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Headlines for Tuesday, August 11, 2020

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Kansas Governor Skeptical of Trump Plan to Extend Benefits

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A spokeswoman says Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration is reviewing President Donald Trump’s plan to extend supplemental unemployment benefits but is waiting for more details. A program providing an additional $600 a week to workers left unemployed by the coronavirus pandemic expired July 31, and Congress hasn’t agreed on a bill including an extension. Trump announced a plan this weekend to provide an additional $400 a week in benefits but said states would have to cover 25% of the cost. Kelly spokeswoman Lauren Fitzgerald called Trump’s plan only “a broad memo” and questioned whether he can provide the extra benefits through an executive order. 

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Kansas Health Officials Say New COVID-19 Law Hurts Contact Tracing

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Some local health officials in Kansas are critical of a coronavirus law passed by lawmakers in June. The new law contains a “privacy act," which states that employers need to get consent from those who tested positive for COVID-19 and close contacts in order to share their information to public health agencies. The local health officials say that legislation hurts contact tracing efforts by making it easier for people infected with COVID-19 to refuse to cooperate with them. They say the law makes it difficult for public health agencies to identify people who have recently come into contact with those infected with the virus.

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Top Democrat in Kansas Senate Tests Negative for Coronavirus

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley says he has tested negative for coronavirus. The Topeka Democrat said Tuesday that he took the test Friday after learning that House Speaker and Olathe Republican Ron Ryckman Jr. tested positive and was hospitalized for about a week in July. Ryckman attended a Statehouse meeting with other legislative leaders on July 9, the day before he learned he might have the coronavirus. Ryckman also attended a Statehouse meeting with other top lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on July 29, after he’d left the hospital. Hensley attended both Statehouse meetings and said he was “genuinely concerned” that he might be infected. 

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Prosecutors Seek to Block Release of Beaten Girl's Records

BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors are seeking a court order blocking the Kansas child welfare agency from releasing more information about a 3-year-old girl whose battered body was found after her father reported her missing. The move comes despite a 2018 law that aimed to make information more transparent when a child dies. The Kansas Department for Children and Families released last month a “Child Fatality Summary” pertaining to Olivia Ann Jansen. Her father and his girlfriend are charged with felony murder and other crimes. The Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office filed motions Monday seeking an injunction prohibiting further release of the records, pending a hearing or court review. 

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Topeka Police: 2 Killed, 1 Injured in Fatal Shooting at Mobile Home Park

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Police say two people have been killed and another person injured in a shooting at a Topeka mobile home park. Police say officers were called to the mobile home park around 10:15 p.m. Monday for reports of a shooting and found three people with gunshot wounds. Police say one of the victims was declared dead at the scene. The two others were taken to a local hospital, where one of them later died. Police identified the victims as 35-year-old Angelo Epps and 19-year-old Calvin Coleman Jr.

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2-Year-Old Killed in Drive-By Shooting in St. Joseph

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — St. Joseph police say a 2-year-old child died and two adults, a man and a woman, were wounded in a drive-by shooting. Police say the shooting happened Sunday afternoon in midtown St. Joseph. The victim was a 2-year-old girl. KQTV reports the woman was hospitalized and is stable condition. The man was treated for his injuries and released. No names have been released and no information about a possible suspect was available. The investigation is continuing.

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Kansas City Police Respond to 6 Homicides over Weekend

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police in Kansas City responded to shootings that left six people dead Saturday and Sunday. Officers found a man with gunshot wounds in the parking lot of Tony Aguirre Community Center Sunday evening.  He later died at a hospital. Earlier Sunday, officers found a woman dead in a home near Ward Parkway and a man in his 20s shot to death in another home. And on Saturday, two men were found dead from gunshot wounds in the backyard of a home. Police said Monday that a fatal shooting Sunday in a parking lot of the Kansas City Zoo appeared to be accidental.

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Kansas Identifies Nearly 1,100 New Coronavirus Cases and 7 More Deaths Since Friday

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas health officials reported Monday that nearly 1,100 coronavirus cases and another seven COVID-19-related deaths had been identified in the state since Friday.  The Department of Health and Environment said it recorded 31,730 coronavirus virus cases since the pandemic reached Kansas in early March. That’s up 3.6% (or 1,092 cases) since Friday.  KDHE also reports there have been 387 COVID-19-related deaths in Kansas since March, an increase of 1.8% since Friday.  A new round of data will be released online Wednesday.

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GOP Leader Says Kansas Health Chief Misled Public on Masks

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Republican leader in the Kansas Legislature is accusing Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s top public health administrator of using a misleading presentation to bolster their argument for requiring people to wear masks in public. House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins's criticism Monday came as a debate raged over imposing mandates to get the coronavirus under control. Hawkins’s criticism of Dr. Lee Norman came after the CEO of a small-government, free-market think tank suggested that Norman had "doctored” a chart used in a news conference last week. Norman acknowledged that the chart might have caused confusion but said its central point that masks work remains valid. 

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Central Kansas Plant Will Produce COVID-19 Treatment Drug Now in Short Supply

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) - The Kansas City Business Journal reports that a central Kansas manufacturing facility will help fill demand for a key drug used to treat COVID-19 patients.  Remdesivir is an antiviral medication developed by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences.  The pharmaceutical company Pfizer says it has an agreement with Gilead Sciences to produce the drug at a plant in McPherson.  Pfizer’s McPherson plant specializes in producing injectable medications.  Remdesivir is an investigational drug that received emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of patients with COVID-19. The drug has shown promise, but a shortage of remdesivir has caused authorities to ration its distribution to hospitals, and forced hospitals to ration its use to only the most serious patients.  Pfizer will provide contract manufacturing of the drug as part of a multi-year agreement.  According to the San Francisco Business Times, the deal between Gilead and Pfizer comes as Gilead is under pressure from state attorneys general to ramp up production of remdesivir.  On August 4, 34 attorneys general, including Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, signed a letter asking federal officials to exercise “march-in” rights to help alleviate shortages of the drug and address the drug’s high price. March-in rights allow the government to take steps including requiring a patent holder to license a patent to a third party if it can’t hit a “reasonable price” or cannot meet health needs.  Gilead said the attorneys general letter contains inaccuracies and misunderstandings about how the drug is used.  ( Read more in the Kansas City Business Journal.) 

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Looking for Work?  Kansas Commerce Department Launching More Virtual Job Fairs

TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) – Kansas officials are gearing up for more statewide job fairs.  As concern for the health and safety of residents remains high due to the pandemic, the Kansas Department of Commerce says it will maintain the virtual aspect of its KANSASWORKS job fairs for the remainder of this year.  Statewide job fair events will take place on the following dates:

    August 25-27
    September 22-24
    October 27-29
    December 8-9

Further information will be provided as each date approaches.  Today (TUE), Kansas Governor Laura Kelly touted the third KANSASWORKS job fair held at the end of July.  The virtual job fair, held July 28-30, involved 189 employers and 1,182 jobseekers.  “COVID-19 has presented major challenges for workforce services in our state, but we must continue to do all we can to help people find employment opportunities,” Kelly said. “These virtual fairs are a great system to connect employers and jobseekers across the state so that we can get Kansas back to work, safely.”  ( Looking for a job right now? Check here.) 

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GOP, Rep. Marshall Likely to Stress Farm Ties in Senate Race

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans are likely to stress Kansas Rep. Roger Marshall’s service on the House Agriculture Committee as he runs for the Senate. He sometimes calls himself “the only candidate who can sort heifers from steers.” The two-term GOP congressman for western and central Kansas is treating his agriculture background as as a major asset in his race against Democrat nominee Barbara Bollier. They’re both doctors, but she grew up in the Kansas City suburbs, while he started life on a farm outside El Dorado. Marshall and Bollier are running for the seat currently held by retiring four-term GOP Sen. Pat Roberts. Roberts is Senate Agriculture Committee chairman.

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Body Found Sunday in Missouri River

SUGAR CREEK, Mo. (AP) — A body was found Sunday in the Missouri River in a small western Missouri city. The Sugar Creek Police Department was called to La Benite Park Sunday morning after someone reported finding a corpse in the river. Sugar Creek is about 15 miles northeast of Kansas City, Missouri. Police helped recover the body from the river. The victim’s identity and cause of death were not immediately released.

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Body Found in 1986 in Kansas Creek Was California Woman

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a beaten body found 34 years ago in a Kansas creek has been identified as a Los Angeles woman. Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan said Tuesday that the woman, long referred to as “Mrs. Molly,” was Robin Ann Green. She was last seen in December 1985 after visiting family members in Minnesota. Her body was found one month later in Mulberry Creek along Interstate 70. Her grave was exhumed last summer for DNA testing. Soldan said the case remains an open homicide investigation. Investigators don’t know how she came to Kansas.

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Reno County Sheriff's Office: 1 Dead After Fiery Crash in Hutchinson

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Authorities in south-central Kansas say one person has died in a fiery crash near Hutchinson.  KAKE TV reports the crash happened around 7 pm Sunday northwest of Hutchinson, along or near Kansas Highway 96. Reno County Sheriff's Captain Steve Lutz says a pickup truck caught fire after crashing, trapping a person inside the vehicle. Lutz says that person died at the scene. Officials have not released the victim's name or given other details of the crash, but say investigators believe excessive speed contributed to the fatality.

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Kansas Man Gets Life Sentence for 2018 Night Club Shooting

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 38-year-old man convicted of a 2018 fatal shooting outside a Wichita night club has been sentenced to life in prison. The Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office says Brandon Evans shot and killed 37-year-old Isaac Lewis of Wichita outside Daiquiri’s Club. A 28-year-old woman was shot in the arm. Evans was convicted last year of first-degree murder, aggravated battery and criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. Evans claimed at his sentencing Friday that he suffered from a mental disease. District Judge Eric Williams sentenced him to life with no parole eligibility until he serves more than 65 years.

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Kansas Sues to Block Wyandotte Nation's Plans for Casino

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has filed a lawsuit against top officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior seeking to block the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma from building a casino on land it owns in Park City. It is the latest legal twist in a decades-long dispute over the tribe’s legal authority on the 10-acre parcel. The federal lawsuit filed Monday is an effort to set aside a decision issued in May by the Interior Department that cleared the way for the project. That reversed an earlier decision from 2014 that had the tribe’s request to build the casino on the parcel it purchased on 1992.

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Missouri Town Divided by Move to Change High School Mascot

SAVANNAH, Mo. (AP) — A northwest Missouri town is debating whether to change its high school's “Savages” mascot name. The debate has split Savannah. The nearly all-white town has about 5,000 residents and is an hour north of Kansas City. “Savages” has been the mascot since at least 1926 and is emblazoned across the town. Racial inequality protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis prompted people to start a petition to change the mascot. That's led to a counter-petition to keep it. A large crowd nearly evenly split on the issue attended a Savannah school board meeting in July.  It's unclear if the board will take action.

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Native Mascots Still a Sticking Point in High School Sports

BOUNTIFUL, Utah (AP) — Advocates have made strides in getting controversial Native American symbols and names changed in sports, but they say more work needs to be done mainly, at the high school level. Momentum is building after a nationwide push for racial justice following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the NFL team in Washington dropping its Redskins name. At Bountiful High School in Utah, there’s deep nostalgia for the “Braves” name that’s been used for nearly 70 years. Fans say it’s an honor, but it’s not considered an honor by many Native Americans who see the same portrayals throughout high school, collegiate and professional sports.

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Skeletal Remains Found in Southeast Kansas

MCCUNE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the discovery of decomposed human remains in rural southeast Kansas. The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that someone found the remains Monday while out on a walk. The release said the identity of the person and the cause of death aren’t known. The sheriff’s office has asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to assist with the case.

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College Football Players Left in Limbo as Seasons Get Pushed

UNDATED (AP) — Kansas State University quarterback Skylar Thompson is like a lot of college football players these days. He desperately wants to play his senior season, whether that happens this fall or next spring. With some conferences calling off fall sports, Thompson says his real fear is not of a lost fall but of a lost season entirely.

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KPR's daily headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays and updated throughout the day. KPR's weekend summary is usually published by 1 pm Saturdays and Sundays.