Kansas Governor Aims to Spur 2020 Census Participation
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Laura Kelly is creating an advisory committee that aims to ensure every person in Kansas is counted in the 2020 Census. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the governor signed an executive order Tuesday that charged the committee with sparking public engagement in Kansas ahead of the official count. The Census dictates the amount of federal funding for 55 federal programs in Kansas. It also determines the number of U.S. House members representing the state and the redrawing of boundaries for Kansas legislative districts. Kelly appointed Brian McClendon, a University of Kansas professor and former executive at Google, to co-chair the committee along with Dodge City Commissioner Joyce Warshaw. Kansas stands to lose about $1,539 in federal funds annually for 10 years for every person not counted in the Census.
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Kansas Man Gets Life in Prison for Killing at Perry Lake
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man convicted of killing a Lawrence man at a northeast Kansas lake has been ordered to spend life in prison with no chance of parole for 50 years. County Attorney Joshua Ney says Jonathan D. Blevins was sentenced to the "Hard 50" Thursday in Jefferson County District Court. The Lawrence Journal-World reports a jury convicted Blevins in March of first-degree premeditated murder in the March 14, 2018, shooting death of 22-year-old Taylor D. Sawyer. At his trial, Blevins tried to pin the crime on Ashlyn N. Hemmerling of Baldwin City, who is set for trial June 10 on a charge of first-degree murder. Hemmerling is accused of orchestrating the killing at Perry Lake.
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Zoo Investigates Animal Handling After Tiger Attacks Worker
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Officials are investigating animal handling protocols after a Sumatran tiger attacked and seriously injured a Kansas zookeeper as she was cleaning the animal's enclosure. Topeka Zoo director Brendan Wiley says problems with the enclosure aren't to blame for Saturday's attack of 40-year-old Kristyn Hayden-Ortega. He says she continues to improve at a hospital after she was moved Sunday out of intensive care. Wiley says the 7-year-old male tiger named Sanjiv was merely reacting to Hayden-Ortega being in his enclosure when he tackled her as several visitors watched. The tiger then was lured away so she could receive help. Wiley says he hasn't yet spoken to Hayden-Ortega about what happened. She has worked at the zoo since 2002. The zoo has no plans to euthanize Sanjiv, who is back on display.
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Skeletal Remains Found in Wooded Area West of Topeka; Search for More Underway
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are searching a wooded area west of Topeka where skeletal remains were found. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Shawnee County sheriff's Lt. Harry Louderback says deputies responded Monday after receiving a report that the remains had been found near a Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism office. The remains were removed with the assistance of the Shawnee County Coroner's Office. Louderback said that because of heavy vegetation, the search was postponed until daybreak today (TUE). No other details were announced about the nature of the remains.
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Wichita Man Sentenced for Abusing His 2-Month-Old Son
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man has been sentenced to more than six years in state prison for abusing his 2-month-old son. Prosecutors dropped an attempted murder charge against Thomas Avery Harper in exchange for his guilty plea to aggravated battery and child abuse. Sedgwick County authorities say Harper was sentenced Friday to six years and four months in prison. The Wichita Eagle reports Harper was arrested in October after police responded to a child abuse call at Wesley Medical Center. The child's 20-year-old mother told police the child had several injuries when she returned home after leaving the baby in his father's care. Prosecutors said Harper tried to kill the baby by putting both hands around his neck and squeezing. They also alleged he caused the child bodily harm and "cruelly beat" him.
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Kansas Man Sentenced to 14 Years for Child Sex Crime
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 64-year-old Kansas man has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for driving to Missouri because he believed a woman was willing to sell her 10-year-old daughter to become his sex slave. Federal prosecutors say Michael David Mitchell of Ottawa was also ordered Monday to pay $5,000 to the Justice of Victims of Trafficking Act. Mitchell pleaded guilty last month to interstate travel to engage in unlawful sexual conduct. Prosecutors say Mitchell communicated with an undercover office posing as a broker who would connect him with a woman willing to sell her child to become his sex slave. Mitchell said took $5,000 from Ottawa to Independence, Missouri, to meet the woman.
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Report: Driver Says Brakes Failed Before He Killed Teen
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A 70-year-old driver told investigators that his brakes failed before his car careened onto a suburban Kansas City sidewalk where it struck and killed a 14-year-old girl and narrowly missed three other children. The Kansas City Star reports that police in Overland Park released the report Monday about the April 12 crash that killed Alexandra Rumple as she was walking home from a nearby middle school. The report says the driver had a valid license without any restriction and showed no evidence of impairment. Toxicology results are pending. Police say the car also hit a traffic light, knocking it off its base, struck a speed limit sign and destroyed about 80 feet of a wood fence. The driver told police he tried to stop, but his brakes weren't working.
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Kansas Governor Vetoes Measure About Abortion "Reversals"
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' new Democratic governor has vetoed a measure that would require abortion providers to tell patients about a disputed treatment to stop a medication abortion after it's been started. Governor Laura Kelly's action Monday sets up a confrontation with the Republican-controlled Legislature. Supporters of the abortion "reversal" bill appear to have the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override Kelly's veto. Lawmakers return from a weekslong break on May 1. Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota and Kentucky all have similar laws. Abortion opponents contend such measures ensure that women harboring doubts about ending their pregnancies will learn that they can stop a medication abortion after the first of two pills. Abortion-rights supporters say such mandates force doctors to present patients with dubious information.
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Top Kansas Court Asked to Say Who Names Judge
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is asking the state Supreme Court to decide whether Governor Laura Kelly can nominate a new judge to the state Court of Appeals. Schmidt filed a petition Monday with the Supreme Court for a ruling on whether Kelly nominates the new judge or whether the nomination must be made by Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss. Kelly withdrew her first choice of Labette County District Judge Jeffry Jack last month because of political posts on Jack's Twitter feed in 2017. The governor is moving ahead to nominate another candidate for confirmation by the Kansas Senate. Senate President Susan Wagle says because Kelly withdrew Jack's nomination, she missed a deadline for making the nomination and it now falls to Nuss under a 2013 law.
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Henry Bloch, Co-Founder of Tax Company H&R Block, Dies at 96
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Tax preparer H&R Block says its co-founder, Henry Bloch, has died at the age of 96. The company says he died of natural causes Tuesday at St. Luke's Hospice in Kansas City. Bloch founded H&R Block in 1955 with his brother, Richard, after the Internal Revenue Service stopped providing free income tax returns service. Henry Bloch retired as the company's chief executive officer in 1992 and as chairman of the board of directors in 2000. He also was a philanthropist who started a foundation with his wife, Marion, that supported numerous charitable causes, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. H&R Block president and chief executive officer Richard Green said in a written statement that Bloch "embodied the best of American business."
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Man Who Shot Chinese Missionary While on Drugs Pleads Guilty
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man who police say was high on drugs when he shot at people in Kansas City last summer has pleaded guilty to killing a Chinese missionary. The Kansas City Star reports 19-year-old Curtrail Hudson pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and seven other charges in the August 2018 death of 38-year-old Xindong Hao. Prosecutors say Hao was out walking in a neighborhood when Hudson, who was high on PCP, approached him and shot him. He also shot two other people, who survived. Hao had arrived in Kansas City the day before he was shot after enrolling his four children in a day camp at the International House of Prayer. Hudson told police he thought Hao knew another man Hudson had argued with moments before. That man was one of the other shooting victims.
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Wichita Man Killed in Fight During Easter Meal Preparations
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police say a man was stabbed to death when two couples began arguing while preparing an Easter meal. Police Captain Brent Allred said the couples lived together and were making a meal Sunday when 53-year-old Keith Kevell Thurman and 62-year-old Albert Thomas began arguing. At some point, the men went outside and the fight turned physical. Police say Thurman stabbed Thomas several times and he died outside the home. Allred said it wasn't clear what prompted the men's arguments. Officers found Thurman and his 57-year-old girlfriend at a hospital being treated for wounds. Allred said the girlfriend was stabbed in the arm when she tried to break up the men's argument. The Wichita Eagle reports Thurman is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder.
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Kansas Patrol: Army Vet, Wife Killed in Crash with Vulture
MEDICINE LODGE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a vulture caused a crash that killed an Army veteran and his wife as they rode a motorcycle in southern Kansas. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the bird came out of a ditch Saturday afternoon and struck 42-year-old Brandon Husband, of Fowler, in the head on a rural road near Medicine Lodge, about 75 miles southwest of Wichita. The motorcycle then went off the road, struck a barbed wire fence and overturned. The patrol says neither Husband nor his wife, 43-year-old Jennifer Lynn Husband , was wearing a helmet. Brandon Husband's obituary says he served one tour in Kosovo, three in Afghanistan and was part of an Iraqi soldier training mission on the Iraq-Jordan border. The Husbands leave behind four children.
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Woman Charged in Kansas Death Arrested in California
COLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a 57-year-old Kansas woman sought in the murder of a homeless man two years ago was arrested Sunday in California. Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves said Diana Bohlander was taken into custody in Santa Barbara. Bohlander is charged with first-degree murder in the August 2017 death of 64-year-old James McFarland, whose body was found along a road in southeast Cherokee County. Bohlander's 23-year-old son, Ty Bohlander, was arrested last month in Santa Monica, California, and has been returned to Kansas. He is also charged with first-degree murder. The Joplin Globe reports the Bohlanders and McFarland, who were all homeless, were known to be together in the weeks before McFarland's death. The sheriff's office has not said how McFarland was killed.
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LGBTQ-Friendly Wichita Church Vandalized; Not the First Time
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The pastor of a Wichita church that has been repeatedly vandalized says she believes her congregation is being targeted because it is welcoming of people who are gay, lesbian and transgender. KSNW-TV reports that Table of Hope Pastor Jackie Carter says she started crying Monday when she found 16 windows cracked, shattered and broken. The church previously was broken into and had other windows broken. She says it has "gone beyond somebody just wanting to have some fun." The pastor and her congregation believe it has something to do with their message of inclusion. The church has replaced its busted first-floor windows and will make stained glass repairs later in the week. Anyone with information is asked to call Wichita police.
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Website Designed to Catch Child Support Evaders Caught Just 1 Man
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas government website designed to nab child support evaders has been taken down after it caught only one man in a year. The Wichita Eagle reports that the Kansas Department for Children and Families spokesman Mike Deines says the Child Support Evaders website "had little to no traffic and was not an effective tool." He says it's important not to make detection efforts public because that helps evaders. Former Governor Jeff Colyer announced the website in April 2018 as the state struggled to improve child support collections. It listed people who owed more than $5,000 in late child support and included the person's name, mug shot, the amount owed and where they were last seen. Similar online photo name-and-shame campaigns have been undertaken in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and Georgia.
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School Where Band Room Was Vandalized Gets Donated Instruments
PRETTY PRARIE, Kan. (AP) — Students at a Kansas school where the band room was extensively damaged are back to practice thanks to a donation from another school district. KAKE-TV reports the Hutchinson Public Schools donated instruments to the band program at Pretty Prairie High School. The Pretty Prairie district says Hutchinson's donation replaced all the instruments damaged earlier this month when vandals trashed the music room. The donation allowed the Pretty Prairie band to reschedule its spring concert to May 3. Four students, three of whom are between the ages of 8 and 11, were suspended after the vandalism.
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Rufus Teague Launches Two New Sugar-Free BBQ Sauces
KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 23, 2019--Rufus Teague, a leading independent maker of craft BBQ sauces and rubs, has announced its first-ever sugar-free line of BBQ Sauces. The new flavors “ Slim N’ Sweet ” and “ Smoke ‘N Chipotle ” expand Rufus Teague’s award-winning line of premium quality, gluten-free and all-natural barbecue sauces. Rufus Teague’s new sugar-free barbecue sauces are named “Slim N’ Sweet” and “Smoke ‘N Chipotle.” Rufus Teague is an independent producer of craft BBQ sauces and dry rubs.
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