TRANSACTIONS
The Royals recalled LHP Anthony Veneziano from Triple-A Omaha and optioned LHP Daniel Lynch to Omaha.
UP NEXT
The Royals head to Los Angeles for a three-game series against the Dodgers. LHP Cole Ragans (4-4, 3.08 ERA) will get the start for Kansas City against RHP Gavin Stone (7-2, 2.93 ERA).
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