Kansas Reporting 717 More Confirmed Cases of COVID-19
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is reporting 717 more confirmed coronavirus cases since Monday, an increase that brings the total to at least 17,618 cases. The department on Wednesday also reported 282 COVID-19 deaths, up two since Monday. Health and Environment Secretary Lee Norman announced on Tuesday that Kansas is among the top 14 states in the country for the most rapid spread of the coronavirus, and in the top 14 states for having the least restriction on activities. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people who have the virus have not been tested.
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Over 17,500 COVID-19 Cases Recorded in Kansas, Including 282 Deaths
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) — Kansas has recorded 17,618 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. That number includes 282 deaths. Cases have now been confirmed in 98 of the 105 Kansas counties. Wyandotte and Johnson Counties have the most cases, with 2,760 and 2,565, respectively. State health officials released those figures Wednesday. Another update is expected Friday.
Kansas Among 14 States with Most Rapid COVID-19 Spread
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A health official in Kansas says the state is among the 14 states with the most rapid coronavirus spread and among the top 14 states for having the least restrictions on activities. Lee Norman, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, tweeted: "Do you think those two things are related? We were a shining example of success, only to squander it.” Kansas set a new record Monday for its worst two-week spike in reported coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. The state Department of Health and Environment reported 982 more confirmed coronavirus cases since Friday.
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Kansas Governor Issues Order on Foster Children's Education
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has issued an executive order requiring the state to track the progress of foster children in school. The order comes after a similar bill was vetoed last month. According to The Kansas City Star, the annual report card will detail the academic progress and classroom struggles of children in its care. Kelly’s order says the state will take responsibility to make every effort to ensure students in foster care receive a quality education. Laura Howard, Secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, said her agency is already working with the Department of Education to begin gathering data.
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Kansas Visitors Added to Required Quarantine Lists for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Anyone traveling into Connecticut, New York or New Jersey from Kansas, Oklahoma, or Delaware must now self-quarantine for 14 days to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Tuesday’s announcement means 19 states now meet the criteria of having a new daily positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or a 10% or higher positive rate over a seven-day rolling average. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday he believes the quarantine has discouraged out-of-state visitors, noting how the number of flight cancellations at Bradley International Airport is double what officials had anticipated.
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GOP Candidate’s Dad Steers Cash into PAC Attacking Rival
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The father of a former Kansas Republican Party chairwoman who is seeking to unseat freshman Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids from her seat representing a Kansas City area swing district has steered more than $100,000 into a super PAC airing ads attacking one of his daughter’s top rivals. The Kansas City Star reports that Federal Election Commission records show that Amanda Adkins’s father, Alan Landes, was the sole donor to the Heartland USA PAC as of March 31 after making two donations totaling $113,146. This week, the PAC launched an ad campaign attacking fellow GOP candidate Sara Hart Weir, the former president and CEO of the National Down Syndrome Society.
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GOP Establishment Boosting Kansas Congressman's Senate Bid
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Establishment Republicans who’d been coy for months about the GOP primary for Kansas’s open Senate seat are increasingly putting their thumbs on the scale. They're hoping to push western Kansas Rep. Roger Marshall to victory over polarizing conservative Kris Kobach. A new GOP super-PAC this week launched what it promised will be a $3 million advertising campaign against Kobach, and its director formerly worked for a GOP congressman and the state's Republican attorney general. Even President Donald Trump stepped in last month with the anti-tax, free-market Club for Growth confirming that Trump persuaded it to abandon a multi-million-dollar ad campaign against Marshall ahead of the August 4 primary.
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PAC Launches Campaign Against Kobach in Kansas Senate Race
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new Republican political action committee has launched what it says will be a $3 million campaign in Kansas with an ad that says GOP Senate candidate and immigration hardliner Kris Kobach has ties to white supremacists. Kobach campaign spokesman Danedri Herbert said Tuesday that the 30-second spot from the Plains PAC recycles “old false attacks” previously leveled by Democrats. The ad notes that an aide who was paid $500 last year by the Kobach campaign had a history of racist and anti-Semitic comments on a white nationalist website. Kobach denounced the comments, and his campaign fired the aide.
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Justice Department Moves Ahead with Execution Plan Next Week
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is plowing ahead with its plan to resume federal executions next week, for the first time in more than 15 years. That's despite the coronavirus pandemic raging both inside and outside prisons and despite stagnating national support for the death penalty. Three people are scheduled to die by lethal injection in one week at an Indiana prison, beginning Monday. One of these is convicted murderer Wesley Ira Purkey, a Lansing man who in 1998 raped and killed a 16-year-old girl and murdered an 80 year old woman. The decision to go ahead with the executions has been criticized as a dangerous and political move by the Trump administration, at a time when there is great scrutiny on racial disparities in the death penalty and on larger criminal justice system. Purkey is scheduled for execution on Wednesday, July 15.
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Lawyer: TSA Makes Changes After Kansas Whistleblower's Complaint
The TSA has made some changes at airport security checkpoints after a whistleblower inside the agency complained about poor protection against the coronavirus. Jay Brainard accused the Transportation Security Administration of helping spread the virus because screeners didn't have enough protective gear. Brainard's lawyer says that since he lodged a complaint with a federal whistleblower-protection office, the TSA has taken new steps including requiring screeners to change or sanitize gloves after every passenger pat down. Brainard is the top TSA official in Kansas. TSA says nearly 1,000 of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and six have died.
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Prosecutor: Fireworks Stand Attack May Be Racially Motivated
UNDATED (AP) — A white man has been charged with stabbing a Black man at a Kansas fireworks stand in an attack that the prosecutor said may have been racially motivated. Austin Bryce Langley, 40, was charged Tuesday with one count each of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery and the criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon in the July 2 attack in Topeka. He has past convictions for aggravated battery. Public defender Cindy Sewell didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press. Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay said in a news release that he will seek a longer sentence than state sentencing guidelines call for if Langley is convicted.
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Kansas Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Cruise Ship Killing
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ A Kansas man has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for killing his girlfriend by strangling her and pushing her over a balcony on a cruise ship off the coast of Florida. The Kansas City Star reports that 55-year-old Eric Newman, of Topeka, also was sentenced to five years of supervised release during a hearing Wednesday in federal court in Kansas. He pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder in the January 2018 death of 50-year-old Tamara Tucker of Lawson, Missouri. U.S. District Attorney Stephen McAllister told reporters that the cruise was a present from her family.
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Man Shot by Deputies Booked into Southeast Kansas Jail
IOLA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a man who was shot by two sheriff’s deputies at a campground in a tiny southeast Kansas town following an altercation. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in a news release that 41-year-old Edward Bridges, of Chanute, was taken into custody Tuesday after he was released from the University of Kansas Medical Center. Bridges has been booked into the Allen County Jail. He is charged in neighboring Woodson County with aggravated assault, possession of a narcotic drug, criminal possession of a firearm, possession of stolen property, criminal carrying of a weapon and possession of marijuana.
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Driver of Stolen SUV Fleeing Missouri Police Dies in Crash
RAYMORE, Mo. (AP) — Authorities in western Missouri say the driver of a stolen sport utility vehicle who led police on a chase died after crashing into another vehicle in Raymore. The Kansas City Star reports the crash happened Tuesday afternoon after Cass County Sheriff's deputies tried to stop the SUV, which had been reported stolen out of Overland Park. The sheriff's office says the driver refused to pull over and led law enforcement on a 20-mile chase until the SUV hit another vehicle on J Highway and rolled. Investigators say the driver of the stolen SUV was ejected and died at the scene. The driver's name has not yet been released.
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10-Year-Old Finds Human Remains Near Kansas City Creek
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a 10-year-old boy has found human remains near a Kansas City creek. Officer Doaa El-Ashkar, a police spokeswoman, said in an email that the discovery was made Sunday near the bank of Shoal Creek. The remains have not been identified. Police say additional searches will be conducted in the area for other remains. No other details have been released.
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Woman Charged in June Shooting Death of Wichita Man
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police say a 41-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with murder and other counts in the June shooting death of a man. KAKE TV reports that Amber Ahrens was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on Tuesday. She's charged with second-degree intentional murder, criminal possession of a firearm and possession with intent to distribute opiates. Police were called to a disturbance with shots fired at a northeastern Wichita home on June 17 and found 53-year-old David Leddy in front of a home with a gunshot wound. He died at the scene. Police said Ahrens is the mother of a 19-year-old man who was involved in a fight with Leddy earlier in the day.
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Sheriff: Kansas Pilot Critically Injured in Small Plane Crash
JEWELL COUNTY, Kan. (Hays Post) – One person was injured in a small plane crash in Jewell County. The Hays Post reports the accident happened Monday morning when the pilot, a Mankato resident, was trying to fly his experimental aircraft. According to the Jewell County Sheriff's Office, the pilot experienced mechanical difficulties soon after taking off then tried to turn the aircraft around but lost control and crashed into the runway. The pilot was transported to the Jewell County Hospital and then airlifted to a Wichita hospital for treatment of critical injuries. Authorities have not released the pilot's name.
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Drought Declarations in Effect for Two-Thirds of Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (Hays Post) – Governor Laura Kelly has issued Drought Declarations for two-thirds of Kansas. The declarations apply to 74 of the state's 105 counties. These 74 counties are either in a drought emergency or are included in drought warning or watch areas. Kelly said the majority of Kansas has been considered in drought or in abnormally dry conditions for the past several weeks and that's led to a high risk of fire. The Hays Post reports that most of the state has received less than 70% of its normal rainfall since January. And many counties in southwestern Kansas have received less than half their normal amount of precipitation. The drought declaration placed 13 counties in emergency status, 18 into a warning status and 44 into a watch status. This action was recommended by Earl Lewis, Director of the Kansas Water Office and Chair of the Governor’s Drought Response Team. Counties listed in "emergency" drought status are eligible for emergency use of water from certain state fishing lakes. Individuals and communities need to contact the state water office for permission prior to any withdrawals from lakes. For more detailed information about current conditions, visit the Kansas Climate Summary and Drought Report on the Kansas Water Office website.
Drought Stage Declarations by County:
- Drought Emergency: Finney, Grant, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearny, Morton, Scott, Seward, Stanton, Stevens, Wallace, Wichita
- Drought Warning: Barber, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Clark, Comanche, Crawford, Ford, Gray, Hodgeman, Jewell, Lane, Logan, Meade, Ness, Rawlins, Sherman, Smith, Thomas
- Drought Watch: Allen, Anderson, Barton, Bourbon, Butler, Chase, Chautauqua, Coffey, Cowley, Decatur, Dickinson, Edwards, Elk, Ellis, Gove, Graham, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, Johnson, Kiowa, Labette, Linn, Lyon, Marion, Miami, Mitchell, Montgomery, Morris, Neosho, Norton, Osborne, Pawnee, Phillips, Republic, Rooks, Rush, Sedgwick, Sheridan, Sumner, Trego, Wilson, Woodson, Wyandotte
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Lawsuit over Sex Abuse at Kansas VA Hospital Goes to Trial
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A lawyer says a lawsuit against a VA hospital in Kansas, where a former physician's assistant molested countless patients, involves “the largest sexual abuse scandal in the history of the Veterans Administration.” Those comments came during opening statements in a lawsuit brought by one of Mark Wisner's victims against the federal government. The government does not dispute that Wisner sexually molested veterans at the VA hospital in Leavenworth. But it says it should not be held liable because Wisner’s conduct was outside the scope of his employment and because the damages sought for a lifetime of medical treatment are excessive. ( Read more about this story.)
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Kansas Officer Appeals Ruling Allowing Lawsuit to Proceed
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita police officer who fatally shot an innocent man in 2017 while responding to a hoax emergency call is appealing a ruling that allows a lawsuit filed against him to move forward. The hoax phone call to police was made following a dispute between two online gamers. The Wichita Eagle reports that attorneys for Justin Rapp filed a notice of appeal Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, asking it to review a lower court order that refused to grant him protection from civil liability in Andrew Finch’s death.
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Ex-Officer Gets 4 Months for Deadly Crash near Arrowhead
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former police officer has been sentenced to four months in jail for causing a 2018 wreck that killed a Kansas teenager and injured two others outside the stadium where the Kansas City Chiefs play. Thirty-five-year-old Terrell Watkins was sentenced Tuesday for involuntary manslaughter and other charges in the October 2018 crash that killed 17-year-old Chandan Rajanna, of Overland Park, Kansas, and seriously injured Rajanna’s father and sister. Witnesses told police the van had been speeding and making numerous lane changes as it passed other vehicles in heavy pregame traffic. Investigators say at the time of the crash, Watkins was late for an off-duty security assignment at Arrowhead Stadium.
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Couple’s $2 Million Gift Supports KU Program in Rural Medicine
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) — A Florida couple made a $2 million gift to the University of Kansas in support of a KU program focused on rural health. The gift from Harold & Fern Ehrlich benefits the Summer Training Option in Rural Medicine (STORM) program at the KU School of Medicine. STORM places students with primary care doctors in rural area for training and research. STORM began in 1992. Of those taking part, at least 91 are now doctors serving rural areas. KU officials say the gift from the Ehrlichs will support the program in perpetuity and provide stipends to program participants. They hope the experience will lead to more students choosing rural primary care medicine after graduation. In 2017, a state task force found 161 primary care Health Professional Shortage Areas in Kansas. Of the state’s 105 counties, 92 are considered partially or wholly underserved. Harold Ehrlich is a native of Marion, Kansas. He and his wife now live in Ocala, Florida.
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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Decreasing Water Flowing into Lower Missouri River
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The amount of water being released into the Missouri River from a dam on the Nebraska-South Dakota border is being decreased because less water is expected to flow into the river this year, so the risk of a repeat of last year’s massive flooding along the river has been reduced. The reduction is possible because the region received less precipitation than expected this spring and this summer is expected to be drier than normal. The Corps now estimates that 31.2 million acre feet of water will flow down the river this year. That is roughly 1 million acre feet lower than the previous forecast.
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