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Headlines for Tuesday, July 12, 2022

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Authorities Arrest Teenager After Alleged Threats Made in Chapman

CHAPMAN, Kan. (KMAN) - KMAN Radio in Manhattan reports that a teenager has been arrested for allegedly making threats to kill people at a swimming pool in Chapman, Kansas.  Officials with the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office and the Chapman Police Department say a 17-year-old white male allegedly made threats Monday to kill individuals at the pool as well as the Chapman sports complex. Authorities say the teenager showed a small pistol in at least one of the videos he posted to Snapchat.

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No Punishment for Former Prison Employee in Alleged Assault

TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - A former prison employee faces no punishment for alleged sexual assault after Kansas Supreme Court justices decided not to take up his case. Tomas Co was charged with six counts of sexual harassment but convicted of just one. He worked at a dental lab in the Topeka Correctional Facility, a women’s prison. Prosecutors accused him of groping women and making inappropriate comments. An appeals court later overturned his conviction. The Supreme Court justices declining to take the case means that a lower court decision will stand and his conviction is thrown out. Co denies the allegations. The appeals court said that Co had touched the woman inappropriately, but the act did not meet the legal definition of unwanted sexual relations. He had been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

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Another U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Right to Record Police

DENVER (AP) — Another federal appeals court says people have a right protected by the First Amendment to film police while they work. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled Monday in the the case of a YouTube journalist and blogger who claimed that a suburban Denver officer blocked him from recording a 2019 traffic stop. Its ruling concurs with decisions made by six of the nation's other 12 appeals court. U.S. government lawyers intervened in the appeal to support the public's right to record police in the 10th Circuit, which oversees Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah as well as parts of Yellowstone National Park that lie in Idaho and Montana.

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California Man Caught with 2 Pounds of Cocaine Gets Probation in Douglas County

LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) - A California man arrested with nearly a kilogram of cocaine sewn into his coat has had his prison sentence suspended and reduced to probation in Douglas County District Court.  The man, 26-year-old Alejandro Marin Alfaro, of McFarland, California, was originally charged with a level-two felony drug distribution charge. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that he pleaded no contest to a less severe felony in March. Prosecutors say Alfaro was driving from California to Chicago and passed through Douglas County on the night of January 22, 2020.  He was pulled over by Lawrence Police for a dimly lit tag light and a cracked brake light. During the stop, police found nearly a kilogram of cocaine sewn into his coat.  On Friday, judge Sally Pokorny sentenced him to 16 months of prison but suspended the sentence and reduced it to 18 months of probation.  His probation will be transferred to California. ( Read more.)

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Catholic Church Vandalized in Overland Park Ahead of Ballot Question on Abortion

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (KCUR) -  Catholic Church leaders in Kansas say they won’t be intimidated by an act of vandalism at an area church over the weekend. The Church of Ascension in Overland Park was spray painted early Sunday morning with the words “my body my choice.” Debra Nieson is Lead Consultant for Pro-Life Ministries with the Kansas Archdiocese. She says the church will continue advocating for people to vote “yes” on a constitutional amendment that would remove the right to abortion from the Kansas constitution. "We believe acts like vandalism are just un-American. We're moving on and we are gonna stand firm in our position and in our effort," she said.  Overland Park police say a female suspect was seen running from the scene Sunday night. No arrests have been made.

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Girl Pulled from Kansas City Amusement Park Pool Dies

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The owner of a popular water park in Kansas City says a young girl who was pulled from a pool last week has died. A spokesman for Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., which owns Oceans of Fun water park, confirmed the girl's death on Tuesday. The company said in a statement that park staff and fire department responders cared for the girl after she was found in distress on July 5 at the park's Coconut Cove pool. The company didn't say what caused the girl to begin struggling and it didn't immediately reply to a request for further information, including the girl's name. Law enforcement officials said the girl was younger than 10 years old.

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Snake Slithers on Missouri Woman's Windshield While She Drives Down Kansas Highway

TULSA, Okla. (KOKI) - A Missouri woman driving down a Kansas highway had an unwelcome passenger that hitched a ride.  Vicki Ruhl says she was driving on a highway in central Kansas when she noticed a snake slithering on her windshield. Ruhl captured video of the reptile hanging off of her driver's side mirror. She said she didn't want to pull over because she was afraid of being stuck on the side of the highway in the heat without knowing what to do. Ruhl said she was just focused on not crashing her car. When she eventually exited the highway and parked, the snake slithered off of the vehicle. Wildlife experts say the snake in the video appeared to be a bullsnake, which is not venomous. ( Read more.)

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Authorities Identify Man Who Drowned at Lone Star Lake on July 4th

LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) - The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office has released the identity of the 81-year-old Lawrence man who died while swimming in Lone Star Lake on July 4th. Authorities say the man was James Robert “Bob” Kent, a retired Lawrence-Douglas County firefighter. His obituary notes that Kent was a competitive swimmer at Wyandotte High School and Carleton College in Minnesota. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Kent was a firefighter with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical until his retirement in 2004. Kent was also an adjunct researcher in the Special Education and American Studies Departments at the University of Kansas. He was believed to be the only Lawrence firefighter in the history of the department with a doctoral degree. Kent had been with a group that regularly swims at Lone Star Lake southwest of Lawrence. The Sheriff’s Office said he had broken off from the group to head back to shore. He was found unresponsive in the water and life-saving measures proved unsuccessful.

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Grain Belt Express Developers Announce Boost in Transmission Capacity

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KSHB) — Developers have announced plans to expand the capacity of a controversial wind power transmission line. The Chicago-based company, Invenergy Transmission, says it wants to increase the power load to match that of several new nuclear power plants. KSHB-TV reports that the company building the Grain Belt Express says the project will be able to carry as much as 5,000 megawatts of power, that’s about 25% more than originally planned. The power transmission line is planned to stretch about 800 miles to bring energy from wind farms in Kansas, across Missouri and Illinois, to power distributors in Indiana. Invenergy says investment in the project is also increasing to about $7 billion. The Grain Belt Express is supported by industry and manufacturing groups but some farmers along the power lines’ route are fighting the project. They say they don’t want the high-power lines on their land.

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New Head of KU Endowment Chosen 

UNDATED (KU Endowment) – The KU Endowment Board of Trustees has named Dan Martin as the next president of KU Endowment, following a national search. Martin's most recent role was as Chief Philanthropy Officer at the Texas Division of St. Luke’s Health in Houston, and he has extensive experience in higher education leadership and fundraising. He is a fourth-generation Kansan from Overland Park, with three degrees from KU and one from the University of Pennsylvania. 

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Swimmer Infected with Brain-Eating Amoeba; Other Cases Reported in Kansas and Missouri

BEDFORD, Iowa (AP) — A Missouri resident has been hospitalized in intensive care after being infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba.  Health officials say the infection likely happened after the Missouri resident was swimming in a southeastern Iowa lake. The Iowa Health Department shut down the beach at Lake of Three Fires State Park after the person was diagnosed with the rare and usually fatal infection. Iowa state health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are testing to confirm the presence of the organism in the lake, which could take several days to complete. People are infected when water containing the amoeba enters the body through the nose, usually while victims are swimming or diving in lakes and rivers. According to the CDC, the fatality rate is more than 97%. This is believed to be the first case discovered in Iowa. However, the neighboring states of Kansas, Missouri and Minnesota have all reported infections. ( Read more.)

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Kansas Has Seen a 58% Increase in Gas Prices Since Last Year

CLAY CENTER, Kan. (Clay Center Dispatch) - The price of a gallon of gasoline in Kansas has increased nearly 58% since July of last year (2021). According to the American Automobile Association, the national average price for gas broke records repeatedly during the first two weeks of May. Triple-A's nationwide survey found that as of May 16, nearly every state in the nation was selling gas for more than $4 per gallon. ( Read more.)

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Missouri Man Sentenced to 27 Years in Fatal 2019 Shooting

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who was linked to a shooting by a tissue he used to blow his nose has been sentenced to 27 years in prison. The Jackson County Prosecutor's office says 45-year-old Timothy Fernandez has been sentenced for second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the 2019 shooting death of 40-year-old Michael Bryan. Police found Bryan dead on the sidewalk outside the Windstar Sinclair gas station at 17th Street and Grand Boulevard. He had been shot multiple times. Court records say Fernandez was identified through DNA left on the used tissue and by fingerprints on an item in a backpack near the scene. Surveillance video also showed the shooting.

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These area headlines are curated by KPR news staffers, including J. Schafer, Laura Lorson, Kaye McIntyre, and Tom Parkinson. Our headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays, 11 am weekends. This news summary is made possible by KPR listener-members.  Become one today. And follow  KPR News on Twitter.