Kansas Lawmakers Leave Pot, Tax, Budget Issues to 2nd Half
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are leaving their first big votes on the state's next annual budget, cutting income taxes and the medical use of marijuana to the second half of their annual session. The Senate hit the Legislature's annual “turnaround” deadline Thursday with a debate on 20 bills touching on a wide range of topics. The House completed its first-half work Wednesday. Most bills had to clear their chamber of origin Thursday to be considered further. But some big proposals didn't face the turnaround deadline, including tax cuts and legalizing medical marijuana and sports betting. Budget legislation also is exempt from the deadline.
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Medicaid Paid for 4 Abortions in Kansas Since January 2013
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State health department data shows Medicaid has paid for four abortions in Kansas since January 2013. The Kansas News Service reports information from the Kansas Department of Health says one Medicaid-funded abortion occurred in 2014 and three in 2018. Public funding spent a total of $1,030 on the abortions, with $454 paid by Kansas. The information comes as Republican legislative leaders are blocking expansion of Medicaid coverage in Kansas, in part out of fear it could increase publicly funded abortions. Other lawmakers say Medicaid expansion and abortion are not linked.
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House Report Faults Kansas Election Official in Dodge City
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Emails released as part of a congressional investigation into voter suppression show a Kansas county clerk being dismissive about the national outcry after Dodge City's lone polling site was moved outside the city limits. Ford County Clerk Debbie Cox called the move “a big mess” in an email to retired county clerk Sharon Seibel just weeks before the November 2018 election. Seibel replied that people “just need to get over themselves.” The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform examined the decision by Cox to move the site as part of a broader probe of voter suppression allegations that also included looking at irregularities in Georgia and Texas.
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Kansas Senate Approves Sports Betting Measure
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate approved a bill to legalize betting on sports events and allow online sales of lottery tickets. It passed with a vote of 23 to 15. The bill had faced criticism that it was too generous to companies already managing casinos for the state. The action comes less than month after the Kansas City Chiefs' victory in professional football's Super Bowl highlighted how many Kansas fans placed wagers on the team out of state or illegally. The measure now goes to the Kansas House.
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Kansas House Approves Bill to Address Missing Indigenous People
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers are looking to encourage training for law enforcement agencies to help address the high rates of murdered and missing indigenous people. The House approved a bill unanimously Wednesday that calls for closer collaboration between Native American tribes, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and other agencies. The measure goes next to the Senate. The Kansas City Star reports that supporters hope that educating state agencies more thoroughly will help reduce the level of crime in indigenous communities. The Urban Indian Health Institute says indigenous people are murdered and go missing at higher rates than any other racial identity.
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Kansas Senate Approves Bill to Allow On-Farm Raw Milk Sales
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The Kansas Senate has approved a bill that would allow on-the-farm sales of raw milk so long as farmers have a label on their containers stating that the product is unpasteurized. The vote Wednesday was 37-3 and sent the measure to the House. Kansas has allowed the sale of raw milk for decades, but a 1967 law prohibited farmers from advertising its sale outside their farms. A dairy farm successfully challenged the ban in court, and that led legislators initially to review a proposal to ban raw milks sales. The state Department of Agriculture instead favored a labeling requirement.
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Man Pleads Guilty to Attacking Leavenworth Police Officer
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Leavenworth (Kan.) Times) — A 36-year-old man has admitted to attacking a Leavenworth police officer. Anthony Dunkle pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony battery of a law enforcement officer, making a criminal threat and interference with a law enforcement officer. Prosecutors said Dunkle approached an officer who was sitting in a police car with the window down last April and began punching him. Dunkle apparently was angry with the officer over an earlier incident that led to his arrest. The officer had a cut on his face and scrapes on his hand after the confrontation.
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Man Who Fatally Shot Cousin While Showing Off Guns Sentenced
WICHITA, Kan. (The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle) — A Wichita man who accidentally shot and killed his cousin while showing off guns has been sentenced to three years in prison. Martin David Ruiz Jr. was sentenced Wednesday in the death of 24-year-old Anthony Martinez. He pleaded guilty in December to involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors said several people were drinking alcohol in the backyard of a home on June 30, 2018, when Ruiz took a gun out of a bag of weapons and it went off when he pulled back the slide, hitting Martinez. Prosecutors argued Ruiz was acting recklessly when he mixed alcohol with firearms.
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Kansas Man Charged in Sedalia Man's Death
SEDALIA, Mo. (KMIZ-TV) — A Kansas man is charged with second-degree murder in a shooting death during the weekend in Sedalia. Daniel Fernandez, of Kansas City, Kansas, is accused of killing Robert Fox Jr. on Saturday. Sedalia police say detectives established Fox owed money to someone in Kansas City, Kansas, stemming from illegal activity. On Saturday, Fox and others were inside a car when an altercation occurred and he was shot in the chest. He got out of the vehicle before it drove off and was found dead on the street. Fernandez also is charged with armed criminal action, second-degree kidnapping and unlawful use of a weapon.
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Man Shot by FBI Agent in Kansas City Has Died
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The FBI says a man who was shot by an agent in Kansas City has died. The agency said 35-year-old David William Irving was shot Wednesday afternoon at an apartment complex. Spokesman Dixon Land announced Thursday that Irving had died, but he did not say if he died at the scene or later. Land says the shooting occurred as a task force was serving an arrest warrant. He did not provide any other details. No law enforcement officers or bystanders were injured. The FBI's inspection division is investigating the shooting.
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FBI Agent Involved in Kansas City Shooting
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The FBI says an agent shot someone at a central Kansas City apartment building. The shooting occurred Wednesday afternoon but few details were released. Daniel Netemeyer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Kansas City, confirmed the shooting involved an agent. He would not comment on the condition of the person who was shot, or the circumstances leading to the shooting. He says the shooting will be investigated through FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. Kansas City police were on the scene at the Alcazar apartment building to help with the investigation.
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Hearing for Suspect in College Player's Death Rescheduled
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The suspect in the fatal shooting of a Kansas college football player and the wounding of current New York Giants cornerback Corey Ballentine will get a new competency hearing. A hearing to determine if Francisco Alejandro Mendez is competent to stand trial on first-degree murder charges was delayed Thursday after a doctor said Mendez had not been truthful or cooperated with his evaluation. After Mendez said he would cooperate, a new hearing was scheduled for March 9. Mendez faces 12 charges after the shooting last year that killed Dwane Simmons and wounded Corey Ballentine, just hours after Ballentine was drafted by the Giants.
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Court Sides with Family of Man Shot by Wichita Police
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) _ A federal appeals court has ruled that jurors should be allowed to decide whether a police officer in Kansas used excessive force nearly eight years ago when he fatally shot a man as he was lying face down in a parking lot. The Wichita Eagle reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit in Denver found Wednesday that a reasonable jury could conclude that by the time Wichita Officer Aaron Chaffee fired his final shots, Marquez Smart was on the ground with his arms stretched out. The decision reversed a 2018 ruling dismissing the suit.
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Kansas Murderer Dies on Same Day He Is Admitted to Prison
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas corrections officials say a man convicted of killing his roommate with a machete died on the same day he was admitted to prison. Sixty-year-old Timothy Russell Moses died Tuesday at the El Dorado Correctional Facility. Inmate records show he was admitted to the prison Tuesday. He was sentenced earlier this month to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder in Labette County. Prison spokeswoman Jarris Perkins says Moses's cause of death is being investigated. He was convicted of killing 59-year-old Donald Trammell with a machete at a Parsons home in 2017.
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Kansas Mobile Home Death Investigated as Homicide
MCPHERSON, Kan. (AP) — A McPherson woman is charged with first-degree murder and related charges in the death of a 63-year-old man. Attorney General Derek Schmidt said 33-year-old Tina Nicole Brown was charged Wednesday. Kelly Peterson was found dead Monday in his mobile home in McPherson. Brown was also charged with felony mistreatment of an elder person and a misdemeanor battery of a law enforcement officer. Her bond was set at $500,000. The attorney general's office is prosecuting the death at the request of the McPherson County Attorney.
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Missouri Mom Sues Police over Son's Shooting Death
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — The mother of a man fatally shot by police is suing the officers involved and police chiefs of two departments. Tamy Lorraine Lukecart alleges Independence and Sugar Creek officers used excessive force when they shot and killed 22-year-old Dakota Lukecart, of Lincoln, in January 2017. He was shot after a police chase, which stopped when Lukecart drove into a dead end. Police say the officers shot Lukecart after he accelerated the car toward the officers. In the lawsuit, Tamy Lukecart says the officers should have tried all reasonable means to stop her son before shooting him.
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Kansas Mother Sues After Kindergarten Teacher Caught on Tape Kicking her Child
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (The Kansas City Star) — A mother is suing a suburban Kansas City school after a teacher was caught on surveillance video kicking her then-kindergartner. The Kansas City Star reports that the lawsuit against the Shawnee Mission School District was filed last month and moved to federal court this week, nearly a year after the video of what happened at the Shawnee, Kansas, elementary school was released. The first-year teacher was fired after the incident but doesn't appear to have been charged. The girl's mother accuses the school district of negligence in its hiring, training and supervision of the teacher. She is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
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39 States, Including Kansas, Investigate Juul's Marketing
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A lecturer at Harvard Law School says an investigation by 39 states, including Kansas, leaves Juul Labs with little choice but to change its marketing practices. James Tierney said that “when you see these kinds of numbers, it means they’re in a world of hurt." Attorneys general from Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Texas say they will lead the multi-state investigation into San Francisco-based Juul. The company also is facing lawsuits from teenagers and others who say they became addicted to the company's vaping products. Juul says it has halted television, print and digital advertising and eliminated most flavors. Other states investigating include Kansas, Georgia, Michigan, South Carolina and Virginia.
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