Wintry Weather Moving in to Eastern Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) - A mix of wintry weather has moved into eastern Kansas. Snow, sleet and rain have already fallen across much of northeast and east-central Kansas today (MON). As temperatures rise, the snow will switch over to mostly sleet or rain. The National Weather Service says an inch of accumulation is possible. Wednesday night and Thursday will bring another round of snow, along with blustery cold conditions. On Thursday, wind chill values could dip as low as 30 below.
Visit the National Weather Service webpage for the very latest.
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Douglas County Jail Sees Drop in Mentally-Ill Inmates
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KMUW/KNS) - Jails across Kansas are contending with high numbers of mentally ill inmates. But in Douglas County, those numbers have dropped. The Kansas News Service reports that from 2014 to 2022, the percentage of people with a serious mental illness booked into the Douglas County jail decreased by nearly half, dropping to 10.5%. The decline came as Douglas County instituted a kaleidoscope of programs to reduce the number of people with mental illness in jail. That included staffing the jail with mental health professionals and a reentry program to connect people leaving jail with mental health medications and rides to therapy appointments. Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister says investing in the programs is a financially robust decision because it's costly to keep people in custody. "We know that one person in jail for a year can cost over $200,000 in taxpayer dollars," he said. "So, even if you keep one person out, we're still money ahead, in my opinion."
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Man Found Fatally Shot in Vehicle in Independence
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KC Star) - Police in Independence, Missouri, say a man was found dead inside a vehicle early Sunday morning. Officers responded to an apartment complex around 3:30 Sunday morning in the 1000 block of South Brookside Avenue, where they found a deceased man inside a vehicle in the parking lot. The Kansas City Star reports that the man appeared to have a gunshot wound. The killing marked the 16th homicide in Independence this year.
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KC Firefighters Investigate Cause of Fatal Weekend Fire
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KMBC) - Firefighters in Kansas City, Missouri, are trying to figure out what started a deadly house fire Saturday morning near East 28th and Van Brunt Boulevard. KMBC TV reports that the house was believed to be vacant. It was not. Someone who doesn't live in the home was inside. That person died from their injuries. The victim’s name has not been released.
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Kansas Man Arrested in Connection with Kidnapping of 14-Year-Old Arkansas Girl
UNDATED (FOX News) - A Kansas man has been arrested for the kidnapping of a 14-year-old girl who went missing from her home in Arkansas early last month. Fox News reports that the White County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas contacted police in Wichita, Kansas, shortly after midnight Wednesday to report that the girl who had been missing since early November had been seen with a man at a convenience store in Wichita and that she was later seen leaving with him in a vehicle. The man was identified by officials as 35-year-old David Roark, who also had two outstanding warrants from Kentucky. Investigators with the Exploited and Missing Child Unit and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force discovered that Roark may have been staying at a property in Wichita (in the 1800 block of North Litchfield). Roark was arrested by Wichita police as he attempted to leave the house. Police then searched the home and found the missing girl inside a closet. Roark was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on charges of aggravated indecent liberties, child abuse and criminal restraint in connection with the girl's abduction.
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Salina Police: Someone Shot Up Closed Bank, ATM
SALINA, Kan. (WIBW) - Someone in Salina shot up a closed bank and an Automated Teller Machine. Salina police responded to a call Friday night about someone shooting a gun near the Great Plains Federal Credit Union on South Ohio Street. WIBW TV reports that officers arrived and found property damage to the building that involved multiple gunshots. Bullet holes were found in an ATM and the drive-through teller window. The credit union was closed at the time and no one was injured.
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Lawsuit Accuses Dodge City of Disenfranchising Latino Voters
DODGE CITY, Kan. (KMUW/KNS) - Voting rights groups filed a lawsuit alleging that Dodge City’s election system - where all residents vote for all city commissioners - disenfranchises Latino voters. The Kansas News Service reports that it might be a wider problem in the state. Latino residents make up 65% of Dodge City’s total population and 46% of its voting-age citizen population. But no Latinos have been elected to its five-member City Commission in over two decades. The lawsuit says that violates federal law. The groups behind the lawsuit say the city should draw single-member districts. Sharon Brett is the legal director of the ACLU of Kansas. She says similar problems exist across the state, including with school board elections. “The way that these at-large voting systems work, it really prevents minority community members from having a powerful voice in local politics," she said. Dodge City manager Nickolaus Hernandez says the city disagrees with the complaint but welcomes the chance to discuss opportunities for improvement.
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Two Charged in Shooting that Injured KCI Officer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) - Two people have been charged in connection with a shooting that injured a KCI officer at Kansas City Airport. Platte County prosecutors charged Lacy Perry of Independence, Missouri with first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, resisting arrest, disarming a peace officer and other charges. She's being held in Platte County Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond. Kevin Bloom, of Warrensburg, Missouri, has been charged with third-degree assault, resisting arrest and other charges. WDAF TV reports that police received a call about a shooting early Friday morning at N.W. Cookingham Drive and N. Bern Street. That's where a KCI officer located a suspicious vehicle in a parking lot. The officer attempted to pull the car over, but the driver fled the scene and crashed with the officer’s vehicle. As KCI officers were putting Perry and Bloom in a police car, a struggle broke out between one of the backup officers and the suspects. That’s when the officer was shot, suffering non-life-threatening injuries. According to the Aviation Department, this is the first time in 30 years a KCI officer has been shot.
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Janelle Monáe, the Not-So-Secret Weapon of 'Glass Onion'
NEW YORK (AP) — As much as Janelle Monáe has been a natural, full-body entertainer and a red-carpet head-turner, it has sometimes seemed since her two 2016 big-screen debuts in “Hidden Figures” and “Moonlight” that Hollywood hasn’t known quite how to fully harness the wide-ranging talents of such a self-propelled, mold-breaking Black female artist. But in Rian Johnson’s whodunit sequel “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Monáe may have found a film to suit her proclivity for shape shifting. In Johnson’s puzzle box of a movie, Monáe’s character is the most mysterious and enigmatic of a colorful ensemble. Monáe grew up in the Quindaro neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.
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Chiefs Beat Texans, Clinch AFC West for 7th Straight Time
HOUSTON, Texas (KPR) - The Kansas City Chiefs have won their seventh straight AFC West title and officially qualified for the playoffs. Kansas City beat the Houton Texans 30-24 in overtime. The Chiefs raised their record to 11-and-3, but the Buffalo Bills still hold the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoff picture.
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KU Men Move Up to No. 4 in AP Top 25 College Basketball Poll; Purdue Retains Top Spot
UNDATED (AP) – Purdue maintained its grasp on No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll on Monday. The Boilermakers received 40 of the 60 first-place votes from a national media panel after knocking off Davidson in their only game last week, allowing them to hold the top spot for a second consecutive week. But after then-No. 2 Virginia lost to Houston, Connecticut leaped into second place and scooped up the remaining 20 first-place votes. The Houston Cougars' 69-61 road win over the Cavaliers, along with an earlier win over North Carolina A&T, allowed them to climb two spots to No. 3. Kansas moved up four spots after blowing out then-No. 14 Indiana at Allen Fieldhouse, while Arizona rounded out the top five after knocking off then-No. 6 Tennessee.
Virginia dropped to sixth while Texas, which played its first game without suspended coach Chris Beard, remained at No. 7 following a win over Stanford. The Volunteers fell to eighth to begin a run of Southeastern Conference teams with Alabama falling to ninth after a loss to Gonzaga and Arkansas holding onto 10th for the second straight week. The Bulldogs, who also beat Northern Illinois before their 100-90 road victory over the Crimson Tide, came in at No. 11 while UCLA climbed four spots to No. 12 after arguably the most impressive week of anyone. The Bruins won 87-60 at then-No. 20 Maryland before beating then-No. 13 Kentucky at Madison Square Garden. Baylor checked in at No. 13 ahead of Duke, the only Top 25 team that did not play last week, while Mississippi State - one of five unbeatens left in men's Division I basketball - came in at No. 15. Illinois began a run for the Big Ten at No. 16 with Wisconsin and Indiana right behind it. Kentucky tumbled six spots to No. 19 after its third loss in its first 10 games, while TCU rounded out the top 20 after its win over Mississippi Valley State.
Virginia Tech, Miami, Marquette, Auburn and Arizona State rounded out the poll.
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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. And follow KPR News on Twitter.