Developers Propose $36 Million KC Hotel
KANSAS CITY, MO (AP) Two real estate executives have proposed a $63.5 luxury hotel for Kansas City in an effort to boost the area’s economy. Hotel Bravo would have 145 rooms and suites, a high-end restaurant, and concierge hotel service on each floor.E.J. Holtze Corporations president Eric Holtze and Cushman &Wakefield senior director Whitney Kerr Sr. are developing the project. They’ve proposed building the hotel near the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
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Kobach Accused of Overestimating Cost of Illegal Immigrants
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Kris Kobach says Kansas is spending $377 million a year on benefits for immigrants living in the state illegally, and he promises to put a stop to it if he's elected governor. But the figure Kobach repeatedly cites comes from an anti-immigration group, which experts say uses questionable calculations. Most of the costs are for things such as education for immigrant children that Kansas is required by federal law to provide. Kobach is the Kansas secretary of state and has made illegal immigration a core issue in his campaign. His claim is based on a September 2017 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The Washington think tank advocates stricter immigration enforcement and less legal immigration.
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Kansas Counties May Impact Voting
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The chances of a Kansas voter’s ballot being counted might depend on which county he or she lives in, especially if they vote by mail. The issue of counties having different standards for determining whether a ballot should be counted came up last week during a meeting of the State Objections Board. Shawnee County Elections Commissioner Andrew Howell said that deciding whether to count a ballot is often a judgment call left to local officials.
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Man Fatally Stabbed in Wellington
WELLINGTON, Kan. (AP) A south-central Kansas man has died after being stabbed in the chest, and a woman has been arrested in connection with the stabbing. Officials say the stabbing occurred Saturday afternoon at Wellington. Police arriving on the scene found a 26-year-old man with chest injuries. He was transported to a Wichita hospital where he later died. No names or other details have been released.
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Wichita Officer Charged in High-Speed Wreck
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita police officer is facing charges after a 71-year-old man was thrown through a windshield after his pickup truck was hit by the officer's car. The Wichita Eagle reports an arrest affidavit released Wednesday says officer Samuel Dugo was speeding to a burglary call without his emergency lights and sirens on a Wichita street before his car hit a pickup truck. Dugo has been charged with felony aggravated battery after the March 16th crash injured Donald Clark of Bel Aire. The arrest affidavit says Dugo's car was going 79 mph when he hit Clark's truck. Prosecutors allege Dugo was driving recklessly that night. Dugo's attorney says the officer's driving was not reckless and consistent with police practices. He also says Dugo tried to take evasive action after Clark's truck drove into its path.
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Kansas Man Arrested after Baby Dies
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Haysville police say a man has been arrested after a 4-month-old baby died from internal injuries. The Wichita Eagle reports Haysville Police Chief Jeff Whitfield says officers were called last Saturday on a report of a child possibly having a seizure. The infant was taken to a hospital and died on Thursday. The child's name and gender were not released. Sedgwick County jail records show 32-year-old Andrew Wayne Franklin was arrested Thursday and booked into jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, child abuse and failure to comply with a warrant. Franklin's relationship with the baby is unclear. The case remains under investigation.
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Kansas Writer Releases Memoir on Growing up Poor
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas writer who grew up in poverty is releasing a memoir she hopes will shine a light on an often-ignored part of the American landscape. The Wichita Eagle reports that Sarah Smarsh's book "Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth" is scheduled for nationwide release Tuesday. The book is listed as a contender in this year's National Book Award for Nonfiction. The 38-year-old says she chronicled her turbulent childhood in rural Kansas because such stories often go unnoticed. Bookstores are currently packed with stories about life among the working poor. But Smarsh says she wants to highlight more subtleties of class, culture and politics through her experience growing up in the 1980s and 1990s as the daughter of a Kansas farmer.
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2 Teens Arrested after Reported Gun Sale at Lawrence High School
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Two juveniles at Lawrence High School were arrested this week after a parent reported hearing that a student tried to sell a gun to another student. Principal Matt Brungardt said in an e-mail toparents that police and school officials discovered the weapon had been taken from a parent's home. Lawrence police recovered the firearm off the school campus. District spokeswoman Julie Boyle said the gun was found Thursday. She says the parents of the students were notified and disciplinary action had been taken in accordance with district policy. Lawrence officer Derrick Smith said Friday that two juveniles were arrested Monday morning on the school grounds. The Lawrence Journal-World reported the Douglas County District Attorney's Office didn't immediately respond to a question about whether charges would be filed.
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Kansas Meatpacker Reaches $1.5 Million Settlement over Muslim Prayer Dispute
DENVER (AP) — A U.S. meatpacker has agreed to pay $1.5 million to 138 Somali-American Muslim workers who were fired from their jobs at a Colorado plant after they were refused prayer breaks. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Friday that Wichita, Kansas-based Cargill Meat Solutions also pledged to accommodate Somali-American workers' prayer breaks at its Fort Morgan, Colorado, plant. The EEOC says Cargill denies wrongdoing but agreed to settle to avoid further litigation. Last year, the EEOC found that the workers were fired in 2016 after protesting a decision by plant management to stop permitting Muslim employees to take short breaks for prayer. Hundreds of Somali-Americans work at the plant in Fort Morgan, located 75 miles northeast of Denver.
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Wichita Officer Sues Police Chief for Defamation
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita police officer who says he was wrongly accused of raping a woman last year is suing the city's police chief for defamation. Marlon Woolcock contends in a lawsuit filed September 5th that Chief Gordon Ramsay damaged his reputation and hurt his chances of becoming an FBI agent by saying after Woolcock was arrested that his actions weren't in line with department's conduct standards. Prosecutors declined to file charges against Woolcock in the case. The Wichita Eagle reports city attorney Jennifer Magana said Thursday neither the city nor the chief would comment on the lawsuit. Woolcock is currently a patrol officer for theWichita department. He is seeking more than $75,000 in damages. Woolcock is suing the woman who accused him of rape, and she has filed counterclaims against him.
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Maine Man Gets Life Sentence for Kansas Murder
MINNEAPOLIS, Kan. (AP) — A 35-year-old Maine man was sentenced to life in prison for killing a Kansas man while on a cross-country trip. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said Robert Willard Colson, of Bucksport, Maine, was sentenced Thursday to life with no possibility of parole for 25 years. Colson was convicted in June for first-degree murder and three other charges in the August 2017 death of Matthew Miles Schoshke. Prosecutors say Colson shot Schoshke at his home in Tescott after Schoshke returned from work. Colson drove to California, where he was arrested while trying to escape from an Amtrak train after a passenger was stabbed. Prosecutors said Colson was on a bus trip from Maine to California when he missed his bus in Salina and walked until he stopped at Schoshke's home.
