Headlines for Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Winter Storm Warnings and Watches Take Effect in Eastern Kansas, Western Missouri

Father Charged with Murder After Infant Found Dead in Fire

SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — The father of an infant killed in a house fire in suburban Kansas City, Kansas, has been charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the case. The fire was reported around 1 am Sunday in Shawnee. Firefighters battling the flames found the body of the infant inside home. WDAF TV reports that police later arrested 28-year-old Nicholas Adam Ecker.  On Monday, Ecker was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated arson in Johnson County.  Ecker is also charged with felony stalking, domestic aggravated assault and illegal possession of a firearm. He is being held on $1 million bond.

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Man Reportedly Firing Gun in Air Shot by Kansas City Police

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police in Kansas City say one of their officers shot and injured a man who was firing a gun in the middle of a city street. The shooting happened around 12:30 am Tuesday in a residential area in the Ivanhoe Northeast neighborhood. KSHB TV reports that officers who arrived on the scene found a man in the street firing a handgun into the air. The Missouri State Highway Patrol says officers first fired bean bag rounds at the man, but were unable to subdue him.  Patrol Sgt. Bill Lowe said the man continued to threaten officers with the gun, and at least one officer shot and wounded him.

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Man Found Fatally Shot Inside Kansas City, Kansas, Apartment

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Detectives are investigating after a man was found shot to death Wednesday morning inside an apartment in Kansas City, Kansas. WDAF TV reports that police were called to the apartment around 3:30 am for reports of a shooting. Arriving officers found the body of a man who had been shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have not released the man's name and have not announced any suspects or arrests in the case.

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Former Prison Officers Admit to Smuggling Contraband at Leavenworth Detention Center 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Two former officers at the Leavenworth Detention Center admitted to smuggling contraband into the prison. Federal prosecutors announced that the former officers pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to accept bribes and provide contraband to inmates of a federal prison. Prosecutors said 26-year-old Jacqueline Sifuentes, of Laredo, Texas, smuggled methamphetamine, marijuana and tobacco into the prison in exchange for bribes from a federal inmate. And 29-year-old Cheyonte Harris, of Raytown, Missouri, pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband into the prison in exchange for bribes from inmates and their associates. They worked at the Leavenworth Detention Center, a privately-run maximum-security federal prison in Leavenworth. They are scheduled to be sentenced May 17.

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Man Who Drove at Officer, Harassed Trump Rally Sentenced

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 33-year-old Wichita man who drove at a Sedgwick County courthouse officer and then harassed supporters of President Donald Trump has been sentenced to 30 months in prison. Prosecutors and defense attorneys for Justin Young recommended he receive probation for his actions in November 2020 because he was experiencing mental health issues after the death of his father. But Sedgwick County District Judge Eric Williams imposed the 30-month prison sentence. An arrest affidavit says a demonstrator reported Young was harassing people at the Trump rally. Authorities said when Officer Stephen Linarez intervened, Young drove his truck toward Linarez, who escaped injury.

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Democrats, ACLU Sue over New Kansas Congressional Districts

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP/KPR) — Kansas officials face two lawsuits over a Republican redistricting law. The lawsuits filed this week challenge a map that takes away some of the territory from the 3rd Congressional District in the Kansas City area, territory that the state’s only Democrat in Congress has carried by wide margins.  A team of attorneys led by prominent Democratic attorney Marc Elias's firm filed a lawsuit in Wyandotte County District Court.  The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas filed another lawsuit shortly afterward. The lawsuits argue that the map enacted by the Kansas Legislature is unacceptable because it splits Kansas City, Kansas, and decreases the number of minority voters in Kansas Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids’s district. Attorney General Derek Schmidt has promised a vigorous defense of the new redistricting map. ( Read more.)

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Kansas Attorney General Seeks Ban on Municipalities Loosening Immigration Enforcement

TOPEKA, Kan.(KNS) - Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is asking the state Legislature to ban local municipalities from loosening enforcement of immigration laws. Schmidt’s comments come after Wyandotte County passed an ordinance on immigration enforcement. The ordinance blocks local police from enforcing immigration laws, or working with federal immigration agencies, unless there’s a danger to public safety. Wyandotte County officials hope it will encourage people who are undocumented to report crimes, because they won’t fear local police will question their immigration status. Schmidt says state lawmakers should specifically block these types of ordinances because it creates a patchwork of immigration laws in Kansas. He says local governments should not be able to choose which laws they want to enforce. 

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Missouri GOP Continues Fight to Limit Access to Medicaid

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri's GOP-led House is advancing a proposal that would allow lawmakers to undo the expansion of Medicaid health care recently approved by voters. House members gave the measure initial approval in a voice vote Tuesday. The proposal would give lawmakers the power to stop paying for Medicaid health care for newly eligible patients. That would effectively kill Medicaid expansion. The Republican-led Legislature has long resisted giving more people access to government health care. So advocates in 2020 instead went directly to voters, who approved expansion. GOP lawmakers are still fighting the program.

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Police Arrest Man Suspected in Wichita Double Fatal Shooting

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police have arrested a man suspected of shooting two people to death in Wichita earlier this week. Television station KAKE reports that 20-year-old Brandon Prouse Jr. was arrested on suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder in the Sunday afternoon shooting deaths of 38-year-old Bonnie Galloway and 30-year-old Connor O’Callaghan. Both victims were unresponsive and had been shot when they were found by police, who had been called to the Wichita home for reports of a shooting. Both Galloway and O'Callaghan were pronounced dead at the scene.

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Man Who Fired into Wichita Party Pleads Guilty to Murder

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 28-year-old man who killed one person and injured three others when he fired into a party in Wichita has pleaded guilty to murder. Markeithen “Red” McClaine pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and three counts of attempted second-degree murder. Prosecutors said the July 27, 2019, shooting at an apartment complex killed 20-year-old Airman 1st Class Chancelor Williams, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, who was stationed at McConnell Air Force Base. Prosecutors said McClaine was picking someone up from a party when an argument broke out. Investigators said the car he was in began to drive away, but McClaine got out and fired into the crowd.

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California Man Killed in Small Plane Crash at Johnson County Airport

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) _ Authorities say a California man was killed when the small plane he was piloting crashed at an airport in Olathe. The Kansas Highway Patrol identified the pilot as 51-year-old Robert Douglas Ming, of Laguna Niguel, California. Officials say the crash happened as the single-engine Piper Aircraft attempted to take off late Sunday morning at the Johnson County Executive Airport in Olathe, headed for Albuquerque, New Mexico. Witnesses say the plane crashed and erupted in flames. Ming was the only person aboard the plane. The Olathe Fire Department responded and put out the flames and a small grass fire. Kansas Highway Patrol spokeswoman Trooper Tiffany Bush said the plane crashed between the airport and 151st Street.  A large section of 151st Street between Pflumm and Quivira was closed Sunday after the crash.
 
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Oklahoma Abortion Providers See Huge Influx of Women from Texas

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Abortion providers in Oklahoma say they're continuing to see a dramatic increase in women coming from Texas who want to terminate their pregnancies. Operators of two abortion clinics in Oklahoma said Tuesday that they've seen a huge influx in the number of women coming from Texas. Trust Women's Co-Executive Director Rebecca Tong says the company's Oklahoma City clinic went from seeing 12 Texas patients in August to 130 in September after Texas passed the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the U.S. in decades. An official with Planned Parenthood Great Plains says they went from seeing about 50 patients from Texas at their clinics in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma in the fall of 2020 to more than 1,000 last year.

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Missouri Senator Josh Hawley Endorses Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler in 2022 U.S. Senate Race

UNDATED (AP) - Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler has landed the endorsement of would-be colleague Josh Hawley in her 2022 U.S. Senate bid, an endorsement that one expert on Monday called “a shot in the arm” and another called “perplexing.” Hawley on Saturday announced his support of Hartzler during a Republican gathering in suburban St. Louis. Hartzler is among several Republican candidates seeking the Senate seat. She faces a crowded field of candidates that includes former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, Attorney General Eric Schmitt, fellow U.S. Rep. Billy Long and St. Louis lawyer Mark McCloskey, who gained attention in 2020 when he and his wife emerged from their home with guns to confront racial injustice protesters.

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Unvaccinated Medical Workers Turn to Religious Exemptions

UNDATED (AP) – As the remaining vaccine mandates for medical workers get to set be implemented this week in 25 mostly conservative states, it is once again becoming clear how widespread the use of religious exemptions is in the U.S. as a workaround to complying with such requirements. At one rural hospital near Yellowstone National Park, about 200 of the 620 staffers have put in requests for religious exemptions, most of which have been granted. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte pledged his support to the unvaccinated last week and urged them to consider seeking exemptions. And West Virginia lawmakers have advanced a proposal that would allow workers who are denied an exemption and then quit, to collect unemployment benefits. 

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Authorities: Kansas City Woman Decapitated 6-Year-Old Son

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City woman is in custody after authorities allege she decapitated her 6-year-old son. The Jackson County Prosecutor's office said 35-year-old Tasha Haefs is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action after her son's body was found at the family home late Tuesday. A probable cause statement in the case said investigators found the child dead and Haefs with blood on her after responding to a call of a disturbance at the home in east Kansas City. The affidavit said Haefs admitted to decapitating her son in a bathtub. No other children were found in the home. She is being held on the Jackson County Jail on no bond.

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Police Shoot Armed Suspect After Standoff in Leavenworth

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) - Authorities are investigating after police officers shot and critically wounded a man in Leavenworth. Officers from several departments went to an area near 4th and Miami streets around 5 am Sunday because a man had a gun. Authorities blocked traffic in the area and began to negotiate with him. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said 31-year-old Donald Barden Jr. ignored officers' commands, waved his gun around and made suicidal statements during the standoff. Then around 6:20 am, he ran toward officers and pointed his gun at them, and two officers shot at him, wounding him. Barden was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and he remained stable Sunday. 
 
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Man Sentenced for Woman's Shooting Death in Independence

INDEPENDENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 20-year-old Coffeyville man has been sentenced in the shooting death of a woman in southeast Kansas. The Kansas Attorney General's office said Benjamin Mason was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years. He pleaded no contest in December to first-degree murder in the shooting death of 19-year-old Kimberly Meeks. Investigators say Meeks was killed on December 14, 2019, while walking with another man along Main Street in Independence.

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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 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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Kansas Principal Told to Apologize for Showing "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 to show support for Hamblin.

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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!