Kansas Reports Over 7,400 Cases of COVID-19, Including 164 Deaths
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) — As of Wednesday morning*, state health officials reported 7,468 cases of COVID-19, including 164 deaths. Cases have now been reported in 83 of the state's 105 counties. Four of the 10 hardest-hit Kansas counties (Ford, Finney, Seward and Lyon) have large meatpacking plants. ( Get the latest COVID-19 numbers in Kansas here.)
- Governor Laura Kelly's Plan to Reopen Kansas
- KPR's Coronavirus Information and Resources Guide
- Live Coverage: Coronavirus in the Kansas City Area
*KDHE has changed its updating schedule, and until further notice will only be updating these totals on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
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Missouri Cases of Coronavirus Hit 10,000, COVID-19 Deaths Exceed 500
O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — Both the number of confirmed cases and deaths from the coronavirus in Missouri reached somber milestones Tuesday: Cases topped 10,000 and the number of deaths exceeded 500. The state health department reported 88 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 10,006. Thirty-six new deaths were reported. Since March, 524 people in Missouri have died from the virus. St. Louis continues to be the hardest-hit region. State data shows that 53.4% of confirmed cases, and 70.4% of deaths, have occurred in St. Louis city and county combined.
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Kansas Sausage-Making Plant Shuts Down Amid COVID-19 Cases
TOPEKA Kan. (AP) — A Kansas plant that makes sausage has shut down after employees tested positive for the coronavirus, and an outbreak that has infected hundreds at the state’s largest prison has claimed the life of another worker. The shutdown at the Johnsonville plant in Holton, which employees about 230 workers, took effect Wednesday. Johnsonville didn’t announce when it plans to reopen the plant. Johnsonville said all employees will continue to get paid, and downtime will be used to implement even more aggressive safety protocols before reopening. Some new safety protocols include placing additional barriers between workstations where social distancing isn’t possible. The plant already had been requiring mandatory temperature checks.
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Top GOP Lawmakers Move to Take Control of Reopening Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators have moved aggressively to take control of how Kansas reopens its coronavirus-battered economy from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. Six GOP leaders Wednesday rejected her request to have top lawmakers extend a disaster declaration she issued for the coronavirus pandemic into mid-June. The Republicans instead extended the declaration only through May 25, Memorial Day. That would give the GOP-controlled Legislature a chance to pass a law governing the state’s coronavirus response. The full Legislature is scheduled to reconvene May 21 for a final day in session this year after beginning its spring break early on March 20 because of the pandemic.
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Family Files Claim in Kansas City Nurse's Death from Virus
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Attorneys for the family of a Missouri nurse who died from COVID-19 have filed a claim for death benefits under the state's workers' compensation laws. Celia Yap-Banago died in April after caring for a patient at Research Medical Center in Kansas City. Her family and the National United Nurses Union say she contracted the virus because she didn't have adequate safety equipment to treat patients with the virus. The family's attorneys filed the claim Monday on behalf of Yap-Banago's husband and their two sons. HCA Midwest, which operates Research Medical Center, denies that nurses didn't have adequate personal protective equipment.
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Wife: Prison Guard Who Survived Leukemia Dies of COVID-19
LANSING, Kan. (AP) — A coronavirus outbreak that has infected hundreds of people at the largest prison in Kansas has claimed the life of a prison guard, the first employee at the facility to die of the virus. Department spokeswoman Rebecca Witte says three Lansing Correctional Facility inmates already had died of the virus before the employee died Monday. Relatives identified the man as 61-year-old George "Bernie" Robare, a former Marine and longtime Corrections Department guard. The Kansas City Star reports that Susan Robare was worried her husband wouldn't be able to defeat the virus when he tested positive last month. He was a leukemia survivor. ( Read more about this story.)
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Court Throws Out Lawsuit on Inmate Safety at Kansas Prisons
BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas court has thrown out a lawsuit filed by a civil rights rights group seeking the immediate release of prisoners who have preexisting medical conditions that make them vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Leavenworth District Judge David King dismissed the class action petition filed by The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas on behalf of eight inmates and others similarly situated at Kansas prisons. The district court found the ACLU didn't prove that jail officials either failed to meet their constitutional duty to provide adequate medical care or acted with deliberate indifference to the inmates' serious medical needs.
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Flags Flying at Half Staff in Kansas in Honor of Overland Park Officer Killed in Line of Duty
TOPEKA, Kan. (KAKE) - Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset today (WED) in honor of Overland Park Police Officer Mike Mosher. Mosher was shot and killed May 3rd while trying to arrest a hit and run suspect. His funeral was held today (WED). “Officer Mosher tragically lost his life in the line of duty, while protecting his community,” Kelly said. “He was dedicated to service, and we owe him immeasurable gratitude for his career-long commitment to helping others.” KAKE TV reports the governor also ordered all flags at public institutions throughout Kansas to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Friday, May 15, in observance of Peace Officers Memorial Day. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week 2020 that called for the lowering of the flag.
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Kansas Lawmakers Look to Prevent Lawsuits over Coronavirus
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas are joining a larger national effort to shield doctors, hospitals and businesses from lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus. Business and medical groups are pushing them to act quickly, but the effort faces strong opposition from labor unions, trial lawyers and some Democrats. They fear measures will keep patients, consumers and employees from being able to turn to the courts to hold businesses and medical providers accountable for negligence or misconduct. Similar efforts are underway in Congress and other states, including Mississippi, North Carolina and Utah. The Kansas House Judiciary Committee plans to have the first of three Zoom meetings on the issue this (WED) afternoon.
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Drive-Thru Wichita Testing Site Doesn't Require COVID-19 Symptoms
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW-TV) — A new drive-thru site in Wichita that tests for the new coronavirus without requiring participants to to have symptoms is drawing heavy interest. Television station KSN reports that the site drew lines of cars and dozens of people seeking testing on its first day of operation this week. The testing offered by HealthCore Clinic is free with no questions asked. Other Wichita testing clinics require people to have symptoms before they can be tested. Health experts have noted that many people who have tested positive for the virus showed no symptoms. The testing is available through the month of May and while testing supplies last.
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Haskell Indian Nations University Hires New President
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence has hired a new president. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Ronald Graham assumed the post Monday. Graham is the former division dean of instruction at Victor Valley College in Victorville, California, and is a member of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. The school has operated under interim presidents for more than a year after former Haskell University President Venida Chenault left the office to work on a special assignment just days after a federal report detailed allegations of misconduct at the university. Several months later, the school announced that Chenault had accepted another position and would not return as president.
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Driver Fleeing from Kansas City Police Stop Crashes, Dies
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police in Kansas City say a driver has died after fleeing from a police stop and crashing in a northeastern part of the city. Police say in a news release that the incident began Monday afternoon when officers tried to stop a car suspected in an assault, and the driver fled. As officers chased the car, it went out of control, hit a concrete wall, then a pole and a parked vehicle. Police say the driver died at the scene. The name of the driver had not been released by Tuesday morning.
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Suspect Accused of Fatally Shooting Wichita Woman
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 27-year-old Wichita man is being held in the shooting death of a woman over the weekend. Police say they found 36-year-old Sarah Phillips dead from a gunshot wound to the head on Sunday at a Wichita house. Officers arrested Isaac Pankratz later Sunday. Police spokesman Officer Charley Davidson says investigators determined that Pankratz and Phillips were at the home together when she was shot. Pankratz is being held on possible charges of first-degree murder and gun crimes.
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Forecast: Kansas Farmers to Harvest Smaller Wheat Crop
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas farmers are expected to bring in a smaller winter wheat crop this year even though they will harvest about the same number of acres. The National Agricultural Statistics Service said Tuesday this year’s Kansas winter wheat crop is forecast at 306 million bushels, down 10% from a year ago. Average yield is forecast at 47 bushels per acre, down 5 bushels from last year. The agency said Kansas growers will cut wheat off 6.5 million acres, which is about 96% of the acres that they planted with wheat last fall.
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Police Say High School Senior Killed in Topeka Shooting
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW-AM) — Topeka police say a high school student set to graduate this year has been shot to death. Station WIBW reports that 18-year-old Joheem Meredith was taken to a hospital around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday with critical injuries. He later died from those injuries. Police say he had been shot in the parking lot of White Lakes Plaza Apartments. No arrests had been reported by late Wednesday morning, and police said detectives were still developing leads on a suspect. Meredith was a senior at Topeka West High School. His death was Topeka’s ninth homicide this year.
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Missouri Trooper Hit by Vehicle, Shots Fired During Chase; Kansas Man Arrested
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri State Highway Patrol says a trooper suffered minor injuries when he was hit by a vehicle trying to flee in northern Kansas City. The patrol says the incident began early Tuesday when the trooper began chasing the suspect on Interstate 29. At one point, the trooper got out of his vehicle and the suspect turned around. The patrol says the trooper was trying to get out of the way and fired at the suspect before he was hit by the vehicle. The trooper was treated at a hospital for minor injuries. The suspect, a 29-year-old Gardner man, was later arrested in Kansas.
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Colorado Judge Arrested in Kansas Will Likely Get Jail Time for 2nd DUI
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado judge is expected to be sentenced to a jail term for pleading guilty to a second DUI charge within two years. KCNC-TV reported 62-year-old Debra Gunkel pleaded guilty to violating the terms of her probation from a 2018 DUI case in Prowers County. The conviction would have been erased from the Baca County judge's record if she completed two years of probation, but Gunkel was arrested for driving while drunk in Kansas in August. Gunkel's probation was revoked after the charge was filed. Jail time will be mandatory after her expected plea in June.
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