Kelly Cancels No-Bid Contracts Worth More than $110 Million
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Governor Laura Kelly's administration is canceling two no-bid contracts valued at more than $110 million that were negotiated by Kansas Revenue Department officials from previous administrations. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the 10-year contracts with CGI Technologies were awarded to overhaul and outsource its information technology systems. The state has paid $28 million to CGI under the agreements reached while Republicans Sam Brownback and Jeff Colyer were governor. Revenue Secretary Mark Burghart said CGI didn't adequately perform its contractual obligations. Kelly said the no-bid contract process produced agreements that weren't in the state's best interests. She said the bidding process ensures contracts are transparent. The governor sent a letter terminating the contacts Thursday but her administration had been reviewing IT operations in the revenue department since taking office in January.
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KBI Completes Investigation of KCK Police Chief
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has completed its investigation of the police chief in Kansas City, Kansas, and turned over results to the Wyandotte County District Attorney's office. A spokeswoman for KBI told WDAF-TV Wednesday that the bureau wrapped up the investigation last week. It's unclear when prosecutors will decide whether to file criminal charges against Terry Zeigler. The investigation centers on whether Ziegler "double dipped" when he took paid time off work while also charging the county government for work he did on a lake house.The Unified Government allowed Ziegler to pay little rent on the house on Wyandotte Lake Park if he made repairs on the property. Officials put the lease in writing after a citizen inquired about it.
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Autopsy: Topeka Man Fatally Shot by Trooper Was on Drugs
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An autopsy report says a Topeka motorist who was fatally shot by a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper in November was under the influence of methamphetamine. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Shawnee County District Coroner Ransom Ellis said the autopsy found methamphetamine, amphetamine and marijuana in the system of 35-year-old Jarmane Logan. He died of a single gunshot wound. Investigators say the trooper and a Topeka police officer were being dragged through the snow by Logan's vehicle when he was shot. Logan was trying to drive away with two women the officers were trying to take into custody. Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay said in January that the shooting was justified. The trooper's name hasn't been made public.
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Rejected Kansas Court Nominee Says His Rejection Discourages Public Service
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Court of Appeals candidate whose nomination was rejected by the state Senate says its actions and members' comments about him will discourage qualified people from serving the state. Labette County District Judge Jeffry Jack also said that he is happy to put his record up against the Senate's record. The Senate voted 38-0 against Jack's nomination to the state's second-highest court. His nomination was doomed by political tweets he made in 2017 criticizing President Donald Trump and other Republicans. He's also facing a call for the state Commission on Judicial Conduct to review his behavior and consider whether he has violated judicial ethics. Jack says he intends to remain as a trial-court judge and "apply the law to the facts without personal bias or partisan advantage."
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OxyContin Maker Faces Flood of Claims from States, Including Kansas
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The flurry of legal actions against the company that makes OxyContin is intensifying. The Idaho Attorney General's Office sent notices last week to Purdue Pharma and lawyers for the Sackler family, which owns the Connecticut-based drugmaker, that it intends to take legal action against them. The letters were disclosed Thursday in response to a public records request made to the state by The Associated Press. They say Purdue had "ample opportunity" to reach a settlement.
The disclosure comes the same day that five other states announced lawsuits or administrative actions against the company, seeking to hold it accountable for an opioid crisis. Now, all but three states have taken legal action against Purdue or indicated they plan to. The company says states are using "stunningly overbroad legal theories" as they pursue the cases.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The company that makes OxyContin says it will defend itself against lawsuits trying to hold it responsible for a national opioid crisis, as five states announced new legal actions against the company. Purdue Pharma said in a statement that the states cannot link the harm of opioids to the company and says the states have "invented stunningly overbroad legal theories" to try to do so. With filings on Thursday from Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia and Wisconsin, 45 states and about 2,000 local and tribal governments now have recent legal action against the Connecticut-based company. Despite promises of a defense, a Purdue lawyer also said Thursday that the company is working "to try to reach some resolution that is in the best interests of the parties and the public health."
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Five state attorneys general have announced new lawsuits against the maker of OxyContin as they seek to hold the drug industry responsible for an opioid crisis. Filings were announced Thursday by officials in Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia and Wisconsin. With the suits, 45 states are now taking legal action against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, asserting that the company downplayed the addiction risks of its powerful prescription drug. Several states are also other drugmakers or distributors. Pennsylvania's attorney general also announced a suit this week against Purdue, saying the company was not working in good faith on a settlement agreement. Purdue disputes that. The company had a legal win this month when a North Dakota judge dismissed that state's claim against the company.
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Regents Frustrated by Universities' Request for More Tuition
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Despite an increase in state funding for higher education, four the Kansas' six major universities are asking for tuition increases for next year. During a meeting Wednesday, some members of the Kansas Board of Regents expressed frustration with the university administrators for seeking increases. The Wichita Eagle reports the board will vote on the proposals in June and it is unclear if there are enough votes to approve them. University officials said the proposed increases would be the smallest in decades. The University of Kansas and Wichita State are asking for a 1 percent increase for Kansas residents. Emporia State requested a 2.5 percent increase and Kansas State is seeking a 3.1 percent hike. Pittsburg State and Fort Hays State did not ask for higher tuition.
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Judge: Jury to Decide Merit of Kansas Abortion Stalking Case
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A judge will mostly leave it to a jury to decide whether the operator of a Wichita abortion facility had reasonable grounds to seek a protection-from-stalking order against an abortion protester. U.S. District Judge John Broomes partially granted on Thursday the request from clinic operator Julie Burkhart to throw out some claims in the lawsuit filed by anti-abortion activist Mark Holick. The dustup stems from anti-abortion protests in 2012 and 2013 near Burkhart's home. She subsequently got a temporary protection-from-stalking order against him that was dismissed two years later. Holick then filed a federal lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution and abuse of process. Broomes dismissed the claim the petition seeking protection from stalking was an abuse of process, but left it to jurors to decide whether the facts constituted malicious prosecution.
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Kansas Department of Insurance's Topeka Office Closed Until Monday
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Insurance's Topeka office will be closed for the rest of the week after the air conditioning quit working during unusually high temperatures. Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt said Thursday the office will reopen Monday, using a temporary portable swamp cooling system. The Wichita Eagle reports the air conditioning has been out since Monday but temperatures Monday and Tuesday were in the 60s and low 70s. When temperatures outside hit 86 Wednesday, they reached into the 90s inside the agency's Topeka office. Highs Thursday and Friday are expected to be in the mid-90s. Because the department is in a building constructed in 1924, employees couldn't even open the windows to catch a breeze. It will take four to six weeks to put in a new air conditioning system.
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Feds Settle Equal Pay Lawsuit with Kansas School District
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has settled its lawsuit against a Kansas school district that paid a female principal less than it paid the man she had replaced and less than the man who succeeded her. A consent decree filed Thursday in federal court requires the Unified School District 245 Leroy-Gridley in Coffey County to implement policies prohibiting pay inequity. It requires it to collect wage data by sex for all employees and report it each year to the commission until 2012. The lawsuit stems from the commission's lawsuit last year alleging the school district violated the Equal Pay Act in its compensation of Julie Rosenquist as principal of Gridley Elementary and Southern Coffey County Middle School. The decree requires the district to pay Rosenquist an additional $11,250.
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Two People Dead Following a Fiery Crash Near Topeka
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ Two people are dead following a fiery crash near Topeka. Authorities say that the accident happened around 3:30 a.m. Thursday on Interstate 70 when a car and a box truck collided. Both vehicles left the roadway and the car caught fire. Officials on the scene said two people in the car died. The truck driver is hospitalized with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening.
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Garden City Community College Agrees to Outside Probe After Player's Death
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) _ A southwest Kansas community college has agreed to an independent investigation into the heatstroke death last year of a football player who collapsed after the first day of practice. Trustees for Garden City Community College have voted to authorize the outside probe into the death of 19-year-old Braeden Bradforth of Neptune, New Jersey. The move came after the college faced mounting pressure, including calls by New Jersey's U.S. House delegation for an investigation. Bradforth was found unconscious outside his dorm room on August 1 after practice. He died later that night at a hospital. His mother, Joanne Atkins-Ingram, said Wednesday that she's hoping the investigation will finally let her know her son's last moments. She said she hopes investigators find out what went wrong and how to correct it.
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Texas Woman Pleads Guilty in Kansas Fair Vendors' Deaths
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Texas woman has admitted to her role in the deaths of a couple who were killed at a Kansas fair after one suspect ordered the killings as part of a "carnival mafia" initiation. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said 39-year-old Christine Tenney, of La Marque, Texas, pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated robbery and obstruction of justice. Tenney was charged after the July 2018 deaths of Alfred "Sonny" Carpenter and Pauline Carpenter, both of Wichita, at the Barton County Fair in Kansas, where they were vendors. Their bodies were discovered in a national forest near Van Buren, Arkansas. Three other people were charged with murder in their deaths. Fifty-four-year-old Michael Fowler Jr., of Sarasota, Florida, pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder. Another man is charged with obstructing apprehension. Investigators say there is no "carnival mafia."
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Police Look for Motorcyclist Who Hit Kansas Officer
BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are searching for a man who intentionally hit a northeast Kansas police officer with his motorcycle. The Kansas City Star reports that it happened around 3:00 pm Tuesday after the Bonner Springs police officer tried to stop the motorcyclist for taking a turn too fast and driving into an embankment on Interstate 70. Bonner Springs Sergeant Heather Pate says that instead of stopping, the motorcyclist turned and drove directly at the officer and then headed north on the highway. The officer was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Police are looking for the motorcyclist who was driving a black sports bike with red accents, red and black wheels and stickers on the side.
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Spirit AeroSystems Faces Nearly $200,000 in OSHA Fines
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Aircraft parts maker Spirit AeroSystems faces just over $193,000 in penalties after government officials alleged that the Wichita company exposed some employees to a known carcinogen. The Wichita Eagle reports that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Spirit AeroSystems for allegedly exposing employees to hexavalent chromium during aircraft painting. The agency found six violations, which include allegations that Spirit failed to monitor levels of the cancer-causing substance after a previous violation. OSHA also alleged that painters were exposed to up to 44 times the permissible exposure level of airborne chromium concentration, and that facial hair on some employees prevented their respirators from sealing. Spirit has 15 business days to contest the findings.
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Man Guilty of Stalking Women Who Worked at Massage Parlors
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 67-year-old man accused of stalking several women who worked at massage parlors has been found guilty on eight of 10 federal charges against him. Robert Gross, who has a criminal record dating back to the 1960s, was convicted Wednesday on two of four stalking charges and six gun-related charges. KCTV reports federal prosecutors accused Gross of stalking several women between October 1 and December 22, 2017, mostly employees of massage parlors in Lawrence and Johnson County, Kansas. The women told police their cars were keyed, screws drilled into their tires and their windows smashed out. The jury was shown a video of Gross abusing a Lawrence massage parlor worker. Charges are pending in that case. The Kansas City Star reported in a 2018 series of stories that law enforcement officers suspect Gross is responsible for the killings of several people, including two women who worked in the massage business. He has not been charged in the homicides. Gross's attorney presented no evidence during the trial. Gross was arrested in December 2017 after buying two guns in Liberty, Missouri.
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Survey: Region's Bankers Losing Confidence in Farm Economy
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ A monthly survey of rural bankers in parts of 10 Plains and Western states shows they're rapidly losing confidence in the region's farm economy.The Rural Mainstreet survey for May, released Thursday, shows the survey's overall index dropping from 50 in April to 48.5 this month. Any score above 50 suggests a growing economy, while a score below 50 indicates a shrinking economy. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, blames trade tensions and tariffs, saying they're contributing to losses suffered by grain farmers _ although livestock producers are faring better. Still, Goss says, bankers believe ``the negatives far outweighed the positives.''The survey's confidence index, which gauges bankers' expectations for the economy six months out, plummeted from 50 to 38.2 _ its lowest level in almost two years. Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.
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New Biking and Hiking Trail Opens on Abandoned Rail Line in Kansas City Area
EUGENE, Mo. (AP) _ The first section of new biking and hiking trail created on an abandoned rail line has opened in the Kansas City area. A ribbon-cutting ceremony that's planned for June 1 for the Rock Island Trail will make it official. The 6.4 mile section of trail stretches from southern Kansas City to the suburb of Lee's Summit. Advocates say that when another stretch is completed, it will attract thousands of hikers and cyclists and spur new development. Eventually, the county hopes to connect the trail to the 240-mile Katy Trial. Highlights of the new stretch of trail include a section of that passes through the 453-foot long Vale Tunnel, which was completed in 1904. Trains stopped using the rail line in the early 1980s.
