Attorney General Sues Pfizer; Alleges Company Misled Kansans About COVID-19 Vaccine
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR/KNS) - Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has filed a civil lawsuit against Pfizer, alleging the pharmaceutical company misled consumers about the safety and efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine. During a news conference in Topeka today (MON), Kobach said Pfizer promoted its coronavirus vaccine as being safe for pregnant women even though the company's own data suggested otherwise. "In February of 2021, Pfizer possessed reports for 458 pregnant women who received Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy. More than half of the pregnant women reported an adverse event and more than 10% reported a miscarriage - many within days of the vaccination," he said. Kobach said Pfizer also misled the public about negative cardiac side effects of its vaccine in young men.
UPDATE: Pfizer released a statement following Kobach's press conference announcing his lawsuit. In part, Pfizer's statement reads:
“We are proud to have developed the COVID-19 vaccine in record time in the midst of a global pandemic and saved countless lives. The representations made by Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine have been accurate and science-based. The company believes that the state’s case has no merit and will respond to the suit in due course. Since its initial authorization by FDA in December 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to more than 1.5 billion people, demonstrated a favorable safety profile in all age groups, and helped protect against severe COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization and death."
(-Additional Reporting-)
Kansas A-G Files Suit Against Pfizer; Says Company Mislead Kansans About Safety of Vaccine
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) – Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is suing Pfizer, alleging that the company knowingly made false claims about its COVID-19 vaccine. Kobach announced the lawsuit at a press conference in Topeka. “Pfizer made multiple misleading statements to deceive the public about its vaccine at a time when Americans needed the truth,” Kobach said. According to the complaint, filed Monday in Thomas County District Court, Pfizer misled Kansans about the vaccines’ risks, including to pregnant women and for the risk of myocarditis. Additionally, Pfizer claimed its vaccine protected against COVID variants, despite company data showing otherwise. The pharmaceutical giant also suggested its vaccine prevented COVID transmission, but later admitted it had never studied whether its vaccine actually stopped transmission.
The complaint also alleges that Pfizer coordinated with social media officials to censor speech critical of COVID-19 vaccines and declined to participate in the federal government’s vaccine development program, Operation Warp Speed, to avoid government oversight.
UPDATE: Pfizer released a statement following Kobach's press conference announcing his lawsuit. In part, Pfizer's statement reads:
“We are proud to have developed the COVID-19 vaccine in record time in the midst of a global pandemic and saved countless lives. The representations made by Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine have been accurate and science-based. The company believes that the state’s case has no merit and will respond to the suit in due course. Since its initial authorization by FDA in December 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to more than 1.5 billion people, demonstrated a favorable safety profile in all age groups, and helped protect against severe COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization and death."
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Public Hearings on Kansas Water Plan Underway
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) - Starting Monday, state officials are holding a series of public meetings across the state to gather input on water priorities. Governor Laura Kelly created a sub-cabinet of nearly 20 different agencies to implement the Kansas Water Plan. "I have made it one of my highest priorities for my second term that by the time I walk out the door, we will have in place a sustainable water plan - one that will ensure both quantity and quality of water for generations to come," she said. The first public hearing on water priorities takes place Monday evening in Colby. Other meetings are scheduled this week in Dodge City and Chanute. And meetings will be held later this month in Wichita, Salina and Lawrence.
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Governor Celebrates Juneteenth at Kansas Statehouse
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) — Governor Laura Kelly joined the Kansas African American Affairs Commission Monday to celebrate Juneteenth at the Statehouse. This marks the first year Juneteenth is observed as a state holiday. “Juneteenth is a time to celebrate the progress we have made and acknowledge the ongoing struggles for racial equality,” Kelly said. The governor designated Juneteenth a state holiday in October 2023 and has issued proclamations recognizing Juneteenth every year since 2020. In observance of the holiday, Wednesday, Executive Branch state offices will be closed. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day the last enslaved Americans received word that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation to abolish slavery. Slaves in Texas received news about their freedom more than two months after the Civil War had ended.
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Special Session Begins Tuesday in Topeka
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) - Kansas lawmakers return to Topeka Tuesday morning for the start of a special legislative session. At least two items are on the agenda: cutting taxes and considering a plan to lure the Kansas City Chiefs and / or the Royals to relocate to the Sunflower State. Tuesday's special session begins at 9 a.m.
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Kansas Lawmakers Set to Vote on Tax Bills and More as Special Session Set to Convene
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas lawmakers could vote as early as Tuesday on a bill that would cut state taxes on income, property and social security benefits. The Kansas News Service reports that it’s the first tax-cutting proposal this year that the governor and leaders from both chambers have endorsed. The bill would increase the state tax exemption on residential property. It would also combine the state’s three income tax brackets into two and lower the rates. Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins says his party will continue to seek more property tax relief next year. “As far as the income tax side, this particular bill will take care of that for a good length of time,” he stated. Lawmakers will vote on the latest tax bill during what’s expected to be a brief special session. They’re also expected to vote on a bill aimed at attracting the Chiefs or Royals to Kansas.
Kansas Lawmakers to Debate Whether Wooing the Chiefs with New Stadium Is Worth the Cost
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators trying to lure the Kansas City Chiefs to their state argue that helping the Super Bowl champions build a new stadium could bring Kansas millions of dollars in income taxes from players and coaches, which are currently going to Missouri.
Some economists are dubious that new revenues from “jock taxes” would be significant for Kansas, and a debate over the question emerged ahead of a special session of the Kansas Legislature set to convene Tuesday. Lawmakers expect to consider a plan to authorize state bonds to help the Chiefs and professional baseball's Kansas City Royals finance new stadiums on the Kansas side of their metropolitan area, which is split by the border with Missouri.
Professional athletes and touring entertainers pay income taxes not only in their home states but also other states where they perform, if those states impose income taxes. For athletes, Kansas taxes a percentage of their income based on how many games they play in the state — so that if a visiting minor-league infielder has 12 of his team's 120 games each season in Wichita, 10% of their income is taxed.
Economists who've studied pro sports teams for decades have concluded that subsidizing their stadiums isn't worth the cost for their communities. But supporters of bringing the Chiefs and Royals to Kansas believe that skepticism doesn't properly consider taxes from the large incomes of the best professional players.
“The amount of dollars that come in from the income tax side offset a good portion of some of the things that we're doing here,” said Kansas state Sen. J.R. Claeys, a Republican from central Kansas who is working on the stadium plan.
Kansas already collects some income taxes from professional athletes, though the state Department of Revenue does not have figures. The state is home to NASCAR's Kansas Speedway, professional soccer's Sporting KC and several minor league baseball and hockey teams.
Missouri is home for the Chiefs, the Royals, Major League Baseball's St. Louis Cardinals and the National Hockey League's St. Louis Blues, plus two minor-league baseball teams.
Missouri has collected nearly $34 million in income taxes from professional athletes during the current budget year that began July 1, up 9% from the $31 million collected the previous year, according to the state. However, during the current budget year, when the Chiefs won their third Super Bowl in five years, taxes from football players jumped 39% from about $14 million to $19 million.
It's not clear how much of Missouri's revenue would come to Kansas if its lawmakers succeed in attracting the Chiefs, the Royals or both.
Geoffrey Propheter, an associate professor of public affairs at the University of Colorado Denver who regularly publishes papers on sports economics, predicted that the figure for the Chiefs would be “trivial,” only a few million dollars, even if they also moved practice facilities to Kansas.
He also said lawmakers should consider additional issues that come with a new stadium, such as traffic congestion, light pollution and how rising property values make housing less affordable to local residents.
“On the Kansas side of the river, they get access to the team without paying the cost,” he said. “That’s a fantastic situation to be in.”
Others' figures for potential new income tax revenues are millions of dollars higher.
One potential issue is whether Kansas's rule could withstand a court challenge. Edward Zelinsky, a professor at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law in New York City, said such rules unfairly over-tax athletes.
A tax law specialist, he’s familiar with how states tax visiting athletes. In the 1990s, Zelinsky challenged a New York rule like Kansas’s because New York taxed all of his income even though he works mostly from home in Connecticut. He lost, but in 2015, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that visiting athletes must be taxed based on how many total work days they spend in the state — in that case, two out of 157 — instead of the games played there, a larger percentage.
Zelinsky said stadium advocates can argue that being able to tax athletes' incomes is an advantage, but it doesn't drive the economics surrounding a venue.
“It’ll be a nice chunk of change, but I wouldn’t use this to control the debate,” Zelinsky said.
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Johnson County Leaders Pledge Money to Prep for 2026 World Cup
JOHNSON COUNTY, KAN. (JoCo Post) – Johnson County leaders last week began chipping in money to help prepare for the 2026 World Cup. The Johnson County Post reports that the Johnson County commission has pledged at least $1.5 million to go towards organizing efforts for the global soccer tournament. Kansas City is set to host six World Cup matches — including a quarterfinal — starting in June 2026. It’s expected to be the biggest sporting event in the region’s history. The area will need to provide 55,000 hotel rooms, a third of which will be on the Kansas side. Johnson County’s initial spending is likely just a drop in the bucket of what the final tab will be, and that has some concerned. Two commissioners voted against the move, pointing to the county’s already-tightening budget. Some advocates also questioned why Johnson County was earmarking funds that could be used for things like affordable housing.
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Number of Uncontested Races for Kansas Legislature Drops
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - This year's legislative races should be more competitive in Kansas. That's because there are fewer uncontested races. Elections for the Kansas House and Senate are in November. But a quarter of the state Legislature essentially won their seats five months early when nobody filed to run against them. Still, the number of uncontested races is declining, in part because more Democrats decided to run in 2024. Kansas Democratic Party Chair Jeanna Repass says the party will compete in 92 state House contests, a dozen more than last cycle. “It was putting full effort into it. I legitimately spent the weekend calling candidates right up to the filing deadline.” Republican leaders in Kansas expect to net two legislative seats overall in 2024.
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Missouri Man Accused of Killing Wife on Kansas Camping Trip
MIAMI COUNTY, Kan. (KAKE) - A Missouri man is accused of killing his wife during a camping trip in northeast Kansas. Authorities arrested 23-year-old Gavino McJunkins-Macias, of Carthage, Missouri, for allegedly killing his wife, 24-year-old Kenia Lopez. Investigators with the Miami County Sheriff's Office believe the woman was killed in rural Louisburg, Kansas, and then her body was transporated to Carthage, Missouri. KAKE TV reports that the suspect is currently being held at the jail in Jasper County, Missouri.
An online fundraiser has been started to help with funeral expenses for Lopez. The fundraiser says: "On June 13, 2024, one of my best friends passed away due to homicide. Kenia was raising not only her 2 babies, but her 3 siblings as well. At this time, I know that her family will be needing a lot of support, and support for the funeral expenses."
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Garden City Explosion Injures One
GARDEN CITY, Kan. (KWCH) - Authorities in Garden City are investigating a house explosion in which one person was injured. KWCH TV reports that the house was significantly damaged and a person inside the home was hospitalized. The cause of the blast and fire remains unknown. The Kansas State Fire Marshal will assist in the investigation.
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Plane Crash Lands in Olathe; Occupants Unhurt
OLATHE, Kan. (KCTV) - The Kansas Highway Patrol is investigating a small plane crash in Olathe. The plane went down Saturday afternoon at the New Century AirCenter. KCTV reports that two people were on board -- the pilot and the co-pilot. Neither were injured.
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Kansas Gas Service Seeks Rate Hike
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - The largest natural gas public utility in Kansas wants to hike its rates, but customers are pushing back. Kansas Gas Service wants to increase typical residential bills between 6 and 10 dollars a month. For many households, that would mean a 10% hike. Upset customers objected at a public hearing last week. One retiree who didn’t give his name said he’s trying to survive on a fixed income - yet all his bills keep going up. “The water bill. The electric bill. The food bill. Outrageous," he said. Kansas Gas will need to win over the Kansas Corporation Commission in the coming months. It says it has invested more than $600 million since 2019 to improve its services in Kansas. And current rates don’t reflect all of that. The Kansas Corporation Commission, is taking public input on the rate hike request through early August.
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Canola Making a Comeback in Western Kansas
LIBERAL, Kan. (KNS) – After nearly disappearing in western Kansas, canola is making a comeback. The Kansas News Service reports that a decommissioned sunflower crushing plant in Goodland, Kansas has been brought back to life shifting to process canola and soybeans. The crop is best used in rotation with winter wheat in western Kansas because it can extract soil moisture and nutrients from deeper depths. Kansas State University southwest area agronomist Logan Simon says another motive to add canola is that it benefits insects more than corn and sorghum, adding that “...canola really is one of those crops that we can grow that really supports a robust pollinator community, so it’s just humming with life.” The crop has good potential for drier places like southwest Kansas, giving farmers more options going forward.
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Group Seeks Provisions in Farm Bill for Abatement of "Forever Chemicals"
UNDATED (HPM) – A group worried about “forever chemicals” contaminating farmland wants to see money put into the Farm Bill. Harvest Public Media reports that the provision would support farmers whose land is affected by PFAS contamination. The U.S. Senate’s draft version of the Farm Bill includes a fund to help farmers recover from PFAS contamination. Two years ago, the state of Michigan shut down a farmer who used fertilizer tainted with PFAS, leaving the century farm on the brink of bankruptcy. In Maine, the state set up a fund to help more than 70 farms with contaminated land. Sarah Alexander leads the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and wants to see a 500-million-dollar federal fund. “We're hopeful that having a safety net in place will allow states to start being a little more proactive,” she said. The current Farm Bill expires in September.
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Former Lawmaker Mark Samsel Has Law License Suspended After Assaulting Student in 2021
UNDATED (KNS) – The Kansas Supreme Court has suspended the law license of former lawmaker Mark Samsel three years after he was seen on video assaulting a student while substitute teaching. The Kansas News Service reports that back in 2021, cell phone footage showed former Kansas state Representative Mark Samsel kicking a student in the groin, and grabbing another student during an outburst. Samsel was charged with three counts of disorderly conduct. Samsel and the Office of the Disciplinary Administrator recommended a one year suspension of Samsel’s law license. Supreme Court justices decided that a two year suspension would be more appropriate. The Court says Samsel’s mental health was a contributing factor to the incident.
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BNSF Railway Ordered to Pay Millions to Swinomish Tribe in Washington State
SEATTLE (AP) — BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ordered Monday after finding that the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe's reservation.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik initially ruled last year that the the railway deliberately violated the terms of a 1991 easement with the Swinomish Tribe north of Seattle that allows trains to carry no more than 25 cars per day. The judge held a trial early this month to determine how much in profits BNSF made through trespassing and how much it should be required to disgorge.
The tribe sued in 2015 after BNSF dramatically increased, without the tribe’s consent, the number of cars it was running across the reservation so that it could ship crude oil from the Bakken Formation in and around North Dakota to a nearby facility. The route crosses sensitive marine ecosystems along the coast, over water that connects with the Salish Sea, where the tribe has treaty-protected rights to fish.
Bakken oil is easier to refine into the fuels sold at the gas pump and ignites more easily. After train cars carrying Bakken crude oil exploded in Alabama, North Dakota and Quebec, a federal agency warned in 2014 that the oil has a higher degree of volatility than other crudes in the U.S.
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A Woman May Be Freed After Serving 43 Years for a Grisly Murder. Was a Police Officer the Real Killer?
UNDATED (AP) – A Missouri woman has spent 43 years in prison for a grisly 1980 murder that her lawyers say was actually committed by a police officer with ties to the murder scene.
Now, Sandra Hemme is waiting to learn if she’ll regain her freedom, after a judge overturned her conviction last week. He ruled Hemme was in a “malleable mental state” when investigators questioned her in a psychiatric hospital under heavy medication, and that prosecutors withheld evidence about the discredited officer, who died in 2015.
Hemme’s legal team at the Innocence Project say this is the longest time a woman has been incarcerated for a wrongful conviction. The family is ecstatic. “We just can’t wait to get her home,” Hemme’s sister, Joyce Ann Kays, said Monday.
Here are some things to know about the case.
What are the key points?
Judge Ryan Horsman ruled late Friday that attorneys for Hemme had established evidence of actual innocence and that she must be freed within 30 days unless prosecutors retry her.
Hemme was a psychiatric patient when she incriminated herself in the death of 31-year-old library worker Patricia Jeschke. Hemme is now 64 years old and is incarcerated at a women's prison northeast of Kansas City.
Hemme’s attorneys have filed a motion seeking her immediate release.
What happens next?
County prosecutors have 30 days to determine whether to dismiss the charges or try her again. The Missouri attorney general’s office can also decide to get involved, Karen Pojmann, communications director for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said in an email.
In the past, exonerated people have been released if there are no plans to appeal the decision or re-try the case, and the Department of Corrections gets that in writing from all the parties involved, Pojmann said.
The Buchanan County prosecutor and a spokesperson for the state attorney general’s office didn’t immediately return phone and email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
What happened in 1980?
It started on November 13 of that year, when Jeschke missed work. Her worried mother climbed through a window at her apartment and discovered her daughter’s nude body on the floor, surrounded by blood. Her hands were tied behind her back with a telephone cord and a pair of pantyhose wrapped around her throat. A knife was under her head.
The brutal killing grabbed headlines, with detectives working 12-hour days to solve it. But Hemme wasn’t on their radar until she showed up nearly two weeks later at the home of a nurse who once treated her, carrying a knife and refusing to leave.
Police found her in a closet, and took her back to St. Joseph’s Hospital — the latest in a string of hospitalizations that began when she started hearing voices at age 12.
She had been discharged from that very hospital the day before Jeschke’s body was found, showing up at her parents house later that night after hitchhiking more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) across the state. The timing seemed suspicious to law enforcement.
What are the concerns about the interrogation?
As the questioning began, Hemme was being treated with antipsychotic drugs that had triggered involuntary muscle spasms. She complained her eyes were rolling back in her head, the petition said.
Detectives noted Hemme seemed “mentally confused” and not fully able to comprehend their questions. She offered what her attorneys described as “wildly contradictory” statements, at one point blaming the murder on a man who couldn't have been the killer because he was at an alcohol treatment center in another city at the time.
Ultimately, she pleaded guilty to capital murder in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table. That plea was later thrown out on appeal. But she was convicted again in 1985 after a one-day trial in which jurors weren’t told about what her current attorneys describe as “grotesquely coercive” interrogations.
Who do Hemme's lawyers say is the real killer?
Her attorneys argue that evidence was suppressed implicating Michael Holman, a police officer at the time in St. Joseph, a city on a bend in the Missouri River roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Kansas City.
About a month after the killing, Holman was arrested for falsely reporting his pickup truck stolen and collecting an insurance payout. The same truck had been spotted near the crime scene, and his alibi that he spent the night with a woman at a nearby motel couldn’t be confirmed.
Furthermore, he had tried to use Jeschke’s credit card at a camera store in Kansas City, Missouri, on the same day her body was found. Holman, who was ultimately fired, said he found the card in a purse in a ditch.
During a search of Holman’s home, police found a pair of gold horseshoe-shaped earrings in a closet, along with jewelry stolen from another woman during a burglary earlier that year.
Jeschke’s father said he recognized the earrings as a pair he bought for his daughter. But then the four-day investigation into Holman ended abruptly, and many of these uncovered details were never given to Hemme’s attorneys.
Why did the judge decide to free Hemme?
Horsman found her trial counsel was ineffective and prosecutors failed to disclose crucial evidence that would have aided in her defense, including Holman’s criminal conduct.
The only evidence tying Hemme to the killing was her “unreliable statements,” Horsman wrote, and her psychiatric condition was “fertile ground for her to also internalize, or come to believe, the apparently false narratives she told.”
He said her statements were also contradicted by physical evidence and accounts of reliable, independent witnesses. The judge said outside factors like media coverage and police suggestion “substantially undermine the prosecutor’s argument that Ms. Hemme’s statements contain details that only the killer could know.”
There was, however, evidence that "directly ties Holman to this crime and murder scene,” he wrote
Were other mentally ill patients questioned like this?
Lawyers at the Innocence Project say Hemme wasn't the first mentally ill person targeted by detectives in St. Joseph. Melvin Lee Reynolds, who also spent time at St. Joseph’s State Hospital, falsely confessed to the 1978 killing of a 4-year-old boy following repeated interrogations.
He was exonerated and freed in 1983, when a self-proclaimed serial killer, Charles Hatcher, pleaded guilty to the murder.
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