Kansas Governor Proposes Ending State Sales Tax on Groceries
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Governor Laura Kelly is proposing to eliminate the Kansas sales tax on groceries. The plan outlined by the Democratic governor Monday would save many families hundreds of dollars a year and consumers a total of $450 million a year. She unveiled her proposal three days after Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt called on the GOP-controlled Legislature to reduce or eliminate the tax next year. Schmidt hopes to unseat Kelly in the 2022 governor’s race. Their support is likely to make reducing or ending the 6.5% state sales tax on groceries a top issue for lawmakers once they reconvene in January. Kansas has the second-highest state sales tax rate on groceries.
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Governor Pushing to End High Kansas Sales Tax on Groceries
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Many Kansas families would save hundreds of dollars a year under a proposal from Democratic Governor Laura Kelly to eliminate the state’s sales tax on groceries. The proposal outlined Monday by Kelly would save consumers $6.50 on every $100 of groceries they buy and a total of roughly $450 million a year. The governor unveiled her proposal three days after GOP Attorney General Derek Schmidt called on lawmakers to cut or eliminate the 6.5% tax. With both of them supporting the idea, it's more likely to pass the Legislature after lawmakers reconvene in January. Kelly promised in her 2018 race for governor to reduce or eliminate the tax.
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UPDATE: GOP Wants Kansas to Move Against Vaccine Mandates This Month
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kansas are pushing to enact new state laws before Thanksgiving to protect workers financially if they refuse to comply with federal mandates to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Top GOP leaders called Tuesday for lawmakers to have a special session to consider proposals making it easier for workers to claim religious exemptions from vaccine mandates and providing unemployment benefits to workers who are fired for refusing to get inoculated. Both proposals emerged from a legislative committee meeting Tuesday and are a response to vaccine mandates announced in September by President Joe Biden. Lawmakers can force a special session if two-thirds of them sign a petition.
(–Earlier Reporting–)
Kansas Lawmakers Closer to Special Session on COVID Mandates
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Support is growing among Republicans to call the GOP-controlled Kansas Legislature into a special session before Thanksgiving to enact new laws for protecting workers who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Senate President Ty Masterson said Tuesday that he wants lawmakers to reconvene Nov. 22 to consider proposals he outlined to make it easier for workers to claim religious exemptions from vaccine mandates and to give workers unemployment benefits if they’re fired for refusing to get inoculated. The measures are a response to mandates from President Joe Biden. Masterson and other GOP leaders had been wary of pushing for lawmakers to reconvene before they're set to meet again in January.
GOP Leader Pushing to Protect Kansas Workers Refusing Shots
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A top Republican lawmaker is pushing to protect the ability of Kansas workers to claim religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates and to provide unemployment benefits if they won’t get inoculated. Senate President Ty Masterson outlined his proposals Tuesday during a meeting of a joint legislative committee looking for ways for Kansas to resist COVID-19 vaccine mandates imposed by President Joe Biden. The committee was expected to take up Masterson’s proposals. Masterson told reporters during a break in the committee’s meeting that he’s more seriously considering having lawmakers call themselves into special session to consider such proposals. The full GOP-controlled Legislature isn’t scheduled to reconvene until January.
Kansas Lawmakers Meet to Battle Federal Vaccine Mandates
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — A federal appeals in court Louisiana temporarily halted one of Democratic President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates over the weekend. But Kansas lawmakers looking for ways to fight it and an earlier mandate will continue their work Tuesday. A special committee formed by Republican legislative leaders to fight the mandates is ready to start formulating recommendations to the full Legislature. They’ll start that process by getting briefings on both of Biden’s orders. The first, which remains in force, covers federal contractors. The second, the one stayed by the appeals court, covers private businesses with more than 100 employees. Kansas Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a candidate for governor, has joined multi-state lawsuits against both mandates. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly has also come out against the latest order, saying it’s ill-timed and won’t be effective. The Biden administration says it’s confident of winning in court.
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Kansas Schools Offering Pay Boosts to Keep Teachers
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — School districts in Kansas are scrambling to hold onto teachers and keep classrooms staffed this school year. The Wichita school district will give employees a 1.5% bonus next month (DEC) and another 1% in March in appreciation for sticking it out during the pandemic and an incentive to keep working. For teachers, that’s in addition to a 2.5% raise and 4% bonus they’ll get as part of this year’s contract. It’s an effort to attract and keep workers during a nationwide labor shortage and lingering pandemic. Wichita could spend up to $9 million on the bonuses, which will come from funds budgeted for unfilled positions. The Topeka district announced in September that it’s giving an extra $5,000 to many full-time workers, including custodians and school secretaries. Schools in Salina and Lawrence are also offering retention pay.
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Kansas Faces Staffing Shortage for Winter Highway Clearing
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Transportation says it is facing a staffing shortage that could slow the clearing of highways in winter storms. The department said Tuesday that it is about 30% short of being fully staffed with snowplow operators across the state. The agency said the staffing shortage is worse this year than it has been in the past. Transportation Secretary Julie Lorenz said the staffing shortage means that with inclement weather, some highways might not be cleared as quickly as they have been in the past. She said she’s warning motorists now so they can plan ahead or alter travel plans when the state faces winter storms.
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Police: Student Stabbed Outside Kansas City, Kansas School
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police say a student is recovering after being stabbed outside Schlagle High School in Kansas City, Kansas. Police say the stabbing happened around 7 a.m. Tuesday on school grounds before classes began. The student was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening. Police say two other students were taken into custody for questioning after the attack. Police have not released the identities of any of the students involved.
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Report: Much Kansas Tap Water Contains Toxic Chemicals
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — An environmental advocacy group says drinking water across Kansas contains potentially dangerous levels of chemicals that can cause cancer and birth defects. The Environmental Working Group's new tap water database highlights harmful chemicals, from arsenic to chloroform, that show up statewide. The most common contaminant is nitrate, which has been shown to cause cancer. Levels of nitrate, which can come from fertilizer runoff, are already over the federal limit in some small towns. The report says that as water sources like the Ogallala aquifer are depleted, those harmful chemicals become even more concentrated. That forces treatment plants to add more disinfectants, which increases costs and adds new chemicals byproducts to the water. The environmental group says the rules for chemicals in tap water were set decades ago and haven’t been updated to account for new chemicals or new understanding of the harm they can do. The report shows elevated levels of nitrate in more than 800 Kansas water districts, from Kansas City to Hutchinson to Garden City.
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Missouri Inmate Adamantly Denies Role in 1978 Triple Murder
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Kansas City man who has been jailed for more than 40 years for a triple murder is adamantly and repeatedly denying having anything to do with the crime. Kevin Strickland testified during a long-sought evidentiary hearing that could lead to his freedom, which he said he has been pursuing since his 1979 conviction. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and other legal and political leaders believe Strickland was wrongfully convicted. Peters Baker said evidence used to convict him had been recanted or disproven since his trial. Attorney General Eric Schmitt is fighting his release, saying he believes Strickland is guilty.
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Culture War Fight Finds Mixed Success in School Board Races
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — School board candidates opposing mask mandates and lessons about racism in U.S. history won in red states and some politically divided districts, but often came up short in their bids to shape policy for school districts over the newest culture war issue., The political tracking website Ballotpedia identified 96 school districts across more than a dozen states where race education and masking were part of the debate. It found that at least one anti-critical race theory or anti-mask candidate prevailed in 35 of the 86 districts in which it has determined winners, or 40%.
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White Kansas City Officer on Trial in Black Man's 2019 Death
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A trial is underway for a Kansas City, Missouri, police officer accused of involuntary manslaughter in a 2019 shooting — the first time that a white officer from the city has been criminally accused of killing a Black man. Officer Eric J. DeValkenaere also is charged with armed criminal action in the death of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb. The officer says he shot Lamb after Lamb pointed a gun at another detective. But DeValkenaere's partner told a grand jury he did not see Lamb with a weapon. The killing was often evoked in protests last year against racial injustice in Kansas City. The Kansas City Star reports the bench trial is expected to last a week.
CORRECTION:
The Associated Press issued a correction to this story on November 19, 2021. The AP, based on a story from The Kansas City Star, reported that the case was the first in which a white officer in the city was charged in the death of a Black person. It was not. Such a case also happened in 1942.
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Man Who Stabbed, Ran over Doctor Sentenced to Life in Prison
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 26-year-old man who stabbed a Wichita psychiatrist more than 160 times and then ran over him with a car has been sentenced to life in prison. Umar Dutt was sentenced Tuesday for first-degree murder in the death of 57-year-old Dr. Achutha Reddy in September 2017. Dutt pleaded guilty in September. Prosecutors said police found Reddy's body behind Holistic Psychiatric Services clinic, where Dutt was a client of Reddy's. He entered the building and began assaulting Reddy, who escaped before Dutt caught up with him in the alley. Prosecutors said Dutt stabbed Reddy 165 times and ran him over with a car.
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Police: 1 Woman Killed, Another Wounded in Wichita Shooting
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police in Wichita say one woman has died and another has been wounded in a shooting outside a home. Police say the shooting happened around 10:30 p.m. Sunday just west of Highland Cemetery following a disturbance. Arriving officers found two women who had been shot in front of a home. Both were rushed to a hospital, where one of the women died from her injuries. Police have not released the women's names. Wichita Police Lt. Roderick Miller told television station KAKE that investigators were interviewing neighbors and the surviving woman to learn more details of the shooting.
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Kansas Man Accused of Letting Children Be Sexually Assaulted
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence man is accused of allowing children in his care to be sexually assaulted in exchange for rent. A Douglas County judge has ruled that 42-year-old Cormick Ferrell, of Lawrence, should stand trial on two counts of aggravated human trafficking. Prosecutors say Ferrell allowed a former landlord to sexually assault two children in exchange for rent during a period of more than three years. The children were 6 and 7-years-old when the alleged assaults began. Ferrell's attorney, Branden Smith, argued in court that there was no documentation showing Ferrell received any rent assistance in exchange for letting the landlord assault the children. The landlord, Mark Strand, is also facing charges but he's currently in federal prison following a conviction in an unrelated case that involved a minor and sexual activity.
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FBI: Suspected Serial Killer's Tattoo Played Role in Capture
UNDATED (AP) – Security camera footage, shell casings and a small but distinctive tattoo played pivotal roles in the arrest of a man suspected in at least six killings over the past two months in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas. The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s office on Tuesday charged Perez Deshay Reed in the shooting deaths of two people in September. Reed was charged Saturday in two other fatal shootings that month in St. Louis County. He is also suspected of killing two people more recently in Kansas City, Kansas, and the FBI has called him a suspected serial killer.
(–Related–)
St. Louis County Man Charged in 2 Deaths, Under Investigation in KCK Homicides
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis County man is charged with two separate killings, and police are trying to determine if he was involved in at least four other homicides in Missouri and Kansas. Perez Deshay Reed is suspected of killing a 16-year-old girl and a 40-year-old man in September in St. Louis County. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, citing a police affidavit filed in federal court, says Reed could be tied to at least four other homicides and additional shootings. Police are investigating if Reed killed two people whose bodies were found earlier this month in an apartment complex in Kansas City, Kansas. He is also suspected in at least two St. Louis city killings.
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Man Found Dead After Shooting in Kansas City Suburb
LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a homicide after a man was found dead in the parking lot of a Sonic restaurant in suburban Kansas City. Police in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, found the man after gunshots were reported in the area Saturday evening. The victim was identified as 51-year-old Randall Lord of Kansas City. Police spokesman Sgt. Christopher Depue said witnesses reported hearing a loud disturbance between people in the parking lot before the shots were fired. The suspect fled shortly before police arrived. Police declined to release a description of the suspect. But the incident was captured on video by several witnesses and surveillance cameras in the parking lot.
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Police: Student Stabbed Outside Kansas City, Kansas, School
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) _ Police say a student is recovering after being stabbed outside Schlagle High School in Kansas City, Kansas. Police say the stabbing happened around 7 a.m. Tuesday on school grounds before classes began. The student was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening. Police say two other students were taken into custody for questioning after the attack. Police have not released the identities of any of the students involved.
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Police Say 11-Year-Old Central Missouri Girl Dies After Being Hit by Car
SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) _ Police in central Missouri say an 11-year-old girl has died after being hit by a vehicle on a Sedalia street. Television station WDAF reports that police were called to a city intersection around 3 p.m. Monday and found the injured girl. Officials say attempts were made to save the girl's life, but she died of her injuries at the scene. Police have not yet released her name. No information about the vehicle that hit her or its driver has been released.
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Man Charged in 2020 Killing of Pregnant Woman in Kansas City
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ A 19-year-old man has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death last year of a pregnant Kansas City woman as she was pushing her baby in a stroller. David Everson was charged Monday in the July 2020 death of 20-year-old Diamon Eichelburger. Everson is the second person charged in Eichelburger's death. Last year, police arrested Jovon Burrell in the killing, saying he was driving the car from which Eichelburger was shot. Police say Eichelburger was pushing a stroller with her 1-year-old child and walking with her boyfriend at a convenience store when a car pulled up and someone inside it asked if she was Diamon. When she confirmed her identity, someone in the car shot her several times. The child in the stroller was not hurt.
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Two Killed in Southeast Kansas When Car Slams into Tractor
WINFIELD, Kan. (AP) _ Authorities in southeastern Kansas say two people were killed when the car they were in slammed into a farm combine harvester on a road and erupted in flames. The Cowley County Sheriff's Office says the crash happened Sunday on a county road just north of Winfield when the southbound car hit the combine, went underneath the farm implement and caught fire. Officials say two people in the car died. Sheriff David Falletti told KAKE that the two killed have not yet been identified, and autopsies have been ordered. The driver of the combine was not injured.
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Feds Propose Threatened Status for Alligator Snapping Turtle
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing threatened status for alligator snapping turtles -- huge, spike-shelled beasts that lurk at the bottom of slow waterways, luring prey to their mouths by extending a wormlike lure. Every state in their range now protects them, but the lingering effects of catching the reptiles for turtle soup are among reasons their numbers are now so low. They once were found in Kansas and Indiana, but their territory now spans 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The federal agency on Monday posted a preview of a Federal Register notice planned Tuesday.
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Big 12 Hoops Could Be a Winner in Latest Conference Shuffle
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Nobody disputes that conference realignment has been driven by the big money from football. But while losing Oklahoma and Texas takes some shine off the Big 12, the league’s basketball coaches believe the addition of Houston, Cincinnati, BYU and Central Florida could make what already is one of the toughest leagues in the country even tougher. Nothing comes without consequences, though, and the Big 12′s gain will have ripple effects on mid-majors from the east coast to the west.
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Big 12 Eyeing as Many as 9 of 10 Teams Bowl-Eligible
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Half of the 10 teams in the Big 12 already have the six wins needed to go to a bowl game. Kansas State and Iowa State joined the club last weekend. They joined fourth-ranked Oklahoma, which at 9-0 is eyeing a spot in the college football playoff, 10th-ranked Oklahoma State and No. 18 Baylor in ensuring they’ll be playing in the postseason. Four more could reach the six-win plateau and make nine of the 10 teams in the league eligible.
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Paralympic Games Wheelchair Tennis Champ Nick Taylor Retires
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Three-time Paralympic wheelchair tennis champion medalist Nick Taylor has announced his retirement. Taylor won 11 Grand Slam doubles titles with David Wagner — seven at the U.S. Open and four at the Australian Open. At the Paralympic Games, they won gold medals in 2004, 2008 and 2012, along with a silver in 2016. Taylor also won the quad singles bronze in 2012. The pair played together at an event at the USTA National Campus in Orlando over the weekend, and it was Taylor’s farewell to competition. Taylor, who is from Wichita and is an assistant tennis coach at Wichita State University, turns 42 this week.
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New-Look Jayhawks Ready for Michigan State in New York
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas men's basketball team returned just about everyone from last year’s NCAA Tournament team. Yet somehow, the third-ranked Jayhawks look completely different heading into Tuesday’s Champions Classic opener against Michigan State in New York City. Their only significant loss was floor leader and defensive stopper Marcus Garrett. And the Jayhawks replaced him by bringing in a group of transfers led by Arizona State star Remy Martin, along with a group of talented freshmen that could see the floor right away. Coach Bill Self expects his team to be nervous against the Spartans.
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These area headlines are curated by KPR news staffers, including J. Schafer, Laura Lorson, Kaye McIntyre and Tom Parkinson. Our headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays. This news summary is made possible by KPR listener-members. Become one today!