Kansas AG Asks Judge to Dismiss Redistricting Lawsuits
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Attorney General Derek Schmidt is asking a Wyandotte County judge to dismiss two lawsuits filed against Kansas officials over new congressional district lines enacted by Republican lawmakers. Schmidt’s request Monday came three days after the Kansas Supreme Court refused to dismiss the lawsuits and another in Douglas County at the Republican attorney general’s request. Democrats and the voting-rights group Loud Light argue that the congressional redistricting law represents partisan and racial gerrymandering and violates the Kansas Constitution. Schmidt and fellow Republicans argue that the new map isn’t gerrymandering and even if it were, state courts have no power under the Kansas Constitution to rule on congressional districts.
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Kansas Supreme Court Refuses to Dismiss Suits Alleging Gerrymandering
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday refused to dismiss three lawsuits that challenge new Republican-drawn congressional redistricting maps. Attorney General Derek Schmidt made the request, arguing that the state court system does not have jurisdiction to decide disputes over redistricting for federal offices. All three of the suits allege that the new maps impermissibly gerrymandered in violation of the Kansas Constitution. Republican lawmakers dismissed allegations of gerrymandering.
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GOP Looks to Limit Governor's Power on Kansas Election Laws
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kansas are advancing a measure to prevent the governor from entering into legal agreements that change state election practices without getting prior approval from the GOP-controlled Legislature or its top leaders. A Senate committee approved a bill Monday in response to an agreement Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly reached in October with voting-rights groups to head off a lawsuit. It allows Kansas residents to register to vote at state agencies that provide social services benefits. The measure goes next to the full Senate. If the full Legislature were in session, it would have to approve a settlement. Otherwise, the Legislature's top eight leaders would have to approve.
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Prosecutor: Kansas High School Shooter Used 'Ghost Gun'
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A prosecutor says a student used a “ghost gun” during a shooting at a Kansas high school that left two adults and the student wounded. Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe says the gun 18-year-old Jaylon Elmore allegedly used in the shooting at Olathe East High School on Friday was an illegal firearm made from a kit or individual parts that can be purchased online. The Kansas City Star reports that Howe says such guns have no serial number and are untraceable. Elmore is charged with attempted capital murder after the shooting wounded a school administrator and a school resource officer. Elmore also was shot. He remained in critical condition Tuesday at a Kansas hospital.
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Former Kansas Attorney General to Represent Teen in Shooting
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A judge has named a former Kansas attorney general to represent an 18-year-old high school football player who is charged in a shooting that wounded an administrator and school resource officer at a suburban Kansas City high school. Jaylon Desean Elmore was charged Saturday with attempted capital murder in Friday’s shooting at Olathe East High School. The charge carries a sentence of life in prison, with no possibility of parole for 25 years. Johnson County Judge Dan Vokins said during a Zoom hearing Monday that his attorney will be Paul Morrison, also the former district attorney for the county. Elmore, who was wounded when the school resource officer returned fire, was unable to attend the hearing because he remains hospitalized.
Student Charged in Olathe School Shooting
MISSION, Kan. (AP/KPR) — An 18-year-old student has been charged in a shooting that wounded an administrator and a school resource officer at a suburban Kansas City high school. The Johnson County prosecutor’s office announced Saturday that Jaylon Desean Elmore is charged with attempted capital murder in the shooting Friday at Olathe East High School. His bond is set at $1 million and no first appearance has been set. The Kansas City Star reports that Elmore is listed as a senior on the school's varsity football team. The prosecutor’s office didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether he has an attorney and none is listed for him in online court records. Online records show he has a previous conviction for aggravated robbery.
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Kansas Legislature Considers Ban on Transgender Women Playing in Women's Sports Programs
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) _A bill in the Kansas Legislature would ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports. The bill, now in a Kansas Senate committee, would ban transgender athletes from competing on girls’ or women’s teams from grade school through college. Supporters, like Republican Senator Renee Erickson, say it’s about fairness. “Fairness in athletic opportunity for girls. Nothing more, nothing less.” But opponents like Kyle Velte, a law professor who specializes in LGBTQ issues, say the bill is about anything but fairness. “What it does do is inflict rank discrimination against transgender girls in violation of Title 9 and the U.S. Constitution.” The Kansas bill is similar to legislation passed in a half dozen other states. Courts have blocked enforcement of two of those laws.
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Kansas Senate Bill Would Restrict Public Health Orders
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) _ A bill in the Kansas Senate could create new restrictions on public health orders to control COVID-19. It would prohibit schools and colleges from requiring vaccinations and allow religious exemptions to school mask requirements. It would also limit health orders like mask mandates to 30 days. Supporters of the bill say it would protect people from health orders that infringe on personal freedoms. But the League of Kansas Municipalities opposes the measure saying it would limit the ability of communities to respond to a health crisis. The bill would allow property and business owners to sue governments for compensation because of harm caused by public health orders.
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Wichita Are School District Removes Native-American Themed Book
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) _ Another Kansas school district has removed a book from classrooms and libraries. The Derby district reviewed Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” after receiving a complaint from the grandparent of a freshman. A committee decided to pull the book from a collection of teaching materials and from middle school libraries. It will stay on the shelf at the high school library, but committee members want to give it a “mature” label and require parental permission to check it out. Alexie’s novel is the story of a Native American teenager who lives on a reservation and attends a nearly all-white public school. The book includes themes of violence, sexuality and profanity, and is among the novels most often challenged in the nation’s school libraries.
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Governor Kelly Renews Call to Eliminate State Sales Tax on Groceries
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) -Kansas lawmakers are ready to start making decisions on competing proposals to cut the state sales tax on groceries. A House committee is expected to take them up this week. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly wants to eliminate the state’s 6.5 % sales tax on groceries and, she says, this is the time to do it because the state has billions of dollars in surplus cash to offset the roughly $500 million a year it would lose in revenue. But representative Adam Smith, the Republican chair of the House Tax Committee, wants to be more cautious. His counter proposal would cut the grocery tax by about half now, then ratchet it down to zero over four years if the state can afford it. If it comes down to a party-line-vote on the competing bills, Republicans have a more than two to one majority on the committee. The committee is expected to vote on the bills this week.
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Homicide Reported near Kansas City Police Station
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Kansas City police are investigating a homicide reported near one of the department's stations. Kansas City police spokeswoman Officer Donna Drake said the homicide was reported around 2 p.m. Sunday near the intersection of East 27th Street and Brooklyn Avenue. That's about one block away from the police department's East Patrol Division Station. When officers arrived, they found two people with gunshot wounds inside a vehicle. Both victims were taken to a hospital where one later died. The second victim was in stable condition Sunday. The Kansas City Star reports that this is the city's 28th homicide of the year.
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Police Say 21-Year-Old Man Fatally Shot During Altercation
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police say a 21-year-old man has been shot to death outside an apartment complex near downtown Wichita during an altercation with another man. Police say in a news release that the shooting was reported around 5 p.m. Monday along north Broadway Street. Arriving officers found Gabriel Njoroge, of Wichita, with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators say the shooting stemmed from an altercation between Njoroge and a 70-year-old man outside the apartments. Police say that during the disturbance, Njoroge threatened the older man and advanced on him holding a box knife. The older man said he feared for his safety when he shot Njoroge.
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Mother, Young Son Killed in Crash near Emporia
EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) _ Investigators have identified a mother and her 11-year-old son as the two people killed in a two-vehicle crash in eastern Kansas. The Lyon County Sheriff's Office says in a news release that 31-year-old Nichole Gibbons, of Wichita, and her 11-year-old son Terrell Gibbons, of Topeka, died in the Sunday afternoon crash on U.S. Highway 50 west of Emporia. Investigators determined that Gibbons' eastbound car crossed the center line and collided with a westbound sport utility vehicle. Gibbons' car was then hit by a second vehicle, a westbound minivan. Gibbons and her son were pronounced dead at the scene. The 49-year-old man driving the minivan was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
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Police Find Man Shot to Death Inside Kansas City-Area Home
LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) _ Police say arrests have been made in the shooting death of a man inside a Lee's Summit home. Police say in a news release that officers were called to the home around 1 a.m. Tuesday for a disturbance. Arriving officers found a man dead inside the home who had been shot. Police have not released the man's name. Police said everyone at the scene involved in the shooting was taken into custody, and investigators are not looking for other suspects in the case.
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Kansas GOP Moving to End Grace Period for Mail-in Ballots
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican lawmakers are moving ahead with trying to end a three-day grace period for Kansas voters to mail in their ballots A GOP-dominated state Senate committee has advanced a measure that one voting-rights activist called “madness.” It would require all mail-in ballots to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day, limit the use of ballot drop boxes and give people three fewer days before an election to register to vote. The measure goes next to the full Senate. Supporters say they're trying to make elections more secure, but voting-rights advocates say the changes would make it harder to vote. GOP state legislators nationwide are tightening election laws.
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Man Accused of Stealing Several Topeka Parking Meters
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man is accused of stealing more than two dozen parking meters from the downtown area. Police say the 32-year-old suspect was arrested Monday and faces several charges. Officers had been investigating the theft last week of 26 coin-operated parking meters. Around midnight Monday, a caller told police they saw someone walking with a shopping cart in an area of downtown and possibly stealing meters. Officers arrived and arrested the suspect. They say he was in possession of several recently-stolen meters. The man is jailed without bond.
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Kansas Fire Killed 1, Destroyed 35 Homes Across 12,000 Acres
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) _ Reno County fire officials say a wildfire that burned in south-central Kansas over the weekend killed one man and destroyed 35 homes. The fire that began Saturday in eastern Reno County also destroyed 92 outbuildings and 110 vehicles as it spread across 12,000 acres. Officials did not yet have an estimated financial damage, or a count of livestock and pet losses. A man was found dead in the fire Sunday. Sheriff Darrian Campbell said authorities won't release his identity until a forensic center in Johnson County makes a positive identification. The Hutchinson News reports Fire Chief Steve Beer says investigators are trying to determine the fire's cause but arson is not suspected.
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Teens Accused of Shooting at Car That Crashed, Killing 2
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Two Wichita teenagers are jailed for allegedly shooting at a car that crashed, killing two people inside the vehicle. KSNW-TV reports that the 18- and 19-year-old suspects were each booked on suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, and gun and marijuana crimes. It wasn’t immediately clear if they have been charged. The incident happened Feb. 21. Officers called to the scene found a car that had crashed at Lincoln and George Washington Boulevard. Two of the people in the car, 21-year-old Amill Williams and 20-year-old Alonzo Montgomery, died. A 22-year-old woman was ejected and survived.
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Ex-Lawrence Police Officer Charged with On-Duty Rape
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A former Lawrence police officer has been arrested on suspicion of rape and other counts after a woman said he sexually assaulted her while he was on-duty five years ago. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says in a news release that 41-year-old Jonathan Gardner of Tonganoxie was arrested Friday morning at an intersection in Tonganoxie by KBI agents and Kansas Highway Patrol troopers. Gardner's employment with the Lawrence Police Department recently ended after a woman reported in November that he had raped her on January 1st, 2017. In addition to the rape count, Gardner faces 24 other counts for reportedly conducting illegal and unauthorized searches of police computer records using the Kansas Criminal Justice Information System (KCJIS), as well as internal police department public safety systems between 2017 and 2020. After his arrest, Gardner was booked into the Leavenworth County Jail. He was issued a $50,000 bond. The investigation is ongoing. The Douglas County Attorney is expected to prosecute the case.
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Citing Teacher Shortage, Southwest Missouri School District to Implement Four-Day Week
MARSHFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A southwestern Missouri school district that struggles to fill teacher vacancies plans to go to a four-day week starting next fall. The Springfield News-Leader reports that the Marshfield district is among at least nine in Missouri planning to switch to the shorter week in the fall, pushing the total number of districts in Missouri using the truncated schedule to a record 128 - 25% of the state's school districts. Marshfield Superintendent Mike Henry says the change will mean hourly pay rates will rise substantially. Marshfield has enrollment of 3,100 students, making it the second-largest district in the state to go to a four-day week.
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Experts: Central U.S. Needs To Be Ready for Next Earthquake
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Experts have warned for decades that a large swath of the central U.S. is at high risk for a devastating earthquake. They know that overcoming complacency is among their biggest hurdles. Hundreds of experts devoted to earthquake preparedness gathered in St. Louis to discuss risks, preparedness strategies and recovery planning. Though U.S. quakes are most commonly associated with the West Coast, the New Madrid Fault Line centered in southeast Missouri produced three large earthquakes 200 years ago. People in the region have heard so many warnings about the next "Big One" that, for many, it goes in one ear and out the other. But experts warn there's a 7-10% chance of a magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquake in the next 50 years in the New Madrid zone.
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Court Date Reset for 2 NFL Players, 2 Others in Vegas Assault Case
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A judge in Las Vegas postponed until next month a hearing in an assault case involving two NFL players and two other men accused of severely beating a man at a Las Vegas Strip nightclub the weekend of the Pro Bowl. New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara, Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Chris Lammons and two other defendants — Darrin Young and Percy Harris — didn't have to appear in person in court on Tuesday. A prosecutor acknowledged that video evidence and witness statements are still being provided to their attorneys. The four each face felony charges of battery causing substantial bodily harm and conspiracy to commit battery.
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Kansas Once Again Again Named No. 1 Seed for Wide-Open Big 12 Tournament
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Big 12 Tournament was the place where the University of Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team validated its regular-season conference championship each year, and usually confirmed its status as one of the top seeds and heavy favorites for the NCAA Tournament.
That's changed a bit over the years.
Five different schools have played in the last three Big 12 title games, and three different schools have walked away with a trophy: Texas last season, Iowa State three years ago and the Jayhawks the year before that. And no school has won back-to-back titles since the Cyclones won the 2014 and '15 editions before their typical raucous crowds.
This year's tournament figures to be just as wide open.
The sixth-ranked Jayhawks are back as the top seed and will play the winner of an opening-round game Wednesday night between Kansas State and West Virginia. But third-ranked Baylor, the defending national champion, lurks as the No. 2 seed as it tries to win its first Big 12 tourney title, No. 14 Texas Tech is seeded third under coach of the year Mark Adams, and the No. 21 Longhorns are plenty capable of defending their title as the tournament's fourth seed.
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KU Guard Agbaji Unanimous Pick for AP Big 12 Top Player
UNDATED (AP) – University of Kansas senior guard Ochai Agbaji is the unanimous pick as The Associated Press Big 12 player of the year. His is the league's leading scorer at 19.8 points a game and shoots nearly 48 percent from the field. Agbaji is joined on the first team by Baylor guard James Akinjo, Iowa State guard Izaiah Brockington, Kansas State sophomore guard Nijel Pack and Texas Tech forward Bryson Williams. First-year Texas Tech head coach Mark Adams was picked as the league’s top coach in a close vote. Adams got eight votes, one more than Baylor coach Scott Drew.
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KU Guard Agbaji Unanimous Pick by Big 12 Coaches as Top Player
IRVING, Texas (AP) — Kansas senior guard Ochai Agbaji is the unanimous pick by the Big 12 coaches as the league’s player of the year. Baylor’s Scott Drew was selected by his peers as the Big 12's top coach for the third season in a row. The reigning national champion Bears shared the Big 12 regular-season title with Kansas. Agbaji is the league’s top scorer at 19.8 points per game. Agbaji and Texas Tech forward Bryson Williams were unanimous picks on the All-Big 12 first team. The other first-teamers are guards Izaiah Brockington from Iowa State, James Akinjo from Baylor and Nijel Pack from Kansas State.
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Baylor's NaLyssa Smith Repeats as Top Big 12 Women's Player; KU Women's Coach Nabs Top Coach Honors
IRVING, Texas (AP) — Baylor standout NaLyssa Smith is the Big 12 women’s basketball player of the year for the second season in a row. Smith is averaging 22.3 points and 11.7 rebounds for fourth-ranked Baylor, which won its 12th consecutive regular-season Big 12 title. Smith is the league’s top rebounder and second-leading scorer. Brandon Schneider was named coach of the year after the University of Kansas won 20 games for the first time since 2013. The Big 12 awards announced Monday were determined by a vote of the league's 10 coaches.
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Washburn Women's Basketball Head Coach Ron McHenry Announces Retirement
TOPEKA, Kan. (WUSports.com) - Washburn University women's basketball head coach Ron McHenry has announced his retirement. WUSports.com reports that McHenry is the winningest coach in program history and holds a 490-180 record in his 22 seasons at Washburn. McHenry coached the Washburn Lady Blues to an NCAA Division II National Championship title in 2005, won eight MIAA regular season titles and seven MIAA tournament championships. The school will conduct a nationwide search for a new head coach.
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Washburn Ichabods Head to NCAA Tournament
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) - In NCAA Division 2 basketball, the Washburn Ichabods lost the championship game of their conference tournament, but are still bound for the NCAA tournament. With an eight-game winning streak entering the MIAA title game, the Ichabods played their way into the NCAA tournament. for the fourth time in five years. The top eight are picked for eight regions around the country and Washburn is a No. 7 seed. The Ichabods lost to Northwest Missouri State, 84-76, in the title game and they may meet up again if both teams win in the first round of the Central Regional. The Washburn team will make their fourth NCAA tournament appearance in the last five years and their 16th NCAA postseason appearance overall.
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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!