Kelly Declares Disaster Emergency Due to Forecast Winter Storm
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ Gov. Laura Kelly has declared a disaster emergency in anticipation of a winter storm forecast to bring blizzard conditions to parts of the state Saturday. The National Weather Service is forecasting the storm will move into western Kansas Friday night and move across the state Saturday. The forecast includes rain turning to heavy snow, winds of 30 and 40 mph with gusts higher than 50 mph. Travel in affected areas will be hazardous. Kelly said in a statement she issued the declaration to ensure state assistance is readily available if needed. The Kansas Division of Emergency Management said its state emergency operations center will be open from 7 a.m. through midnight Saturday and into Sunday if needed.
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Partisan Sniping Follows Passage of Kansas Pensions Measure
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A public pensions funding bill has passed the Kansas Legislature unanimously but touched off partisan sniping. The measure sent Friday to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly requires the state to make an immediate $115 million payment to its pension system for teachers and government workers. It represents a payment the state shorted the system in 2016, with interest. The vote Friday in the Republican-controlled House was 117-0. The GOP-dominated Senate approved it earlier this month, 40-0. Kelly said it's encouraging that lawmakers are fixing "past mistakes" but called on GOP leaders to "offer reasonable ideas" to avoid future problems. Senate President Susan Wagle and House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, both Wichita Republicans, fired back by criticizing Kelly's budget proposals. Wagle said Kelly "continues to point the finger" instead of leading.
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Kansas House Committee Votes to Keep Death Penalty in Place
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas House committee has narrowly voted to keep the state's death penalty law in place. The Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee voted 7-6 on Friday to reject a bill to repeal the state's 1994 capital punishment law. A bipartisan group of 33 lawmakers sponsored the measure. The bill would have made life in prison with no chance for parole the possible punishment for murders that now qualify for lethal injection. Kansas has 10 men on its death row but has not executed anyone under the 1994 law. The state's last legal executions were by hanging in 1965. Critics contend the death penalty is immoral and costly. But committee Chairman Russ Jennings said his constituents support capital punishment. The Lakin Republican broke a 6-6 vote to sink the bill.
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Judge Dismisses Charges over Boy's Death on Water Slide
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A judge dismissed criminal charges Friday against a Kansas water park owner and the designer of a 17-story slide on which a 10-year-old boy was decapitated in 2016. Wyandotte County Judge Robert Burns cited improper evidence in dropping second-degree murder charges against Schlitterbahn owner Jeff Henry, designer John Schooley, and general contractor Henry and Sons Construction Co. The judge also dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against operations manager Tyler Miles, The Kansas City Star reported . They were charged after Caleb Schwab died while riding the waterslide, which was marketed as the world's tallest slide.
"The court has grave doubts as to whether the irregularities and improprieties improperly influenced the grand jury and ultimately bolstered its decision to indict these defendants," Judge Robert Burns said. "Quite simply, these defendants were not afforded the due process protections and fundamental fairness Kansas law requires."
A spokesman for the Kansas Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted the case, didn't immediately return phone and email messages from The Associated Press. Caleb was killed on the Verruckt — German for "crazy" — in 2016 when the raft he was riding went airborne and hit a metal pole. Two women who were with him in the raft were seriously injured. The slide never operated again and has been torn down . While making his ruling, Burns noted the tragedy of Caleb's death.
"I obviously recognize that the circumstances and events giving rise to these indictments are indisputably tragic," Burns said. "A young child's life was lost and his troubling death was mourned by family, friends and the entire Kansas City community and beyond."
Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said in a statement, "We welcome today's decision which dismissed the charges against all defendants. We are thankful for all the support and encouragement we've received."
The evidence included video from a Travel Channel show documenting construction of the Verruckt, in which Henry and others emphasized the risks to riders on a raft dropping 17 stories before climbing a second, 50-foot hump. Defense attorneys argued the show was scripted for entertainment, showing flying boats. Defense attorneys argued the video didn't show how the ride actually worked, but the attorney general's office never told the jury it was a dramatization, though it showed boats flying up in a similar manner to how Caleb died. The state argued that it was up to the jury to determine what was true and said the Travel Channel video should be presented at trial. Defendants also claimed jurors repeatedly were told that the waterslide was not built to standards established by ASTM International, which might have led jurors to conclude the water park was breaking the law. But Kansas law didn't require the Verruckt meet those standards at the time of Caleb's death. The legislature toughened state law involving inspections and requirements after the boy died. Lawyers also argued the grand jury shouldn't have heard testimony about another death at a Schlitterbahn park in Texas because it's not relevant to what happened here. Caleb and his father, Scott Schwab, were at the park for a special day for state lawmakers. Schwab was elected Kansas secretary of state in November. Caleb's family received nearly $20 million in settlements . The two women with Caleb on the raft settled for an undisclosed amount. Schwab's office on Friday directed a request for comment to his family's attorney, Mike Rader, who did not immediately return a telephone message.
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Kansas Lawmaker Apologizes After LGBTQ Daughter Decries Bill
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A conservative Kansas legislator has apologized and said he has asked that he be removed as a sponsor of a bill calling same-sex marriages a "parody" after his LGBTQ daughter posted a letter to him on Facebook that ended with, "Shame on you." Republican state Representative Ron Highland of Wamego said in a letter Thursday to his hometown newspaper that he should not have signed on to the bill because it contained "hateful language" that he does not condone, The Manhattan Mercury reports . The bill seeks to prevent the state from endorsing any policy in line with what it calls the "LGBT secular humanist religion." Highland's letter came hours after the Facebook post from his daughter, Christel Highland, a Kansas City-area artist, mother and "partner to the love of my life." In her letter, she told her father that, "It is time for you to change."
"I love you, I always will, in spite of your flaws," she wrote. "I cannot, however, condone your cruel actions. Shame on you."
She said in the post that her father had not responded to an email she sent him on the subject. Her post was first reported by The Topeka Capital-Journal. Highland is a retired veterinarian who was first elected to the House in 2012, and he serves as chairman of its Agriculture Committee. He previously has served as Education Committee chairman. The proposed "Marriage and Constitution Restoration Act" has drawn the strong condemnation of LGBTQ-rights advocates and lawmakers and most of its nine pages are a polemic against same-sex marriage. It was introduced after Kansas elected its first two openly LGBT lawmakers to the House last year. Christel Highland did not immediately respond to a Facebook message seeking comment Friday, and her father declined to comment when approached by a reporter at the Statehouse. But in his statement, Ron Highland said he trusted the bill's primary sponsor before seeing the text but that it "goes against our Lord's command to love our neighbors."
"I must admit it was a mistake, and apologize," he said.
Christel Highland responded with a Facebook post Friday morning: "Now I have to write another letter," followed with a heart emoji.
The anti-LGBTQ marriage bill was part of a package of six measures introduced by conservative Republicans. None of them are expected to get even a committee hearing. They include bills that would impose a $3-per-entry tax on admissions to sexually oriented businesses, require anti-pornography filters on all devices sold in Kansas that provide internet access and to give social media users a right to sue in Kansas courts if their political posts on social media are deleted or censored. The bills have been promoted in various state legislatures by activist Chris Sevier, who once made news for trying to marry his laptop as a way to publicize his opposition to same-sex marriage. Rep. Randy Garber, a Sabetha Republican, agreed to sponsor the package of bills in Kansas. Sevier has pushed the bills this year in Missouri, where some lawmakers have complained that the meetings with him were uncomfortable. The Kansas City Star reported that Missouri Senate Administrator Patrick Baker sent an email Thursday to the entire Senate and staff with the subject line "security concern" and a picture of Sevier.
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Bill Would Require Notifications When Foster Children Go Missing
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Child welfare officials would be required to notify the legislature, the governor and the media when a foster child goes missing under proposed legislation. The Kansas City Star reports that the bill sponsored by Louisburg Republican Sen. Molly Baumgardner also would require that notifications be made when children stay overnight in the offices of foster care contractors while they await placements. She said at a hearing Thursday that lawmakers can't address the issue if they don't know it's happening. DFC initially opposed the bill, saying it could lose more than $55 million in federal funding if it released names of missing children. Agency spokesman Mike Deines says it would support sharing updates about missing children if the bill were amended to ensure confidentiality. A vote has yet to be scheduled.
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Kansas Judge Freezes Assets of Sect Accused of Trafficking
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge in Kansas has frozen the assets of a sect that faced a $7.9 million judgment last year for human trafficking. Public radio station KCUR reported Friday that Judge Julie Robinson found that members of what was formerly known as the United Nation of Islam fraudulently transferred assets to nonprofit groups they created. The judge ruled the transfers were meant to prevent Kendra Ross from collecting the money. Ross successfully argued in court that sect leader Royall Jenkins forced her to work without pay for a decade. The United Nation of Islam now goes by The Value Creators. A phone message left with group members wasn't immediately returned. Another judge in November issued a bench warrant for Jenkins' arrest for allegedly ignoring court orders. He remains at large.
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Records: Man Charged in Death of Mom Who Weighed 58 Pounds
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Court records say a suburban Kansas City man told investigators he didn't seek medical care for his ailing mother before she died weighing just 58 pounds (26 kilograms) and suffering from open bed sores. The Kansas City Star reports that the records were released Wednesday in the case against 51-year-old Raymond McManness, of Olathe, Kansas. He's jailed on $1 million bond on charges of first-degree murder and mistreatment of a dependent adult in the death last month of 75-year-old Sharon McManness. His attorney didn't immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press. Court records say Raymond McManness told police he didn't follow advice to take his mother to a doctor because the holidays had made him busy and he was "scared because he had not been taking adequate care of her."
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Kansas House Panel Rejects Same-Day Voter Registration Bill
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Republican-controlled legislative committee has rejected a Democratic proposal to allow Kansas residents to register to vote on the same day they cast their ballots. The House Elections Committee's vote Thursday was 7-5 against the measure. The state's current registration deadline is three weeks before an election. Republicans argued Thursday that the change would increase costs for county election offices. They've worried in the past about potential voter fraud. Same-day registration is a longstanding goal of Democrats and voting-rights groups. They see it as a way to boost turnout. Democratic Representative Tim Hodge of North Newton said: "Why do want to keep people from voting?" Republicans control the committee because they have a House majority. GOP Rep. J.C. Moore of Clearwater joined the committee's four Democrats in supporting the bill.
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Man Pleads Guilty in Attacks at Larned State Hospital
LARNED, Kan. (AP) — A 22-year-old Kansas man has pleaded guilty in two attacks at the Larned State Hospital. The Pawnee County Attorney said in a news release that Anthony Ruiz-Hernandez, of Topeka, pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempted first-degree murder. Hays Post reports the charge stems from Hernandez's attack on two other patients at the hospital in October 2018. One victim suffered severe head trauma in the attacks. Investigators say the attacks were done partly to improve Ruiz-Hernandez's standing in a prison gang. All the people involved were at the hospital for forensic evaluations. In exchange for the plea, two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery were dropped. A co-defendant in the attacks, Andres Gustavo Barrientos, of Leavenworth, will be arraigned on March 14.
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Plaque Stolen from Thurgood Marshall Bridge in Topeka
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ Topeka police are investigating the theft of a commemorative plaque from a bridge named for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Civil rights activist Sonny Scroggins reported the theft Saturday. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports police spokeswoman Gretchen Koenen said authorities aren't sure when the plaque was stolen, or how much it is worth. Marshall was among the attorneys for plaintiffs in the Brown v. Board of Education case, which led the U.S. Supreme Court to ban racial segregation in schools. He became the first black U.S. Supreme Court judge in 1967. In August 2018, a plaque was stolen from a bridge honoring Ken Marshall, the first black Kansas legislator from Topeka. And a plaque designating the former Sumner Elementary School as a National Historic Landmark was stolen in 2012.
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Kansas Bomb Plotter Gets More Prison Time for Child Porn
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors say a Kansas militia member convicted of taking part in a foiled plot to massacre Muslims in southwest Kansas has now been sentenced to even more time behind bars for possession of child pornography. A judge sentenced 50-year-old Patrick Stein on Friday to an additional 44 months in federal prison in a separate case . That sentence is on top of the 30 years he was sentenced last month to serve for plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex in Garden City housing Somali immigrants. The U.S. attorney's office said in a news release Stein pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography. Investigators executing warrants in the bomb case discovered up to 149 images of children engaged in sexual activities on his laptop and computer drives.
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Woman Dies in Fiery Crash After Driving Wrong Way on Highway
KECHI, Kan. (AP) — A 24-year-old Wichita woman had died in a crash after she drove the wrong way on a Kansas highway. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the crash early Friday on Kansas 254 in Kechi. KAKE-TV reports Brooke Spainhower lost control on a turn and crashed into a guardrail. Spainhower died when her car caught fire. No other vehicles were involved.
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Girl Charged as Juvenile in Overland Park Teen's Death
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 17-year-old Olathe girl has been charged along with an adult suspect in the death of an Overland Park teenager. The girl was charged as a juvenile with first-degree felony murder in the January death of 17-year-old Ben Workman-Greco, who was fatally shot at his apartment. Prosecutors have filed notice that they will seek to have her tried as an adult. The Kansas City Star reports prosecutors allege Workman-Greco was killed during a robbery. Her co-defendant, 21-year-old Alan MIchael Hicks, is charged in Johnson County District Court with first-degree felony murder. He was arrested in Las Vegas last week and booked into the Johnson County jail Wednesday night. Hicks made his first court appearance Thursday. He's being held on $1 million bond.
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Kansas Endowment Raises More than $1 Million in 1 Day
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Officials with the KU Endowment say the organization raised more than $1 million in 24 hours to benefit the University of Kansas. Endowment officials announced Thursday that the 24-hour fundraising event on Wednesday — known as "One Day One KU" — raised $1.08 million from 2,635 donors. It was the school's second 24-hour fundraiser. This year's total raised and number of donors surpassed last year's total of a little more than $730,000 from 1,898 gifts. The largest gift received this year was $100,000. KU Endowment is a separate nonprofit organization from the university, but is the official fundraising organization for the school.
Kansas Public Radio raised more than $12,000 for its news department during this year's One Day, One KU campaign.
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Rural Kansas Lawmakers Push Farm Bureau Health Coverage Plan
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Rural state lawmakers are pushing a plan to allow the Kansas Farm Bureau to offer health insurance coverage to members without having to comply with federal mandates. Backers of the Farm Bureau's bill hope that the influential agriculture group can offer lower-cost coverage. But the proposal is drawing strong criticism from Democrats because the Farm Bureau would not be required to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions. Critics of the Farm Bureau's bill worry that it could lure healthy individuals away from other plans, making them less affordable. The state Senate approved the bill Wednesday on a 28-11 vote , sending it to the House. GOP lawmakers argue the bill would give consumers another choice after spikes in health insurance rates that they blame on the federal Affordable Care Act.
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Affidavit: Former Kansas Coach Catalogued Stolen Underwear
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Court documents say a former volunteer volleyball coach at the University of Kansas stole dozens of pairs of underwear from players and catalogued them in labeled plastic storage containers. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the police affidavit released Wednesday says that a search of 23-year-old Skyler Yee's home uncovered a 40-drawer clear plastic storage container. Drawers with underwear tucked inside were labeled with the names of current and former university players and one member of an under-18 volleyball league that he coached. The search also yielded other storage containers, shoes, bras and sex toys from "unidentified owners." Yee was charged this month with 15 counts, including burglary and theft. He resigned last month from his university coaching duties. Defense attorney Casey Meek said previously that Yee maintains his innocence.
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Survey: Banks Raising Farm Loan Collateral Requirements
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A monthly survey of rural bankers in parts of 10 Plains and Western states shows nearly two-thirds of banks in the region have raised farm loan collateral requirements on fears of weakening farm income. The Rural Mainstreet survey for February showed nearly one-third of banks report an increase in the farm loan rejection rate for the same reason. The survey's overall index dropped to 50.2 from January's 51.5. Any score above 50 suggests a growing economy in the months ahead, while a score below 50 indicates a shrinking economy. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, says the rural economy appears to be expanding outside of agriculture, but that tariffs and low agriculture commodity prices continue to weaken the farm sector. Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.
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Fly-Past Honors WW II Airmen Who Died Saving British Children
SHEFFIELD, England (AP) — U.S. and Royal Air Force planes roared over the English city of Sheffield on Friday to honor 10 American airmen who sacrificed their lives to save British children playing in a park beneath their crippled bomber during World War II. The fly-past brought tears to the eyes of 82-year-old Tony Foulds, for he was one of those children at that park. The spectacle over Sheffield's Endcliffe Park was the culmination of decades of lobbying by Foulds, who wanted an aerial display befitting the young fliers who died that day. As thousands of spectators watched from the park below and the BBC broadcast live on its morning news program, the climax came when four U.S. fighters passed overhead, with one veering skyward in the missing man formation to honor the fallen. "That was worth waiting 66 years for," Foulds said as he dabbed his eyes with a wadded tissue and recalled the dream he'd had since he was 17. The crowd burst into a cheer of "Hip, hip hooray!" for Foulds, who has tended a nearby memorial for the airmen for decades, wracked with guilt because he believed he was responsible for the deaths of Lt. John G. Kriegshauser and the crew of the B-17G Flying Fortress nicknamed "Mi Amigo."
Kriegshauser, a 23-year-old pilot from St. Louis, Missouri, was on his 15th mission on February 22, 1944, when Mi Amigo was hit by enemy fire during a daylight raid on the Aalborg airfield in occupied Denmark, a key fighter base that protected Germany from Allied bombers. The crew nursed the damaged plane back across the North Sea, trying to reach their base in Chelveston, England. But the weather was poor, and when the plane broke through the clouds it was over Sheffield, 80 miles northwest. Tony was almost 8 years old that day and had joined a group of children for a schoolyard brawl in Endcliffe Park, an oasis of green surrounded on three sides by terraced houses and dense woodland on the other. After five years of war, including German attacks on Sheffield's steel and armaments plants, the boys were accustomed to hearing planes. But the sound of this aircraft wasn't right.
The plane circled over the stretch of green and one of the airmen waved his arms at the kids. They waved back, thinking he was being friendly. Years later, Tony realized he was trying to get them to clear the field. "No one will ever tell me any different: I killed these lads," Foulds told The Associated Press. "And that will always stay with me."
In January, BBC presenter Dan Walker chanced upon Foulds tending the memorial, as he does some 260 days a year, and took up his call for an aerial tribute. Walker started a Twitter campaign under the hashtag #gettonyaflypast. On Friday, another group of hashtags were trending on Twitter: #TonyGotAFlypast, #RememberTheTen, and #sheffieldflypast.
Painted on the sides of the planes were the names of the crew, young men from every corner of America. In addition to Kriegshauser and Hernandez, there were 2nd Lt. Lyle Curtis of Idaho Falls, co-pilot; 2nd Lt. John W. Humphrey of Wyoming, Illinois, navigator; Staff Sgt. Robert Mayfield of Raymond, Illinois, radio operator; Sgt. Vito Ambrosio of Brooklyn, waist gunner; Staff Sgt. Harry Estabrooks of Mound Valley, Kansas, flight engineer and top turret gunner; Sgt. George M. Williams of Faxon, Oklahoma, waist gunner; Sgt. Charles Tuttle of Raceland, Kentucky, ball turret gunner; and Sgt. Maurice Robbins of Manor, Texas, rear gunner.
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