UPDATE: Tax Cuts Pass in Kansas Legislature
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – After nearly six months of on-and-off debate, Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday passed tax cuts amounting to nearly $400 million per year, and the governor says she will sign it. The Kansas News Service reports that the bill would combine the state’s three income tax brackets into two and lower the rates. It would also eliminate taxes on social security benefits. The bill lowers state property tax rates. Republican Representative William Clifford of Garden City voted for it, but argued that it does not cut property taxes enough, saying “...at worst, we are forcing seniors out of their homes, closing small businesses and strangling our producers’ ability to feed the world.” Tax cuts were a top priority for lawmakers during the special session because the state has a nearly $4 billion surplus.
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UPDATE: Kansas Lawmakers Approve a Plan to Lure Pro Sports Teams from Missouri by Helping to Finance New Stadiums
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators approved a plan Tuesday aimed at luring the Kansas City Chiefs away from Missouri by helping to finance a new stadium for the Super Bowl champions.
The bill passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and sent to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly would allow Kansas to issue bonds to cover up to 70% of the costs of a new stadium in the state for the Chiefs and another for Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals.
The state would pay off its bonds over 30 years with revenues from sports betting, Kansas Lottery ticket sales and new sales and alcohol taxes collected from shopping and entertainment districts around the sites for the new stadiums.
Kelly has not said whether she will sign the bill. But her chief of staff told lawmakers Monday that she had seen nothing in the version that passed that would make her veto it.
Kansas legislators see the two teams as in play because in April, voters on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area refused to extend a sales tax used to keep up the teams’ existing stadiums, which sit side by side.
(–Earlier version from the AP–)
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators cleared the way Tuesday for a debate on trying to lure the Kansas City Chiefs from Missouri by approving broad tax cuts that many lawmakers said they needed to see before considering a plan to help the Super Bowl champions finance a new stadium.
The Legislature took up the stadium proposal during a special session that convened Tuesday amid heavy lobbying for the plan. The measure would allow the state to issue bonds to help the Chiefs and Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals finance new stadiums on the Kansas side of their metropolitan area, which is split by the border with Missouri.
But top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature promised that the stadium proposal wouldn't be debated until the Legislature approved a plan that would cut income and property taxes by a total of $1.23 billion over the next three years. Many lawmakers argued that voters would be angry if the state helped finance new stadiums without cutting taxes.
“We definitely need to demonstrate that we’re getting relief to our citizens,” said Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican who backed the stadium-financing plan.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly called the special session to have lawmakers consider reducing taxes after she vetoed three tax-cutting plans before legislators adjourned their regular annual session May 1. The plan lawmakers approved was a compromise between her and Republican leaders.
Legislators made no changes in the plan before passing it, 34-4 in the Senate and 121-2 in the House. Kelly pledged to sign the measure into law.
Once legislators convened the special session, Kelly couldn't control what they considered, and that created an opening to consider the stadium-financing plan. That measure would use revenues from sports betting, the state lottery and new taxes raised from the area around each new stadium to pay off the state's bonds over 30 years.
The first version of the stadium-financing plan emerged in late April, but lawmakers didn't vote on it before adjourning. It would have allowed state bonds to finance all stadium construction costs, but the version to be considered by lawmakers Tuesday would cap the amount at 70% and require legislative leaders and the governor to sign off on any bonding plan.
House Commerce Committee Chair Sean Tarwater, a Kansas City-area Republican, said the Chiefs are likely to spend between $500 million and $700 million in private funds on a new stadium.
“There are no blank checks,” Tarwater told GOP colleagues during a briefing on the plan before the House began debating it.
A new nonprofit group, Scoop and Score, formed last month to push for bringing the Chiefs to Kansas, and that group and the Royals together hired more than 30 lobbyists for the special session. But the national free-market, small-government group Americans for Prosperity and the Kansas Policy Institute, a free-market think tank, oppose the measure, and both have been influential with conservative Republicans.
Free-market conservatives have long opposed state and local subsidies for specific businesses or projects. And economists who’ve studied pro sports teams have concluded in dozens of studies over decades that subsidizing their stadiums isn’t worth the cost.
“Most of the money that gets spent on the Chiefs is money that would otherwise be spent on other entertainment projects,” said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College in central Massachusetts who has written multiple books about sports.
Kansas legislators consider the Chiefs and Royals in play because in April, voters on the Missouri side of the metro area refused to continue a local sales tax for the upkeep of the complex with their side-by-side stadiums. Missouri officials have said they'll do whatever it takes to keep the teams but haven't outlined any proposals.
The two teams' lease on their stadium complex runs through January 2031, but Korb Maxwell, an attorney for the Chiefs who lives on the Kansas side, said renovations on the team's Arrowhead Stadium should be planned seven or eight years in advance.
“There is an urgency to this,” added David Frantz, the Royals’ general counsel.
Supporters of the stadium plan argued that economists' past research doesn't apply to the Chiefs and Royals. They said the bonds will be paid off with tax revenues that aren't being generated now and would never be without the stadiums or the development around them. Masterson said it's wrong to call the bonds a subsidy.
And Maxwell said: “For a town to be major league, they need major league teams.”
But economists who've studied pro sports said similar arguments have been a staple of past debates over paying for new stadiums. Development around a new stadium lessens development elsewhere, where the tax dollars generated would go to fund services or schools, they said.
“It could still help Kansas and maybe hurt Missouri by the same amount,” Zimbalist said. "It’s a zero-sum game.”
(–Additional reporting–)
Kansas House Approves Tax Incentive Package to Woo Chiefs and Royals
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas House lawmakers Tuesday approved a tax incentive package aimed at bringing the Kansas City Chiefs or Royals to the state. The debate over the proposed tax incentives, called STAR Bonds, defied normal partisan divides. Republican leadership says the plan would boost the state’s economy. But conservative Representative Brian Bergkamp worries the NFL has liberal values that don’t align with Kansans, saying “...sometimes when you're doing business with somebody you just want to make sure that you align with them across the board.” The House passed the bill, with a Senate vote expected before lawmakers end the special session that started Tuesday morning.
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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. (Read more.)
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Heat-Related Emergency Room Visits on the Rise in Kansas as Heat Settles over Region
UNDATED (KNS) – Kansas health department data shows emergency department visits for heat-related illnesses have increased in the past week, nearing 20 per day statewide. The Kansas News Service reports that experts say most Kansans will see hot and humid weather continue this week and into next, with heat index readings approaching 100 this weekend. John Woynick with the National Weather Service in Topeka says daily highs are around 10 degrees above average for June. Woynick advises that “...the main thing is just to remain hydrated, limit your time outside especially if you have to work outside, if you can get in a shady area or at least take frequent breaks from the heat.” The unhoused and people with certain heart and respiratory conditions are at greater risk of heat-related illness. Officials say pets also need access to cool shelter and water. The city of Lawrence is offering cooling sites at parks and rec centers. Residents can also ride air-conditioned Lawrence Transit buses.
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Blowing Dust, Crashes Close U.S. 56, I-70 in Western Kansas
ENSIGN, Kan. (KSNW) - Much of western Kansas was shut down on Monday because of blowing dust! U.S. Highway 56 and eastbound Interstate 70 were closed in western Kansas due to crashes, high winds and blowing dust. Many western Kansas counties were placed under a blowing dust advisory. KDOT closed eastbound I-70 between Wakeeney and Hays to allow for cleanup of vehicle crashes blocking the roadway. KSNW TV reports that the interstate was later reopened. Authorities say some roads in western Kansas had zero visibility because of blowing dust. For the latest information on road closures and conditions in Kansas, call 511.
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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 Monday, 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.
Pfizer later released a statement saying the state's case has no merit. The company also said representations made by Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine have been accurate and science-based and that its COVID-19 vaccine had been administered to more than 1.5 billion people.
(-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.
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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Investigators Discover Cause of Garden City House Explosion
GARDEN CITY, Kan. (KSNW) — A house explosion that injured a person in Garden City last weeked was caused by a natural gas leak. Investigators say the leak was isolated to the gas line inside the home and that the gas was ignited when the victim turned on the stove. KSNW TV reports that the State Fire Marshal and the Garden City Fire Department continue to investigate. Saturday night's explosion (in the 800 block of West Fair Street) caused significant damage to the home and even caused minor damage to a nearby elementary school.
Black Hills Energy encourages customers to remember the following safety tips:
- If you smell natural gas, leave the building or area immediately and tell others to leave, too.
- After you’re safely away from the area, call 911 and our emergency number at 888-890-5554.
- Never assume someone else has reported a natural gas leak.
- Alert your neighbors.
- Do not turn on lights, ignite a flame, use a cell phone, or use anything that might cause a spark, including a flashlight or a generator.
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Kansas Woman Wins Big on "The Price is Right"
WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - A Kansas woman had to keep a victory to herself for about three months. With the moment finally televised, the secret is out. Kansas native Gracen Truskett was a big winner on “The Price is Right.” The episode on which Truskett appeared aired Monday. She joined her family for a watch party to recapture the moments she was told to “Come on down.” KWCH TV reports that Truskett was on a Spring Break trip to California with a group of friends when they decided to attend a taping of the popular daytime game show. She won $1,000, some Coach purses, a hot tub, a car, a jukebox, a record player, a couch, and a trip to Nashville. Truskett had to keep her big win from being public knowledge until after the show aired on Monday, June 17.
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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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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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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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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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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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Missouri Attorney General Says 'Not so Fast' on Freeing Woman Jailed for 43 Years in 1980 Killing
UNDATED (AP) – Missouri's top prosecutor asked a court Tuesday to put the brakes on releasing a woman from prison in a 1980 killing that her attorneys allege was committed by a now-discredited police officer.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey also said his office will ask the state appeals court to review a judge’s ruling last week that found Sandra Hemme’s attorneys had established evidence of actual innocence. In that decision, Judge Ryan Horsman wrote that Hemme, who has been imprisoned for 43 years for the murder of library worker Patricia Jeschke, must be freed within 30 days unless prosecutors retry her.
Hemme’s legal team at The Innocence Project says she is the longest-known wrongly incarcerated woman in the U.S. They have asked that she be released immediately, saying she poses no danger.
“Ms. Hemme is a sixty-four year old woman whose family is desperate to reunite with her,” her attorneys said in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday. “She is entitled to be released pending further proceedings and we will continue to fight until she is home.”
But Bailey’s office argued in its motion Tuesday that Hemme has made statements about enjoying violence and that she attacked a prison worker with a razor blade. Hemme pleaded guilty in that attack in 1996.
Horsman found that she was in a “malleable mental state” and under heavy medication when investigators questioned her in a psychiatric hospital about Jeschke's death. The judge also found that prosecutors withheld evidence about Michael Holman, the discredited St. Joseph police officer who was investigated for insurance fraud and burglaries. He later went to prison and died in 2015.
It started on Nov. 13, 1980, when Jeschke, 31, missed work. Her worried mother climbed through a window at her St. Joseph 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. A pair of pantyhose was wrapped around her throat. A knife was under her head.
Hemme wasn’t on the radar of police 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 took her back to St. Joseph’s Hospital, the latest in a string of hospitalizations that began when she started hearing voices at the age of 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) to Concordia.
The timing seemed suspicious to law enforcement. As the interrogations began, Hemme was being treated with antipsychotic drugs that triggered involuntary muscle spasms. She complained that her eyes were rolling back in her head, her attorneys wrote in a petition seeking her release.
Detectives noted that Hemme seemed “mentally confused” and not fully able to comprehend their questions.
At one point she blamed the killing on a man whom she met in a detoxification unit. But prosecutors dropped their case against him upon learning he was at an alcohol treatment center in Topeka, Kansas, at the time of the killing.
Ultimately, she pleaded guilty to capital murder in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table. That plea was 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.
Horsman found the only evidence tying Hemme to the killing was her “unreliable statements.” There was, however, evidence that “directly ties Holman to this crime and murder scene,” he wrote.
A pickup truck that Holman falsely reported stolen was spotted near the crime scene, and the officer’s 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 ultimately was fired, said he found the card in a purse that had been discarded in a ditch.
During a search of Holman’s home, police found a pair of gold horseshoe-shaped earrings that Jeschke’s father said he had bought for his daughter.
But then the four-day investigation into Holman’s role in the killing ended abruptly, and many of the details were never given to Hemme’s attorneys.
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