Southeast Kansas Town Wins 1st Round in Lawsuit over Natural Gas Prices
MULBERRY, Kan. (AP) — A judge has ruled that residents of a small city in southeast Kansas may continue a lawsuit against energy company BP disputing a sharp increase in natural gas prices during freezing weather last February. A Crawford County judge on Wednesday dismissed a motion by BP to end the lawsuit. An attorney for the city of Mulberry and its municipal gas customers says the ruling could make it possible for customers to sue any utility under the Kansas Consumer Protection Act. Mulberry city government and four named residents allege the multinational oil and gas company gouged them by increasing natural gas prices more than 100 times the normal price during last February's freeze.
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Siemens Gamesa Lays Off Workers in Kansas, Iowa
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Siemens Gamesa says it is laying off workers at its plants in Hutchinson and in Fort Madison, Iowa. In Hutchinson, the company manufactures wind nacelles, which hold the generating components in a wind turbine. The Iowa plant manufactures wind turbine blades. The company told employees this week that 69 jobs will be cut in Hutchinson and 121 in Fort Madison. In a news release, the company cited a mandated halt in production during deliberations in a patent infringement case as one reason for the job reductions. The other factor, the company said, is uncertainty about potential new climate change legislation in the U.S.
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Kansas Republicans Tie Remap Law to Pro-Ivermectin Measure
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Kansas Republicans appeared to get the new congressional district lines they wanted this week through horse-trading in the Legislature. Then, hours after the new map became law, the GOP leader who supposedly struck the deal seemed to go back on it. The sparring between Senate President Ty Masterson and Sen. Mark Steffen highlighted tensions among conservatives Friday. Steffen said Masterson secured his and another crucial vote to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of the GOP redistricting plan after what Steffen called a mutual agreement. COVID-19 legislation pushed by Steffen came out of committee. But Masterson quickly sent it back and stripped Steffen and two other Republicans of committee assignments.
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Democrats Will Challenge GOP Redistricting Map in Kansas
TOPEKA, KAn. (KPR) - The head of a national Democratic organization fighting Republican redistricting plans across the country says the group will challenge the Kansas congressional map approved by lawmakers this week over Governor Laura Kelly’s veto. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says the National Democratic Redistricting Committee will challenge the Kansas map in state court. He says the challenge will focus on the map’s division of Wyandotte County. That split moved more than 100,000 of the county’s voters, many of them people of color, out of the state’s Kansas City area district into a more rural, Republican district. “Republicans diluted voices of the most populous and diverse region of the state for partisan gain," he said. "And in doing so, they ignored both the will of the people and decades of precedent.” Republicans in the Kansas Legislature say the split was necessary to offset population growth in Johnson County. The challenge will be filed in Kansas because Democrats believe they have a better chance of prevailing here than in the U.S. Supreme Court.
(Earlier reporting...)
GOP Undoes Veto of Kansas Redistricting Map; Court Challenge Expected
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas have overridden the Democratic governor’s veto of a redistricting plan that politically hurts the state’s only Democrat in Congress. Their action Wednesday likely plunges Kansas into a national legal brawl amid the contest for control of the U.S. House. The vote in the Kansas House was 85-37 to overturn Governor Laura Kelly’s veto. The new map splits the state’s side of the Kansas City area between two districts, making it harder for U.S. Representative Sharice Davids to win reelection. It also moves the liberal northeast Kansas enclave of Lawrence into a district with conservative central and western Kansas communities. Democrats expect to challenge the lines in court. ( Read more hereabout today's vote, or click here for more about Tuesday's Kansas Senate vote to override the veto.)
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Missouri Senate GOP Divided over Gerrymandering Attempts
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri senators remain at odds over a plan to redraw the state's eight U.S. House districts. The Senate quit Wednesday with no resolution after a third day of filibustering by conservative Republicans. But senators are scheduled to try again Thursday. Conservatives are fighting against a proposal backed by Republican legislative leaders that's projected to send six Republicans and two Democrats to the U.S. House. The conservative caucus wants to reshape the districts to give the GOP a chance at winning seven seats. A proposed 7-1 map was defeated Monday night. But conservative stalwarts filibustered the entire day Tuesday and part of Wednesday.
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Kansas Legislature Approves $1 Billion-plus Offer of Breaks to Mystery Firm
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have signed off on the state’s largest-ever taxpayer-funded incentives to attract thousands of new jobs. They did so Wednesday even though most didn’t know the name of the company or what it plans to make. The measure also cuts the state’s corporate income taxes. The Kansas Senate voted 31-9 to approve a bill to create a new incentives program offering a single company hundreds of millions of dollars in breaks once this year and and another company a deal in 2023. The House approved it Tuesday, so it goes to Governor Laura Kelly. Her administration says it is pursuing a $4 billion project, but the secrecy rankles some lawmakers.
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Wichita Police: 14-Year-Old Shot While Handling Gun Has Died
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police in Wichita say a teenager who accidentally shot himself while handling a gun has died of his injuries. Television station KAKE reports that 14-year-old Forever Latham was shot Saturday in his Wichita home. Police called to the home found the child with a gunshot wound to his body. He was rushed to a Wichita hospital, but later died from his injuries. Police say an investigation showed the teen was handling a gun inside a bedroom of the home when it accidentally fired and hit him. Police say several other family members where home at the time of the shooting. No one else was injured.
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Coaches: Kansas College Wanted Fewer Black Athletes
HIGHLAND, Kan. (AP) — Three former coaches at a Kansas community college allege in a lawsuit that the school wanted to reduce the number of Black student-athletes on campus. KCUR Radio reports that the lawsuit filed in federal court last week contends Highland Community College in northeast Kansas asked coaches not to recruit Black athletes, discouraged Black students from attending the college and intimidated Black athletes into leaving. Highland officials deny the allegations. Fewer than 6% of Highland's 3,200 students are Black. This week, The Kansas City Star disclosed that Highland's president compared a Black football player to Hitler, whom she called "a great leader."
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Man Sentenced to Life for 2018 Killing in Kansas City
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 56-year-old Kansas City man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for a 2018 murder. The Jackson County Prosecutor's office said Aasim I. Karim was sentenced Tuesday in the death of 44-year-old Thomas Rice III. He was also sentenced to 10 years for armed criminal action. Rice was found dead on Jan. 4, 2018, outside the door of his parked car in east Kansas City. He was shot once in the head. Witnesses told police Karim was shooting his gun in his backyard and had earlier threatened to shoot Rice.
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Man Admits Threatening Black Man with Harm in 'White Town'
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Federal authorities say a 27-year-old Kansas man pleaded guilty to threatening a Black man with a knife and telling him to get out of his “white town.” Colton Donner pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal hate crime. The U.S. Justice Department said Donner admitted that he saw the victim walking through a residential area in Paola on September 11, 2019. According to court documents, Donner got out of his car, threatened the man with a knife, yelled racial slurs and told him that Paola was a “white town.” Donner faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the civil rights crime.
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Wyandotte County to Offer Local IDs to Undocumented Immigrants, Others
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Wyandotte County will begin offering municipal photo IDs to illegal immigrants and other vulnerable residents after county commissioners approved the move in a split vote. KCUR Radio reports that the Unified Government of Wyandotte County board voted 6-4 Thursday night to offer the IDs under what was dubbed the "Safe and Welcoming Wyandotte Act." The measure will allow immigrants, the homeless, the elderly and others without ready access to state-issued photo IDs to get a local photo ID. The move was backed by a coalition of advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and the Immigrant Justice Advocacy Movement.
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Appeals Court Upholds Findings in Emporia State Lawsuit
EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld findings in a long-running racial discrimination lawsuit against Emporia State University. This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court finding that the university retaliated against Angelica Hale by not renewing her contract after she complained about racial discrimination during the 2014-2015 school year. But the court rejected Hale's request that she be awarded more back pay than she won in in 2020. Angelica Hale and her husband, Melvin Hale, who are Black, filed separate discrimination lawsuits in 2016. A jury dismissed Melvin Hale’s $10 million lawsuit against five school administrators in July 2019.
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Man with Gunshot Wound Found Dead Outside Haysville Home
HAYSVILLLE, Kan. (AP) — The Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office is investigating the death of a man after his body was found outside a suburban Wichita home. Investigators say deputies were called early Friday morning to a house in Haysville to check on the well-being of a man reported to be lying on the ground next to the home. Arriving deputies discovered the man was dead and had suffered a gunshot wound. Officials have not released the man's name, but say was a 23-year-old resident of Wichita. Detectives spent the morning collecting evidence at the scene and interviewing potential witnesses.
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Kansas Principal Told to Apologize over White Privilege Video
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas high school principal was told to apologize after he showed a video discussing white privilege to his school's staff. Derby High School Principal Tim Hamblin showed the four-minute video during a staff in-service day last month. A teacher who was at the meeting later complained to a school board member that the video was offensive and created a hostile work environment. The board member told Hamblin to apologize, which he did in an email to staff. In response, some teachers gathered signatures this week to show support for Hamblin. The name of the teacher who complained and the board member who told Hamblin to apologize was not released.
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Man Wanted in Colorado Double Homicide Arrested in Kansas
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A man wanted in a double homicide in suburban Denver has been arrested in central Kansas. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Colorado says on its Facebook page that 29-year-old Casey Devol, of Franktown, Colorado, was arrested Wednesday in Salina. Officials say he'll be held in the Saline County Jail until he can be extradited to Colorado. Police say Devol is suspected in the shooting deaths of a man and woman whose bodies were found in a Franktown home's garage early Tuesday morning. Investigators believe the pair were killed Monday night. Their names have not been released. Douglas County Sheriff's officials say Devol knew both victims, and surveillance video shows him at the home at the time of the killings.
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Missouri Man Convicted at 14 of Killing Mom Gets Parole
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who has insisted for more than 20 years that he was wrongly convicted as a teenager of killing his mother has been granted parole. The Kansas City Star reports that attorneys for 37-year-old Michael Politte confirmed Tuesday that he was given parole and is set to be released on April 23. Politte was 14 years old in 1998 when, according to his lawyers, he found the burning body of his mother, Rita Politte, on the floor of their home in the eastern Missouri town of Hopewell as he and a friend, who said they awoke to smoke, scrambled to escape. Polittes' attorneys say he was convicted on since-debunked science and that the investigation was biased.
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Environmental Problems Prompt Takeover of St. Joseph Business
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says a receiver will take over facilities in St. Joseph after years of non-compliance with environmental regulations. The EPA said in a news release Tuesday a federal judge appointed a receiver for 60 days to assess the facilities owned by of HPI Products Inc., St. Joe Properties LLC and William Garvey. The defendants operate six pesticide manufacturing properties in the St. Joseph area. The EPA says thousands of containers of hazardous and non-hazardous waste have been stored at the facilities. The defendants agreed in a 2011 settlement to clean up the sites but the EPA says they have not complied with the terms of the settlement.
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Judge Won't Readmit 4 Students Involved in Slavery Petition
RIVERSIDE, Mo. (AP) _ A federal judge has declined to lift the expulsion or suspensions handed out to four suburban Kansas City high school students who were disciplined for their involvement in an online petition to "start slavery again.'' Radio station KCUR reports that U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough ruled Tuesday that the four Park Hill South High School students' lawsuit was unlikely to succeed on its merits if it went to trial. The ninth-graders sued, saying the petition was a joke started when one of them was bantering with a Black student. One was expelled and the other three each were suspended for 180 days. Their lawyer said he hasn't decided yet whether to appeal.
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Wichita State, KU Split $11 Million Scholarship Gift
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State University and the University of Kansas will split an $11 million gift from a former Wichita resident. Both schools will receive $5.5 million to provide full-ride scholarships through a bequest from the estate of Richard “Dick” Smith, who graduated from the University of Kansas and lived in Wichita for years. Smith, who died in January 2021, founded the Range Oil company in Wichita in 1964. At Wichita State, undergraduates in any field of study will be eligible for the scholarships. At KU, the money will be divided between general scholarships and scholarships for students studying geology.
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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, 11 am weekends. This news summary is made possible by KPR listener-members. Become one today!